Additionally, after selling the small courtyard, he would still need to rent a quiet place to live for about four months, which would cost another dozen or so taels of silver. Sigh, it looks like he’s still short by about eighty taels. Hmm, if he were to steal from some wealthy person, with his own Daoist skills it would be no trouble at all, and he wouldn’t leave any clues behind. It’s just that he’s always been law-abiding, and unless he’s truly desperate, it’s hard to make up his mind to do such a thing. He decided to leave this method as a last resort—if it really came to that, he wouldn’t have any psychological burden about it.

Thus, Ryan Clark put up a sign at the broker’s office to sell the small courtyard, and also asked Owen Harris to help invite his friend who worked at the yamen to a meal together, so they could get acquainted. That way, when the house was sold and he had to go to the yamen to process the deed and pay the deed tax, he wouldn’t be taken advantage of too badly.

Of course, Ryan Clark’s main focus was still on cultivation. Every day, he diligently practiced the “Secret Record of Circulating Qi through the Twelve Rivers, Eight Lakes, and Seventy-Two Great Rivers of the Jade Pivot” and the “Clear Wind and Bright Moon Illuminating the True Spirit Method,” never slacking off in the slightest. Over the past five months, his soul strength had advanced by leaps and bounds; he was no longer the exhausted figure who could barely cast a spell or two when he first arrived. His internal energy had also made great progress—not only had he filled the twelve regular meridians and eight extraordinary meridians, but after several failed attempts, he finally succeeded in opening a minor meridian, and then, unstoppable, he opened twelve in succession.

That day at noon, after lunch, Ryan Clark returned to the small courtyard. He hadn’t even had time to sit down when he heard the sound of the door knocker at the courtyard gate. Ryan Clark thought it was someone from the broker’s office bringing people to view the courtyard. Because he needed to cultivate every day, Ryan Clark had arranged with the broker to bring people to see the courtyard only after noon, and never for more than an hour.

The broker had already brought people to view the place several times before, but they had never agreed on a price. Ryan Clark wasn’t in a hurry; the money he had on hand would last another two or three months.

Ryan Clark opened the courtyard gate, and to his surprise, the person outside wasn’t from the broker’s office, but an acquaintance—a young man in his twenties, dressed in a brocade robe, handsome in appearance.

Before leaving to seek immortals, Old Brooks had created a martial art that cultivated both internally and externally, called “Returning to the True Skill,” based on the “Scripture of Returning to the True,” and left it to his clan. The Old Brooks family had previously just been a relatively wealthy merchant family, often extorted by underworld figures. Later, after acquiring this martial art and collecting some secret techniques, several experts emerged from the family, gradually gaining a reputation in the martial world. In Xia’an Prefecture, they bought land, ran silk and cloth businesses, and secretly dealt in private salt, becoming a local power. However, because Old Brooks himself wasn’t very skilled in martial arts, the manuals he wrote were somewhat lacking in offensive techniques, and there weren’t many good matching moves, so the Xu family could only be considered a third-rate family in the martial world.

Ten years ago, Old Brooks returned to Xia’an Prefecture. Although he didn’t move back in with the family, he also didn’t cut off contact. The Xu family treated this ancestor with great respect, sending gifts every month and during festivals. They also selected many outstanding children from within the family to be sent to this immortal-like ancestor for instruction—being able to learn even a little bit of immortal arts from him was considered a great blessing.

Unfortunately, although these children were talented, they didn’t seem to have much comprehension of Daoist arts, but they learned body strengthening and qi cultivation very quickly. Old Brooks had high hopes that his family would produce another Daoist cultivator, but as this situation continued, he gave up the idea and focused on teaching Brian Foster. As for those children, after they reached the inner family expert level during the qi cultivation stage, they were all sent back to the Xu family, and he no longer allowed the Xu family to send more children.

However, Old Brooks also revised the “Returning to the True Skill” based on his years of experience sparring and discussing with martial arts experts, adding the secret techniques he had collected, thus giving the Xu family a proper legacy.

The young man visiting today was the most talented among those children back then—Lucas Brooks. He was sent over at the age of ten and reached the qi cultivation stage in just six years. Unfortunately, after entering the qi cultivation stage, he completely neglected the practice of visualization, focusing only on internal energy cultivation. Moreover, he practiced the new “Returning to the True Skill” method of circulating qi. After two years, he made no significant progress in Daoist arts, so Old Brooks sent him back to the Xu family.

In the martial world, anyone who could reach the qi cultivation stage before the age of twenty was invariably a highly talented disciple of a prestigious sect. Thus, Lucas Brooks’s status as an inner family expert at eighteen made quite a splash in the martial world. Lucas Brooks greatly enjoyed this feeling, and continued to roam the martial world, having some adventures and making a big name for himself—many praised him as one of the top twenty experts of the younger generation. Secretly, Lucas Brooks wasn’t very convinced; he thought that if it weren’t for the fact that the Xu family was now only second-rate (even with the new “Returning to the True Skill”), and although he still hadn’t managed to open the Ren and Du meridians at the start of the eight extraordinary meridians, his internal strength was so deep that he should at least be in the top ten. The title of one of the Four Young Masters of the Martial World wasn’t out of reach.

Chapter 7: The Ghost That Doesn’t Harm People

Ryan Clark’s previous physical body, Brian Foster, and Lucas Brooks had been classmates for eight years and had a good relationship. It was only after Lucas Brooks went off to roam the martial world that they lost touch, and they didn’t meet again until Old Brooks passed away and the Xu family held a funeral, where Brian Foster saw Lucas Brooks again. Since then, it had been almost a year since they last met.