Upholding Justice for Heaven, Merit Breaks a Thousand!

Old Daoist Liu circled Chen Yan without stopping, looking at him as though he were an alien.

"What is it?"

Chen Yan looked baffled.

"This old Daoist takes back what I said before."

Old Daoist Liu shook his head with an astonished sigh.

"What did you say?"

"You brat aren't a martial arts genius—you're a fucking martial arts monster."

Chen Yan: ...

He rolled his eyes, but he had to admit that when it came to martial arts, Chen Yan considered himself fairly gifted. Otherwise, he could not have cultivated the Blood Fiend Saber Technique from basic proficiency to the pinnacle of perfection in such a short time.

Of course, this was also inseparable from the solid foundation laid by the Heavenly Book of Merit's empowerment.

"Enough of that. How did things go on your end? Did you find the Skin-Peeling Puppets causing trouble in Little Yellow Village?"

Not dwelling on the matter, Chen Yan changed the subject.

"With this old Daoist on the job, wasn't it as easy as taking something out of my pocket?"

Old Daoist Liu raised his brows and replied smugly.

Chen Yan nodded. With Old Daoist Liu's Dao Foundation stage cultivation, dealing with a few Skin-Peeling Puppets was no different from slaughtering chickens. The only difficulty was whether he could find them.

After resting briefly and recovering some strength, Chen Yan suddenly rose to his feet and walked toward the nearest remnant of a bandit's corpse.

Old Daoist Liu froze, confused.

"What are you doing?"

Chen Yan crouched down, skillfully feeling around the bandit's body, then shot the old Daoist a look as though he were an idiot.

"Looting the corpse, obviously."

Old Daoist Liu was stunned. "You brat truly pluck every feather from a passing goose—even dead men's money isn't spared?"

"I killed them. The money on them is naturally my spoils of war."

Chen Yan spoke as though it were only right, then added:

"However, part of this is stolen money from Little Yellow Village. I'll take out a portion to serve as burial expenses for the villagers who died there."

A quarter of an hour later.

When Chen Yan returned to Old Daoist Liu's side, he had an extra bundle wrapped in bloodstained clothing. Most of it was copper coins, along with a small amount of broken silver. There were not many banknotes; those had been looted from Ding Feihu.

After a rough count, there were more than a hundred and ten taels in total. One hundred taels were banknotes taken from Ding Feihu, while the remaining ten-odd taels consisted of broken silver mixed with copper coins.

It was neither much nor little, but in any case, it was enough for Chen Yan to use for quite some time.

Of course, in the spirit of not wasting anything, Chen Yan also confiscated Ding Feihu's knuckle guards and Ma Wenfeng's sword.

Both weapons had been forged from fine iron. Even after clashing dozens of times with Chen Yan's Thousand-Forge Flying Fish Saber, they had only suffered a few minor chips. With a little repair, they could still fetch a good price.

Seeing Chen Yan with a saber in his left hand, a sword in his right, and a bloody bundle slung over his back, Old Daoist Liu could not conceal the disdain in his eyes.

"Do you know there's bounty silver on these Tiger Head Mountain bandits as well?"

"Really?"

Chen Yan's eyes lit up. After all, who would ever complain about having too much money?

"But this old Daoist does not recommend that you exchange them for bounty silver."

"Why?"

Chen Yan was puzzled.

Old Daoist Liu gestured toward the Flying Fish Token in Chen Yan's arms.

"Though you are currently only an unofficial Flying Fish Guard, you are still registered in the records. Wiping out these Tiger Head Mountain bandits counts as merit for you, and you can earn contribution points. If you exchange them for bounty silver, those contribution points will be gone."

"Contribution points?"

Old Daoist Liu patiently explained, "You can think of contribution points as the internal currency of the Heavenly Supervision Department. You can use them to exchange for treasures in the Department's treasury, including but not limited to martial arts manuals, miraculous pills and medicines, spells and divine abilities, cultivation methods, and so on..."

"Cultivation methods?"

Chen Yan's eyes brightened.

Yet Old Daoist Liu ruthlessly crushed his hopes.

"Forget about cultivation methods. You merely wiped out a few Blood Qi bandits. If this group of bandits had not committed a village massacre that enraged both man and heaven, it might not even count as merit."

"I see..." Chen Yan's spirits sank, but he quickly recovered and asked, "Then what can I exchange for? What should I exchange for? Old Daoist, do you have any suggestions?"

