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Following his memory, Lu Sheng made his way toward the wing room he had visited earlier. He entered the hall and ascended the wooden ladder on the left.
When he reached the door, he glanced up at the red lantern hanging overhead. A chill crept through him.
Suddenly, a cold breeze brushed past, causing him to turn around abruptly. For a moment, it felt as though something had just floated behind him.
"Since the Juanren Mansion has been destroyed, no ghosts should be coming after me anymore... Maybe I'm just being too sensitive," he muttered to himself, seeing nothing and letting out a small sigh of relief.
Turning back, he reached for the door.
Click.
The door creaked open slowly. A vivid red glow spilled out from within, cast by two large red lanterns hanging inside the room.
"Is there anyone there?" Lu Sheng called out, stepping forward cautiously.
"Yes..."
A dry, hoarse voice answered from behind him.
Lu Sheng spun around. Standing at the entrance was an old woman holding a white lantern. Her wide eyes stared unblinking at him.
Her face was etched with deep, bark-like wrinkles, and her cloudy gaze seemed to pierce through him as she gripped the lantern tightly.
"Little brother, you shouldn't be boarding the boat at this hour," she said flatly.
"I dropped something here—a waist bag. I came back to look for it," Lu Sheng replied, forcing a smile.
"Is that so... Then look for it. Look for it well. Look for it well."
Without another word, the old woman turned and walked silently toward the other rooms, the white lantern bobbing gently in her hand.
Lu Sheng watched her until she disappeared beyond the doorway. Then he stepped forward and closed the door behind him.
Turning around, he scanned the room.
Two large red lanterns—ones that hadn’t been there before—now hung on one of the walls, bathing the entire room in a saturated crimson glow.
Carefully, Lu Sheng felt around the place where he had previously sat. As expected, his fingers brushed against the waist bag lodged in the gap beside the cushion.
He unfastened the bag. Inside the dark brown leather pouch were gold bills, silver notes, paper slips—and the fine paper packet left behind by the demon.
After securing the waist bag and fastening it back to his side, Lu Sheng stood up and glanced around the wing room. The red glow from the lanterns seemed even deeper now—almost unnaturally so.
An uneasy feeling slowly crept up from the depths of his heart.
" Time to go," he murmured, striding quickly to the door and reaching out to pull it open.
It didn’t budge.
Startled, Lu Sheng pulled harder. The door, which had opened easily just moments ago, now felt like it was weighed down by something heavy. Even with his current strength, he could only pry it open by a narrow gap.
"Something’s not right!" Alarm bells rang in his mind. Circulating his internal energy, he forced his strength into one decisive pull.
Bang!
The door flung open violently, its wooden handle cracking in his grip. Lu Sheng burst through in a single motion, sprinted down the corridor, and dashed out of the boat’s interior within seconds.
Puff.
Using the hemp ropes tied along the pleasure boat, he leapt lightly and raced across to the riverbank.
Though he had never formally practiced lightfoot techniques, he had a solid foundation in movement techniques like Black Tiger Saber Techniques and Swallow Chasing Wind Blade. His speed far exceeded that of ordinary men.
Once ashore, Lu Sheng turned to glance back at the pleasure boat.
It looked just the same as before—quiet and still, completely deserted. Yet the feeling of danger that had gripped his heart only moments ago was now gone, as if it had never been there.
Taking one last, lingering look at the boat, he turned and bolted toward the city.
When he finally arrived home, Lu Sheng burst through the door and locked it firmly behind him. The room was dark, cold, and lifeless.
He walked slowly to the desk, pulled out a flint, struck it, and lit a candle.
The flickering flame cast a dim light over the lower half of his face.
"That pleasure boat... it’s definitely connected to spirits. I didn’t expect to encounter one in the red pavilion pleasure boat after the Juanren Mansion," he muttered to himself. "Originally, I planned to rest for two days before starting my new internal training... but now, it seems there’s no time to wait. I need to make every preparation I can—starting now."
Lu Sheng stepped away from the desk and moved to the bed in the adjoining bedroom. Reaching underneath, he pulled out a heavy iron box. The box was secured to the floor by a sliding rail, making it nearly impossible for an ordinary person to move.
He retrieved a small key from his waist bag, carefully inserted it into the lock, and turned it with a soft click.
Inside the box lay two small brown cloth-bound books.
Lu Sheng picked one up, cradled it in his hand, then closed and locked the box once more.
Resolute Pine Determination—five bold, sweeping characters were written across the cover in an elegant calligraphic style.
He gently opened to the first page. Following the general introduction he had already studied, there was a striking illustration of a pine tree growing stubbornly from the edge of a cliff.
He studied the image for a long while, then slowly shut the book. Climbing onto the bed, he sat cross-legged and began to empty his mind, entering a state of quiet meditation.
Despite practicing this internal health technique for a considerable time, he always encountered a problem—perhaps due to interference from the Jade Crane Art he had learned previously. Every time he reached the verge of condensing his qi, it would be disrupted and swallowed up by the Jade Crane’s circulation.
Tonight was no different.
Before long, the Jade Crane Art began circulating wildly, shattering the peaceful intent of the Resolute Pine Determination. Within his body, the vivid image of a crane spreading its wings and crying out rang through him like a silent scream.
"Alas..." Lu Sheng opened his eyes, frustrated. "The internal arts are in conflict. Am I trapped like this? Is there no more room for progress?"
