'Cloudy Wind Footsteps'

I first opened the money bag. There were 250 gold coins in it. This unexpected windfall certainly lifted my spirits. Now I don't have to worry about money for quite a while or so I thought.

Next I opened the scroll. The title was 'Cloudy Wind Footsteps'.

Great, it's a movement scroll. I recalled the assassin dodging my punch to the back of his head. That was an awesome move. Instantaneously escaping from an almost sure hit. I got excited as I read through the scroll. There are three stages to the movement skill.

First the Basic stage, allows the practitioner to dodge any attack once per day. Mastering the Basic stage allows the practitioner to learn silent steps where movement will be totally silent.

Wow. This can be a life saver. Too bad it can only be used once per day but thinking more about it, I grew grateful. If it could have been used more than once, then the assasin would have escaped from Sia. I shudder to think what would have happened if he did escape. Nevertheless, I'll cultivate this skill and make good use of it. Additionally, silent steps is an assasin skill which is good to have. If ever in the future, I need to sneak up to someone, hehehe.

Next, intermediate stage, Mastering this stage Allows the practitioner to dodge any attack twice a day. Also Silent steps will be upgraded causing the practicioner's speed to be five times faster.

Lastly, final stage. Mastery of this stage allows the practitioner to dodge any attack thrice a day. The speed of the practitioner will be increased to ten times allowing the practitioner to come and go like the clouds drifting on the wind.

As I read through the scroll, I cannot help myself but to think I striked the jackpot.

I told myself that I have to cultivate both the 'Heavens Body and the Cloudy Wind Footsteps'.

Thinking about the 'Heavens Body', I realized I still don't know what the requirements are. Let's check how to cultivate this skill.

Heavens Body skill. There are 6 stages. First is skin refinement, 3 stages. Once the practicioner masters up to the great success stage, the skin cannot be pierced by normal blades or normal arrows.

For stage One, the practitioner is required to gather eleven medicinal ingredients stated in the list below. Then every night boil the ingredients in a tub of water. When the boiled water is at its hottest temperature, the practitioner has to soak himself fully for two hours. Just reading up to here gave me goosebumps. I needed to boil myself? I was having second thoughts. I really don't like pain. Maybe I should not practice this skill. Then when I thought about I how nearly lost my life earlier, I grit my teeth and willed myself master this skill. With my mind made up, I turned to the next page to read more. However to my surprise it was totally blank. I flipped to the next pages and they too were blank. "Weird" I thought to myself. Well just mastering the Basic stage is like having a second life since normal blades and arrows cannot penetrate my skin.

Turning back to the first page, I decided to look at the medicinal ingredients needed.

-3 dried earth wood worms aged 100 years.

- ice heart of juvenile double headed polar bear.

- 10 drops of fire scorpion's venom

- 2 heart cores from Heart dragon trees

- 10 drops of iced heavy water

- 5 head scales from the Amber snake.

- 2 fully ripe fruits of the Sun tree

- 2 gallons of blood from Diamond back crocodiles

- 3 Blood Orchid flowers

- 10 grams of Starfire dust

- horn from the triple element boar

Looking at the names of the ingredients needed, I can imagine that they won't come cheap.Thank goodness Mr Assasin donated to me earlier. I decided that tomorrow I will go to the medicinal shops and see if I can purchase the ingredients.

I tidied and kept everything. First things first, I needed to meditate, I meant polishing. Once the meditation session is over, I will start practicing the 'Cloudy Wind Footsteps'.

I summoned Sia for guard duty just before I entered my mind palace. After 'polishing' for about two hours, the 5th speck of dust got just a little bit brighter. At this rate, I should be able to completely shine the 5th speck of dust within a week. I felt rejuvenated at the prospect of levelling up. I left my mind palace and went out of the hut, ready to practice the 'Cloudy Wind Footsteps'

Reading the instructions again, it says that if a Dust stage warrior wishes to practice this skill, the first thing he needs to do is to build up the strength and elasticity of the calf muscles on each leg. I had to jump using only one leg to as high as I can 1000 times on the first day. Subsequently every day I needed to increase the repetition by another 1000 times. This is going to be a torture I thought.

