Chapter 94: Thousand-Handed Thief Saint Sect

Xiao Yu continued, “Now that Aunt Liu has mastered the Nine Flower Sword, whether or not she teaches disciples aside, let’s talk about herself.

To advance further, she can’t just practice swordplay without cultivating Qi.

So Aunt Liu must follow my example and take medicinal tonics daily—like Bone-Strengthening Soup.

Why not set up a separate stove just for her, letting Fengxian tag along for a little benefit?”

Aunt Liu shook her head. “If this were thirty years ago, I’d gladly partner with you.

But now, basic Bone-Strengthening Soup has no effect on me—it only brings side effects.

My body has already fully formed; drinking it would alter my bones and warp my shape.

You’re different—you’re still growing. Bone-Strengthening Soup is perfect for you: cheap and effective.

As for me, I take ‘Qi-Enhancing Pills’ every month. Don’t worry about my true Qi being insufficient.”

“Qi-Enhancing Pills?” Xiao Yu gasped. “Are those the ones from the Guan family? One pill costs a hundred gold taels!”

Aunt Liu shook her head. “Not the Guan family’s. These are stronger—and much cheaper.”

“How much cheaper?” Xiao Yu asked.

“About one or two tenths less.”

Xiao Yu stared blankly.

Damn it—even twenty percent off still means eighty gold taels per pill. And you eat one every month. So the grease scraped off the girls of Hongxiu Pavilion isn’t just funding the construction of the Qinghe Commandery Prince’s grand palace—it’s also paying for your Great Qin Divine Bell and Qi-Enhancing Pills.

Seeing Xiao Yu’s expressionless face, Xiao Ziying quietly whistled. Aunt Liu cleared her throat twice and added, “Don’t go imagining wild things. My Qi-Enhancing Pills aren’t bought with my own money.

I don’t have that kind of cash.

Look, you only know I manage Hongxiu Pavilion for the Teaching Bureau, but you don’t know I’ve joined the Tianmen Society.

I’m even the boss of Qingshui Bay in the Tianmen Society.

As a Tianmen Society Elder and Qingshui Bay boss, getting one Qi-Enhancing Pill per month is perfectly reasonable!”

“Qingshui Bay boss? What’s that?” Xiao Yu’s face twisted slightly.

This tone feels off!

This middle-aged woman has nothing in common with a Kowloon Bay boss!

“Qingshui Bay boss isn’t ‘a thing’—you’ve confused me with your ignorance, little country bumpkin!”

Aunt Liu tapped her forehead. “Outside our Hongxiu Pavilion is a river called ‘Qingshui River.’ You know that, right?

Its source isn’t far—it branches off from Lianghe River.

Don’t you practice on the roof of Xiao Jingxuan?

You should see Lianghe splitting southward: the eastern branch is Qingshui River, the western one is ‘Little Lianghe.’

Qingshui River curves into a large bend, and the land inside that bend is called ‘Qingshui Bay.’

Besides our Hongxiu Pavilion, Qingshui Bay has over a hundred brothels.”

“Oh, so Aunt Liu is the top madam of Qingshui Bay’s pleasure trade,” Xiao Yu realized.

“You even know ‘top madam’?”

Xiao Yu said, “I didn’t before. On the way down from Hengsha Pass, I dealt with carriage and transport firms every day—so I learned.”

Aunt Liu shook her head. “I’m not the top madam. The Tianmen Society is just a bottom-tier gang.”

“What does the Tianmen Society do?” Xiao Yu asked curiously.

“Everything. Sigh—don’t ask anymore. You’ve just arrived in Tianmen Town and know nothing. Stay awhile, and you’ll naturally understand.”

Xiao Yu hesitated, then asked, “Can I buy Qi-Enhancing Pills from the Qingshui Bay boss?”

“I need them myself! If I could buy them freely, would the Guan family’s pharmacy sell them for a hundred gold taels per pill? I’d buy low, sell high and get rich!”

After a pause, Aunt Liu added, “Trust me—for now, Bone-Strengthening Soup is best for you. Wait until you grow up, become a famous courtesan, and reach the True Qi Realm before considering Qi-Enhancing Pills.

Even though you earned a lot yesterday, you still couldn’t afford two pills!”

Xiao Yu said, “I really want to improve.”

Aunt Liu didn’t understand. “How?”

“I don’t need to wait until I’m grown. In the future, when martial heroes come, I can be called to perform sword dances,” Xiao Yu said.

Aunt Liu shook her head. “Do martial heroes come to brothels and spend a thousand gold taels just to watch sword dances?

You’re still too young—you don’t understand men and women.”

“Aren’t Li Manman and Shao Yao courtesans who sell art, not bodies?” Xiao Yu asked.

