Chapter 109 - 79: Peak of Huajin! Recruitment and Expansion
"Items from the Zulong Dynasty?"
After hearing Lu Yun speak, the bandit chief kneeling on the ground was like a man who had just grabbed a lifeline. He nodded repeatedly, his forehead thudding loudly against the floor.
"Yes! Yes! If you want them, sir, take them all! Just take them all!"
An hour and a half later.
On the slope of another nameless peak deep within the Jade Mushroom Mountain range.
A few impossibly crude mud-brick houses were crammed together crookedly. Their yellow mud walls were cracked, their thatched roofs had collapsed, and there wasn’t even a proper fence around them—only a few leaning wooden stakes.
The largest house stood in the center. Calling it "large" was a stretch; it was merely a bit more spacious than the dilapidated shacks beside it.
"It’s right inside!" The bandit chief bowed and scraped as he pushed open the rickety wooden door.
"Gentlemen, please, come in, come in."
"That won’t be necessary. Just you and I will go in."
Hearing this, the bandit chief’s smile grew even wider. "Yes, sir. Please, follow me."
Lu Yun followed the bandit chief over the threshold.
The light inside the house was dim, and the air was a foul mixture of sweat, must, and the sour stench of something rotten.
The bandit chief, however, seemed oblivious. He scrambled nimbly to a three-legged wooden chest in the corner and began rummaging through it frantically.
A few stained old silk shirts, a stack of yellowed erotic picture books... all sorts of junk were tossed out one by one. Finally, he carefully brought out a few of his "most prized" treasures.
Two or three rust-spotted bronze *jue* vessels with faded patterns, four or five scrolls of damp and moldy calligraphy and paintings, and so on.
The bandit chief pointed at the pile of junk and said earnestly, "Master, this is the entire stock of our stronghold."
Lu Yun glanced over the items. What he was looking for wasn’t here.
Sun Niangu had said the Immortality Crystal from the Zulong Dynasty was a Crystal Stone the size of a goose egg, amber in color, warm and translucent, with what seemed to be a halo of light swirling within.
The items before him were nothing but dregs left over by these mountain bandits.
"Is there anything else?"
The smile on the bandit chief’s face froze. His eyes darted about as if he were rapidly calculating something.
A moment later, as if having made some sort of decision, the bandit chief scrambled over to the wooden bed covered with a ragged straw mat. He reached underneath and fumbled around for a while.
"Yes! There is!"
He pulled out an oil-paper package from under the bed. After unwrapping it layer by layer, he carefully presented a goose-egg-sized, warm, amber-colored Crystal Stone.
Lu Yun reached out and took it. The surface of the Crystal Stone was as smooth as a mirror, and he could faintly see a subtle, indescribable halo of light swirling slowly within.
More importantly, naturally carved onto one of the Crystal Stone’s flat surfaces were two ancient words: Overlord Chu.
Lu Yun lowered his gaze to the small Crystal Stone in his palm. Just then, his brow twitched slightly.
The bandit chief was extending his right hand with extreme care, slowly reaching for the worn-out pistol at his waist.
At the same time, an almost imperceptible, savage grin tugged at the corner of his mouth.
’You old bastard, I finally have my chance! You dare order me around? You dare give me that look?’
’I, Ma Zhenshan, have been a bandit on Jade Mushroom Mountain for ten years, and I’ve never bowed to anyone! No fewer than a hundred people have died at the hands of my brothers.’
’Once I take you hostage, I’m not just going to demand a ransom. I’m going to put a few holes in you and make you kneel and call me grandpa!’
The next moment, the bandit chief suddenly drew his gun. But just as his finger slipped inside the trigger guard...
...Lu Yun’s right hand, though moving later, arrived first. His five fingers clamped around the body of the pistol like iron tongs.
Then, he tightened his grip. The barrel, forged from refined iron, began to twist and deform inch by inch in his palm.
Finally, a broken spring and a twisted firing pin squeezed out from the gaps.
The bandit chief’s eyes widened, nearly popping out of their sockets.
Because he also heard the sound of bones cracking in his own right hand.
"AHHH!!!"
The bandit chief let out a blood-curdling scream before a swing of Lu Yun’s fist sent him flying, crashing hard onto the muddy ground outside the door!
Outside, the thirty-odd bandits squatting on the ground had yet to react.
Then came the scar-faced man’s voice: "Clear them out."
With the order given, the roar of submachine guns erupted in the mountains.
When the gunfire ceased, the scar-faced man holstered his weapon, turned, and walked into the mud house. He stood with his hands at his sides respectfully. "Lord Lu, it’s all taken care of."
Lu Yun was in the middle of putting the amber Crystal Stone into his coat. He merely grunted an "Mm" in response.
"Let’s head down the mountain."
"Yes, sir."
As for the rusty bronze vessels and moldy scrolls, they were also packed up and taken away by the men who followed.
About the time it takes for an incense stick to burn after Lu Yun’s group had vanished into the forest, a dozen heavily armed figures hurried up from another mountain path.
The one in the lead was Fang Jingtang. Beside him was a thin, cowering man whose hands were tied behind his back.
