Chapter 128: Imparting Ancient Martial Arts

Changsheng Group underwent a sweeping reorganization.

Li Changsheng’s identity had been confirmed. He was the true head of Hydra in East Chu Province.

Once that fact was established, all of the Li family’s assets were confiscated and transferred to the national treasury.

The Li family’s shares in Changsheng Group were nationalized.

As a result, Changsheng Group underwent a transformation rarely seen in its history. It changed from a private enterprise into a semi-state-owned one. Why? Because the state now held fifty-one percent of its shares.

The state would control only the company’s general direction of development, without involving itself in its day-to-day operations.

The chairmanship of Changsheng Group went to Lei Xiaojun, its second-largest shareholder.

The position of president went to Ding Lizhong, the third-largest shareholder.

Ding Lizhong’s proposed direction for technological development was reviewed and approved by the relevant departments. Thus, under the title of president, Ding threw himself wholeheartedly into the path of scientific research. He brought all his intelligence and learning to bear, working day and night and rarely returning home. Yet even in his exhaustion, he was happy.

At last, he had escaped the mountains that had weighed upon him for so long. At last, he could follow his own ideas, marshal all of Changsheng Group’s resources, and overcome one technological obstacle after another.

During this period, Ding’s mother was both delighted and worried.

Her happiness needed no explanation. If her husband was happy, she was happy too.

Her worry was that her daughter seemed to be slipping back into her old ways…

She very much wanted to grab her daughter by the ear and give her a good scolding:

“You have a boyfriend now! You should be spending every spare moment with him. Instead, you run off alone to the northwest. Aren’t you afraid you’ll drive my son-in-law away?”

Unfortunately, after her daughter went to the northwest, they were able to speak on the first day, but on the second she vanished completely.

Ding’s mother even called Lin Xiaosu. Lin Xiaosu told her that his older brother had been injured and that he was staying at the hospital with him. The mother-in-law, eager to make amends to her daughter, had even considered going to visit the patient, but Lin Xiaosu had to spend a great deal of time talking her out of it.

Ding’s mother had not managed to make amends for anything, but from the tone of her son-in-law’s voice, it seemed that his relationship with her daughter was still proceeding normally. That alone put her at ease.

Such was the way of the world: some rejoiced while others grieved.

Whenever someone laughed, there was always someone else crying somewhere behind them.

At that moment, quite a few people connected to Changsheng Group were crying—or suffering something even worse than tears.

One of them was Li Ziyi.

Li Ziyi was currently in the southwest.

More precisely, if she opened the window, she could look down from the fifth floor and see Lin Xiaosu carrying a bowl of chicken soup.

Her face was somewhat haggard, and her eyes were filled with boundless venom.

Sitting across from her was her best friend, Liu Qianxun.

The hatred in Liu Qianxun’s eyes was even more obvious.

Her family had once been one of the most powerful clans in Baiyang Ridge, Feng City. For a time, it had been the towering tree behind her.

But Lin Xiaosu had cut that tree down.

Behind her, she had still possessed the even larger tree of Changsheng Group.

But Lin Xiaosu had cut down that tree too.

Lin Xiaosu, I curse your entire ancestral line! Are you specifically out to cut down every tree I have?

“Ziyi, you once said that you had planted a hidden piece on him. Has the time come to activate it?” Liu Qianxun’s gaze slowly shifted toward Li Ziyi.

Li Ziyi gradually withdrew her eyes from the window. “The message has already been sent. That person knows.”

“When do we make our move?” Liu Qianxun asked.

“Can’t wait?” Li Ziyi leisurely lifted the teacup from the windowsill.

“No! I can’t wait another moment to attend his funeral!”

“I can’t wait either! In my entire life, I have never longed so desperately to see his head fall from his shoulders!” Li Ziyi said. “But the people at the top have their own rules. That man encountered the greatest crisis of his life when he entered Great Xia back then. He would never dare enter Great Xia lightly. If we can create an opportunity to lure that bastard into the Azure-Faced Nation, he will certainly die.”

