Lu Yan’s expression was indifferent, his gaze first fell on two second limit-breaking core members of the Green Bamboo Gang, rushing up with a punch for each of them, killing them all, and casually killed a once limit-breaking one with a kick.

"Sir, spare my life."

A limit-breaking core member of the Green Bamboo Gang, sensing the impending danger, knelt down.

At this moment, the members of the Green Bamboo Gang had discovered the horrifying scene inside the room.

All the high-level members of the Green Bamboo Gang were dead. Where could they muster up the strength to resist? They all knelt down in a group, looking at Lu Yan in terror.

Their motivation for joining the gang was enjoyment. There was not much loyalty involved. Now that the high-level members were dead, they had no thoughts of seeking revenge.

Lu Yan did not continue to make a move, but was considering how to deal with these people.

He was not a murderous maniac, the ringleaders were already dealt with, there was no need to kill all these minions.

Moreover, he disguised himself, he was not worried about being recognised.

"Sir, please spare our lives. From now on, you will be our gang leader, yes, gang leader, subordinates pay respects to the gang leader."

The limit-breaking warrior who knelt down first was the quickest to react, repeatedly kowtowing.

After a brief thought, Lu Yan had an idea.

He really had use for these people.

"Stay kneeling."

Lu Yan said coldly, and then walked over to the body of Fang Xiong and began to search.

A few silver tickets, and a white stone piece, approximately the size of a baby’s palm. Thin, not as thick as a baby’s palm.

The origin of the unusual Dao Book was this stone piece.

Holding it in his hand, Lu Yan carefully pondered over it, finding it difficult to determine what this stone piece was used for.

"Do any of you know what this is used for?"

Lu Yan walked up to the members of the Green Bamboo Gang and asked, pointing to the stone piece.

The members of the Green Bamboo Gang carefully examined it, then looked at each other, shaking their heads in unison.

"Have any of you seen a similar object before?"

Lu Yan asked again. The answer was still a shake of the heads, and Lu Yan was somewhat disappointed.

"Sir, if you like this kind of thing, we can do our best to help you find it."

The man who was the first to kneel down spoke.

"What’s your name?"

"I’m Li Quan."

"You are quite clever," Lu Yan nodded and put the stone piece into his bag, then asked, "Do you know about those children in the backyard?"

Li Quan’s face changed drastically and he quickly kowtowed, saying, "Sir, spare my life, it was Fang Xiong who ordered us to do it, we were just following orders, I will release the children immediately."

Li Quan thought that Lu Yan was here because of those children, and he was almost scared to pee himself.

"No rush." 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Lu Yan waved his hand, saying, "First, take good care of those children, send them back tomorrow, and remember, don’t leak out what happened here, pretend as if nothing happened and the Green Bamboo Gang is running as usual. If I find out who leaked it, I’ll send him to see Fang Xiong."

His tone turned murderous towards the end.

The Green Bamboo Gang members kept silent, not daring to disobey, all promising to comply.

"Drag them into the yard and bury them, the others should continue what they were doing."

Lu Yan ordered, and the people present breathed sighs of relief.

While the members of the Green Bamboo Gang were busy, Lu Yan checked out Fang Xiong and several other high-ranking members’ bedrooms and found a total of over two thousand silver tickets.

Fang Xiong had the most, with fifteen hundred, and the other few only had about five hundred.

Logically, a gang leader with many businesses and who took ’protection fees’ for the Liu family, skimming off the top would yield more than just two thousand.

But cultivation of martial artists required a lot of silver.

Especially for warriors above the fourth breakthrough who wanted to accumulate Qi-blood to continue advancing, it was necessary to consume martial food.

Eating common meat could only maintain the Qi-blood level, thinking of accumulating Qi-blood for advancement was wishful thinking.

Lu Yan was content, two thousand silver, which was equivalent to two million in his previous life.

When had he, a struggling novelist, ever had such a fortune?

Unfortunately, besides the silver tickets, he did not find the secret manuscript for the second-rate martial arts that Fang Xiong practiced.

It was normal; in this world, the imparting of martial arts wasn’t necessarily done through secret manuscripts, many times it was done orally.

For instance, when Lu Qingshan taught Lu Yan the Iron Thread Fist.

After gathering his loot, Lu Yan immediately returned home, entered the practice room and took out the stone piece.

