Chapter 68

"I've returned, told them not to come in, but they wouldn't listen," Wei He said calmly. "Out here in the middle of nowhere, you don't really think they came just to take shelter from the rain, do you? How could it be so coincidental that they arrived just as we did?"

"And," he smiled, "when I went out, I saw two men with knives planning to sneak in through the window. They seem to be experienced."

Guan Ye stared at him, suddenly feeling as if she was meeting the real him for the first time.

The young man before her, who wasn't particularly handsome, now seemed more impressive to her than her own older brother.

"Start a fire, then eat something. We'll set off when the rain stops," Wei He said, squatting down to start the fire.

As for the firewood, he glanced around and then broke a wooden statue with one slap, splitting it into pieces with his bare hands to build a fire, which he then ignited with tinder.

The statue in this temple was interesting; it wasn't dedicated to the Three Pure Ones, but to Tai Shi.

Tai Shi Yuan Jun was the highest deity of Taoism here and was a statue that many large and small temples would enshrine regardless of their size.

The four of them sat together, and Guan Ye kept asking Wei He questions: why he had hidden his true strength, why he always needed poison, whether he was really eighteen this year and not twenty-eight, why he didn't like to talk much, and whether he had a woman he liked...

"Too bad... I almost liked you just now," Guan Ye mumbled, gnawing on a greasy roasted meat pie.

"Don't worry, you're not really my type either," Wei He said nonchalantly, tending to the fire.

"By the way, do you have a way to tell if the meat of a strange beast is poisonous?" He suddenly asked, remembering this.

"That's easy," Guan Ye smiled and began to explain in detail the methods to quickly identify whether the meat of a strange beast contained poison.

Because the meat of strange beasts had unusual vitality, it was very difficult for ordinary poisons to penetrate and remain intact.

So, by carefully observing the appearance of the meat, one could determine whether it had been poisoned.

Wei He listened carefully, occasionally taking out charcoal and parchment to take notes.

The rain lasted all night. During the time he escorted the three Guan family members away, Wei He meticulously recorded the various methods Guan Ye taught him for identifying poisons in strange beast meat.

Guan Ye, being a professional in poisons, had deep expertise in this area and seemed to have a lot of systematic experience.

After seeing the three off, Wei He quickly returned, as if nothing had happened.

Actually, purely from a profit perspective, he shouldn't have come.

But Guan Ye had treated him sincerely, with genuine gold for genuine feelings. That pile of things worth tens of thousands was a significant gesture.

So Wei He thought he would come and take a look, not to fight to the death, but to lend a hand at a critical moment, to repay Guan Ye's kindness. That was acceptable.

That's what he thought, and that's what he did.

And his good deed ultimately paid off, as Guan Ye unreservedly shared his experience in identifying poisons in strange beast meat.

This kind of knowledge was undoubtedly a top-notch means of making a living in this era. If Wei He used it to charge for his services, he would surely become wealthy very quickly.

Returning to Feiye City, Wei He returned home as if nothing had happened. He had already warned his second sister that he might go hunting and stay out overnight.

This kind of thing had happened before, so Wei Ying wasn't too worried. Seeing him return, she was relieved.

She had no idea he had been in a fight.

Back at Huishan Boxing Academy, Wei He resumed his normal life, but he began to consider when to leave Feiye City, as one by one, people were leaving early, clearly sensing something.

But his problem was that he didn't know where to go.

The capital? Suzhou? Or other nearby unfamiliar cities?

In this world, where was there a place of peace? Perhaps only the capital.

Two months later, Master Zheng became increasingly elusive, only occasionally appearing at Huishan Boxing Academy, and his presence in the inner courtyard was rare.

On Wei He's side, the accumulation of breakthrough beads was slow, but the large amount of strange beast meat he had obtained from various sources, along with the contributions from the Shao Yang Sect of the Xiangqu Sect, allowed him to live a very comfortable life.

Six meals of strange beast meat every day, without interruption, for two months.

Finally, his breakthrough beads filled the last two-fifths of the progress.

And the strange beast meat was almost finished.

Puff.

In the courtyard, Wei He struck a palm into the rain, pulled back his fist, and tapped several times, like a bird pecking.

He stepped with his right foot, leaped lightly, and in a rolling motion, struck a dozen palm shadows, suddenly landing on the last two-meter-high boulder in the courtyard.

Boom!!

A dull sound followed.

The boulder shattered into pieces, exploding on the spot.

Wei He flipped and landed lightly, sinking his breath to stabilize his stance.

Sigh...

He exhaled deeply.

"Combining Fei Long Gong and Wu Ling Palm, I didn't expect the power to be so great. The impact of Fei Long Gong, combined with the silent and venomous force of Wu Ling Palm, results in a much stronger burst of power."

