Martial Saint with Passives

”Brother-in-law! That’s a hundred thousand silver! If we had that kind of money, why would we even bother hunting Black Beasts? We could move straight to the Inner City and live it up every day! Life would be amazing! And my nephew’s strange illness—with this money, you could go to Cangzhou and find a famous doctor. Maybe he could be cured!” Hu Biao said urgently.

Wang Jin said, full of disappointment, ”Biaozi, what are you dreaming about? Let’s not even talk about whether it’s right or wrong. Who is Tuoba Lie? The Bandit Leader! His adopted son was about to capture us! Has greed blinded you? Do you really think you’d live to spend that hundred thousand silver?”

”We could hire a Force Integration Artist to be the middleman. Worst case, we give him half the silver, and we’d still have fifty thousand left,” Hu Biao argued.

”A Force Integration Artist? Where are you going to hire a Force Integration Artist these days? And you think fifty thousand silver is a lot of money to one of them?!”

Wang Jin suddenly threw down his Weapon, his temper flaring.

He had always looked down on this lazy, gluttonous brother-in-law of his.

But his wife doted on her younger brother.

So, he had always taken great care of Hu Biao.

He had even spent a vast amount of Cultivation Resources to forcibly push him into the Stone Skin Realm.

He had also placed him in his own Hunting Team.

Normally, he didn’t even let Hu Biao face the Black Beasts directly, mostly assigning him easy, support-type tasks.

’But to think the kid would be foolish enough to actually trust those Horse Bandits!’

Seeing his brother-in-law was angry, Hu Biao shrank back and stopped talking back.

”Biaozi, don’t you dare do anything stupid. Wanting the Horse Bandits’ silver is no different from asking a tiger for its skin!” Wang Jin said earnestly.

”I get it, Brother-in-law. I won’t report it,” Hu Biao said with his head lowered.

”Good, that’s good!” Wang Jin let out a sigh of relief.

...

...

...

One day, Jiang Che was practicing his skills in the courtyard.

Suddenly, someone from Hundred Herbs Hall arrived to summon him.

They said there was an escort mission that required his help.

Jiang Che nodded. ’I’m being paid to solve their problems, so it’s only right.’

He packed a few things and set off.

When he arrived at Hundred Herbs Hall, a Young Servant told him everyone was in the rear courtyard and led him over.

Upon arriving, he found that many people had already gathered in the courtyard.

Zhang Xiong was talking to a middle-aged man with a square face, thick eyebrows, and large eyes.

Seeing Jiang Che arrive, Zhang Xiong quickly waved him over.

”Father, this is Jiang Che!” Zhang Xiong said, introducing him to the middle-aged man.

The middle-aged man was Zhang Xiong’s father, Zhang Xu.

Zhang Xu saw Jiang Che’s sturdy build and abundant Qi Blood; he was clearly at the Late-stage of the Stone Skin Realm.

He smiled and nodded. ”Nephew, you truly are a man of remarkable talent! With you here, I can rest easy!”

Previously, when Jiang Che was only in the Early-stage of the Stone Skin Realm, Zhang Xu had actually been rather unsatisfied.

But now, seeing that Jiang Che’s strength had advanced by leaps and bounds in such a short time, he was somewhat surprised.

”Greetings, Uncle!”

Jiang Che quickly bowed in respect.

Zhang Xu clapped Jiang Che on the shoulder and said, ”We’ll be counting on you in a little while!”

”Of course,” Jiang Che said with a smile.

Afterward, Zhang Xu had to attend to other matters and left first, so Zhang Xiong explained the details of the escort mission to Jiang Che.

Jiang Che quickly understood the situation.

It turned out that in Hundred Herbs Hall’s medicinal fields outside the city, a type of herb called the Stone Snow Fruit had ripened.

This was Hundred Herbs Hall’s most valuable medicinal ingredient, a core component for crafting many high-end Qi Blood-replenishing medicines.

The entire harvest had been pre-ordered before it even ripened.

Now that the harvest had begun, they needed to transport it into the city as quickly as possible to avoid any unexpected trouble.

The journey from the medicinal fields to Lin Yuan City took four hours, so it required an escort.

”Sigh... To be honest, marauders have been plundering our Hundred Herbs Hall shipments for some time now. Fortunately, the previous goods weren’t very valuable, so the losses weren’t significant. But this time, the Stone Snow Fruits are incredibly precious. We can’t afford to be careless, which is why we called for you,” Zhang Xiong said with a sigh.

”What’s the general strength of these marauders?” Jiang Che asked.

”They’re all experts in the Stone Skin Realm, some even at the Peak of the Stone Skin Realm! We don’t know which power they belong to, but they seem to be specifically targeting us. We haven’t heard about any other families being robbed,” Zhang Xiong said, shaking his head.

Jiang Che nodded.

’The Peak of the Stone Skin Realm...’

’It’s been a long time since I’ve fought such a weak opponent.’

Suddenly, Jiang Che saw Zhang Xu respectfully welcome someone into the courtyard.

The man was tall and had powerful Qi Blood; he was clearly a Martial Artist of the Iron Skin Realm.

Zhang Xiong whispered to Jiang Che:

”That’s Hero Ma Chuan, an expert at the Mid Stage of the Iron Skin Realm my father hired! He’s also the leader of our escort this time.”

His voice was filled with excitement.

An expert at the Mid Stage of the Iron Skin Realm was a prominent figure in Lin Yuan City!

With Hero Ma in charge, this escort mission was basically guaranteed to be flawless!

Jiang Che nodded.

He secretly compared them in his mind and felt this man’s Qi Blood wasn’t even as strong as that of the Horse Bandit underling he’d met the other day.

’I could easily defeat him even without using my Transformation.’

He immediately lost interest.

Ma Chuan strode into the center of the courtyard with his head held high.

He scanned the crowd, then frowned and said:

”This is everyone you’ve got? Not a single one at the Peak of the Stone Skin Realm?”

Zhang Xu gave an awkward laugh.

He could have originally hired several experts at the Peak of the Stone Skin Realm.

But he had received a tip that someone was targeting them this time and would send even stronger experts to intercept the goods!

The rumor was that there would even be an expert at the Early Stage of the Iron Skin Realm!

If they were robbed, never mind the loss of the goods.

The major Noble Families who had placed orders would make Hundred Herbs Hall suffer consequences they couldn’t bear!

Not long ago, a Pharmacy in the city called Six Flavors Hall was forced to mortgage their entire shop simply because they failed to deliver an order to the Zhao Family, one of the Five Great Noble Families!