Breakthrough to the Mid Skin Tempering Realm

You were still puzzled when you saw the honest, wooden Miao Jiayao's face brimming with simple, silly smiles.

You instantly understood. They had not adopted a daughter—they had bought Miao Jiayao a wife.

The little girl had not yet come of age, so they were raising her at home under the name of adoption. Once she grew up, they would formally marry and have children.

This meal was equivalent to a wedding feast.

One was thirty-two, the other thirteen. They were nearly a whole generation apart.

You were secretly startled.

Miao Jiayao had really struck gold.

But you knew the little girl's family must have been desperately poor, forced to sell their daughter with no other choice. As an outsider, there was nothing you could say.

You agreed to eat at Miao Jiayao's home, then entered your courtyard and set down the daily necessities you had bought.

While Miao Jiayao waited outside, he saw the wooden training dummy, weapon rack, and other martial arts equipment in your courtyard.

He realized that you were cultivating the Martial Path.

Martial artists who cultivated the Martial Path were all people above people, people above people.

Miao Jiayao became even more awed and respectful toward you.

Butcher Zhang from the neighboring village had only attended a martial academy for one month. He was nothing more than a half-baked martial artist, yet he could run wild through the neighboring village and had become its local boss.

Seeing the professional equipment in your courtyard, Miao Jiayao guessed that your martial strength was surely greater than Butcher Zhang's.

Though you really were stronger than Butcher Zhang, if Miao Jiayao understood that poor students had more stationery, he would not have judged strength by the amount of equipment someone owned.

When you came out of the courtyard, Miao Jiayao's attitude toward you became even more respectful.

You arrived at Miao Jiayao's home for dinner.

You noticed that the delicate-looking little girl seated across from you had been timidly sneaking glances at you.

Compared to the surrounding farming families, you were dressed splendidly and had extraordinary looks. You were completely out of place among everyone else.

The innocent, muddleheaded little girl could not help being curious about you.

Miao Jiayao told you that this was the daughter the old couple had adopted. Her name was Wei Xia.

You looked over the thin, immature Wei Xia a few times. She was completely still a child.

After the meal, you gave Miao Jiayao five taels of silver as a congratulatory gift. The whole family was moved to tears. This was equivalent to a year's expenses for their family.

Miao Jiayao was so excited he nearly acknowledged you as his godfather.

You did not want a son more than a decade older than yourself, so you refused him.

You returned to your small courtyard.

At the table beneath the peach tree, you laid out all kinds of meat and medicinal herbs and began today's nourishment regimen. This was a step you had to complete every day.

As you were nourishing yourself, you suddenly heard the sound of someone swallowing outside the courtyard gate.

Though the sound was faint, you had already entered the Martial Path, and your five senses were sharp. There was no way you could have heard wrong.

"What are you doing?" You suddenly appeared behind Wei Xia.

Wei Xia jumped in fright. She looked at the still tightly shut courtyard gate, unable to understand how you had appeared behind her.

Facing your questioning, Wei Xia stammered and could not say a word.

In truth, Wei Xia merely felt that she was close to you in age. Seeing that your bearing differed from the villagers', she had become extremely curious about you and wanted to come play with you.

But she was too shy to say it directly, so she could only peek at you through the courtyard gate.

When she saw meat that her family could not afford to eat even once a year being wolfed down by you alone, pound after pound, Wei Xia drooled with craving and kept swallowing. That was how you discovered her.

You knew Wei Xia bore no ill intent, but you only wanted to lie low and cultivate the Martial Path. You had no desire to invite unnecessary complications.

You said to Wei Xia, "Go back. Don't come peek at me again."

Wei Xia, who looked especially small and thin due to malnutrition, lowered her head and walked back to Miao Jiayao's house.

You continued cultivating diligently every day.

In the second year, you broke through to the Early Skin Tempering Realm.

Skin Tempering, as the name implied, strengthened the flesh and blood and increased one's strength.

Your strength reached three hundred jin.

You could now be considered to have entered the hall and stepped into the chamber on the Martial Path.

You began cultivating the Cloud Stepping Gait as well.

This movement technique used for fleeing was sometimes even more useful than proper cultivation arts. At crucial moments, it could truly save your life.

Being able to keep disaster forever one step behind you was also a kind of strength.

