Martial Path Initiation

You obtained cultivation methods, martial skills, and a large sum of money.

You took out the three manuals and examined them carefully.

Cultivation methods, from lowest to highest grade, were divided into third-rate, second-rate, first-rate, top-tier, and sect-defending methods.

You directly tossed the two Third-Rate Skin Refining Skills back into the space.

"Common roadside goods, not worth mentioning!"

You looked toward that Bone Tempering Realm method, the Golden Saber Art.

The Golden Saber Art was Golden Saber Academy's treasured, bottom-of-the-chest method, and it was also a first-rate cultivation method.

Golden Saber Academy ranked second among all martial academies in Xian'an County precisely because of this Golden Saber Art.

You decided to cultivate the Golden Saber Art. It was fierce and forceful, and it could also allow you to cultivate to Bone Tempering Realm. It was absolutely perfect.

"Hehehe... When the time comes, I'll use the Golden Saber Art to wipe out the Golden Saber Academy master's whole family. Just thinking about it is exciting!"

That second-rate movement martial skill, Cloud Stepping Gait, could also be cultivated alongside it. If you could not beat someone, at least you could outrun them.

You planned to quietly leave Golden Saber Academy and find somewhere to lie low and cultivate.

Once your divine skill was complete, you would leap out and scare them out of their wits.

You walked out of your room and arrived at Golden Saber Academy's entrance.

When the gatekeeper saw that you intended to leave, he stopped you.

The gatekeeper had been instructed not to let you leave whenever you pleased.

Your eyes rolled around, and you said that you were going to buy Wang Yulin's favorite osmanthus cakes.

The gatekeeper still refused to let you out, and the two of you argued without reaching any conclusion.

Seeing that it was fruitless, you were about to give up, already planning to crawl through a dog hole that night.

Another gatekeeper could not stand watching any longer. He knew you were Wang Yulin's devoted bootlicker, and he also knew that Wang Yuanyi would gouge out your eyes.

He felt somewhat sorry for you, so he let you out and reminded you to return early.

"I'll definitely come back!" You nodded fiercely.

After leaving, you bought a fast horse and raced for a full day and night, leaving Xian'an County far behind before arriving in neighboring Yanggu County.

You were in the Great Qian Dynasty, which occupied the fertile and prosperous southern lands.

To the north was the Golden Yue Kingdom, which possessed a broader territory but relatively barren land.

The two nations had fought each other for centuries and had become hereditary enemies.

Below the nation were provinces, counties, and villages.

In Yanggu County, you found the best blacksmith shop in town.

You asked the blacksmith to use the finest materials to forge you the sharpest long saber.

You intended to use it to cultivate the Golden Saber Art.

The blacksmith naturally agreed and told you to collect it in half a month.

You could not wait that long and said you wanted it in three days.

The blacksmith said that half a month was the rule, a rule laid down since his grandfather's grandfather's generation.

Without another word, you added fifty taels of silver.

The blacksmith immediately made the decision to defy his ancestors. "Come collect your peerless treasured saber in three days!"

You found an inn to stay in. Its rooms were warm and comfortable, a thousand times better than the drafty thatched hut in your former body's village.

You began attempting to cultivate the Martial Path, but you always felt that you had not fully adapted to this body, as though some invisible shackle bound you.

You gritted your teeth and tried cultivating for two days, yet the feeling remained. You puzzled over it endlessly.

On the second night, you secretly returned to Shidong Village, where your former body had lived.

You paid respects to your former body's parents.

Just as you were about to leave, you discovered that the elderly man next door to your former body's home and his five- or six-year-old granddaughter were on the verge of starving to death.

This little girl had often followed behind your former body, calling him big brother. She had loved playing with him.

The grandfather and granddaughter had been hungry for days, barely clinging to life, with no strength to flee the famine.

What you lacked least now were money and food.

You left behind one hundred taels of silver and a large roasted chicken, then quietly departed.

The pair thought an immortal had revealed himself. Kneeling before their house, they cried and kowtowed toward the pitch-black sky.

At that moment, you felt your heart lighten, and that invisible shackle vanished completely.

