Martial Arts: My talent multiplier increased

Thirty li outside Liangshui City.

barren mountain.

Fang Yuan stood on a protruding rock platform, looking down at the temporary camp below.

Three camps were set up on either side of the valley entrance, separated by a buffer zone of about 100 feet, with flags crisscrossing and figures moving about. The Liangshui City camp was set up below the eastern ridge, with the gray-blue Fang family flag and two other small clan flags standing side by side, flapping in the morning breeze.

To the west lies Blackrock City's territory. The number of tents there is more than double that of Coldwater City, and the black flags with red stripes are pulled low, like snakes lying on the ground.

The people from Yunyan City arrived last, heading due south. They didn't set up camp, but instead erected a few simple cloth sheds on a flat, rocky area outside the valley entrance.

The people in the three cities can see each other and smell the smoke wafting from each other's stoves.

It wasn't tense enough to warrant a confrontation. But no one was laughing.

Two people were standing behind Fang Yuan.

Fang Qi and Fang Zheng, both members of the Fang family, are at the early stage of the Bone Refining Realm and come from a collateral branch of the main family. They were personally selected by Fang Zhengkun to be Fang Yuan's teammates.

So-called teammates.

Before setting off, Fang Yuan glanced at the two men and immediately understood their roles—not as helpers, but as witnesses. Fang Zhengkun needed a pair of eyes from both families to follow Fang Yuan, to see what he did in the secret realm, what he took, and the extent of his abilities.

Two early-stage Bone Refining Realm cultivators could offer very limited assistance in the Hundred Beast Cave. However, they had one advantage—they were obedient.

Fang Qi was a man of few words; in the three hours since leaving the city, he had uttered only seven words. Fang Zheng was slightly more talkative, but not ineffective. He asked what needed to be asked and kept quiet about what shouldn't be asked.

It works.

Fang Yuan withdrew his gaze from the three camps and focused on a more distant location.

South of the valley entrance, behind the cloth-shed area of ​​Yunyan City, there is a clearing mostly shaded by low pine trees. Four carriages are parked in the clearing.

The iron parts on the shaft were polished to a shine, the carriage was made of black lacquered nanmu wood, and the wheel hubs were covered with a thin layer of iron.

Two weeks ago, the information that Fang Ping had gathered finally matched up with the actual situation today.

The Lin family of Qingyun County.

Liangshui City is nested within a prefecture city, and the prefecture city is nested within a state city. Fang Yuan doesn't know much about the world outside Liangshui City, but the five characters "Lin Family of Qingyun Prefecture" occupy three whole pages in the intelligence booklet he bought for twenty taels of silver.

A first-class aristocratic family in the prefecture. The family's heritage spans over three hundred years.

There is at least one ancestor at the True Essence Realm.

Even if the three major families of Liangshui City were combined, they wouldn't even be worthy of carrying shoes for the Lin family.

Why would a force of this caliber come to a dilapidated hole near Liangshui City to cause trouble?

Fang Yuan's eyelids twitched slightly.

He didn't continue thinking about it. Forcing in insufficient information would only lead to the wrong answer.

"Let's go. Let's set up camp."

The three people walked down the scree slope from the rocky platform.

Fang Qi led the way, with Fang Zheng bringing up the rear. Fang Yuan sat between them, walking at a moderate pace.

As Fang Yuan passed the edge of the Liangshuicheng military camp, he saw a familiar face.

Zhao An, the deputy instructor of the Fang Family Martial Arts Hall, is in his early forties and at the mid-stage of the Bone Refining Realm. He was sent by Fang Zhengkun as the team leader, responsible for coordinating peripheral affairs in Liangshui City. Fang Yuan had met Zhao An a few times at the Martial Arts Hall; he was a man of few words, but extremely upright in his actions.

Zhao An saw Fang Yuan and took two steps forward to greet him.

"Fang Yuan. The tent is in the third row, the second one from the left. Rest when you arrive; the entrance is expected to open around noon."

Fang Yuan nodded.

Zhao An hesitated, as if he wanted to say something but then stopped.

Fang Yuan didn't leave. He waited.

"...The City Lord's Mansion has finalized the list of participants. There are eight spots in total for Liangshui City, with the Fang family taking three. The other five were distributed among the Liu family and several independent cultivator forces." Zhao An lowered his voice. "Twelve people have come from Black Stone City, led by Zhou Tieshan from the Zhou family. He's at the late stage of the Bone Refining Realm."