Martial skills differed from cultivation arts. Martial skills did not raise one's realm, but they could increase one's overall strength.

From low to high, martial skill proficiency was divided into Entry, Initial Mastery, Minor Mastery, Major Mastery, and Perfection.

You threw yourself into new cultivation.

If you think this book is good, remember to add it to your bookshelf so you do not lose it next time.

During that time, Wei Xia came to secretly watch you twice more, but you did not bother with her.

Wei Xia still did not know that she had been brought here to be Miao Jiayao's wife.

Every day, you only focused on cultivation. You loved cultivating far too much.

Women could not affect you. Other people's women could affect you even less.

Though you had done nothing at all, the intelligence center formed by the old aunties at the eastern end of the village began spreading rumors about you.

They said Miao Jiayao's little wife was going to run away with you.

For no reason at all, you became the blond-haired interloper in a cuckolding plot.

Though you had absolutely no interest in Wei Xia.

Miao Jiayao, however, was terrified that Wei Xia might truly run away with you, so from then on, he only allowed her to stay at home.

After that, Wei Xia never came to secretly watch you again.

Time passed quickly.

In the seventh year, the peach tree blossomed and bore fruit seven times, and you ate fresh peaches seven times.

This year, you were twenty-two. Who would have thought that this elegant young man of twenty-two had been only fifteen seven years ago?

Your Early Skin Tempering Realm cultivation became incomparably solid, and you faintly touched the threshold of the Mid Skin Tempering Realm.

You cultivated even more diligently.

Every day, apart from sleeping, you cultivated, as if you had returned to the hundred-day sprint before the college entrance exams.

You did not find it dull, because every day you could feel yourself improving.

"Improve a little every day, and keep moving forward by more than just a little!" You cheered yourself on.

Though your martial talent was not as good as Wang Yuanyi's, it was still fairly decent, and your hard work finally bore fruit.

In the eighth year, one night as you lay in bed, your spine suddenly ached, then went numb and tingly. You shuddered.

At the same time, you broke through to the Mid Skin Tempering Realm and reached six hundred jin of strength.

Solid true qi circulated through your body, like a twelve-cylinder engine continuously supplying you with power.

Your understanding of the Golden Saber Art rose to another level, and the Minghong Blade danced in your hand with the force of a tiger and the roar of wind.

Your Cloud Stepping Gait also improved greatly, reaching the Initial Mastery level.

With the Cloud Stepping Gait, your footwork had now become extremely slick and flashy.

Leaving no trace on snow and climbing onto roofs to tear off tiles were both effortless for you.

You felt this skill was perfectly suited for a little petty theft.

As it happened, the money you had looted from Golden Saber Academy was nearly used up.

You decided to get some money.

That night, you dashed more than a hundred li westward and arrived at Linjiang County's county seat.

Within the city, you used the Cloud Stepping Gait to dart about committing crimes, coming and going without a trace.

You turned the homes of three wealthy landlords upside down.

The money of those wealthy landlords had all been black-hearted money earned by squeezing the common people dry, so you felt no pressure at all stealing it.

But even thieves had to possess professional ethics.

"Seek only wealth, not lives," you silently thought.

The next second, you swung your blade backhandedly and killed the landlord's youngest son.

"You humiliated a young woman in the street in broad daylight. You do not count as a human being at all."

You felt that you had not broken the rules of your profession.

"I truly work in one trade and love one trade." You were very proud.

In total, you looted thirty-two thousand eight hundred taels of silver, four thousand seven hundred ninety taels of gold, and various quantities of jewelry and ornaments.

This time, you got rich in one wave.

After farming monsters, you slipped back into your small courtyard.

With resources in hand, you continued developing in a cowardly, low-key manner.

Your small courtyard remained calm and peaceful, but Linjiang County's city had exploded into uproar.

Three prominent families had been robbed at the same time. This became a top-tier piece of news.

The strangest thing was how such a huge quantity of gold, silver, and jewels had been stolen away overnight without anyone noticing.

Even if that much gold and silver were hauled away on carts, it would take several cartloads. How could it simply vanish into thin air?

The county government began investigating as well, but after several days, they did not find even a single hair. In the end, they could only let it go.

This became the largest unsolved case in Linjiang County's history.

What they did not know was that even greater unsolved cases still lay ahead.