Chapter 512: Chapter 423: Bounty (2)

Qian Laibao bowed and took his leave.

After he left, Chen Li sat alone in the study for a moment. He then rose, left the Zhou Mansion, and strolled toward the South City Villa.

Inside the villa, Gossip and Bai San were squatting on the stone steps in a corner of the courtyard.

The two had procured some tobacco leaves from who-knows-where and rolled them into thick cigarettes. They were puffing away, wreathed in smoke.

When they saw Chen Li arrive, the two hastily got to their feet.

Chen Li waved his hand, signaling them to dispense with the formalities. He got straight to the point, telling them that the Cao Family and the Four Seas Association had posted a bounty of one hundred thousand taels of silver for Gossip.

Upon hearing this, Gossip’s old face instantly turned deathly pale. The half-smoked cigarette butt in his hand fell to the ground, and he was completely oblivious.

"A bounty on me?! I... Son of a bitch..."

He spun around in a panic. A sudden realization struck him, and he gritted his teeth, his voice a mixture of shock and fury. "It must be those two little bastards, Gen Sheng and Gen Mao. They must have sold me out. Patriarch, you have to save me! Those bastards from the Four Seas Association are better at finding people than bloodhounds!"

Chen Li asked, "The Four Seas Association... how strong are they, exactly?"

"The Four Seas Association... It’s backed by the Four Great Merchants, an organization so rich it could rival a kingdom. The experts they employ are mostly Tributors bought with mountains of gold and silver, or they’re a secret force cultivated by the Commerce Associations themselves. No one knows for sure just how strong they are, but their power is definitely unfathomable."

Gossip’s face was a mask of misery. "Over twenty years ago, there was a Demon Sect in Ling’an Prefecture, Wuzhou, called the Vegetarian Sect. Their power swelled to immense proportions, and they became so dominant that even the Government Office couldn’t handle them. They once forcibly seized a large tea plantation in Wuzhou that belonged to the Four Seas Association.

But then the Four Seas Association made its move. Before long, the Vegetarian Sect was wiped out. Its leaders and core members were either dead or on the run. They vanished without a trace and were never seen in the Jianghu again."

"The Vegetarian Sect?"

"A heretical sect. They caused a massive uproar in Wuzhou back in the day. They had countless followers and no shortage of experts—many of them Grandmasters, I heard. Even the Wuzhou State Magistrate’s Office sent troops to encircle and annihilate them several times, but they only suffered heavy losses and were completely unable to stop them."

Gossip gave a bitter smile. "Even they fell at the hands of the Four Seas Association. That just goes to show how powerful they are."

Chen Li nodded.

’It seems the Four Seas Association is a first-rate power in the Jianghu, possibly even stronger. With their vast financial resources and intelligence network, they definitely can’t be underestimated.’

Bai San, who was standing to the side with his arms crossed, laughed with schadenfreude. "Old Bao, oh, Old Bao. This is what you get for chasing skirts everywhere, even daring to mess with a woman from the Cao Family. Well? Your comeuppance has arrived, hasn’t it? The Commerce Association has spies on every street and in every alley; their people are everywhere. I’d like to see where you can possibly hide this time!"

"The hell I did!"

Gossip was so flustered he was practically jumping up and down. "What does that woman from the Cao Family have to do with me? Not a damn thing! That was... that was Sir..."

He caught himself just as the words were about to spill out. Stealing a glance at Chen Li, he quickly changed his tune. "The Cao Family clearly has ulterior motives! Posting a bounty on me is just their way of trying to smoke out the person behind the scenes. Sir, they’re obviously targeting you!"

Chen Li didn’t bother responding to Gossip’s attempt to stir up trouble and shift the blame. He simply said, "For the time being, just stay put here. Don’t go anywhere."

"Don’t you worry, Sir. This old man won’t set a single foot outside!" Gossip eagerly promised.

Chen Li also gave Bai San a few orders, telling him to lie low and stop running wild. Only then did he leave the villa.

...

Chen Li stayed in Liyang for another two days.

On the third day, he saw that Sun Shouyi—or Chen Shouyi, as he should be called now—had developed a solid grasp of the Righteous Wealth Cultivation Method.

Chen Li then instructed Chen Shouyue to prepare two servings of the Eight Treasures Spirit Nourishing Soup as a Medicinal Cuisine.

Chen Shouyi consumed the soup and began his assault on the Spirit Realm Pass.

Aided by an Inner Qi Heart Method and a rare Medicinal Cuisine, his chances of successfully breaking through the Spirit Realm Pass were already extremely high.

He encountered almost no meaningful resistance. His Inner Qi surged through him, opening the Eight Extraordinary Meridians one after another in a natural and inevitable success.

But Chen Li did not stop there.

He had Chen Shouyi rest for a moment to stabilize his new Realm, then began the next step.

He communed with the Treasure Basin deep within his sea of consciousness, continuously drawing out Wealth Qi and transferring it into Chen Shouyi’s body.

Chen Shouyi’s condition was just like Chen Li’s back when he had passed the Divine Intent Pass and first entered the Tuo Dragon Pearl, his Primordial Spirit flooded with a massive amount of pure Primordial Qi.

The vast, majestic Wealth Qi surged into his meridians and Dantian, making his entire body feel like it was swelling. A sharp, stabbing pain even emanated from his meridians, as if they might rupture at any moment.

The effects were also remarkable.

Fueled by the infusion of immense Wealth Qi, the speed at which he refined Inner Qi was simply astonishing.

His Inner Qi became a torrent, relentlessly battering at his Acupoints and forcing open one blocked passage after another.

Ten, twenty, fifty, a hundred...

In just seven days.

BOOM!

Chen Shouyi’s aura suddenly surged. All three hundred and sixty-five major Acupoints throughout his body were forced open. His Inner Qi cycled through them endlessly, forming a complete Circulation on its own.

The Second Level of the Spirit Realm, the Profound Acupoint Pass—achieved!

This terrifying rate of advancement left not only Chen Shouyi himself feeling as if he were in a dream, but also Chen Shouyue, who had been standing guard nearby. She stared with wide eyes, her mouth slightly agape, her face a mask of utter disbelief.

During a brief moment when Chen Li was resting, she quietly tugged on her father’s sleeve and whispered, "Father, what in the world is this Cultivation Technique? How is he progressing so quickly? Can you teach me, too?"

Chen Li’s expression soured. "When did you become just like your older brother, wanting every shiny thing you see?"

Shouyue was cultivating the Five Grains Spirit Nurturing Technique and practiced the Five Directions Twenty-Four Solar Terms Wuxiang Fist; she even had the True Intent of Fist Technique in her possession. This was a complete, top-tier inheritance.

Unless it was absolutely necessary, Chen Li would never allow her to switch to another method of Cultivation.

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