It was the bandit, Xiao Sanzi, who had gone into the city alone to sell stolen goods last week and been caught red-handed by the cultural relics department.
"Th-this is the place..."
Xiao Sanzi shrank back, timidly pointing at the corpses scattered haphazardly on the ground.
Fang Jingtang’s expression darkened instantly. "Why is everyone dead?"
The team members behind him fanned out and rushed into the mud houses.
Gu Sican kicked open the broken door that was barely hanging from its frame. Her gaze fell on the overturned wooden chest inside and the messy footprints on the floor.
Another team member poked his head out of the adjacent house and said in a low voice, "Captain Fang, no survivors."
"Looks like someone beat us to it."
Fang Jingtang didn’t respond. He stood on the muddy ground, gazing silently at the vast, dense mountain forest for a long time.
Gu Sican walked out of the house, pulling off her dusty gloves. Her face was ashen. "All that work for nothing."
"Who the hell did this?"
「At the Lu Family’s Old Mansion.」
After returning, Lu Yun dismissed everyone. He took the artifacts he brought back from Jade Mushroom Mountain to the basement one by one, then finally settled into the Taishi Chair.
Lu Yun took the Immortality Crystal from his coat. He held it in his right hand, then released a slight pulse of Qi from his palm.
In an instant, the Crystal Stone seemed to awaken.
The slowly swirling glimmer of light suddenly quickened. Within the halo, countless intricate and complex patterns began to flash and flow rapidly.
Mountains, rivers, valleys, passes—these weren’t just patterns, they were a map.
For any martial artist, a photographic memory was a fundamental skill.
The tip of the brush in Lu Yun’s left hand flew across the Xuan paper, weaving lines of uniform size into the contours of mountain peaks.
In no more than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, as he made his final stroke and withdrew his Qi, the Crystal Stone in his palm emitted a faint, soft cracking sound.
The Crystal Stone turned into a handful of warm powder and slipped through Lu Yun’s fingers with a soft rustle.
He didn’t look down, but instead focused all his attention on the map before him, its ink still wet.
"The provincial capital of Nanling Province, Nanfu City!"
The southernmost tip of the Daxia New Country—it was the most complex puzzle piece in this land.
Foreign concessions there were several times more numerous than in Yun Port City. Warlords of all sizes commanded their own armies and acted with impunity, and Yanjing’s orders were utterly useless there.
It was said that mysterious organizations also operated there: the Yellow Heaven Corps, the Lifeless Lotus Sect, and many other strange factions.
The Lu Family Trading Company’s trade routes spanned the entire country, but they had never established a foothold in Nanling Province.
It was simply too chaotic, too distant, and too uncontrollable.
Lu Yun looked at the location he had personally marked on the map: Shuangfeng Gorge, Nanling Province.
It was an unfamiliar name. Seeing it, Lu Yun carefully folded the map and put it in a pocket close to his body.
Then, he closed his eyes and sent a part of his consciousness deep into his mind.
[Extreme Blue Martial Arts Modifier]
Name: Lu Yun
Gender: Male
Realm: Grandmaster of Huajin (Late-stage)
Cultivation Techniques: Mountain-Breaking Inch Force Fist 3rd Floor (Initiate) [Modifiable], Hard Qi Gong 2nd Floor (Initiate) [Modifiable]
Modified Value: 117
He looked at the Mountain-Breaking Inch Force Fist and confirmed the modification. In an instant, 110 modified value points vanished.
In that moment, a torrent of insight—accumulated through countless days and nights, countless life-and-death battles, countless instances of seeking truth through his fists—merged completely with Lu Yun’s soul and body.
The Mountain-Breaking Inch Force Fist reached the 3rd Floor of Great Accomplishment. The principles of the fist no longer required thought; the moves no longer required memory.
The instinct that had seeped into his muscles, his bones, his nerves, and even every breath he took, now fused into one.
At the same time, the gate that stood between Late-stage Huajin and the Peak of Huajin also opened, fusing with Lu Yun’s breakthrough.
He had successfully broken through to the Peak of Huajin!
Lu Yun felt the powerful Qi coiled deep within his Dantian and couldn’t help but marvel at it.
[Extreme Blue Martial Arts Modifier]
Name: Lu Yun
Gender: Male
Realm: Grandmaster of Huajin (Peak)
Cultivation Techniques: Mountain-Breaking Inch Force Fist 3rd Floor (Great Accomplishment), Hard Qi Gong 2nd Floor (Initiate)
Modified Value: 7
Then, he stood up, pushed open the door, and walked into the villa’s living room, where the old butler, Lu Fu, stood waiting with his hands at his sides.
"Ah Fu, go to the docks at once and book me a ship ticket to Nanling Province."
Lu Fu was taken aback. He looked up and asked in surprise, "Master, Nanling Province is a long journey. If you’re going on a trip like this, you should at least take some men and supplies..."
Lu Yun waved his hand. "That won’t be necessary. You stay in Yun Port City and keep an eye on Jingteng. Tell him to start recruiting men and building up our forces."
"From now on, the Lu Family no longer needs to be so cautious."