Chapter 121: Clues

Taking advantage of the night, he left home.

Zhou You carried a vat and a cabinet on his back, his body piled high with bags and bundles like a mountain, looking from afar like a moving mound of earth.

His parents followed on either side, carrying their own belongings, their eyes filled with confusion, not knowing what the future would hold.

Since their son said they had to move, there must be a reason for it.

As the head of the household, Zhou Laodie stood firmly by his son's side this time.

His mother was even more so! "Father, Mother, don't worry."

"I had a run-in with the Flower-Plucking Thief a few days ago, but he got away. To prevent the villain from seeking revenge, you should hide for a while."

Upon hearing the truth, Zhou Laodie slapped his thigh, "Well done."

"You'er, you've been practicing martial arts for a year or two now, and you've finally done something truly worthwhile."

His parents were both law-abiding Commoners who did not wish to stir up trouble.

In their view, martial artists were prone to being aggressive and inviting trouble, and they did not want their son to become one of them.

However, if that martial strength could be used to protect family and neighbors and drive away thieves, then there was nothing better.

The Flower-Plucking Thief was notorious, and countless innocent daughters had suffered at his hands.

The old couple were both kind-hearted people; they knew that if this thief were not eliminated, the women in the city would never have a day of peace.

Their perspective was simple; they did not know the difference in force or Qi and Blood, nor did they understand the strength of martial arts or Lightness Skill, but hearing that their son could beat the Flower-Plucking Thief made them very proud and boastful.

"You'er, you must be careful too. Even the Constables cannot catch the Flower-Plucking Thief; he must be extremely vicious."

His mother was somewhat anxious.

Zhou Laodie puffed on his pipe, "A woman's view! You'er learns proper boxing; he is much more formidable than that thief."

He encouraged Zhou You, "You'er, set your mind at ease; your mother and I will not hold you back."

In the coming days, he and Zhou You Niang would hide in Wu Yanyi's old house, minimizing the use of fire and signs of going out, trying their best not to let the neighbors discover they had moved in.

Only in this way could they maximize their avoidance of the Flower-Plucking Thief's eyes and ears.

"Father, Mother, within a month, I will come to pick you... home."

Wu Yanyi's old house had been vacant for four or five months, and it was covered in spiderwebs.

The house was not dilapidated, there were no worries about wind or rain leaking in, and the furniture and items were quite complete; it was ready to move into.

His mother even comforted Zhou You, "You'er, this is much better than the house we rented before."

"The rent is at least 20 taels a month," Zhou Laodie added.

After comforting his parents, Zhou You set a one-month deadline in his heart; he must kill the Flower-Plucking Thief.

"I have already imparted the first half of the secret to practicing Tiger Aura to you."

Inside the martial arts training ground, Lu Qiang looked at Zhou You, who was gesturing with his hands, and nodded.

He emphasized again, "Tiger Aura must be guided by Qi and Blood; you are still lacking in refinement."

"I will not hide it from you: the advanced technique of the Tiger-Subduing Fist is a secret transmission of my martial arts school's Inner Courtyard."

"It is called the 'Jade Tiger Technique'."

"Practicing Tiger Aura is the foundation that runs through the entire Jade Tiger Technique. As the realm changes, the color of the Tiger Aura also changes, from Stone Tiger, to Iron Tiger, to Copper Tiger, corresponding to Qi and Blood Stages 1-3, 4-6, and 7-9 respectively."

"I have practiced boxing for thirty years, and thanks to my master's cultivation, I am at Qi and Blood 5th Stage, the Iron Tiger level."

Speaking of this, Lu Qiang clenched his fist slightly, and a stone-gray Tiger Aura pattern circled around his fist.

As his Qi and Blood strengthened, it shifted from stone-gray to iron-gray, stabilizing at the mid-stage of Qi and Blood.

This was to let Zhou You see the specific form of Tiger Aura.

"Master thinks highly of you, letting you experience the wonders of Tiger Aura in advance, because he is certain that your breakthrough in Qi and Blood is a sure thing."

"Do not let Master down!"

After Lu Qiang left, Zhou You focused on pondering the practice of Tiger Aura; he now had the foundation of level 1, so digesting and absorbing it could not be easier.

