Blood Fiend Saber Technique! (Please Bookmark and Vote Monthly)

Blood Fiend Saber Technique! (Please Bookmark~ Monthly Votes~)

"In the spring of the Thirteenth Year of Chengping, slew one Skin-Peeling Puppet, eliminating a scourge for the people. Fortune returns where merit lies. Received one hundred merits."

"With one hundred merits, Minor Fortune of Great Luck may be obtained."

One hundred merits!

Chen Yan's eyes widened, brimming with delight.

He had never expected killing this Skin-Peeling Puppet would earn him a full hundred merits.

The last time he had exchanged for a Great Return Pill, those hundred merits had taken him three whole months to save up. He had done one good deed each day, without pause day or night, before finally scraping together a hundred points.

Yet now, killing a single Skin-Peeling Puppet had earned them so easily.

But Chen Yan quickly calmed down again.

This Skin-Peeling Puppet being worth a hundred merits was likely related to the several massacres of entire households in Shanxi Town. Chen Yan alone knew of more than five such cases.

In other words, this Skin-Peeling Puppet had at least dozens of lives on its hands. Being worth a hundred merits was hardly surprising.

Without the slightest hesitation, Chen Yan chose to activate Minor Fortune of Great Luck.

For him now, he did not have the luxury of saving up merits.

Only by turning merit into strength as quickly as possible was he making the wise choice.

That battle just now had been exceedingly dangerous. Had Facai not assisted him, Chen Yan would likely have faced grim odds himself.

Soon, as Chen Yan made his choice, his hundred merits dropped to zero, and a new line of tiny Cloud Seal Script appeared:

"One hundred merits bestowed: Minor Fortune of Great Luck—Blood Fiend Saber Technique."

Blood Fiend Saber Technique?

A martial art?

At the sight of those new Cloud Seal Script words, Chen Yan's eyes suddenly lit up.

What he lacked most right now was precisely a martial art that could bring out the power of his blood qi.

But before Chen Yan could even rejoice, a tidal wave of memories surged into him. His head swam at once, his mind throbbed, and he nearly lost his footing.

At that moment, Chen Yan could hear nothing at all. Countless memories, experiences, and forms relating to saber techniques poured into his mind like enlightenment flooding his skull.

An unknown amount of time passed. Chen Yan stood rooted in place with unfocused pupils and vacant eyes, like a fool lost to madness. Facai, frantic at his side, paced in circles without stopping, meowing continuously as it tried to wake him.

"Hmph!"

At last, with a muffled grunt, Chen Yan staggered. The shifting light and shadows before his eyes faded as he withdrew from that void, bending over with both hands braced on his knees as he gasped for air.

"I'm fine. Don't worry."

He spoke to Facai, who was anxiously hopping about nearby. Chen Yan's face was slightly pale, and bead-sized drops of sweat covered his forehead. He looked as though he had just recovered from a severe illness, yet the joy in his eyes could not be suppressed, nearly spilling over.

His personal panel had changed once more:

Name: Chen Yan

Realm: Blood Qi Realm

Technique: Blood Fiend Saber Technique (Entered the Hall)

Merit: One

Blood Fiend Saber Technique!

An exceedingly fierce and powerful saber art.

As the saying went: the saber was the courage of all weapons, and its essence was the qilin.

To Chen Yan, the Blood Fiend Saber Technique was a martial art that brought the saber's swiftness and ferocity to their utmost extremes.

The Blood Fiend Saber Technique bestowed by the Heavenly Book of Merit had not only granted him its cultivation principles, but also infused him with a vast amount of saber-wielding experience. In an instant, it was as though Chen Yan had become a saber fighter with more than a decade of experience.

Naturally, the price was considerable. Even now, Chen Yan had yet to recover. His head felt ready to burst, his mind was dazed, and he wanted nothing more than to collapse and sleep.

Forcing back his exhaustion, Chen Yan drew a deep breath and reached down for the woodcutter's saber that had fallen to the ground. The instant his hand closed around its hilt—

Suddenly!

Chen Yan's expression changed.

For no other reason than that, at the instant he gripped the hilt, a feeling as though the blade were linked to his flesh and bones abruptly arose.

