The words of reprimand were on the tip of his tongue, but he sighed instead.

“Practice martial arts with your Uncle Baker, learn properly from him. Don’t train on your own—you’ll get yourself into trouble.”

He shook his head, turned, and walked toward the door. Halfway there, he paused and added,

“If you need any medicinal herbs from the pharmacy, just ask. I’ll give you a monthly allowance of two thousand taels.”

With that, he strode away.

Second Madam Emily Green reached out and gently wiped the sweat from Henry Walker’s forehead with a towel.

“Your father is just soft-hearted.”

She let out a long sigh.

“Master Xu and your father were sworn brothers. Now that this has happened, he feels terrible. It’s good that you want to practice martial arts, but most people start building their foundation from a young age. At your age, it’s really a bit late…”

She rambled on about something, but Henry Walker didn’t take it all in.

His attention was entirely focused on the Black Tiger Saber Technique he had just acquired.

“How fascinating…”

Henry Walker narrowed his eyes slightly. On the surface, he appeared to be listening to Second Madam, but in reality, he was sensing the condition of his own body.

He flexed his arm muscles.

“The muscles in both arms are the same as before, but that sense of familiarity, that feeling as if I’ve practiced saber techniques for years, it’s just…”

He tried flexing the muscles in his legs.

The muscles in his legs were now clearly easier to exert force with than before.

He could distinctly feel his strength surging rapidly from his feet upward, through his waist, and into his arms.

This smooth transmission of power was described in great detail in the Black Tiger Saber Technique.

This was called “Tongli”—power integration.

“If I go by what the saber manual says, most martial artists have a method to mobilize most of their body’s strength. Those who can use fifty percent of their total strength are considered skilled. Those who can mobilize eighty percent can reach the so-called Tongli state.”

Henry Walker weighed this in his mind. According to some of the original memories of this body, he had heard Uncle Baker and several other martial artists discuss this topic before.

The Tongli state was about the top tier in Jiulian City.

To be able to integrate all your strength and unleash it in a single strike—even as an ordinary person, a single slash could deliver terrifying power and speed far beyond the average.

“Uncle Baker is at the Tongli level…”

Henry Walker sighed inwardly. The effect of the modifier was flawless, and a huge weight was lifted from his heart.

“Unfortunately, it seems the modifier consumes a combination of vital energy, spirit, and essence. Just making this one change—not even to some legendary internal energy technique, but just an ordinary external saber technique—almost left me with depleted vitality and bedridden…”

Henry Walker was starting to understand the true nature of the modifier.

It seemed to be an adjuster, able to imprint experience, memory, instinct, and martial arts onto the body.

But this adjustment required energy, and what it consumed seemed to be his own vital essence.

Moreover, adjusting the body’s memory and such wasn’t something that could be done instantly.

“The body is like a pile of materials. The modifier probably uses these materials to build a new foundation on top of the original one. It can’t just create muscle strength or bone density out of thin air.”

Henry Walker came to this conclusion.

And over the next few days, the changes in his body confirmed his guess.

From the first day, his body began to recover gradually. At the same time, his arms, legs, chest, and back all slowly developed solid muscles.

Henry Walker also clearly felt that his sense of pain had become dulled. A thick layer of callus began to form on the skin of his palms.

His appetite grew larger and larger.

To avoid drawing attention, he secretly went out every day to eat extra meals.

At home, he ate four times a day—three regular meals plus a late-night snack.

Outside, he would eat the same amount again as he did at home.

After seven days of this, Henry Walker’s whole body became noticeably sturdier, and he was no longer as thin and weak as before.

He had already returned the saber manual to Uncle Baker in its entirety.

When Uncle Baker heard about his illness and bedridden state, he just shook his head and sighed when he took back the manual, saying nothing else and no longer asking about saber practice.

Henry Walker guessed that he probably thought he had hurt himself by recklessly trying to practice saber techniques.

And that was indeed what Uncle Baker thought.

He had originally expected Henry Walker to come to him for guidance after struggling with the saber practice, but unexpectedly, he soon heard that Henry Walker, the eldest young master, was injured and bedridden.

Later, when the manual was returned and there were no more questions about the Black Tiger Saber, he assumed Henry Walker had lost interest and given up.

To this, Uncle Baker only sighed and said nothing more.

Everything returned to how it was before.

Life in the Lu household seemed largely unaffected by the Xu family’s tragedy.

The younger generation went out for spring outings, continued to frequent flower houses, listened to music, rode horses, and attended poetry and flower gatherings. Jiulian City wasn’t big, but it wasn’t small either—there was no shortage of entertainment.

The elders attended this gathering or that, went to the city yamen for discussions.

Andrew Walker buried himself in the guild and business affairs all day long.

It was as if everyone had already forgotten the Xu family massacre and resumed their lives as before.