Early the next morning.
Before dawn, Lu Tao got up early to cultivate.
Moo...
With the Bull Body Refining Technique at its perfect state, Lu Tao could control the volume of his mooing at will, so it wouldn't disturb the neighbors.
Half an hour later, the last bottle of medicine was also used up.
After a quick wash, Lu Tao took advantage of the early morning light and went to the medicine shop with some silver to buy several bottles of medicine.
At this time, the Axe Gang members were exhausted from the extensive search the previous night and were fast asleep, not yet awake.
Lu Tao wasn't worried about being seen by the Axe Gang and arousing suspicion.
On his way back, Lu Tao happened to run into the owner, He Zongming, as he passed by the martial arts shop. They greeted each other but didn't say anything. However, He Zongming became even more convinced of his suspicions.
Lu Tao didn't care.
When he took out the house deed to exchange for the martial arts manual, he was already prepared to be suspected by He Zongming. He believed that a shrewd person like He Zongming, who had lived for decades, would never inform on him to the Axe Gang.
Firstly, the martial arts shop and the Axe Gang had almost no business dealings, so he didn't need to curry favor with the Axe Gang.
Secondly, Lu Tao's rapid improvement in such a short time made him hesitant to offend him, fearing retaliation later.
In fact, just as Lu Tao had guessed, He Zongming did not report him.
At this moment, He Zongming would rather offend the Axe Gang than offend Lu Tao, who had suddenly become unpredictable.
After returning home.
Lu Tao ate two steamed buns, and then continued his cultivation without wasting a moment.
Lu Tao didn't slowly come out of the room until Wu Ming ran over to help start the fire.
"Brother Tao, you slept in today?"
Wu Ming is only eight years old and very lively. His family is not well-off. He usually studies at school and comes to help out during holidays.
Lu Tao was quite generous, giving him three coins a day for helping out.
Of course, he could only help with the fire; he couldn't do anything else.
"Sigh, blacksmithing is too tiring, I want to sleep a little longer."
Lu Tao stretched and casually asked, "Xiao Ming, what are you planning to do in the future? Do you want me to teach you blacksmithing?"
Wu Ming shook his head and said, "I want to practice martial arts, but..."
He lowered his head as he spoke. His family was poor and couldn't afford cultivation manuals, especially body-refining techniques, which were usually more expensive than sword techniques, knife techniques, and fist manuals, so they couldn't afford them.
Lu Tao patted Wu Ming on the head and said, "Work hard, you'll have opportunities in the future."
"Yes, I will."
Lu Tao did not explicitly state that he wanted to teach Wu Ming martial arts.
The original owner didn't teach it because the Bull Body Refining Technique was passed down to him by his father, who spent half his life's savings to buy it. How could he easily pass it on to others?
Furthermore, there are regulations imposed by the martial arts shops. Martial arts techniques purchased from these shops are not allowed to be passed on to outsiders. If discovered, both sides will have to pay a large sum of money in compensation.
Lu Tao himself didn't care, but he didn't want to create any more trouble since the Axe Gang was still a threat.
Of course, it will only take a day or two.
"You start the fire first, I'll go chop some firewood and come back."
Lu Tao gave a few instructions, picked up his axe, and went out. He soon returned with a large bundle of firewood.
Then, as before, break it into sticks of roughly the same length to prepare for making chopsticks and obtaining Creation Points.
"Brother Tao, what are you doing?"
Wu Ming, pulling the bellows, tilted his head and asked with some curiosity.
"Make them into chopsticks and sell them for money."
Wu Ming pursed his lips and said, "Brother Tao, you should just give up. Dry firewood can't be used to make chopsticks, and no one will buy it."
Lu Tao smiled but offered no explanation.
A moment later, the iron block was heated, and Lu Tao began to forge it, then asked Wu Ming to help him cut tree branches.
Wu Ming had no choice but to continue reminding Tao Ge, but seeing him so focused on forging iron, he could only obediently continue working.
Actually, Lu Tao did this mainly to try to see if making an item required him to complete all the steps, or if he could just complete the last step.
Another option is to farm experience points. Is it feasible for others to help farm experience points?
