Longevity Martial Arts: Starting from Inner Core Skill

"It’s really you!" Zhu Xiao looked at the familiar face in front of her, not too surprised.

Everyone had been speculating about who had killed the twelve big thieves, but she was the one who had first guessed something.

That person was most likely Wang Sheng.

She knew from their meeting in Jiangyuan City that he was probably in Shuzhou, and she was also aware of how strong Wang Sheng was.

There weren’t many who could kill a Great Grandmaster so easily.

Excluding the Great Grandmasters from Overlord-level powers, the rest were easy to guess.

The intelligence organizations of Spirit Sword Valley and Heavenly Saber City were strong, but her Yuelai Inn was even stronger. Plus, with the Grandmasters from Spirit Sword Valley and Heavenly Saber City having previously made their moves, she quickly found the location of Qingshan Village.

"I’ve never hidden the existence of this place," Wang Sheng said as he poured Zhu Xiao a cup of tea. This was a true guest. In contrast to the previous two, they could only be considered unwelcome guests.

"Who could have thought that a top-notch expert would come from such a small mountain village? But this kind of life is pretty good," she remarked.

If it weren’t for the existence of Yuelai Inn, which required her to control the overall situation, she would have wanted to live this kind of life herself.

But Yuelai Inn was her life’s work; she couldn’t just give up on it. Moreover, there had been a lot to deal with recently, and finding the time to come here was like stealing a moment from her busy life.

Wang Sheng could see Zhu Xiao’s troubles and offered, "Running into some problems? Share them with me, maybe I can offer some advice!"

"It’s nothing big, mainly the shopkeeper in the south wants to request a large batch of food for relief efforts, and the quantity of this batch is very large, so I’ve been a bit busy recently."

"Relief efforts? What happened in the south?"

Wang Sheng knew that Yuelai Inn often provided relief to troubled areas—he had seen it for himself during his travels—so he wasn’t surprised by this.

But what had happened in the south that even Zhu Xiao thought the quantity of food was enormous?

"Floods. Some areas have had continuous heavy rain, causing rivers to breach their banks, leaving people homeless, submerging crops, and leaving nothing for them to eat, so the chief in charge there requested a large amount of food from me."

"Are you sure it’s true?" Zhu Xiao had strong control over Yuelai Inn, but anything could happen in the face of huge interests.

"It’s been confirmed, it’s true. However, some of our warehouses in the south were also flooded, so we need to redirect supplies from other places. Any movement of food beyond a certain amount has to be reported to me, which is why I’ve been quite occupied lately."

Zhu Xiao rubbed her head.

Even with her strength, dealing with these matters felt draining,

especially since this time, the issues were substantial.

Wang Sheng looked at Zhu Xiao and suddenly had an idea, "Is it only your power that’s gathering food?"

Upon hearing this, Zhu Xiao scoffed, "The other powers aren’t so benevolent. In their fight for territory, they’re holding their food supply tight to feed their own experts."

"Which prefectures were hit the hardest?"

"Barbarian State..."

Zhu Xiao listed several prefectures.

Upon hearing this, combined with his own information, Wang Sheng said,

"Spirit Sword Valley has territory in several of these places, haven’t they made a move?"

"They haven’t. Who knows what they’re thinking?" Zhu Xiao shook her head, somewhat indignant.

"They haven’t made a move..."

Wang Sheng felt more and more convinced that his speculation was correct—the twelve big thieves were cultivated by some Overlord-level powers. Find adventures on NovelBin.Côm

The purpose was simple, to gather people’s goodwill.

When the people were desperate, they would appear as their saviors. This way, they could win the greatest amount of goodwill since they saved them from despair.

The floods in the south were the same.

When people starve to a certain point, that’s true desperation.

As long as Spirit Sword Valley appeared at the right time, they could amass huge public support.

Wang Sheng shared his speculation with Zhu Xiao directly.

"There are many ways to gather people’s goodwill. If handled properly, this method can reap great benefits, you know. Martial Artists may understand which prefectures in the south belong to whom.

But for many ordinary people, some probably aren’t even aware that the Great Zhou has fallen. To them, the one who saves them will be their savior!"

Although the speculation was far-fetched, it wasn’t impossible.

Zhu Xiao, who ran a large inn, was well aware of how vicious this strategy was.

But soon she thought of a loophole.

"According to your analysis, the people should be an important ’resource.’ This method would result in the loss of many people, which would be a net loss."

Wang Sheng was taken aback, as this was indeed something that couldn’t be explained.

In the end, neither of them could figure out anything conclusive.

But the seeds of doubt had been planted in their minds.

There were indeed many suspicious aspects to this affair.

Zhu Xiao didn’t stay long; she had too much to deal with.

Before she left, Wang Sheng gave her one last piece of advice.

"It’s best to keep an eye on the food being sent to the south. If things are as we suspect, something unexpected may happen to this batch."

Zhu Xiao nodded, indicating she understood.

But things didn’t end there.

The development of events over the next two months exceeded Wang Sheng’s expectations.

The floods in the south seemed to be only the beginning. Soon, various types of catastrophes appeared in Great Zhou.

And these calamities were very strange.

Floods in the south, blizzards in the north, drought in the west, storms in the east.

These disasters appeared simultaneously, and while they did not affect all regions of Great Zhou, even so, they left countless people homeless and starving.

