The operation to encircle and eliminate the underground gang has concluded.
Except for the gang leaders of the Wild Wolf Gang and Fierce Tiger Gang who escaped, everyone else was killed in the woods of Xiao Tang Mountain.
Upon learning that two gang leaders at the Qi Cultivation realm escaped, Lu Yu felt that this operation was a massive failure, letting the two most dangerous enemies get away.
From Zhang Lun, he learned that the escaped Fierce Tiger Gang leader was not a concern. The opponent used some unknown secret technique, temporarily bursting out with great power, repelling three consecrates and then leaping off a cliff to escape.
This time, whether dead or crippled, he poses almost no threat, and now escorts have been arranged to search for the Fierce Tiger Gang leader at the bottom of the cliff.
The insidious and cunning Wild Wolf Gang leader, whose strength was nearly at its peak, is truly the worry on Lu Yu's mind.
From numerous battles, the character of the Wild Wolf Gang leader was revealed — insidious and cunning, stopping at nothing to achieve his goals.
This time, the Wild Wolf Gang scattered lime to create chaos and escape, without even notifying others, causing the members of the Fierce Tiger Gang and Blood Saber Association to be blinded by lime and die in the chaotic battle.
Lu Yu would never believe there wasn't a signal from the Black Wolf here.
Looking at his current experience points, he proactively asked Steward Zhang for permission to search for the Fierce Tiger Gang leader who jumped off the cliff.
Killing the Fierce Tiger Gang leader might gather enough experience points to upgrade the cultivation technique.
While others were searching for the Fierce Tiger Gang leader at the bottom of the cliff, Lu Yu went to the place where he leaped off to observe, standing at the edge of the cliff looking down.
The cliff face was not smooth, with many horizontally extending trees, and the Fierce Tiger Gang leader might not have fallen all the way down; otherwise, why would the escorts search for so long without finding his trace?
Considering that the Fierce Tiger Gang leader was already seriously injured, it would be difficult not to leave traces when moving.
With so many people searching the base of the cliff, not finding a trace of the Fierce Tiger Gang leader suggests he may still be lingering on the cliff's midsection.
Taking a rope from his backpack, he tied it to a large tree at the cliff's edge and started climbing down.
On the way down, Lu Yu saw broken branches presumably smashed by the Fierce Tiger Gang leader, and leaves stained with fresh blood. Halfway down, Lu Yu unexpectedly found there was a stone terrace obscured by trees.
Stopping his descent, he carefully observed the stone terrace — mostly obscured by trees, making it hard to see what was inside. It seemed the Fierce Tiger Gang leader might have been blocked by the terrace, not falling to the bottom of the cliff.
Realizing that the Fierce Tiger Gang leader might be hiding within the tree-covered stone terrace, Lu Yu dared not descend further, unsure if he could handle the severely injured Fierce Tiger Gang leader.
Thinking it over, he tied the rope to himself, dangling in mid-air, took out spare clothes, stuffed sacks used previously for sand into his clothes and pants, and puffed them up.
He tied a rope around the hastily made scarecrow, released it, letting it plummet dramatically onto the terrace.
"Bury me with you!"
The Fierce Tiger Gang leader roared, rushing out from the terrace to embrace the scarecrow. Upon clutching it, he looked utterly flabbergasted and bewildered, entirely dumbfounded.
He turned his head to look upwards, seeing only a silhouette suspended in mid-air.
Lu Yu released the rope in his hand, his heart still pounding, relieved he didn't descend, or he would have been thrown to his death!
Bang~ The Fierce Tiger Gang leader fell from the sky, breaking several branches before hitting the ground, creating a crater that startled the nearby searching escorts.
Through the gap created by the fall, the Fierce Tiger Gang leader gazed at Lu Yu descending from the cliff, his eyes widened like goose eggs, like an enraged tiger ready to kill.
Just before reaching the ground, Lu Yu released the rope in his hand, worried the Fierce Tiger Gang leader would die too quickly, counting as death by fall, and depriving him of experience points, he descended as fast as possible to strike the final blow.
