The three of them fell silent for a moment, simply walking forward. Meanwhile, Henry Harper was thinking about his bowl of meat soup and that portion of ribs. Oh right, and that quiet, long-haired girl...

The quiet, long-haired girl, Sarah Sutton, had already finished her meal. Although she was also a martial artist and had ordered a great variety of dishes, her dining manner was refined and quiet, not giving off the slightest sense of coarseness. On the contrary, she exuded a sense of rhythm, or rather, an exceptionally ladylike aura—this was the bearing of a noble family.

After finishing her food, she frowned slightly, glanced at the bowl of meat soup and ribs on the table, then looked at the sky and checked the time. She hesitated between leaving the cafeteria and waiting a little longer. After thinking for over ten seconds, she took out a handwritten booklet from her bosom and began reading it carefully, yet she did not leave the cafeteria.

(Just ten minutes. If he still doesn’t come after ten minutes... I’ll just feed the meat soup and ribs to the cats.)

Sarah Sutton thought with a hint of mischief. Suddenly, at that moment, she felt a stir in her heart. The fingers of her right hand subtly left the book, moving closer to the sword at her side. At this distance, with her speed, it would take only a blink of an eye to draw her sword.

“The Third Miss’s Iceheart Technique has improved again.”

This aged voice sounded by Sarah Sutton’s ear. Sarah Sutton immediately let out a sigh of relief. She didn’t look around, only moved her lips slightly. Although she made no sound, she knew the owner of that aged voice could see her words.

“Fourth Uncle, why have you come to the Blue Shadow Republic? Is it family business?”

“Heh, the family is too far from this Blue Shadow Republic, there’s hardly any contact. That’s exactly why the Third Miss is here to study, isn’t it? So what business here could possibly trouble an old man like me? I came this time only to deliver something to the Third Miss.”

Sarah Sutton’s heart instantly tightened. She knew that the old man speaking to her was truly a master possessing inner power—the kind of true expert that only appears once in a hundred thousand people, someone who has truly transcended the ordinary world. Even in the Su family, a noble house, there were only five such people as the ultimate force of the clan. For someone like this to deliver an item, the importance of that item was self-evident.

“It’s the Jade Skin Pill. Your grandmother has finally emerged from seclusion. Ten years of toil, ten years of closed-door cultivation, using up all the rare herbs and treasures the Su family has collected over fifty years, and six pills have been produced. This is what allows our Su family to truly stand tall in the Qianshan Empire—the Su family’s eternally unshared clan treasure, the Jade Skin Pill, a treasure that can only be produced once every sixty years... This is what I’ve brought for the Third Miss.”

Sarah Sutton was so shocked she nearly jumped up, but fortunately, her years of practicing the internal Iceheart Technique allowed her to maintain control. Still, her body trembled slightly.

The Jade Skin Pill, the Su family’s secret that is never passed on. Legend has it that a Su family ancestor a thousand years ago, after surviving countless perils, found the core pill recipe of an ancient sect in its ruins. The pill requires countless rare herbs and treasures, and the alchemist must be an inner power wielder who sits in closed-door cultivation for ten years. All these restrictions are enough to show how precious this pill is.

This pill has only one effect: to cleanse and refine the body, raising a person’s innate constitution by several levels. Don’t underestimate those few levels—this isn’t something that can be achieved through training or medicinal diets, but is one’s natural-born constitution. For example, if someone’s parents are both short, unless they are exceptionally gifted, they will almost never be tall—their height is their natural limit. The Jade Skin Pill raises that natural limit. Even if it’s only by a few degrees, once exposed, it could cause upheaval in the Qianshan Empire and even the martial world of neighboring countries.

From the age of three, Sarah Sutton was taught martial arts theory; at four, she laid her martial foundation; at five, she began practicing internal techniques; at six, she started external techniques. Up to now, she had trained for over a decade. She naturally understood the most basic requirement for possessing inner power: to temper the body from the outside in to its utmost limit, after which inner power would naturally burst forth from within. But people are different. If a person is likened to a wooden bucket, their physical qualities are the staves of the bucket—some long, some short. For example, some have strong hearts but weak lungs, or strong livers but narrow blood vessels. Because of these differences, a person’s bucket may never be filled with water, and only when it is full or nearly full can one possess inner power. This is why only one in a hundred thousand, or even several hundred thousand, may become an inner power wielder—due to innate qualities, acquired factors, techniques, diligence, and so on, making such people extremely rare.

But if a person’s innate qualities could be raised by several levels, it would mean their bucket would be several staves taller. Even if there are still long and short staves, the amount of water it can hold increases by several levels. At the same time, the person’s physical limit hasn’t actually changed. In other words, once the stored water surpasses the previous bucket’s waterline, that person will immediately... possess inner power!