novelraw Chapter 91 : The Boys Are Back for Another Beating
Chapter 91 : The Boys Are Back for Another Beating
"I haven't used my full strength," Dong Liyan said as he slowly walked up to her. He raised one hand and continued in a deep voice, "To avoid being accused of taking advantage of you due to my age, I've suppressed my power to the Nascent Soul realm. Now, let me see what you're truly capable of, young lady."
She's only at the Golden Core stage, old man. Isn't this still bullying?
Chu Sang felt like coughing up blood.
"You're not going all out? Fine... I will!" She didn't care about face; compared to fighting fair and square, she preferred using underhanded tactics.
The hidden weapon in her silver ring began to spin, and hundreds of needles as thin as silk threads shot out. Dong Liyan's pupils contracted slightly, and he quickly let go of her. The moment Chu Sang escaped, she immediately reached for the storage bag at her waist, intending to turn the tables, but she grasped at nothing.
...It's gone?
She immediately looked up.
The storage bag had already fallen into Dong Liyan's hands. He casually tossed it to the ground and threw her a three-foot-long dark iron sword instead. With his hands behind his back, he said, "Stop relying on those little tricks. Let me see your true strength."
Without a word, the young woman gripped the sword and slashed at him.
Her movements were light and agile, her red clothes like fire. As her wrist danced, waves of sharp sword intent cut through the air, like a swimming dragon or a playful snake, combining both softness and strength, not lacking in domineering power.
If it were anyone else, they would have been sent flying dozens of meters by now.
However, in Dong Liyan's eyes, her movements were full of openings.
He didn't even bother to use a weapon. With one hand behind his back, he easily neutralized her seemingly impressive sword intent with the other, then struck her elbow with a heavy palm. A bone-chilling crack followed. "Hmph, your sword flourishes may look pretty, but your movements are not standardized."
"You have a showy facade, but you lack killing intent."
Chu Sang bit her teeth in pain, her stubbornness thoroughly provoked. She quickly swallowed a healing pill when she had a moment, and the next time she raised her sword, the speed of her blade was noticeably faster.
As Dong Liyan's palm wind came at her again, she twisted her footwork and vanished before his eyes.
Almost simultaneously, she reappeared behind him and brought her sword down hard.
"A slight improvement," Dong Liyan said as he turned and knocked away her incoming sword with one palm. "But for a sword cultivator, is this all the strength you have?"
"This won't hurt me."
"Your stance is not solid enough either." A palm strike hit her abdomen, sending her flying several meters.
Chu Sang rolled on the ground several times. Her opponent hadn't held back at all, and her internal organs felt as if they had been displaced from the pain.
She wiped a trace of blood from her lips, quickly picked up her sword and stood up. Like an indestructible cockroach, she fought with increasing ferocity, only to be sent flying over and over again... more than a dozen times.
The beating was brutal.
"Always thinking of using little schemes to win, but not honing your own skills. What will you do when someone completely exposes all your tricks?" Dong Liyan commented calmly, then answered for her, "The only path awaiting you is death."
Chu Sang stuck her sword into the ground, her body swaying as she stood up, battered from the beating.
She carelessly wiped the blood from her face, her usual playful smile gone. "...This junior has learned the lesson," she said.
"Again," she said, pulling out the long sword.
A genuine smile finally appeared on Dong Liyan's face. He knew this young disciple was clever, but in cruel combat, a little cleverness couldn't always help her escape unscathed.
It was precisely because he saw her potential that he was willing to give her some pointers.
For the next month, Chu Sang's life revolved around three points: eating, sleeping, and getting beaten up.
She divided her previously saved 25 points into two parts: 15 points for Physical Constitution and 10 for Aptitude.
[Physical Constitution: 40, Comprehension: 39, Aptitude: 16, Luck: 17]
She maxed out Physical Constitution because she was afraid of dying.
Physical Constitution is a general concept that roughly includes values equivalent to health, defense, speed, etc. in games. It's a true enhancement of this body's performance.
At the same cultivation level, with the same weapon and techniques, a cultivator with higher constitution can crush others.
It even allows for challenging opponents of higher levels.
To put it specifically... it's like adding a body cultivation buff?
If before, Chu Sang only had her divine sense at the Nascent Soul level, now, even without using her divine sense and other cheats, she could fight evenly with an early Nascent Soul cultivator in hand-to-hand combat.
After a month of being brutally beaten, Chu Sang felt she was developing Stockholm syndrome. Her skin would itch if she didn't get beaten up once a day. At first, Dong Liyan took the initiative to beat her, but in the last few days, before dawn broke, she would happily come prepared with a large bottle of healing pills, ready to be beaten.
