Scripture of Days Past

Qiao Zhi shook his head as he replied, I was told that he jumped over the wall, so there shouldn't be any outside witnesses.

Chu Qiguang nodded, then opened the door to find Lin Zifeng sitting on a chair in the center of the yard. Chen Two and Chen Three were kneeling before him, while Chen Gang was laying on the ground. Even though he had been beaten black and blue, he was still gripping a brick tightly.

"You must be Chu Qiguang," Lin Zifeng said vindictively. "I'm here to exact justice on you today!"

With that, he stood up from his chair and began making his way toward Chu Qiguang, who immediately threw a bag of lime powder at him.

Lin Zifeng evaded the projectile with ease, and lime powder erupted in all directions as the bag tumbled to the ground behind him.

"Lime powder? You really have no shame, do you?"

Lin Zifeng was just about to charge at Chu Qiguang, but the latter threw another bag of lime powder his way, followed quickly by a second, a third, a fourth...

Qiao Zhi's eyes lit up upon seeing this.

This is it! Chu Qiguang's Cloud Scattering Palms! I didn't know if I'd get to see it this time around!

At this moment, waves of intense heat were radiating from Chu Qiguang's entire body, as if his qi and blood had been set alight.

Over the past two days, he had consumed all thirty-seven Qi Enhancement Pills to reach the fourth state, then used the Lion Tiger Transformation Ointment as well. Now, he was fast approaching the pinnacle of the fourth state.

With his newfound strength, he threw around a dozen bags of lime powder in rapid succession. A large section of the yard was completely filled with lime powder, severely limiting Lin Zifeng's visibility. Right at that moment, he felt a burst of astonishing heat sweeping toward him, much to his alarm.

This type of heat can only come from the qi and blood of a fourth-state martial artist! Who is it?

In the next instant, a massive stone lock was sent hurtling toward Lin Zifeng, immediately followed by a series of other projectiles.

The third projectile was a large pot of water, and it shattered against his sword, soaking his entire body. The water reacted with the lime powder clinging to his skin, creating an intense burning pain.

Lin Zifeng gritted his teeth against the pain. He could see even more projectiles being hurled at him by Chu Qiguang and Qiao Zhi. Knowing that he couldn't keep passively taking hits like this, he closed his eyes, lowered his head, and charged blindly in a certain direction to try to escape.

A burst of scorching heat came sweeping toward him from his right, but that played right into his hands. He knew that Chu Qiguang would try to intercept him, and his plan was to take advantage of that opportunity to retaliate.

He drew his longsword as his qi and blood began to churn violently inside him, then swung his sword to his right with all his might. However, instead of cutting through flesh and bone as he had expected, his sword struck something with a dull thud, and became stuck.

In the next instant, Chu Qiguang came charging into him while holding an entire door as a shield, sending him flying backward through the air.

Even as Lin Zifeng lost consciousness from the impact, he was still in a state of disbelief.

He's already a fourth-state martial artist? But how? He's so young!

His second and final thought was, How could there be someone so shameless in this world?

Chu Qiguang glanced at the unconscious Lin Zifeng, then turned to Qiao Zhi and instructed, "Tie him up, and once he regains consciousness, ask him why he came after me, then get rid of him."

Chu Qiguang had no intention of revealing his fourth-state cultivation base to anyone at this point in time, so Lin Zifeng had to die.

Even in the martial examination that was set to take place in two months, he planned to pose as a third-state martial artist. After all, reaching the fourth state in such a short time was completely unheard of and would attract too much attention.

***

"That's another one for the river," White Rice sighed.

"That's what you get for messing with us cats," Lulu harrumphed.

"I hope you make better choices in your next life," Qiao Zhi mused as he urinated into the river.

With Lin Zifeng dead and submerged, Chu Qiguang turned to leave.

Not long after Chu Qiguang and the three cat fiends departed, a head broke through the surface of the river again. It seemed to have become a little furry, and it stared off into the direction that Chu Qiguang had left.

After returning to the courtyard, Chu Qiguang took a moment to consider his current situation.

Fei Yi really does still have a lot of influence left, even though he's no longer the grand secretary. Wu Siqi has only just taken his place, and someone's already coming after me.

During Lin Zifeng's interrogation before he was killed, he mentioned the Chen Clan from the neighboring Past Sun County. The Chen Clan was most likely part of Fei Yi's faction, which would explain why they had encouraged Lin Zifeng to do what he did.

The Chen Clan was the most powerful and wealthy clan in Past Sun County, and at the moment, the clan had three living wujinshi. The oldest among them was Chen Zimo. He was once the dean of the Imperial Hanlin Academy, but he had retired many years ago. During his time as dean of the Imperial Hanlin Academy, he had overseen many editions of the imperial examination and taught countless students who were current or past officials.

After retiring, Chen Zimo had been very active in giving back to the community, frequently sponsoring underprivileged children with talent in martial arts. For this, he had earned the respect and admiration of countless martial artists in the north.

On the flip side, some people had accused him of forcibly seizing land from others and using his power and influence to rule over Past Sun County like a tyrant. However, since returning to Past Sun County after retirement, four different county magistrates had come and gone, yet not a single one had ever bothered to investigate those accusations.

In the past, most of the cotton used in the Ding Clan's textile manufactories had been provided by the Chen Clan.

***

The Chen Clan's newly constructed Sunshine Garden was as massive as the imperial palace and was filled with extravagant pavilions and lavish pagodas.

Some people had accused the Chen Clan of overstepping with this construction project that rivaled the imperial palace in both scale and extravagance, but all of those accusations had been suppressed by the former grand secretary, Fei Yi.

Chen Zimo sat in the main hall, and his brows were tightly furrowed as he asked, "You're telling me Lin Zifeng disappeared?"

"Our people haven't been able to find him in Azure Sun County, and no one knows what happened to him," the steward replied with a nod.

"Didn't he go to teach Chu Qiguang a lesson? How could a wujuren like him just disappear out of nowhere? Send people to investigate immediately!" Chen Zimo ordered.

The steward gave an affirmative response before continuing, "Recently, the Wu Clan has been working together with the Daoist temple to take over the Ding Clan's textile manufactories, and they also hired some skilled workers in the textiles industry. It seems like they want to get involved in the cotton trade."

The Chen Clan had many textile manufactories of their own, which housed five hundred looms, making them one of the largest cotton producers in the north. However, they were inferior to the south in both quality and production volume. The dry climate in the north created some technical problems that were very difficult to overcome, so the Chen Clan had never expanded the scale of production of its textile manufactories.

Now that the Wu Clan was trying to enter the market, Chen Zimo immediately allocated a large amount of funds to expanding the scale of production and hiring another batch of skilled workers from Jiangnan.

The Chen Clan had plenty of money, and Chen Zimo was confident that he could outcompete the Wu Clan and make a fortune from cotton production once trade relations were established.

***

Meanwhile, Chu Qiguang was at one of the Ding Clan's textile manufactories, inspecting the looms and spinning machines of this era.

At the moment, Jiangnan was the heart of the textile industry. The climate there was far better suited for textile production, particularly silk, but that didn't matter to Chu Qiguang. What he wanted to produce was low-end cotton fabric, and quantity mattered much more than quality.

Through the Wu Clan and the Daoist temple, he was able to gather a lot of skilled workers in the textile industry, as well as carpenters and blacksmiths, to try and make the water-powered spinning machines and looms that he had drawn into reality.