Three months later, in a small corner of Great Wind City, Lu Qingshan emerged from his closed-door martial arts practice. He stared at four martial arts on his stone slab.

  Blood Seas Inner Force (Level 5, 7452/10000)

  Giant Whale Breathing Method (Level 3, 6083/10000)

  Dragon Spine Manual (Level 3, 1160/10000)

  Great Ape Breathing Method (Limit)

  He had primarily focused on taking the Giant Whale Breathing Method as far as he could in a short span of time. That meant ingesting more secret medicines than could be swallowed by his entire sect combined. Even while they were able to have their fill, Lu Qingshan didn’t hold back either, continuing to drain the sect’s looted stocks of medicine.

  With no time to spare for his other martial techniques, reaching the limit with the Great Ape Breathing Method was unexpected. He hadn’t really focused on it. But the breakthrough had been almost imminent, so passively assuming the breaths he had done for the past few years was enough. At the limit, he gained a new ability — Gigantification.

  Lu Qingshan breathed deeply. He howled silently at the sky, and his blood energy roiled. Power surged into every inch and pore on his body and he swelled into a new height. Pain shot through him as his organs ballooned in size as well.

  A savage growl escaped his throat. He clenched his fist and swung it at a nearby boulder. The rock turned into pieces of dust with a single blow, and Lu Qingshan didn’t even feel the backlash.

  He breathed deeply again. Within moments, his giant body shrank in size, a vast hunger immediately filling the void left behind. Lu Qingshan retreated back into his room to devour another portion of secret medicine along with food.

  This new form brought him immense strength, speed, and defense at the cost of his stamina, blood energy, and satiety. He almost devoured enough food for eight martial artists before he finally recovered.

  If he did this a few times, Lu Qingshan estimated he’d be able to stomach another round of secret medicines to supplement his already blazing fast pace of consumption. But it would be even costlier, and his body might not be able to take it after consecutive uses of the ability. He knew from how his heart reacted that he could only maintain that form for the time it took to brew a cup of tea. And he couldn’t activate it again unless he waited long enough.

  But there was a way to circumvent this issue. Other practitioners of the Great Ape Breathing Method would at most use this ability as a final attack. But Lu Qingshan could turn it into a basic move. His body was much stronger than other martial artists thanks to the support of techniques such as the Hundred Beasts Refinement and the Golden Shell Body.

  And it would still grow stronger. Combined with the Dragon Spine Manual, he expected using the Gigantification ability would become easier. He hoped to eventually achieve a combined activation with the Heavenly Demon Disintegration Technique, giving him a second layer of ultimate offense.

  In comparison, the level increase in his other methods were a little less flashy, though still very useful. The Giant Whale Breathing Method at the third stage had given him a new avenue of development. Previously, even with the lower aperture opened, there were too few secret medicines that could directly increase his accumulation of inner force. Only by killing droves of powerful enemies could the Blood Seas Inner Force quickly transform their collective inner force power into his. Otherwise, the process would still take a lot of time.

  He could've slaughtered the royal guards and given Liu Yingting the revenge he craved. But that would absolutely reveal him to the wider world. It was a last resort he didn't want to take.

  The upgraded Giant Whale Breathing Method not only increased digestion by another level, but also enabled the transformation of blood essence into its own inner force — unique among breathing methods. Now, while he had the resources, he could swallow a vast quantity of secret medicine to directly propel his breakthrough to the Innate realm. It was no longer limited to just increasing his proficiency with the technique along with some minor changes to his physique that would slowly build up his inner force.

  His excess blood essence from the last session of secret medicine swallowing was still there. Lu Qingshan concentrated, transforming it into the inner force associated with the technique. Then his Blood Seas Inner Force worked to convert it into its own.

  The reason why he had to do this was that having multiple Inner Force techniques was not as useful as he thought. It definitely gave him enhanced endurance. But there was a limit to how much the inner forces could work well with one another. The five elements inner force techniques had the best result when combined with one another, but the Blood Seas Inner Force and Giant Whale Inner Force only gave each other a small bonus. And the two sets couldn’t work with the other set at all.

  Still, the Blood Seas Inner Force was unique in its inner force conversion ability. He didn’t lose much efficacy compared to converting other people’s inner force.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  After finishing the conversion, Lu Qingshan swept his gaze at the mess around him. Scraps of food sat on the floor which he cleaned up with his flies. Without enough food for the next session of practice, it was about time for him to look into what was going on in their territory.

  After the ghost market visit, the city slowly started to calm down. The royal guards began to take back control of the city within the next three months. It was as if nothing happened, though there were looks of fear all throughout the city’s survivors.

  Liu Wanli became forgotten, with nobody coming to avenge his death. Yet, at least. Lu Qingshan did not think he would be out of danger that easily. Someone had plans on the city, and his disruption of those plans might create a lifelong grievance.

