Second Patriarch: Rise Of The Liu Clan

On the way back to the Yu Clan's estate, Liu Zhu stopped at one of the many mines scattered across Yu Mountain. After mentioning that he was training to be a refiner and interested in purchasing any high-quality ores they happened to have, one of the mine's higher-ups met with him almost immediately. The two met in a small office outside the mine, tea set in front of them and miners resting directly outside the building. The manager started off with a thinly veiled sales pitch for investing in the mine, but Liu Zhu managed to shut down the topic quickly and redirect it to what he was actually interested in.

The employee speaking with Liu Zhu flipped through a thick, worn book as he spoke. "High-quality ores, high-quality ores.... for Bone and Marrow Tempering to Blood and Viscera Tempering, right?" Liu Zhu nodded in response as the man across from him continued to flip through the book. "There's a few then. Naturally the most common is low-grade Dark Iron, standard issue in certain military goods. We can sell you anywhere from 5 kilos to 50 kilos under our regulations, most of it is reserved for shipments to the capital. Besides that we have Watersteel, which is a good material, very rust resistant. It's also popular in the military although it's a bit more expensive, great for when there's not time to maintain equipment. Then there's a bit of mid-grade Dark Iron..."

Their talk continued for quite a while, as the man spoke about several types of metal in painstaking detail. This went over the common uses of the metals, their traits, their strength, the price, and so on and so forth. If it could be spoken about, the man covered it. Their talk was extended even longer as Liu Zhu asked questions, familiarizing himself with the nitty-gritty about the types of metal he was less familiar with.

In the end Liu Zhu purchased 30 kilograms of various metals, spending some 100-odd gold coins. He hadn't meant to purchase this much, but as an avid refiner his excitement got the best of him. Still, it would give him an excuse to make a few weapons and practice. He hadn't forged anything in quite a while. Luckily, as Liu Zhu was worrying about how to bring his purchase back home, he was given an easy solution. The mine's director, who spoke to him after realizing that he'd buy more than a few kilos of material, promised to send the metal over to Vermilion City with another shipment of theirs, saving him the trouble of transporting it.

Liu Zhu's trip back up Yu Mountain went without any surprises after he made his purchases, and he returned to his frenzied cultivation. His occasional outings with Tian Ru or Yu Bai stopped over the next couple of weeks as he neared a breakthrough to Middle Flesh Tempering far earlier than he had originally expected. The long hours Liu Zhu spent training and cultivating grew even longer, and two weeks after his visit to town and eight weeks after arriving at the Yu Clan, he made his breakthrough. With it his monstrous strength and defensive abilities rose even further, dwarfing other Flesh Tempering cultivators even further. His speed also rose, but it wasn't unusual for his level, meaning it would continue to be his Achilles' heel when fighting with people above his cultivation.

The morning after Liu Zhu made his breakthrough he was ready to train his guandao technique with Yu Qiang, as usual, but Yu Qiang was slightly late. When he did arrive, he brought a small jade slip along with him, and carried a different air than usual. There was a short silence between the two before Yu Qiang spoke. "Go through all the basic combinations and show me what you can do."

Liu Zhu was curious about the reason behind Yu Qiang's odd behavior but followed his command, going through all of the basic attacks and combinations he could think of. His movements were smooth and well-practiced, even if they were imperfect, and they flowed smoothly into each other, short sequences of strikes building up momentum to be unleashed in large finishing moves. While Liu Zhu clearly wasn't a master with the weapon, he'd progressed far faster than Yu Qiang had expected in two months.

After a few minutes Liu Zhu was finished and set his guandao to the side. Yu Qiang nodded happily as he did so. "Good! I honestly wasn't sure about how quickly you'd learn, but you surpassed my expectations. You may not be the talent of a generation, but I appreciate your effort." Yu Qiang tossed the jade slip he was holding over to Liu Zhu as he continued talking. "Still, I suppose that's enough flattery. The point is that I appreciate your skills and I'd like to pass down one of my favorite guandao skills to you. Normally I'd only pass it down within the family, but it seems no one is interested in following in my path."

Yu Qiang pulled out his guandao, taking a fighting stance as Liu Zhu stowed away the jade slip he was given and watched him. "The technique I'm going to show you is called '72 D.e.s.i.r.es'. A great philosopher once said that humans possessed 72 d.e.s.i.r.es. Inspired by this, a master of the guandao came up with a powerful technique that allows one to use 72 near-simultaneous strikes. Sadly the version I possess only contains the first 36, and of those I'm able to use 23. Still, even if my skills are lacking they'll be the best demonstration. This is a bit draining, so watch closely."

Yu Qiang's muscles tensed up and his body stood completely still before he suddenly burst out with all his strength. The air around him shot out at a high speed as his guandao flew forwards, striking at nothing. Liu Zhu wasn't able to get a good look at the exact movements, but was astonished by what he could see. Yu Qiang's guandao was seemingly flashing out in every direction at once. The attack ended as suddenly as it started, and as Liu Zhu looked around he noticed that the training room now had 23 distinct cuts across its floors, walls, and other furnishings.

Yu Qiang let out a deep breath before putting his guandao away. "Those are the first 23 strikes of 72 D.e.s.i.r.es. It will be impossible for you to perform all of those with your level of cultivation, but I'll be looking forward to seeing how you progress. Maybe you'll be able to go beyond me, and master all 36 strikes I have in my possession one day."

After showing off the might of the incomplete 72 D.e.s.i.r.es, Yu Qiang got down to the details related of teaching the technique to Liu Zhu. Liu Zhu was not to pass down the technique to anyone else unless he reached a level of mastery equal to Yu Qiang, an agreement which preserved the technique but limited Liu Zhu from immediately spreading it. Liu Zhu promised to abide by this on his martial heart, which while informal, was more than enough for Yu Qiang. The only other important detail was that Liu Zhu could hold onto the jade slip containing the technique for a few years before returning it to the Yu family, as Yu Qiang had currently reached a bottleneck with the technique and was focusing on other things. This would give Liu Zhu more than enough time to get acquainted with the technique and to begin to master it.

All in all Yu Qiang's terms were rather magnanimous, and Liu Zhu appreciated his sincerity in pursuing the peak of the guandao, a weapon which he had admittedly hadn't had a great attachment to originally. At this point Yu Qiang could be considered a teacher of his, and Liu Zhu was determined to improve his guandao technique even further and master the first few strikes of 72 D.e.s.i.r.es before he left in order to show his appreciation for his help.