Chapter 24 : A Fair Deal
There were many kinds of lightness skills.
Some involved floating over great heights, some granted phantom-like movement, some were burst-like gap closers, and some could sprint across long distances…
Every lightness skill had its own advantages.
Eight Steps Rising Dragon was likewise.
However, as compared to other lightness skills, the Eight Steps Rising Dragon had more advantages since it had three attributes.
The martial art allowed one to float over great heights, move like a phantom, and fly across long distances.
That’s right, it wasn’t just sprinting, but flying.
Once mastered, the Eight Steps Rising Dragon allowed one to fly in the sky!
To do that, however, he had to fulfill two conditions first.
Firstly, his dantian had to be able to produce true energy. Secondly, he needed to produce enough of it.
Producing true energy was the trademark of a sixth-grade martial artist.
In other words, before he reached the sixth-grade, even if he managed to master the Eight Steps Rising Dragon, he would only be able to sprint on the ground.
He had to hit sixth-grade before he could take off from the ground.
That was the unique characteristic of the Eight Steps Rising Dragon, as well as where its strength lay.
In Su Jingxing’s opinion, even if the Eight Steps Rising Dragon couldn’t allow a practitioner below sixth-grade to fly in the sky, it was still considered a profound martial art.
This was because the agile and phantom-like attributes of Eight Steps Rising Dragon reminded him of Wave-like Subtle?Steps1.
In terms of agile movements, it was ten folds better than Seven Steps Fist.
The only downside to The Eight Steps Rising Dragon was that it had a range limit of eight steps.
A shame, to be sure.
The saving grace was that Eight Steps Rising Dragon was easy to learn.
Even though it was easy, there was a prerequisite—he had to comprehend it first!
The secret manual not only contained relevant information, but also accompanying illustrations.
Anyone could understand the illustrations, but the content was a different story.
Su Jingxing could only understand it thanks to his increased soul power. Before that, he would have no problems understanding the individual words, but sentences would be beyond his level of understanding.
It was just like Old Chinese—anyone could read an individual word after being taught how to, but they would be at a loss if asked to decipher a compound word.
The Wei family had always guarded the Eight Steps Rising Dragon’s secret existence from outsiders.
This had to do with a number of factors.
The long and short of it was, the Wei Family themselves had not seen many kinsmen who fully mastered the Eight Steps Rising Dragon.
No one knew about the distant past, but in recent decades, the only Wei kinsman who advanced to the sixth-grade was Wei Jiajia’s grandfather.
As to whether he managed to master the Eight Steps Rising Dragon when he was alive, Su Jingxing didn’t know.
Chances were, he didn’t!
Even if he did, he probably only had a basic understanding of the martial art, and never used it before others.
If the existence of an advanced lightness skill like the Eight Steps Ascending Dragon were to leak out, it could easily bring trouble to its keeper.
Su Jingxing kept that in mind. After browsing through the secret manual, he decided to proceed with the deal with Wei Jiajia.
…
“It’s not a bad lightness skill,” said Su Jingxing. He closed the secret manual and said calmly, “Make your offer.”
“Ten !” Wei Jiajia’s eyes lit up. “In exchange for this, I want you to help us out ten…”
Su Jingxing broke in. “Make it three.”
Wei Jiajia opened her mouth, then gritted her teeth. “Three times is too little. I won’t take anything below eight!”
“Three.”
“…Three times is simply not enough,” complained Wei Jiajia, stamping her feet. Then, almost coquettishly, she said, “If eight times is too much, how about five…”
“Three,” said Su Jingxing nonchalantly. “Three requests, no more, no less. And I get to decide whether I want to fulfill a particular request.”
Wei Jiajia was at a loss for words.
Resisting the urge to curse, she drew a deep breath and said reluctantly, “Well…”
“If you don’t like the terms, we can call the deal off,” interjected Su Jingxing. “I agree that the Eight Steps Rising Dragon is an excellent martial art, but it’s not good enough for me to sign a slave contract with the Wei family.”
