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nIn the training hall,

nXie Quan threw his phone on the ground and cursed. “It’s that damned Chen Yiming again.”

nHis expression turned extremely ugly, and he was on the verge of losing his mind.

nPreviously, he had gone with Gao Xuelong from the Divine Wind Martial Arts School to teach Chen Yiming a lesson, but he had been humiliated instead. And now, Chen Yiming had taken the lightning wood. Chen Yiming was someone who was about to be kicked out of his martial arts school, but he had been foiled by him time and time again. How could he accept this?

n“Is there a problem with the lightning wood?” Zhang Shaoshou asked in a low voice. A martial arts practitioner’s ears were extremely sharp, and he heard every word from the other end of the phone.

nWithout waiting for Xie Quan to reply, Ren Zhengxin added, “If we can’t get the lightning wood, we can’t waste our precious cultivation time to accompany you to capture Liu Wanqing.”

nXie Quan had asked Ren Zhengxin and Zhang Shaoshou for help, with the condition that he would lend them the lightning wood to use once each.

nIf not for that, they would not have been willing to waste their precious cultivation time to help him.

nAfter all, they had yet to find any traces of her. Who knew how long this trip would take?

n“Bang!”

nXie Quan was so angry that his face turned red. He kicked the phone that had cracked open on the ground and crushed it completely to dust with his foot.

n“Next month, the martial arts school will distribute some cultivation resources to me. The two of you will each take half of it. How about that?” Xie Quan gritted his teeth and said angrily.

n“That works too.”

nRen Zhengxin and Zhang Shaoshou nodded in agreement.

nThe monthly cultivation resources were naturally inferior to the lightning wood, but it was better than nothing.

nThe three of them set off quickly. They first hired an investigator from a famous detective agency in the city before heading for the wilderness.

nAfter Chen Yiming left the Liu clan, he headed straight to the library in the Mantis Snake Sword School headquarters to look up information on the lightning wood.

nThe martial arts school had only suspended the monthly distribution of cultivation resources, and there was no ban on entering the library.

nAs long as the Mantis Snake Sword School did not officially switch to the new head, they would still be core disciples of the school. Lin Yixuan could not go overboard with his treatment of them.

nWhen he passed by the street beside the headquarters of the Tongbeiquan School, he happened to see Xie Quan hurriedly leaving the school with two other people.

nChen Yiming stopped in his tracks and watched Xie Quan and the others leave along the street. An idea suddenly occurred to him.

n“I only have one or two months left as a core disciple of the school. In the future, I will lose the protection of the school.

nNow that I have successfully obtained the lightning wood, I can follow the previous example and quickly break through to a warrior candidate in a short period of time.

nAs a warrior candidate, I will already be considered to be at the highest tier in terms of combat power in East Lake City. I will only be below those 20 to 30 warriors in terms of power, and will no longer be someone that can easily be bullied.

nWhy don’t I start building a faction under my complete control?

nWith a stable way of gathering information, whatever I do in private can be carried out much more conveniently compared to now.”

nAfter Xie Quan and the others disappeared from sight, Chen Yiming quickly continued walking in the direction of the Mantis Snake Sword School. As he walked, he considered the people he could potentially rope in.

nHe carefully sorted out the connections he had made after joining the martial arts school.

nHe realized that after joining the martial arts school for nearly a year, due to his low-key development in the early stages and the fact that his strength had increased too quickly, there were only a few people who barely met his requirements.

nThey were Wang Bowen, Zhang Youde, Liu Wanqing, Shi Changyi, and Wei Chaoyuan.

nWang Bowen was not only a good friend, but also his senior brother in the martial arts school. The two of them interacted as equals.

nWhat Chen Yiming wanted to establish was a faction that would work for him alone. It wasn’t suitable for Wang Bowen to join.

nHe had heard that Zhang Youde had successfully broken through to the third transformation during the war in the west.

nHowever, after the war ended, his family had arranged for him to continue practicing martial arts in the provincial city. He and Chen Yiming had basically lost contact.

nLiu Wanging’s whereabouts were unknown. Coupled with the fact that this woman had a feud with two martial arts schools, it was not appropriate to recruit her to help him out. It would easily cause their faction to be targeted and suppressed during the early stages of its growth.

nShi Changyi and Wei Chaoyuan were the only ones left. One of them had a big boss as his father, and the other had rich experience of living in the wilderness. They were Chen Yiming’s most promising candidates for his faction.

nAt the Mantis Snake Sword School headquarters, Chen Yiming pushed open the door and walked in through the entrance.

nAt a glance, other than the front desk staff and a few familiar faces, the entire training hall was empty.

nOther than one or two people who were close to Lin Yixuan, the other core disciples had basically left, which was equivalent to graduating and looking for a job.

nChen Yiming sighed, feeling emotional.

nAccording to what he knew, the 13 martial arts schools in East Lake City were all controlled by stronger factions in the provincial city.

nThis meant that the ceiling for the development of a faction depended on the strength of the strongest person in the faction.

nIn a small city like East Lake City, the expansion of the martial arts schools was limited.

nThis act of letting out the core disciples of the previous generation was definitely not the school’s own will, but the actions of the power controlling them from behind the scenes.

nTherefore, core disciples of the previous generation could not continue to stay and become the foundation of the martial arts school.

n“Chen Yiming.”

nWhile he was in a daze, he suddenly heard someone calling his name.

n“It’s you, Shen Jia.”

nChen Yiming turned around and saw Shen Jia walking over from the front desk.

nShen Jia was the female receptionist who had guided him through signing the contract when he registered for the entrance test.

nAlthough the two of them were both members of the Mantis Snake Sword School, after the day that he passed the test, they had not interacted again due to the differences in their statuses.

n“I rarely see you come back to the headquarters. I don’t even dare to call you when I see you once in a while,” Shen Jia said in a soft voice, her face slightly red.

n“I see. What’s the matter?” Chen Yiming asked.

nThis was his habit, especially after he broke through to the warrior realm. He disliked beating around the bush and went straight to the point.

n“Nothing much. I just wanted to say hello to you.” Shen Jia’s voice gradually became softer until it was almost inaudible. Her hands, which were behind her back, were clenched tightly.

nShe was very nervous. The person in front of her was a genius core disciple who had broken through to the sixth transformation in less than a year.

nAlthough she had an outstanding appearance and figure, she was only an ordinary person. She had lost all confidence in front of Chen Yiming

nThe lines she had prepared in her mind before she mustered up her courage to greet him had been completely forgotten. Her mind had gone blank.

n“By the way, I plan to start my own company. Are you willing to help me?” Chen Yiming suddenly remembered that there were very few people he could ask, so he gave it a shot.

n“Huh?” Shen Jia was surprised.

nAt this moment, her head was buzzing, and her thoughts seemed to be slowed down by something. She could not even come up with a simple response.

n“If you perform well, I can help you try to embark on the path of martial arts. You’re only 18 or 19 years old, right? It’s not too late,” Chen Yiming said in a low voice.

nSeeing that Shen Jia did not give an immediate answer, he thought that she was weighing the pros and cons. After all, creating his own company was an idea he had just come up with.

nTherefore, he directly threw out an offer that ordinary people could not refuse. In any case, he had no need of resources for the initial stages of martial arts cultivation. He would not pick them up even if he found them by the road.

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