Chapter 40: Breakthrough, Seventh Stage of Heaven!

He didn't know if it was just good luck.

Killing "Seventh Master" and his four subordinates, he had picked up three Internal Force Cards from the corpses! And one Power Card!

Of the three Internal Force Cards, apart from the one picked off "Seventh Master," which held three months of internal force cultivation, the other two held one and a half months and two months respectively.

Adding the half-month cultivation Internal Force Card picked up after silencing the informant during the interrogation.

In total, they could provide seven months of internal force cultivation!

"Seven months of cultivation should be enough…"

Chen Mu pondered.

From the Internal Force Cards picked up at Xiaoliang Mountain and the execution ground, the total cultivation provided by all Internal Force Cards had already exceeded a year and a half.

Adding these seven months, it should be enough to break through.

Thinking of this, Chen Mu recalled his blade into his palm space, walked over, examined "Seventh Master"'s corpse, and rummaged out two banknotes of one hundred taels each, as well as a jade-like black token engraved with strange symbols.

Chen Mu couldn't make sense of it, couldn't be bothered to think, and simply stored it in his palm space.

Afterwards, he went inside to search the house, found a pile of banknotes—nearly fifty thousand taels—and without ceremony, confiscated them all.

……

He didn't bother with the corpses, leaving them where they lay.

Chen Mu left, returning to Changping Ward.

Back home, he entered his room and took out all the Internal Force Cards.

He used them one by one. Energy materialized out of thin air within his body, driving the "Rolling Cloud Art" to circulate, constantly battering against the bottleneck.

During this process, his skin, membranes, tendons, meridians, flesh, blood, bones, five viscera and six bowels, and limbs underwent metamorphosis and strengthening once again.

His strength was growing, his cultivation climbing.

Finally, accompanied by a strange sound, Chen Mu's body trembled violently, and his aura surged abruptly.

In his dantian, internal force churned. Guided by his will, it traveled along his meridians to the body's surface, and as it formed a cycle, it seeped out through his pores.

Whoosh~!

Chen Mu raised his hand and gently struck out with a palm.

"Crash~"

A scroll painting hanging on the wall over two meters away immediately shook violently, as if about to fall at any moment.

Internal force released outward, palm wind shaking falling leaves.

Seventh Stage of Heaven!

"It worked…"

Chen Mu's heart pounded faster. He slowed his breathing and calmed his mind.

Breaking through to the Seventh Stage of Heaven had consumed the most accumulated cultivation from Internal Force Cards so far.

If the Seventh Stage of Heaven was like this, the Eighth Stage of Heaven would be the same, and the required internal force cultivation would only be higher!

Fortunately, this cultivation could be obtained through Internal Force Cards.

"Sun Jindong!"

Chen Mu took a deep breath, light flashing in his eyes.

Seventh Stage of Heaven—just two more stages from Innate.

Once he broke through to Innate, he could set about dealing with Sun Jindong!

The night before last, Chen Mu had again jolted awake from a dream, shouting about killing that Sun bastard.

As long as Sun Jindong lived, he couldn't even sleep in peace!

……

……

Sun Jindong was a long-term objective.

In the short term, Chen Mu was still dealing with the child-stealing gangs in Wulong Fucheng.

With "Seventh Master" and his main subordinates in the East District wiped out, the remnants no longer posed a threat.

But there were still the child-stealing gangs in the South, North, and West Districts!

Chen Mu followed the same pattern. The following night, he entered the South District, found low-ranking gang members, extracted the child-stealing gang's roster, then killed his way up one by one until he reached the leader.

The South District child-stealing gang leader was "Master Ma," at the Sixth Stage of Heaven cultivation, the same as "Seventh Master."

Chen Mu struck fast. "Master Ma" in the South District hadn't yet received word that "Seventh Master" was dead, so when Chen Mu came knocking, he had no defenses prepared.

Thus, "Listening Wind" locked onto the target, flying darts paved the way, and the "Eight Gates Jade-Severing Blade" finished him off with brute force.

