Farewell (2)

"The Li clan is only relevant within its own territory, so they're not a big problem. But the same can't be said for... Oops, sorry, but if you want to get any more information, you'll have to pay, okay?" the masked person said mockingly.

Long Ming was quiet again, then reached into his sleeve and pulled out three gold coins.

"Would that be enough?" he asked.

"Hmm, yes, you can hear some things with this," the masked person said as he took the three gold coins.

"You see, the Li clan seems to be financed by a foreign organization, and a rather powerful one at that. Their motive in supporting the Li Clan is ambiguous. But it must be a pretty dark motive," Long Ming was dissatisfied with so little information, especially as it was something he already knew.

He then took out three more gold coins and asked: "And how worried should I be about this foreign organization?"

"Hmm, as long as you remain a good boy and don't hurt those two girls' hearts, you won't need to worry about this organization," this answer surprised Long Ming, but after reflecting for a while he understood that it must be thanks to the Xie family, more precisely Xie Meng Fei.

This made him even more intrigued by the Xie family, so he took out ten gold coins and asked: "What do you know about the Xie family?"

"Sorry, kid. But you don't have enough credit to buy this information," the masked person said, shaking his head in denial. Noticing Long Ming's confusion at his statement, he added: "Silly boy, do you really think we'd hand over all our information to anyone who hands over a bit of cash?

Don't be so innocent, what if you're a spy for another organization? That's why we have a loyalty system. If you want to acquire even more shocking and relevant information, you'll have to show us that you can be trusted."

"And how do I do that?" With this question, the masked person pulled out a token from under his clothes and handed it to Long Ming.

"This is an affiliate token to our organization. As you buy information and prove your goodwill to us, we'll reward you with stamps on this token and the more stamps you have, the more information you'll have access to? To buy, of course," Long Ming sighed with disappointment at this, but took the token, which already had a stamp on it, and put it away.

"All right, I have other questions..."

Long Ming then began to ask the masked person a series of questions. Since he wouldn't be staying in Jianshang for long, and would soon be starting a journey around the continent, he decided to ask a lot of basic questions about the continent, such as its geography, the neighboring kingdoms and so on.

"... Oh! It seems your report has finally arrived," after a few hours, the masked person finally spoke, noticing a person entering the room through a door on the left. In this person's hands was an extremely thick book, as thick as Long Ming's palm, 30 cm long and 10 cm wide.

"Now I understand why it was so expensive," Long Ming muttered as he held the book in his hands. It was a considerably heavy book and seemed to have thousands of pages. The thought of reading it all gave him a headache.

"Well, you chose a very popular poison, so there was a lot to talk about. In this report there is general, and quite complete, information about: how to acquire it, where to acquire it, who uses it, where to buy it, how to use it, its effects, its uses, pills that can be created with it, poisons that can be created with it, major figures who have died from this poison, and much more.

If you find this book too detailed, I can summarize its contents for you. Of course, there will be an additional charge," the masked person spoke cunningly.

Long Ming felt that he had been tricked into listening to this, but he just nodded in agreement for the masked person to summarize the contents, while handing over twenty-three gold coins.

"What you've given us is poison obtained from the Discreet Death Naira. This is a very dangerous snake known for possessing an extremely lethal and frightening poison. It is a venom that acts discreetly and, like a plague, infiltrates your entire body until it reaches your brain and rapidly corrodes it.

Most of the time, the poisoned person doesn't realize they're in danger until it's too late, as this poison has a numbing effect that camouflages its symptoms until their brain is corroded to the point of turning into goo.

The most shocking record of this poison was the death of a cultivator at the half-step stage of the Foundation Establishment realm, poisoned by his concubine.

Because of its fame, many assassination organizations, as well as alchemists, like to use it or test it. But the most notable of all is undoubtedly the Great Tang Clan of the Xian Wu empire," the masked person summarized efficiently, making Long Ming believe that this person had already known all this beforehand.

Long Ming contemplated this information for a long time, deciding what he could do with it.

'Ahh, so much money spent for nothing...', Long Ming thought in disappointment, as he felt that paying to investigate such a poison was practically useless.

What's more, he couldn't do anything at the moment against the mastermind of his poisoning either. Long Ming didn't even know who the mastermind was, let alone kill him!

'Well, at least I managed to build a relationship with this organization...', he then tried to console himself with the fact that, in a way, he now knew a place where he could buy information about the world. Of course, he would have to pay for any information, but it was still a consolation.

"Mr. Long, if I may give you some advice. The Xian Wu empire is an excellent place to get treasures and opportunities to get stronger, but it's also a competitive place with many dangers lurking. In my opinion, it's the best place to go if you want to test your chances of becoming a great cultivator; or fail pathetically," the masked person advised him.

