Disguised as black-clad intruders, numerous underground gangs from Windmill Town, including the Wild Wolf Gang, Blood Saber Association, and Fierce Tiger Gang, invaded the inner courtyard of the Han residence.
Thanks to Lu Yu's timely alarm, they were stopped before penetrating the inner courtyard, causing no significant impact on the Han family members who were well protected by the guards.
However, many Protectors and guards of the inner courtyard were drawn to the battlefield between the inner and outer courtyards, leaving most of the inner courtyard deserted except for a few key places with guards.
Han Yaozu personally led the guards to the biggest battleground, the Martial Hall.
The Martial Hall, a passage connecting the western outer courtyard to the inner courtyard, became the main battlefield as soon as the alarm sounded.
On this side of the Martial Hall stood several powerful consecrators, while inside the hall, black-clad men with Body Refinement skills at the ninth level battled with numerous highly skilled guards.
The consecrators held back from engaging to guard against the possibility of stronger enemies among the intruders.
However, when Han Yaozu arrived, the balance shifted; the consecrators aggressively attacked, overpowering the black-clad men and driving them out of the Martial Hall.
Before Han Yaozu's arrival, they were just pretending to help, but daring to slack off in front of the Patriarch would end their role as consecrators.
Once the consecrators took action, a Qi Cultivation master from among the intruders appeared, wielding a blood-red sword, the president of the Blood Saber Association.
With fists shattering a steel saber, each punch roaring like a tiger, he was the leader of the Fierce Tiger Gang.
An elusive figure like a wolf in the night was the leader of the Wild Wolf Gang.
The three hidden Qi Cultivation masters launched an attack, catching the consecrators off guard momentarily; however, leveraging their numerical advantage, they soon suppressed the three intruders.
Seeing several consecrators incapable of defeating the three despite having the numbers, Han Yaozu was displeased. What were these consecrators being housed for?
Such a minor issue they couldn't handle!
He wondered if he had been too lenient, tolerating these inept consecrators in the Han residence for so many years.
As Han residence consecrators, they received substantial benefits yearly, yet they couldn't even handle several underground gang leaders, utterly disgracing the Han family.
But this was also due to the Han residence's many years of peace; almost no one in Windmill Town dared to provoke the Han family, giving the consecrators little opportunity to act.
Most times, confronting foolish forces or individuals was a straightforward sweep, leaving the Han residence consecrators no chance to engage.
How could they compare to gang leaders who lick blood off their blades all year round?
Equally skilled, even slightly superior, these long-complacent consecrators couldn't match those like the Wild Wolf Gang leader.
Too long in comfort, losing their fighting spirit.
Under Han Yaozu's indication, several native consecrators, who had struggled through hardships from Protectors to consecrators, stepped forth.
With collaboration, they successfully suppressed the leaders of the Fierce Tiger Gang, Wild Wolf Gang, and Blood Saber Association.
Without the leaders' restraint, the remaining intruders quickly fell apart when facing the Protectors and guards.
Seeing the dire situation, the three exchanged glances, simultaneously crushing the fabric bags they carried; a yellow smoke filled the Martial Hall.
The consecrators closest to them inhaled a breath of the yellow smoke, feeling dizzy, hurriedly retreating, and warned, "It's poison smoke, back off!"
Upon hearing that the yellow smoke was poisonous, the pursuing guards and Protectors quickly withdrew from the Martial Hall, helplessly watching the remaining intruders escape.
Seeing the yellow smoke spread in the Martial Hall, many intruders who had taken the antidote beforehand fled, with Lu Yu quickly hiding away.
He had witnessed those three leading intruders, capable of emitting light, killing Body Refinement realm Protectors effortlessly, like slaughtering chickens—collision meant certain death.
"Retreat!"
The intruders' leader shouted.
During the retreat, the leader violently crushed any Protector blocking his path.
It was genuinely crushing; Lu Yu saw with his own eyes a Protector being smashed into pulp by that luminous intruder leader, with only two intact legs remaining.
Witnessing this scene, Lu Yu almost vomited his previous night's dinner.
When he first crushed an enemy's heart with this brutal method, Lu Yu didn't feel disgusted.
However, seeing someone crushed into a heap of flesh, not even an intact corpse remaining, Lu Yu genuinely felt nauseated.
Unfortunately, after becoming a Martial Cultivator, his digestive ability greatly improved, and his stomach was empty, unable to even vomit the evening meal.
Dry heaving for a while, Lu Yu wiped the saliva from the corner of his mouth, stepping out of the corner, still feeling a bit sour in his mouth.
The intruders had retreated, leaving a field full of corpses.
As the poison smoke in the Martial Hall thinned, guards, holding their breath, forcefully rushed through the hall, pursuing the fleeing intruders.
The ensuing pursuit didn't require Lu Yu's participation; his skills were too limited to catch up with the fleeing intruders.
Soon, Lu Yu joined the effort to rescue the injured; he hadn't forgotten the Protector he'd hidden in a house, whom he found still alive.
While helping others find the wounded, he also checked his day's gains.
[Name: Lu Yu]
[Realm: Body Refinement – Third Level]
[Qi Blood: 63]
[Cultivation Technique: Fierce Tiger Fist (Fourth Layer)]
[Skills: Fierce Tiger Fist (Proficient), Eight Steps to Catch the Cicada (Advanced)]
[Experience: 837]
To level up to the fourth level of the Body Refinement realm requires 1000 experience points, and blood and Qi needs 600 experience points to increase by one point.
