Chapter 30: Lu Zhiyuan’s Gift, a Wooden Stick?

Chapter 30: Chapter 30: Lu Zhiyuan’s Gift, a Wooden Stick?

Logically speaking, Wang Erhu was dead, leaving the Wang Family with only his widow. Fang Xu figured he wouldn’t have to worry about any repercussions if he were to make a move on her right now.

However, Wang Ergou’s death involved Sorcerers, and Wang Erhu, along with a group of Government Soldiers, had been brutally murdered by Sorcerers last night. Couple that with the death of the Yun Family’s Second Master in Fenglin Town, Fang Xu suspected that Huangzhou Prefecture would be keeping a very close eye on the town for a long time to come.

Since he was harboring the Divination God Treasure, if he was ever exposed, he would likely be killed regardless of whether the Yun Family believed he had the ability to slay their Second Master.

"I’d better hold back and wait until the heat dies down," he thought.

With over a hundred Government Soldiers dead, neither Huangzhou Prefecture nor the Yun Family would let the matter drop. Fenglin Town was going to be in turmoil for a while; he needed to tread carefully.

After washing the Blood Food in his hands and throwing it into a pot to stew, Fang Xu practiced his martial arts in the courtyard for a while. He then devoured the Blood Food and headed into town.

Since he and Lu Zhiyuan had officially established a master-disciple relationship, routine daily visits were a necessity.

With Li Yunshan managing the Blood Food Shop, Lu Zhiyuan rarely went there on ordinary days. Fang Xu headed straight for Zhiyuan Hall. The moment he stepped through the door, he spotted Lu Qingluo, dressed entirely in red, practicing with her spear in the Martial Arts Arena.

Catching sight of his arrival, Lu Qingluo thrust her spear forward. The shaft brushed right past Fang Xu’s face, blocking his path. "Spar with me."

Gazing at Lu Qingluo’s pretty face, Fang Xu offered a faint smile and cupped his hands in greeting. "If you want to beat me up, Senior Sister, feel free. I absolutely won’t fight back."

"You’ve got to be kidding me!" he thought.

"I’m not even a Martial Disciple yet. How could I possibly be a match for her?"

Lu Qingluo stared at him and twitched her mouth in a slight frown, pulling her spear back. "I don’t know why my father chose you.

"You don’t have a single drop of martial vitality in you..."

Seeing her retract the spear, Fang Xu slowly straightened his posture without offering any excuses.

"Did the Divine Attendant really acknowledge you as its master?" she asked.

Fang Xu shrugged. "I suppose so."

Frustrated by his nonchalant attitude, Lu Qingluo leveled her spear horizontally, blocking him once more. "That’s a Divine Attendant! Can you... can you take this a little more seriously!?"

Fang Xu smiled bitterly. "Senior Sister, I am being serious. It’s not like I can dig out my internal organs to show you, can I?"

"You!" Lu Qingluo’s delicate face froze, momentarily at a loss for words.

"Qingluo, stop being unreasonable." Their bickering eventually alerted Lu Zhiyuan in the inner courtyard. He strolled over to the Martial Arts Arena, sizing Fang Xu up. "I see that you are nearly at Refining Viscera Perfection. You should be able to break through to the Martial Disciple realm in the next day or two, correct?"

Fang Xu cupped his hands in a slight bow. "You have a keen eye, Master. I am indeed on the verge of Refining Viscera Perfection."

As long as they were supplied with enough Qi Blood Power, the little cuties transformed from the Divine Attendant Pill would temper his internal organs around the clock. Their efficiency outpaced his own solo cultivation by a wide margin.

In just a few short days, they had tempered his internal organs all the way to Refining Viscera Perfection.

"Excellent." Lu Zhiyuan nodded in satisfaction before continuing, "It just so happens that I need to talk to you about the breakthrough.

"Let’s go sit inside."

Leading Fang Xu into the inner courtyard, Lu Zhiyuan instructed Lu Qingluo to brew a cup of tea for him. This earned another flurry of pouts from the prickly senior sister.

"As I told you before, a Martial Artist is someone who opens their Acupoint Secret Treasures, drawing out the power hidden within to use for themselves.

"Breaking through to become a Martial Disciple means opening the first acupoint in your body."

Fang Xu looked thoughtful at the explanation. Cupping his hands slightly, he asked, "Master, there are one hundred and eight Secret Treasures in the human body. Which one should I open first for my breakthrough?"

Lu Zhiyuan smiled faintly. "The order in which a Martial Artist opens their Secret Treasures is fixed: first the limbs, then the torso, and finally the head.

