Martial Arts Master
chapter-454

Chapter 454: The Early Bird Catches the Worm

Translator: Transn Editor: Transn

Old Nanny Qiu proved Lou Cheng’s suspicion that she was born with a special ability. Not only could she hibernate like an animal, she could also manipulate the soil to some extent. After joining a group of grave robbers by chance, she even learned some rudimentary witchcraft.

In the eyes of her neighbors, she was a mysterious woman who often stayed home for several days in a row. The truth was that she had actually left the ancient town during that time. Even her former live-in lover would consider her strange and even terrifying at times. He dared not talk too much about her.

She gained most of her antiques related to the Fighting Formula during that time. Most were badly damaged and thus of no value in the group leader’s opinion. Since she liked things like these, the leader gave them to her for her to bring home as she did with all the ‘junk’ in her room.

Once, they had a great harvest and sold off their spoils for quite a fair bit of money. The members began fighting with each other and someone even tried to kill the leader and take over the group. Using her supernatural ability and witchcraft, Qiu Huazhen grabbed most of the group’s money and antiques and fled to her hometown that none of the members knew about. She stayed put and lived a peaceful life from then on. Only when she lacked money would she sell one or two of her antiques.

Her serene life continued for many years, but that was eventually broken by two groups of people. Old Nanny Qiu was not technologically-inclined. She didn’t know how to go on the internet or use a smartphone. Thus, she knew nothing about the Nine Words Formula at all and didn’t believe her antique relevant to the Dou character was of any importance. She suspected it was the relatives of her former group members waiting for more backup to punish her. She was gripped by fear but didn’t dare to contact the police and admit her crimes.

She used witchcraft to temporarily restrain those two groups of people. During the peak of the day and under their surveillance, she selected a few of her most expensive antiques and ‘sank’ into the ground. She planned on hibernating for half a month, which was also the limit of her supernatural ability. She would wait until the two groups of people gave up on monitoring her house before escaping somewhere else.

She had been insightful enough in the past to get a fake ID in another city and buy two houses. The only reason she stayed in Ziyun was because she couldn’t bear leaving her hometown.

“I’ve told you all that I know. What exactly do you want to do?” Old Nanny Qiu stared at Lou Cheng with both fear and anger.

She wasn’t strong. It was her mysterious witchcraft that restrained others, so she didn’t dare to confront the two groups of people directly and could only dodge them. Facing a terrifying and powerful fighter before her, she immediately gave up struggling.

Lou Cheng sighed inwardly before revealing a gentle smile.

“Where’s the jade plate with the ‘Dou’ character on it?”

“You’re here just for that?” Old Nanny Qiu asked in confusion.

In the eyes of her group leader back then, it was just a useless piece of junk! If it wasn’t so pretty, she herself wouldn’t have wanted it either.

“I just want to take a look,” Lou Cheng replied indifferently.

Looking at him doubtfully, Old Nanny Qiu took out the jade plate from her pocket. It was a corroded jade plate decorated with unique patterns and an intricate design. The Dou character was inscribed on the center, carrying the message of continuing the fight and never giving up.

Lou Cheng took a glance at the jade plate and recognized the signs of corrosion made by the Force of Yin in the past years. There was little spirit remaining on the Dou character. Other fighters wouldn’t have learned anything from the remaining spirit, but it was enough for Lou Cheng to resonate with his Jindan!

Keeping a straight face, he narrowed his eyes and motioned Old Nanny Qiu to place the jade plate somewhere near him. He began comprehending the magical spirit in that character.

After about eight minutes, he vaguely managed to make out a visualization of the Dou character in his mind. He made a gesture with both hands, pointing at his Dantian tandem, and said in a lowered voice,

“Fighting!”

Something roared in his mind and he felt the Jindan in his Dantian awaken thanks to the Dou character. It began shaking and making ripples, echoing the movement of the brilliant stars and suns in his visualization world. The character became clearer and more terrifying in his mind within seconds, just like his explosive power and strong will.

As the strokes of the seal character linked with each other, the visualization world in Lou Cheng’s mind began changing rapidly before stopping at a certain scene.

Reflected in Old Nanny Qiu’s astonished eyes was Lou Cheng once again saying in his low voice, “Fighting!”

All his muscles tightened to show his longing for a fierce battle. The sight spooked Old Nanny Qiu and she took a step back.

The Fighting Formula could help enhance one’s strength, allowing for an explosive strike!

The better one mastered it, the more fearsome his attack would be!

“It’s kind of like the Kaiohshin Punch…” Lou Cheng thought joyfully after mastering the real Fighting Formula.

But the power of the Fighting Formula had just been increased by no more than 30 percent. In the future, it may double, but that still wouldn’t make it an amazing kungfu. Besides, he depended on driving his Qi and blood and overdrafting his stamina to use it. In a battle, he couldn’t use it more than a few times. Once his body exceeded its limit, he would collapse and require a long time to recover. It might even leave him with serious side effects.