Long Ming nodded in agreement, as he was already planning to go to this empire anyway.

"I see, I'll keep that in mind. Anyway, where else do you have headquarters?" Long Ming asked, handing over a few more gold coins as he stood up.

"Our fingers reach practically every important place in this world, with the exception of the territory of our mortal enemies and places where the cost-benefit ratio is very low," with this information, Long Ming nodded in agreement and turned to leave.

"Mr. Long, wait!" Long Ming turned with curiosity as he looked at the masked figure with confusion.

"Please allow me to stamp your token," the masked person added quickly as Long Ming turned around.

"ah, of course."

Soon after, Long Ming left that place and returned to the Wu residence.

When he arrived at the residence, he walked to the training area where, he assumed, Wu Feng should be.

Ever since Long Ming accepted Wu Feng's offer, he has trained with Wu Feng in the training area. And that day would be no different.

When he arrived at the training ground, he saw many people training, all of them the main cultivators of the Wu family, who were receiving Wu Feng's teachings to improve their cultivation and fencing skills.

They were all at least at the half-step stage of the Qi Gathering realm, with the majority having already reached the initial or even advanced stage.

What's more, they were all extremely talented swordsmen, to the point of making Long Ming look like someone who was just learning the basics. And in fact, it was precisely to learn the basics that he was there.

After contemplating the training of these swordsmen for a while, he approached Wu Feng and bowed towards him.

"Junior greets Senior Wu!" he said respectfully.

"You've finally arrived, Long Ming! Go for a ten-minute run around this area, then do some pre-workout warm-ups. After that, come over here so I can help you train!" Wu Feng instructed in an authoritative tone. Long Ming nodded in response, then followed his orders.

After warming up sufficiently, he returned to where Wu Feng was and began to listen to his teachings. Obviously, Wu Feng wasn't going to teach him Wu family fencing, but he could still help him improve his martial arts base, especially in terms of his stance and attacks.

After listening to Wu Feng's instructions, Long Ming repeated a series of actions using a wooden stick, given to him by Wu Feng for training. They were simple, amateur moves, but even so Wu Feng found errors and flaws in Long Ming's actions and posture.

Before he knew it, it was dark, so Long Ming said goodbye to them all and returned to his room, where he began to study and write down in his notebooks everything he had learned that day.

Especially about Fei Lu's fight, and that last blow.

"... Maybe I'm wrong. But it's extremely likely that that final blow wasn't made by Fei Lu, but by someone who appropriated his body. That iron ring is probably a treasure of the kind that possesses the soul of a great cultivator/martial artist - just like in those fairy tales," Long Ming wrote in one of his notebooks.

Then he took out another notebook and began to write down: "Every martial art (at least the ones that are named and classified) has a mystical factor. It is through this mystical factor that its users are able to perform feats that exceed their normal capabilities.

Certain martial arts have a lesser or greater mystical content than others (perhaps related to their difficulty and ambiguity in learning), but it is still present. Perhaps this mystical factor exists thanks to the Dao? Like a clue to follow on some path..."

Long Ming then stopped writing for a moment as he pondered something, then continued: "If martial arts allow you to follow the Dao, then the mystical factor is the result of this approach to the Dao."

After writing this last line, Long Ming closed his eyes and began to meditate. He felt he had reached the heart of the matter and was about to find the answer to his question.

Several hours passed as if they were seconds, until something suddenly changed in Long Ming and, without him even realizing it, all of nature seemed to react to this change.

Whether it was the clouds in the sky, the wind from the east and west, or even the animals, they all seemed to notice him at that moment. The clouds gathered at the top of his room, the wind began to circulate, and the animals looked in a trance towards the Wu residence.

Then Long Ming stopped meditating and opened his eyes. For a few fractions of a second, his eyes had a golden color, but neither Long Ming nor anyone else had noticed.

Long Ming, after meditating for so long, had an epiphany about the Dao, which allowed him to understand the mysticism behind the techniques. He understood that martial arts techniques were related to the Dao itself, so when an individual achieves a high level of mastery of a technique, he also acquires an insight into the Dao itself, which mystically strengthens the individual (when performing that technique).

Upon acquiring this epiphany, Long Ming took out his book on the work of Mad Dog Feet and wrote down his new understanding of this technique. 

With that done, he took out a blank book from his spatial ring and wrote on its cover: "Heaven's Qi Breath Cultivation Method."

"They say there are six types of Elemental Qi. But there are books that claim there is an eighth, the Qi of Heaven, which would be the one that governs all the other Qi... If I succeed in finishing this method, perhaps I'll become one of the strongest cultivators in the same realm," Long Ming thought optimistically. Of course, he knew that it wouldn't be easy to create this method, but his intuition told him that it wouldn't be impossible.