Chapter 33: Sixth Rank Great Martial Master

“Master, that Pyre Lin ginseng has a violent nature—surely you don’t intend to consume it?” Liu Qiaolian, seeing Xia Daoming’s beaming smile after leaving Lübai City, as if he’d struck a great fortune, could not help but look deeply concerned.

“No rush, no rush—I’ll save this herb for later use,” Xia Daoming said with a smile.

The herb’s nature was violent; Xia Daoming naturally intended to wait until reaching the Sixth Rank before consuming it.

Perfectly, the Sixth Rank requires enhanced meridians, which certainly demand stronger, more potent materia.

A three-hundred-year Pyre Lin ginseng was not easy to find.

“That’s a relief—I was truly worried!” Liu Qiaolian sighed deeply upon hearing this.

“You’re this worried about me?” Xia Daoming asked with a chuckle.

“Of course—Master is my entire world. If anything happened to you, I couldn’t go on living,” Liu Qiaolian replied without hesitation.

Xia Daoming froze at her words, silent for a long while before saying, “Foolish Lian’er, everyone has their own life. No matter whether I live or die, you must remain strong…”

“No—without Master, there is no me!” Liu Qiaolian cut in firmly.

Xia Daoming looked at Liu Qiaolian for a long moment, then smiled: “Then for our Lian’er, I must live well—no matter what.”

“A blessed soul under heaven’s protection—Master will surely live to a hundred!” Liu Qiaolian said.

“Live to a hundred?” Xia Daoming smiled noncommittally.

This world had Grand Masters, said to live at least a century.

Moreover, legends spoke of cultivators—whose lifespans must be far longer.

Having been reborn, Xia Daoming’s current small goal was Grand Master; his grand ambition was to become a cultivator, seeking immortality. To live only a hundred years? He could not accept it.

Of course, he was still only a Fifth Rank Great Martial Master—telling Liu Qiaolian this would be far too premature.

In the evening.

The two arrived at a small town.

That night, they stayed overnight in the town.

Xia Daoming took a Thousand Essence Pill to cultivate.

Though its potency was inferior to the Three Yuan Blood Return Pill, since this was his first time taking it, the effect surprised him somewhat.

That night, Xia Daoming consumed six Thousand Essence Pills—but by the sixth, the efficacy had clearly dropped sharply.

In the days that followed, Xia Daoming continued traveling by day with Liu Qiaolian, finding lodging each night.

Sometimes, dense mountain ranges stretched for two or three days without a town or city to rest in, forcing them to camp outdoors.

For this, Liu Qiaolian would blame herself for failing to plan the route properly, burdening Xia Daoming with outdoor hardship—but Xia Daoming found unexpected joy in outdoor card games and felt no suffering at all.

Thus, stopping and going, whenever they passed through a city, they would first visit herbal shops to purchase medicine.

Inspired by the Pyre Lin ginseng from Qianyun Hall, Xia Daoming would deliberately inquire about rare herbs the shops kept hidden and refused to sell openly.

In larger cities, they would linger for several days.

Sometimes they got lost in the mountains, wandering for days before finally emerging.

Sometimes, upon seeing a landscape of extraordinary beauty, both young as they were, they would deliberately linger to tour.

Thus they traveled for a month.

Xia Daoming noticed that in every city they passed through—large or small—the herbal shops never sold pills effective for Seventh Rank Great Martial Masters or higher.

Those pills were likely extremely rare, requiring special channels; or needed custom orders, never sold directly. As an outsider and merely a Fifth Rank Great Martial Master, he had no access. Or perhaps the cities he passed through were simply too low-tier.

Yet, as for violently potent herbs like Pyre Lin ginseng, with his deliberate inquiries, he actually managed to purchase another one.

A hundred-year Cold Ice Purple Shouwu, after haggling, sold for five thousand taels.

Xia Daoming paid three thousand taels in silver and two thousand taels in Changchun Hall pills as barter.

Along the way, Xia Daoming had already bartered away many of Changchun Hall’s surplus pills, fetching prices slightly higher than those in Licheng’s local market.

Today was the thirty-second day since leaving Licheng.

Thanks to the new pills he’d consumed along the journey and his relentless cultivation, Xia Daoming finally completed the ninth-level meridian reinforcement, then shattered through his sixth meridian, becoming a Sixth Rank Great Martial Master.

After becoming a Sixth Rank Great Martial Master, Xia Daoming did not rush to consume Pyre Lin ginseng or other violently potent herbs; instead, he continued taking the new pills he’d purchased, steadily consolidating and gradually enhancing his cultivation.

First, out of caution—merchant claims couldn’t be fully trusted; Pyre Lin ginseng’s nature might be even more violent than described. Waiting until his Sixth Rank meridians were reinforced one or two more levels before consuming it would be safer.

Second, Pyre Lin ginseng and similar herbs were not only expensive but hard to find—they must be reserved for critical moments. The new pills he’d bought still had significant efficacy for reinforcing Sixth Rank meridians; better to keep purchasing and using them for now.

In the blink of an eye, another month passed.

Xia Daoming found two more potent herbs.

One was a Pyre Lin ginseng over three hundred and sixty years old; the other, a three-hundred-year Red Flame Lingzhi.

