Cultivation System: Stronger with Age

Qingshui Street Entrance, ruins—the former Zhang Residence!

Thousands of Black Tiger Gang members, each holding a torch, stood around the ruins. The torches illuminated the nearby streets and alleys, making them as bright as day. The citizens in the surrounding residential streets had long been awakened by the commotion. However, not a single person dared to come out and watch. They all peeked through the cracks in their windows before shrinking back into their beds, trembling with their wives and children.

Every Black Tiger Gang member around the ruins had drawn their weapons. These weapons glinted menacingly in the torchlight, thousands of cold points of light flashing around the ruins. However, if any citizen dared to observe closely, they would find that the Black Tiger Gang members, usually so rampant in Great Marsh Prefecture, now had faces filled with apprehension, and their eyes betrayed a hint of fear, even as they gripped their sharp long knives.

It wasn’t just the ordinary gang members who felt a chill in their hearts, fear etched on their faces. The nearly two hundred Leaders of the Black Tiger Gang Great Marsh Hall were also terrified. This fear extended to the dozens of Deputy Stewards and even the more than ten high-ranking Stewards of the Great Marsh Hall; a trace of dread was evident in all their eyes. Through interrogating neighbors near the Zhang Residence, they had learned a crucial fact. A short while ago, the person who fought for a brief period of a little over ten breaths at the Zhang Residence, reducing it to ruins, was dressed in black, wore a conical hat, and a Ghost Face Mask. It was the Conical Hat Guest!

Thus, they now understood. The Conical Hat Guest, whom they had initially believed to possess only Second-Layer Cultivation, actually had terrifying strength. Three Third-Layer Stewards (including Zhao Dalong, the Black Tiger Gang’s reputed genius at the Mid-grade Third Layer), one Deputy Steward, and dozens of elite gang members had all perished within a mere ten breaths.

Thinking back to a few hours before, when they were still planning to search for the Conical Hat Guest in groups, full of vigor...

Search, my foot! Against such a ruthless and fierce Conical Hat Guest, if they fell into his hands, they wouldn’t even have the chance to be captured alive!

Realizing this, how could they not be terrified!

At this moment, every member of the Black Tiger Gang Great Marsh Hall tightly gripped the knife in their hand. They looked formidable, but the hair on their bodies stood on end from sheer terror.

At the center of the ruins, Vice Hall Master Liy Ruofeng stood nine feet tall, his eyes icy. The Jade Gourd in his hand faintly glimmered. He glanced at the charred ground beneath his feet and spoke in a deep voice to the several Stewards and Grand Chief Stewards beside him, "Qian Liu, Ma Sandao, didn’t you confidently assert that the Conical Hat Guest was around Mid-grade Second-Layer Cultivation, at most Late Stage Second-Layer?"

Qian Liu, a Steward of the Black Tiger Gang at Second-Layer Perfection, turned pale. He knelt on the ground with a THUD and said, trembling, "I misjudged, leading to Steward Zhao’s death. I am willing to bear all punishment; I only beg the Vice Hall Master to spare my family, the old and young!"

Steward Ma Sandao’s expression changed dramatically. His Qi Blood roiled as he frantically retreated. However, Ma Sandao had retreated little more than twenty zhang when a pitch-black shadow suddenly appeared on the ground. Like an inseparable shadow, it caught up to Ma Sandao and merged with his own shadow. Then, the eerie shadow wriggled, extending pitch-black hands from beneath the ground to grab Ma Sandao’s legs.

Liy Ruofeng, activating the Jade Gourd in his hand, watched Ma Sandao expressionlessly from afar. The eerie black shadow on the ground ignored Ma Sandao’s attacks as it grasped his legs. Its pitch-black arms slowly stretched and extended, as if intending to tear Ma Sandao in two. After attacking for a moment, Ma Sandao suddenly let out a horrifying scream and frantically circulated his Qi Blood to resist...