Miao Mei returned a few hours later with her two assistants in tow. She entered the store only to stop as her heart paused momentarily the moment she stepped foot inside. Her two apprentices turned slightly pale.

  The feeling immediately receded as Lu Qingshan reigned in his surging blood energy. His show of power served as a sufficient warning to the boy and the girl to not have any ideas of betrayal.

  Miao Mei’s eyes caught a glance of a cluster of flies spread around the building. Without acting too out of the ordinary, she made her way inside and led the two towards the only enclosed place in the shop, the storage room. It had no windows, just boxes, shelves, and empty space. A small table and two stools were present as a seating area.

  “Welcome back,” Lu Qingshan said once they entered and saw him sitting there. He scrutinized the two shop assistants. They looked similar to one another. Probably twins.

  “This is our sect master,” Miao Mei said. She waited until the door was closed, and they had all entered an enclosed room, before she took off her veil.

  “I remember you had a store manager once,” Lu Qingshan said. “Where is he?”

  “He left. He was bought off by another store near the center of the city, or so he said.” Miao Mei waved a hand at her two apprentices. “They’re the last ones who stuck with me, other than a few of the other shopkeepers. But I can’t say those are reliable yet.”

  “It’s what we should do for our benefactor,” the boy said. If Lu Qingshan had to pin an age onto the twins, he’d say Qin Ye was surprisingly older.

  Lu Qingshan looked at Miao Mei for an explanation. “Around a year and three months ago,” she said, “they were being attacked by thugs. I drove them away and took them as helpers.”

  Her letters did mention that at one point. From her expression, there seemed to be more to the story, but Lu Qingshan didn’t press her on it. He changed the conversation to start updating Miao Mei on the sect’s most recent movements regarding the ghost market, the kingdom’s army, and their bandit camp attacks.

  “I see,” she said, once he had stopped talking. “So we can’t trust the kingdom after all. I did hear about the Liu family being destroyed. My condolences.” She bowed her head towards Liu Yingting.

  The man was brooding in the corner. He nodded, remaining silent. The five of them stayed quiet for a while to let everyone gather their thoughts.

  “What do you think about the Song family?” Lu Qingshan asked.

  “I haven’t paid much attention to them. They’ve been acting very low-key in the past few years. Most of the news comes from the martial sects, or the two great families of Gongsun and Shang. They're definitely hiding something.”

  “I want to uncover what exactly they’re doing during my stay here. There’s also the Jade Skies Sect. What are their movements?”

  “Also not doing much in the past year, other than that call to invade our mountains,” Miao Mei said with a furrowed brow. “But that's how all of the large sects have been. In fact, the Jade Skies sect is still in the spotlight for their disastrous invasion. Do you think they’re working together?”

  “Probably not, then. But consider the link for now. It won’t make a difference if we have one more enemy,” Lu Qingshan said. He counted on his fingers. “Add the kingdom's forces in there as well. I don’t like what they’re doing. We should still remain cordial on the surface, though. The army hasn’t seen our faces yet.”

  Miao Mei nodded in agreement. “I don’t have much of a foundation to offer here,” she said. “I’ve been managing this store the best I can. You can take a look at what we have, but we need to make sure no one’s watching.”

  The four suspicious people were still keeping an eye on the direction of the store, though they had moved into discreet locations. Lu Qingshan was tempted to attack, but had to make sure. He described them to Miao Mei in hopes she'd have good information.

  Unfortunately, she didn't. "I have no idea who they are. They seem like random people picked off the street. For now, we shouldn't provoke them."

  Lu Qingshan sighed. He hated being limited like this. The stone slab appeared in his mind, and he looked through all his martial techniques in an attempt to find a way out of the situation.

