Martial Arts: My talent multiplier increased

Fang Yuan jumped into the well.

Under the control of the eight-fold standing meditation technique, the body used the well wall for leverage three times before silently landing at the bottom. The ground beneath was wet mud. There was no water. A dry well.

The entrance to the transverse passage was on the east side of the well wall, barely concealed by rubble and planks. Fang Yuan pushed aside the planks and bent down to enter.

The air in the passageway was damp and fishy. The smell of earth was mixed with an indescribable acidity—the acidity of rotting organic matter.

Fang Yuan's tripled spiritual perception locked onto the cold signal ahead. The distance was decreasing. Thirty zhang. Twenty zhang. Fifteen zhang.

When they reached ten zhang (approximately 33 meters), Fang Yuan smelled blood.

It wasn't the lingering smell of dried blood. It was fresh.

The passage turned a corner about five zhang ahead. After the corner was a slightly more spacious area—possibly a converted cellar or storage room.

Fang Yuan's sensory network scanned the owner of the cold signal in that space.

Mid-stage of the Bone Refining Realm.

It's a step above the previous ones.

Fang Yuan's steps slowed by half a beat. It wasn't hesitation. He was adjusting the angle of his punch—the passage was too narrow. The Overlapping Wave Fist requires at least three feet of lateral space to complete the standard power transmission path.

This passage is only three feet wide.

The intent of the fist can be used. However, in this space, the efficiency of the third layer of intent will be reduced by at least 20%.

A 20% loss. Fighting a mid-stage Bone Refining Realm cultivator—still within the range of overwhelming power.

Fang Yuan turned the corner.

In the cellar. A man dressed in a dark red short-sleeved shirt stood with his back to him, squatting on the ground. In front of him was an iron cage.

There's someone in the cage.

Fang Yuan's tripled spiritual perception detected an extremely faint signal of life force in the direction of the iron cage. Alive. But as weak as a candle flame that might go out at any moment.

The heretic's right hand reached into the gap of the cage. Dark red fingernails pressed against the back of the person's neck inside.

Semen is being extracted.

Fang Yuan didn't look at it for long.

The fist's intent passed through the three-foot-wide passage. It overlapped in three layers. The power of the third layer was indeed about 20% weaker than that on the ground.

But that's enough.

The moment the fist struck the evil cultivator in the back of the head, his body collapsed limply beside the iron cage, like a puppet whose support had been removed.

The blood and qi signals of a mid-stage Bone Refining Realm cultivator return to zero within ten breaths.

A panel pops up.

"Temporary increase points +1. Current: 4." (After deducting the 1 point already used, net remaining points are 4.)

Fang Yuan walked to the iron cage and squatted down.

The person in the cage was a boy, about fourteen or fifteen years old. His face was ashen, and his lips were chapped. There were two dark red nail marks on the back of his neck—the evil cultivator's fingernails had pierced his skin, but the extraction had only just begun and had not yet reached an irreversible stage.

Fang Yuan slipped his fingers into the gap in the cage. Two fingers rested on the boy's wrist.

The pulse is present. Weak, but steady.

Fang Yuan took out a Qi and Blood Pill from his pocket and put it into the cage.

The lock on the iron cage was an ordinary iron lock. Fang Yuan applied precise force to the lock using his eight times the strength of his hammering technique—not by smashing, but by pinching the connection of the lock cylinder with his thumb and forefinger, applying a shearing force perpendicular to the lock cylinder's axis.

Click.

The lock is open.

Fang Yuan opened the cage door, dragged the boy out, and leaned him against the wall of the passageway. The medicinal power of the Qi and Blood Pill slowly seeped into the boy's meridians. His face changed from ashen to a pale color with a hint of blood.

Fang Yuan did not wait for the boy to wake up.

He absorbed the dark red mist from the evil cultivator's corpse, returned to the wellhead along the same route, and climbed onto the surface.

From entering the well to exiting it. 15 minutes.

The temporary boost to his threefold spiritual power still had more than half an hour left. Fang Yuan stood beside the dry well, expanding his perception range to thirty-seven zhang to scan every alley around him.

There are no other cold signals.

He restored the rubble and planks around the well to their original state. Then he left.

-

The fifth one. On the night of the fifth day.

North of the city. The backyard of a grocery store that was half burned down.

Mid-stage of the Bone Refining Realm.

This was more alert than the fourth one. Just as Fang Yuan's spiritual perception touched the edge of the man's blood and qi signals, the man's head tilted slightly—as if he had sensed something.

But that's about it.

The folding punch struck the back of his head before he could finish tilting his head.

The third punch caused spiderweb-like cracks to appear on the inner wall of his skull. Fang Yuan's eight-fold stance training allowed for extremely precise control over the penetration depth of his energy—the cracks only appeared on the inner wall, while the outer wall remained intact.

From the outside, there were no visible injuries on the head of the body.

Cause of death: Brain death due to visceral concussion.

If the city guard's coroner is skilled enough, he might be able to find out. If not—then it's just "sudden death."

panel.

"Temporary increase in points +1. Current: 5."

Fang Yuan clenched his right palm. Five points. Five chances for temporary boosts.

He never used it. The fourth evil cultivator used up a Soul Amplification, but then replenished it through kills.

Save it up.

Fang Yuan had no idea what level of enemy he would encounter next. He hadn't even touched the stronghold beneath the abandoned mill. The Green Medicine Valley's stronghold was much larger—at least two Refining Realm experts.

Five temporary increase points. They could be the difference of life and death in a critical moment.

Spending money is easy, saving it is hard. Fang Yuan understands this principle more deeply than most people.

-

Day six. Daytime.

When Fang Yuan went out, he noticed that the atmosphere at the alley entrance had changed.

It wasn't that someone was blocking the road. It was that the way the Fang family servants and lower-ranking disciples who were passing by were looking at him had changed.

Previously, those people looked at him as "a rising star from a top-tier courtyard, lucky enough to make a name for himself in the secret realm." Now—Fang Yuan's doubled spiritual perception swept over the facial muscles of several servants—awe. A hint of excitement. And a few hushed whispers.

"...It's him...the patrol captain..."

"...The city guards discovered the corpses of five heretical cultivators, all during his patrol period..."

"...A heretical cultivator in the mid-stage of Bone Refinement, killed without a second thought..."

Fang Yuan's steps remained unchanged.

The news spread faster than he had anticipated. He had deliberately left the body on the city guards' patrol route, intending to force the city lord's mansion to take the Blood Demon Cult's threat seriously. But the city guards were clearly not as tight-lipped as he had thought—or rather, stories of "young heroes" naturally spread. Lower-ranking martial artists needed the thought that "someone is protecting them." This thought was more effective than any announcement from the city lord's mansion.

When Fang Yuan arrived at the entrance of the Fang family's martial arts hall, the two disciples guarding the gate stood up straight at the same time.

It's not just politeness. It's a conditioned reflex.

Fang Yuan ignored him and went straight in.

Fang Yuanshan was waiting for him in the back room of the martial arts hall.

The door to the back hall was closed. When Fang Yuan pushed the door open and went in, Fang Yuanshan was sitting behind a table, holding a piece of paper in his hand. Fang Yuan couldn't see the words on the paper, but he recognized the material—it was the official paper of the city guards. There was a copper seal of the city lord's mansion on the corner.

Fang Yuanshan placed the note on the table, pressing his finger against one corner of it.

"The city guards have discovered five corpses of heretical cultivators in the west and north of the city in the past few days."

Fang Yuanshan's voice wasn't loud. His speech was a beat slower than usual.

"Each of them died from a severe head injury. The method was identical. All of them occurred after curfew."