Chapter 114 - 87: Qi and Blood Like a Furnace, Slaying a Skin Refiner with a Bow! From Groom to Boss, How Far the Road

Chapter 114: Chapter 87: Qi and Blood Like a Furnace, Slaying a Skin Refiner with a Bow! From Groom to Boss, How Far the Road

[Tutor used Dusk Crows, piercing sinews and bones, shattering Blood Marrow, and killing a Jade-skinned Martial Artist. Progress +77!]

[Tutor used Dusk Crows, killing a Bone Tempering Martial Artist. Progress +33!]

[Arrow Stance: Dusk Crows (420/1000)]

Ji Xiu looked at the snapped bowstring in his hand and, hearing the dying roars, couldn’t help but scoff.

"Who needs the ethics of the Jianghu when you’re dealing with the Evil Demon and Outsider Dao?"

"Setting up a few dozen Crossbow Mechanisms for you is already giving you too much credit."

As he spoke, he weighed the Jade Shattering Bow in his hand, its surface glinting in the sunlight. He looked at Cai Ling’Er beside him with a hint of regret.

"My good lady, this bow is excellent. It has a full draw weight of a Hundred Stones, which is perfect for me right now. It feels like an extension of my own arm—truly considerate of you."

"It’s just that the bowstring is no good. Not as good as the one on Lord Gu’s bow. The bow’s body can clearly handle a Hundred Stones, but the string reached its limit at seventy."

"If only the string had held just now..."

"Perhaps I could have shot right through their entire skeletons with those first two arrows!"

Cai Ling’Er had watched with wide eyes as the two Skin Refining experts bled out on the spot, utterly and completely dead. And Lin Du, the one among the Central Yellow Thieves that Ji Xiu had brought his men to exterminate, had been shot full of holes, like a sieve.

She had just recovered from the shock of Ji Xiu’s Divine Arm Power, clicking her tongue in amazement, when she heard his dissatisfied voice. She was so annoyed she rolled her eyes, put one hand on her hip, and held the other out.

"Excuse me? I graciously forged you a Seventh-Grade Treasure Bow! It was supposed to be an Eighth Grade, Fifty Stones bow, but I doubled its power for you! Forget about paying extra, now you’re complaining the merchandise is no good?"

"The string’s no good... Hah!"

"In a backwater place like your Anning County, the Whale-Slaying Saber Hall only had a single strand of Black Snake Tendons. It had about forty to fifty years of Dao Practice in it, comparable to the Bone Tempering realm, so it was barely usable."

"As for anything better, there was nothing to be found."

"You just got your hands on it and you’ve already snapped it! You want something that can handle your arm strength? Fine!"

"Out on the five hundred li of mountain paths, besides the Long-armed Ancient Apes, there are the Blood Python and Mountain Leopard clans. They each have a Great Demon presiding over them, breeding in the Earth Dragon Cave. They’ve grown powerful and attained Spiritual Wisdom."

"You just need to go deep enough... you’re bound to run into a Centennial Red Blood Python. If you pull out a strand of Centennial Python Tendons, I can naturally fix what’s broken for you."

’Centennial Python Tendons, huh...’

Ji Xiu repeated the words to himself and committed them to memory.

Cai Ling’Er, on the other hand, was grinding her teeth in frustration.

But looking at the state of the battle, she had another thought. ’If it weren’t for this great bow of mine... that infuriating guy probably would have been captured by those two Skin Refining experts in the first exchange. He wouldn’t have gotten the chance to show off so spectacularly.’

’Viewed that way...’

’My contribution was hardly insignificant!’

’So what if you’re strong?’

’You’d still be helpless without my help!’

Cai Ling’Er lifted her nose in the air, feeling more and more certain of this. Her eyes brightened, feeling she had regained her lost ground.

She didn’t feel at all that losing a bow was any big deal.

As long as she didn’t lose face, everything else was a minor issue!

Ji Xiu, who had put away his bow and was walking into the Lin Residence, was naturally unaware of her petty thoughts.

Otherwise, he would have clapped his hands in approval and hoped that this young lady would "regain her ground" more often.

After all, where else could he find a Gold Master so ’rich and foolish’?

...

Under the dim lamplight, Lin Zhenhai sat hunched over, his legs atrophied. His Bone Tempering Skill had been crippled, the main tendons in his legs severed. He could only lie paralyzed in his chair. The thought of his son made him feel faint.

He, who had been brilliant his entire life, a master of every calculation! To think he had never expected his only son to collude with the Demon Sect!

They had worked together from the inside and out to pull the rug out from under him, strangling the future hope of the Lin Residence in the process!

At these thoughts, Lin Zhenhai was overcome with despair.

Even though he had given away the Land Title and the shops, he’d had no other choice.

’The Ji Family’s Son may be in the limelight right now, but does he dare to contend with my son...?’

CREAK.

The thought had barely finished forming in his mind when the door opened, letting in a sliver of light.

Then, Old Yao walked in, his face beaming with a cheerful smile.

"Boss, look who’s here..."

Lin Zhenhai froze for a moment. Before he could react, Old Yao pushed his wheelchair out into the courtyard.

There, servants, tenant farmers, grooms, butchers, maidservants, and attendants—every single one who had been there for more than three months—lowered their heads.

They dared not look at the young man standing tall under the broad daylight, a bow on his back and a saber at his waist.

Among them was the guard, Qin Biao, a man who knew how to size up a situation and serve whoever was in charge.

Not long ago, they had mocked and ridiculed that boy for being ’an ant gazing at the heavens,’ overreaching himself to pursue Martial Arts and the Martial Dao, which were not meant for him.

His Wooden Blade, swung day after day in the stable’s corridor, had been a target of their sneers and gossip for the better part of a month.

But now, in the blink of an eye!

The impoverished servant who once had to flatter and beg him for guidance just to find the gate to the Martial Dao...

...had already flown so very, very high.

So high that they could no longer even see him.

Lin Zhenhai, his beard disheveled and his eyes glazed over, watched as Ji Xiu casually tossed a filthy corpse to the ground. Ji Xiu simply smiled and said:

"Boss."

"Those words you said..."

"Are they still good?"

After a long moment, Lin Zhenhai looked around the courtyard, his gaze a whirlwind of complex, indecipherable emotions.

"I have been a businessman my whole life. My word has always been my bond."

"From this day forward..."

"The estate of the Lin Residence will bear the surname Ji."

"I am a cripple, of no use to anyone. It’s just..."

"I hope Boss Ji can grant Ruyue some authority to manage the household and finances. For that... I would be eternally grateful."

His gaze swept over the servants, all of whom were now looking at Ji Xiu.

Lin Zhenhai lowered his head and gave a bitter laugh.

From a mere groom to the boss of a whole county...

How long is that journey?

It took him twenty to thirty years.

But for the young man before him...

Three months...

...was more than enough.