Chapter 72 : Chapter 72
Chapter 72. Progress
“Street… Street Guard Xu, this is our squad leader, Xiong Ying,” Li Shan stepped forward to introduce her, his tone somewhat dry.
Xiong Ying sized Xu Yuan up, surprise flashing through her eyes. This man had actually become a Fourth Meridian martial artist at such a young age?
His talent was immeasurable!
At that thought, she respectfully gave him a salute. “Street Guard Xu.”
Xu Yuan nodded, his gaze sweeping over Li Shan before settling on Lin Yue’e. “And Street Guard Lin, this is…?”
Lin Yue’e smiled. “I heard Street Guard Xu was building up his own team, so I thought that since Li Shan is an old acquaintance of yours, I’d transfer him over. After all, we all know that the people whose background you understand are the ones you can use with peace of mind.”
The moment those words fell, Li Shan lifted his head slightly, a faint trace of expectation in his eyes.
Beside him, although Xiong Ying’s expression did not change, she kept glancing at him from time to time, clearly a little reluctant to part with him.
Xu Yuan took it all in and politely declined with a smile.
“Many thanks for Street Guard Lin’s kindness, but Changning Street is already fully staffed… and besides, I think Li Shan has been under your command for so long that he’s already used to it.”
At those words, Li Shan immediately lowered his head, unable to hide the disappointment on his face.
In contrast, the light returned to Xiong Ying’s eyes.
Realization dawned on Lin Yue’e’s face, and she nodded. “In that case, we won’t disturb Street Guard Xu in handling official business.”
After exchanging a few more pleasantries, the group took their leave one after another.
Watching Li Shan’s slightly unsteady steps as he left, Xu Yuan shook his head.
What a pitiful pair of lovebirds.
His feelings toward Li Shan were complicated. It was not hatred, but neither could he truly grow close to him again.
Once some relationships developed cracks, they could never return to how they had once been.
…
After seeing off the visitors, Xu Yuan began dealing with serious business.
He gathered the squads under his command, gave them a brief talk, and then started assigning specific duties.
The three squad leaders who had been assigned to him were all veterans, so Xu Yuan did not make sweeping changes. He merely made slight adjustments to the patrol routes and schedules.
“Street Guard Xu, this is the full roster of all the shops on Changning Street, along with background dossiers on them.” His deputy was a lean middle-aged martial artist named Sun Tai. He was seasoned and meticulous in his work, and quite familiar with this area.
Xu Yuan took the thick stack of materials and began carefully flipping through them. To establish a firm foothold in a place like this, the first thing he needed to understand was how the various forces were intertwined beneath the surface.
Over the next few days, Xu Yuan familiarized himself with street affairs while also beginning to make personnel arrangements.
…
May 26, afternoon.
Not long after Xu Yuan returned from a meeting at Changlin Ward, Chen Sanli hurried over and said in a low voice,
“Brother Xu, I’ve checked into the backgrounds of those three men. For now, it looks like… there’s no problem.”
“Understood.” The three people Xu Yuan had secretly asked him to investigate were precisely the three Third Meridian squad leaders who had been assigned over.
Now that he had become a Street Guard, though the position looked glorious on the surface, the risks he bore had also increased considerably. And since squad leaders were key positions, he naturally had to investigate them thoroughly before daring to use them with confidence.
“And you and Gao Yuan should try to break through to the Third Meridian as soon as possible. If I have my own people following me, I’ll feel more at ease.” Xu Yuan continued with that instruction.
“I’ll probably need another four or five months. As for Gao Yuan… his talent is better than mine, so he might be faster,” Chen Sanli said, shaking his head.
Back when he had first received Yang Yan’s transfer order, he had been so excited he had nearly jumped up.
Working under Xu Yuan, so long as one did not go too far, there was enough profit to be had to leave him stuffed full of oil and water. Compared with the conservative Yang Yan, it was far better.
Back when he had bet on Xu Yuan, he had taken a beating from Wang Huan for it, but now it looked like that investment had been more than worth it!
Gao Yuan, on the other hand, had been very calm. He had only solemnly thanked Xu Yuan. He was a practical man, and he knew exactly how much this favor was worth, so he firmly remembered it in his heart.
“Oh right, have the cultivation resources I bought earlier all been delivered?” Xu Yuan asked instead.
“They arrived on our street this morning and have already been sent to your main room,” Chen Sanli replied with a nod.
Xu Yuan nodded and said nothing more.