Late stage of Bone Refining Realm.

Fang Yuan quickly searched his mind for entries about the Zhou family of Blackrock City in the intelligence booklet. Zhou Tieshan, nineteen years old, the leading figure among the younger generation in Blackrock City. He was skilled with a heavy hammer, and it was said that he could smash two feet thick granite into dust with a single blow.

"What about Yunyan City?"

"The Zhao family's twin brothers, Zhao Feng and Zhao Lei. Both are in the late stage of the Bone Refining Realm." Zhao An frowned slightly. "But these two are strange. They're not top-tier in one-on-one combat, but it's hard to say what they're like when they're together. I heard they've practiced a combined attack technique called something like Thunder and Wind Annihilation—"

"Array." Fang Yuan added the last word for him.

Zhao An glanced at him.

Fang Yuan didn't explain. He had spent a lot of money to specifically buy the combat power assessment of the Zhao family twins from the intelligence booklet. Their combined attack was equivalent to a combat power level half a rank higher. Two late-stage Bone Refining Realm cultivators combined were equivalent to one early-stage Dirty Refining Realm cultivator.

This number deserves serious attention.

"There's another group." Zhao An's tone changed, becoming even lower. "The Lin family's convoy. They also got a spot."

"How many people?"

"Uncertain. The team rejected the joint registration from the three cities this morning. They said they are independent participants and not under the jurisdiction of the three cities."

Fang Yuan lightly scratched the token at his waist with his fingers.

Independent participant.

When the Lin family of Qingyun County arrived in Liangshui City, they did not align themselves with any of the three cities and entered the secret realm on their own.

Either they are so confident that they don't need to form alliances.

Either they go in to retrieve something, or they can't let Sancheng know.

"Understood." Fang Yuan walked towards the third row of tents.

Zhao An watched his back from behind, his lips moved slightly, but he ultimately didn't call out.

What he wanted to say was: Fang Yuan, you're only sixteen. Don't try to be a hero once you're inside.

But he recalled the image of Teng kneeling on the bluestone slab above the martial arts arena.

Those words remained stuck in my throat.

The tent was very basic. A roll of hay was laid on the ground mat, and a tin canteen and a bag of dry food were placed in the corner.

Fang Yuan did not lie down. He sat cross-legged on the straw mat and took out his personal supplies one by one from his backpack to check them.

Thirty Qi and Blood Pills are packed in six small tin cans, five pills in each can.

Three Yangyan Pills. These were experimental pills he had made using a new formula in the secret chamber of Baicaotang. Their efficacy hadn't been verified in actual combat, but theoretically, they could significantly boost the explosive power of Qi and blood in a short time. The side effect was a 30% decrease in the speed of Qi and blood circulation for two hours after consumption.

Ten portions of high-purity Qi and Blood Soup were packaged in bamboo tubes and sealed with wax.

Fang Yuan put everything back into his backpack and tied it tightly.

Then he opened his right palm.

The panel glowed faintly in the dim tent.

Host: Fang Yuan

Realm: Mid-stage Bone Refining Realm

Root Bone Talent: 4x (Level 4 amplification requires 10000 taels of silver)

Stance Training Talent: 4x (Level 4 amplification requires 1000 taels of silver)

Comprehension Talent: 2x (Level 3 amplification requires 10000 taels of silver)

Divine Soul Talent: 2x (Level 2 amplification requires 1000 taels of silver)

Current savings: 897 taels of silver

Divine Soul Talent.

A new dimension was unlocked two weeks ago. A thousand taels of silver were spent, but the result was unlike any previous boost.

Root bone alters the physical body. Stance training alters control. Enlightenment alters comprehension.

The soul alters perception.

On the night his doubled Divine Soul Talent was activated, Fang Yuan experienced something beyond his five senses for the first time. He closed his eyes, expanded his consciousness outward, and all the information within a thirty-foot radius flooded into his brain like a tide—not through his eyes and ears, but by directly "knowing" it.

There was someone moving behind the wall. He knew the distance between the person's steps, the shift in their center of gravity, and the frequency of their blood and qi fluctuations.

He could discern the composition and concentration of any scent in the air without even smelling it.

He could feel the tiny vibrations as insects crawled underground.

Thirty zhang (approximately 33 meters).