After reaching the Aperture Tempering stage, Lu Qingshan didn’t do anything ostentatious. Instead, he continued to stay inside their territory, waiting for the next chance to strike. Coming out to attract trouble was not wise.

  The Little Treasure Store had been abandoned for a while. It was sold to a random person a few days after his breakthrough. Unfortunately for them, he had already taken everything with him, leaving only scraps behind.

  The person who had just bought the place was a merchant. Then he went missing a week after he left the town. Lu Qingshan never saw him again even as weeks turned into months.

  Eventually, the place cycled through three separate people before finally settling on a pair of husband and wife. He didn’t know what happened to the previous owners. Maybe they were just driven away, but he doubted it.

  His martial arts continued to improve rapidly. The Seven Steps Technique made a breakthrough to the fourth level. All aspects of the technique were improved, and now he could even run up walls and cross small bodies of water.

  The Golden Shell Body also finally broke through to the second level. It didn’t bring many benefits, but Lu Qingshan’s skin became even tougher. He had to actually put in a lot of effort to break his own skin.

  Marquis Zhou continued to make small moves all throughout the city. There had been rumors he was about to pin another large sect on false charges again, but that rumor was quickly dispelled once nothing actually happened.

  The city settled into a rare state of peace. Lu Qingshan was fairly sure though that this was just the calm before the storm. He didn’t cause any waves yet, as now was not the time. Instead, he directed the Seven Mysteries Gate to continue with what they were doing, consolidating their hold on their new territory.

  With control over the Barbarian Bull Gang’s network of contacts, they were able to reconnect with the Seven Mysteries Gate disciples outside the city. Dong Qianyu and Chen Niu were both doing fine. Their current supplies would last them a long time, and Lu Qingshan could now start bringing them food from the city as well.

  Another half a year went by before Qin Ye finally recovered from his injuries. He quickly returned to his cultivation.

  Lu Qingshan continued to study the six scraps of paper found intact inside the Barbarian Bull Gang’s burnt warehouse. Once Miao Mei saw them, she affirmed that they were related to the book she was entranced by. But they couldn’t get the same phenomenon to appear again.

  Clearly, the book was too damaged. Lu Qingshan hoped Li Fanghua or Qin Ye might have the means to restore a working copy, but they didn’t. So he placed them aside mostly, only taking a look every once in a while.

  The Bloodseeker Flies continued to proliferate. Eventually, they managed to more than double the amount of active Marrow Tempering flies. He could almost form a cluster of these massive hand-sized flies, combining into a mass large enough to cover a torso.

  The cultivator sitting inside the Song family manor was still there, continuing to kill his Bloodseeker Fly scouts. They hadn’t moved the entire time. Lu Qingshan was beginning to wonder if it was actually a real person or just an artifact.

  Meng Zhang was tracking possible appearances of demons along with Liu Yingting. They didn’t find much, but they still managed to uncover some small things. Multiple deaths over the past ten years in the city were tainted with suspicious details. A closer inspection with the help of Li Fanghua revealed traces of demonic activity.

  Another three months flew by while the Seven Mysteries Gate was focused on their tasks. Lu Qingshan was doing a cursory scan through his fly swarms when he felt the Song family manor flies die in a different place than before.

  He immediately became alert. Was it an artifact or a person? He had to know.

  The movement stopped, though. Lu Qingshan was unable to make it in time to see who was killing his flies. Once the insects hidden around the manor had died, the phenomenon moved back to where it had been before.

  Lu Qingshan stared down at the Song family for another few hours before he turned around. He continued monitoring the place remotely with his flies, but reduced their number in case the people grew suspicious. It was clear they had killed all his flies for a reason.

  But the thing never moved again. Lu Qingshan’s attention then turned to Qin Ye, who had finally achieved a breakthrough in his cultivation.

  “Haha! I’ve reached the Radiant Lake stage!” Qin Ye shouted inside his small room.

  “Quiet,” Lu Qingshan said. “You want everyone to hear you?”

  “Sect master, we’re alone here. There’s no way anyone could tell what I’m saying. No one is even around in the houses nearby.”

  “I’m warning you out of your own good,” Lu Qingshan scolded. “I have my own ways to spy on people. Who says others can’t?”

  “My spiritual senses,” Qin Ye shot back.

  “Are you sure it’s reliable?” Lu Qingshan gave the boy-turned-man a deep gaze. This kid was looking down on him.

