Chapter 87: Organizing the Harvest

After the banquet, Lu Zhiyi and the others did not leave Gusu immediately, but stayed here for another three days.

After Wu Zhengliang's leg injury healed, he worked at full capacity to revitalize the Third House, and in two years' time he finally basically filled the previous deficits and loans of the Third House; Wu Chengyu's beggar-version Black Jade Bone-Healing Ointment and Wu Family Hot Pot played a major role in this.

In this conversation with Lu Zhiyi and the others, he learned that these people had taken root and sprouted in various places in Jiangnan, each with their own enterprises.

Someone as skilled at management as Wu Zhengliang — how could he possibly let these resources slip by?

Within three days, Wu Zhengliang actually found quite a few projects for cooperation; especially Niu Dajie's wine, which won high praise from Wu Zhenghui — from now on, all wine in Wu Family restaurants in Gusu would be supplied by Niu Wanrou.

Wu Chengyu merely appeared as the introducer for both sides; once formal negotiations began, he had nothing more to do with it.

Now is not yet the time for Wu Chengyu to take over the family business.

He returned to his own small courtyard; A Ku, as expected, was sleeping, at this moment hugging the quilt, sleeping spread-eagled; counting the days, it was another three-day sleep cycle.

Wu Chengyu looked at A Ku and saw nothing unusual; these days without his feeding, the little girl had been scrounging meals among the various Third House families, and seemed to have grown a few degrees fatter; the Xiong Chu Mo technique clearly says eating makes you fat, sleeping makes you thin, yet now it appears the Bamboo Slips can also be wrong.

Three years — A Ku must cultivate Xiong Chu Mo for three years; only one year has passed so far, and Wu Chengyu holds basically no optimistic attitude toward her two years from now.

He tucked the quilt over A Ku, added charcoal to the brazier, and opened the window a crack; only then did he feel at ease returning to his own study.

This time at Xiao Lingshan, the encirclement and suppression of the Black Wind Twin Demons had quite a few mistakes and omissions — like shadowing Chen Xuanfeng relentlessly, yet lacking the confidence to strike secretly; of course this was also because he took into account that there was still Mei Chaofeng.

After exchanging blows with Chen Xuanfeng, Wu Chengyu only then discovered that although his internal strength was still insufficient, his combat power was already a notch above Chen Xuanfeng's.

For a moment he could not help feeling a bit smug; after all, going from having no strength to truss a chicken to becoming a master in the Martial World, such a change made it inevitable that Wu Chengyu would feel some excitement.

Fortunately, he was ultimately not a true youth; not long after, he self-reflected, deeply aware that the time for recklessness had not yet come.

Among the masters in The Legend of the Condor Heroes, the Five Absolutes, Zhou Botong, and Qiu Qianren come first; these people basically count as one tier — if forced to categorize in other high-martial worlds.

Wang Zhongyang is Pre-natal; the other four Absolutes are Post-natal Great Perfection; the current Zhou Botong and Qiu Qianren are Post-natal Great Accomplishment.

But beneath them, so-called masters exist in a tier-break fashion.

First, they are basically all the Five Absolutes' disciple generation; the Black Wind Twin Demons, who did not die in Jiangnan but fled to Mobei to bitterly cultivate for several years, should be the strongest; Qiu Chuji among the Seven Quanquan Masters and the strongest Peach Blossom Island disciple Qu Lingfeng are probably also at this level.

Ma Yu's martial arts are clearly slightly weaker than Qiu Chuji's, so later in Mobei when encountering the lone, blind Mei Chaofeng he also had no confidence to subdue her, instead having to rope in the Seven Freaks of Jiangnan minus one to together impersonate the Seven Quanquan Masters and scare off Mei Chaofeng.

Those with martial force roughly comparable to Ma Yu include Wang Chuyi; Ouyang Ke exchanged blows with Wang Chuyi and did not fall behind; Tan Chuduan and Liu Chuxuan's martial arts should be slightly inferior to theirs; Wu Chengyu feels Lu Chengfeng's martial arts are probably at about the same level as Tan Chuduan and the others.

The weakest are of course Haodatong and Sun Bu'er; even so, in the martial world they still count as masters.

After them come those experts Wanyan Honglie recruited; they are all powers in their own right in the martial world, but these few people's martial arts are clearly weaker than the Five Absolutes' disciples; Peng Lianhu, without using dirty tricks, fundamentally cannot beat Wang Chuyi.

But even the strongest few among these people, famous throughout the jianghu, have a distance from the Five Absolutes far greater than imagined.

The Seven Quanquan Masters joining forces, plus one of the most famous formations in the Jin Daxia World, the Big Dipper Formation, could only fight Huang Yaoshi to a draw.

