He transformed from a fierce tiger pillar into a martial saint.

Tulong Mountain is a low but long, undulating hill.

Tulong Mountain is also the natural boundary between Zhouping County and Gaoqing County.

In recent years, Gaoqing County has suffered from natural factors such as river drying up and groundwater sinking, resulting in a sharp decline in grain production. In addition, the county government is plagued by infighting and corruption, leading to instability among the people and the rampant gangs. Underground churches have taken advantage of this situation to expand their membership.

Fortunately, the Tulong Mountain acted as a barrier, preventing the disaster from reaching Zhouping County.

However, many refugees and bandits eventually disappeared into Tulong Mountain. Some sought refuge from disaster, some from debt, some from exorbitant taxes, and some from government investigations.

Although Mount Tulong is not high, its complex and secluded terrain makes it a natural hiding place.

It is located in a hidden cave on the side of Tulong Mountain near Zhouping County.

The cave was covered by branches and vines outside, and the interior was spacious and dry, with beds, bowls and other living supplies.

At this moment, three people are carefully searching inside the cave.

However, it took a full half hour to search.

They only found four or five taels of silver.

"These bandits have been running rampant in this area for months, and they rarely dare to show themselves in the city. They spend very little money, so they must have accumulated quite a bit. How could they only have four or five taels of silver?!"

The leader was Wei Yixiao, the head of one of the three major branches of the Flying Eagle Gang, a late-stage Dark Force martial artist.

Several nearby villages could not tolerate these bandits, and the government was short-handed and unable to come to suppress them. Therefore, they spent their own money to hire the Flying Eagle Gang to deal with these bandits.

The Flying Eagle Gang also took the opportunity to make exorbitant demands, asking for not only silver but also cattle and sheep.

In the past, these villagers would have been very reluctant to part with their flesh. But recently, these villages had suffered from bandits for too long, especially the daughters of several wealthy families who had been brutally murdered. Only then did they reluctantly cut off pieces of flesh to gather enough to make the donation.

After Wei Yixiao and his men received their commission, they sent a trusted confidant to track and scout out the location of the four bandits.

Then, Wei Yixiao brought two trusted men to kill the bandits, only to find that they were not in the cave.

They searched the place thoroughly, but found no silver, banknotes, or other valuables; they only found a map.

This route map was drawn by the bandits when they robbed Chu Yang's family; it was used to deduce and plan their strategy.

After discovering the route map, Wei Yixiao and his group followed it to search.

The dry well happened to be the place they passed on the route map. Wei Yixiao and his group unexpectedly discovered that the stones around the dry well showed signs of loosening, as well as some footprints. Upon investigation, they found the bodies of four bandits buried inside.

Since the four bandits were dead, Wei Yixiao claimed credit for killing them and made the villagers pay the remaining amount.

This time, they returned to the cave where the bandits were hiding to search for supplies.

"Master, here's an account book!"

One of his confidants slammed his hand on the table, causing it to shake and the tea tray to tilt. He then discovered a small ledger hidden beneath the tray.

Another trusted confidant's eyes lit up: "This is a classic case of the unseen being right under our noses! Quickly check the account books! There might be some silver notes hidden inside!"

Wei Yixiao watched as the two searched through the account books, but found no silver notes inside.

Wei Yixiao's heart skipped a beat: "Bring me the account books."

The two trusted confidants immediately handed the account books to Wei Yixiao.

Wei Yixiao picked up the account book and flipped through it.

The handwriting on these pages is all recent, recording how much silver was looted from nearby villages during this period.

Snapped!

Wei Yixiao slammed the account book heavily on the table, his face ashen.

According to the account book, the four bandits robbed at least a thousand taels of silver. Even if they spent a hundred taels a month, they would only have spent four hundred taels in four months, leaving them with six hundred taels.

Six hundred taels, that's quite a lot!

The money that several villages nearby pooled together to hire them to kill the bandits amounted to only one hundred taels of silver.

"The person who killed the bandit must be the one who received the six hundred taels of silver!"

A cold glint flashed in Wei Yixiao's eyes: "Six hundred taels of silver is important, but the identity of the murderer is even more important. Those four corpses haven't been dealt with yet, have they?"

Both trusted confidants nodded.

Wei Yixiao exerted force with his hand, and a table cracked with a crisp sound.

As one of the three major gangs in the outer city of Zhouping County, the Flying Eagle Gang has accurate information on all areas under its reach and will not allow any uncontrollable situation to exist.

Now that the sphere of influence in the outer city area has been established, the Flying Eagle Gang wants to extend its reach into the countryside. Especially after this experience of being hired to kill bandits, he has witnessed the considerable potential for exploitation in the countryside.

Since we're going to extend our reach here, we need to understand the entire situation in this area and ensure there are no uncontrollable factors.

The person who killed the four bandits was the biggest uncontrollable factor.

Wei Yixiao said in a deep voice, "Let's go to the home of Zhang Yuping, the coroner at the county government."

Both of Wei Yixiao's trusted confidants understood that Wei Yixiao was determined to find the person who killed the four bandits.

After a preliminary examination of the four bandits' bodies, Wei Yixiao determined that the killer was a martial artist.

However, due to factors such as the crushing of boulders and the mixing of mud, Wei Yixiao was ultimately not a professional coroner and was unable to make a more accurate judgment.

……

Tiger Roar Martial Arts School.

Guo Molin's face was full of excitement.

"Senior Brother Chu Yang, you corrected a few of my postures just now, and everything that felt off has disappeared!"

"thank you……"

Guo Molin was so excited that he became somewhat incoherent.

He doesn't usually talk to many people at the martial arts school, and coupled with his own inferiority complex, he has a somewhat repressed personality.

Now, meeting Chu Yang, whom he knew from childhood, and receiving guidance from him, allows him to relax a bit from his stressful martial arts career while chatting.

Chu Yang could sense Guo Molin's sincerity, without any affectation, and smiled slightly: "It's alright. These next few days, just practice the corrected standing posture, persisting until you feel your leg tendons swell and heat up, then rest a little. Repeat this process to accumulate qi and blood in your legs and open up the leg tendons."

Guo Molin nodded repeatedly.

It was now late afternoon (Shen Shi).

Many fellow disciples also gradually arrived at the outer courtyard martial arts training ground from the disciples' rest room.

"Isn't that the guy who just entered the outer courtyard, Guo Molin?"

"That's right, it was him. A few days ago, the cornbread he brought from home had already gone sour, so I threw it away! The kid wasn't happy about it!"

"That must be... Chu Yang, the top student in this year's external affairs exam! Is he giving Guo Molin pointers?"

Several disciples who had not yet reached the Ming Jin level were talking in hushed tones.

Several veteran Ming Jin disciples couldn't help but sneer at the sight.

"Does this Chu Yang really think that once he reaches the mid-stage of Ming Jin, his path will be smooth sailing? He's even started acting like a teacher? The difficulty of tempering tendons is no less than that of tempering blood..."

A man wearing a gray training shirt couldn't help but shake his head.

If other Ming Jin disciples had said this, they would probably have been accused of being jealous.

However, this Ming Jin disciple is named Bai Changyuan, and he is now at the peak of Ming Jin!

His rise during the Mingjin era was no less rapid than Chu Yang's!

Even Bai Changyuan, among others, only considers himself an objective evaluator.