Since realizing that he was always at a disadvantage when fighting opponents of the same level, Wei He began to think about how to make up for the gap.

While accumulating qi and blood, he also pondered how to defeat opponents head-on without relying on underhanded tactics.

After all, underhanded tactics were only effective once. If they failed, it would be extremely difficult to succeed again.

Even if his skills in underhanded tactics were strong, it would only make him a successful assassin, not a front-line warrior.

An assassin, in such a time, was too thin a role.

Standing before the shattered boulder, Wei He narrowed his eyes, recalling the seamless combination of qi and blood from Fei Long Gong and Wu Ling Palm.

The phrase "one breath, one effort" means that when exerting force, one must hold their breath from start to finish, quickly and smoothly, to truly unleash maximum power.

So, the "one breath, one effort" in Fei Long Gong means holding one's breath, leaping, and the longer and stronger the breath, the greater the burst of power.

Wei He combined Fei Long Gong and Wu Ling Palm into a seamless burst of power.

This way, he had both the speed of Fei Long Gong and the explosive power of Wu Ling Palm.

The combination enhanced both aspects.

"Fei Long Gong, as a leg technique, amplifies everything. No wonder Master Zheng values leg techniques so much."

Wei He collected his thoughts, cleaned up the scattered stones in the courtyard, and then returned to his room, scooping a ladle of cold water and drinking it in one gulp.

A heavy rain had lasted for three days, irrigating the long-dry fields outside the city.

The nearly dry Feiye River had risen sharply, alleviating the drought.

After drinking the water, he returned to the courtyard, took out a leather-bound booklet given by Guan Ye, and carefully reviewed it.

The booklet contained methods for identifying various poisons, the essence of Guan Ye's years of research.

In recent days, he had developed a habit of reviewing this thin booklet daily.

Page by page, Wei He would occasionally take some herbs from the pile in the corner of the courtyard to experiment.

During the ambush of the bandit leader Chen Jun, Wei He used a mixture of poisons obtained from the bandits, the Shao Yang Sect, and the Guan family.

The poison was so potent that there was no antidote.

At the time, Wei He was so afraid that the target wouldn't be affected that he used every possible means.

In fact, even without inhaling, the poison would still take effect, though the symptoms would be less severe.

Wei He had taken three antidotes in advance and was almost poisoned himself.

Fortunately, the rain washed away the poison on his coat, or he wouldn't have dared to seek out the Guan family.

If the three of them hadn't been killed and instead were poisoned by him, it would have been a tragic irony.

After reading for a while, he heard Wei Ying and Ouyang Zhuang's voices outside.

With the situation becoming increasingly dangerous, Wei He had asked Ouyang Zhuang to help escort Wei Ying.

For daily errands like buying vegetables and rice, they were all handled by the Huishan Boxing Academy, with the disciples delivering them to each household.

This ensured safety.

After saying goodbye to Ouyang Zhuang, Wei Ying entered the courtyard and saw Wei He sitting in a corner.

"Xiao He, I bought your favorite black sheep meat! The market has been getting emptier these days. I don't know what's happening. Fewer people are buying and selling vegetables, and even the Tongcheng Gang has fewer members."

Wei Ying muttered about what she had seen today.

Wei He went to help her with the vegetables and meat. The vegetables were unknown wild greens he had never seen before, and the meat was salted and clearly not fresh.

But at this time, being able to buy and afford meat was a luxury.

"I also saw someone selling white fox grass, which used to be fed to pigs," Wei Ying sighed.

"Having something to eat is already good," Wei He replied.

"Yes... The rice shop owner said that the current rice and coarse grain flour are being released from the inner city granaries, mainly supplying the inner city. The goods in the outer city are also being sold by people from the inner city. I don't know how long it will last."

Wei He was silent. It wasn't surprising that the inner city had large grain reserves. Feiye City had been able to hold out for so long thanks to the support of the inner city granaries and grain purchases from Suzhou.

"I heard that the inner city has issued a notice, planning to clean the entire city soon, removing everything that could cause the plague from both the inner and outer cities. It seems the plague is also spreading in the inner city," Wei Ying whispered.

Wei He helped her tidy up the vegetables and meat, chatted with her for a while, and then returned to the courtyard.

He actually wanted to move, but he couldn't find a place to go, and he still needed to investigate the disappearance of his parents and elder sister.

The investigation into his parents' disappearance had been put on hold due to insufficient strength.

He planned to resume it after breaking through at Huishan Boxing Academy, but the current situation seemed to be deteriorating.

Thinking about the conflict between the Xiangqu Sect and the inner city, Wei He suspected that this so-called "great cleanup" was actually targeting the Xiangqu Sect.