There was no other way.
During this month of beatings, she felt that even her cultivation bottleneck had loosened somewhat. Who wouldn't be tempted by the prospect of getting stronger just by being beaten?
"Senior, Senior, beating just me might get boring. Let me find you a few more punching bags to switch between."
Of course, she couldn't enjoy this free crash course alone. She had to bring her senior brothers and sisters along. True happiness is everyone getting beaten up together.
"Senior, please instruct me," Tantai Ming cupped his hands, visibly excited about the prospect of being beaten.
"..." Dong Liyan was momentarily speechless. He had come here to vent his anger, not to be a free instructor for these little brats!
After a few more months of beatings, not only did Chu Sang's ability to take hits and her sword skills improve dramatically, but her movement techniques also reached new heights. Building on the foundation of the Invincible Lightning-Fast Legs, she grasped the mysteries of the Great Clone Technique.
Of course, it wasn't real clone technique. Apart from the Nascent Soul leaving the body, truly mystical clone techniques like those in movies could only be achieved by Divine Transformation stage elders, who could simultaneously manifest several incarnated Nascent Souls outside their main body.
She was just a small Golden Core cultivator now, not even having formed a Nascent Soul, let alone being able to split her spirit and incarnate it.
The "clone technique" she had grasped was actually about infinitely stacking speed.
When the speed is too fast for the human eye to capture, it creates the illusion of several lingering afterimages, giving the impression of clones.
Chu Sang hadn't yet figured out what use this new skill had other than running faster.
But being able to run faster was good enough.
When facing a strong enemy, escape is the best strategy. It could save a life.
During this time, Treasure Forging Tower sent emissaries several times, expressing their desire to cooperate with Treasure Pavilion.
Although Chu Sang had to admit that Zhao Yun was sometimes a bit slow, she had to say, as expected of the young master of the Zhao family who grew up surrounded by wealth, he had inherited an innate acumen for business. He had sensed early on that tool patterns would greatly impact the current market for tool refinement shops, potentially threatening Treasure Forging Tower's current position.
Because of this, Zhao Yun wasn't too proud to come asking for cooperation, offering a fifty-fifty profit split. This price was quite reasonable.
In other words, as long as Chu Sang and her group handed over the tool patterns, without having to do anything else, they could directly receive a fifty-fifty profit split for every weapon with tool patterns sold by Treasure Forging Tower. It was essentially making money while lying down. Most ordinary people would have agreed immediately.
Unfortunately, Chu Sang was not an ordinary person.
"No cooperation," she said.
Her firm rejection caught the emissary off guard. He was stunned for a moment. "Why? This compensation is already quite generous. Does the Daoist friend find some aspect unsatisfactory?"
"The price is too low. I want a seventy-thirty split," she said. "I get seventy."
"Seventy-thirty?!" The emissary felt that his manners had been quite courteous, but hearing this, his voice couldn't help but rise a few octaves.
He stood up, his face looking somewhat unpleasant. "Daoist friend, since you're also in this business, you should know that these conditions are... are..."
Are too outrageous!
They're the ones providing the money and effort, so they should naturally take the larger share. Offering a fifty-fifty split was already the biggest concession, yet she wanted a seventy-thirty split?
Look, is this something a normal person would say?
"Don't think I don't know what you're up to," Chu Sang said, sitting up straighter. She interlaced her fingers and smiled slightly. "You think I'm a fool? As long as we don't sell these tool patterns, we can easily monopolize the market for at least three to five years and make a huge profit."
"If we directly sell the tool patterns to you, wouldn't Treasure Pavilion lose its biggest competitive edge in the market?"
She didn't need this small amount of money. She was thinking about long-term development.
"Don't look so upset. Come on, let's talk it over again. If it really doesn't work, a sixty-forty split is fine too," she said generously.
The difference between a fifty-fifty split and a sixty-forty split might not seem like much, but in the tool refinement industry, even a fraction of a percent in profit could mean millions of spirit stones.
She was truly asking for an astronomical price.
"This... I'm afraid I can't make this decision. I need to go back and report to the family head for further discussion," the emissary said, arriving with a smile but leaving with a frown.
A few days later, the emissary came again, with the answer that it was not possible.
It's worth noting that tool refinement is extremely taxing on the mind, and many materials are outrageously expensive. While the profit is high, so is the cost.
