Chapter 151: Fulfillment

"What?!"

Hearing this news, and recalling the righteous-looking old man with a white beard he had met just days ago, Zhuang Jin found it hard to believe that the span of a mere few days had separated them into the realms of the living and the dead.

'I had long anticipated that touching the vital interests of those vermin in the East District would cause them to stop at nothing. That was precisely why I chose to come to the South District rather than stay in the East District to be their executioner's blade... Yet, I never imagined I had still underestimated these people. They are so audacious and deranged that they actually framed Uncle Pang for colluding with the Medicine King Sect and had him executed right there at the ward headquarters...'

This sounded somewhat similar to the Zhao Bin incident, but even Zhuang Jin wouldn't dare play things out so viciously. He had merely kept up a steady pressure, making Zhao Bin crack under the unbearable mental strain until he finally took concrete actions... But the methods of those vermin in the East District showed that they had completely thrown away all shame!

To claim that Pang Shusheng colluded with the Medicine King Sect and betrayed them to the enemy? How utterly absurd!

After the incident, Zhuang Jin had specifically inquired about Pang Shusheng: the man had never married, had no children, possessed a noble character, and detested evil as he detested a foe. He had resigned from official service in the past precisely because of his unwavering commitment to enforcing the law impartially... His character had even been recognized by Shen Xianhong, the head of the Shen family, who had entrusted him with the education of his own son... For someone like this, they claimed he colluded with the Medicine King Sect and turned traitor?

Far from being far-fetched, it was completely unrelated—hardly any different from a fabricated charge!

'Presumably, Commander Pang discovered the crucial truth and touched something he shouldn't have, severely threatening certain people's interests. That must be why those people resorted to such desperate measures, hoping to intimidate anyone who might follow in his footsteps...' A thought crossed Zhuang Jin's mind, and he guessed the general outline of the situation.

"Indeed. But those people thought they could use this to threaten our headquarters and terrify the investigators who follow—how could that ever work?!"

Zou Qingfeng sneered. "Such a distortion of the truth out of thin air has enraged even the neutral factions within our headquarters who have no vested interests... The family head is furious and has deployed pre-prepared warriors to intervene, causing the situation to escalate sharply... I imagine that very soon, quite a few warriors from the East District will be reassigned over here..."

Shen Xianhong had long laid out plans in the East District, having already prepared personnel to subsequently cooperate with Pang Shusheng. Once they moved in immediately after this incident, the East District would be completely turned upside down in an instant.

'And yet, no matter what, that Mr. Pang is dead!'

Zou Qingfeng sighed inwardly. After Zou Qingfeng left, Zhuang Jin stood in silence for a moment, then walked to the doorway with a cup of wine and poured it out toward the direction of the East District.

...

No matter how turbulent the great upheaval in the East District became beneath the surface, it could not reach Zhuang Jin, who was recuperating behind the front lines in the South District.

Considering that when he recovered from his injuries and returned to the front lines, he would inevitably have broken through the Twelve Meridians and would no longer need to fear anything, and also wishing to openly and reasonably display the Pulse-Connecting realm as early as possible, he had returned to the Shen family headquarters a couple of days ago. There, he registered his advancement to the Eleventh Meridian realm, being promoted to a Five-Mark Guard. His given reason was: the accumulation for his Tenth Meridian realm had already been mostly completed while he was in the East District, and had been entirely finished during his first few days in the South District. Furthermore, by seizing the opportunity of this life-and-death crisis, he had broken through the bottleneck.

This had even triggered a dramatic scene: Fu Honggang, the chief commander of the Medicine King Sect in the South District, had submitted a report to his superiors claiming credit. A major item in this report was that he had severely wounded Zhuang Jin, damaging the potential of this Shen family genius and stunting his martial arts journey...

However, just as this merit-seeking report was submitted, news arrived that Zhuang Jin had leveraged this very life-and-death crisis to break through to the Eleventh Meridian in one stroke... This was like a vicious slap across Fu Honggang's face, swelling it up completely.

