Gu Wen, alone deep within his residence, swung a long pole, used by the guardians of the estate, as if it were a spear. Like a dragon coiling around his body, he wielded it with ease, and in just a month, he had mastered the art like a teacher who had practiced for ten years.
The Xuanming Spear is divided into three levels: visible strength, inner strength, and profound strength.
The first two are common in the martial arts of mortals; visible strength is the power emitted from the muscles, bones, and flesh of the entire body, while inner strength is a technique to concentrate power into a single point. Profound strength, however, touches upon the realm of cultivation and requires coordination with True Qi, emitting a kind of 'Qi' through the weapon, also known as Gang Qi.
He was still at the first stage, visible strength.
The Yuqing Daoji was strengthening his body every moment, providing him with visible strength so naturally that he did not need to practice it deliberately. However, inner strength required arduous training and familiarization.
Gu Wen had now reached the threshold of inner strength, able to manifest it once out of every ten spear thrusts. According to what the martial masters of the jianghu said, he was now of noteworthy skill, and his inner strength could be considered at the grandmaster level.
He had intended to practice slowly, saving the Heavenly Marrow for his Daoji, as after all, only the Daoji could offer more substantial improvement and was also the most difficult to cultivate.
But now, plans couldn't keep up with the changing situation, and the chaos of war was drawing closer.
In his previous life, the An Lushan Rebellion took less than a year from the time An Lushan raised his troops to the fall of Changan, and Daqian was not the Great Tang; it was even more fragile than the Tang Dynasty.
The collapse of a dynasty often happened in an instant, with all the accumulated contradictions and ills sweeping in like a flood. From the minor issues like roadside vendors being beaten by government officials to the major devastation of exorbitant taxes leading families to utter ruin, it was as if Daqian was collecting a decade's worth of taxes at once.
The common people would remember the hardships of the previous decade and would fear the sufferings to come even more. Now, all that was lacking was the final straw that would break the camel's back.
At first, Gu Wen believed that transcendent powers might bring change, but recent observations and interaction with Yu Hua, the immortal, showed that transcendent power was severely limited in Daqian. It was not enough to resist the wheels of history; the fall of Daqian was inevitable.
The fall of a dynasty was never decided by the nobles and generals mentioned in the history books, but by the countless common people who would never appear in those records.
Gu Wen did not wish to drown in the torrent of this era when that time came.
The Fate Diagram trembled.
[Heavenly Marrow for Two Years]
This was the accumulation of the past month. Whether the Taifu Temple had discovered issues with reselling, or he had purchased too much, causing the supply of medicinal fruits to dwindle, was unclear.
The Heavenly Marrow burned like fire. Unlike the other two immortal skills, the Xuanming Spear instantly transformed into pure Qi, entering the dantian and, along with the circulating True Qi, traveled throughout the body.
A phantom figure appeared wielding the spear, moving back and forth across the battlefield, charging seven times in and out without a single match.
He was like me, and I was like him. In a trance, it felt as if I myself were moving across the battlefield, carrying a fierce killing aura without experiencing any battle.
Xuanming Spear's inner strength, achieved!
Xuanming Spear's profound strength, achieved!
True Qi gathered and with one spear thrust, the sound explosion was incessant, the curtains and candle flames fluttered relentlessly.
Gu Wen thought it was over and just when he tried to exhale and regulate his breath, an even more intense burst of True Qi exploded from the dantian. The Xuanming Spear Skill, having already been completely refined by the Heavenly Marrow, emitted a glint of golden light.
Understanding the Yuqing Heart Method took Heavenly Marrow for eight years, the Yuqing Sword Skill for two years, but for the Xuanming Spear, it was clearly beyond that.
The shadow of the Xuanming Spear stood before him, and Gu Wen felt a sense of pride as if he was showing off in front of experts. He had transcended the original Xuanming Spear.
With one thrust, the Xuanming Spear broke through. The fierce spear Gang Qi blasted open the door, and Jiang Fugui behind it seemed as if he'd been pushed, stumbling and falling flat on his face.
He didn't see that through the door, a great spear radiated a blood-like color, and the True Qi, like ink, covered the long pole transforming it into a spear tip.
Gu Wen exhaled, and all elements of transcendence converged, with the spear tip disappearing into the stick.
Perhaps he had uncovered another way to utilize the Heavenly Marrow. When understanding reaches its zenith, naturally the blue is extracted from the indigo, and surpasses it, pushing the original Magic Skill to a new level.
Xuanming Spear Fourth Level, profound Gang Qi externally attached!
[Heavenly Marrow exhausted]
Gu Wen had not experienced actual combat, but the insights given by the Fate Diagram should be clearer than what he could have gathered through combat. The function of the externally attached profound Gang Qi was to provide hardness and a "shock force"; the former was easy to understand, while the latter meant that the exterior Gang Qi was always vibrating, affecting everything it touched.
During a clash of cold weapons, such vibration could potentially cause weapons to slip from one's grip, and against armor, it had a certain ability to ignore defenses.
But Gu Wen preferred the hardness, meaning that he could pick up any stick and it would be a weapon in his hand.