The Fierce Tiger Fist technique has already been upgraded to the highest level and cannot continue further.
Furthermore, the skills have changed; the moves Hungry Tiger Pounce, Fierce Tiger Descending the Mountain, Evil Tiger Roar, and Black Tiger Heart Strike have all merged into one skill—Fierce Tiger Fist technique.
However, clicking open the Fierce Tiger Fist technique, you can still view the specific information of the four moves.
The experience points consumed in upgrading the Fierce Tiger Fist technique have turned into the sum of upgrading all four moves to the next level of mastery.
Of course, it is still possible to upgrade the level of a single move; not necessarily four at once.
The Fierce Tiger Fist cultivation technique has been upgraded to the highest level, which Lu Yu did not anticipate.
He thought he could keep upgrading the Fierce Tiger Fist technique until reaching the seventh level of Body Refinement realm.
Because Yang Xiu had initially told them that the Fierce Tiger Fist technique could be cultivated to the seventh level of Body Refinement realm.
Yet, he had already upgraded the Fierce Tiger Fist to the fourth level upon reaching the third level of Body Refinement realm, making it impossible to continue leveling up the cultivation technique to raise the realm.
The next realm advancement must be either through slow cultivation to reach the limit of blood and Qi, and then through cultivation for improvement.
Or directly using experience points for enhancement.
Nonetheless, neither option is as cost-effective as directly upgrading the cultivation technique to advance in realms previously.
Lu Yu pondered whether he could cultivate a new cultivation technique to raise his realm through upgrading a second cultivation technique?
He wasn't sure if this would work.
Otherwise, relying solely on the daily cultivation improvement of 1 or 2 points of blood and Qi, reaching the limit before accumulating full experience points to upgrade his realm, the speed would be too slow.
"Brother, easy there, what are you thinking about? Can you take me to the clinic first before pondering?"
Whilst Lu Yu was thinking about whether finding a new cultivation technique to advance realms would work, the injured protector Lu Yu was carrying finally couldn't help but speak up.
"Oh, sorry."
Lu Yu quickly changed positions to make him more comfortable.
...
Han Yaozu rushed to the study at the first moment he received the report from his subordinates, yet didn't manage to detain the mysterious intruder who broke into his study.
After glimpsing at the disarray within, he went downstairs to check the guard lying by the doorway of the study's injury.
The guard at the entrance had only one wound across the body, a charred handprint on the chest.
Han Yaozu touched the guard's body, sensing within a scorching Spiritual Qi still burning the guard's entrails.
The guard's death was due to the internal organs being well and truly roasted by powerful fire attribute Spiritual Qi.
Han Yaozu frowned, gently touching the charred handprint on the guard's chest.
"These are traces left by the Blazing Palm, could it be the work of some elder?"
The Blazing Palm is a second-grade martial art of the Han family, only martial cultivators above the Qi Cultivation realm can cultivate it.
Yet those qualified to cultivate the Blazing Palm are exclusively Han family disciples, none among the consecrated can access it.
Unless one performs exceptionally meritorious deeds for Han Manor and belongs to the main family, any consecrated member had no privilege to cultivate it, rendering other first-grade martial arts as their only option.
"Who exactly did this?" Han Yaozu sensed all that has transpired these days were orchestrated by the same mastermind.
The mastermind's objective was evidently something within his study.
Yet, the mastermind seemed very familiar with the study's particulars because he noticed that the mechanism for opening the secret chamber in the study had been tampered with.
Unfortunately, it was a set of arrays left by the Han family many generations ago, access only granted to the patriarch, barring entry even upon reaching the study by the mastermind.
The secret chamber harbors numerous significant items, yet Han Yaozu remained uncertain about the mastermind's ultimate purpose.
Nonetheless, he is sure of one thing, the mastermind is hidden within Han Manor.
On the clearing within a certain forest, surrounded by standing individuals - unexpectedly the very ones having dodged the pursuit from Han Manor, numbering close to a dozen individuals clad in black.
Originally composing of three factions along with several small organizations tallying up to nearly two hundred strong, only about a dozen managed to elude Han Manor's chase.
Central among them stood a young man in a green robe with a square jade hanging around the waist, anger apparent as he threw a punch onto a tree trunk, leaving a charred fist imprint upon it.
"Damn it!"
"Never anticipated the diminished Han Manor would still possess operating arrays, truly a setback thwarted at the last step."
The gang leader of Wild Wolf Gang stepped forward saying: "If all resorts fail, resort to abducting Han family members, forcing Han Yaozu to surrender the cultivation technique."
"Aren't you quite familiar with the Han family miss? Entice her out, bind her, and swap for a defective cultivation technique in exchange for his daughter, Han Yaozu will concede." The Wild Wolf Gang leader proposed.
The young man's eyes flickered several times, then replied: "Proceed according to your suggestion!"
"Upon achievement, don't forget the guaranteed agreement we had." The Wild Wolf Gang leader reminded.
"Rest assured, I still have some backing in Beifeng City, yours are trivial matters, weren't it for hesitance to overtly act against Han family, would I have gone through such hassle?"
"That's good then!" The Wild Wolf Gang leader's voice drifted into the distance.