Focusing his mind to communicate with the Dao Book, instantly, a glow emanated from his forehead and the illusion of the Dao Book emerged.

The stone tablet, with a swish, was devoured by the illusion of the Dao Book.

In his mind, the avatar of Liuhe Kick started cultivating.

Just like the time he ingested the orb, the Liuhe Kick avatar was also shrouded under a divine glow as if it had an epiphany. The progress of Liuhe Kick was rapidly increasing.

In no time, the progress of the Liuhe Kick advanced from 20% of the transcendence stage to 30%, and it continued to increase...

40%, 50%, 60%...

The bone fragment contained more energy than the orb he consumed previously.

The previous orb helped with the Iron Thread Fist, increasing it by fifty percent in the stage of transcendence.

This time, the avatar of Liuhe Kick was improved by fifty percent, yet it didn’t stop, it continued to increase...

80%, 90%, 99%...

A few hours later, the progress of the Liuhe Kick directly reached 100% of the transcendence state, then underwent a change.

Avatar, Liuhe Kick, unity of man and martial arts.

Filled with joy, Lu Yan immediately started cultivating. It felt just like when his Iron Thread Fist reached the unity of man and martial arts. Every kick he made felt like pushing a weight of thousands of pounds, yet unfathomable energy from the universe imperceptibly converged and infused into his body.

His body once again went through a transformation, as if it were rebuilding itself.

Three hours later, his transformation ceased.

Lu Yan’s body became even more robust, his muscles as hard as iron, filled with tremendous strength.

His height also shot up rapidly, reaching around one meter ninety.

The ’capacity’ of his Qi-blood surged tremendously.

The fluidity of his Qi-blood also increased by thirty percent. It was rushing through his channels, hugely ebullient.

Because of the increased capacity, Lu Yan did not have an overflow of Qi-blood, but the thickness of his Qi-blood was far more than ordinary people who achieved the second breakthrough with overflowing Qi-blood.

"The enhancement of my physical body and Qi-blood ’capacity’ seems to be around forty percent this time instead of fifty." Lu Yan reflected.

After the Liuhe Kick reached unity of man and martial arts, Lu Yan reached a conclusion – cultivating different martial arts to the state of unity of man and martial arts will result in an acquired martial body and be rewarded by nature.

However, the effect of the enhancement varied, and it was decreasing.

"This is normal. The stronger the foundation of a person, the smaller the improvements might be while cultivating an acquired martial body." Lu Yan speculated.

For example: the master-level figures who have lived for over a hundred years, with their incredibly rich Qi-blood and formidable physical bodies, couldn’t possibly enhance by fifty percent by cultivating a third-rate martial art to unity of man and martial arts.

Those with innate martial bodies, who naturally wield divine power and have Qi-blood that could be one, two, or even five times that of an average person, also couldn’t possibly enhance by fifty percent if they were to take a third-rate martial art to unity of man and martial arts. That would be too terrifying.

Lu Yan, an ordinary man, was able to improve by fifty percent for the first time when cultivating an acquired martial body.

But with the effect of the first improvement, the second time was less effective.

The effects of the third time, fourth time, and so on might be even less effective.

But even if the effects were less effective, Lu Yan still craved it.

With a strong foundation, even a few percent of improvement would be significant.

After the Liuhe Kick reached unity of man and martial arts, his combat strength was undoubtedly stronger than before.

"Sun Xiang seems to have broken the limit four times too." Lu Yan’s gaze was icy cold.

Not all nine captains of the Red-clad Guard had achieved limit breaking five times.

In fact, only five of the captains had broken the limit five times. The rest of the captains, including Sun Xiang, had only broken the limit four times.

While Fang Xiong had just reached the fourth breakthrough two years ago with his Qi-blood far from reaching an overflowing state, Sun Xiang was at the peak of the fourth breakthrough, nearing an overflowing state.

After exchanging a few moves with Fang Xiong, Lu Yan had a rough understanding of the strength of someone at the fourth breakthrough.

Sun Xiang was stronger than Fang Xiong for sure. Previously, he hadn’t been completely confident to beat him, but now he was sure.

Lu Yan left his room, made some preparations outside, returned, and patiently waited.

As the sun set in the west and night fell, the world was enveloped in thick darkness.

"Sun Xiang, Meng Qi, Wang Hai, your lives are mine."

Lu Yan disappeared into the darkness.