These two herbs cost Xia Daoming twenty thousand taels.

Add to that the pills he’d purchased along the way, and in just two months, Xia Daoming had spent fifty-five thousand taels total.

Part of this he paid with Changchun Hall pills.

Even so, in two months, he spent forty-five thousand taels in silver, leaving him with only about eight thousand taels in cash.

His stock of Changchun Hall pills was nearly exhausted, worth perhaps four or five thousand taels.

Of course, where there is expenditure, there is gain.

Xia Daoming had now completed two levels of meridian reinforcement, and the third level was already twenty percent complete.

Moreover, he still held several new pills and four potent herbs for direct replenishment.

But the later the meridian reinforcement, the higher the demands.

With the pills and four herbs he currently held, Xia Daoming believed they still could not sustain him through all nine levels of Sixth Rank meridian reinforcement.

Thus, Xia Daoming decided to continue onward, heading straight to the provincial capital to see what conditions were like there.

As for insufficient funds, Xia Daoming planned to find a suitable place to sell the Wu Family Fortress’s Wu Yun Jue and the Divine Rhythm Map.

Now that he was far from Licheng, he had no fear of being tracked down by them.

His only concern was finding the right buyer and securing a fair price.

But this did not trouble Xia Daoming.

High-end herbal merchants’ customers were mostly local aristocratic families or sects—exactly the same people who might buy martial arts manuals and Divine Rhythm Maps.

As long as Xia Daoming used local herbal merchants, he had no trouble finding buyers or learning the true market value of the Hidden Force Divine Rhythm Map.

Moreover, over these two months, he had already gained rich experience dealing with herbal merchants.

Cuiling City.

In the southeastern region of Mangzhou, a modest mountain town.

Xia Daoming found the largest herbal merchant in town; after several transactions and growing familiar, he began inquiring about Cuiling City’s situation.

After inquiry, Xia Daoming learned the town was divided and controlled by five major factions.

The strongest among them was only a Seventh Rank Great Martial Master—no Eighth Rank was present.

Having confirmed this, Xia Daoming decided to sell the Wu Family’s martial art and Divine Rhythm Map in Cuiling City.

With his current cultivation, unless an Eighth Rank Great Martial Master, or several Seventh Ranks teamed up, no one could stop him.

Thus, selling the martial art and Divine Rhythm Map in Cuiling City, Xia Daoming feared no forced purchase or outright theft.

Moreover, he had already learned the approximate market value of the Hidden Force Divine Rhythm Map from herbal merchants in previous major cities—he wouldn’t be cheated.

To Xia Daoming’s surprise, when the herbal merchant heard he had a martial art and Hidden Force Divine Rhythm Map to sell, he immediately said his family wanted to buy—and offered fifty-eight thousand taels, higher than the market rate Xia Daoming had learned.

By the time Xia Daoming left Cuiling City, his cash reserves reached sixty-three thousand taels—more than when he’d first departed Licheng.

Along the way, Liu Qiaolian kept stealing glances at Xia Daoming.

“Why are you staring at me like that? Did flowers grow on my face?” Xia Daoming soon noticed her odd behavior and teased.

“No, no!” Liu Qiaolian hurriedly shook her head.

But after a while, she began sneaking glances again, her lips parting several times as if to speak, then falling silent.

“You want to ask how I came to have the Wu Family Fortress’s martial art and Divine Rhythm Map?” Xia Daoming, seeing her glance again, knew her curiosity had stirred, and asked with a smile.

“I dare not!” Liu Qiaolian flustered, caught off guard.

“Remember the masked old man who broke into our home that night? He was Jing Xuying, chief steward of Wu Family Fortress, sent by Lord Wu Yueli to kill me.”

“So after learning the truth, I followed Jing Xuying into Wu Family Fortress, assassinated Wu Yueli, and ransacked his private vault,” Xia Daoming said casually.

Before Xia Daoming and Liu Qiaolian left Licheng, news of Wu Yueli’s death had only spread in small circles; Liu Qiaolian, secluded in the Xia residence, had not heard.

So when she learned Xia Daoming had infiltrated Wu Family Fortress and assassinated Wu Yueli, she nearly screamed, eyes wide with shock.

Her full bosom rose and fell uncontrollably.

Wu Yueli was a Sixth Rank Great Martial Master, lord of a fortress, with countless clan retainers—absolute royalty to a commoner like Liu Qiaolian, someone she could never hope to oppose.

Yet now Xia Daoming told her he had infiltrated Wu Family Fortress and killed Wu Yueli—how could she not be stunned?

“When this southeastern journey ends, you’ll tell me in detail about the destruction of Liu Village. If the culprits aren’t too powerful, I’ll find time to avenge your blood feud,” Xia Daoming said, watching her shock.

Since that night he’d played cards with Liu Qiaolian and caused her to bleed, Xia Daoming had secretly resolved to one day help her avenge her family.

But back then, he was rootless, uncertain of his future, and his strength was limited—he dared not speak such words lightly.

Now his strength and wealth far surpassed his former self, and his future brimmed with hope. Since he’d mentioned assassinating Wu Yueli, Xia Daoming thought it was time to speak to Liu Qiaolian of vengeance—to give her a promise and a hope.