Lu Tao quickly received the answer.
feasible.
Whether it's helping to craft items or gain experience, other people can lend a hand.
What surprised Lu Tao even more was that he discovered that once the item's experience points were maxed out, they could continue to increase.
【Chopsticks: 3/1 (Upgradeable) (Rough chopsticks, seemingly useful, but actually useless; using them for eating can easily lead to bloodshed.)
Looking at the text description on the chopsticks in Wu Ming's hand, Lu Tao was very happy; this was truly an unexpected delight.
Previously, when Lu Tao was grinding for experience, whenever he had enough experience to level up, he would simply choose to level up without giving it much thought. Who knew that now, when Wu Ming casually stirred the water in the wooden basin, he would discover that experience could be gained regardless of level.
"That would make things even more convenient."
Lu Tao was secretly pleased, and then handed a large bundle of chopsticks to Wu Ming, instructing him to hold the chopsticks and stir them in the wooden basin.
"Brother Tao, these chopsticks are really useless, they're just like dry firewood."
Wu Ming was completely puzzled, unable to understand the significance of the task that Brother Tao had given him, and even wanted to refuse.
However, when Lu Tao took out five coins, Wu Ming happily grabbed a wooden stick and began to vigorously stir the water in a large basin that contained only half a bowl of rice.
Seeing his experience with chopsticks growing rapidly, Lu Tao was delighted.
...
The Axe Gang.
A group of people searched until late last night but found nothing.
At this moment, all the members of the Axe Gang gathered together to discuss the murder of Wang Jinshan.
The Axe Gang even suspected that other Blood Refining Realm experts in Dafeng Town were responsible, and wanted to eliminate the Axe Gang members one by one.
However, this speculation was directly refuted by Shen Guangxi, the strategist of the Axe Gang.
There are only a handful of people at the Blood Refining Realm in Dafeng Town. Most of the others have no conflict of interest with the Axe Gang. The only one who wants to eliminate the Axe Gang is the town mayor of Dafeng Town.
Unfortunately, the town mayor had neither the power nor the courage.
Although he possessed the Blood Refining Realm, he dared not attack the Axe Gang unless he disregarded the lives of his entire family.
Moreover, with his nearly eighty-year-old physique, he was no match for the Axe Gang leader. He had been hiding for so many years, how could he suddenly jump out to seek death?
Compared to the town mayor, Shen Guangxi was more suspicious of the Three Wolves Gang from the neighboring town.
The Three Wolves Gang recently attempted to seize a spiritual herb from the Axe Gang. The two gangs have been secretly vying for power, and a large-scale conflict could erupt at any moment.
Therefore, the Axe Gang has been recruiting members recently and has also been exploiting blacksmiths like Lu Tao to forge weapons for them.
Thinking about these worries, Shen Guangxi couldn't help but rub his temples.
Shen Guangxi is a middle-aged man who appears refined and easygoing, but has a somewhat effeminate appearance. He is notorious for his ruthlessness in Dafeng Town.
Some people had privately commented that his personality was effeminate, like a woman, which enraged him.
The man who talked about him was pickled and then forced to squat in front of him and urinate like a woman every day.
If a woman talked about him, he would kidnap her entire family and bring them to the Axe Gang, where he would humiliate the woman in front of her family.
After this incident, very few people in Dafeng Town dared to talk about him behind his back anymore.
The Axe Gang's subordinates were also terrified of him.
“Tell me everything that you found wrong or unreasonable during your search yesterday.”
"Remember, it's all of them."
“Regardless of whether it’s related to hiding things or whether it’s related to killing Wang Jinshan, tell us in detail everything that you think is unusual.”
Shen Guangxi's face was gloomy, and he made all the gang members recall in detail all the details of the search last night.
Originally, Shen Guangxi did not intend to take over this matter. He was currently working with the leader of the Axe Gang to research how to refine pills using spiritual herbs, which was the real important matter.
As a result, this group of useless people searched all night and found nothing, not even a single clue, let alone the murderer or the weapon.
Left with no other choice, he had to handle the assassination attempt himself.