  The destruction of the two sects horrified everyone in the city. It was part of why the royal guards were able to restore order so quickly.

  Meanwhile, the flies in the large jade box were beginning to hatch. Most were not actually within the Viscera Tempering stage, though they were slightly stronger than the last generation. With one sole exception — a single, massive fly as big as his head. It was rapidly swallowing all available food whole, almost resorting to cannibalism in its hunger to feast.

  Lu Qingshan gaped in shock. He quickly recited the Insect Harmony Mantra and regained control over this batch of Bloodseeker Flies. His swarm’s power had grown another level, especially with the birth of this thing.

  A spiritual connection blazed to life inside his mind. Lu Qingshan inspected it and nodded. The head-sized fly was indeed a spiritual insect.

  It had an enhanced ability to devour its prey and take on their traits. This was a predator built for hunting. Every enemy it slaughtered only made it stronger, faster, and hungrier for more.

  Lu Qingshan took it with him around the city. Hiding a fly this large became impossible. He could only let it sit on his shoulder like some bird.

  Fortunately, nobody saw him skulking around like a suspicious thief. He inspected each part of the Azure Wind and Stone Axe districts, coming to a positive conclusion about both.

  The Azure Wind Gang had recovered nicely from their setback. Portraits of the recently deceased original gang disciples were hanging in the same meeting room Lu Qingshan had seen before. Their territory had happier commoners and they were producing lots of secret medicine as well.

  Meanwhile, the Stone Axe Gang had reined in their impulses, and now treated their commoners with disdain, though not outright derision. Something in Li Fanghua’s plan must’ve gone correctly for such a change in attitude. It was overall a benefit — without terror constantly breathing down the district’s necks, production of secret medicines improved.

  Lu Qingshan only cared about how much secret medicine the two gangs could produce. After all, money was no longer of much use, since he aimed for things simple money couldn’t buy. As long as everyone in the sect was well-fed, he was content.

  Beyond the general populace, he also noticed the gang leaders had acquired many benefits that were finally starting to bear fruit. Of the three Wang brothers, two had achieved Marrow Tempering. The last one was still working hard to catch up while Meng Zhang watched on with a fond eye. Meanwhile, the Azure Wind Gang had gained two new Marrow Tempering experts as well with their leader and vice-leader successfully breaking through.

  The two guards who had bravely stood up against Marquis Zhou received a reward for their efforts. Now they stood guard for the Azure Wind Gang’s original members themselves. Lu Qingshan was happy for them, but his thoughts turned sour when he was reminded of the Marquis’ fate.

  Marquis Zhou hadn’t returned. Instead, some other random general from another banner inscribed with a glittering symbol had arrived to take control of the situation. Lu Qingshan thought it a real shame — the Marquis had been a good sparring partner. He would’ve been dead without his help

  Lu Qingshan then turned his attention to his sect. Each elder was still busy with their own cultivation, none able to match his speed. He wondered if there were other treasures out there to accelerate their pace. The closest to him was Liu Yingting, all thanks to his family inheritance.

  Liu Yingting had developed a single portion of Hundred Poisons Elixir and was working on a second batch. The venoms produced by the Hundred Venoms Centipede had helped him a lot. By combining the constant flow of toxins from the mutated Green Heart Worms, another elixir was well on its way. The man had already finished tempering his liver and was beginning the process on his fourth organ, the lungs.

  Wu Ruoling was still cooped up in another building. He didn’t bother her. So were almost all the other sect Elders. Occasionally, Feng Ranran would emerge, and discuss her marital experiences with the other four travelers.

  For the rest of the day, Lu Qingshan strolled around the city, gazing at what they had accomplished. He was proud, but he couldn’t keep his mind off the river ruins the Furious Whale Gang leader had mentioned. The Giant Whale Breathing Method appeared to be more mysterious than he thought. It made him intrigued about the source of the technique.

  Currently, that part of the river fell under the control of the Stone Axe Gang, but the other gangs were beginning to encroach onto other sections of the river. If he wanted to infiltrate, he might need additional methods than just brute force.

  After staring up at the night sky with a jittery head-sized fly on his shoulder, Lu Qingshan sighed. He entered his territory again. During this next period of secluded training, he aimed to reach level four in the Giant Whale Breathing Method and the Dragon Spine Manual, and perhaps push the Blood Seas Inner Force to its limit.

  The sect would likely run out of resources afterwards. It would take a long period of accumulation to restore their stock. But Lu Qingshan planned to leave once he reached the Innate realm. He had to go explore that forest the ghost market had given him in order to secure more spiritual insects. The Insect Harmony Mantra’s proficiency was still a major priority, and the existence of human-faced spiders hinted at many possibilities waiting there.

  With that thought settled, Lu Qingshan resumed his isolation. The numbers on the stone slab ticked rapidly upwards with every new batch of secret medicine delivered to him by his sect.