"Master Ma" and his main subordinates followed "Seventh Master"'s old path—all perished.

Chen Mu picked up three Internal Force Cards, two Skill Cards, and one Cultivation Card.

The Skill Cards recorded only third-rate martial techniques; the Internal Force Cards held one month, one and a half months, and two and a half months of cultivation respectively.

Besides that, he grabbed over eighty thousand taels in banknotes along the way.

……

With the South District's "Master Ma" dealt with, the next was the West District's "Master Hou."

Same old routine—first find the low-ranking gang members, then kill his way up one by one. By the time he reached "Master Hou," this child-stealing gang leader, nicknamed "Master Hou," had already received word and set up an ambush in his residence.

Unfortunately, with the "Listening Wind" skill, Chen Mu stood outside the residence and heard the positions of every ambusher clearly.

He didn't even need to enter the house. Just standing on the roof, he released dozens of scrap-iron flying darts and wiped them all out.

Finally, "Master Hou"—not a single one was spared.

He harvested four Internal Force Cards, two Skill Cards, five Power Cards, and one Cultivation Card.

The rest were either Stamina Cards or Energy Cards.

……

The East District's "Seventh Master," the South District's "Horse Master," and the West District's "Marquis Master" — dealt with in order.

The last one, the North District's "Kai Master"!

In three days' time, the chief ringleaders of the kidnapper gangs in all three districts were dead.

Practically every power in Wulong Fucheng, big or small, knew about it.

For a time, the various forces were curious, yet sat back to watch the show.

"Which passing hero drew his blade to intervene?"

"Good riddance — rats in the gutter deserve to be crushed!"

"Heh, three of the Masters are dead, only 'Kai Master' remains! Wonder if our 'Kai Master' can hold his seat right now?"

"……"

"Kai Master's" real name was Song Kai!

Song Kai had just turned fifty this year — in the prime of his life, the time for building his career.

His own cultivation wasn't low either — Acquired Six Heavy Complete!

However.

Some "hero" who had crawled out of who-knows-where had set his sights on the kidnapper gang's ringleaders, filling Song Kai with both hatred and fear.

That's right — Song Kai was scared.

He was Acquired Six Heavy Complete, but "Horse Master," "Marquis Master," and the others were also Acquired Six Heavy.

And yet, all of them were dead.

When they died, they barely put up any resistance before being killed.

What did that represent?

It meant the "hero" who killed them was at least Acquired Seven Heavy!

An Acquired Seven Heavy who also practiced a set of Gao Chao hidden-weapon skills.

Song Kai understood very well — facing a "hero" this powerful yet fond of meddling in others' business…

Knowing he couldn't win, he decisively backed down.

Leave the city and dodge the blade for now!

He slipped out of the city in broad daylight at noon.

A passing "hero" rarely lingered in one place for long.

Hide outside the city for ten days to half a month, and the man would move on.

……

And so.

Song Kai took his trusted subordinates and fled to a small town thirty li outside Wulong Fucheng, where they rented a small courtyard to stay in.

Night fell.

Song Kai and his trusted subordinates sat beneath the low eaves, eating meat and drinking by candlelight.

"Sigh, these so-called heroes and young knights are simply people who've eaten their fill and have nothing better to do," a thin-faced man said with a sigh after taking a sip of wine.

"Ain't that the truth — if they've got the guts, go cause trouble for those great clans," a bald, burly man beside him said irritably. "The Guo family wiped out the Falling Cloud Martial Hall and killed so many people — why doesn't he go enforce justice for them?"

"Strip it down and it's just bullying the weak and fearing the strong!" the thin-faced man sighed. "If Kai Master were at the Innate Realm, I'd like to see if he'd dare…"

Pfft! Pfft~

Whoosh~ whoosh~ whoosh!

A shrill wind-splitting sound, accompanied by a strange noise, suddenly pierced through the wooden door and shot into the room.

Amid the gust of force, a bloody hole was punched through the heads of both the thin-faced man and the bald, burly man at the same time!