Chapter 087: Twenty Years

"No."
A middle-aged man with bloodshot eyes and clenched fists gritted his teeth as he replied.
"No?" Shi Jinnian frowned. "Not even a drop?"
"Right, not a single drop!" the man growled. "Xiaofeng's source blood was completely drained!"
"Just like Yanka?"
A burly man nearby interjected in a gruff voice, "Yanka died from a source blood eruption, but his corpse had none left. Now Xiaofeng is the same. Could someone be targeting our Shi family?"
"It's not just targeting, they're fixated on us!" Shi Jinnian said in a low voice. "Someone has set their sights on our family, and their goal is to extract source blood!"
"But... what do they want with it?" an elderly man asked, eyes blazing with anger and confusion. "Source blood loses vitality once it's out of our bodies. What use is it to them?"
"If only we knew," Shi Jinnian growled. "The problem is, we have no idea what they want with it!"
"If that's the case, aren't we all targets? Especially the younger generation—wouldn't it be dangerous for them to go outside?" the old man said furiously.
"That's why, for the time being, no one from the younger generation is allowed to leave the house!" Shi Jinnian ordered. "They only dare to act in the shadows. As long as we stay inside, they can't touch us. Not even if they had a hundred times the courage would they dare to break into this compound. And if they do, all the better!"
"Damn it," the burly man bellowed. "When we catch that filthy rat hiding in the gutter, we'll make him beg for death but be unable to die!"
The others wore similar expressions of rage and hatred.
Especially the red-eyed man, whose fingernails dug into his flesh without him noticing—
Because he was Shi Yanfeng's father!
From childhood, Shi Yanfeng had always been outstanding, admired by many, gifted in both literature and martial arts. At only eighteen, he was already a seventh-rank martial artist, and since last year, he was designated the future head of the family.
But overnight, this prodigy, the pride of so many, was dead.
His head had been severed with a single stroke!
The gut-wrenching pain of losing his son left the middle-aged man's mind filled with only one thought—kill, kill, kill!
The one who drained the source blood, the people at Baihe Martial Hall, the women Shi Yanfeng had lain with—
He wanted them all dead!
Only by slaughtering them all and sending them to the grave with Shi Yanfeng could he barely ease the agony in his heart.
...
West Suburb Crematorium.
Su Jingxing and his partner Kong Dabao were going about their usual routine, moving corpses.
Mostly, they transported bodies from the morgue to the incineration room, occasionally to the farewell hall.
[Corpse detected. Do you wish to collect?]
"Yes!"

[Corpse detected. Do you wish to collect?]
"Yes!"
...
All the way, Su Jingxing collected cards, storing them in his palm-space.
When he finally had a break, he slipped into the restroom, took out the cards, and began reading the information.
Inner Energy Card, Strength Card, Strength Card, Vitality Card, Vitality Card...
From ordinary corpses, most of the cards collected were Strength and Vitality Cards.
Su Jingxing was used to this by now. Accumulating these two types was still useful.
Until—
"Martial Practice Card?"
He held a new card in his hand. Upon reading the information, Su Jingxing perked up.
He checked it several times—yes, it really was a Martial Practice Card!
And not just any card, but one with twenty years' worth of practice!
"How could this be?"
"All the corpses today were ordinary people, how could there be a Martial Practice Card?"
Su Jingxing's heart raced.
Suppressing his excitement, he finished checking the rest—Strength and Vitality Cards.
He remembered the order, rushed out of the restroom, made an excuse to fetch the registration sheet, and found the corpse from which the Martial Practice Card came—a young man named Wang Yuning. He looked up the boy's background.
Wang Yuning, sixteen, had always been an exemplary student, a model child in his parents’ eyes, a star pupil to his teachers, and a genius admired by his classmates, talented in both academics and martial arts.
In short, anyone who knew Wang Yuning would give him a thumbs-up.
But this paragon, envied by so many, had suddenly leapt to his death!
Not for love, nor from bullying—he simply jumped from the school’s rooftop without warning.
The security team investigated three times but found no signs of foul play.
Instead, in Wang Yuning's belongings, they found a notebook with a single sentence:
"Living is so exhausting. I feel like a puppet."
From that line, the investigators deduced suicidal tendencies.
They then focused on the word "puppet" and examined his home life, finally discovering that Wang Yuning's mother had an intense, frightening need for control.
From the moment he became self-aware, Wang Yuning was under his mother’s thumb.
Eating, walking, sleeping, studying, practicing martial arts, making friends...
No, he had no friends—his mother believed he didn't need them. As long as his studies and martial arts were excellent, everything else would follow.
Year after year, from kindergarten through high school, Wang Yuning never had a single day of freedom.

Eventually, he jumped.
That was the official cause, the truth behind his suicide—a life of relentless control!
"Controlled..."
"Controlled..."
After reading all the information, Su Jingxing muttered the word to himself as a sudden realization began to dawn in his mind.
He understood!
He had basically figured out the rule for obtaining Martial Practice Cards.
Controlled lives!
Corpse puppets were manipulated by corpse-worm eggs, which is why they yielded Martial Practice Cards.
The barbarians killed at the Dagger Society and Black Tiger strongholds were under the secret control of Duan Feihong’s organization, so Martial Practice Cards could be collected from them.
The barbarians left in the warehouse, however, had not yet been activated or sent out under control, so the cards found from them were mostly Power or Body Strengthening Cards.
These matched the barbarians' immense strength and robust physiques.
Wang Yuning, likewise, had lived entirely under his mother’s horrific control.
Thus, a Martial Practice Card!
Martial practice—control.
Because they were controlled, their freedom was precious. The golden finger had transformed this into a martial practice function.
Mystery solved!
Piecing everything together, Su Jingxing finally understood and felt a wave of emotion.
Even so, obtaining Martial Practice Cards would still depend on luck.
A controlled life—unless the person spoke of it, who would ever know?
Wang Yuning’s case was exceptional; such experiences were exceedingly rare.
This twenty-year Martial Practice Card, then, was an unexpected windfall.
Who knew when the next one would appear?
Regaining his composure, Su Jingxing pocketed the cards and resumed moving corpses.
His Nine Steps to Heaven technique had been stuck at the beginner level; with this twenty-year Martial Practice Card, he would likely be able to advance it four or five levels at once.
The higher one's inner energy skills, the faster one could absorb and transform the energy of heaven and earth into true energy.
Given the density of energy in the valley where the great white goose resided, increasing a decade or two of cultivation shouldn’t be a problem, right?