Chapter 53: Chapter 53 Injury (Request for Followers, Request for Yue Tickets!)
Yellow Dragon River had always been relatively peaceful. Although occasionally there were highway robbers, in a world with martial artists, they were usually quickly defeated.
Yet now, a powerful group of river pirates had appeared, led by a sixth grade martial artist, who was exceedingly formidable.
Wang Sheng could guess the probable reason why river pirates emerged on the Yellow Dragon River: the River King was struggling to defend himself and had no time to deal with them.
King Yong Nian, having eventually won, might face other forces and might not have the time to intervene soon, which likely led to the emergence of the Green Flood Dragon Gang.
In the dying days of the dynasty, the authority of the government was insufficient, truly allowing all sorts of monsters and demons to emerge.
Wang Sheng knew that the Green Flood Dragon Gang was just the beginning; he estimated that similar gangs would soon spread throughout the entire Great Zhou.
“I just wonder if the antagonist from myriad realms, the White Lotus Sect, will appear…”
Under the rule of the River King, Shuzhou had always been quite decent. Although there were injustices, there were no excessive levies or miscellaneous taxes, and the people of Shuzhou could live well, basically without the environment that would foster rebellious sects.
However, according to the behavior of King Yong Nian learned through inquiries, the future was uncertain.
For King Yong Nian, as long as you completed the tasks he assigned you, he did not really control what his subordinates did.
It was the same with the army, and the officials too.
Especially since King Yong Nian’s power was even greater, and with Great Zhou not interfering forcefully, Shuzhou was essentially in the palm of King Yongnian’s hand.
What kind of chaos would ensue in Shuzhou then, was hard to predict.
In such circumstances, cultish sects like the White Lotus Sect might well appear. In troubled times, such faith-based sects were actually quite terrifying.
This was also one of the main reasons why village chief Zhou Zhengwen wanted to relocate.
“Let’s hope everything goes smoothly!”
Whatever the turmoil outside, it had nothing to do with him. He was not a savior; he only hoped it wouldn’t affect his own plot of land.
Thus, after hearing the news brought back by the martial artist from the village chief, Wang Sheng went straight home.
Training was still training!
If the previous troubles were signs of impending chaos, the Green Flood Dragon Gang was like a signal. The real era of turmoil was here; some people had become fearless.
And the more chaotic it was, the more important one’s martial power became. Only strong martial power could ensure one’s safety!
Soon, five days passed, and Wang Sheng’s power steadily rose.
“Qi Rushing to the Disease: reducing the disease (22%)
Blood Qi like Mercury: 18%”
Progress in these two could to some extent represent his power.
In this period, both had improved by about 7%, and Wang Sheng could clearly feel his increasing strength.
Now, using Bajiquan, his punches were even fiercer and more explosive, and their power had improved by more than a notch.
There was also progress in the Plum Flower Step.
The Plum Flower Step was a very special skill, a martial technique of this world.
It could be combined with the step technique inherent in Bajiquan, making Bajiquan’s attacks even more unpredictable and thereby enhancing its power.
Most crucially, the Plum Flower Step was built upon the martial artist system that possessed Qi-Blood Power, where even a First Grade could channel Qi-Blood Power.
With increasing ranks, he also became more proficient with this skill, able to exert the strongest effects of Plum Flower Step with the least Qi-Blood Power.
His Plum Flower Step had already reached the “Imperceptible” level.
He had found opportunities to practice with Xu Qu, managing each time to perfectly dodge Xu Qu’s attacks. To the untrained eye, he seemed to not even move, truly reaching the ideal state of the Plum Flower Step, where one could avoid all attacks in the blink of an eye.
He was very much looking forward to what Plum Flower Step could do after a Breakthrough.
Next was the progress in the Six Harmonies Spear.
Knowing that using his full strength would quickly destroy his Iron Wood, Wang Sheng practiced the Six Harmonies Spear mostly restraining his power, focusing instead on skill.
Although this meant the progress with the Six Harmonies Spear was somewhat less impressive than with Bajiquan and the Plum Flower Step, it was still steadily improving.
He had already got the hang of handling the wooden spear, remembered all the basic moves, and could perform a complete set of spear techniques.
His other skills were also improving, and his overall power had significantly increased.
These days of steady improvement were very comfortable.
But the tree desires stillness, yet the wind will not cease.
On the seventh day after learning the news about the Green Flood Dragon Gang, a martial artist dispatched from the village returned injured.
When Wang Sheng arrived at old man Ji’s house, the injured were already bandaged.
The injured were Zhou Gu and Wang Shuwen.
They were two of the five martial artists being trained by the village and had just taken their turn to gather information.
Wang Sheng glanced briefly and figured the injuries were from combat and were not particularly light.
Although both were fairly new martial artists, to inflict such injuries, the perpetrators must have been either thirty to forty skilled ordinary people attacking together or fellow martial artists.
Village chief Zhou Zhengwen dismissed the onlookers, leaving only Wang Sheng and Xu Qu.
“What happened? How did you get injured?” he asked, having heard from old man Ji that they were combat wounds.
Zhou Zhengwen knew he had to clarify the matter.
Zhou Gu, who was slightly less injured, replied, “It was people from the Green Flood Dragon Gang!”
“Green Flood Dragon Gang? Aren’t they the river pirates? Did you go near the Yellow Dragon River?”
Zhou Gu shook his head and said, “Chief, you told us not to go there; how could we possibly have gone? It was the people from the Green Flood Dragon Gang who came ashore to plunder the villages around the Yellow Dragon River!”
“Tell me exactly what happened.”
Zhou Gu then slowly recounted the events.
“It was like this: Shuwen and I went to gather information when we learned that because of the decrease in river trade, the Green Flood Dragon Gang began to come ashore to plunder. After getting this news, we wanted to return to the village to inform everyone but encountered the Green Flood Dragon Gang people on the way back.
There were about a dozen of them, led by a First Grade martial artist, who stopped us and demanded to know the location of our village, threatening to kill us if we didn’t tell them. So, we ended up fighting them.
They didn’t expect Shuwen and I to be martial artists and were caught off guard, so eventually Shuwen and I won. However, because we lacked combat experience, we ended up getting quite injured.”
After he finished explaining, the room fell into contemplation.
It was clear that the Green Flood Dragon Gang people asking for the location of the village were not up to any good; they intended to plunder.
Obviously, Zhou Gu and Shuwen knew this, which was why a fight broke out.
Wang Sheng thought for a moment, then asked, “What happened to those Green Flood Dragon Gang people?”
“We killed those we could, but due to lack of experience, that martial artist got away,” Zhou Gu said, lowering his head. “Did we cause trouble?”
But before he had finished speaking, a voice said, “No, what trouble did you cause?”
It was Wang Sheng who spoke!