Fu Honggang's attempt to "turn defeat into victory" was exposed, so naturally, any credit vanished, and he was severely reprimanded by his superiors. Word had it that upon returning to his quarters, he had smashed two tables into pieces.

As for the instigator, Zhuang Jin, because he was stationed in the rear of the South District, Fu Honggang could not retaliate against him. After a bout of impotent rage, Fu Honggang could only secretly nurse the grudge, planning to settle accounts all at once once his own movement techniques and martial skills broke through to the perfection realm, and after Zhuang Jin returned from recuperation!

...

As for Zhuang Jin, with 25,000 battle merits credited to his account, his pockets were bulging once more. To save time, he directly switched to consuming flesh-refinement perfection-level exotic beast meat. Such meat cost 500 battle merits per catty, amounting to 15,000 battle merits a month.

Although expensive, the results were extraordinary. This grade of meat was originally meant for Twelve-Meridian warriors, but Zhuang Jin used it to complete his Eleventh Meridian realm accumulation, instantly accelerating his cultivation by seventy to eighty percent!

Coupled with the secure environment of recuperating behind the front lines in the South District—where he had no mundane administrative duties to worry about, and Chen Yun, along with the two young maids Song兰 and Yu Xiaoxiao, had come over to take care of his daily life so he didn't have to bother with trivialities—

Under these circumstances, in just over a month, he completely finished the accumulation for the Eleventh Meridian realm!

...

On the evening of September 27th.

In the South District, within the tranquil and elegant recuperation courtyard at Mingde Ward on the third-line front, Zhuang Jin sat cross-legged beneath a parasol tree. After yet another session of quiet meditation, he finally felt the familiar swelling sensation within his meridians.

'From mid-summer to golden autumn, an interval of two months, and the accumulation of the Eleventh Meridian is finally complete!'

He sighed inwardly, closed his eyes to concentrate, and directed his internal breath toward the Foot-Jueyin Meridian, the final one among the Twelve Qi-Condensing Meridians.

Swish!

The next moment, for other warriors, this bottleneck—which was equivalent to forty or fifty percent of the combined difficulty of all previous bottlenecks—seemed not to exist at all. It was pierced through in a single instant, and his internal breath poured right in.

Upon unblocking the final Foot-Jueyin Meridian, the three hand-yang and three hand-yin, and the three foot-yang and three foot-yin channels—the twelve regular meridians—were now completely perfected. They connected to form a unified network, creating a great heavenly cycle. His internal breath flowed like boiling water, leaping toward an entirely new stage. At this very moment, the external force and internal force showed even clearer signs of merging!

"The Twelve Meridian realm is achieved!"

A moment later, Zhuang Jin opened his eyes, stood up straight, shook his sleeves, and began to practice the Black Fiend Palm.

At this moment, all the insights of the Black Fiend Palm flowed through his heart like a trickling stream. With a sudden flash of spiritual enlightenment, he truly entered another realm, reaching an ethereal state of mind where he felt he had thoroughly grasped all the essence and profound principles of this martial art, blending them into a seamless whole.

One could say that, regarding this martial art alone, he had reached the peak of perfection, attaining a state where there was no higher to climb. Even the founder of this technique could not have offered him another half-point of guidance.

Clearing, striking, brushing, sweeping...

At this moment, Zhuang Jin's Black Fiend Palm was no longer bound by routines. Every movement and posture was like clouds drifting and water flowing, executed effortlessly yet handled as skillfully as his own fingers and arms, carrying an inexplicable sense of rounded perfection.

This was the art of true skill looking clumsy, a return to simplicity and naturalness. Outwardly, there was not the slightest dazzling momentum or roaring sound of breaking air, but this did not mean its power had diminished; rather, through this containment and concentration, its might had grown even greater.

Whoosh!

A sudden wind arose, blowing down parasol leaves that fell like a rustling rain. Yet these fallen leaves were caught by the formless Qi field of Zhuang Jin's Black Fiend Palm, swirling and dancing around his body like flowing water.

As he grew more absorbed, the countless golden leaves flowing like a stream converged, condensing into a golden dragon that wove and tumbled back and forth through his sleeves.

