Shivering Mind

Chapter 69

Chapter 69

Right there and then, he immediately experimented with corrections advised by Lu Sheng. As expected, he achieved significantly better results than usually. His admiration for Lu Sheng grew even deeper.

Very quickly, the pair exchanging martial arts pointers outside attracted the rest of the men eating and resting in the wooden house. These men had all practiced the skill that even the most ordinary sect members knew–Crimson Whale Saber Technique.

Crimson Whale Saber Technique was the sect’s basic foundational saber technique. On top of saber fundamentals, it included some improvements and moves more oriented towards combat and killing. As a result, it was pretty powerful.

Once again, Lu Sheng turned around to teach them the essence behind Crimson Whale Saber Technique after having learnt it once through.

After a whole night of learning, all men retired and went to sleep.

Lu Sheng, however, remained standing outside the wooden house. He watched his men as sentries changed. Light flickered incessantly from the lanterns they carried.

He slowly adjusted and regulated the inner Qi within him.

‘Deep Blue.’

The Modifier screen immediately emerged before him. Small boxes listed all the skills he had cultivated up till this day.

‘Black Tiger Saber Technique: Level Four.

Blood Fury Skill: Level Four. Special Effect(s): Fire Poison, Incendiary.

Black Tiger Jade Crane Skill: Level Three. Special Effect(s): Rapid ostasis. Physical Restoration. Tiger’s Roar and Crane’s Call.

Yin Yang Attraction: Level Three.

Ninety-Nine Strokes Eighty-Four Swallows Pursuing the Wind Blade: Level Three.

Eight Precious Steps: Level Three.

Double-Horned Blade: Level Three.

Heart-Shattering Palm: Level Three.’

A column of martial arts exhaustively detailed all of Lu Sheng’s craft. All skills had been cultivated to the maximum level.

And now, two additional skills appeared beneath these martial arts:

‘Bear-Wrestling Arm: Initiated.

Crimson Whale Saber Technique: Initiated.’

Lu Sheng clicked on the ‘Begin Modification’ button, then focused his attention on Bear-Wrestling Arm.

‘Upgrade Bear-Wrestling Arm to full-mastery.’

On the Modifier screen, the column that bore Bear-Wrestling Arm grew fuzzy, then turned clear again in an instant.

In just the blink of an eye, Bear-Wrestling Arm had turned from ‘Initiated’ to ‘Full-Mastery’.

Lu Sheng could plainly sense the Black Tiger Jade Crane inner Qi rapidly depleting within him. The fast rate of depletion caught him off guard.

‘This is clearly a low-grade hard body skill, pretty much on the same tier as Pursuing the Wind Blade. Why does it cost so much?’ He sensed the inner Qi getting madly absorbed by the body. Within the span of a few breaths, the volume of inner Qi within him had dropped from one hundred percent to fifty percent; then to thirty percent… twenty percent… ten percent.

At the same time, his skin was turning harder and stronger. The muscles on his arms and waist thickened and bulged instantly.

Lu Sheng clearly sensed that his strength had gone through a drastic change.

‘It’s just a hard body skill…’ he was astonished. He stood still until the transformation was complete.

A joss stick’s duration later, he breathed out at length.

‘Looks like the transformation of the body induced by hard body skills is far greater than that caused by other skills. Perhaps that’s why it cost way more than other skills.’

Lu Sheng stretched out his hand and clenched his fist. A sense of inflation gushed out from deep within him, like a rubber balloon being inflated. Even his organs began to heat up.

Closing his eyes and sensing the changes in his body, Lu Sheng saw the Yin Yang Attraction inner Qi being consumed rapidly. Simultaneously, the Black Tiger Jade Crane inner Qi that had just earlier been depleted began replenishing rapidly.

From ten percent, it was restored to the hundred percent of his peak in the span of a few breaths. And the exhaustion of Yin Yang Attraction inner Qi up till then was merely about half the total volume.

‘So that’s the real function of Yin Yang Attraction,’ Lu Sheng was first surprised, then overjoyed. ‘My strength rose by approximately twenty percent. My skin has also gotten tougher.’

He drew out his saber from the sheath on his back and slashed across the back of his hand. He didn’t use much strength; it was about the amount of strength normal people used to cut meat.

“CHA.”

A red mark appeared on his skin. However, his skin did not break.

‘Just one hard body skill alone reaped such amazing effects! And this is a new saber I recently bought,’ Lu Sheng nodded in satisfaction. ‘When this case is over, I’ve gotta search hard in the Martial Proclamation Library… perhaps I can find many other free martial arts helpful to me,’ his anticipation towards Crimson Whale Sect’s Martial Proclamation Library deepened.