You raised your head and looked up, as if understanding something.

You did not linger and returned to the inn overnight.

When you attempted to cultivate the Martial Path again, it was indeed as smooth and effortless as flowing silk.

You cultivated through the entire night, continuing until the following afternoon.

Though you had not condensed true qi, you had already grasped the knack of cultivation.

You went to the blacksmith shop and collected the long saber you had spent a fortune to forge.

The long saber was tough and razor-sharp, able to sever a hair blown against its edge. You named it the Minghong Blade.

The blacksmith also gave you an exquisite little dagger forged from the leftover materials.

Seeing that the blacksmith still had the leisure to forge a little dagger, you realized that your fifty-tael tip had been too generous.

However, you were extremely satisfied with the Minghong Blade, so you did not fuss over it.

You left Yanggu County and rode south on a fast horse, keeping as far as possible from Golden Saber Academy to avoid being found by Wang Yuanyi.

Along the way, you encountered many refugees. They dragged their families along with them, unable to get enough to eat.

Whenever they saw you on horseback, they kept far away. In their eyes, anyone who could ride a horse was a big shot, someone refugees like them dared not provoke.

You rode day and night for several days, traveling more than a thousand li from Xian'an County and completely distancing yourself from Golden Saber Academy.

You abandoned your horse and blended into a group of refugees.

Unlike the starving refugees, you did not worry about food in the slightest.

Every night, you secretly took food from the Simulation Space for an extra meal, keeping your strength fully replenished.

After traveling with the refugee group for two days, you arrived at a sparsely populated village.

There were only a dozen or so households in the village, each spaced far apart. You decided to stay.

You found one household consisting of an elderly couple and their son, who was over thirty and unmarried.

Using three taels of coarse rice, you learned about the village from them.

The village was called Willow Tree Village. It currently had only seventeen households, and many empty houses whose owners were gone.

You chose a dilapidated house with a small courtyard and settled down there. Your house was not far from the elderly couple's home.

You bought materials and repaired the house, turning the broken thatched dwelling into a grand countryside residence.

You also planted a peach blossom tree in the courtyard, making it brim with even more life.

From then on, you lived in seclusion, rarely going out, cultivating the Martial Path every day in your small courtyard behind high walls.

You diligently cultivated the Golden Saber Art every day, and gradually, the Minghong Blade became increasingly natural and effortless in your hands.

Half a year later, through unceasing cultivation supplemented by abundant medicinal baths, the first wisp of true qi was born within your body.

You had entered the Martial Path.

You could clearly feel that your body had become more energetic and your vitality incomparably abundant.

In particular, your strength had increased. You could lift a hundred-pound millstone with one hand behind your back.

The current you could easily handle six or seven ordinary strong men at once.

Yet you had not reached the initial stage of Skin Tempering Realm. You still needed time and steady effort to accumulate true qi, but you knew it was only a matter of time.

In excellent spirits, you made the rare decision to go out.

At the nearest market, you purchased some necessities.

When you returned, the elderly couple's bachelor son was waiting outside your courtyard gate.

Over the past half year, you had also learned about the elderly couple's family.

You knew that their son was named Miao Jiayao. He was thirty-two this year, and because his family was poor, he had never been able to marry a wife.

Over the past half year, his family had seen that you rarely left home or worked the fields, yet never lacked food or drink, and they guessed that you possessed considerable wealth.

Seeing also that your features were proper and extraordinary, they knew you were not from the same world as them. Thus, they did not dare approach you of their own accord and had never entered your courtyard.

Yet today, Miao Jiayao was waiting outside your courtyard.

In your experience, if a friend or classmate you had not contacted in eight lifetimes suddenly asked whether you were around, there was a twenty-thousand-percent chance they wanted to borrow money.

You walked over and spoke with Miao Jiayao, only to learn that he had not come to borrow money.

It turned out that the elderly couple had adopted a thirteen-year-old girl and were inviting you to dinner as a witness.

You were somewhat puzzled. The elderly couple's family was not well-off; the three of them could barely make ends meet. Why had they adopted a daughter?