“What? The Semi-Sacred Sacred Intent!”
Zhang Ruochen’s heart was overjoyed as he hurriedly asked, “Did he tell you where he placed that piece of Half-Saint Sacred Intent?”
That one slave girl shook her head.
In Mu Qing’s eyes, she was just a slave, so how could she possibly tell her the location where the Half-Saint Sacred Intent was kept?
Suddenly, she added, “Mu Qing lives a very regular life, either staying in the Red Spider Giant Ship or in his mansion in the black market. The Half-Saint Sacred Intent, there is only a possibility that it could have been placed in these two places.”
The Half-Saint Holy Intent was indeed quite precious, not only could it help Zhang Ruochen cultivate his spiritual power, but it could also help Zhang Ruochen comprehend the Half-Saint Martial Dao.
One must know that in his last life, Zhang Ruochen had only cultivated to the great circle of the Heavenly Extremity Realm, and he was still a far distance away from the realm of the Half-Saint.
Zhang Ruochen asked the slave girls to all wait in the middle level of the ship’s warehouse.
He travelled alone to the lower level of the ship’s silo to look for the Half-Saint Sacred Intent.
On the lower level of the ship’s warehouse, there were many secret chambers established, and each of them was arranged with formation inscriptions, so an ordinary martial artiste breaking in could be said to be dead in the water.
However, Zhang Ruochen couldn’t be bothered with those formation inscriptions, as long as he performed the “Spatial Rift”, he could easily tear through the formation and break into those chambers.
In the secret room on the lower level of the ship, there was a huge amount of wealth stored there, just the spirit crystals alone were more than 80,000, there were also a large number of true martial arts treasures, pills, secret books of martial arts techniques, and precious commodities, all the resources for cultivation added up, definitely more than 150 million silver coins.
Moreover, the value of the Red Spider Giant Ship itself hadn’t even been added.
This was a huge fortune, estimated to be all the resource wealth of the Poison Spider Chamber of Commerce at the southern border of the Four Directions County Kingdom.
If the Poison Spider Chamber of Commerce were to know about this wealth, which had fallen into Zhang Ruochen’s hands, they would definitely be furious.
Zhang Ruochen said, “The news should spread soon, and the Poison Spider Chamber of Commerce will definitely send a large number of experts to deal with me when they know that this Red Spider Giant Ship has fallen into my hands.”
After searching through the entire Red Spider Giant Ship, Zhang Ruochen didn’t find the Half-Saint Sacred Intent.
“It seems that the Half-Saint Sacred Intent could only possibly have been placed in Mu Qing’s mansion in the black market.”
Zhang Ruochen did not touch those cultivation resources in the Red Spider Giant Ship, walked out from the lower level of the ship’s silo, flew the Red Spider Giant Ship, flew to the sky above Lin’an County Town, escorted those twenty-four slave girls into the county town, and found the garrison in the county town.
There were only three thousand people in the Lin’an County garrison.
The general guarding the city heard of the Ninth Prince’s arrival and immediately rushed to greet him, not daring to be slow in the slightest.
“So the mysterious young man who fought with Lord Hua Ming in the city earlier is the Ninth Prince. Heavens! The Ninth Prince’s martial cultivation has actually reached such a realm.”
That one general had already been to the Poison Spider Chamber of Commerce’s stronghold earlier, saw the corpses of Hua Ming Gong and the Poison Spider Young Lord, and inquired about the identities of the two corpses from the mouths of the Evil Dao martial practitioners who had captured them.
In the eyes of the general’s soldiers, a martial artist of Hua Ming Gong’s kind of Heavenly Extreme Realm was a mythical figure.
That one general was stunned when he learnt that the Poison Spider Young Master and Hua Ming Gong had died in Lin’an County City, and was about to send someone to report to the court when he heard the news of the Ninth Prince’s arrival, so he immediately rushed to greet him.
Learning of the purpose of the Ninth Prince’s visit, that one general immediately deployed a thousand soldiers to escort twenty-four slave girls to the royal city with the Ninth Prince’s personal letter.
After settling those slave girls, Zhang Ruochen travelled towards the outside of the city.
As he walked to the entrance of the city, Zhang Ruochen saw a small familiar figure.
It was a three or four year old little girl with messy hair, a well-behaved appearance, and a yellowish face, the very same little girl he had seen when he first entered Lin’an County City.
She stood in the snow, her little face and hands frozen red, blinking her eyes and staring at Zhang Ruochen in the distance.
Earlier, the robe that Zhang Ruochen had given her had gone somewhere, and she was still wearing a thin, worn-out cloth coat, and even had a pair of bare little feet, not even shoes.
Zhang Ruochen was a little curious and walked over, saying, ”Why are you here? Where are the clothes I gave you earlier? And the blood pills given to you?”
The little girl opened her pair of round eyes wide, her fingers gently tugging at the corner of her clothes as she whispered, “I …… I gave it to someone else!”
“Why are you so stupid? Wearing that one piece of clothing is a protection against the cold. Taking those blood pills can keep you from starving for the entire winter. Why did you give it to someone else?” Zhang Ruochen said.
The little girl’s eyes remained firm, not looking regretful in the slightest, saying, “I gave it to them, and they helped me bury my mother.”
Zhang Ruochen came to a realisation and stopped talking, carefully sizing up this little girl who was only three or four years old, saying, “Where is your mother buried, take me to see.”
That one little girl inclined her head in thought, then nodded, and walked in the snow with a pair of bare reddish feet, as if she was completely unaware of the cold, or perhaps her body had long been frozen numb.
