Annual Evaluation

2024-07-31

Annual Evaluation

When he could finally complete all thirteen stances of the stake exercise in one go, this Body Refining Technique finally appeared on his attribute panel.

Originally, he had thought that unlike saber arts, a Body Refining Technique could not rely on the panel to raise its realm.

But now it seemed that he simply had not practiced this Body Refining Technique through in its entirety before.

On the panel, there was still the initial progress bar from zero to one hundred.

Song Changming was already 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 evaluation still boosted his body refinement results, so he was quite confident in his refining speed. At the very least, it would be faster than that of ordinary people.

"Come to think of it, today is the day," Song Changming thought to himself as he looked at the darkening sky.

After today, he would officially turn nineteen. His family had not prepared anything, merely mentioning it a few times over dinner. At least they still remembered his birthday.

Perhaps they would place a little more importance on it only when he reached his coming-of-age ceremony at twenty.

After all, commoner families had always kept such matters simple.

So-called birthday banquets were things only wealthy and powerful households would arrange.

That said, at this time every year, the panel still 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 cultivated a low-tier saber 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 at the Patrol Guard Headquarters on Houli Street in 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, experience in any martial art +100. 3. Lifespan -100, Attribute Points +1.]

"Not bad. At last, it hasn't been a meaningless, ordinary year," Song Changming said, rather gratified as he looked at this year's Annual Evaluation.

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

It was only natural that this Annual Evaluation differed from those of previous years.

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

Every year, it was a choice of one out of three, and this time was no exception.

The difference was that with a higher evaluation, the rewards had also changed somewhat.

Option one: Lifespan +1000.

There had been reward options that increased his lifespan in one lump sum before, but they generally added only one or two hundred days at most.

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

Ever since he began practicing martial arts, due to his need for the two buff statuses, "Single-Minded Focus" and "Heaven Rewards Diligence," the lifespan days he accumulated day after day over an entire year had not even exceeded one thousand.

The second option directly added one hundred experience to any martial art, at the cost of 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 was likely a random reward triggered by that.

The moment he saw this reward, Song Changming thought of the Great Strength Bull Demon Art, which he had already been practicing for some time.

If those hundred points of martial arts experience were added to the Soul Severing Saber, they would not be particularly significant against its total requirement of two thousand 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 it for a while had he realized what it meant to grind water against stone.

The Great Strength Bull Demon Art's experience was simply too difficult to raise. Ten days had passed, and it had only increased by two or three points.

At that rate, it would take at least over a year to complete the introductory body refinement stage.

To him, that was truly too slow.

Now that he had a chance to enter the introductory stage directly, it was only natural that he would be tempted.

As for the five hundred days of lifespan that would be consumed at once, it was not something he could not accept. After all, he would originally have needed to spend more than a year on body refinement. This reward was effectively helping him skip that lengthy, tedious training process and directly obtain the result.

As for the third reward option, the Attribute Point, he was no stranger to it.

Previously, he had relied on this reward to forcibly raise his Root attribute talent 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 arts experience.

He was no longer as desperate for lifespan days as he had been when he had first transmigrated. He could basically gain some every day anyway, so he directly gave up the extra lifespan reward.

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

But honestly, whether there was one more point or one less, he could not yet feel any particularly obvious difference.

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 bring an immediate increase in his 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 seemed relatively harmonious and stable.

But in this world steeped in violence, danger could arrive without warning, and death could descend at any moment.

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

After confirming his choice of the second reward, five hundred days were immediately deducted from Song Changming's lifespan, which had originally been over thirty-six thousand eight hundred days, leaving him with thirty-six thousand three hundred. He had miscalculated.

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

Immediately afterward, he poured all one hundred freely distributable points of martial arts experience into the Great Strength Bull Demon Art.

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

What surprised him even more was that the colorful wind whirl that had suddenly arisen in the room seemed to be guided into his body.

Then, like a flame abruptly exploding within him, scorching and violent energy of extreme heat swept through his entire body, through every limb and bone, in an instant.

The suddenness of it made him shudder.

The skin all over his body began to redden, like shrimp shells about to be boiled.

His pores opened wide as copious sweat and grime continuously seeped out.

His sinews and bones, muscles, even his internal organs, blood vessels and meridians—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 without end.

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

This process was far from pleasant for Song Changming.

Pain, scorching heat, numb itchiness—it was torment beyond measure.

He did not know how long it had been before everything finally calmed down.

The wind whirl around him had already vanished some time ago, and the violent abnormalities in his body gradually receded as well.

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

"Was it really this intense?"

(End of Chapter)