Irritation welled up in his chest. His hand instinctively reached for the waist bag and began to fidget with it.
As his fingers pinched the thin paper packet, he suddenly froze.
"This paper bag... this is the powder left behind by that demon ghost, isn’t it?"
He slowly unwrapped the packet. Inside was a pool of fine black powder.
But something was off.
He was sure—the powder hadn’t been this color before.
"Back then, I awakened my supernatural ability thanks to the stone left behind by the water ghost and that pebble… So could it be that I..." Lu Sheng stared at the powder, a strange thought surfacing in his mind.
"Deep Blue!"
He suddenly muttered.
Swish!
A glowing blue interface appeared before his eyes.
Lu Sheng focused on the modifier box—but just as before, there was still no option related to Resolute Pine Determination. He hesitated, then looked again at the powder resting in the paper bag.
Without another thought, he reached out, tilted the bag, and let the powder spill into his palm.
From the moment he obtained it, Lu Sheng had been cautious—never letting the powder touch his skin in case it was corrosive or toxic. But now, desperate and with no other leads, he decided to take the risk. At worst, he could discard it immediately if anything went wrong.
He then bit into the tip of his index finger until blood welled up. A single drop fell from his fingertip onto the dark powder.
Hiss...!
As soon as the blood touched it, a wisp of white smoke rose up. Almost instantly, the black powder began to bleach itself into white, as though its original color had been drained away.
A cold current began to seep from his palm, inching its way into his body.
Do you want to perform martial arts deduction?
In that very moment, the cold energy was absorbed rapidly into his body—and a query dialog box appeared on the Deep Blue modifier screen.
"Sure enough!" Lu Sheng’s heart leapt with joy. "It worked again!"
Previously, he had noticed the fourth level of the Black Tiger Saber Techniques Technique being unlocked and had begun to suspect that the modifier might be using his internal knowledge to extrapolate higher levels of techniques. That was how the fourth level had seemingly emerged out of thin air.
But afterward, no other martial arts he practiced had triggered that same phenomenon. He had been left confused and uncertain.
Now, it seemed the answer had been in front of him all along—he lacked the ghostly remnant, the catalyst, to activate the deeper deduction process.
"The first time, it was the pebble I found after the Xu family massacre that triggered the modifier. This time, it’s the powder left behind by the demon’s death. Looks like my power is closely tied to these lingering ghost traces," Lu Sheng thought with a bitter smile.
He turned his attention to the glowing inquiry box in front of him.
Do you want to deduce martial arts?
"Yes."
The moment he confirmed, an odd sensation swept over him—like every martial technique he had ever learned through the modifier was unraveling, reanalyzing, and preparing to be refined… and then, fused into something greater.
These martial arts were all techniques Lu Sheng had already mastered. What he felt now was as if his knowledge base was being reorganized—systematized—and then rebuilt using different focal points.
It was like assembling a structure from building blocks: he had many models to choose from, and each one could be reconfigured around a different core.
On the modifier screen, several buttons appeared beside the martial arts names, indicating which ones could be deduced and which could not. Everything was clear and neatly laid out.
Lu Sheng examined the list carefully, scanning from top to bottom.
"If I could focus on the Black Fiend Art and absorb techniques from other systems, that would be ideal... Or I could use the Jade Crane Art as the core. The Black Tiger Saber Techniques is also a solid foundation... even the Heart-Rending Palm has its strengths."
He hesitated, caught between options. Then, with a sigh, he muttered:
"Unfortunately, the amount of powder is too little. I only have enough to deduce one or two techniques."
Glancing back at the modifier, he noticed that only the Jade Crane Art had its deduction button lit.
"So I can only choose from these two..."
After a moment’s thought, he reached out and pressed the button next to Jade Crane Art.
"Internal skill is the most important foundation."
As soon as he made the selection, all other buttons disappeared, and the modifier interface began to blur and shift.
In the next instant, Lu Sheng felt his understanding of the Jade Crane Art begin to stir. Insights, techniques, and fragments of memory he’d stored from the classic texts suddenly activated and collided, merging with one another in a frenzy of mental activity. Countless new ideas sparked to life in a matter of seconds.
In less than ten breaths, Lu Sheng opened his eyes—and a fresh, fierce aura surged out from within him.
The Jade Crane Art had been transformed. Its foundation now incorporated the explosive power techniques of the Black Tiger Saber Techniques. The result was an evolved internal skill, far more potent than the original.
This new art retained the Jade Crane’s durability and healing capabilities, but it now possessed deadly offensive power.
"It’s incredible…" Lu Sheng thought in awe. "The modifier took the endurance-focused internal skill and, by combining it with the Black Tiger Saber Techniques’s explosive force technique, turned it into a lethal combat style. This deduction ability is truly amazing!"
"If I had more of that powder—or more of those strange pebbles left behind by the water ghost—maybe I could even deduce the Black Fiend Art or other advanced techniques."
He focused his attention inward, carefully examining the changes. Not only had the new internal skill gained greater explosive power, but even its original self-healing attributes had been slightly enhanced.
"This isn’t just the Jade Crane Art anymore. Since it’s now fused with the Black Tiger Saber Techniques’s power, from now on… I’ll call it the Black Tiger Jade Crane Art."
As the thought settled in his mind, the name of the technique on the modifier slowly changed—character by character—until it read:
Black Tiger Jade Crane Art.
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