  “Of course!”

  “Then what stage am I at?”

  “You’re still at the Viscera Tempering stage,” Qin Ye said.

  “Wrong.” Lu Qingshan let a small amount of his aura leak through. Qin Ye’s eyes immediately widened, and he took a step backwards.

  “Oh, uh…sorry. I’ll be more careful next time.”

  “It’s good to be proud of your accomplishments, but do try and remember there is always another step to reach.” Lu Qingshan gave Qin Ye a small pep talk before returning to his own martial arts practice. Some of his less-skilled techniques were about to make another wave of breakthroughs.

  He stared at the stone slab. In the past year, he had honed himself to a great degree. The opening of his first aperture increased his digestion rate of secret medicines, thereby rapidly improving his speed.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  Lu Qingshan (26 years old)

  Lifespan Remaining: 38 years

  Cultivation: Mortal Shedding - Aperture Tempering

  Techniques: Hundred Beasts Refinement (Level 1, 11/10000), Insect Harmony Mantra (Level 5, 7132/10000), Blood Seas Inner Force (Level 5, 1114/10000), Heavenly Demon Disintegration Technique (Level 2, 608/10000), Blood Pulse Technique (Level 2, 351/10000), Red Falcon Breathing Method (Limit), Tiger Fist (Limit), Deer Steps (Limit), Stoneskin Technique (Limit), Great Ape Breathing Method (Level 6, 4001/10000), Seven Steps Technique (Level 4, 62/10000), Black Fury Inner Force (Level 3, 920/10000), Soaring Crane Breathing Method (Level 3, 655/10000), Flowing Cloud Inner Force (Level 3, 227/10000), Golden Shell Body (Level 2, 38/10000), Roaming Tiger Breathing Method (Level 4, 5671/10000), Nimble Deer Breathing Method (Level 4, 3429/10000), Golden Drop Inner Force (Level 3, 4034/10000), Hidden Veil Technique (Level 4, 2708/10000), Turtle Breath Inner Force (Level 3, 6/10000), Wave Motions Fist (Level 3, 25/10000), Tiger Roar Technique (Limit), Crane Wings Technique (Limit), Iron Bear Technique (Limit), Viper Strike Technique (Limit), Silent Step Technique (Limit), Basic Hand-to-hand (Limit)

  Mystic Jade Essence - Dao Fruit of Sublime Miracles - Condensing... 49%

  The Black Fury and Flowing Cloud Inner Forces had improved to the third level. This was the primary source behind Lu Qingshan's recent growth of inner force, along with the occasional Marrow Tempering prisoner brought back by Meng Zhang for him to feed the Blood Seas. Both were powerful methods in their own right, a level beneath the Blood Seas Inner Force, yet still provided a hefty chunk of power.

  When the Turtle Breath Inner Force reached the third level, he lost his fastest growing martial art. And Turtle Breath had been slow to begin with. Lu Qingshan was tempted to learn a few more simple methods just to capture the feeling of rapid improvement again.

  He put that aside for now. With the fall of the Barbarian Bull Gang, the Furious Whale Gang also became somewhat obedient. The death of the Barbarian Bull Gang's leader was still a mystery to most of the city. Such a frightening event likely contributed to the subdued atmosphere of the city, as the death of a peak Viscera Tempering expert had happened once again. But this feeling of peace couldn't last forever once the desires of martial artists began to rear their ugly heads.

  Over the years, Lu Qingshan had probed the three sects in great detail. Recent information cast a shadow of doubt on the entire city. It seemed that everyone had secrets, including the destroyed Thunder Plume Sect and the defunct Barbarian Bull Gang.

  Marquis Zhou had indeed looted most of the treasures from the sect. But somehow, most of those martial arts manuals and weapons found themselves inside the other four great sects. Someone close to the Marquis was likely taking the items and selling them off.

  But then why did the man known for rooting out corruption not intervene? Lu Qingshan didn’t know. Since it was very unlikely for the Marquis to not know what was happening inside his own territory, each sale was implicitly approved by the man. Most of the city thought him a paragon of virtue, though.

  The Jade Skies Sect had become less of a focus in comparison to the much more sinister Blade Shadow and Lower Mountain Sects that had attacked the Little Treasure Store. If the Jade Skies Sect could be considered righteous, then the other two sects felt demonic. Their moves were filled with a horrific air.

