Level Up in Martial World

Lu Zhen's crimson eyes flickered as he patiently waited for the two old men in front of him to finish their game of chess that they have been playing for ages now.

"What's so special about these chessboards anyway?" He thought with an amused expression on his face.

The two old men moved their queens elegantly, however, Lu Zhen already knew that it was a draw a long time ago.

As expected, with only the king and queen left on the board, no matter how experienced they were, both evenly matched, causing the game to be drawn as well.

The moment they finished, immediately their attention was drawn towards Lu Zhen, who was looking at them with his crimson gaze.

"What happened, Lu Zhen?" Lu Ming asked with a confused expression.

"Didn't I tell ancestor Lu to cultivate in seclusion, but now you are playing…"

"It's better to take a break sometime. I am old and can't stay in that cooped-up place for a long time." Lu Ming said with a sigh on his face.

"These old men," Lu Zhen rolled his eyes.

"By the way, the bloodline extractor is complete." He said with a glint in his eyes.

"Already?" Lu Ming asked with a surprised expression.

"Yeah, it is. This is your only chance you could potentially have to break through and reach the middle tier of the first-stage martial realm." Lu Zhen said with a grumble. "What shitty 'very close to breaking through'? This old man isn't even close to breaking through yet."

Lu Ming laughed it off with a thick skin.

"You can clearly hear the disappointed voice of your grandson, Lu Ming. Tsk tsk." Fang Yin shook his head. "If I had such a capable grandson, then I might not be in this state right now."

"Hmph, even if you have a capable descent, you would still be in this condition. In fact, your condition might be even more miserable instead. No matter how hard a martial artist's journey is, harsh and long, no one can reach the peak and fight those old monsters so easily." Lu Ming said with a sigh.

"You are right, Lu Ming." Fang Yin nodded his head with a sigh.

"Let's go then, Lu Zhen." Lu Ming looked at him with a mixture of pride in his eyes.

"Yes, ancestor." Lu Zhen nodded his head respectfully and he made his way out with the two old men, one in the form of youth, almost like his age, and the other in the guise of a middle-aged man, followed him.

"Ancestor Lu, about your disciple, I don't see her here anymore-"

"Oh, my disciple. I sent her to train in the forest for now and keep an eye out for the army in case they come." Lu Ming said with an uncaring expression.

"Why are you asking? Do you like her or something?" His eyes glinted with amusement.

Lu Zhen smiled hearing this. "I already have my hands full, you know that ancestor already."

Lu Ming chuckled as he nodded his head.

Before long, they arrived at the huge palace with "Leader Lu Zhen's Palace" written in a bold form with excellent calligraphy.

"You have moved the Lu Residence in a strategic order and even maintained a strong grip around the city now…"

The more Fang Yin talked, the more he uttered praises for Lu Zhen, except that these were all facts that caused his eyes to widen the more he spoke.

At the end, he truly sighed.

"You really have a terrifying grandson, Lu Ming." He said with jealousy in his eyes.

A proud expression appeared on Lu Ming's face as he nodded.

"But Lu Zhen, are you sure that relocating the Lu palace from the west corner of the city to the center is a good idea, Lu Zhen?" He asked tentatively.

"Don't worry, everything is arranged in a statistical way, and you very soon will know the reason behind these allocations and the strange devices that I set up in the walls. Even the building that I have forced the others to reconstruct according to my design is all according to my plan." Lu Zhen said with a confident expression on his face.

"Well, if you say so." Lu Ming nodded his head while Fang Yin was just quiet.

The trio entered his palace, greeted by Lu Qing.

"Ancestor Lu, Uncle Yin, and Leader." Lu Qing greeted me with a respectful expression.

"Hmm, I have many capable descendants." Lu Ming nodded his head and extended his hand.

"Here, take this." chapter source m vl _emp-y,r

Lu Qing respectfully took it without hesitation. Since the ancestor Lu was giving it to her, it would be only disrespectful to not take it.

She looked at the silver hairpin with a confused expression on her face.

"This is an artifact, well, to be exact, a semi one. Drop some blood into it." Lu Ming said with a mysterious expression.

Lu Qing looked at Lu Zhen, and seeing him nod his head with an uncaring expression, she immediately made a small cut from her teeth and dripped a drop of blood into the silver hairpin.

Swoosh!

The hairpin floated up from her hand, making the wind almost tear. It floated in circles of Lu Qing.

"Ancestor Lu, this is…" Her eyes widened.

"This is a reward that you deserve for working so hard." Lu Ming said with a smile.

Immediately, Lu Qing bowed and thanked Lu Ming dearly.

Lu Zhen looked at these with an amused expression.

The hairpin was almost at the same level as his divine chains but still wasn't up to his level yet. Even the power of these things, from the estimation he could make, was far smaller than his.

So it was very valid for it to be called the semi-artifact level, but that doesn't mean its power wasn't terrifying.

In the town, even second-stage martial artists might kill for these weapons. Since the weapon was very low in supply and quantity because of the scarcity of blacksmiths.

However, the Lu Family had plenty of blacksmith martial artist and had almost all the town's blacksmiths in control.

That's why accumulating wasn't really hard for them, mainly because of the reason that Lu Ming was a first-stage martial artist and had almost a grandmaster proficiency in blacksmithing.

Even the rogue martial artists who wanted to learn blacksmithing from him all came to him for learning, eventually turning into a firm disciple of the Lu Family.

"This is also one of the major reasons how we have maintained our grip as one of the four major families for so long," Lu Zhen sighed thinking of these.

Although having a first-stage martial artist was already enough, people had nefarious thoughts and ambition. Just having a central figure wasn't enough to create an entire force.

But now it didn't matter either way.

"Hmm, I wonder how the status of Lu Ming and Fang Yin would be shown." Lu Zhen suddenly thought with his crimson eyes.

While the two old men were distracted with Lu Qing, his crimson pupils changed to a golden hue.

[Attempting to appraise]

A blue panel appeared in front of his eyes, causing Lu Zhen to frown.

"I have never seen this before."