  Lu Qingshan (24 years old)

  Lifespan Remaining: 40 years

  Cultivation: Mortal Shedding - Viscera Tempering

  Techniques: Hundred Beasts Refinement (Level 1, 11/10000), Insect Harmony Mantra (Level 5, 27/10000), Blood Seas Inner Force (Level 4, 9309/10000), Heavenly Demon Disintegration Technique (Level 2, 101/10000), Blood Pulse Technique (Level 2, 172/10000), Red Falcon Breathing Method (Limit), Tiger Fist (Limit), Deer Steps (Limit), Stoneskin Technique (Limit), Great Ape Breathing Method (Level 5, 5361/10000), Seven Steps Technique (Level 3, 3522/10000), Golden Shell Body (Level 1, 2563/10000), Roaming Tiger Breathing Method (Level 4, 211/10000), Nimble Deer Breathing Method (Level 3, 4410/10000), Golden Drop Inner Force (Level 3, 300/10000), Hidden Veil Technique (Level 4, 204/10000), Turtle Breath Inner Force (Level 1, 101/10000), Wave Motions Fist (Level 1, 1/10000), Tiger Roar Technique (Limit), Crane Wings Technique (Limit), Iron Bear Technique (Limit), Viper Strike Technique (Limit), Basic Hand-to-hand (Limit)

  Mystic Jade Essence - Dao Fruit of Sublime Miracles - Condensing... 30%

  At least the Mystic Jade Essence had hit thirty percent. Lu Qingshan let a smile creep onto his face before he focused on the two most viable moves he could take. First, upgrade the Blood Seas Inner Force. His primary martial arts cultivation still had room for improvement before he needed to rely on the Mystic Jade Essence for further breakthroughs.

  The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Next were the various breathing methods that were easy to improve. Nimble Deer and Great Ape continued to have a decent chunk of time dedicated to their cultivation. He added the Turtle Breath Inner Force in there as well since it had potential.

  Of his techniques, the Insect Harmony Mantra was still a major priority, albeit slower than before. The Hidden Veil was easy to grind, though it too had slowed down significantly. The Seven Steps Technique needed to be brought up to the next level to help shore up some of his weaknesses.

  Lu Qingshan looked at some of the treasures stored in this room. “Which of these are most useful?” he asked.

  The boy went up to one of the boxes stored in a discreet corner. “We have martial herbs and tonics,” he said, pulling it out of the bottom shelf. “The recipe has been hidden in our family for generations.”

  Liu Yingting listened to the boy recite the methods of creating the secret medicine. “It’s not bad,” he murmured. “Comparable to Wu Ruoling’s recipe.”

  Lu Qingshan took the box, placing it to the side. “Thank you. I don’t need these yet, though. Anything else?”

  Miao Mei gave him a nod. “Can you check one more time that there’s no one around?”

  Late in the night, no one was wandering the streets anymore. He scanned through his flies and found a fifth suspect inside one of the nearby stores, staring at the Little Treasure Store window for an unknown reason. One of the four previous suspicious people was beginning to move from their spot on the roof, having stayed still for hours.

  “There’s one,” he said. “The shop two buildings away from us. He’s not moving or anything, just staring. And the one I just mentioned seems to be coming here by roof.”

  Miao Mei frowned. “Make sure he doesn’t come in,” she said, taking out a long scroll from a hidden compartment. “This is a treasure I managed to secure last year. I don't know its background, but I can feel it's something special.”

  She unraveled the scroll. It was a painting depicting a crane in flight. It didn't look like much at a first glance, but Lu Qingshan’s blood boiled the more he laid his eyes on it.

  “I’ll leave you to it,” she said and grabbed a broom. The apprentices followed her out with cleaning supplies.

  Lu Qingshan stared and stared. At first, it was static, but ever so often he noticed an element out of place. Trees were swaying with the wind, branches had tiny insects crawling on them, and leaves were falling at one moment, then gone the next. And the crane in the center almost appeared alive, looking at him.

  The blood in his heart resonated with the movements in the painting. His breath instinctively took on another rhythm.

  Lu Qingshan pulled himself away before he lost himself completely in the feeling. Now he was wondering where Miao Mei had acquired the treasure. Such a wonderful painting transmitting spirituality was not common.

