Annual Evaluation

When he finally managed to complete all thirteen stances of the stance training in one go, this Body Refining Technique finally appeared on his attribute panel.

He had originally thought that, unlike blade martial arts, a Body Refining Technique could not have its realm raised through the panel.

But now it seemed that he simply had not practiced the entire Body Refining Technique through once before.

On the panel, it still had an initial progress bar from zero to one hundred.

Song Changming was already quite familiar with this. He only needed to fill the progress bar to complete the introductory stage of this Body Refining Technique.

The status rewards from the daily evaluations still boosted his body-refining results, so he was quite confident in the speed of his Body Refinement. At the very least, it would be faster than that of ordinary people.

It's about time today as well. Song Changming glanced at the darkening sky.

After today, he would officially turn nineteen. His family had not prepared anything special. During dinner, his parents merely mentioned it a few times, which at least showed that they remembered his birthday.

Perhaps they would pay a little more attention when he reached twenty and held his coming-of-age ceremony.

After all, common households had always kept such matters simple.

So-called birthday banquets were things only wealthy and powerful families bothered to arrange.

Still, at this time every year, the panel gave him a small sense of ceremony with an annual evaluation.

[Annual Evaluation: A year of modest gains. You attempted to practice martial arts, a brand-new challenge, and successfully trained a low-tier blade art to the Minor Accomplishment stage. With it, you defeated Chen Beihu, a minor leader of the Tengya Mountain Bandit Army, and were promoted to patrol guard in the Patrol Guard Headquarters on Houli Street, Donglai Commandery City. Your parents' expectations of you have risen, and they are proud of you.]

[Please select an Annual Reward.]

[1. Lifespan +1000. 2. Lifespan -500, any martial art experience +100. 3. Lifespan -100, Attribute Points +1.]

Not bad. At least it wasn't another meaningless, ordinary year. Song Changming looked at this year's annual evaluation with considerable satisfaction.

Ever since he began practicing martial arts, he had indeed gained quite a lot this year. Some extraordinary things had truly happened amid his ordinary days.

It was only natural that this annual evaluation differed somewhat from those of previous years.

Song Changming's attention was focused mainly on the Annual Rewards below.

There had always been three choices, and this time was no exception.

The difference was that this evaluation was better, so the rewards had changed somewhat as well.

Option one: Lifespan +1000.

There had been reward options that increased lifespan at once before, but they generally only added one or two hundred days.

This time, however, the lifespan reward was a full thousand days, which was by no means a small amount.

Ever since he began practicing martial arts, because he needed the two beneficial statuses, "Single-Minded Focus" and "Heaven Rewards Diligence," the lifespan days he accumulated day after day throughout an entire year had not even exceeded a thousand.

The second option directly added one hundred experience to any martial art, on the condition that he spent five hundred days of lifespan.

This was a reward option that had never appeared before. After all, he had only begun practicing martial arts this year, so it had likely triggered this random reward because of that.

Upon seeing this reward, Song Changming immediately thought of the Great Strength Bull Demon Art that he had been practicing for some time.

If those hundred points of martial art experience were added to the Soul Severing Saber, they would not be particularly significant against its requirement of two thousand total experience.

But if they were added to the Great Strength Bull Demon Art, he could directly bring this Body Refining Technique to the introductory stage. That tempted him greatly.

Only after practicing for a while did he truly understand what it meant to grind water through a stone.

The Great Strength Bull Demon Art's experience rose far too slowly. Ten days had passed, yet it had only increased by two or three points.

At this rate, it would take at least over a year to complete the introductory stage of Body Refinement.

To him, that was truly far too slow.

It was only natural that he would be tempted by the chance to directly enter the introductory stage.

As for the five hundred days of lifespan that would be consumed at once, it was not something he could not accept. After all, Body Refinement would originally have taken more than a year. This reward was equivalent to helping him skip that long, dull process of cultivation and directly obtain the results.

As for the third reward option, Attribute Points, he was not unfamiliar with it either.

Previously, he had relied on this reward to forcibly raise his Root attribute aptitude to ten points.

Looking at the three Annual Rewards before him, Song Changming did not deliberate for long before ultimately choosing the second option, martial art experience.

He was no longer in the same situation as when he had just transmigrated. He was not so desperately short on lifespan days now, and since he could basically gain some every day, he directly gave up the extra lifespan reward.

As for the third reward, Attribute Points, an opportunity to directly improve Innate Talent was indeed quite rare.

But honestly, he could not feel much difference at the moment whether he had a little more or a little less.

In any case, there was an Annual Reward every year. He could slowly improve it later.

Right now, raising the realm of the Great Strength Bull Demon Art would most likely give him an immediate boost in strength.

What he lacked at present was sufficient martial power.

Especially now that he had become a patrol guard, he needed that strength even more to protect himself.

On the surface, Donglai Commandery City had the Patrol Guard Headquarters maintaining public order, and it appeared relatively harmonious and stable.

But in this world steeped in martial force, danger could strike without warning, and death could descend at any moment.

If his strength was insufficient, then even as someone employed by the authorities, Song Changming could still die at the hands of vicious criminals like Chen Beihu.

After confirming his choice of the second reward, the more than thirty-six thousand eight hundred days in Song Changming's lifespan column were immediately reduced by five hundred, becoming thirty-six thousand three hundred. The numbers had been miscalculated.

Song Changming only needed to ensure that his lifespan remained above thirty-six thousand days.

Then, he poured all one hundred freely distributable points of martial art experience he had obtained into the Great Strength Bull Demon Art.

The next moment, a whirl of dazzling, multicolored wind suddenly gathered around Song Changming's body.

What surprised him even more was that the colorful whirlwind abruptly raised inside the room seemed to be guided into blowing into his body.

Then, as though a mass of flame had suddenly detonated inside him, scorching and violently intense energy flooded through his entire body, his limbs and bones, in an instant.

The suddenness of it made him shudder involuntarily.

The skin all over his body began to redden, like the shell of a shrimp about to be boiled.

His pores opened wide as great amounts of sweat and grime continuously seeped out.

His sinews, bones, muscles, even his internal organs, blood, and veins—every aspect of his body underwent varying degrees of startling transformation at that moment.

Song Changming felt as though he were an iron billet inside a furnace, being tempered again and again.

Components were constantly being shed, while new energy was continuously injected into his body.

This process was not pleasant for Song Changming.

Pain, scorching heat, numb itching—it was agony beyond measure.

He did not know how long passed before everything finally settled down.

The whirlwind around him had already vanished some time ago, and the violent abnormalities within his body gradually faded as well.

Only Song Changming remained lying on the floor, gasping for air like someone who had just survived drowning.

"So intense?"