Holy body, start with the Five Animal Exercises

69: Lu Xuanwu, fishing lantern festivalSpeaking of this, Lu Xuanwu’s expression turned wary, even a little flustered.

“That army of white bones covered the mountains and plains; a rough estimate would put them at several thousand strong. I only managed to return with great difficulty by using all my strength, but I don’t know how Magistrate Long is doing now.”

“Magistrate Long should be fine now. He returned to the Inner City once before, but then he left in a hurry,” Sun Qianzhao said.

After he returned today, his house steward told him that Long Yuesheng had come to look for him, but left directly after learning he wasn’t there.

He had asked the house steward, and at that time, Magistrate Long had no injuries on him, only looking a bit travel-worn.

Lu Xuanwu nodded, his hanging heart relaxing slightly.

“Regardless, we must first inform all parties and prepare for the response. I suspect this might be a precursor to the Tide of Anomalies, and it probably won’t be long before the Tide of Anomalies erupts.”

Hearing this, everyone’s hearts jolted in surprise—the Tide of Anomalies!

This was truly a very ancient name; Black Mountain City had not experienced a Tide of Anomalies for decades.

However, according to records, every time a Tide of Anomalies erupted, it was accompanied by a large number of casualties.

Especially these Gang members, who usually wielded power and influence, would definitely be sent to the front lines as cannon fodder if a Tide of Anomalies broke out.

Although most of those who died were ordinary Gang members, they still needed to personally deal with some Advanced anomalies.

And with so many anomalies in the Tide of Anomalies, who knew if they would be surrounded and killed?

Lu Xuanwu was not surprised by everyone’s reaction, but he was still somewhat disappointed.

He recalled that when he was still in the Bronze Bell Sect, he was just a minor second-rate martial artist, yet he dared to go with his Senior Brother from the sect to the areas where the Tide of Anomalies erupted, facing life and death countless times!

If not for the limitations of his talent, with the ruthlessness he had back then, he would never have been relegated to this position.

And even so, he still became a Grandmaster-level expert.

Almost everyone among these people in front of him had higher talent than him, yet not a single one had achieved the Grandmaster realm.

Except for Qin Jiang.

He looked at Qin Jiang and saw a hint of worry in his eyes, but no shrinking back. This alone made him stronger than Lu Xuanwu himself now.

“According to the rules of those years, our Red Tiger Gang is responsible for the south side of the city. You all must assist Chief Qin well and not bring shame to the Red Tiger Gang.”

Yes, he had never believed that Black Mountain City could keep its walls intact under the assault of the Tide of Anomalies.

He had experienced several Tides of Anomalies, and without sufficient top-tier combat power, it was almost impossible to defend the city walls without them being breached.

Each time, there would be a large number of civilian casualties.

It was only because there were too many cities in Great Xia, nearly a thousand, coupled with Huai Country and several surrounding countries constantly eyeing them, that the Tide of Anomalies didn’t seem like a major threat.

“Your subordinate understands! I will do my best to assist Chief Qin!” Kong Hai spoke directly, without the slightest hesitation.

The others also expressed that they would go all out.

“Good, in that case, please return, everyone. This old man needs to rest,” Lu Xuanwu said.

After everyone left, he sat in his chair, his body relaxing slightly, as if all his spirit and energy had been drained in an instant, his face turning ashen.

He covered his mouth with a handkerchief and coughed softly, a faint trace of crimson visible.

He got up and walked to a clothes rack on the side, where a black night-traveling suit hung. He had been wearing this very suit when he blew the whistle earlier.

Arriving in front of the pillar next to the clothes rack, he gently pressed his palm onto it, and a surge of force instantly spread through the pillar.

A rustling sound of falling debris echoed, and the pillar in front of him gradually turned into sand and scattered to the ground, revealing what was inside.

It was a seven-meter-long spear, entirely black, engraved with tiger-shaped patterns.

He picked up the spear, his fingertips gently caressing it, his eyes filled with memories, “Old friend, I wonder if there will be another chance for us to fight.”

He carried the spear back to his chair and sat down, placing the spear across his lap.

Looking outside, the moonlight was gone, obscured by dark clouds, making the entire courtyard appear dim.

“There will be, there must be a time.”

A few days later, at Anxin Villa, Meng An directed people to bring in antiques and old items.

These were the last batch he could buy with money; currently, Black Mountain City, if not completely scoured by him, at most only had some particularly valuable items left.

Furthermore, a large portion of them had joined the local Family alliance, backed by powerful forces, so he couldn’t openly seize them. He could only wait until the boss had time to personally make a trip.

Creak~

The wooden door opened, and Qin Jiang walked out from inside, his black gold auspicious cloud robe covering his muscular physique, making him appear only somewhat tall.

His waist-length hair had been trimmed to shoulder-length, falling casually, giving him a sense of a graceful Young Master, yet subtly hinting at a wildness within.

“Boss, everything is here for now. These are the remaining handbooks, all in the hands of some Families in the city.”

Meng An handed over a booklet, which Qin Jiang took and flipped through.

It recorded the antiques and old items owned by each Family; the quantity was not very large, totaling just over a hundred pieces.

Putting away the booklet, he looked at the three piles of antiques and old items in the courtyard. The leftmost pile was the largest, the middle one slightly less, and the rightmost one the smallest, with only about a dozen pieces.

Meng An pointed at them and said, “Boss, the leftmost pile is what we collected ourselves. This middle pile was sent by Young Miss Xu, and the purchase price was seven-tenths lower than the market price.

As for the rightmost pile, as you requested, those with that specific pattern, there are sixteen pieces in total.”

Qin Jiang’s eyes moved slightly, “Yanran even had someone specially send some over?”

Meng An nodded, “Not just ‘some,’ this is probably ninety percent of the Xu Family’s stock!”

Qin Jiang smiled, said nothing more, and walked to the far right. He picked up an item, which was a curved bronze fragment, looking like part of a bronze pot.

Unfortunately, this piece had no potential points.

Suddenly, his eyes lit up as a seemingly more complete bronze beast-patterned mask came into view.

Picking up the mask, [Potential points absorbing... 0.20... 0.30... 0.4]

[Potential Points: 318.6]

Even more than the previous Nightmare Beast-patterned bronze mask!

He carefully observed this beast pattern, which was somewhat different from the Nightmare Beast pattern he had seen before.

That Nightmare Beast pattern resembled a lion, while this mask looked more like a tiger.

Without further thought, his palm gently brushed over the remaining few pieces.

[Potential Points: 336.8]

Indeed, the antiques from Ancient Yu Country contained more potential points than ordinary antiques and old items.

If he had time, he should definitely learn more about this Ancient Yu Country.

Without stopping, he successively touched the remaining two piles.

[Potential Points: 398.2]

Qin Jiang’s eyes couldn’t help but show excitement; he was less than two points away from the four-hundred mark!

Once he thoroughly scoured these Families in the city again, he should be able to gather five hundred potential points.

Knock, knock, knock.

A knock on the door sounded, and Qin Jiang turned to look. He saw Xu Yanran standing by the door, her hand still raised from knocking on the wooden door, a section of her arm exposed, like white jade.

Today, she seemed to have specially dressed up, wearing a pink silk skirt, her demeanor gentle, just as it was when they first met.

“Young Master Qin, you said you would come to pick up Yanran, how could you forget? Could it be that you even forgot about accompanying Yanran to the Fishing Lantern Festival?”