Chapter 41: Unbridled

"Hey, if he's one of Han Mo's people, then this is getting even more interesting."

"Kid, I'll give you a choice. Join my command and become a private soldier of the Xing family. Are you willing?" Xing Penghai looked down at Lin Zheyu from atop his horse.

Lin Zheyu frowned slightly, pondered for a moment, and said, "My Lord, a forced melon is not sweet. If I were to agree, I fear you would not trust me, would you?"

"Don't worry, I have my own ways of trusting you."

"As long as you swallow this pill, you will be one of the Xing family, and nothing will happen to you today." Xing Penghai pulled a dark, black pill from his robes.

It was obvious that this pill was likely a poison used for control.

Lin Zheyu put on an expression of inner conflict and struggle, while using his peripheral vision to monitor the movements at the city gate.

"Phew..."

"Fine then. I will join the Xing family and work for you, My Lord."

After a period of hesitation, he spoke in a tone of compromise.

"Haha! A wise man makes use of the circumstances."

"Work well for me in the future. If you do your job well, I will naturally unblo— Fuck! Stop him!"

Xing Penghai's smile froze, and he shouted loudly.

Bracing his left hand against the horse's back, he leaped up and gave chase toward Lin Zheyu.

In the very instant his guard dropped while speaking, Lin Zheyu had noticed the movement at the city gate and found his window to escape.

He immediately exerted his Golden Goose Technique to its full extent, shooting toward the city gate like a bolt.

"Such incredible speed! How can a little fellow in the Bone Forging Realm possess such speed!"

Xing Penghai chased after Lin Zheyu with all his might, but the distance between them only grew wider.

Disbelief flashed in his eyes; he was a peak expert of the Viscera Refining Realm, yet he couldn't catch a mere kid in the Bone Forging Realm!

"Hah!"

Seeing that he couldn't catch up, Xing Penghai made a decisive move mid-air, violently hurling the halberd in his hand forward.

*Whoosh—*

The halberd whistled through the air, striking toward Lin Zheyu's back with terrifying momentum.

Feeling an extremely sharp aura of danger behind him, Lin Zheyu lightly tapped his feet and twisted his body, narrowly avoiding the strike.

At this moment, the soldiers at the city gate also reacted, raising their weapons in an attempt to block him.

Lin Zheyu leaped up, stepped forcefully off a soldier's spear, vaulted over the soldier's head, rushed into the city, and vanished.

"He got away!"

Xing Penghai's eyes grew dark. Watching Lin Zheyu's retreating figure, a surge of rage rose in his heart.

That a mere Bone Forging Realm kid could escape from his hands made his expression turn quite ugly.

The boy's lightness skill and movement techniques were extremely agile; he was clearly practicing leg techniques, and with considerable proficiency.

"Brother!"

Xing Jinglong caught up. "Brother, we let him escape. What do we do now?"

"What else can we do?"

"So what if the Flying Rainbow Gang knows we acted? He's just a kid who recently joined them. At worst, we just pay some compensation."

"Would Xu Jingwu really turn against the Xing family over a mere Bone Forging Realm kid?" Xing Penghai sneered.

Born into the Xing family, he did not fear the Flying Rainbow Gang leader, Xu Jingwu.

"However, this kid's martial talent is indeed extraordinary. To reach such a level in such a short time... with his talent, he might meet the requirements for the secret medicine cultivation."

Xing Penghai pondered for a moment before saying, "Report him once we return."

He flipped back onto his horse, nudged it with his legs, and galloped away.

His voice drifted back from a distance: "Follow me. I'll take you somewhere."

Hearing this, Xing Jinglong quickly mounted his horse and followed.

...

"Are they really this brazen?"

Lin Zheyu looked toward the city gate with a heavy expression.

Judging by the display just now, if he hadn't escaped into the city immediately, the consequences of being caught would have been dire.

He hadn't expected Xing Penghai to dare to attack him so openly, especially since the Flying Rainbow Gang stood behind him.

Fortunately, they only dared to act outside the city. If they were this reckless inside the city, it would mean the order of Sucheng had collapsed, making it impossible to stay.

"I need to increase my strength as quickly as possible!"

A sense of urgency rose in his heart.

If he hadn't previously raised his Golden Goose Technique to the third level and entered the Viscera Refining Realm—giving him more sustained breath than before—he likely would have fallen just now.

If he had swallowed that black pill, his life and death would no longer be in his own hands; he would have become nothing more than someone else's dog.

"I have to be more careful in the future. Play it safe," Lin Zheyu muttered to himself.

Even though he had been extremely cautious and had not exposed much of his strength, he had still been targeted by Xing Jinglong.

...

Three days later.

Early morning.

*Bang, bang... crack...*

In the courtyard, the sound of Lin Zheyu's full-force whip kicks striking a wooden post echoed.

The cold wind howled, and the weather was extremely frigid.

However, Lin Zheyu was drenched in sweat, his muscular lines flowing perfectly.

He had been training continuously for over an hour and had nearly reached his limit.

His face was flushed, and he was panting like an ox.

Half an hour later...

The moment Lin Zheyu reached his physical limit, his essence, qi, and spirit condensed into a single point, entering a mysterious state.

This state was extremely brief, vanishing in an instant.

He let out a long breath, leaning against the wooden post and gasping for air.

His muscles twitched uncontrollably, and his entire body was incredibly sore.

Even with several experiences of breaking through limits, Lin Zheyu still found it immensely difficult.

Every time he broke through a physical limit, it was a test of both his body and his spirit.

After resting for a while, Lin Zheyu looked at the data in his consciousness.

*Eh?*

A look of pleasant surprise appeared on Lin Zheyu's face.

When he checked just now, his Source Power was 4, but now it had become 6.

After breaking through the limit just now, his Source Power had increased by two units at once!

"Could it be that as my essence, qi, and spirit improve, the Source Power gained from each limit break also increases?" Lin Zheyu speculated.

He just didn't know if every breakthrough would grant two units.

Or if, after breaking through physical limits several times in a row, the next breakthrough would grant two units, while previous ones only granted one.

Lin Zheyu felt the latter was more likely.

As his strength increased, he was gaining more Source Power with each breakthrough—getting about 1.x each time, but it displayed as 1, with the decimal not shown.

The numbers after the decimal point would accumulate, and only once they reached 1 would they be displayed.

But this was just a guess; he would need to conduct further tests later to know for sure.

After resting for a bit, he spent half an hour stretching his muscles and bones to recover some strength.

Walking into the house, he took out the Blood-Nourishing and Bone-Strengthening medicinal herbs he had purchased previously.

After his previous consumption, only six sets of herbs remained. Having earned money recently, Lin Zheyu had bought more, bringing the total to eight sets.

Brewing medicinal soup was a meticulous task that required careful control of the heat to extract all the medicinal potency from the herbs through long simmering.

"These herbs are getting more and more expensive. When will this end?" Lin Zheyu muttered.

When he went to buy the herbs this morning, the price per set was nearly one tael of silver more expensive than before.

The shopkeeper said it was because there were many bandits in the mountains now. Every time the herb collectors went into the mountains, they were often robbed, resulting in very small harvests.

As the cost of the herbs went up, the selling price followed.

(End of Chapter)