Chapter Seventeen: The Imminent Breakthrough

  Ningwang Mansion, Sanxitang Hall

  King Ning Wang held the scented tea in his hand, lost in thought.

  "Uncle Miao, has Little Fourteen gone out already?!"

  "Yes, Your Highness, the 14th Young Master left the Wang Manor this morning and headed straight for Na Yun Ferry, he should be going to Wu Yin Gorge!"

  "Really?! The timing is just right, interesting. You think he won't figure out my intention of handing over the Yi City's industry to him?"

  "This shouldn't be!" Miao Shu thought for a moment and laughed, "However, he should have considered the factors of Master Hou, so he wants to strengthen his own strength!"

  "Improve one's own strength? This is strange, Little Fourteen used to read sacred books from a young age, how did he become like a different person after being pulled out of the river, his thoughts and actions all leaning towards martial arts?"

  "It's not hard to understand, the young master has been reading sacred books since he was a child and is convinced that they can bring him everything. However, the fact proves that even after years of studying the way of sages, he couldn't even save his own life. His thoughts will naturally change, and being young, it's easy for him to go to extremes."

  "This is also the case, last time's matter, but I was negligent, I knew that there were some struggles in this house, but I didn't expect it to be so severe, and someone actually dared to poison my son!" As he spoke, a cold killing intent flashed in Wang Bicheng's eyes, which had been calm until now. "Even if he is a waste, he is still my son, and yet someone dares to make such a move, it seems that this house needs to be thoroughly cleaned up!"

  "The Ning Wang Fu is too big, and there's no major crisis, so the internal struggle will naturally be more intense!" Miao Shu sighed, "However, now the third master has started to rectify the internal affairs of the mansion, I think such things won't happen again in the future!"

  "We'll talk about what happens next later, but this matter can't be settled just because there's a scapegoat!"

  Miao Shu's heart skipped a beat, "The king's meaning is——!"

  "Hmm, some things still need to be waited out before they can be seen clearly. Little Fourteenth has entered the school now, according to the rules of the mansion, shouldn't there be someone secretly keeping watch?!"

  "Yes, on the day of entering school, the housekeeper had already chosen two flower foxes to secretly protect the 14th young master, however——!"

  "But what's going on? Are those two people no longer by his side?"

  "This morning, when Shi Si left, those two flower leopards were tripped up by someone sent by Madame Hou!"

  "Is that so? This isn't a bad rule either. Zi Ling doesn't want to manage the affairs of the manor, letting them divide up the duties among themselves. She indeed has the power to make arrangements for the inner guards!"

  "Perhaps Mrs. Hou really has something on her mind!"

  "Uncle Miao, in the mansion there are a thousand Flower Fox soldiers and eight thousand Flower Fox guards. What's going on that you have to find those two?" Wang Bizheng smiled and said.

  "Some things are unspoken, and Madame Hou is not really trying to harm the Fourteenth Young Master, she's just trying to make him suffer a bit!" By this point, Miao Shu couldn't help but smile wryly, "I'm afraid this is also a warning from Madame Hou!"

  "Fang Yun's temper I know, too overbearing, this is not good!" Wang Bi Cheng said, "However, I think that this time she might miscalculate!"

  "That's even better!" Miao Shu didn't have any reservations just because Fang Yun was Wang Bi Cheng's concubine, "Maybe through this matter, some people in the manor can become more restrained!"

  "I hope they can calm down, otherwise, I'll have to thoroughly clean up this Yunnan Province!!" Wang Bizheng said leisurely, his tone revealing a hint of ruthless intent.

  …………

  …………

  Yue Haifeng's face was gloomy, Wang Guanlan's knife momentum became more and more ferocious, the knife method also became more and more pure, but he didn't move, only relying on his exquisite fighting experience, seeing the moves and dismantling them, without even making a single counterattack.

  "This Yue Haifeng is indeed an old river and lake, seeing that this kid is relying on a sharp momentum to attack, as long as he drags out the time and grinds down his sharp momentum, he will be able to take him down with one move. At that time, it will be interesting to see what happens to this kid!"

  At this time, the fight at the bow of the boat had attracted everyone on board. Whoever went to Wuyin Gorge was a martial artist, how could they not understand the situation of the fight at the bow?

  In such an occasion, there will certainly be no lack of critics.

  "Idiot!" Just as the man's voice had just fallen, another mocking voice came from the crowd, "Can't you see that Yue Haifeng is in a difficult situation? Haha, these two guys are really unlucky!!!"

  "What bad luck? What kind of bad luck?" The man still didn't understand the situation.

  It was Yu Haifeng, who was fighting with Wang Guanlan, heard the voice and felt a bit embarrassed. With a fierce flash of his knife, he forced Wang Guanlan back several steps, then leaped out of the battle circle, "Young master, have you had enough fun?!"

  Wang Guanlan had just gone through a round of fierce attack, his breathing was a bit unstable. Moreover, the first move he exchanged with Yue Haifeng earlier also left him injured, making it hard for him to catch up. Seeing Yue Haifeng's attitude, he took this opportunity to retreat and put away his sword, "Are you kidding me? I'm not playing around with you, it was you guys who came after me first!"