“In all of Western Shu, there are thousands of courtesans—how many are like Li Manman and Shao Yao? It’s good you have ambition, but you must first become famous before you can afford ambition,” Aunt Liu said.

“Sigh, Aunt Liu misunderstands. I don’t want to stand alone—I can support other sisters.

When a hero visits a sister’s pavilion and wants to see a sword dancer, the sisters can send for me to join the performance,” Xiao Yu said.

Aunt Liu pondered. “That’s not impossible. After yesterday’s Grand Master Xu left, he spread your name through Tianmen Town. Today, ‘The Sword God of Bali River,’ Wan Liyun, requested to meet you—I turned him down.

But performing as a supporting act diminishes a famous courtesan’s dignity!

A ‘famous courtesan’ is one who holds herself aloof—from childhood onward. The more haughty she is, the more famous she becomes.

When two famous courtesans meet at the same event, they secretly compete—fighting for attention, vying for glory.

On the surface, it’s like peacocks displaying feathers; in truth, it’s hens squabbling.”

—Is this about famous courtesans—or rival pop stars fighting for spotlight?

Xiao Yu mentally scoffed, but said aloud, “I’m young—I don’t need dignity or arrogance.

Observing many martial masters, learning from their strengths, improving myself—that’s real.

If I can earn some tips to fund my cultivation, all the better.

When I become a Golden Immortal, only Golden Immortal courtesans will be worthy to compete with me. How many Golden Immortal courtesans are there in the world?”

“There are no Golden Immortals who are courtesans.”

Aunt Liu glanced at her once—no mockery, no teasing as before.

She still didn’t believe Xiao Yu could become a Golden Immortal at sixteen—but after decades of grueling cultivation, perhaps a path to immortality still existed.

Once one becomes a Golden Immortal, no matter their past status, if they pledge loyalty, even the monarch might personally visit to appoint them ‘Guardian General’ or ‘War God of Shu.’

“Still, your insight and awareness have impressed me,” Aunt Liu said.

“In a few days, once you’re familiar with Tianmen Town, I’ll arrange for you to meet some martial heroes.”

Xiao Yu had finished her own matters. She glanced at Ziying beside her. “Aunt Liu said many have mastered the Nine Flower Beauty Sword. Are any still in Hongxiu Pavilion?

If possible, let me see each flower’s essence firsthand.”

“What good would seeing them do you?” Aunt Liu asked.

Xiao Yu smiled, drew Aunt Liu’s sword, leapt into the flowerbed, her embroidered shoes landing atop spring blossoms. Her body spun gracefully, robes fluttering like a blooming flower. Her sword danced with uncanny vitality—blade-light exploding into dazzling azaleas, crimson as fire, filling the garden with spring splendor.

Xiao Yu herself now radiated the same fiery, vibrant grandeur as Aunt Liu.

“This—this is impossible?!”

Ziying was awestruck; Aunt Liu stood frozen in stunned disbelief, unable to believe her eyes.

The sword-qi azalea patch, covering half a mu of ground, slowly faded.

Xiao Yu had landed soundlessly beside Aunt Liu, the sword already sheathed.

“Aunt Liu, what do you think?” she smiled.

Aunt Liu slowly raised her right hand, staring at the sword for a moment—then hurled it away with force.

“Plop!” The sword landed ten paces away in the lake.

“Ah, Aunt Liu, what are you doing?!” Ziying cried.

“With Yu Fengxian here, what use is this sword? After thirty or forty years of sword practice—what meaning does it hold? I never want to touch a sword again. I never want to see one.” Aunt Liu cried out in anguish.

Ziying shrank back, unsure what to say, glancing at Xiao Yu.

Xiao Yu smiled. “Aunt Liu is deluded. As the saying goes, there’s always a stronger hand above.

I, Yu Fengxian, am indeed a genius—but countless heroes surpass me.

Qi-refining cultivators look down on Immortal Martial Arts, dismissing them as heretical paths.

Should I abandon the sword entirely because I live in this real world?”

“The path of cultivation is never about comparing yourself to others—it’s about constantly surpassing yourself, beating yesterday’s self.”

Aunt Liu paused, sighed. “You’re right. I don’t need to compete with you.

Compared to most sword-dancing courtesans, I’ve already grasped sword intent—I’m above them all.

Now I should go out, show off, and bask in glory.”

—Was that really what I meant?

Xiao Yu was speechless.

“Too late today. Tomorrow or the day after—day after tomorrow morning, wake early. I’ll take you to visit elders who’ve mastered the Nine Flower Sword,” Aunt Liu said.

Xiao Yu returned to Xiao Jingxuan with an iron stove and a sack of charcoal.

That night, she received a large bundle of herbs from Sun the Nanny in Yangfeng Jia Dao.

