For the next twenty-some days, the air of slaughter outside Black Stone City grew ever thicker as the various squadrons of the Law Enforcement Team began their aberration-hunting operations.

With the powerful tool of the Black Stone, the aberrations that were once impossible to find now became prey walking right into a trap.

Lin Wanzhu, for her part, wiped out over a dozen aberrations at Black Water Beach in one fell swoop, harvesting more than ten Black Stones.

After receiving his new Black Stones, Su Yu led his two capable subordinates, Song Mirror and Zhao Tie, on three separate round trips to Qingxi Town.

Using the Black Stones as bait, they successfully killed five aberrations, completely clearing the Qingxi Town district of them.

Outside of his necessary missions, Su Yu dedicated all his remaining time to his martial training.

By taking the Golden Scale Blood Orifice Pill daily, consuming large amounts of Earth Dragon Porpoise meat, and coupling it with grueling, self-punishing training, his Martial Arts progress finally reached a new breakthrough.

[Martial Arts]: White Ape Fist (First Layer) (Skilled 3500/7000)

As his progress surpassed the halfway mark, the Danzhong Acupoint in his body naturally burst open with a resounding boom!

In an instant, the Danzhong Acupoint at the center of his chest suddenly collapsed in on itself like a star.

The sensation was like a miniature vortex forming inside his body, generating a terrifying siphoning force that drew in all the surging Qi and Blood from throughout his system!

As countless streams of Qi and Blood poured into his chest, Su Yu felt as if the area had transformed into a furnace, burning with surging Qi and Blood like an exploding piece of charcoal.

It was more than just heat; it was a swelling sensation that felt like he was being torn apart from the inside.

Su Yu clenched his jaw and endured, refusing to let out so much as a muffled groan.

As the Qi and Blood coursed through his body, the depths of his Dantian began to stir, continuously gushing forth more of a mysterious essential energy.

Empowered by the potent Qi and Blood, every beat of his heart was now accompanied by a deep rumble, as if a war drum were being beaten within his chest cavity.

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

The war drum pounded. A great river of Qi and Blood circulated through him, converging in his chest and remodeling his body.

He looked down and saw his bare chest undergoing a terrifying transformation, visible to the naked eye.

His once fair and firm skin was now flushed red with blood. The fascia beneath writhed and stretched wildly, as if an invisible pair of skilled hands were weaving it all together.

Soon, under the repeated scouring and tempering of his Qi and Blood, the skin on his chest began to take on a jade-like luster, imbued with astonishing resilience and tension.

WHOOSH!

Su Yu tried to regulate his breathing. Each rise and fall of his ribcage caused the newly formed layer of skin to twang faintly, like a fully drawn longbow.

After an unknown amount of time, the searing, branding-iron sensation on his chest abruptly cooled.

The Danzhong Acupoint that had become a vortex turned from tangible to ethereal once more, disappearing from his perception.

’Is it over? Did I break through the Front Mirror Danzhong Acupoint?’

Su Yu slowly exhaled a turbid breath. The Qi Flow shot out more than three feet in the cold air, like a sharp arrow.

He stood up, sensing the strange new quality of his chest. Unlike his limbs, which were hard as Treasure Sabers, the skin on his chest felt strangely soft and elastic. When he pressed down lightly, he could feel a faint repulsive force pushing back.

’Time to test it out!’

Instead of finding an inanimate object to test his defense, Su Yu walked straight to the weapon rack at the edge of the Martial Arts Arena and pulled out a hardwood practice staff.

He took a deep breath, performed Qi Sinking into the Dantian, and, holding the staff in his right hand, thrust it brutally and without flourish straight at his own chest!

He used a significant portion of his strength in that strike!

BANG!

An incredibly muffled thud echoed through the courtyard.

The tip of the hardwood staff slammed squarely into Su Yu’s chest.

However, the sharp pain he expected never came.

The moment the staff’s tip touched his skin, Su Yu felt the membrane on his chest instinctively shudder. As soon as the impact force entered his body, it was neutralized and dispersed layer by layer by the incredibly resilient skin, ultimately vanishing without a trace.

Immediately after, a tyrannical rebounding force erupted from his chest!

CRACK!

The hardwood staff in Su Yu’s hand was shattered into two pieces by the sheer force of the rebound!

’What incredible force dispersion and recoil!’

Su Yu dropped the broken staff and looked at his chest. Aside from a slight redness, there wasn’t even a white mark.

Before, even with the protection of his Qi and Blood, a blow like that would have left him with a tight chest, short of breath, and probably a nasty bruise.