I started the exercise and by the time I was done, I was sweating buckets and my legs were completely sore. I could not move another step.

As I lied down on the ground breathless, I remembered that there were also two bottles of pills that I was yet to investigate.

I digged out the two bottles and in it were 50 pills each. I read the description. The pills help to recover the muscles after training the legs. No wonder the assassin had these pills. He was also doing the same training. I immediately popped one of the pills into my mouth. My healing water element got activated suddenly by itself. A cool sensation went into my legs especially my calves. In just a short moment, I was completely recovered from the fatigue and muscle sores. Thinking more, I guessed that it wasn't just the potency of the pills but also my own water healing element. The combination of the two together worked miraculously and I'm back to top shape in next to no time.

Now that I have recovered. I wondered if I could speed up learning the skill. As soon as the thought passed. I once again did one legged jumps. This time I completed two thousand jumps on each leg. I then took another pill and again my healing element activated on its own. It took a little longer to completely recover the second time. Based on my own estimates, I could do one final round of training. This is great I thought. Not only can I reduce the initial training to a third of the required time, I can also feel my speed increasing slightly after each completed jumping session.

After the third and final jumping session of the day was over, I took a bath in the pond and then went to bed.

I woke up next morning feeling that my steps were lighter than before. I did not neglect my morning run even though the brothers were not around. After the run, I practiced archery and the sword too. With the morning exercises complete, I took a shower and prepared to cook some rice. Although I very much wanted to eat more spiritual rice, I know that I can yet to afford it. Therefore I decided to have it just once a week for now.

Passing by the chicken coop, I was tempted to roast one of the chickens but I controlled my urges. Let them breed, let them breed first. I repeated in my head.

I decided to rest for abit before heading to town to look for the medicinal ingredients.

As soon as I left my little hut. I came across two of the Li family guards. "Greetings healer Xu," our elders have commanded the few of us to be stationed here from this morning onwards whenever you are home. And when you leave home we are to be your personal escorts. Don't worry, you can go about your normal affairs and treat us as invisible. Only if you are in trouble will we then act to be your protectors."

"Hello seniors, thank you for your kind efforts. There is no need to be invisible at all. Please, both of you can stand next to me as we go into town". Inwardly, I was grumbling a little, why wasn't the guards sent over last night? Did they know that I almost lost my poor little life last night? Anyways this is definitely a good thing. With the guards stationed here to protect me, any assassin that wants to claim the mission will have to first pass the guards. Secondly. I truly need to improve my reputation. This timing is heaven sent. I imagined myself walking all over town with the Li family guards next to me. Everyone will then be curious about me . They will speculate if I am with the Li family or what my relationship is to the Li family that they will assign guards to protect me. Hahaha, this is really good for me. It's basically free advertising just by walking.

I initially wanted to directly head to medicine shops to look for ingredients. My plan changed as I strolled all over town.

A lot of people were looking at me. Yes the plan was going exactly as I wanted. For those who chose to ignore me, I initiated the conversation.

"Good morning, nice to meet you. I am Xu Hao, a miracle healer. The Li family has kindly offered to guard me. Also,very soon I will be opening a clinic here in town, if you have any ailments or knows anyone who requires treatment, feel free to look for me. You can judge my skills by how well the Li family is treating me."

I said this to many rich looking people in town. The guards beside me looked visibly annoyed but there was nothing they could do. I didn't say anything wrong. In fact saying the Li family offering to guard me is also true as I technically never asked for it.

'oh, what a beautiful day this is.'

Just as I'm feeling on top of the world, I just had to hear that nasally voice.

"So you really do have a little bit of healing skills."

Who else but young master Su Jin to pop up and ruin my mood.