Unwrapping the outer paper, she found a dozen small packets, each labeled in brush calligraphy.

A note explained each packet’s ingredients, price, and function.

“Uncle Zhang is honest enough.”

Xiao Yu nodded slightly—Zhang the Fourth hadn’t cheated her on price or quantity.

On her way back from Feixian Ferry to Yingxiang Mansion with Guan Zhong, she’d bought herbs often.

If a Guan family pharmacy was nearby, she bought there; if not, she went elsewhere.

She knew the prices, quantities, and functions of over a dozen common body-strengthening and spirit-nourishing herb packets by heart.

The courtyard was far too narrow; Xiao Yu lifted the stove and clay bowl, leapt upward, and landed lightly on the roof without a single tile making a sound.

“Sigh, this is the mystery of internal qi—once it arises within the body, one instantly becomes a master who can leap high and move swiftly.” Xiao Yu sat atop the roof, shaking her head as she mused.

Hong Qu, in the courtyard, bit her lip and said, “You’ve only just cultivated internal breath—why is your qi so thick and stable?”

“Oh? You can sense the strength of my qi?” Xiao Yu exclaimed.

Hong Qu replied, “When you practiced swordplay this afternoon, you didn’t conserve your internal qi—each strike carried sword aura, and you trained for a full hour without flushing or gasping. That’s a sign of abundant internal qi.”

“When you stepped on tree branches, they didn’t break; when you landed on tiles, they didn’t rattle—that’s the mark of stable, perfectly controlled qi.”

“Isn’t that true for others too?” Xiao Yu thought again of the “Peng Transformation.”

When she trained submerged in water, practicing the “Male Dragon Art,” her internal breath seemed endless, continuously welling up from her meridians.

Internal breath is not true qi.

The warm threads composing internal qi all originate from the blood and body.

Thus, martial artists use Bone-Strengthening Decoction to fortify their bodies, extracting more internal power.

Without medicinal tonics, the “heat” within the body and blood quickly dries up, and internal breath ceases to grow.

Only when reaching the True Origin realm, and beginning to absorb “celestial qi” from outside, merging it with internal breath to form true qi, can internal qi then nourish the body, strengthen the physique, and expand the spirit.

Xiao Yu initially assumed that since she had only cultivated for one day, the time spent tapping her body’s potential was too short—her endless internal breath was normal.

Hong Qu said, “I’ve seen many internal martial artists with years of cultivation; their qi is less abundant than yours, and their control over it is nowhere near as precise as yours—like extending your own limbs.”

You haven’t even trained any specialized mobility techniques, yet you’ve already achieved the state of ‘flowers drift across, leaves fall without sound.’”

Xiao Yu smiled. “No, you’ve misjudged this time—I have trained an extremely advanced immortal martial mobility technique.”

In fact, the practice method of the “Tiger Soul Seven Kill” already includes footwork and body movement.

Simply using internal qi to propel footwork and body movement is what was called “lightness skill” in her past life.

The “Wind Yin Treasure Mirror” was derived and refined from a Wind-Teleportation Immortal Art, and its body movement is exquisitely refined.

If she weren’t holding back a few secrets, and didn’t wish to overly alarm the Guan family—who suspected her of ill intent—she would have already used “Flash Teleportation.”

Hong Qu paused, then insisted, “Do you think the footwork in martial forms is the same as body movement?”

That’s not wrong—but it shows shallow understanding.

You don’t know how powerful true immortal martial body movement techniques can be.”

“For example?”

“For example,” Hong Qu pressed her lips together and uttered a name, “Thousand-Handed Thief Saint.”

“Open the door! Open the door! The entire city is searching for Thousand-Handed Thief Saint Zong Erbu! Every household must be searched! Open up!”

At that moment, from behind Xiao Xuan’s wall came a clamor of shouts.

Some shouted to open doors, others pounded on them, some yelled to seal the alleyways, and there was a dense, rapid sound of running footsteps.

Xiao Yu and Hong Qu exchanged glances.

Then a booming roar came from the southeast: “Thousand-Handed Thief Saint Zong Erbu stole the royal palace’s most precious treasure! The Feathered Forest Guard, by the monarch’s command, now assumes full control of Tianmen Town’s defenses! Everyone, remain indoors! Curfew is now in effect!”

“Those already on the streets, immediately raise both hands over your heads, kneel where you stand, and submit to inspection!”

Hong Qu’s face changed again. “That’s Chen Taiping, the ‘Guardian Martial God’ of Shu! Even during the chaos of the Thirty-Six States, he never moved—always stationed in the palace, protecting the King of Shu. Yet now he’s left Luodou… What treasure could be more important than the King’s safety? Could Erbo have stolen the Five Thunder Eight Trigram Heavenly Master Talisman?”