Just as Senior Sister was about to turn and leave, she noticed I was captivated by a magical tool and stopped. I looked at an old, tattered fragment of a cultivation technique. Weathered by the passage of time, even the characters on it were illegible. I asked the price, and it was only two hundred Spirit Stones. Senior Sister urged me to put it down, saying that something so ruined would be completely useless to buy. As I checked my Storage Ring and saw I still had over six hundred Spirit Stones left, the Divine Thunder Spear—a magical tool my father had given me, stored away inside—suddenly trembled and emitted a faint glow of spiritual qi. At the same time, the fragmented cultivation technique on the stall also emitted a faint glow. I wondered if there was some mysterious connection between them.
Taking a closer look, the characters on the fragment were still indistinct, but under the resonance of my Divine Thunder Spear, a change occurred: a few words appeared on the surface of the fragment: "Mystic Thunder Phantom, Thunderstorm in the Sky." This cultivation technique probably worked in tandem with my Divine Thunder Spear, and that terrifying power would be enough to instantly kill a late-stage Qi Condensation warrior.
The Divine Thunder Spear would be responsible for drawing down the thunder, and the fragmented cultivation technique would absorb the thunder's might. If a Qi Condensation warrior were to run into this set of techniques, their cultivation would be completely wiped out.
I fished two hundred Spirit Stones out of my Storage Ring and handed them to the stall owner, saying excitedly, "Old man, I'm buying this fragment. Here are your Spirit Stones." As I took the cultivation technique, I thought to myself that in everyone else's eyes, this fragment was a bit battered, but to me, it was like striking gold. However, I couldn't show any expression of delight. I immediately tucked it away into my Storage Ring. Just at that moment, a burly man and several rogue cultivator disciples rushed toward us.
The burly man pointed right at my nose and said, "Leave that broken cultivation technique behind, or don't even think about leaving alive."
"What if this young master refuses? What can you possibly do to me?" Han Lin said domineeringly.
Senior Sister was just waiting for the other party to make a move so she could thoroughly teach this pack of bullies a lesson and show them how to behave.
Word had it that these fellows were notorious bullies in this Lingyun Market. The burly man before us was called Iron Ox, and relying on his breakthrough to the Qi Condensation stage, he did whatever he pleased—seizing young girls, robbing spiritual pills, committing every imaginable evil. Moreover, the vendors here had to pay protection money every day; anyone who refused was barred from selling their wares here.
Seeing that I wouldn't budge, Iron Ox said viciously, "Not going to hand it over, eh? Then don't blame me for being unpolished."
With Senior Sister around, Han Lin had nothing to fear. Furthermore, Han Lin had cultivated the technique his father gave him to the third layer just a few days ago, so teaching these fellows a lesson would be a walk in the park.
Iron Ox waved his hand, and several cultivators rushed forward. In a flash, Senior Sister froze their swords with a single stroke, turning both the swords and the men into snowmen, completely unable to move. They were dumbfounded. The cultivation level of this pretty woman before them was terrifyingly high; with a single flicker of her shadow, she had defeated them all in one move.
Iron Ox refused to accept this and shouted, "If you've got guts, trade blows with my mystic iron hammers!"
I stood off to the side, wearing a silly grin. Those were clearly just big sledgehammers from the fields, yet he gave them such a grandiose name like "mystic iron hammers"—simply laughable, heh!
Senior Sister couldn't be bothered to waste time with this fellow. She stepped forward and delivered a kick straight to his belly. The guy didn't budge at all; his internal energy ran deep, and he must have practiced some sort of body-refining cultivation technique. Right after that, Iron Ox swung a hammer at her. Senior Sister leaped gracefully into the air and kicked him again—damn, still no effect. After a few rounds, the fat man started getting anxious because he couldn't hit Senior Sister at all. Weighing several hundred catties, his agility was just a tiny, tiny bit better than an ordinary rogue cultivator.
Senior Sister shot me a look, and I understood immediately: this fellow didn't require her to finish him off. If she were to defeat the fat man, he'd probably lose so much face he wouldn't even know where to look, causing an absolute sensation in the martial world when word got out that a heavy-class fighter had actually been beaten by a female cultivator.
"Fatty, if you've got the guts, trade blows with this young master," Han Lin taunted.
I channeled spiritual qi into my fist, unleashing a powerful force as I punched out. The fat man threw up a block, but he was still sent flying ten meters away. Panting heavily, the fat man scrambled furiously to his feet. This time, spiritual qi surged wildly across his entire body, and as he threw a punch, the phantom of a tiger materialized in the air. "Could this punch be the Tiger Head Fist?" Han Lin observed upon seeing it. The Tiger Head Fist was a Lower-Grade Mysterious-tier cultivation technique, and the force of this punch was ferocious indeed. However, Han Lin easily dodged it with a quick side-step, and a two-meter-deep crater was blasted into the ground where he had stood.
"Damn, is this punch really that badass? Let's see how you like the Seismological Seven-Wound Fist I recently learned," Han Lin said.