Thinking of this, Wu Chengyu's slightly floating state of mind immediately sank; his current martial arts would absolutely not last ten moves against Huang Yaoshi, so to achieve his wish he would have to lie low for at least another ten years.

But this time the deaths of the Black Wind Twin Demons have a huge impact on the later plot of The Legend of the Condor Heroes.

Chen Xuanfeng is fine — he is actually just a bit-player with extremely high martial arts who died very aggrieved; the key still lies with Mei Chaofeng.

With the two of them dead, the Seven Freaks of Jiangnan will not lose a member; Yang Kang will not learn the Nine Yin White Bone Claw; Guo Jing, trapped in Zhao Wangfu, will have no chance to serve as Mei Chaofeng's mount.

Most critically, the Nine Yin Manual Lower Volume will not be stolen by Miaoshou Shusheng Zhu Cong, so that later when Guo Jing meets Lao Wantong on Peach Blossom Island, at the very least he will not learn the Lower Volume of the True Manual.

Also, when competing with Ouyang Ke, with his memory he also cannot memorize the Nine Yin Manual; he might even end up losing Huang Rong.

Also, when the Seven Quanquan Masters surrounded and attacked Huang Yaoshi, Ouyang Feng hid to the side and launched a sneak attack; without Mei Chaofeng to block that fatal palm for Huang Yaoshi.

Thinking of these things, Wu Chengyu knows that with this butterfly of his present, the future plot will become unrecognizable, but Wu Chengyu does not worry about these; a protagonist like Guo Jing often has heaven-blessed fortune — lacking one opportunity, he will have another encounter.

As for Huang Yaoshi's matter, Wu Chengyu certainly will not let Huang Yaoshi just die at Ouyang Feng's hands.

And Wu Chengyu becomes the greatest beneficiary; the Nine Yin Manual Lower Volume is already his bag-item.

After the plot changes, the Bamboo Slips' rewards follow accordingly.

Host killed the Black Wind Twin Demons, avenging the Jiangnan commoners who died tragically, and also preventing more innocent people from being harmed.

The Seven Freaks of Jiangnan, Zhang Asheng survives; Han Xiaoying will not remain unmarried for life.

The grudge of the predecessor and Host's broken leg; Feng Heng forced to memorize the True Manual leading to dystocia and death — some of the chief culprits executed.

Lu Chengfeng and Qu Lingfeng will achieve their wish and return to the Peach Blossom Island sect.

Qu Lingfeng avoids the death calamity; Qu silly-girl grows up healthy, no longer destined for idiocy.

Given the Black Wind Twin Demons' status and the sins they committed, those regrets are a whole string of them, so the rewards this time are not few.

Removing the Xiong Chu Mo advanced for A Ku, Wu Chengyu turned his attention to the other few rewards.

Five regrets in total, four rewards.

"Laozi Xiang'er Commentary", "Zhuangzi: Nourishing Life", "Zhuangzi: Human World" — the first three rewards are completely different from the previous style.

Wu Chengyu thought it was playing tricks on names again, but looking closely they are indeed all Taoist scriptures.

"Bamboo Slips, this time you're a bit perfunctory; user experience is completely unacceptable — these are all Taoist scriptures, what use do I have for them? Besides, I can collect these myself; using these as rewards is a bit cheating.

Laozi again, Zhuangzi again — you want me to do Lao-Zhuang."

The handwriting on the Bamboo Slips reappears: "Host's cultivated Nameless Technique is already a completely Taoist mental method; if you do not study Taoist true scriptures, do not understand the true meaning of Taoism, the Nameless Mental Method will never have a day of Great Accomplishment.

Although Quansheng has been repeatedly suppressed, its core thought has also been absorbed and summarized by other Taoist schools.

Moreover, the Taoist scriptures provided to Host are all original-edition true scriptures, not having undergone later generations' deletions and alterations; on them there are also annotations by generations of Taoist masters — they are truly the Taoist untransmitted secrets.

Relying solely on Host's own collection, it is as difficult as climbing to heaven."

Wu Chengyu was very helpless; he had actually also discovered this point — the Quansheng Xinfa, under Bamboo Slips guidance, fused with the Bilang Xinfa, but when fusing those five hidden meridians it was extremely difficult, progress slow; every time he felt something was missing, but could never figure it out.

Looked at this way, studying the essence of Taoist thought must be put on the agenda.

Next, seeing the final reward, Wu Chengyu immediately found a familiar flavor.

"Bamboo Slips, explain to me again why this reward's name is: Hundred Families Rice; I've only been a rich young master for how long, do you want me to go beg for food again?"

(Chapter End)