Chapter 82: Peaks and Valleys, Twists and Turns? Digesting E Iron

"Ha!"

"Hahahaha!"

Li Guishe seized the secret manual with one hand, flipped open a few pages, and on his monkey-like face with a pointed snout and sunken cheeks appeared a ferocity more terrible than that of a liger-tiger.

"Hahahaha, Heaven helps me, Heaven blesses Dou Qiong!" His laughter was maniacal and terrifying, yet it was confined entirely within the house, not a trace leaking outside the doors and windows.

Li Bashan looked pained, pressing his hands tightly over his ears.

"Bashan, this secret manual must not be told to anyone, not even our brothers and sisters in the sect may utter a word, understand?" Li Guishe reined in his laughter, once again resuming his usual pointed-snout, sunken-cheeked, somewhat comical appearance.

Li Bashan rubbed his ears, hesitantly saying, "Master, I talk in my sleep at night."

Li Guishe's blood pressure shot up, and he roared viciously, "From now on you sleep alone, and when you sleep, stuff your mouth with socks."

Li Bashan thought of his own stinking socks, then looked at his master's hideous face, and could only helplessly agree.

Li Guishe waved his hand, gesturing for Li Bashan to leave, then suddenly ordered, "Go bring back that brat we chased away earlier to the Martial Arts Hall."

Li Bashan: "Ah?"

Li Guishe urged, "What are you standing there for? Hurry up and go. If you don't bring him back, I'll punish you with three days without food."

Li Bashan's face changed dramatically, and he rushed out the door with a boom.

Li Guishe closed the door, sat in the master's chair, and while reading the secret manual, said faintly, "The Ancestral Masters are lending that brat to deliver the secret manual to me. That brat is not an ill omen, but a star of good fortune. My Douqiong Martial Hall is about to have its luck turn."

"Once I master this demonic art, it will be the day the 【Yin Mian Snake Lord】 reappears in the Jianghu. Whatever Canglong, whatever Cangying, none shall be left alive, jie jie jie—"

Leaving Douqiong Martial Hall, Feng Mu shed his simple-minded disguise, his face cold, pushing his bicycle slowly along the road.

At this hour, Martial Hall Street was bustling, with more vehicles and pedestrians on the road, and every Martial Arts Hall was crowded with people, exceptionally lively.

Most Martial Arts Halls were not walled compounds like Dou Qiong's, but were built directly facing the street with transparent glass walls, entire walls of floor-to-ceiling windows, basically grand and orderly.

The one with the best business here was Canglong Wuguan. Outside the hall, a large monitoring screen looped Canglong Wuguan's philosophy, attracting the eyes of passersby.

Boom boom boom—

The uniform sound of punches, the sounds of fists and feet and various apparatus colliding, the coaches' shouted commands, the disciples' shouts following the rhythm, and the cold broadcasts from various electronic instruments.

All kinds of sounds mixed together, and through the speakers were transmitted to the street, making passing pedestrians involuntarily feel their blood boil.

Feng Mu's pace pushing his bicycle slowed.

Although he greatly disliked this world, disliking every aspect of it, in his eyes this world was almost nowhere near his previous life, everywhere filled with deception and oppression, with conspiracies and bloodshed occurring at all times in dark corners.

Human life in this world was the cheapest consumable, and even the vast majority of Blank Citizens did not even count as consumables, but were renewable garbage wasting air.

But,

Feng Mu had to admit that this world had one point far superior to his previous life: that the people of this world esteemed martial valor, and in everyone's heart, regardless of age or gender, lived a beast eager to tear and bite its own kind.

This was the most human and most evil of times, also the most rampant age of beastliness, thus building an unprecedented Martial Arts Prosperous Age.

And in the foreseeable future, human nature, beastliness, the prosperous age, would continue to intertwine and climb toward an endless limit.

As Feng Mu was thinking this, he suddenly felt his stomach seemed to have deflated a little since just now.

Not by much, roughly equivalent to the stomach capacity of digesting 1% of the E Iron Consumption Rate.

Feng Mu stopped in his tracks, his drifting train of thought returning to his body: "Right, it wasn't lunch; lunch had long been digested. It wasn't pig iron either; it was that E Iron had suddenly been digested by 1%."

"E Iron that can't be digested by 1% in a week—how did it suddenly drop by 1%?"

"What did I just do?"

"I didn't do anything!"

Feng Mu's mind raced, recalling scene after scene of what had just happened.

