In the world of martial arts, grind your skill level to become a saint.

"Are you really that unreasonable!?"

Xia Jin took a deep breath, and a gloomy expression, never before seen on his usually smiling, chubby face, finally appeared.

She never imagined that her daughter would turn out like this.

She admitted that she does indeed favor her younger daughter, Xia Yingying, more over her two daughters.

But that's because Xia Yingying is younger, and in every way, she is more outstanding than her eldest daughter.

But this is not the reason why Xia Qingqing became so heartless.

Regardless of what she said before, she is now in this state, unconscious. What's the point of holding a grudge against her?

"You're the most unreasonable one! It's you!" Xia Qingqing's face flushed red, becoming contorted with agitation. "If it weren't for you, arbitrarily arranging a marriage for your daughter for your own selfish gain, how could things have turned out like this? How could I have fallen to this state, and how could my younger sister have suffered such a fate!"

"It's all your fault! You ruined it! You coward! You're a coward who only knows how to sell his own daughter for money!!"

Snapped!

A crisp slap rang out, echoing throughout the entire shop.

Xia Jin's chubby face turned red, his noodles trembled, and his eyes were filled with anger and sorrow!

"Get out! Get out!!!"

Xia Jin pointed to the door, looking at Xia Qingqing with a clear handprint on her face. He was panting heavily and said angrily.

"...Hit me...okay..." After a brief moment of distraction, Xia Qingqing's eyes were filled with disappointment and exhaustion. She slowly took two steps back, then picked up the bundle on the table and decisively turned to leave.

"I will never come back. Your affairs are none of my business!"

The sound faded into the distance, but Xia Jin remained standing there, his face ashen, at a loss for what to do.

Why did it turn out like this?

He touched his chest and felt a sharp pain.

Is there really anything wrong with arranging a marriage for one's daughter?

He wasn't a fool; the men he assigned to his daughter were either skilled enough to support themselves or owned land.

In this kind of world, isn't this enough?

He couldn't figure it out, and he couldn't understand it.

Where exactly did I go wrong?

"Cough cough!..."

Just as Xia Jin was questioning his existence, a violent coughing sound came from inside the room.

Xia Yingying has already woken up, and she has most likely heard the conversation outside.

With a deep sigh, Xia Jin picked up the medicine bowl, trying to calm his expression before walking towards the room.

They had only taken two steps when a commotion suddenly erupted outside the door.

"Manager Xia! I heard your business has been good lately. You should make up for it this month; I completely forgot to collect from last time!"

A rough voice came from behind, and Xia Jin's expression instantly turned ugly.

...

"Brother Su, you mentioned that the Rice Gang has been forging high-quality iron weapons for you lately? Have they extended any invitations to you? Or have any other factions recently invited you to take up a position?"

Inside a private room at Fuquan Restaurant, Zhou Zhengtang held a braised duck head in his hand, gnawing on it as he asked a question.

In fact, they were quite concerned about Su Hao being able to take up a position in another force, since practicing martial arts required a lot of money, and the Zhou family's salary alone was far from enough to cover Su Hao's expenses.

At her own wedding banquet, Bi introduced Su Hao to many people. Now that so many days have passed, she should have gained something by now.

"They did mention it, but I didn't agree."

Su Hao tore off a duck leg and nodded.

Besides inviting him to forge knives, the Mi Gang also extended an olive branch to him, and this happened after he broke through the Iron Mirror.

However, he did not accept the other party's invitation.

"Are you worried about the current situation in the city?"

Zhou Zhengtang smiled, as if he had guessed Su Hao's thoughts.

He threw away the bone in his hand, tore off a braised duck wing and started gnawing on it. "Actually, if it's an invitation from the Rice Gang, you're right to refuse. It's not suitable to have too deep a relationship with these big powers right now. But as for the Hongqiao Town area, it's still worth considering."

As someone who gathers intelligence every day, Zhou Zhengtang naturally has a deeper understanding of the situation in the city than the average person.

Therefore, many of the forces recommended to Su Hao at that time were neutral forces, and most of them were businessmen, not forces such as boxing gyms or martial arts academies.

Therefore, no matter how the situation in the city develops, it has little impact on these families who have no military strength but only some businesses.

After all, these people are the cornerstone of the normal operation of Yanshan City. Neither the government nor the imperial court, nor any alliance or fortress, would dare to touch them.

""

The best reason is that they are concerned about the situation in the city and are afraid of being implicated.

After all, most of the internal strife in Yanshan City is concentrated on the major forces such as the three gangs, two factions, one alliance, and one fortress.

Choosing to take sides now is not a wise move.

"That is indeed one of the reasons. The main reason is that I don't have much time to take up a temporary post right now. After all, once you take the money, you have to do the work, and once you take up a temporary post, you can't shirk it."

Su Hao tore off another duck leg and offered it to Zhou Zhengtang, but Zhou politely declined, so Su Hao started eating it himself.

"Alright...you always have a lot to do..." Zhou Zhengtang said helplessly. "But once you reach the Iron Skin Mirror, exotic beast meat, Eight Treasures Soup, and all kinds of tonics are indispensable. You know, the breakthrough of our Yueshan Fist requires the condensation of eight Blood Xuan flowers. This improvement is not small. It cannot be done without sufficient financial resources."

He has done everything he can to help Su Hao. Since the other party is not holding a position in any other force, he must have his own plans.

His family's finances have become quite strained due to the Qingzhi Valley incident.

Although there is still some capacity to deal with other situations, there is no longer the confidence to squander resources as easily as before.

Because of this incident, he even became reluctant to eat the meat of exotic beasts.

"Eight Blood Spirals...it certainly requires a lot of time and money."

Su Hao nodded slightly. Only now that he had broken through to the next level did he realize how difficult it was to cultivate this thing.

"Brother Zhou, you should be close to breaking through by now, right? You mentioned it's been over a year since you broke through to the Iron Skin level. Could you share some insights about your progress with the Blood Whirlpool?"

Su Hao asked with some curiosity.

To be honest, I wasn't entirely sure about Senior Brother Zhou's strength either.

Although I had been exchanging practical experience with my opponent, it was all because my opponent was deliberately suppressing their strength.

Moreover, he always gets straight to the point when answering questions.

Therefore, Su Hao believed that Senior Brother Zhou's strength should be very close to that of the Bronze Mirror.

Otherwise, regarding questions about Qi and blood circulation, Senior Brother Zhou's answers were very insightful, demonstrating his extensive experience.

Su Hao was able to condense the Blood Vortex in such a short time largely thanks to the help he received from Zhou Zhengtang.