The Fierce Tiger Gang leader felt his death was imminent; at the stone terrace, he already knew he wouldn't live much longer, so he chose to perish together.
But...but he didn't expect to be clutching a dummy...he was unwilling, he wanted to know, who exactly set him up! Who exactly!!!
Then he saw a blade, a blade falling from the sky hitting him, and saw clearly the face of that person, the one who would even take away his last wish...he breathed his last.
[Killed a Qi Cultivation stage two Martial Cultivator, gained 1472 experience points]
[Achievement Unlocked! Incredible Combat Power - Killed an opponent across major realms. Reward: 5000 experience points]
Lu Yu pulled out the knife embedded in the Fierce Tiger Gang leader, eyes filled with delight; he didn't expect killing the Fierce Tiger Gang leader would bring such great rewards.
It was his first time knowing about an achievement system, but from obtaining his first achievement, it was evident that achieving an accomplishment was extremely difficult. Furthermore, the achievements were hidden, and could not be attained by deliberately meeting conditions.
The group carried the Fierce Tiger Gang leader's body back to the Han Mansion. Steward Zhang, upon learning Lu Yu used a dummy to trick the Fierce Tiger Gang leader into jumping off a cliff, praised him greatly.
Under the proposal of Steward Zhang and Han Yaotong, Lu Yu was accepted by Han Yaozu as an adopted disciple of the Han family, granted equal rights as Han family members, and regained his freedom.
He could freely enter and exit the Han Mansion, and with sufficient contributions, could exchange any cultivation technique or martial arts in the Han Mansion's library.
Steward Zhang also handed over a secret technique found on the Fierce Tiger Gang leader as a reward, but at Lu Yu's request, his identity was not officially disclosed.
He feared being targeted by Yang Xiu and the escaped Black Wolf; he just wanted to make a fortune silently.
Lu Yu examined the secret technique from the Fierce Tiger Gang leader.
[Detected player studying Blood Burning Secret Technique, generating Blood Burning Secret Technique template 1%...2%...]
Secret techniques and martial arts are different types of skills. Martial arts have levels, while secret techniques do not, but using a secret technique usually comes with a cost.
The Blood Burning Secret Technique is a relatively common explosive type of secret technique. The Han family also has a similar technique, and its cost is even lower than the Gang Leader of the Fierce Tiger Gang's Blood Burning Secret Technique, but the requirements to use it are higher.
The Blood Burning Secret Technique reverses part of the Qi blood, causing a collision between the Qi blood, which then produces an explosion, pushing the operation of Qi blood to significantly increase its running speed in a short period.
The speed of Qi blood circulation is closely related to its maximum explosive potential, and the explosion of Qi blood correlates with the power of martial arts techniques. These techniques unleash extraordinary power by using the explosive force of Qi blood.
Lu Yu now fully deploying the Fierce Tiger Fist consumes at most 10 points of Qi blood. When these 10 points of Qi blood are focused and explode at his fingertips, the fingers are instantly strengthened to the hardness of iron, easily piercing through the chest of a Martial Cultivator at the sixth level of the Body Refinement stage.
Concentrating 10 points of Qi blood to explode at his fingertips is his limit. Any more Qi blood channeled to the fingers would be restricted by the running speed of the Qi blood and the body's strength, wasting it without achieving enhancement.
Similarly, the Eight Steps to Catch the Cicada technique also concentrates Qi blood in the legs to explode, instantaneously strengthening the leg muscles to achieve extreme speed displacement.
After using the Blood Burning Secret Technique, the speed of Qi blood circulation is greatly accelerated, power is enhanced, and the strength of skill execution is increased.
However, the price to pay is that using the Blood Burning Secret Technique requires reversing one's Qi blood, which exerts immense pressure on the body.
In the short term, it results in a blood-burning effect, where the intense collision of Qi blood causes blood within the body to evaporate and decrease.