Not to mention adding tool patterns—ordinary tool refiners don't have this skill, so Treasure Forging Tower would have to spend a fortune to hire external tool refiners... After all these layers, if she were to take sixty percent of the net profit, there would be nothing left to earn.
"The conditions remain at fifty-fifty, but our family head and young master are willing to offer several plots of land from our properties as part of the deal. Would the young friend like to take a look?" the emissary said.
Chu Sang had a group chat with Wen Renyue and the others, and they agreed to take a look first. She accepted the map scroll and land deeds. They were for several large shops in the main cities of the Central Continent, in good locations on prosperous and wealthy commercial streets.
Those places were worth their weight in gold, with sky-high monthly rents that made one's liver ache just looking at them... The Zhao family head certainly wasn't this generous; it must have been that kid Zhao Yun who persuaded him. The other side had really gone all out this time.
Chu Sang had to admit she was tempted. She smiled and said, "Alright."
The properties left by Lingqing Sect were still too few. She had been thinking about buying a few more shops to open branches recently, but had been hesitating for a long time due to rent and location. This was like someone offering a pillow when she was sleepy.
The emissary heard her agree and finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"However..." Chu Sang spoke again, pausing for a moment.
The emissary, who had just started to relax, tensed up again. "Does the young friend have any other conditions? As long as they're not too unreasonable, we're open to discussion."
"The fifty-fifty split, plus these land deeds—my senior brothers, sisters, and I all agree. We have no other demands, but there is one more condition," Chu Sang said, unusually calm despite the enormous wealth being offered. "I don't need to tell you how precious tool patterns are. The first clause of the contract needs to be changed to include a quantity limit condition. We will only provide twenty commonly used tool patterns."
The contract couldn't be careless. They absolutely couldn't let the other party find a loophole and take advantage.
"Twenty tool patterns is really too few. I can't respond on behalf of the family head. How about thirty tool patterns? What does the Daoist friend think?" the emissary asked carefully.
"Alright," she thought for a moment and then readily agreed.
Most of the thirty tool patterns being sold were common ones with low monopoly value. Even if they held onto them tightly, they would spread out in just a few years at most. It was better to release them in advance.
After all, she still had other trump card tool patterns in hand, enough to ensure that Treasure Pavilion's competitiveness in the market wouldn't decline.
Treasure Forging Tower was quite efficient. Three days later, Chu Sang received the land deeds, and both parties completed the transaction.
There were five shops in total, all located on the busiest commercial streets in the main cities.
Based on the geographical locations of the cities, she chose three of the shops as branches for Treasure Pavilion.
The other two shops were left idle for now, as she hadn't decided what to sell there yet.
A few days later, Wen Renyue finally had news, but it wasn't about the sect leader. It was news about Second Senior Sister Tang Yanling.
"Second Senior Sister recently went to Xianping City. You should know that the headquarters of the largest intelligence organization in the Central Continent, Wanqiu Tower, is located there. Their motto is 'There's no information that can't be bought, and no information they don't know.'"
Mu Chihuai nodded. "Wanqiu Tower has countless secret agents, spies, and informants under their command, spread throughout the human, demon, and monster realms. It's said that they even have informants in the ghost realm. If we want to gather information, it's indeed a good choice."
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go there quickly!" Tantai Ming slapped his sword on the table.
Xianping City is a famous major city in the Central Continent, over ten thousand miles away from Lingqing Sect. The journey would take them through more than a dozen cities, and even flying on swords would take several days, requiring them to find places to rest at night.
As they passed through a town called Pingfeng, they noticed something oddly peculiar about it.
It was normal for the streets to be empty at night, and for all lights to be out in every household, but at the hour of Hai... it wasn't that late, was it?
The Central Continent was relatively safe, with many night markets, and generally no curfews.
The streets were deserted, not even an inn was open. Every door was locked more tightly than the last, and they couldn't find a place to stay for the night.
As they walked down the street, the wind blew dried leaves past their feet, giving an inexplicable sense of desolation.
This place was like a ghost town.
"Something's not right. Everyone be careful," Tantai Ming drew his sword and stood at the front.
"Over there... I seem to hear something," Chu Sang said. Her divine sense covered an extremely wide range, and she detected sounds coming from ahead.
They exchanged glances and hurried over. A figure came stumbling towards them.
Seeing people ahead, the person's first reaction was to run away in panic, but Tantai Ming grabbed their shoulder. "Why are you running? We're not bad people."
Aren't ordinary people usually happy to see cultivators?
Why did this person look like they had seen some terrifying monster, desperate to get away?