Chapter 303: Scheming for an Escape Route in Troubled Times

This Lu Zhigang persona is already a genuine Martial Master and can be put to use.

Zhou You first went to Fucheng to purchase potent poisons for practicing his palm technique, placing an order and entrusting the medical halls and pharmacies to collect them on his behalf.

At the Martial Master level, the toxicity of ordinary snake venom no longer has much effect.

If he wants to take the power of his Poison Palm to the next level, he needs rarer and more ferocious, strange snake venoms.

Snake venoms like those from the Hui-Yu snake are a matter of luck, but there is still hope for other varieties.

Fucheng gathers the most abundant and diverse goods in this region; it has everything from rare beasts to exotic creatures. As long as you have money, there is nothing you cannot buy, only things you cannot imagine.

This order for snake venom cost a full 100 taels of gold, and that was just the deposit.

The specific final payment will be discussed and determined in person based on the quality and quantity once the strange snake venoms arrive.

After placing the order, Zhou You intended to leave, but suddenly thought of one thing.

The bounty posted at the Thousand Faces Hall for the assassination of Zhou You was originally ordered by Qi Fengxiao.

With Qi Fengxiao having fallen and his confidants and lackeys suffering heavy losses, this order is on the verge of expiring if no one continues to pay for it.

The Thousand Faces Hall also has rules; the bounty is not posted for free and must be maintained with regular payments.

Once this bounty expires and is canceled, the conditions for the panel to determine the projection will be gone.

The status of this persona clone would also be difficult to maintain and would be actively reclaimed by the panel.

That won't do; Zhou You is still planning to use this clone to secretly track down the whereabouts of Kunpengzi!

Gritting his teeth, he paid out of his own pocket to renew it at the Thousand Faces Hall.

It is ironic to speak of this, but throughout history, Zhou You is likely the only unique case of someone paying the maintenance fees for the bounty on their own life.

Upon inquiring at the Thousand Faces Hall, it was just as he expected: there was less than two months of coverage left.

Qi Fengxiao has not come to pay for a long time, and as the deadline approaches, this bounty is about to be taken off the list.

"Renew it for 5 years for me."

This 5-year maintenance fee cost Zhou You another 50 taels of gold.

Hmm, Zhou You lamented that his horoscope and Fucheng do not get along; every time he comes here, he has to spend money, and it is always a large sum.

He came here to handle business and was in a hurry, so he did not disturb his sworn brother Zhang Huaimin.

After leaving Fucheng, this persona of Zhou You followed the clues and headed toward Beijing, searching for the possible hiding place of Kunpengzi.

His main body remained in Gongliang City to hold the fort and study totem culture, becoming increasingly certain that Kunpengzi was colluding with forces outside of Beijing.

If things go poorly, this disaster sweeping through the three cities was not only incited by Kunpengzi among the refugees, but also involved the remnants of the Witch Tribe.

This matter is of great importance.

Zhou You feels that Gongliang City is in danger and must hasten the preparations for the escape route he had already laid out.

Back at his hometown, the Grandfather and Zhou Laiwei are busy with infrastructure construction; the village is already nestled against mountains and rivers with rugged terrain, lacking neither water nor land, and now with sufficient financial resources and supplies, they have begun to build a solid defense system.

Zhou You has already sent Tie Niu to escort multiple shipments of grain and supplies back to his hometown to stockpile for the purpose of recruiting manpower and concentrating on practicing fist techniques.

In troubled times, being able to raise a force that can fight at any moment can save your life when it counts.

The Grandfather uses the clan as the moral foundation, and the young men of the clan trained by Zhou Laiwei, bonded by kinship, are more united and reliable than any other force. For this reason, Zhou You even took out a portion of the Double Body Tiger Form Fist manual and gave it to Zhou Laiwei to train the young men of the Zhou Family.

His painstaking efforts have also been rewarded, as clan members have successively broken through their internal strength, and even three have reached Qi and Blood Stage 1.

