Chapter 43

Not long after, the news that Lu Ren would gather Qi this month at the latest spread among the outer sect disciples, causing a crowd of disciples to be astonished.

Generally, it took three months to reach the first gate of martial dao; Lu Ren would gather Qi in two months, which was a quite astonishing speed.

If his family conditions were good and he could have resources like those wealthy children, with dozens of taels of silver a month, this time would be even shorter.

Zhang Yong and Zhang Hong both felt a sense of urgency and practiced even more diligently.

"Brother Lu Ren is going to gather Qi this month; can Xu Yang still keep up with Brother Lu Ren's pace?"

This was the question asked when Luo Dehu was promoting the news that Lu Ren would gather Qi this month.

"Can he keep up?" Zhang Hong asked with a smile.

Xu Yang shook his head!

Even if he could keep up, he wouldn't say it; who could say for sure about things a month later?

Luo Dehu was building momentum for Lu Ren every day, appearing glorious, but he would eventually fall.

Seeing this, Zhang Hong was somewhat disappointed; he actually hoped Xu Yang could surpass Lu Ren and step on Lu Ren, but looking at it like this, Xu Yang couldn't do it.

"By the way, we've made an appointment with a few people and plan to go into the mountains to hunt exotic beasts in a few days; do you want to join us?" Zhang Hong suddenly said.

Exotic beasts were a kind of strange beast in the deep mountains, full of ferocity, but this thing was a treasure all over; hunting one could be worth at least twenty or thirty taels of silver, and some more precious ones could even be worth hundreds or thousands of taels.

It was just that these things were not only hard to kill, but also very difficult to find.

Some martial artists who didn't want to become retainers for wealthy families would specifically go into the mountains to find and hunt exotic beasts.

Xu Yang had thought about going into the mountains to hunt exotic beasts when he was short of money, but after learning about it, he gave up this idea; some powerful exotic beasts were said to be a match even for martial artists.

Xu Yang shook his head: "Exotic beasts are dangerous; I advise you not to take the risk."

If exotic beasts were so easy to hunt, there wouldn't be so many poor people.

He didn't ask in detail who was going; even if there was a martial artist leading the team, he wouldn't go.

Zhang Hong said: "It's an inner sect brother leading the team, and Zhang Yong and the others will also participate; we are mainly helping to find the exotic beasts, so the danger isn't great."

A martial artist was really participating, and it was an inner sect brother.

But Xu Yang still refused; just think about how many outer sect disciples there were, why would such a good thing fall on the heads of a few mud-legged laborers like them?

He didn't say this doubt out loud, not wanting to offend an inner sect martial artist brother.

He didn't continue to persuade Zhang Hong either.

He was confident he could become a martial artist, so he didn't need to take risks, but if Zhang Hong didn't take risks to get cultivation resources, the possibility of becoming a martial artist was really only 10%.

Zhang Hong didn't persuade him to join again and got up to leave.

"How is it? Did he agree?" Zhang Yong asked.

Zhang Hong shook his head: "Xu Yang refused."

"I didn't expect him to be so cowardly."

Zhang Yong thought Xu Yang would join; once they hunted an exotic beast and had cultivation resources, with the innate talent of the few of them, the possibility of gathering Qi and becoming a martial artist was very high, making it worth the risk.

"Rotten mud can't be supported on the wall; the Huang family was right to abandon him." Luo Dehu said disdainfully.

Of the nine people cultivated by the Huang family, except for Lu Ren, who didn't plan to take risks because of the cultivation intensity, all of them participated, knowing that only by risking their lives would they have a chance to gather Qi in the future.

Xu Yang, the person whose innate talent was second only to Lu Ren, actually didn't have the courage to risk his life.

"I originally thought about pulling him along; I guess he thought we were trying to harm him." Tang Ruiyang sneered.

He was the one who contacted this matter, and he had some relationship with that inner sect brother, thinking about taking care of people in the same mud pit, so he let Zhang Hong find Xu Yang.

"Stop talking about him; everyone has their own choices. Let's talk about when we're going into the mountains."

After Zhang Hong left, Xu Yang found Qiu Wenjie: "I want to ask you something. I heard there's a thing called smoke, which is lit in a tube and then blown into a room, and the people inside will fall into a coma in an instant. Is there such a thing?"

Qiu Wenjie looked at Xu Yang with a strange expression and said: "Brother Xu Yang, do you also want to be a flower-plucking thief?"

Also want to...

Xu Yang didn't delve into it and said: "Is there really such a thing?"

"Of course there is!" Qiu Wenjie nodded.

"Where can I get it?"

"I don't know!" Qiu Wenjie lowered his voice and said: "Brother Xu Yang, did you take a fancy to some girl?"

"Get lost!"

Unable to ask for useful things, Xu Yang got up and wanted to leave, but was pulled back by Qiu Wenjie.

"I don't know where the thing you mentioned is, but I know of a thing called Soft-Muscle Powder; once it's sprinkled out, once inhaled, as long as it's not a Qi Gathering martial artist, they will be powerless and limp on the ground within ten breaths at most."

"Even a Qi Gathering martial artist who inhales too much might fall for it."

Soft-Muscle Powder?

The effect sounded similar to the smoke, but once this thing was sprinkled out, if the wind direction was wrong or if he accidentally inhaled it, he would also suffer; it was impossible to hold his breath and fight forever.

"You can take the antidote in advance." Qiu Wenjie rolled his eyes: "The person who created Soft-Muscle Powder had already thought of these things."