“That man is in the Azure-Faced Nation?”

“Yes!”

Liu Qianxun slowly rose to her feet. “He doesn’t seem to have any intention of leaving the country. Luring him abroad will be extremely difficult. Is there another route?”

“There is.” Li Ziyi said, “There is another trap waiting for him inside the country, practically within arm’s reach.”

“Oh? Where?”

“Wushen Mountain. Peacock Valley. The Gu Miao.”

Li Ziyi softly uttered those eight words.

The scene returned to Taichong Hospital.

Inside the ward, Lin Xiaoyang suddenly opened his eyes.

His gaze was filled with limitless delight.

After seven full days and nights, he had finally sensed the point left behind by his brother. The moment he sensed that original point, it meant he had found the key to entering the discipline.

Finding the key was not the end, but the beginning.

His incredible cultivation had finally set out on its journey.

Following the main meridian route inside the body that Lin Xiaosu had described to him, he began his ancient martial arts training.

The first step was to temper the sinews and cleanse the marrow, forcing the impurities from his body. Soon, his entire body reeked unbearably. After taking a vigorous bath in the restroom, he suddenly felt completely transformed from head to toe.

Never mind merely recovering to the condition he had been in before his injury—his vitality, essence, and spirit were now ten times stronger than before.

Perhaps inspired by him, Zhijun did not sleep at all that night.

At dawn, his eyes suddenly opened as well.

“Captain, I sensed it!”

“Quickly. Follow the route my brother described and open the main meridian!”

“Yes!”

Two hours later, Zhijun completed the first stage amid violent trembling. Water roared in the restroom while Lin Xiaoyang stood before the window, so excited that he could scarcely contain himself.

Early that morning, Nurse Zhou entered to conduct an examination and was stunned.

The patient’s various medical indicators were perfect beyond imagination. She rushed out of the ward and called for a doctor. After conducting a thorough examination, the doctor was stunned as well.

The patient had been admitted half a month earlier in critical condition, with a disability rating of Level Nine. Yet now, every physical indicator was far better than the doctor’s own.

This… was it a miracle of medicine?

Or a miracle of ancient martial arts?

“Doctor Zhang, I think I can be discharged,” Lin Xiaoyang said.

“Yes. Judging from your physical indicators, you’re in better shape than I am. If you don’t leave soon, I’ll be the one who needs to be hospitalized.”

The entire ward burst into laughter.

Lin Xiaosu entered amid their laughter. The moment he saw the excitement on his brother’s and Zhijun’s faces, his own heart began to race.

He had unintentionally created two ancient martial artists within the border troops. That was rather thrilling, wasn’t it?

Originally, the Gongchun Mountain outpost had been nothing more than an ordinary station. Like the other outposts in the southwest, it existed to prevent drug traffickers from entering and illegal immigrants from crossing the border, exchanging the soldiers’ ironclad sense of duty for the safety of the frontier.

But from that moment on, the outpost was no longer ordinary.

It now had two ancient martial artists.

Against ordinary people, ancient martial arts represented an overwhelming advantage.

But that would only be true after his brother and Zhijun had completely opened all their meridians. For now, they had merely given birth to true qi and opened two main meridians. They still had a considerable distance to go before opening the Ten Main Meridians and Eight Extraordinary Meridians.

Their physical abilities had not yet undergone a complete transformation. They had only established the basic circulation of energy within their bodies.

Even so, Lin Xiaosu honored the promise he had made at the beginning:

“After you leave the hospital, I’ll take you to the place where your dream began.”

A military vehicle drove into the hospital. The person who came was another comrade-in-arms, a soldier named Little Qi.

Little Qi carried an enormous bouquet. The flowers inside were disordered, strange, and varied beyond description.

Little Qi explained that the soldiers at the outpost had gathered them from every corner of Gongchun Mountain. In this way, they were welcoming their captain home.

The bouquet was the most chaotic arrangement of flowers Lin Xiaosu had ever seen.

But it was also the most genuine welcome he had ever received.