As one by one, the gang members raised doubts, Shen Guangxi carefully examined them and eliminated them one by one.
For example, there was someone who had a grudge against Wang Jinshan. He was at the mid-stage of the Skin Refining realm. During the time when Wang Jinshan was assassinated, he happened to be taking a dump, and it lasted for more than fifteen minutes...
Shen Guangxi knew that this person suffered from external hemorrhoids, did not know archery, was poor, could not afford advanced weapons, etc... so he was ruled out.
For example, someone might say they were drinking at a bar and stumbled home, but when they mention the time, their words contain inaccuracies and omissions.
Shen Guangxi knew that this man was actually having an affair with a widow, so the timing didn't match up, and he wasn't strong enough to kill Wang Jinshan... so he was ruled out.
For example...
...
As they were eliminated one by one, the number of suspects left decreased.
Just then, one of the gang members suddenly said, "I found something suspicious when I searched Lu Tao's house."
Shen Guangxi asked, "What's suspicious? Explain in detail."
He didn't rule out Lu Tao just because he was only at the early stage of skin refining, but instead asked him questions carefully before making a judgment.
"I don't know if it is, it's just a guess."
The man paused, then continued, "I smelled a faint medicinal scent all over his room. As you know, even when a bottle is opened, the smell of medicine usually doesn't spread much. Even if it does, it's only in a small area, not filling the entire room. Only when the medicine is applied all over the body will the whole room be filled with the smell. But Lu Tao's room was full of the smell of medicine, albeit very faintly. Of course, it could also be lingering from when he used the medicine last time, but as far as I know, Lu Tao received his payment yesterday, so..."
"What do you mean? I don't quite understand."
The burly Yang Feng couldn't help but ask, feeling completely bewildered.
Shen Guangxi glared at Yang Feng and explained, "What he meant was that after Lu Tao used the medicine, he absorbed it very thoroughly, and the effects of the medicine were basically absorbed by him, with not much being released, so the smell of medicine in the room was very faint."
"Is there a problem with this? Isn't this normal?" Yang Feng asked, puzzled.
"That idiot."
Shen Guangxi cursed under his breath, suppressing his anger as he explained, "Absorption, absorption is very thorough, don't you understand? If Lu Tao bought the medicine to cultivate yesterday, and he absorbed it so thoroughly, the absorption of the medicine's effects would probably be more than 70% or 80%, which means that his understanding of the body-refining technique has at least reached the great success level, or even the perfect level. Do you understand now?"
"Damn, I get it. You mean this brat was hiding his true abilities? He actually has excellent comprehension, but he's concealing his cultivation level. Last night..."
Yang Feng suddenly realized what was going on, but before he could finish speaking, Shen Guangxi interrupted him with a weary expression, "He didn't hide his cultivation level. Wang Jinshan often beats him up, how could he not see his cultivation level?"
"Oh, I see. You mean he mastered a martial art to a high level or even perfect level in a short period of time?" Yang Feng finally realized.
"Well, if he was naturally gifted, there's no reason for him to have kept it hidden for so many years."
Shen Guangxi nodded and continued, "Of course, all of this is based on the premise that he used the potion to cultivate last night."
"Go and check if Lu Tao bought any medicine last night."
The investigation results came out quickly.
Lu Tao not only bought one bottle of medicine last night, but also bought six more this morning.
Upon hearing this, Yang Feng flew into a rage and said, "Damn it, it must be that bastard. He took Wang Jinshan's money."
Shen Guangxi was somewhat surprised.
Although they investigated Lu Tao more thoroughly than others who were directly ruled out, he didn't really believe that Lu Tao killed Wang Jinshan, because the guess was somewhat absurd.
However, the result was unexpected.
If Lu Tao had only bought one bottle of medicine last night, it wouldn't prove anything. But he bought six more this morning, so Lu Tao is undoubtedly the prime suspect.
"Yang Feng, take ten brothers and go capture Lu Tao. Remember, he must be alive."
Shen Guangxi gave the instructions.
He suddenly became extremely interested in Lu Tao. How could this person have changed so much?
What secrets does he hold?
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