  "This time, it's our fellow disciples who are in the wrong. If this young master has any use for us, please don't hesitate to instruct us!" At this point, Chen Qing Shan also stepped forward, looking at Wang Guan Lan's pale face with an extremely unpleasant expression.

  "Never mind, I'm entering the Misty Gorge to temper myself and don't need anyone's help. As long as you guys don't provoke me, I won't go out of my way to provoke you!" Wang Guanlan said, after which he returned to his cabin, swallowed a medicinal pill, sat quietly to regulate his breath, and recovered his internal energy, completely ignoring the astonished glances from the people around him.

  "Zhu Huang Dan, it's actually Zhu Huang Dan! His body has such precious healing medicine, his origins are indeed extraordinary!" As he swallowed the medicinal pill, half of the warriors on the ship secretly sighed, and it was clear that their speculations had become a reality.

  "What's going on here? Does Yue Haifeng know this young man?!"

  Of course, there are clever ones and muddled ones. The one who judged that Yue Haifeng was about to launch a fierce counterattack earlier was completely bewildered, unable to figure out what was going on, and thought they were acting.

  "Can't you young people see that?! " The person beside him, who was good at explaining things, would naturally explain it to him. "Look at that young man, although his clothes are not impressive, but the knife he's carrying is absolutely a top-notch treasure knife, ordinary people can't afford it! And his knife skills, although immature, are incredibly profound and definitely a high-level skill. Also, the Zhu Huang Dan he took earlier is also a top-grade healing medicine. With these things, how could his background be bad? It's possible that he's a young master from a wealthy family who sneaked out to gain experience. The power behind him is not something that Yue Haifeng and the others can afford to provoke! If they really kill this young man, unless they have the ability to kill everyone on this boat, otherwise, they'll be waiting for the power behind the young man to hunt them down!"

  "Ah, I see!" The man nodded as if he had gained some insight.

  "It's not just that, because these two unlucky guys offended the young man on the boat, so this time in Wuyin Gorge, they have to pay extra attention to the young man's safety. If something happens to the young man in Wuyin Gorge, the first ones to be held accountable will still be these two!"

  "Isn't that saying they still have to protect this young man's safety in the valley?!"

  "Otherwise, why do you think their faces look so ugly?!"

  "It's really unlucky!"

  …………

  ………

  A farce ended quickly under the compromise of Yue Hai and Feng, the ship continued to move forward, and the people on the boat felt a thrill after experiencing it, although they thought it was not quite right, but couldn't let both sides fight again after they had already stopped.

  They dispersed in twos and threes, each returning home to find their mothers, and the boat also became quiet.

  Wang Guanlan adjusted his breath for half a time, dispersing the medicinal properties of Zhu Huang Dan, repairing the damaged meridians from earlier, and circulating the internal energy throughout his body to drive out the physical pain.

  "This Scarlet Dan is indeed a treasure among low-grade medicines, hehe, that Seventh Madame has really splurged this time!!"

  Although Wang Guanlan was the illegitimate son of Ning Wang, he had a low birth and had only recently started practicing martial arts, making him inferior to some ordinary sons of aristocratic families. If not for the Seventh Lady's pressure, sending over a large batch of compensation after the White Birch Garden incident, Wang Guanlan would not have been able to use the precious medicinal Zhu Huang Dan to treat his injuries.

  "No wonder people say that fighting is the best shortcut to increase one's strength. After fighting with Yue Haifeng and taking a Zhu Huang Dan, I already feel like I'm about to break through!" Wang Guanlan took a deep breath and slowly opened his eyes. Just now, when he was circulating his Qi, he clearly felt that his internal energy was different from before. In the past, after circulating his Qi once, he would feel very full and satisfied, but just now, after circulating his Qi once, he felt an unfulfilled feeling, as if his internal energy still had room to advance, but there was nowhere for it to go. It was like a small pond that had always been filled with so much water churning around, but one day, a heavy rain came pouring down, and the amount of water suddenly exceeded the limit that the pond could hold, leaving the excess water with nowhere to go.

  If the water is sufficient, it will become a flood and may rush out of a channel. If the water is insufficient, it will slowly overflow into the ground, and the amount of water in the pond will never be more or less forever.

  Therefore, breaking through the bottleneck is an extremely crucial matter for martial artists. Many people can only stay at one level and cannot progress further because they do not know how to break through the bottleneck, especially those who come from ordinary backgrounds and have not received excellent inheritance, without the skills of breaking through the pass, they can only rely on their own exploration.

  Too much time is wasted, even with good qualifications, the final achievement is not high.

  Wang Guanlan has a legacy, and it's also the legacy of superior martial arts. In the early stages of impacting innate abilities, techniques may not be reliable, but in the intermediate stage of impacting Qi, there will be no problems at all with the first bottleneck of this martial art.

  Just then, the lingering feeling appeared, and he followed Ananda's broken precept knife method to condense the excess internal energy into a strand of knife energy, which was absorbed into his dantian.