Wei Jiajia was at a loss for words again.
“You must be misunderstanding something,” said Wei Jiajia, clenching her fists and forcing out a smile. “This is a fair trade, not…”
“I’ll be the judge of that,” said Su Jingxing calmly, maintaining his indifference. “I have but one condition. I’ll fulfill three requests of yours, and I get to decide whether to accept a particular request. If you don’t like the sound of that, the deal is off. And don’t worry, I won’t take the Eight Steps Rising Dragon by force.”
He handed the secret manual back to Wei Jiajia.
Wei Jiajia remained still.
Her mind was in a mess and her chest was heaving up and down.
She had lost control over the situation…
Or rather, she had never been in charge from the beginning.
She was never the one calling the shots!
Initially, she thought that once she took out the Eight Steps Rising Dragon, Su Jingxing would take the bait immediately.
She did not expect Su Jingxing to remain cool and collected even after seeing the Eight Steps Rising Dragon.
In fact. he had been frighteningly calm throughout their interaction.
That made Wei Jiajia feel a strong sense of defeat. If Su Jingxing didn’t take the bait, all her scheming would be futile.
Wei Jiajia couldn’t wrap her head over his behavior.
How could Su Jingxing be cool as a cucumber in the face of a secret martial art manual like the Eight Steps Rising Dragon?
Little did she know Su Jingxing was indeed tempted.
However, even though he was tempted, Su Jingxing did not deign to take orders from others just for the sake of a martial art.
The Eight Steps Rising Dragon was indeed powerful.
However, in time, Su Jingxing would eventually be able to extract a similar—or even more powerful—martial art from one of those corpses.
During this period of time, Su Jingxing had figured out some patterns regarding his extraction ability.
Skill Cards that contained martial arts all came from martial artists.
The stronger a martial artist and the higher his realm, the better the grade of the martial art that could be extracted from his body!
The reason why Su Jingxing only obtained the Seven Steps Fist so far was because stronger martial artists had lower chances of dying.
However, there were many old martial artists who had achieved high-realms in Qinghe City.
In anywhere from three to a dozen years, they would doubtlessly die of old age.
When that time comes, Su Jingxing would have all the opportunities in the world to get near their corpses and extract Skill Cards from them.
The only reason why Su Jingxing agreed to the deal with Wei Jiajia was because he didn’t want to wait that long.
If Wei Jiajia found his conditions unacceptable, Su Jingxing wouldn’t force her either.
He was a man of his own principles!
…
“So is it a yes or no? Just say the word.”
Su Jingxing waited for a while, then broke the silence. “If you are not willing to do this, please…” he started indifferently.
“I’ll do it, I’ll do it!” said Wei Jiajia, coming back to her senses. She gritted her teeth and yielded. “Fine. Three requests, and you get to decide whether you fulfill a particular one!”
Su Jingxing smiled beneath his mask.
Retracting his hand, he stored away the Eight Steps Rising Dragon secret manual. He deliberately deepened his voice while maintaining his nonchalant attitude. “State your first request.”
“I want you to throw down the gauntlet at Chen Xiaodao!” Wei Jiajia took a deep breath, her face growing solemn. “I want you to issue a challenge to the leader of Dagger Gang, Chen Xiaodao, in the name of my Eldest Senior Brother, Duan Feihong. During the fight, I want you to kill him.”
“…Sure,” said Su Jingxing after giving it some thought. “When, and where?”
“Noontime, the day after tomorrow…”
“I’m not free at that time,” interrupted Su Jingxing.
He had shifts on that day.
“…What about three days from now?” ventured Wei Jiajia.
“That can be done.”
Huff…
Wei Jiajia took a deep breath and continued. “The time would be set at three in the afternoon, three days from now. As for the location, it would be held at a small square outside the entrance of my family dojo. I will put up an arena there!”