It felt as though Chen Yan had spent countless days and nights swinging a saber. How to exert force for greater speed, how to strike with greater ferocity, how to bring the blade down with greater precision—he understood it all instinctively.

With the woodcutter's saber in hand, an urge stirred eagerly in Chen Yan's chest. Unable to resist, he began practicing according to the forms of the Blood Fiend Saber Technique.

Chen Yan suddenly moved. Facai at his feet jumped in fright, cried out, then sprang onto an old tree nearby, staring down at Chen Yan below, who seemed utterly unaware, as if possessed.

Beneath the tree, Chen Yan first paced slowly through the small courtyard, his saber strokes sluggish and unhurried.

But gradually, his steps grew faster and faster, more and more swift. In the end, he was running and leaping, while the woodcutter's saber in his hand cut ever more rapidly.

The courtyard filled with the rustle of wind and falling leaves. Yet strangely, despite his wild dance of the blade, the saber in Chen Yan's hand did not touch a single leaf drifting through the air.

Chen Yan's figure twisted and shifted through the courtyard, his saber momentum alternately swift and slow—at times flowing in endless ripples, at times fierce as a rushing gale. There were no flashy saber lights or elaborate forms, only simple fundamental movements: chopping, cleaving, lifting, twisting, sweeping, and slashing upward.

Yet with the saber in his hand, Chen Yan seemed to have gained an extra pair of arms out of thin air. Where his eyes went, his hands arrived; where his hands arrived, the blade fell.

Then—

From the corner of his eye, he spotted a mosquito buzzing toward him.

Chen Yan reacted in a flash. Inspiration struck, and he twisted around with a slash. That irritating buzz instantly fell silent.

He crouched down and picked up the mosquito, severed into two pieces. Delight appeared on Chen Yan's face.

The cut was clean and distinct. Even its wings had been split left and right, without the slightest deviation.

He had already known from the Great Return Pill that treasures produced by the Heavenly Book of Merit were anything but ordinary. Since both were Minor Fortune of Great Luck, the Blood Fiend Saber Technique would surely not be inferior to the Great Return Pill.

Yet once he truly practiced it, its power still far exceeded Chen Yan's expectations. It was unexpectedly formidable.

Had he possessed the Blood Fiend Saber Technique earlier, he would never have been so bedraggled when facing that Skin-Peeling Puppet.

Chen Yan was confident that if he faced that middle-aged human skin again, he could take its head with a single slash!

A knowing smile appeared on his face, but then Chen Yan noticed the woodcutter's saber in his hand.

He had used this saber for many years. Though he sharpened it from time to time, years of chopping firewood had inevitably left several chips along its edge.

Especially after the battle with the Skin-Peeling Puppet—the human skin had been as tough as solid stone. The already chipped woodcutter's saber had suffered even worse damage, and Chen Yan could even see several cracks in its blade.

Perhaps after only a few more days of use, even without another battle, merely chopping wood for two days would completely ruin this saber.

The saber art was excellent, but he needed a good saber to wield it.

Unfortunately, Chen Yan's purse was thin. He could not afford a new saber.

Even an ordinary weapon, not forged from fine iron, would cost at least two taels of silver.

Chen Yan did not even have one tael on him now, so buying a new saber was certainly out of the question.

But if he could not buy a weapon, buying a new woodcutter's saber was still possible.

Woodcutter's sabers were farm tools and were not made from quality iron. A new one cost only three to five hundred copper coins, far cheaper than a proper weapon, and just within Chen Yan's means.

Though pairing a woodcutter's saber with the Blood Fiend Saber Technique was somewhat absurd, that was all the money Chen Yan had. He could only make do with it for now.

Having decided to visit the blacksmith tomorrow, Chen Yan called up to Facai in the tree.

"Come on, let's go back inside and sleep!"

"Meow~"

Facai cried out, leaping down from the tree in a single bound and following Chen Yan back into the house.

Once inside and completely relaxed, the aftereffects of receiving the Blood Fiend Saber Technique's experience finally swept over him. Chen Yan no longer tried to endure them. He could not even be bothered to take off his clothes before collapsing into bed.

The night passed without incident.