Chapter Thirty-Nine: Murong Bo

In a pavilion somewhere in Yangzhou City.

"My lord, they bought a boat this morning. Rumor has it they are heading to Lake Tai. Should we..."

A pot-bellied man bowed his head as he spoke.

The gray-robed monk sitting in the seat of honor shook his head and said, "You may withdraw." With that, he strolled to the railing, a vantage point from which he could overlook the inn where Zhang Chengyi and his party were staying. His brows were furrowed in deep thought.

His surname was Murong, his given name Bo. He was a descendant of the former Yan imperial family, and for generations, his ancestors had left behind a dying wish to restore their kingdom.

Years ago, after faking his own death, he assumed the title of the Gusu Murong clan. He haunted the Huai River region, using martial arts, coercion, and bribery—backed by the authority of the Black Yan Banner Command—to subdue heroes of the pugilistic world and secretly expand his influence.

Yangzhou naturally had his eyes, ears, and forces; the Salt Gang, among others, included many of his men.

The Salt Gang originally had little common ground with a man intent on rebellion, but the Song imperial court had acted too excessively in recent years, causing turmoil within the gang's ranks.

The root of the problem lay in the court’s attempt to alleviate financial pressure years ago by issuing "salt notes." Without wasting labor or resources, the court sold these notes for profit, exchanging them for cold, hard silver. Merchants began speculating on the salt notes, and the Salt Gang, deeply tied to the salt trade, followed suit vigorously, filling their coffers.

Much like the speculation on monastic certificates, salt notes were artificially inflated for a time, yet the market functioned normally.

However, the court issued far too many, nearly replacing real currency with salt notes, which soon led to their devaluation. Many merchants engaged in short-selling, and to stabilize the price, the government implemented a mandatory distribution system. The officials bought back the salt notes to bolster the market, yet the central government provided no actual funds.

This misunderstanding between the Song high command and the local authorities caused the entire market to bottom out.

The Salt Gang, being the most deeply entangled, suffered the most. Naturally, they began to harbor other intentions. With Murong Bo’s threats of force, his promises of grand futures, and a significant investment of his ancestral wealth, many eventually defected to the banner of the Yan.

Returning to the present: while lurking in the Shaolin Temple, he had long heard of Zhang Chengyi—a man who transformed overnight from a hunter with no martial arts training into a peerless master possessed of boundless internal energy.

This story was widely circulated among the "Hui" generation of Shaolin monks. At first, he dismissed it as hearsay, but later, when Zhang Chengyi supposedly killed Yao Bodang, injured the six members of the Shan family, and abducted Elder Xu of the Beggar Sect, Murong Bo began to take it seriously and ordered his subordinates to investigate.

The investigation revealed that eighty percent of the rumors were actually true.

When the Hero’s Assembly was held at Jingfu Temple, he had been present, though he remained in the shadows, observing. After witnessing it with his own eyes, he felt a surge of ecstatic joy, followed immediately by dread.

He was joyous because the possibility of becoming a peerless master overnight actually existed; he wondered if he, too, could emulate such a feat.

He was dread-filled because Zhang Chengyi was simply too powerful—so strong that he had no idea how to counter him. Moreover, the man’s temperament was eccentric and erratic, making him difficult to win over through conventional means.

Just as he was about to leave, he heard Zhang Chengyi declare that he wanted the Shaolin Temple to spread word throughout the world, telling "Murong Bo" and "Xiao Yuanshan" to wait for him at the temple, as he would be bringing Qiao Feng and Murong Fu along.

At these words, he had fled in a panic. Only after hiding did he realize the man had not actually detected his presence.

After calming down and reflecting, he reached a conclusion: Zhang Chengyi seemed to know what had happened all those years ago, and furthermore, Xiao Yuanshan—the man he had framed at Yanmen Pass—was still alive!

These successive bombshells kept him housebound for days, yet eventually, he was forced to re-emerge.

Whether to steal the secret method for gaining such power, to find an opportunity to eliminate this formidable enemy who might thwart his restoration, or to rescue his son, Murong Fu, he had to follow them.