Working backward from the end, he felt emotion for the Martial Arts Prosperous Age, was drawn by Canglong Wuguan's promotional video, pushed his cart along the road, left Douqiong Martial Hall, was surrounded by a group of "murderers," a pointed-snout old man brushed past him, the signboard fell and smashed to the ground...

None of these things seemed capable of digesting E Iron, but if one had to forcefully pick one from among them?

Feng Mu's breath suddenly caught, his eyes flickered with brilliance, locking onto a suspicious fragment.

"But why would this happen? What's the principle? I haven't cultivated, haven't sweated—did the E Iron digest itself through my belly?"

Feng Mu could only suspect, could not confirm, unless he could enter Douqiong Martial Hall once more and experience the "replay" of that feeling again.

Time cannot be replayed; only similar scenes can be recreated.

So, a thought extremely dangerous suddenly surfaced in Feng Mu's heart: "Return to Douqiong Martial Hall—this time I really smash its signboard?!"

Last night he was still thinking about solutions to increase the E Iron Consumption Rate, almost none of the options had been implemented, yet as a result... the turning point suddenly met him unexpectedly, bumped right into him!

Feng Mu secretly rejoiced; he was truly considering whether to use his own life to verify this idea.

"Of course, I can't use 【Feng Mu】's face. I can wait until dark, switch to 【Mask】, and go challenge the hall again—this time for real!" He schemed in his heart.

"Hey, why are you walking so fast? I almost missed dinner."

A muffled, headless voice abruptly interrupted Feng Mu's scheming. He didn't need to turn around; his whole body, along with the bicycle, was once again covered by a burly shadow.

What do you mean I walk so fast, you almost miss dinner?

Is your dinner supposed to be me?

Feng Mu's heart thumped. He turned his head and looked up at Li Bashan, squeezing out an expression of simplicity and confusion on his face.

Li Bashan seemed to know that to invite someone back, he had to show a smiling face, so he grinned and squeezed out a sincere smile: "Don't leave. Master has changed his mind; he wants to recruit you into the Martial Arts Hall."

Li Bashan had gotten along with his master for 30 years and knew the latter's nature very well.

His master claimed not to believe in fate, but was actually very superstitious—able to drive someone away because of an ill omen, and able to take someone into the sect because of a lucky omen.

Being taken into the sect likely meant not just being recruited into the Martial Arts Hall as a... money bag, uh, ptooey, as an Apprentice Member, but rather truly possible to be taken into Nei Men, to become his junior disciple in the future.

Of course, it would definitely require a period of observation to confirm that the junior disciple's aptitude or character wasn't too poor.

Feng Mu's head was full of question marks. He felt the smile on this giant's face was truly terrifying, almost as if he wanted to eat someone on the street, and he increasingly felt he was being regarded as dinner.

"It just saves the step of smashing the signboard, and going back with him lets me properly feel that feeling again."

Feng Mu's heart was heavy, but on the surface he nodded, pushing his bicycle and following behind Li Bashan.

Seeing Feng Mu agree, Li Bashan didn't know what he thought of; his mouth corner slurped some saliva. While rubbing his stomach, he strode forward with flying steps.

The crowd parted to make way, and those with short tempers who were about to curse switched to polite, civilized smiles the moment they looked up.

Feng Mu followed three steps behind, pushing his bicycle and nearly jogging, just barely keeping up with Li Bashan's speed.

"Those who rush to catch up get eaten, yet still must chase tight—apart from me, I doubt anyone else in the world could do it."

Feng Mu roasted him silently in his mind, but still, having a giant charge ahead and clear the path felt pretty good; later, if he got the chance, he'd cultivate someone like that under his own command.

Inside Canglong Wuguan.

Feng Yuhuai, her figure outlined by her training uniform, glanced sideways out the floor-to-ceiling window and frowned slightly.

She thought she'd caught sight of Feng Mu's figure just now.

"Why is Feng Mu at Wuguan Yitiao Jie? He dropped out and gave up the exam—he's not still clinging to some unrealistic notion, is he? Working honestly and earning money isn't good enough? Why must he squander the money he finally earned?"

"But luckily, the martial arts halls only accept disciples based on bone quality; Feng Mu's laughable bone quality means no hall would ever take him."

"Hmm, what if some hall scams him out of money? No, I have to call him tonight and properly talk some sense into my foolish brother…"

Chapter End