He rested his right hand on the chair, True Qi rapidly depleting within him, and the dark red external Gang Qi adhered to the chair. It consumed more than the long pole weapon, and the vibration was gone, the external Gang Qi turned extremely chaotic.
"It loses effectiveness if it's too different from the spear," he mused.
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Jiang Fugui picked himself up from the ground and saw Gu Wen coming out of the house, his eyes showing surprise at the long pole in the other's hand.
"Mr. Wen, are you practicing martial arts? I was wondering why you suddenly came to this unused courtyard, and there aren't any guards around. If something were to happen, what would we do? If you really don't trust those trusted aides of the royal mansion, I can find you some boatmen. Every one of their families depends on you for their livelihood, they are surely reliable."
"Goodness, Mr. Wen, how did you build such sinewy muscles in just a few days?"
The short-statured Jiang Fugui chattered behind Gu Wen. Gu Wen arrived by the courtyard water vat, took off his shirt, and wiped his sweat. The cold water splashing on his skin actually steamed.
Jiang Fugui nagged from the side, "Mr. Wen, be careful of catching a chill. If you want to bathe, I can instruct the servants to heat some water."
"How is the medicine?"
"Mr. Wen, we have the goods, but the price has gone up."
"How much?"
"Forty taels per piece."
Gu Wen paused for a moment, then scoffed, "These market merchants really see themselves as tigers, daring to take a bite out of anyone. If he doesn't want to do business anymore, then let him retire and take a break."
That Old One-Armed was just a middleman; his biggest role was to take the fall, ensuring no trouble traced back to the buyers in the event of an incident. That's how all those black market rats operate—why else would they engage in the hugely profitable but illicit trade of human trafficking?
Because it's dirty, and the iron fist might come crashing down at any time.
Initially, he did not want to cause unnecessary trouble; eighteen taels each, he could afford it. After all, it was a contraband, and some premium was normal. But now this incessant price hiking was too much; he was not made of clay.
There were others in the slave market besides Old One-Armed, but he was the largest slave merchant.
His eyes narrowed slightly, and he pursed his lips, revealing a contemplative expression.
"Mr. Wen, should we fix him up by having a word with the authorities?"
Jiang Fugui knew that Old One-Armed was in for it. His master, Mr. Wen, didn't show his emotions, and he didn't wield a knife when enraged.
Using Mr. Wen's own words: We are merchants, not bandits; everything according to the rules, and anyone who doesn't follow our rules will be taught accordingly.
He had always remembered this, not as any kind of business ethic but because Jiang Fugui had seen more than once how Gu Wen could kill without a knife.
"No need, the government officials won't enter the slave market."
Gu Wen only took a few moments to ponder, then instructed, "Tomorrow, go and notify all the brothels. There's been a surge of people selling themselves; we're not short on good maidens. Let's form a union to press down the market prices, and we can take a small fee for brokering the deal."
He didn't deal in food because that would be unethical.
He dealt with brothels because what truly drives people to sell themselves is never the brothels themselves. They are simply the best places to sell oneself—the lower levels include Bordellos and even the Black Nest.
Those who end up in a brothel are already desperate, and most of them will tend to live better off than the majority afterward.
Such is the way of the world; the good fare worse than prostitutes.
Gu Wen was merely squeezing the highest price out of the human trafficking market, yet that was enough to crush the slave market nearly to death.
Yikes, that's like pulling the logs out from under the pot.
Jiang Fugui gasped. There were more than just Dragon Bridge's brothels in Bianjing, yet only Dragon Bridge could produce an Oiran.
The slave market could sell to Bordellos, but Bordellos couldn't pay a third of what a Dragon Bridge brothel could offer. If all the brothels suppressed their prices, the slave market would lose more than just a thousand taels, and they might even make a little profit.
Moreover, it was perfectly reasonable to suppress prices given the recent increase in people selling themselves, and it didn't matter whether there were many good maidens or not.
It was not purely against the slave market, as all merchants, including the gentry and large clans, liked to play the game of joint price suppression. But Gu Wen never touched grain or anything affecting the common people; everything else was fair game.
A conscience was there, just a tiny bit.
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The next day, at the Jiangyue Building, Heavenly Suite.
Merchants gathered thick as clouds, and countless beautiful maidens served. Gu Wen, dressed plainly among the glittering merchants, stood out, but no one dared to criticize him in the slightest.
Today, he hosted a feast for the heads of the major brothels. During disasters and famines, the biggest profits went to the grain traders, followed by the slave market, including the brothels. A normal imperial court would regulate grain prices, which wouldn't spike too high.
But now it was the Saint Emperor's reign, and even the eunuchs under the Emperor's command were making a killing.
Gu Wen raised his cup, and so did the assembled merchants. Under the glow of red candles and the influence of wine, it seemed a gluttonous feast for financial sharks.
The ones laid out on the table were the villainous slave traders in the eyes of the people, the dark and evil forces lurking at every corner with blades and guns.
Their ferocity was so pathetic and endearing in front of the Dragon Bridge merchants.
Fengyue Building had a dish of osmanthus and shark fin, exquisitely delicious, topping the list.
Gu Wen picked up the first bite, and the surrounding merchants flocked to join in. Amidst the clinking of chopsticks on jade plates, the profits of the slave market were devoured clean.