White-Robed Chief

It was dawn when the sun was shining brightly and the air was fresh, with a touch of humidity.

In the courtyard on Jade Guardian Island, Chu Li sat in a gazebo with his eyebrows creased. He did not move a single bit as Xue Ling stood beside him, watching him helplessly.

The spiritual force from the Glory's Will circulated swiftly within him. It followed the route of the Minute Pulse Cleansing technique and was strengthening the veins in his body. The spiritual force from the tree felt invigorating and pure, increasing the effects of the Minute Pulse Cleansing technique. This was a sign that his veins were becoming stronger.

However, he did not feel delighted at all.

Hundreds of thoughts swam through his mind, but they quickly dissipated. He was wondering why the movements of the Sentient Menace had halted.

After a good ten days of training with the baton, it had begun to feel ineffective. When he switched to a copper baton, it did not work as well. Then, he exchanged it with knives, but it was fruitless. Lastly, he tried using a sword but it was futile as well.

All those hits from various weapons did not hurt his body even the slightest bit. Instead, his clothes were scratched and tattered.

Yet, he knew that his current level of mastery of the Sentient Menace could not stop the attacks of a top-notch martial arts master, especially those from the Tempest Temple.

After Zhuo Feiyang had left, he did not slow down his efforts by a single bit. On the contrary, he had become more hardworking due to the threats from the Tempest Temple and the Ren Public House. Those two threats were like two swords dangling above his head.

The spiritual force of the Glory's Will had a beneficial effect on the spirit herbs in the courtyard. The Raven Grass was growing exceptionally fast. In a week's time, it would be able to be harvested, and he remained hopeful that the effects from the herbal medications would help.

He shook his head and sighed. The Sentient Menace was indeed very arduous to cultivate. Up until this stage, it felt as if he had reached the bottleneck. Could it be that the peak of what it was capable of was to defend against regular blades and swords?

He was so eager to cultivate the Sentient Menace mainly because he wanted to rid himself of his weaknesses. Once he unleashed his Eternity Blade, he only needed a short time to recover.

However, this period of recovery was short but vital. If he was facing a top-notch master or surrounded by a mob of attackers, he could be exposed to danger. Although, if he had the Sentient Menace, he would have nothing to worry about.

Xue Ling could not resist as she said, "Master, do you want to head to the Martial Arts Hall and have a look?"

"Martial Arts Hall?" Chu Li raised his head and saw her pretty face.

Xue Ling replied, "Inside the Martial Arts Hall, there are a lot of ancient scrolls. I think there might be some with solutions to the issues in your cultivation method."

Chu Li shook his head. "There were very few who cultivated the Sentient Menace technique."

"What if there are?" Xue Ling said.

Chu Li pondered for a second and replied, "Right. What you said makes sense as well. We shall go there and have a look!"

"Let me accompany you, Master!" Xue Ling hurriedly added. "With my ranking, I can enter the Martial Arts Hall as well!"

"There's no need." Chu Li waved her off.

Xue Ling bit her red lips gently and said in a hushed voice, "Master, I'd love to go and have a look inside."

Chu Li looked at her in a peculiar manner and replied, "It would be great if you went there on your own another day."

"It's too troublesome for me to go alone. Many would catcall me and it's very annoying!" Xue Ling scoffed. "They won't budge no matter what looks I show them. Every one of them are shameless!"

Chu Li watched her, and a smile etched out on his face.

Her expressions were always the same — frosty, with a hint of arrogance within it. No matter how much she tried to change her expressions, it would not be that much of a change. Those who dared to catcall her were truly daring since they were able to bear her arrogant looks.

"Master, don't tell me you're afraid that Sister Zhao Ying would see us?" Xue Ling suddenly teased with a smile before looking at him curiously.

Chu Li scoffed. "Scared? Of what!? Both of us are innocent!"

"You're just afraid that Sister Zhao Ying doesn't think so." Xue Ling gave him a wide smile.

She had always borne that ice-cold expression but with that smile of hers, it was as if her expression had become warm enough to melt snow. Her face was dazzling.

Chu Li replied, "Alright then, I'll bring you there!"

"Thank you, Master!" Xue Ling quickly answered.

Xue Ling steered the boat and away they went, leaving the Jade Guardian Island behind. In no time, they had arrived at the Martial Arts Hall.

The two of them were bathed in the warm sunlight as they ascended to the bank, entering the training ground.

The training ground that was originally lively suddenly fell silent as people stopped and parted a way for the visitor. Although Chu Li was puzzled, his expression was unchanged. However, neither did he slow down his pace before he eventually arrived at the front.

As Xue Ling followed tightly beside him, her steps hastened to keep up with him.

"Brother Chu Li!" Someone gave him a fist salute and grinned.

In return, Chu Li smiled back and gave a fist salute as well.

"Brother Chu Li!"

"Junior Brother Chu Li!"