The three of them climbed into the military vehicle. It sped through Taichong and headed straight into the southwest. Three hours later, a towering mountain rose abruptly from the earth.

This was the true frontier: Gongchun Mountain.

The outpost stood halfway up the mountain. Below it was a cavern, and above it stood a watchtower.

Beneath the watchtower, fifteen soldiers stood in two rows and fired shots into the sky.

Under normal circumstances, gunfire was reserved for two occasions. The first was when a comrade had died for the country, in which case the shots sent him off. The second was when there was a momentous celebration, in which case the shots served as congratulations.

Today was the latter.

Replacing worldly firecrackers with gunfire was, in its own way, a soldier’s form of romance.

Lin Xiaosu received the highest honors these soldiers could offer.

He also spent his first night at the outpost.

His brother and Zhijun had opened two main meridians with their true qi. Next came the Twelve Primary Meridians and the Eight Extraordinary Meridians.

If they were left to search for the paths themselves, they would eventually open them all, but it would take a very long time. Lin Xiaosu planned to stay for several nights and accelerate the process through special techniques.

Compared with giving birth to true qi, this acceleration was exceedingly simple.

How was it done?

Much as he had worked on Miao Ruolan, he would lay out the foundation of the route for them.

It would probably take only three days to complete everything.

Once all the meridians were opened, their true qi would form a genuine circulation, growing and strengthening itself as it flowed.

The sun began to set.

Night descended early upon Gongchun Mountain.

The mountains were high and the forests dense, and twilight seemed to arrive far sooner than it did elsewhere.

The moment the sun disappeared, the entire mountain was shrouded in dusk.

And with the dusk came all kinds of danger…

Although the beasts of the mountains did not dare approach the outpost, the howling of wild wolves raising their heads a hundred miles away was still chilling.

Venomous snakes hung from the trees, twisting their bodies beneath the hazy starlight.

Strange poisonous insects that rarely appeared beneath the sun also emerged. From time to time, extraordinarily peculiar sounds could be heard—sounds that ordinary people could hardly imagine such insects producing.

These were all dangers posed by nature.

But the true danger the outpost had to face always came from the enemy.

This mountain stood between Great Xia and the Azure-Faced Nation, blocking the transportation of drugs from the Azure-Faced Nation into Great Xia.

But profit could move the human heart. In the face of enormous gains, what would people not do?

Mercenaries escorting drug lords across the border had always been the outpost’s greatest challenge.

The Azure-Faced Nation was different from Great Xia. Its government troops were weak, but mercenaries were everywhere. Almost anyone with even a little influence had a large force of mercenaries working under him.

Half a month earlier, mercenaries had escorted a drug lord across the border and been discovered by the outpost. In the ensuing bloodbath, Lin Xiaoyang had nearly died on the frontier.

Because of this, Li Zhiwei, the deputy commander of the outpost, had been reinforcing the defenses during this period. He had installed numerous detectors throughout Gongchun Mountain. The moment any detector showed activity, men would be dispatched to the location at once.

Another battle had taken place the night before last. Fortunately, the group that came from the other side was small, and several rounds of attacks had driven them back.

But all signs indicated that the enemy’s efforts to break through the Gongchun Mountain defenses were steadily intensifying.

The fundamental reason was the May Sixteenth Case in Feng City.

That major case had severed the route by which drugs were transported inside rough jade stones.

The drug lords on the other side had no choice but to seek another way out.

Thus came the need to break through the outpost and open a second channel.

The higher authorities had already realized this and were discussing the dispatch of additional personnel.

Hearing all this, a thought rose from the depths of Lin Xiaosu’s heart:

Who would have imagined that a butterfly flapping its wings on the western shore of the Pacific could unleash a tornado on the eastern shore?

Who could have imagined that a May Sixteenth incident in Feng City, thousands of miles away, would place such enormous pressure on the soldiers guarding the frontier?

He had planned the May Sixteenth Case himself.

Well then. He might as well share some of that pressure on the border.

Let us see whether anything happens tonight…