  After Lu Qingshan discovered more of their disciples staying around the Little Treasure Store, he had his flies devour them. Then he placed most of his focus on investigating what the sects’ goals were. The painting was gone, so they should’ve left as well, since they could only find death there.

  Lu Qingshan did some personal scouting in the past half-year and discovered many of their disciples contained a worm inside their bodies. As long as he didn’t knock them unconscious or jolt them too hard, the parasite wouldn’t kill its host. Then he could swiftly cut open the martial artist and bind the parasite to his control.

  But exposed to air, the creature melted into a red puddle. He was unable to gather much information about the insects other than that the substance it produced was extremely poisonous. So he had handed off multiple samples to Liu Yingting for study.

  The man was about to reach a conclusion the last time Lu Qingshan visited a few days ago. Now was likely the right time to meet him again.

  “Qin Ye,” he called out. “Let’s go.”

  Qin Ye was also eager to leave. Having stayed cooped up indoors for most of the year, he was excited to have the chance to stretch his legs for once. And his recent surge in power only fueled his desire for exploration.

  Lu Qingshan watched him run into the distance with a smile. The boy from the mountain forest had grown into his own man.

  Lu Qingshan went ahead and entered Liu Yingting’s residence first. The poison expert still had a deep look of concentration on his face as he pored over his family’s papers. “Have you found anything?” Lu Qingshan asked.

  “Yes. I think so,” Liu Yingting said. His eyes finally turned away from the recipe in front of him. “I studied the properties of the insect’s substance you gave me and compared it to all my family’s medicinal recipes. There’s a similar ingredient used for the Black Blood Pill.”

  “A pill? It’s not poison, then?”

  “Sect master, you should know that poisons and medicines are two sides of the same coin. To one person, a spiritual plant could be a powerful tonic. Others might take it to be a deadly poison. This follows the same principle.”

  Lu Qingshan stayed silent, digesting the information. Outside, a few Azure Wind Gang recruits were patrolling.

  “The insect inside their bodies should be the Green Heart Worm. It’s a primary ingredient for the recipe. It shouldn’t just dissolve into poison, though…” Liu Yingting muttered. “It’s been mutated.”

  “What does the worm do?”

  “Normally, the parasite lives inside animals. Monster beasts and the like. At this stage, the Green Heart Work serves as a beneficial tonic to the host. But once their host develops enough, the worm begins to devour blood essence, grow in size, and produce hundreds of eggs. It then transforms into poison at the end of its life cycle, killing the host animal and turning the body into an incubator for the eggs.”

  Liu Yingting produced a set of medicinal herbs. “We take the juvenile worm and mix it into these herbs. Then we place it into heated wine and let it sit for a few months. It will transform into a Black Blood Pill at the end.”

  "This does not seem orthodox."

  "It's probably not. Though some will argue that we eat monster beast meat, and those monster beasts may have eaten humans before. They'll say that kind of meat isn't tainted and neither are these pills. I haven't made my decision yet — but I do need the experience of processing different types of medicine."

  "Fine." Lu Qingshan didn't like it, but he had a point. "Since these worms already exist, we can try to make the pills. But we will never actively breed them."

  “Good, good. It’s not just a death curse,” Liu Yingting mused. “It’s a work of art. The poison has been increased to dissolve everything, including the worm’s eggs. Someone made this with purpose.”

  Liu Yingting paced around the room, his mind deep in thought. He stared at some of the vials displayed on his shelves. “You’re saying almost all the disciples you found had it inside their bodies? And they didn’t know?”

  Lu Qingshan nodded.

  “It should’ve been hidden inside something the disciples ate. The larva is quite easy to hide. Looks like there are different conditions than what we know of to cause the worm to dissolve itself,” Liu Yingting continued. “Otherwise any martial conflict would result in their disciples’ deaths. But that’s not the case.”

  “You think they’re spiritual? They know when they should die?”

  “Perhaps. I do believe that martial artists with the parasite inside their bodies should actually receive benefits,” Liu Yingting assured. “It’s likely part of the sect’s foundation.”

  Lu Qingshan thought about it. If these insects were such a great tonic…. The sects must’ve had Aperture Tempering realm experts then. Though Lu Qingshan elevated the threat levels of those sects, he was also beginning to grow curious about the worms.

  He peeked at the stone slab. The Insect Harmony Mantra was close to the sixth level. Maybe there was a way to collect live samples for research.