Chapter 32
Li Mu chewed his mouth, squinted his eyes and was really interested. Generally speaking, a person’s appearance was fixed, which was also a basic feature that distinguished one person from others. On the earth, Korean cosmetic surgery, known as one of Asia’s four great magic arts, essentially changed a person’s appearance through surgery via changing his or her muscles and bones, but that was really expensive, besides, it could also cause various sequelae. But The Way of Changing looks by Transforming Muscles and Bones aimed at changing a person’s look completely in a certain period of time through changing a person’s muscles and skeleton shape by the help of the strength and skills of martial arts, which could be called cosmetic surgery in the world of martial arts. Li Mu sat cross-legged with a book in his hand and read it carefully. Until finishing this book, he couldn’t help but utter a sigh. “The content of this book is not a hoax.” That was Li Mu’s conclusion. Because he found that according to the skills described in the book, it was really possible to change his appearance in a short period of time. The more proficient the martial arts practitioner was, the easier it would be. It involved the operation of internal qi and some methods of muscle training, and that was well-founded, and not an absolute mystery. It seemed not so rare in the Jianghu world of martial arts on the mainland of Shenzhou. “It is a pity that only those masters in Joint-qi level who have mastered internal qi can practice and master this transformational method.” Li Mu felt a little disappointed. Some of the key techniques and methods described in the book required the cooperation of internal qi. “Just look at the rest stuff.” Li Mu began to dig the box again. At last, he found out some secret books of martial arts, such as “Jade Breaking Sword”, “Left Handed Method”, “Secret Training of Qi Formula”, “Lightning Steps”, “Qi Cultivation and Method of Expiration and Inspiration”, “King Kong Kongfu” and “Inspiration Formula”. There were about a dozen copies in total, which were definitely a good harvest, besides; most of them were nine-grade secret books, which were more superior than the books collected from Shennong Faction. Li Mu just began to learn martial arts and had a strong obsession with it. Apart from the mission he shouldered, did any hot-blooded teenager not have a heroic dream of “explore the world with a sword”? He was not picky, and he began to open those books and read them thoroughly, carefully studying and absorbing the knowledge, really intoxicated as if he was drunk into another world. Time passed by swiftly. One night passed by quickly. The next morning, the little boy Qing Feng delivered Li Mu’s breakfast to the door of the practice room, but Li Mu, who was addicted to learning, did not have time to eat it. Until the morning of the third day, Li Mu finally read all the secret books of martial arts carefully. Squeak! The door opened. When Li Mu came out of the practice room with dark circles around his eyes, Qing Feng and Ming Yue who guarded him outside the door were all shocked. “Young master, you got dark circles around your eyes…” “This is a sign of kidney deficiency… Young Master, what on earth did you do in the practice room?” The two little children, especially the violent and adorkable Ming Yue, exclaimed exaggeratedly. Li Mu covered his forehead with a serious look. “What do you little children know about kidney deficiency? Don’t talk nonsense… Go ahead; give me a bowl of snake meat soup. I am a little hungry.” Li Mu’s mind was filled with innumerable information and flickering inspiration. After reading dozens of secret books about martial arts, he had a deeper understanding of it, and at the same time, he felt a little hungry. That kind of state was just like the state of mingling spiritual satisfaction and physical fatigue when walking in the mountains in the morning after staying up all night to watch martial arts fiction on the earth, which was pleasant and full. The little boy Qing Feng hesitated, and he looked at the little girl Ming Yue. Ming Yue then said hesitantly, “Well, Young Master, there’s bad news, and you may not be happy to hear it, but the fact is… we don’t have the green dragon snake meat anymore.” “How is it possible?” Li Mu was shocked. “That snake is enough for the three of us to eat for about half a year. How come it’s gone?” Ming Yue showed a shy expression and did not speak. Seeing that, Qing Feng had to summon up courage and explained, “Young Master… It is because, lately, Ming Yue has a good appetite.” That meant the adorkable and violent Ming Yue had eaten all the rest snake. Li Mu felt incredible and looked at Ming Yue. The latter was very sincere and nodded her head, saying, “Young Master, don’t look at me in that way… In fact, I eat a little more… just a little bit more.” Li Mu was suddenly speechless. “Am I raising a cute girl or a pig?” “How could she eat so many?” Everyone should remember that alien python was almost turning into a boa dragon, which meant it was not only huge in size, but also rich in blood, energy, nutrition, and medicinal properties. An average person would feel completely full with a few pieces of snake meat every day. If he or she ate too much, he or she would get sick because of excessive blood and qi, so even a warrior dare not eat more. These days, Li Mu also relied on the alien boa meat to maintain the training of Zhenwu Boxing. And what kind of monster was this violent and adorkable Lolita? How could she eat up the boa constrictor’s meat secretly? If they calculated carefully, they would conclude that Li Mu and Qing Feng ate less than one-third of the green dragon python, and the remaining two-thirds were all into the stomach