Over time, it can lead to organ failure, Qi blood reverse flow, and permanent Qi blood loss.
If one cannot control the reversed Qi blood, it might even cause the Qi blood to rush upward uncontrollably, damaging the brain, leading to becoming an idiot or even death.
Using the Blood Burning Secret Technique for a short period doesn't incur much cost; one's strength can be recovered after a few days of rest post-use.
The biggest problem is that reversing the Qi blood is easy, but correcting it is extremely difficult, which means it might result in being forced to use the Blood Burning Secret Technique for an extended period.
Thus, mastering secret techniques is very dangerous and challenging.
However, this is not a problem for Lu Yu because, to him, the Blood Burning Secret Technique is more like an aura that he can actively toggle on and off.
[Blood Burning Secret Technique (Novice) — Reverse 20% Qi blood, Qi blood circulation speed increases by 50%, Qi blood explosion power increases by 50%]
The increase in Qi blood circulation speed can speed up the execution of skills, and the increase in Qi blood explosion power can enhance the power of skills.
The combination of the Blood Burning Secret Technique and Celestial Collapse makes Lu Yu feel like he is getting deeper into the path of One-Sword Style.
To advance the Blood Burning Secret Technique to a slightly accomplished stage requires 10,000 experience points, something Lu Yu is not considering for now, as his body's strength may not support an enhanced version of the Blood Burning Secret Technique.
He looked at his experience points, amounting to 7,321, which includes the leftover points from the last upgrade of Eight Steps to Catch the Cicada.
After careful consideration, Lu Yu decided to spend 2,000 experience points to upgrade his realm first, then improve the Bladeless Blade Technique, thus achieving the greatest enhancement for the least amount of experience points.
His current disadvantage is that his realm is too low while mastering martial arts far exceeds the level of martial cultivators he's facing, unable to fully unleash the power of these martial arts.
Even the Fierce Tiger Fist at the pinnacle state is enough to enable a Martial Cultivator at the seventh level of the Body Refinement stage to exert their full strength.
Celestial Collapse requires no further elaboration.
The aftermath for the Fierce Tiger Gang Leader at the Qi Cultivation stage using the Blood Burning Secret Technique was so dire; with his current realm, attempting the Blood Burning Secret Technique might not last him a few seconds.
[After rigorous training, the realm breaks through to the fifth level of the Body Refinement stage, Qi blood +9]
Noticing that breaking through to the sixth level of the Body Refinement stage requires 5,000 experience points, Lu Yu smiled smugly to himself, leaving himself 3,000 experience points, enough to upgrade Celestial Collapse and Eight Steps to Catch the Cicada.
Upon attempting to upgrade the Bladeless Blade Technique, he suddenly discovered that where it once needed only 2,000 experience points to move from the second to the third layer, now it astonishingly required 5,000 experience points.
Lu Yu's smug look instantly vanished, left to lament that this game leaves no loophole for him.
Reflecting back on the previous upgrades of the Fierce Tiger Fist when improving the realm, it was always the case that the cultivation technique's upgrade cost exceeded the realm's upgrade cost, never was it cheaper to upgrade the cultivation technique than individually enhancing the realm.
Even though the experience points required for the Bladeless Blade Technique increased, Lu Yu still chose to upgrade the Bladeless Blade Technique.
[After rigorous training, comprehended the third layer of the Bladeless Blade Technique, Qi blood +13]
[Gained insights outside of cultivation! Realm advanced to the sixth level of the Body Refinement stage, Qi blood +10]
Lu Yu checked his detailed information.
[Name: Lu Yu]
[Realm: Sixth level of the Body Refinement stage]
[Qi blood: 124]
[Cultivation techniques: Fierce Tiger Fist (four layers), Bladeless Blade Technique (three layers)]
[Skills: Fierce Tiger Fist (pinnacle mastery), Eight Steps to Catch the Cicada (skilled mastery), Bladeless Swordsmanship - Celestial Collapse (novice), Blood Burning Secret Technique (novice)]
[Experience points: 321]