Some of the news was gathered by people from the Three Great Families, while some were provided by Zhu Xiao.

She frankly stated that her Yuelai Inn had become impossible to manage. There were just too many people affected by the catastrophe; it was far beyond what her single power’s foundation could support.

In the end, she could only reduce her scale of operation, aiding only those nearest to her.

As for other areas, unless Overlord Level forces intervened, to call them a living hell would not be an exaggeration.

Wang Sheng felt it too, in his cultivation. The power of "Incense Fire Faith" that came daily had decreased drastically, leaving only a tiny bit.

He could understand this; he knew that disasters were happening everywhere in Dazhou. People were struggling to survive, and if faith could not save them, who would care about it?

"Although this is good for me and greatly reduces the pressure on my Divine Thought, it’s not a good thing for many people!"

Facing this situation, he didn’t have much of a solution.

He had actually tried using his ability to change the weather to alter the catastrophes, especially in the drought-stricken areas.

But such efforts could only provide temporary relief. As soon as he left, the disasters would return with a vengeance.

However, this also allowed him to ascertain something.

This catastrophe was definitely not normal; it seemed to be influenced by some deeper forces, and his current strength was utterly incapable of reversing the situation.

He couldn’t even manage a temporary cure.

"Indeed, there’s only one solution to this—endure!"

It was unclear how long the catastrophe would last, but for the time being, the only solution seemed to be to outlast these disasters.

However, surviving would require real, substantial resources, and in massive quantities at that.

But such resources could not be provided by just any power, and even if all the Overlord Level forces pitched in, they might not be able to meet the needs in the face of such a vast population in Dazhou.

Time slowly passed, and a month went by, entering the year 540 in the Dazhou calendar, May, with little abatement of the catastrophe.

Every day, people died; the number of deaths caused by the natural disaster was incomparably horrific and beyond count.

First to fall were the physically weak and elderly who couldn’t withstand the crisis.

But still, the Overlord Level forces made no move.

During this time, Wang Sheng had been focused on cultivation, as he had already seen the situation clearly.

Even if he wanted to address the issue, the best method was to improve his own strength.

"Realm—

Refining Essence to Qi. Halting Fire: 49%

Cultivation Technique—

Inner Core Skill (Refining Essence to Qi): Breakthrough +5 (20%)

Ba Duan Jin: Breakthrough +5 (25%)—Blood Qi like Dragon: 30%

Five Elements Fist: Breakthrough +4 (15%)—Five Internal Organs Containing God, Initial Stage: 76%

Yijin Scripture: Breakthrough +4 (35%)—True Body: 86%"

Lifeless Vacuum Sensing Chapter: Breakthrough +1 (15%)

Living—

Planting Skill: Breakthrough +6 (10%) Forging: Breakthrough +1 (1%)

Reading: Breakthrough +1 (35%) Heaven and Earth Dao Rules Analysis: 1 (2%)

Military Formation: 3 (12%)

...

Martial Technique—

Qiankun: Breakthrough +2 (10%) Sword Flight: Breakthrough +1 (1%)

Refining: Breakthrough +1 (35%) God-slaying Sword: 8 (15%)

...

Divine Skills—

Summon Wind and Rain: Breakthrough +1 (10%) Heavenly Thunder: Breakthrough +1 (2%)

Power Sigils: 1 (1%) Sword Transformation Technique: 1 (1%)"

During this period, apart from the time spent researching the "Sword Transformation Technique," what Wang Sheng did most was cultivate the Inner Core Skill, which is why the progress of "Refining Essence to Qi. Halting Fire" increased significantly, and there were two items that achieved a breakthrough.

One was "Sword Flight: Breakthrough +1 (1%)," and the other was forging.

The reason for the breakthrough in Sword Flight was simple; he would occasionally go out to the most severely drought-stricken areas to bring rain. Going back and forth, the frequent use of Sword Flight naturally led to a breakthrough.

The effect of the breakthrough was not ordinary; after breaking through, using Sword Flight, he could now combine man and sword in a simple way, transforming into a rainbow for flight, and the speed of Sword Flight increased a lot.

However, it was still far from the true speed of transforming into a rainbow; it was just faster than before.

Then there was forging, which happened while he was infusing blood-forged steel into a new flying sword.

After the breakthrough, Wang Sheng had tested the effect, which did not apply to the weapons themselves, but allowed for a certain degree of purification of the metal during forging.

This purification did not change the essence, but it increased the quality of the metal, essentially removing some of the meaningless components from the metal.

Of course, since it did not change the essence, it was not of much use to Wang Sheng at the moment.

So he didn’t pay too much attention to it.

Without a breakthrough in strength, no problem could be solved.

But even with a progress bar, a breakthrough in strength could not be achieved in a short period of time.

Zhu Xiao also came by frequently. She had sought out other Overlord Level powers, which had not refused to help, but claimed they were preparing and not ready yet.

Later, Zhu Xiao came to him again, having made a decision: "I’m going to take action. If persuasion doesn’t work, then I’ll resort to coercion! Do you want to join me?"

Wang Sheng pondered for a moment and ultimately nodded.

However, just as they were preparing to act, the Overlord Level forces finally intervened! A massive amount of resources was distributed, exceeding everyone’s expectations!

(Something came up today, so I’m late, but the daily 10,000-word pledge is still fulfilled! Day three, hehe!)