"When you achieve Refining Viscera Perfection, you will be able to sense the presence of the acupoints within your body. You will also feel the solidity of the barriers around each acupoint.

"From there, you can determine which acupoint needs to be opened first. One acupoint corresponds to one realm. Once you successfully open ten acupoints, you will reach the Tenth Realm of a Martial Disciple. With ten acupoints, a Divine Bridge can be built between every two acupoints to fuse their power. This is the cultivation method of a Martial Master.

"Among Martial Artists, those who excel in Body Techniques do so because the first acupoints they open are in their legs, allowing them to match with an appropriate Cultivation Technique. Those who excel in Punching and Palm Techniques have opened the acupoints in their hands and paired them with the corresponding Punching and Palm Techniques.

"Aside from the leg acupoints, as long as the first ones opened are in the arms, you generally don’t need to seek out specific movement or Cultivation Techniques. Swords, spears, halberds, and all sorts of weapons, as well as Punching and Palm Techniques, can all be practiced."

After saying this, Lu Zhiyuan paused for a moment, giving Fang Xu time to digest the information.

"Do you understand everything I’ve just explained?"

Fang Xu nodded. "Thank you for clearing my doubts, Master."

Lu Zhiyuan nodded and continued, "As the saying goes, Martial Artists have varying degrees of talent. To put it bluntly, this talent refers to comprehension and potential.

"It varies from person to person. The power and potential contained within each person’s Acupoint Secret Treasures are completely different. Although these things can be slightly compensated for through later cultivation, a gap will ultimately remain.

"Furthermore, this gap will only widen over time. During the first few major realms of a Martial Artist, one can only accumulate enough power to open subsequent Acupoint Secret Treasures by excavating the power of their current acupoints to the absolute limit.

"Because of this, the path after breaking through to Martial Disciple becomes even more difficult. You must never rush for quick results, or you risk severing your Martial Dao entirely."

As a master, Lu Zhiyuan was quite reliable. He tirelessly taught Fang Xu the important precautions for later-stage cultivation as a Martial Artist.

Fang Xu committed every word to heart.

"Master, I heard the Wu Family is planning to meddle in the Blood Food business?" Fang Xu suddenly asked.

Lu Zhiyuan gave a faint smile. "The Blood Food business is highly profitable. The Wu Family naturally isn’t willing to miss out. However, I have already prepared countermeasures, so there’s no need to worry."

Mentioning this, Lu Zhiyuan seemed to remember something. He immediately added, "Before acknowledging me as your master, you raised a condition, saying you wanted to purchase Blood Food from the Blood Food Shop at half price.

"Now that we are master and disciple, you may take the Blood Food from the shop freely. In addition, I have prepared another gift for you."

With that, Lu Zhiyuan stood up, walked over to a nearby bookshelf, and slowly rotated a blue-and-white porcelain vase.

RUMBLE!

RUMBLE!

Amidst the rumbling sounds, the bookshelf split open to reveal a hidden door. Lu Zhiyuan stepped inside, emerging a moment later holding a quaint, three-foot-long wooden box.

Placing the wooden box in front of Fang Xu, Lu Zhiyuan smiled. "Open it and take a look."

Curious, Fang Xu flipped open the lid and saw a strange stick resting inside.

The stick was about three feet long and entirely grey. At first glance, it looked like an ordinary wooden stick, though it was carved with a few peculiar patterns.

"Master, what is this?" Fang Xu asked with a frown.

A smile played on Lu Zhiyuan’s face. "Pick it up and see."

Without overthinking it, Fang Xu reached out, grasped the wooden stick, and lifted it.

"Huh!?"

Upon touching the stick, he couldn’t help but let out a gasp of surprise!

The wooden stick in front of him looked unremarkable, but it was incredibly heavy. Fang Xu estimated that the thing weighed at least twenty to thirty pounds!

"What kind of wood is this!?" he wondered.

"This item is the core of an ancient tree from my clan. It is extraordinarily hard. I am gifting it to you to use as a weapon," Lu Zhiyuan explained. "If you end up opening the acupoints in your legs first, I will find a suitable Body Technique for you later."

Weighing the wooden stick in his hand, Fang Xu found it quite comfortable to hold. He immediately cupped his hands and thanked Lu Zhiyuan, "Thank you, Master!"

Lu Zhiyuan nodded with a smile. "You don’t need to come running over to my place for the next two days. Stay at home and cultivate diligently. Strive to break through to become a Martial Disciple as soon as possible. Off you go."

Fang Xu bowed respectfully, then took his leave from Zhiyuan Hall with the strange wooden stick in tow.