Zhou Laiwei is old but still vigorous; after obtaining the Double Body Tiger Form Fist manual, he broke through Qi and Blood 3 and officially entered the 4th stage.

Having reached this step, the old man's potential is exhausted, and it will be difficult for him to make further progress in this life.

He is very loyal to Zhou You; initially, it was because of the Grandfather, but later, after witnessing the rapid progress of Zhou You's martial arts and his methods and channels for transporting massive amounts of supplies to the hometown, he completely submitted to this young Young Master.

Zhou Laiwei's only grandson, Tie Niu, is Zhou You's close subordinate; under careful cultivation, he has already broken through to Qi and Blood Stage 1 and is expected to sprint toward the later stages of Qi and Blood in the future, with a higher ceiling than he himself had in his life.

"Tie Niu, send another batch of supplies back to the hometown, and return quickly."

On this day, Zhou You called over Tie Niu, who was practicing his fist techniques, and told him to transport more supplies back.

Tie Niu nodded; although his strength was improving rapidly, the difficulty of transporting supplies was also rising.

The journey from Gongliang City back to the hometown is not long; in previous years, one could make a round trip on foot with just a bag of dry rations.

But with the recent famine, bandits have gradually increased, and wherever there is a road, there is a large nest of thieves and robbers.

What is headache-inducing is that these thieves are different from professional robbers; usually, they look no different from disaster victims and refugees—sallow, emaciated, and dying, as if they could collapse and die at any moment.

But once they encounter a merchant caravan or travelers, these pitiful victims instantly pull out iron weapons, revealing their ferocity to kill and rob.

As the situation deteriorates, the number of martial artists joining them has gradually increased, and even guards with ordinary internal strength and Qi and Blood cannot guarantee safety.

This is just the area near the city walls, which has already turned into a thieves' den; let alone further away.

When Tie Niu escorted the supplies, apart from some twists and turns in the first half of the journey, it was much safer later on.

Because Zhou Laiwei would lead the young men of the village to meet them, and these well-fed, well-trained young men would unite to beat the thieves and bandits into a rout.

If it weren't for Zhou You's specific instructions to keep a low profile, they would have already brought out their fine weapons.

Inside Zhou Family Village, the high furnaces are smelted day and night, and the Blacksmith shop rings with clanging; besides forging farm tools, they are mostly tempering weapons and armor plates for self-protection.

It is no exaggeration to say that with Zhou You's support, the Zhou Family already possesses the hard power of a local rural magnate.

All these efforts are just so that the family members can survive as much as possible.

At the critical moment, once Gongliang City falls, Zhou You's pair of fists can save his parents, but to break out of the encirclement, he must rely on this surprise force hidden in Zhou Family Village.

"It is time; the accumulation of the main body has reached a bottleneck, and it is time to break through to Martial Master."

After sending Tie Niu away, Zhou You made a decision in his heart to take the final step from the peak of Qi and Blood.

In fact, no one has more advantages than him; first, as the second persona of Yan Ping, he used Experience Points to brute-force his way directly to the level of a blank-slate Martial Master, personally experiencing the physical changes of transforming into a Martial Master.

Then, as the persona Lu Zhigang, he broke through with the Poison Palm, experiencing the danger of a life-and-death situation.

Having broken through to Martial Master twice with a 100% success rate, he has accumulated rich experience.

In comparison, the difficulty of the main body breaking through to Martial Master with the Tiger Crane Double Form Fist is negligible.

With sufficient Secret Medicine, abundant Qi and Blood, and his body and mind at their peak... Zhou You is already standing steadily at the threshold of a Martial Master; the difference between inside and outside the door is just that one step.

He does not even need to deliberately practice hard in seclusion; he only needs to go about his daily walking, standing, sitting, and lying down, and occasionally practice a few sets of fist techniques, and perhaps in the next moment, he will naturally achieve a breakthrough to the Martial Master realm.

(End of this chapter)