However, Zhang Chengyi and his party were impervious to all approaches. Even if others managed to travel the same path for a while, there was never any opportunity to ingratiate themselves.

Along the way, he had his subordinates carry out many tests, yet they never found an opening. Upon arriving in Yangzhou, he instructed his men to probe for intelligence as usual.

*Lake Tai... could he truly be heading there to find Fu'er?*

Murong Bo sighed, burdened with heavy thoughts. Perhaps, he decided, it was time to go back.

***

"Did I forget something?"

Sitting at the bow of the boat, Zhang Chengyi muttered to himself. He had originally intended to rest in Yangzhou for a few more days before continuing south.

But because of Qiao Feng’s new discovery, he decided to return to the main plot; he wanted to rush through the main storyline as quickly as possible.

Going south, he certainly had to visit the Mantuo Villa. Wuyazi’s daughter and his granddaughter, Wang Yuyan, were there, and the Langhuan Jade Cave contained all the martial arts collected by Wuyazi and Li Qiushui. Perhaps that would help his martial path reach a breakthrough.

As for Wang Yuyan, there was no need to elaborate.

He would take Murong Fu along as well. Although the novel depicted him as somewhat mediocre, he was, after all, renowned alongside Qiao Feng; his natural talent was certainly not lacking, and he could serve as a hostage against Murong Bo. He was worth capturing.

However, having so severely disrupted the plot, heaven only knew if Murong Fu was still in the Jiangnan region.

That was a problem.

With his train of thought derailed, Zhang Chengyi couldn't be bothered to remember what he had forgotten. He watched the boat drift along the water; at first, it felt novel, but soon, feeling bored, he retreated into the cabin to lie down.

Qiao Feng, Su Xinghe, and the other disciples were still working on creating their first physical-tempering external martial art, so there was no fear of outsiders catching on.

After all, no normal person would ever choose to dissipate their internal energy to practice external martial arts.

The first version of the tempering method had been produced yesterday. For brilliant disciples of the Xiaoyao Sect and Qiao Feng, such a simple concept was easy to develop.

From over a hundred movements, they selected seventy-two, ranging from simple to difficult, each with different effects on various parts of the body.

The weakest of the group, the eighth disciple Li Kuilei, had dissipated fifty points of internal energy and found his physique had improved slightly. This proved the method worked, but it was absolutely not worth the cost.

The subsequent direction of their development was to minimize internal energy consumption while maximizing physical improvement.

For anyone else, this would likely lead to a dead end, but thanks to his talent in miscellaneous arts, Su Xinghe had begun to consider the use of medicine. Relying solely on movements and the circulation of true energy was slow, so medication could be the solution.

Poisons and medicines are two sides of the same coin. The principle behind Ding Chunqiu’s "Dissolving Technique" was to use potent toxins to prevent an opponent from utilizing their internal energy, as if it had been dissolved away. It was entirely possible to formulate a poison that would suppress true energy.

By extension, they could attempt to develop a drug that caused true energy to dissipate slowly, thereby forcing it to linger in the muscles and bones for longer periods.

The problem currently stalling them was that the Beiming True Energy was itself immune to all poisons. Even Ding Chunqiu, who had spent decades immersed in the study of toxins, could do nothing against it. The hastily concocted poisons they developed were neutralized the moment they were swallowed.

Zhang Chengyi welcomed the research into drugs. In his view, if he could "cheat" his way to a solution, that was best; otherwise, taking a little "tempering pill" would do. Letting him cultivate slowly through grueling labor would be exhausting.

Of course, he never stopped practicing himself—if nothing else, he had nothing better to do.

"Wait, I know what I forgot!"

Zhang Chengyi, who had been lying on the cabin bed with his legs crossed, suddenly slapped his forehead and sat up, startling everyone into looking his way.

"I didn't visit the number one brothel in Yangzhou City!"

Su Xinghe gazed at his own nose, keeping his heart and mind still, pretending he had seen and heard nothing.