The three women—Chen Yun, Yu Xiaoxiao, and Song Lan—in the nearby kitchen were startled and came out to look.

Chen Yun gazed unblinkingly at Zhuang Jin, who was focused and immersed in his practice. Her eyes were filled with adoration, and the corners of her lips naturally curved upward into a gentle smile.

As for Yu Xiaoxiao and Song Lan, their attention was captured more by this miraculous phenomenon. Exchanging glances, they both covered their mouths, terrified of disturbing him.

At a certain moment.

Just as this routine of the Black Fiend Palm was drawing to a close, Zhuang Jin's hands suddenly curved into empty grips and pushed forward in a hugging motion.

Boom!

Accompanied by a sound like a thunderclap bursting forth, right in front of his palms, an even more solid and lifelike golden dragon took shape inch by inch, flying forward with open claws and flashing teeth. However, the moment it traveled nine inches away from his palms, this golden dragon composed of parasol leaves shattered into pieces, turning into fine powder like a bursting firework.

"Ah!" Seeing this scene, Yu Xiaoxiao and Song Lan's eyes widened, and they finally couldn't help crying out in surprise.

Swish!

At that moment, Zhuang Jin's figure flickered with the sound of breaking air. Reaching out with a hand, he scooped up all the fine powder left behind by the "golden dragon."

"Lord Zhuang, that is amazing!" Yu Xiaoxiao and Song Lan clapped their hands vigorously.

Chen Yun stepped forward to wipe the fine sweat from Zhuang Jin's forehead, asking, "Has my husband's martial arts broken through once again?"

"Indeed!"

A pleased smile hung on Zhuang Jin's face as he relaxed his hands, letting the fine powder cascade down.

This time, not only had he broken through to the Twelve Meridian realm, but he had also brought the Black Fiend Palm—which had long reached the limit of great accomplishment and was only held back from the final line by his realm—to complete perfection in one go. Furthermore, his movement technique, the Gale Steps, had also stepped past the limit of minor accomplishment straight into great accomplishment.

'As a Twelve-Meridian warrior, one is naturally at the commander level. Combined with a perfected Black Fiend Palm and a great-accomplishment Gale Steps... and considering that the Gale Steps already surpass ordinary movement techniques by a notch, along with my mysterious-grade top-tier exotic beast hide armor...'

'Putting all these factors together, even though I have just entered the Twelve Meridian realm and haven't finished its accumulation, my combat power is already among the top tier of Twelve-Meridian warriors. Right now, Sun Mingbi is probably no match for me... Reaching this stage, I can truly face the South District without any fear!'

In the Twelve Meridian realm, both the Black Fiend Palm and movement techniques could reach the perfection level. However, due to the difficulty of cultivation, veteran Twelve-Meridian warriors typically only brought both to great accomplishment—Sun Mingbi, for instance, belonged to this category.

Having either the Black Fiend Palm or the movement technique at perfection was already extremely rare, granting a combat power that could suppress warriors who only had both at great accomplishment.

Having both the Black Fiend Palm and the movement technique at perfection was even more extraordinary; at the cost of some effort, one could slay Twelve-Meridian warriors who merely had both at great accomplishment!

'If I diligently grind the Gale Steps and bring that movement technique to perfection as well, and then complete the Twelve Meridian accumulation, that will be the moment I fully maximize my Twelve Meridian configuration. Truly invincible within the Qi-Condensing realm, and as for above Qi-Condensing... well, I suppose I could probably withstand a couple more blows.'

Thinking of this, the slight complacency that had just arisen in Zhuang Jin's heart was instantly dispelled. 'Therefore, I cannot grow proud and complacent. Once I break through to the Pulse-Connecting realm, that is when I will truly enter an entirely different world!'

'Speaking of which, another problem arises: over this past month, because of consuming flesh-refinement perfection-level exotic beast meat, my battle merits are gone again. Without that meat to assist my cultivation, my cultivation speed will drop, and it might take three or four months just to finish the Twelve Meridian accumulation!'

He sighed softly. 'So, it's time to return to the front lines to fetch some batt—ah, I mean, to earn some battle merits.'