With every step, even her knees did not go into the snow, leaving behind a series of small footprints.
Zhang Ruochen walked behind her, looking at her thin body with some surprise in his heart.
In such cruel weather, under the hunger and cold, even if it was an adult with a strong physique, staying inside the icy sky and snow, they would probably have already frozen to death.
A little girl of only three or four years old, in such a cold winter, wearing only thin, worn out clothes, and without food, actually did not freeze to death? Didn’t starve to death?
“You stop!” Zhang Ruochen said.
The little girl stopped her steps and turned her head, a pair of big black and white eyes staring at Zhang Ruochen with some bewilderment.
Walking up to her, Zhang Ruochen’s fingers pressed on her head, pinching inch by inch, followed by his fingers going downwards, first clasping the spine of her back, and then pinching towards the joints of her legs and feet.
After a long time, Zhang Ruochen withdrew his hand, a hint of a smile appearing on his lips, “It’s really unbelievable, there are actually one thousand and eight bones in the whole body, no wonder she didn’t freeze to death or starve to death, it’s actually the ‘Thousand Bones Physique’.”
A normal human’s bones only had two hundred and six.
Of course, when humans were young, they had to have a few more bones and could reach two hundred and eighteen. That was because, when a human was in their early years, their bones were not yet formed.
Therefore, the juvenile period is the best time to practice martial arts. Once one became an adult, the bones would be shaped, and even if one cultivated martial arts, they wouldn’t reach much of an achievement.
A human who can possess one thousand and eight bones at the same time is definitely considered to have amazing bones and a martial arts practice wizard, just missing an opportunity to practice martial arts, and in the future, he or she will definitely soar into the sky and break through the cocoon and turn into a butterfly.
This was a natural physique that came with the body!
Taking Zhang Ruochen as an example, his physique in this life was incredibly poor, therefore, he was weak and sickly from a young age, and did not even open the Divine Martial Seal until he was sixteen years old, and also died in bed due to the severe cold.
If it wasn’t for Zhang Ruochen’s soul from his previous life, which came eight hundred years later and merged into this body, he wouldn’t have had the chance to cultivate the Martial Dao at all.
The reason why Zhang Ruochen was as successful as he was now was entirely due to the cultivation of the Nine Heavens Bright Emperor Scripture, coupled with the piling up of a large amount of cultivation resources.
Therefore, Zhang Ruochen had purchased a large number of pills and cultivated the Dragon Elephant Prajna Palm, just to hammer his physique and make up for his shortcomings in his innate nature.
The little girl was different, her innate bones were amazing, while others only had two hundred and six bones, she had one thousand and eight bones, even Zhang Tian Gui was far inferior to her above her innate physique.
Legend has it that dragons and phoenixes only have nine hundred and ninety-nine bones, nine less than her.
Therefore, the so-called “dragon and phoenix among men” referred to the “thousand bones physique”.
If those big clans and big families found her, they would definitely guard her like a treasure.
In history, there was a great emperor with a thousand-bone physique who had cultivated to the level of a “Nine Extreme Genius”, and no one had been able to surpass him so far.
When the little girl saw Zhang Ruochen pinching on her body, she instantly became nervous and did not move at all, while at the same time, she became a bit defensive towards Zhang Ruochen, fearing that she might meet a bad person.
Zhang Ruochen stared at her and asked, “What’s your name?”
“Cold Snow.” The little girl said.
Zhang Ruochen said, “Why is it called Cold Snow?”
The little girl mumbled, “Because daddy doesn’t like cold snow …… He said that once it snows, there will be no food. Not only will you starve to death, you will also freeze to death.”
“So, he doesn’t like you either?” Zhang Ruochen said.
“Girls can’t join the army, and if they can’t join the army, how can they cultivate martial arts? And girls are not as strong as boys, so they can’t even do farming or hunting. Father naturally loathed me, disliked me, hated me, and thought that I was just as abominable as the cold winds and ice and snow in winter.”
She was silent for a moment, and then said, “But then he finally froze to death inside the ice and snow, after my mother and I buried him, we came to Lin’an county town, I thought that I wouldn’t freeze to death when I arrived at the county town, but it turned out ……”
Tears flowed from her eyes and she cried again, after all, she was still just a little girl.
Cold Snow brought Zhang Ruochen to the place where her mother was buried, it was buried inside the woods outside of the city, it was just a small mound of earth, it seemed very simple.
But she was already satisfied, after all, with her own strength, she could not bury her mother at all.
“Swish!”
Zhang Ruochen found a three-metre high boulder, slapped his palm on the boulder, and swung his hand blade out, the boulder cracked and split into two halves, with a flat cut appearing in the middle.
Cold Snow opened her small mouth wide, staring at this scene in shock, feeling very unbelievable.
Zhang Ruochen’s palm lifted, and under the guidance of his true qi, the thousand-pound boulder flew to the front of the mound. Stretching out an index finger and condensing his true qi, Zhang Ruochen quickly carved words on the huge stone.
“Mother’s Tomb, Daughter Cold Snow.”
After carving eight words, it became a simple stone monument.
With his hands behind his back, Zhang Ruochen stared at the stone monument in front of him and said, “Do you want to cultivate martial arts?”
Cold Snow stood beside Zhang Ruochen, less than a metre tall, her eyes very bright as she said, “I want to!”
Zhang Ruochen nodded and said, “Since that’s the case, then follow me! When you are successful in your cultivation in the future, you can come back and rebuild a large tomb for your mother.”