Chen Sanli immediately understood. As he withdrew, he gently closed the door behind him.
Xu Yuan walked into the main room and looked at the chest of resources before him. Inside were dozens of portions of Qi-Harmonizing Powder and more than a hundred jin of precious meat.
Altogether, it had cost him sixty taels of silver and more than a hundred merit points.
By now, the various matters on Changning Street had basically entered a stable rhythm. Although infiltration attempts from the White Family occasionally occurred, they were all small-scale disturbances and amounted to little.
Xu Yuan could finally spare some real free time and continue devoting himself wholeheartedly to cultivation.
With a thought, the panel in his mind unfolded.
【Skills: Taiji Exercise (Perfection 100%), Jade Platform Stance Art (Beginner 11%), Thunderclap Fist (Major Mastery 17%), Wandering Dragon Step (Beginner 7%), Iron Garment Art (Beginner 13%)】
【Aptitude: 20 (Promising Uncut Jade)】
“This… is enough to train with for quite a long while.” Xu Yuan looked over the progress of each skill and inwardly sighed.
It had already been close to ten days since he obtained the Jade Platform Stance Art, and by now most of his skills had been recorded onto the panel.
Among them, Taiji Exercise had already been trained to Perfection, giving him a 1-point increase in aptitude.
As for the two new martial techniques, Wandering Dragon Step was the harder one to train, but at this pace, he reckoned it would still reach Beginner level in just a little over a month.
On the contrary, when it came to stance art, under the combined boost of aptitude and resources, he estimated that he would break through to the Fifth Meridian by early July!
That was even faster than when he had advanced to the Fourth Meridian.
Of course, behind that speed was the pouring out of resources like flowing water. In these ten days alone, he had already spent twenty taels of silver and quite a few merit points.
Many people might feel pained by that, but they would never hesitate.
After all, a martial artist’s peak period of qi and blood only lasted a few short decades, and within that time there were all kinds of bottlenecks and obstacles. The faster one cultivated, the farther one could walk in the future.
And for Xu Yuan, there was another consideration as well.
Right now, I’m still on the front line of the struggle between the two great families. Sometimes, one extra bit of strength is the difference between life and death!
As for whether breaking through too quickly would attract the notice of the White Family’s higher-ups, or even cause them to send assassins after him—
That question was personally answered by Hong Qianshan not long afterward during one of their small gatherings. Smiling, he said,
“Brother Xu, don’t worry. For martial artists like us, who cultivate Jade Platform Stance Art, no matter how fast our progress is in the early stages, at most we’ll stop at the Meridian Opening Realm. The White Family isn’t so narrow-minded as to care about that.”
The words sounded bold and open, yet they faintly carried a trace of bitterness.
Xu Yuan immediately understood. The stance arts distributed by the Shangyang Family allowed them to spread martial training on a large scale, but they also essentially fixed their future path in place, ensuring they would forever remain under the control of the upper ranks.
Naturally, the White Family would feel no fear at all because of them.
Then Hong Qianshan sighed again.
“Only the truly talented descendants of the inner court, from the moment they’re born, are nourished by countless precious medicines that strengthen their bodies and slowly forge a solid, thick foundation step by step.”
“And once they officially begin martial training, even that is done with care. What they cultivate are inherited family techniques. Their speed is a little slower than stance arts, but there are basically no hidden dangers. On top of that, they have abundant resources, so their future road is much broader!”
“Even if the White Family wants to assassinate someone, their targets are that group. As for us, it’s enough if we steadily cultivate our way to the Extraordinary Meridians Realm.”
Only then did Xu Yuan fully understand. No matter how quickly they advanced, in the eyes of the upper ranks, they were ultimately nothing more than expendable materials.
And in order to build ties and maintain control, the upper ranks were naturally also willing to marry off maidservants or even members of the Shangyang Family itself to these martial artists, turning them into tools that could be sustainably exploited.
As for anything above the Meridian Opening Realm?
Forget it.
The Shangyang Family would never allow cultivation methods that affected the family’s foundation to leak out.
After hearing that, even Xu Yuan could not help but fall silent for a moment.
For martial artists who had glimpsed transcendent power, this was undoubtedly a bleak revelation.
But for the vast majority of people, it actually did not amount to much.
Because they had never possessed the aptitude to break past the Meridian Opening Realm in the first place. For the Shangyang Family to give them a chance to practice martial arts at all was already a blessing granted by heaven.
…