Receiving proper Instruction also brought him a step closer to the level 2. More importantly, Tiger Aura and the Feather Qi of the Yanxing Quan actually had a mutually reinforcing effect.

"The Tiger-Subduing Fist practices Aura, the Yanxing Quan practices Qi; the two have different external manifestations, but their internal essence is the same."

Zhou You looked at the panel, where he had exchanged 500 Experience Points for the Feather Qi level 1, and nodded slightly.

Martial arts are divided into schools, and while their names differ, their general approach is not too far apart.

Feather Qi and Tiger Aura are both advanced application techniques derived from Qi and Blood.

And both are highly lethal to spectral entities.

"Only at the Qi and Blood level does one possess the ability to touch the other world where spectral entities exist."

Zhou You stretched his arms slightly, and layers upon layers of feathers emerged, weaving into thick and wide wings; a single arm spanned more than 1 meter, and if crossed and folded, they could wrap most of his body within them.

In the wing-wrapped state, his entire body was surrounded by Feather Qi, reaching a thickness of dozens, or even a hundred layers.

For an enemy to attack his true body, they would have to break through the Feather Qi layer by layer, and they would have to do it in one go.

Even if his defense were broken, he could spread his wings and fly into the high sky; it was a dual specialty of defense and evasion.

If Tiger Aura was concentrated on destructive power, then Feather Qi was a different path, adding points to defense and speed.

"With Feather Qi, the Yanxing Quan is like a tiger with wings."

Zhou You had mastered Feather Qi; his strength at Qi and Blood Stage 1, while not yet exaggerated enough to be 100% utilized, was no longer like before, where he could only rely on Poison Palm to launch sneak attacks.

Now, if he encountered an opponent like Tu Laoer again, he could just slap him with his big wings, and he could slap him to death.

"Next, I will go find the whereabouts of the Flower-Plucking Thief."

Zhou You would not risk his parents; he said one month, so he would finish the Flower-Plucking Thief in 20 days.

This guy was definitely still hiding in the city; the so-called escape outside the city was just a ruse.

Whether it was for food and lodging or the convenience of medicine, there was no place better than the city.

If he were really hiding in the countryside, he would likely not recover for a year or a half.

Over these past days, the Hunting Team has turned the city and its outskirts over countless times, yet there are still no clues.

The Flower-Plucking Thief's ability to Zang is also extremely formidable; the trail has been completely severed, leaving not a single trace.

That night, he was injured and bleeding, and was also surrounded by many people with strong Qi and blood, their bodies colliding and clashing.

The physical potential of Qi and blood martial artists is greatly developed, and their sense of smell, hearing, and so on are superior to ordinary people; during the fight, they captured the Flower-Plucking Thief's scent and noise characteristics to screen suspicious individuals one by one.

There were also hunting dogs that licked the blood and tasted the Flower-Plucking Thief's scent, inquiring from house to house.

Even so, they still failed to find any trace of the Flower-Plucking Thief.

With hundreds of thousands of people inside and outside Gongliang City, doing this is like looking for a needle in a haystack, with little hope.

"If my guess is not wrong, the Flower-Plucking Thief should be Zang in..."

Every night, Zhou You sits on his bed recalling the details of the night they fought, turning every scene over in his mind thousands of times.

Hard work pays off; he finally caught it.

It was a trace of an extremely gaudy cosmetic fragrance, which only the lowest-class prostitutes in the city would have.

The Flower-Plucking Thief harms only noble ladies from prominent families; even if he were to be stained with a woman's scent, it would only be precious cosmetics worth one or two thousand gold.

As everyone knows, the Flower-Plucking Thief has picky tastes and will not pluck anyone but beautiful virgin noble ladies; under what circumstances would he come into contact with a low-class prostitute? This point of disharmony allowed him to see the flaw.

Zhou You opened his eyes; among countless messy and tangled threads, he found that one broken end.

The general hiding range of the Flower-Plucking Thief has been found!

The thief has always been Zang in brothels in the past to avoid searches, using the foul and chaotic environment to interfere with their vision.

The question arises again: now that he is injured, will he still return to the same place?

(End of this chapter)