While using the Fighting Formula, he also sensed the change in his Jindan. It not only moved in the normal pattern with visualized stars, waves, and a line of corresponding words on it, but also awakened the four formulas he had learned before one by one: “Swordsman,” “Forwarding,” “Army,” and “Attainment.” The five seal characters connected with each other and formed a relatively firm frame in his Dantian.

During this period, Lou Cheng felt his sense of danger become stronger than ever. The barrier between his Ice and Blaze supernatural abilities was broken to some extent, and they became no longer independent from one another. Lou Cheng would even feel the root pulp of his supernatural abilities as if they were tangible things.

Phew… Will I be morphing into the Inhuman stage after taking some time to consolidate it? Lou Cheng nodded in agreement with his conjecture.

While Peng Leyun finished morphing into the Inhuman stage after recovering from his injuries and received his Fifth Pin certification, Ren Li was also about to reach the Inhuman stage at the end of July. She was now at the corner-transcendence stage in her martial arts career.

So he wasn’t too slow! Lou Cheng smiled and picked up that jade plate with the Dou character on it. He then asked Old Nanny Qiu,

“How much?”

It wasn’t safe for him to stay in Old Nanny Qiu’s house any longer. He decided to take the jade plate back with him and study the changes in his Jindan carefully.

How much? For a moment, Old Nanny Qiu thought she had misheard Lou Cheng. Wasn’t it logical for him to simply take it without asking her? She wasn’t his match at all!

She was quiet momentarily before replying, “It’s not anything of great value. You can have it for 600 yuan.”

“To be honest, I’d leave it to you if you were not willing to offer a price,” Lou Cheng said sincerely.

Either way, he had already mastered the Fighting Formula!

If he hadn’t wanted to keep this jade plate around for memory’s sake, he wouldn’t even take another glance at this thing!

And the true worth of this jade plate to ordinary people was just a couple hundred.

“Never mind. It’s just a jade that brings trouble…” Old Nanny Qiu replied dejectedly, rolling her eyes.

“Okay then.” Lou Cheng touched his pocket and an embarrassed expression crawled onto his face. Anticipating a fierce battle ahead of him, he had only brought his phone with him and left his wallet in the hotel…

Thinking for a while, he smiled. “Is mobile payment okay with you?

“Ah?” Old Nanny Qiu looked completely perplexed.

He cleared his throat and forced a calm demeanor.

“I don’t have cash on me now. You’d better keep the jade plate.”

Old Nanny Qiu immediately understood what had happened and was stunned for a while. “Just take it as a gift. If I keep it, it may even bring me more trouble.”

“Okay, I’ll send the money to your house later.” Lou Cheng accepted the jade plate. “I promised I wouldn’t do anything to you. As long as you don’t let others catch up to you, it’ll be as if I’ve never been here.”

Old Nanny Qiu nodded without saying anything. She then cleaned the dead bodies of the worms and lied back in her original spot.

The rammed earth mysteriously turned soft to accept her and her worms before solidifying again without leaving any trace.

Lou Cheng turned around and dashed out of the house with great caution. He flipped himself over the wall before the monitors could find him and soon vanished in the darkness.

In a quiet place, he glanced at the jade plate and gave his girlfriend a call.

“I got it!”

Having said that, he felt like he was in a dream.

This development was completely beyond his expectations. It had been too easy for him to get the Fighting Formula.

But he soon sighed with relief. It was quite reasonable and logical. If Huang Zihua and his fellows hadn’t attached too much importance to the jade and spooked off Old Nanny Qiu, they would have already gotten it and left no chance to Lou Cheng.

Yan Zheke was enjoying the afternoon when she received Lou Cheng’s message. She soon replied with a jaw-dropping emoji, “Really? So fast?”

She felt like it hadn’t been that long since Cheng left the hotel!

“Yes,” Lou Cheng said proudly. He smilingly told her everything and even sent her a photo of the jade plate.

“It’s really there…” Yan Zheke sighed with relief and then sent an expecting emoji. “Brother Cheng is great! Of course, Sister Ke is great too!”

Lou Cheng burst out laughing and replied happily, “I’ll teach you later.”

Since he gained the Fighting Formula all by myself, why couldn’t he do as he pleased and teach it to his girlfriend?

“Great!” Yan Zheke said. “Hurry up and go back to get some rest! Don’t go wandering around!”

“Okay. But let me inform my master first.” Lou Cheng thought for a while and snickered. “Never mind. I’ll let him know in a few days.”

The military had everything in their grasp and was acting like a parent watching him playing a “game.” Then he wouldn’t say anything and see when they would become impatient and make their move.

“You’re so mean…” Yan Zheke replied, sending a laughing emoji.

Buoyed with joy, Lou Cheng returned to the hotel while humming.

Instead of taking a nap, he took the time to study the changes in his Jindan and made sure that, under the interaction of his Ice and Blaze supernatural abilities, he could drive some energy inside the Jindan.

As for how he should handle the interaction, he still had to study that carefully.

The other gains he made were all things he already felt the moment he saw the jade plate.

Lou Cheng left the hotel after two hours and went to do his morning exercises until sunrise as usual.

…

At 10 AM, Hou Yulin finally received permission to see his senior uncle. On the other side, Huang Zhihua had also met an elder from his sect.