of Ming Yue. However, there was no much difference of her compared with the way she looked before, except that her skin was whiter and more glittering, and she did not even become taller… What kind of monster was she? Ming Yue looked at Li Mu with her big eyes, and her eyes flickered all the time, then she said pitifully, “Young Master, will you think I am good-for-nothing? Will you abandon me because of that? But I am really hungry. The worst is that I will eat less later… I will try to control myself. Okay?” Li Mu moaned weakly. “Come on, it’s just a snake… Now, just bring anything that I can eat now from the kitchen. I have to fill up my stomach first.” Ming Yue cheered up, “Long live the Young Master.” It was after a while. In a small room of the front office, Li Mu felt comfortable after he devoured a whole table of food quickly. He patted his belly satisfactorily, stood up and walked back to the practice room. After reading those secrete martial art books, Li Mu had many ideas in his mind, which needed to be verified. The little boy Qing Feng looked helpless after seeing that. He quickly went up and grabbed one of Li Mu’s sleeves. “Why? Anything else happened?” Li Mu looked at him. Qing Feng was exasperated at Li Mu’s failure to make good and tried to persuade him. “Young Master, you haven’t managed the county for a long time. There are still a lot of government affairs. You need to handle them… If you keep doing that, people in Taibai County will only know that there is a secretary Feng Yuanxing but not a county magistrate.” The little boy Qing Feng was really anxious. Since Li Mu came to Taibai County, Qing Feng witnessed his Young Master gradually degenerated from the youngest scholar in an empire with bright future to a brute man who only knew how to practice swords or sticks. It was okay for Li Mu to practice martial arts because he could also build up his health, but the problem was, as a county magistrate, he could not always ignore the county government affairs and abandoned his duties. Had his Young Master Li Mu already lost his mind if he continued to do that? Then, just like the former county magistrate of Taibai County, would he be out of mind and then eventually resigned from office and went directly to the deep mountains to seek for Taoist immortals. Be sure to let Young Master realize his own mistakes. Qing Feng was really worried and deeply felt that he had a great responsibility on his shoulders. Li Mu heard what Qing Feng said and thought about it for a while. He nodded and said, “You’re right. That’s right. In the future, the county affairs can’t be decided by Feng Yuanxing alone.” Hearing this, Qing Feng was delighted and thought that his Young Master had finally followed his sincere suggestions. Who knew Li Mu went on to say, “Well, in the future, you should also supervise the county affairs, discuss with Feng Yuanxing and make decisions together.” Qing Feng suddenly felt everything turned dark before his eyes and almost fainted. Although he said so much, it seemed he cast pearls before swine. “Young Master, I don’t mean that…” Qing Feng was about to explain. Li Mu had already left quickly and disappeared at the corner in the distance, and he went to the practice room to practice martial arts. “Alas.” The little boy sighed helplessly. “Young Master has changed.” He rubbed his temples like a little adult. “Yes.” Ming Yue nodded her head as if she got the same feeling as Qing Feng and said, “Yong Master is getting more and more normal.” “You…” Qing Feng glared at Ming Yue and thought that, wasn’t Li Mu getting more and more abnormal? While they were talking, Feng Yuanxing rushed into the small room in a hurry with sweats all over his head after informing them. He began to talking as soon as he walked in. “Your honor, there’s something wrong… Well? I was told the county magistrate stopped practicing martial arts and where is he?” “You are late. My Young Master has begun to practice again.” Ming Yue smiled. “So fast?” Feng Yuanxing suddenly changed into a disappointed look and said, “What can I do about it?” “Mr. Feng, what happened?” asked the little boy Qing Feng after raising his head. “In the county, there was a riot among people from Wulin: people from Huya Faction and Sky Dragon Faction had a big fight, which caused several people died. Now people from both sides are gathering, and I heard that there will be another big fight. I am afraid it will make great troubles and bring the whole county into turmoil,” Feng Yuanxing rubbed his hands and said. The little boy Qing Feng thought about it, rubbing his temples, and said, “Well, it’s really a bit tricky. Both Huya Faction and Sky Dragon Faction are big factions that have set up for more than sixty years on the Northwest Wulin World. Although they are not as powerful as the Bloody-moon faction, they’re always eager to become imperial clans and thus raise many great masters. Besides, their relationship is complicated and difficult to deal with and they’ve already resented each other for a long time. It’s really a disaster if they begin to fight in our county… Did they affect ordinary people when they first fought?” The little Qing Feng was really circumspect and farsighted as if he were a grownup. Feng Yuanxing had an illusion of facing his superior officials and answered subconsciously, “There were not too many people died or injured, but several bold people got minor injuries when they watched the fight. However, nowadays, people in the county town are panicked, and the two factions are very arrogant, claiming to kill all of its opponents, besides, the place where they will fight again is in the city… Over the years, Jianghu people have become more and more reckless.” …Chapter 32 The Wind Rose and the Clouds Began to Gather