  He looked back down. After detaching himself from the illusion, it was harder to summon up that feeling again. But with the help of the stone slab, learning the martial art contained inside was still easy.

  Soaring Crane Breathing Method (Level 1, 1/10000)

  Lu Qingshan brought the painting over to Liu Yingting. “Try taking a look,” he said. “There’s a martial art hidden inside.”

  After staring for a while, the man’s eyes widened, and his breath hitched. The same phenomenon was happening to him as well. But he looked a lot more frustrated than Lu Qingshan did. After a few minutes passed, his eyes turned bloodshot, and his breathing ragged.

  Lu Qingshan frowned. He waved a hand in front of his face but it had no effect. Only once he yanked the painting off the table did Liu Yingting recover from his stupor, gasping for breath.

  "Are you okay?"

  The man shook his head. "Let me see it again," he insisted.

  "Be careful." Lu Qingshan placed the scroll out on the table again. Liu Yingting kept his eyes open, poring over every detail. But he couldn't manage to change his breathing rhythm like Lu Qingshan had. In disappointment, Liu Yingting finally tore his eyes away once it became clear this method wasn't working.

  "Take your time. We'll be here for a while," Lu Qingshan said. While Liu Yingting continued to distract himself with the painting, Lu Qingshan turned to inspect the other items in the storeroom. There were all kinds of things in here, including glass, pottery, jewelry, artwork, calligraphy, medicinal herbs, and even martial arts manuals.

  One of them caught his eye. The Silent Step Technique, a low-tier technique like his Crane Wings and Tiger Roar. Though weak, if combined with other martial arts, such a technique could prove valuable to his arsenal.

  He quickly learned it and began to grind its experience. Reaching the first hundred points didn't take long at all. It'd only take two days for him to perfect the technique.

  Miao Mei returned with her two assistants, having finished cleaning the store for tomorrow. Before they left again, Lu Qingshan stopped them.

  “Can you give me some of your blood?” he asked.

  Miao Mei nodded, raising her dagger to open a wound on her left arm. The two assistants gave her their arms as well without hesitation. Lu Qingshan collected their blood and fed them to his Bloodsense Bug.

  “This is a spiritual insect,” he told her. “Take it. It will lead you to Meng Zhang, Li Fanghua, and Qin Ye. After I make sure no one's watching, I need you to check up on Meng Zhang and hear what he has to say about my task. Then, you can take the other two back with you. I will hide here in the meantime.”

  "What if someone has run into trouble?"

  "Help Meng Zhang first. The other two can take care of themselves until you two are freed up. If you need my help, I'll take a glance at you with my flies every hour or so," Lu Qingshan said.

  Miao Mei nodded. Her two assistants hesitated, but she told them to stay in the shop. Meanwhile, she prepared a set of tools for a nighttime excursion. This clearly wasn't her first time doing this, as someone had to send out messages to the sect.

  Lu Qingshan's Bloodseeker Flies confirmed that three of the men outside had fallen asleep. The other store owner was still staring at the Little Treasure Store window. To get him to look away, Lu Qingshan sent a swarm of flies to nibble at the man's food.

  There was one more watcher who had finally laid down onto the roof of the Little Treasure Store, ear pressed against the building. As soon as the other store owner turned to see the swarm all over his walls, Lu Qingshan sent a cluster of flies to crawl on the eavesdropper's skin.

  "Go," he whispered, once the man had turned his body to shoo the flies away. Miao Mei immediately leapt out the other window, fleeing into the night. He tracked her with his flies and made sure the two watchers hadn't noticed her escape before he allowed the harassing flies to leave.

  Miao Mei traveled safely through the city for a while. With nothing dire happening, it was about time to rest for the night, but Lu Qingshan took one look at the hard-working Liu Yingting still poring over the painting. Never mind sleep, then. He grabbed a portion of secret medicine and swallowed them down his throat.