In the quiet chamber behind the main hall of the Hou Clan, Hou Yuxiao sat cross-legged with his upper body naked, his well-proportioned muscles paired with his bronze skin as if it was a perfect body sculpted by the heavens, offering a visually impressive effect.
In the serene room, a rhythmic breathing sound suddenly erupted. If one's eyesight was sharp enough, they could see the thousands of pores around his body opening and closing with the breaths, and a mysterious black energy abruptly gathered around his body.
But it lasted less than a moment before the black energy dissipated.
After the black energy scattered, Hou Yuxiao, with a Yuan Gang Bead in his mouth, opened his eyes and exhaled gently. The bead shot out like a bullet, hitting the wall of the quiet chamber.
Seeing the completely lusterless four Yuan Gang Beads on the wall, a shadow crossed Hou Yuxiao's face.
"Six thousand taels of silver, four Yuan Gang Beads, and still I can't break through to the Gang Qi Realm... No wonder, no wonder there are so few masters of the Gang Qi Realm in the martial world; breaking through is indeed so difficult!"
Thinking of those six thousand taels of silver made Hou Yuxiao feel pained. That was, after all, the entire family's savings accumulated over the past two years.
Originally, after Hou Tong's death, the power of the Hou Clan had greatly diminished, and the money they had put aside was spent by yuxiao on bribes for the County Lord Ren Feng.
In these past two years, although their Yuan Qi had somewhat recovered, the number of people needing support had also increased, and the surplus silver each year amounted to just under five thousand taels. Spending six thousand taels all at once was not enough to break bones, yet it would mean a long time without any spare cash.
The crucial problem was that his failure to break through had placed the Hou Clan in great danger from the joint targeting by the Green Wolf Gang, Flying Eagle Sect, and Happy Forest in collusion with the county government!
Becoming a Warrior of the Gang Qi Realm would solve this problem, and this was precisely Hou Yuxiao's idea when he went to Tianling County over a month ago to buy Yuan Gang Beads.
But now he had failed...
Hou Yuxiao pondered while circulating the Hou Clan's ancestral Xuanmo True Technique, trying to absorb the unformed black Gang Qi back into his body.
There are as many cultivation techniques in the martial world as there are stars in the sky, yet they all follow the same principles. Broadly speaking, they are divided into mental methods and martial arts. If martial arts are the techniques of killing, then mental methods are the foundation of one's cultivation.
The Ten Layers of Body Openings is the phase where martial artists polish their physical bodies. The methods are much the same, relying on either medicines or willpower. However, once one reaches the Gang Qi Realm, it becomes different, and one must be supported by a mental method to refine one's unique Martial Path Gangsha.
Just like martial arts, mental methods come in six ranks: saint, heaven, earth, and first-class to third-class. However, mental methods are even more precious than martial arts because they determine how high a martial artist can go. After all, in this realm, the Gang Qi Realm is not the ultimate end.
Even the weakest of the third-class forces must have at least one third-class mental method and three third-class martial arts as their pinnacle techniques. That the Hou Clan has the Xuanmo True Technique and the Black Dragon Thirteen Moves is already quite good. Other lesser forces in Zhaoyang County might have at most one third-class martial arts technique.
Unfortunately, neither the Xuanmo True Technique nor the Black Dragon Thirteen Moves could help Hou Yuxiao with the predicament he was facing now.
"I can only find a solution through the Innate Good and Evil Divine Lotus. From my previous experiments, although I can only perform one good deed per day myself, as long as it's a good deed, even if someone else does it and it's achieved through my efforts, it can count as my contribution to good deeds, which can be used to light up the Divine Lotus. Now, it's time to see what assistance this first white petal can provide me."
To find someone to do good deeds, there's not a more suitable person in the whole Zhaoyang County than Hou Yuduan, not to mention within the Hou Clan.
With this decision made, Hou Yuxiao left the quiet chamber without a second thought and headed toward the Ya Xiang Courtyard where Hou Yuduan resided, in the west.
However, as soon as he stepped out of the quiet chamber, a skinny figure approached him—a man under five feet tall with a gaunt face, looking exactly the same as Hou Yuxiao when he had previously gone to Tianling County!
"Hou Fei, what's wrong?"
A hint of a smile appeared on Hou Yuxiao's face. Speaking of Hou Fei, one had to mention the cleverness of their deceased father Hou Tong.
Although the Hou Clan was a family, it came down to just Hou Tong and their six siblings. With few direct members, it was tough to enhance their strength without developing peripheral forces.
Thus, when his five siblings and he were just five or six years old, Hou Tong had scoured the area near Zhaoyang County and even in Tongling County for orphans of the same age, adopting some as apprentices and outright taking others as adopted sons, amounting to over a dozen. Hou Fei was one of them.
Further, Hou Fei was among those with the best martial arts aptitude. At barely twenty-five, he had reached the Open Body Eightfold strength. Nowadays, he holds the position of Dragon Head for the Upper Hou Gate division, and is considered one of the Hou Clan's key pillars of strength.
Hou Fei had one notable trait: he was unremarkable!
It couldn't be helped; he was short, unexceptional in appearance, and even typically unkempt, so much so that he could easily be overlooked in a crowd if one did not pay close attention. No one would believe that this seemingly weak frame housed the strength of the Open Body Eightfold.
"Family Head, Ren Feng has invited you to a banquet at noon in Shengxin Tower. Tie Budong from Flying Eagle Sect, Wang Hu from Green Wolf Gang, and Elder Sister Gao from Happy Forest will be there. It seems to be regarding the murder by Second Master a while back!"
Hou Fei must have suffered some hardship in his early years, always wearing a deeply troubled expression, even when speaking with Hou Yuxiao, whom he deeply respected.
Hou Yuxiao was accustomed to his demeanor and did not take it to heart. On his way back, Hou Yucheng had already informed him about the events in Nanling. He nodded in acknowledgment.