CHAPTER 377: CHAPTER 377: DON’T GIVE ME ANY SPECIAL CONSIDERATION

Pondering deeply, Hu Sanqian’s gaze grew increasingly resolute.

After a while, Hu Sanqian suddenly looked up and laughed heartily. Once he calmed down, he said, "Kid, I’ve broken your move. Watch closely."

With that, Hu Sanqian focused and suddenly struck out with a tiger claw.

This strike was neither an attack nor a defense—a mix of grabbing and pushing, looking very peculiar.

But if you looked closely, you could understand that this move was truly profound: a mix of attack and defense, grab and push, with countless variations in the follow-up. It was the nemesis of Chen Guan’s initial stance.

Facing this move, counterattacking wasn’t an option, nor was it viable not to attack, effectively nullifying the advantage of the Black Tiger Heart Stealing move.

"So, how about it? My move was beautifully executed, wasn’t it?" Hu Sanqian said smugly.

"Beautiful," Chen Guan replied.

"Broke the move without using any brute force, clean, right?" Hu Sanqian asked again.

"As clean as it gets," Chen Guan nodded.

"Then what are you waiting for? Hurry up and become my apprentice," Hu Sanqian urged.

"No," Chen Guan shook his head.

"You want to break your promise?" Hu Sanqian’s face darkened.

"I’m a person who keeps my promises; I won’t break them," Chen Guan shook his head again.

"Not breaking your promise, yet not becoming my apprentice?" Hu Sanqian was full of confusion.

Chen Guan took out a watch, pointed at the time, and said, "You said earlier it was one hour, right? When you were laughing just now, the hour was up. If you hadn’t laughed and directly used this move, it would have been within the hour. Now, when you used this move, you were already overtime. How should this be calculated?"

Hu Sanqian was dumbfounded, quickly took out his own pocket watch for a look, and found it was indeed as Chen Guan had said, he was overtime.

Earlier, he was too engrossed and forgot about the time, which led to this situation.

After all, being able to break such an opening move was indeed a thrilling accomplishment. He was genuinely too excited at the time; otherwise, he wouldn’t have forgotten the time limit in that moment.

"I..." Hu Sanqian’s expression shifted. Finally, he gritted his teeth, deciding to admit defeat.

But Chen Guan spoke first, saying, "You had already broken the move at that time, I acknowledge that. But you truly didn’t execute it then. Let’s consider this a draw, regardless of win or lose, shall we be friends? If you aren’t put off, I’d be honored to become an old friend with someone like you?"

Hu Sanqian was very pleased to hear this: "Haha, how do I address you, young brother?"

Hearing Hu Sanqian address him so, Chen Guan breathed a slight sigh of relief, thinking perhaps he had been overthinking before. Hu Sanqian probably wouldn’t have schemed against him, a stranger, without reason.

"Chen Guan," Chen Guan replied.

"Well, Brother Chen Guan, today let’s become sworn brothers right here. I, Hu Sanqian, accept you as my brother," Hu Sanqian was very pleased and asked Chen Guan again, "What is that move of yours called?"

"Black Tiger Heart Stealing," Chen Guan answered.

"Fine, then I’ll call my newly created move Black Tiger Stealing Heart," said Hu Sanqian, dragging Chen Guan up the mountain: "I’m really happy today. Let’s have a good drink, I have excellent wine, guaranteed to bring you joy."

Though Chen Guan wasn’t fond of alcohol, seeing Hu Sanqian so delighted, he didn’t want to dampen the mood.

After climbing the mountain, there was a courtyard at mid-level. It was large and planted with a lot of greens, and there was no one else there, only Hu Sanqian himself.

Hu Sanqian pulled Chen Guan inside the house. The sight of a massive transparent glass jar inside made Chen Guan’s eyes widen.

The glass jar was about four meters high, filled with transparent liquid, presumably liquor.

Soaked in the liquor were Heavenly and Earthly Treasures like ginseng and lingzhi. Among the other materials, there was an ancient ginseng that, excluding its fine roots, was already three to four meters tall, nearly filling the glass jar to the brim.

Such an enormous old ginseng; Chen Guan found it hard to imagine how many years it had grown to reach such a size—perhaps it hadn’t grown for hundreds of thousands of years?

"Come, come, brother, today let’s drink to our heart’s content. This ginseng wine, we’ll indulge today," Hu Sanqian took out a wine pot, filled two pots from the huge glass jar, and handed one to Chen Guan.

Hu Sanqian drank as he sautéed two fresh-picked vegetables. The taste was refreshing.

With just one sip of wine, Chen Guan immediately felt Primordial Energy spreading throughout his body. The effect of this wine in replenishing energy was far better than those expensive elixirs he usually consumed.

Hu Sanqian was truly in high spirits, delighted with creating the Black Tiger Stealing Heart move, drinking heartily.

Not to be outdone, Chen Guan, considering the wine’s energy-replenishing quality, gritted his teeth and matched Hu Sanqian drink for drink.

While they were enjoying their drinks, they heard someone knocking at the courtyard gate.

On an ordinary day, Hu Sanqian didn’t like being disturbed while drinking, and would usually become quite angry.

However, he was in such a good mood today that he casually said, "The door’s not closed, come in yourself."

Hearing Hu Sanqian’s voice, the person outside pushed the door open and entered.

Chen Guan glanced over and found the visitor was none other than Wang, the shopkeeper of the Old Pill King.

Shopkeeper Wang was slightly taken aback upon seeing Chen Guan, seemingly surprised to find him here, and moreover, drinking with Hu Sanqian.

But then he thought: "Chen Guan probably didn’t buy the medicine at my place and was coming to make a deal with Master Hu. But with Master Hu’s temperament, how could he be drinking with him? I wonder what trick he used to win over Master Hu."

"Xiao Wang, why have you come again?" Seeing it was Shopkeeper Wang, Hu Sanqian said with a dismissive wave of his hand.

All smiles, Shopkeeper Wang bowed to Master Hu and said, "Master Hu, the Old Pills from my shop in Black City are out of stock again. The main ingredient, old ginseng, can’t keep up with the demand. Please, could you increase the monthly quota?"

"There are only so many ginsengs each month. If I increase your quota, what about the others? This quota can’t be increased," Hu Sanqian flatly refused Shopkeeper Wang.

"Master Hu, we’re willing to increase the price by fifty percent on top of the original price," Shopkeeper Wang said through gritted teeth.

Hearing this, Hu Sanqian rolled his eyes at Shopkeeper Wang and laughed, "Looks like Old Pill King is truly making money these days."

"It’s all thanks to Master Hu for giving us a livelihood. You’re the life source of our Old Pill King," Shopkeeper Wang quickly added.

Hu Sanqian laughed heartily and, patting Chen Guan’s shoulder, said, "If it were any other day, there’d be no deal even if you offered double. But today I recognized a new brother, and I’m happy..."

"Master Hu, don’t do it for my sake. I don’t have that kind of influence," Chen Guan interrupted Hu Sanqian, as he was someone who held grudges and wouldn’t miss any opportunity for revenge.

Shopkeeper Wang’s face immediately turned grim. He couldn’t understand how Chen Guan had ended up associating with Master Hu and even became recognized as a brother by him.

At this moment, with Chen Guan’s sudden statement, Shopkeeper Wang realized things had taken a turn for the worse.