Chapter 82: Spiritual Energy Food

That same night, in a house in the northern part of the city.

Lin Ganghao brought a man who looked sneaky into the room. That man was Brother Pa, who used to be in the Sea Dragon Gang half a year ago and had once fought with Zuo Zhicheng.

The two entered the room and saw Qingyue Qiu sitting behind the desk in her tight-fitting clothes, silently reading a document in her hands.

As a low-level gangster from the bottom of society, Brother Pa had never seen a woman as perfect as Qingyue Qiu. It was like seeing a goddess. He stared at her with wide eyes and was completely captivated. Only when Lin Ganghao slapped him on the forehead did he snap out of it. He lowered his head and did not dare to look again. But his mind was still filled with her image from moments ago.

A few minutes later, after Qingyue Qiu finished reading the document, she slowly raised her head and asked calmly, “How did it go?”

“We found it,” Lin Ganghao said. “But the situation inside is very complicated. The first and second teams have lost contact.”

Qingyue Qiu nodded and glanced at Brother Pa beside her. That one glance sent a chill down Brother Pa’s spine.

“Are you sure it’s that place?”

“It… it should be that place.”

More than two months ago, Qingyue Qiu, as a representative sent by the Qingyue Family in the Shadow Corps, came to Xinlu Port to take charge of the work here. She took over the power vacuum and various interests left behind after the Dìyù Gate retreated.

At the same time, she also had the task of investigating the identity of Ghost Fist. However, this task had not been completed yet because Ghost Fist had strong anti-surveillance abilities and was more powerful than they had imagined.

In their view, Ghost Fist did not use his full strength in the fight with Blood Rakshasa. Although he severed one of White Wraith’s arms in the battle with her, White Wraith still managed to escape.

So their current estimation of Ghost Fist’s strength was that he was slightly stronger than White Wraith, meaning he was a martial artist who had just reached the Grand Completion of Qi Training.

As for the matter at hand now, it was something else.

“Then get ready. In a few days, I will go with you.”

“Miss, it’s too dangerous for you to go down there personally…”

Qingyue Qiu said calmly, “It’s fine. I will find a way to get some helpers to assist.”

…

The next day, although the main competition had ended, the exhibition matches between the martial hall masters were even more anticipated.

Even though they were just for show and did not determine a winner, many spectators clearly hoped that these masters would have a fierce fight. After all, onlookers enjoy watching things get exciting.

But below the stage, on the side of Chaoyang Martial Hall, Xiao Changhe seemed to have two big dark circles under his eyes. He looked like he had not slept well the entire night.

Especially when he looked in the direction of Haoran Martial Hall, his eyes always seemed evasive. His mind was still on what Zuo Zhicheng had said yesterday.

‘A genius? How could there be such a genius?’

Xiao Jingyang thought he was still holding a grudge against Zuo Zhicheng, so he did not pay much attention. But he did not know that his son was worried that if he went on stage for the exhibition match today, Zuo Zhicheng would immediately copy his moves.

Then, after thinking for a moment, Xiao Changhe walked over to Xiao Jingyang, leaned close to his ear, and whispered something.

Xiao Jingyang sneered and shook his head. “What nonsense are you talking about? Have you lost your mind? How could such a thing be possible? Jiang Tianzheng must have taught Zuo Zhicheng the Eagle Claw Technique and the Work Character Fist. He was just bluffing you!”

“But… but…” Xiao Changhe still wanted to say that he seemed unable to defeat the other party yesterday.

Xiao Jingyang, however, was already tired of listening to his nonsense and waved his hand dismissively. “Alright, in the path of Martial Arts, only hard work matters. Don’t talk about geniuses who learn everything at a glance. Sit properly, watch the stage, and don’t disgrace our martial hall.”

Xiao Changhe lowered his head, but Zuo Zhicheng’s words still lingered in his mind.

“Because I am a genius.”

“I have a special talent for Martial Arts. So no matter what Martial Arts, I learn it just by watching once and master it by practicing once. This is something you can’t compare to at all.”

“Genius?” Xiao Changhe clenched his fists tightly, lost in thought.

As for Zuo Zhicheng, he completely ignored what Xiao Changhe was thinking. He looked at Rihuo, who was sitting on the side of Chaoyang Martial Hall, and was still thinking about the information he had gathered about him yesterday.

This man named Rihuo from the Hante Tribe was originally a mid-level leader in the Hundred Families Association. Although he had also learned Martial Arts at Chaoyang Martial Hall, he should not have reached the level of strength that Zuo Zhicheng detected using Infrared Vision. Instead, there were rumors that he had suddenly become very strong in the past few months.

‘He directly won the championship in this competition, and judging by his arrogant behavior, he didn’t seem to be hiding his strength at all. It seemed more like the Hundred Families Association sent him specifically to help Chaoyang Martial Hall in the competition.

If we rule out the possibility that he was hiding his strength for a long time, then his strength must have suddenly experienced explosive growth.’

Zuo Zhicheng carefully analyzed the other party’s peculiarities: ‘Based on the flow of energy on the stage yesterday and the coverage area of the Innate Primordial Breath, the Martial Arts he practices are still mainly the Eagle Claw Technique from Chaoyang Martial Hall.’

Although the native people of the New Continent also had their own Authentic Transmission Martial Arts, whether one could practice Authentic Transmission Martial Arts depended on whether the part of the body being trained had Innate Primordial Breath. For someone like Rihuo, whose Innate Primordial Breath appeared on his back, he could only practice the Eagle Claw Technique. To extend the Innate Primordial Breath to other parts of the body, unless he found another Authentic Transmission Martial Arts that trained areas near the back.

Ordinary people could not observe the presence of Innate Primordial Breath in advance and could only try blindly. At this point, luck was very important. Of course, from what Zuo Zhicheng had observed so far, besides relying on luck, there was another method: inheritance.

From what he had seen so far, Jiang Qing, Jiang Tianzheng, Xiao Changhe, and Xiao Jingyang—this special tissue of Innate Primordial Breath might also be hereditary. If the parent had Innate Primordial Breath in their hands, it was more likely that their children would also have it in their hands.

Thus, family-inherited Martial Arts became an important form of transmission.

‘Since he still mainly uses the Eagle Claw Technique and hasn’t practiced any other special Martial Arts, and his sudden increase in strength wasn’t hidden…’

‘So it must be… Spiritual Energy Food?’ Thinking of this, a glint of sharp light flashed in Zuo Zhicheng’s eyes. After coming to Xinlu, in order to speed up his Martial Arts training, he had also tried to find Spiritual Energy Food, but there was no information at all.

Thinking about it, it made sense. Perhaps in ancient times, such food was abundant. But in this era where Spiritual Power had greatly diminished, Spiritual Energy Food, which could significantly increase a martial artist’s efficiency in Qi Training, had obviously become an important resource fought over by major forces. Ordinary people didn’t even have the right to know about it.

The thought that the other party might have eaten it or knew about the existence of Spiritual Energy Food made Zuo Zhicheng’s heart beat with excitement.

Perhaps because he looked at Rihuo for a bit too long, the other party suddenly turned his head and gave Zuo Zhicheng a cruel smile, like a big tiger in the forest baring its teeth.

Then he gave Zuo Zhicheng the middle finger.

‘Pure, instinctive provocation… A gangster is just a gangster.’ Zuo Zhicheng sneered inwardly and ignored Rihuo. He just turned his gaze back to the stage and continued watching the exhibition matches between the masters.

Learning a bit of the stage’s Martial Arts through the Infrared Vision in his left eye was better than nothing.