’So this is the effect of the Front Mirror Danzhong Acupoint?’

The breakthrough to the Second Acupoint realm, unlike the four extremities of the First Acupoint realm, targets the Front Mirror Danzhong and the Back Mirror Jiaji.

Breaking through both is like gaining a Heart-Protecting Mirror, bringing a qualitative transformation to the torso and allowing one to step into the realm of Second Acupoints.

’With this Front Mirror protecting my heart’s meridian, plus the defense from the Black Stone Body Forging Skill, I must be an absolute master among those at the First Acupoint realm. An ordinary expert at this level wouldn’t even be able to break through my defenses head-on!’

’Even the Sun Shi from before, with his First-Turn Iron Armor Skill, would be no match for me now!’

’However, if I’m ambushed from behind or hit in a vital spot, I could still be seriously injured.’

But Su Yu quickly shook his head. That was only considering a defensive scenario. In a real fight, he wouldn’t just stand there and let someone hit him.

When experts clash, a single move can often decide victory or defeat. If he faced an opponent with comparable offensive power, but he himself possessed such a formidable defense, how could they possibly be his match?

All he could say was that his combat prowess was growing ever stronger!

...

「East City, Yang Mansion.」

The atmosphere in the main hall was so oppressive it felt tangible.

Yang Chongren sat stiffly in the Grandmaster’s Chair, staring at the steward kneeling before him. His expression was so grim it seemed water could be wrung from it.

"Patriarch! The Qian Family... they’ve gone too far!"

Steward Yang Quan clutched the badly swollen side of his face. A trickle of blood hung from the corner of his mouth, and every word he spoke pulled at his injuries, making him grimace in pain. Yet, he dared not stop his tearful report.

"Not only did they force the price of our Cloud Brocade down by thirty percent, making it clear they want a price war, but what’s worse is they’ve cut off our supply channels to the Brocade Workshop! I took a few guards to reason with them, but the Qian Family’s young master didn’t even say a word—he just had us beaten up!"

"Enough!"

Yang Chongren slammed his teacup down on the table. With a sharp CRASH, tea splashed everywhere, startling Yang Quan into a shudder and silencing his sobs.

Yang Chongren took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the rage that churned in his chest. Years of navigating the treacherous seas of commerce had taught him that helpless fury was utterly useless in moments like this.

"Take the injured servants to the accounts office to collect their Herbal Medicine Fee. Give each of them an extra two taels of silver for their medical expenses. As for the shops... have the Shopkeepers hold the line for now. Use our inventory to tide us over for a few days. The sky isn’t falling. You are dismissed!"

"Yes... yes. Thank you, Patriarch." Yang Quan backed away, still sniffling.

Once the hall doors were shut, Yang Chongren wearily rubbed his throbbing temples, closed his eyes, and began to think.

’Those in the same trade are destined rivals.’ The Yang Family and the Qian Family were both in the silk business, a situation that was inherently a fight to the death.

In previous years, the Yang Family had been weak, and he had been forced to tread on thin ice, yielding at every turn. Only through years of painstaking management had he finally established a foundation in the East City business district, opening more than a dozen branch stores and faintly gaining enough power to stand against the Qian Family.

But the marketplace is a battlefield. The silk trade in eastern Black Stone City was only so large; for every extra bite the Yang Family took, the Qian Family had to eat less.

How could the Qian Family just sit back and watch the Yang Family continue to grow? Now, they had finally made their move.

"The heavens do not bless the Yang Family..." Yang Chongren looked up at the ornate ceiling, a bitter smile touching his lips. "In this world, martial might is the ultimate foundation. A pity about my son..."

The thought felt like a knife twisting in his heart.

To secure the family’s future, he had poured an immense portion of their fortune into supporting his son, Yang Gang. But that degenerate son was an expert in nothing but wining, dining, womanizing, and gambling; when it came to Martial Arts, he was utterly clueless!

A while ago, he had even lied, claiming he was about to break through to the Martial Artist realm, and he’d actually believed him.

If his daughter, Zhenzhen, hadn’t discovered her brother was lying, he would still be in the dark.

The martial arts academy had already made it clear: the most Yang Gang could ever achieve in his life was Three Times of Knocking. His hopes of becoming a true Martial Artist were slim to none.

As for his two daughters, although they had reached Two Times of Knocking, their chances of becoming Martial Artists were also slim.

Without him, the Yang Family’s future would be precarious at best.

A sense of crisis coiled around his heart like a viper.

’I’ll worry about the future later. First, I need to figure out how to survive this immediate crisis!’