As a veteran Flying Fish Guard—and a powerful ranked Flying Fish Guard, even if only Bronze-Rank—Old Daoist Liu surely knew quite a bit about the Heavenly Supervision Department's treasury.

Chen Yan also had a small doubt in his heart. Old Daoist Liu was clearly so powerful, an expert at the Dao Foundation stage, so why was he merely a Bronze-Rank Flying Fish Guard?

Could the Flying Fish Guard truly be so powerful that even Bronze-Rank Flying Fish Guards were Dao Foundation stage experts?

Quietly burying the question in his heart, Chen Yan looked at Old Daoist Liu.

The old Daoist studied him thoughtfully for a while before suddenly asking:

"You're about to break through to True Force in your martial realm, aren't you?"

Chen Yan nodded, and the old Daoist continued:

"Then there is something that happens to suit you perfectly."

"What is it?"

"All-Encompassing Great Tonic Soup!"

"All-Encompassing Great Tonic Soup? What is that?"

Chen Yan was confused.

"It is not soup to drink, but a medicinal bath."

"A medicinal bath?"

Old Daoist Liu nodded. "When cultivators like us practice Essence Cultivation, we use this All-Encompassing Great Tonic Soup to Consolidate the Foundation and Cultivate the Origin. This medicinal bath can not only Consolidate the Foundation and Cultivate the Origin, but also greatly speed up a Qi and Blood Martial Artist's gathering of True Force."

"Good! Then I'll exchange for the All-Encompassing Great Tonic Soup!"

Chen Yan's eyes shone as he nodded eagerly.

Old Daoist Liu shot him a disdainful glance, but still said, "Once we return, this old Daoist will help you arrange it."

Naturally, Chen Yan did not refuse. Then he pointed at the chaotic scene around them.

"What about this place?"

"Leave it to Captain Zhao and the others. We'll return to Shanxi Town first."

Old Daoist Liu replied, a cold glint flashing through his eyes.

"Little Yellow Village's matter may be settled, but that demonic Daoist cultivating the Skin-Peeling Method has yet to be dealt with."

"You have an idea?" Chen Yan asked.

Old Daoist Liu sneered. "We already have enough samples. As long as we investigate the traces from before these human skins were taken, we will certainly find a flaw that leads to the true culprit behind it all!"

"How will we investigate?"

"You'll know once we get back."

Old Daoist Liu was being mysterious again.

Chen Yan shrugged and did not press further. He would find out in due time anyway.

Thus, taking Facai with them, they hurried toward Shanxi Town behind the old Daoist.

While traveling, Chen Yan split his focus in two. He continued on his way while immersing his mind once more, entering the void space.

The Heavenly Book of Merit stood quietly there, pure white as jade, radiating a faint golden glow as seven-colored light swirled around it.

As Chen Yan arrived, the Heavenly Book of Merit opened by itself, and a line of new Cloud Seal Script appeared:

"In the spring of the Thirteenth Year of Chengping, uphold justice for Heaven, eradicate treachery and evil, and blessings shall find their rightful destination. One thousand merit obtained."

"With merit exceeding one thousand, Medium Fortune of Great Luck may be obtained."

After a single day, Chen Yan's merit had surpassed a thousand once again!

It could be said that exchanging his previous twelve hundred merit for a breakthrough into the Third Blood Qi Realm had absolutely been a wise choice.

Otherwise, Chen Yan would not have had the chance to raise the Blood Fiend Saber Technique to the pinnacle of perfection, much less kill more than ten Tiger Head Mountain bandits by himself.

Thus, every sip and every peck had its predestined fate.

Because Chen Yan had first made the choice to improve his martial realm, he was then able to uphold justice for Heaven, kill the Tiger Head Mountain bandits, and obtain another thousand merit.

After calming his excited heart, Chen Yan withdrew from the void space.

The timing was not right, so Chen Yan did not choose to activate it immediately. He would wait until they returned.

This time, he intended to take a good look at exactly what this Medium Fortune of Great Luck contained.

No surprise there. There weren't enough follow-up readers, so the promotion attempt failed.

But Lotus Root still believes he can rise again. I humbly beg all you esteemed readers to spend two minutes each day following the latest chapter. Next week will have no recommendations and will be the hardest week. Whether I can hold on will depend entirely on everyone's support!!!