Raising his head, Lu Sheng gazed in the direction of the manor again. Faintly, he could perceive that the manor was hiding a certain something.

He set his mind to remain here for a good few days and investigate it thoroughly.

:

:

:

: :

Three days later.

In the afternoon, in the study hall of a private college within Huang Manor, near the iron mine. [ ]

“I’m leaving, Juanjuan!”

A girl with double braids carrying a cloth satchel waved at her good friend who was still inside the study hall.

Song Yunjuan smiled at her from her seat. [ ]

“Hurry and go, or your parents will scold you again if you’re late.”

“Yea!”

That girl skipped away in a light jog as she left under the evening sky. She went further and further away, until she was no longer visible.

Song Yunjuan waited till she could no longer see her good friend before withdrawing her gaze. She looked around at the empty study hall; everyone had left, leaving only her behind.

“I should get back too,” carefully, Song Yunjuan kept her brush, ink and straw paper from her desk. She stuffed them into her little satchel, stood up and tidied herself, then walked out of the study hall.

Under the evening sky, Huang Manor looked especially still and faint.

A few of the women who had been chatting by the walls hurriedly rose and left as soon as they caught sight of Song Yunjuan exiting. Seemingly, they had no wish to even lay eyes on her.

In the distance, there were a few boys aged around seven or eight. They had been fooling around, yet the moment they caught sight of Song Yunjuan, the boys were instantly scared into fleeing at top speed.

“RUN! The jinx is out!”

“This way!”

Song Yunjuan seemed not to mind. Lowering her head, she spruced up her little satchel and headed in the direction of her house.

The Huang Manor was only a few li away from her house, which was not far. However, for a girl like her who was barely ten years old, it was an extremely long distance.

Actually, everything at had been fine up till a few years ago. Then, her father, mother, and her grandparents were all alive and well.

However, ever since two years ago, Big Bro began to grow obsessed with concocting pills to attain immortality, even forfeiting the Annual Examinations. All through the day, he would go on and on at , burying himself in cultivating immortal magic and pill concocting methods. Worse, he had wantonly wasted the family’s assets to buy various rubbish and nonsensical manuals on immortality and pill concoction.

From then on, their life had taken a turn for the worse.

First, it was Grandpa and Grandma who had vanished after a day out hiking, never to return. Then, both Father and Mother, while they were still in mourning for the grandparents, were involved in an accident. The horse carriage they were in had crashed and plummeted down a cliff.

Afterwards, there had been no one else at to restrain Big Bro. He thus began to concoct pills and cultivate immortality with deranged fervor, as if he had been possessed.

As for the other brothers and sisters, most had left their in disappointment. Even until now, only she and Big Bro remained living in the Manor. In order to concoct pills, Big Bro had sold off everything of value within the house, such that the entire Manor was now barren. Not even thieves were willing to visit. The house servants had also all been dismissed, leaving just the two of them behind.

Song Yunjuan’s fair face showed some hints of dejection. She was beginning to miss her grandpa and her father.

“Also, Mother’s osmanthus cake was really yummy…” lowering her head, she gently rubbed at her eyes, which had once again turned moist. She quickened her steps towards .

Sadly, she had nothing left now. Thankfully, Mister Chen at the private college took pity on her family circumstances and didn’t chase her out just because she couldn’t afford to pay the silver, and allowed her to remain to take the lessons.

Trudging along the entire way, Song Yunjuan used a straw string to gather up all her shoulder-length short hair. After walking swiftly on the journey, she finally arrived at the entrance of the house just as night had fallen.

The main door of the was unlocked and opened a c***k. All the surroundings were in pitch-black, without a single soul in sight.

Song Yunjuan had long since grown used to it. Pushing hard onto the main door, she entered. Then, she turned round to lock the door and placed a thick, heavy beam across it.

“Thud. ”

Having locked the main door, she swept the ash off her hands and turned to head towards the courtyard.

Fallen leaves and dry twigs lay strewn on the ground. Inside, the room was pitch-black; even the fires were not lit.

Borrowing the moonlight, she headed in the direction of the side hall.

Within the barren and deathly silent rectangular courtyard, only the pitter-patter sound of her footsteps rang out. Her worn-out deer-skin moccasins struck against the stony floor, causing ‘tuk’ ‘tuk’ ‘tuk’ sounds to ring out constantly.

Song Yunjuan had long since gotten used to such a sight. She walked quickly to the side hall and took a look. It was dark and dim inside; moonlight shone off the barren dining table in the middle.

Nothing was on top of it.

“Ai…”

Sighing, she could only head towards Big Bro’s sleeping quarters.

Crossing over the stone bridge, she walked towards the largest room on the left and lightly pushed onto the door.

“Ka-cha.”