Suddenly, everyone followed suit and gave him a fist salute. Throughout the entire time, Chu Li did not lower his fists and gave everyone the salute with a smile on his face. He greeted each of them one by one — Brother Meng, Brother Ho, Brother Fang. He called out every single one of their names precisely.

By then, the training ground was buzzing with people, but Chu Li did not slow down his footsteps. Finally, he emerged at the other end of the path in which people had parted for him and entered the lounge of the Martial Arts Hall. His badge was checked before he went up to the second floor.

Han Ling's eyes were so bright, it was as if they were gleaming with light. He stood arrogantly with his chest puffed, feeling very righteous while at duty.

Chu Li sighed to himself. This was the world where martial art was above all else. Everyone worshipped the strong martial arts masters, and that was why most people worked and cultivated very seriously. They would give up everything else in life to chase the dream of becoming a martial arts master.

Once they were on the second floor, Chu Li picked out a book and handed it to Xue Ling. It was a cultivation handbook for the Crescent Cryptic.

Immediately after Xue Ling received the book and flipped through it, she was instantly hooked.

Chu Li started to move around the second floor to search for the book he wanted. After he looked around once, he went up to the third floor. In the end, he had searched through the entire Martial Arts Hall and there was still nothing. Disappointed, he decided to leave and this proved his point right that there was no cultivation knowledge of the Sentient Menace.

So, he waved goodbye to Xue Ling and immediately exited the Martial Arts Hall. Xue Ling could only give him a half-heartedly reply as she was completely engrossed in the contents of the book.

Instead of going back, he rowed the boat to the Wisdom Tower. In comparison to the Martial Arts Hall, the Wisdom Tower stored books that were more sophisticated. Not only did it contain books with combat techniques of Martial Arts, but it also had ancient secrets and rumors of the martial arts world as well.

This time, he made a decision to look through everything in the Wisdom Tower and planned to come back here whenever he had free time to spare.

He simply picked out a book and read it for awhile but suddenly, there was a spark in his eyes.

That book wrote about a historical mystery in which according to it, there was once a kind of magic called Aurora Morph. It was a secret technique used by shape-shifting creatures. However, after a while, the technique was improvised by a cultivator and humans started using its magic, especially females. Once the technique was mastered, the user would look as if he or she had been reborn and they were able to overwrite a new cycle of life. The user's old skin would be morphed and transformed to that of an infant's skin. More interestingly, his or her facial features and general appearance would alter as well.

He lifted his head up from the book and went into a deep thought; this secret technique was quite interesting.

Especially for the girls from the Raging Tiger Troup, they generally had a negative perspective about themselves. They felt that they had plunged deep into disgrace and that their virtues had been tainted. This was why the girls were very embarrassed and self-restrained when they first met him. They did not even dare to look him in the eye.

Since then, he seldom returned to the property he purchased, or the Leisure Cloud Pub because he did not want the girls to feel awkward. When the girls see him, they would naturally be reminded of their status and would not have the confidence to talk to him.

Although Chu Li was able to change their lives and their fates for the better, he could not change what they thought about themselves.

Though if they cultivated the Aurora Morph technique, they could live their lives as a brand new person, and it would be as if they had a fresh start in life. More so, that should be enough for them to stop looking down on themselves, to cure them of their sufferings so that they could finally lift their heads and approach people confidently.

However, the Aurora Morph technique was seldom cultivated by people and there were two reasons for that — one, the cultivation process was excruciatingly painful. It was as if one was burning in hell and hence, almost everyone who had attempted it gave up halfway. Secondly, the cultivation process required bathing in extremely valuable herbs. Though the key function of this process was that it only allowed the transformation of one's appearance and morphed their outer skin. In other terms, the only benefit was to make the cultivator look better and like the foundation of heart technique, it did not contain any powers of destruction.

Chu Li groaned as he searched in his mind palace, but he did not find any information about the Aurora Morph technique. Although he concluded that the Martial Arts Hall might not have books with information about that technique, he was unsure if there were any of them in the Wisdom Tower. At the thought of that, he increased his speed of reading and tried to look for any relevant information.

By dusk, it finally dawned on him that he had left Xue Ling all alone in the Martial Arts Hall!

He then rushed to the Martial Arts Hall, but Xue Ling was not there anymore. So, he went back to the courtyard of the Jade Guardian Island and found her practicing the Eight Forms of Crescent Cryptic.

As she saw him walked in, Xue Ling did not utter a single word and neither did she turn to look at him. Instead, her red lips were tightly shut, and her face was as calm as jade.

Chu Li gave out a laugh and then sat down in the gazebo.

Xue Ling just continued on with her practice. Though unlike the usual, she did not serve him a pot of hot tea.

Hence, Chu Li casually asked, "Did you find anything useful from the book?"

"No!" Xue Ling straightened her face and replied scornfully.

"Then did anyone try to hit on you?"

"No!" Xue Ling scoffed as she turned towards his direction and gave him a stare.

In fact, the Martial Arts Hall was very quiet earlier that day and it was unlike any other day, where there were no annoying faggots around to disturb her. All who were present were fairly modest people.