Sleeve Sword

The Smiling Masked Person droned on without stopping.

Chen Mu could only maintain an awkward yet polite smile, even if the other party could not see his face.

"Does the guest have any concerns?" Seemingly noticing Chen Mu's discomfort, the Smiling Masked Person asked eagerly.

"The goods are good." Chen Mu nodded in affirmation first.

After all, I drew them myself.

"They're just a bit expensive." Chen Mu put on a regretful act. "How about knocking off a zero?"

The Smiling Masked Person was overjoyed.

He had finally run into a sucker!

Unable to contain his excitement, he asked, "Can you accept one hundred eighty taels?"

Chen Mu shook his head. "How about eight taels?"

The Smiling Masked Person: "..."

Is that how you knock off a zero?!

You knock it off from the front?!

Chen Mu gave an awkward laugh.

It was not like he had thought of a better excuse to refuse.

"Eighty-eight taels, then," the Smiling Masked Person replied.

Now it was Chen Mu's turn to be dumbfounded.

This was a Body Tempering Technique. Was it really this cheap?

I only sold seven Body Tempering Technique scrolls in total. The market can't be that bad, can it?

Half an hour later, Chen Mu walked out of the dilapidated house in frustration.

He had copied a total of seven Body Tempering Technique scrolls.

But someone else had copied seventy!

"Old Man Jie, you're really ruthless!"

Other than that money-grubbing old man, he could not think of anyone else capable of pulling such a stunt.

Only he had the opportunity, the means, the ideas, and the damn ability to follow through.

But what frustrated Chen Mu most was that the old man had not paid any copyright fees!

Go ask Jie Jia for them?

Thinking of the coffins in Tianyi Hall, Chen Mu hurriedly shook his head.

Forget it, forget it. Wasn't being alive good enough?

That old man was a deadly assassin who came and went without a trace.

Shaking off his frustration, Chen Mu touched the book tucked in his robes and finally felt satisfied.

The trip to the Ghost Market had accomplished its goal. He had successfully bought a suitable sword manual.

With his business done, Chen Mu did not rush home. Instead, he wandered around the Ghost Market.

There were more people now, and the Ghost Market had become lively. It no longer carried the mysterious, frightening atmosphere it once had.

That gave Chen Mu the courage to wander around.

Looking closely, the goods sold in the Ghost Market were still as varied as ever.

Some people even sold grain here.

Chen Mu curiously went over to ask. A sack of White Wheat actually cost one tael of silver.

A sack weighed over a hundred jin. At the earliest, it had cost less than three hundred copper coins.

Later, after repeated price increases, it had only cost five hundred copper coins.

Now it had jumped straight to one tael of silver?!

"Should I bring out some of the White Wheat from the cellar and sell it?" Chen Mu was deeply tempted.

"Forget it, forget it. In these chaotic times, how could silver be more important than food?" Chen Mu immediately dismissed the thought.

After wandering around another lap and picking up several more secret medical books, he prepared to leave.

Near the carriages that transported people in and out, Chen Mu saw someone selling talismans from a stall.

"Talismans sold in the Ghost Market? Interesting..."

Yellow talisman paper, blood-red runes.

A sign stood beside them, reading: Qingfeng Temple Exorcism Talismans.

Qingfeng Temple?

The Taoist temple where he had copied scriptures before?

He had once wanted to join that temple to learn martial arts.

But Master Cheng Yi had rejected him outright.

Chen Mu could not help glancing at the stall owner twice.

The other party was wrapped up tightly, and he could not tell whether he was a Taoist from Qingfeng Temple.

Chen Mu then shook his head and boarded a carriage to leave.

Even if he was, it had nothing to do with him.

Wasn't it better to go home and honestly grind Proficiency?

After that, aside from occasionally visiting the Eight Directions Pavilion to gather news,

Chen Mu stayed home all day the rest of the time.

He practiced the Body Tempering Technique and Flying Locust Stones in the morning, Flying Locust Stones and the Body Tempering Technique in the afternoon, and studied medical books during breaks.

His days were even more regular and busy than those of a 996 office worker in his previous life.

Yet Chen Mu did not find it dull.

Moderate exercise itself stimulated the body to release endorphins, making people happy.

Coupled with the visible increase in Proficiency,

Chen Mu felt an overwhelming sense of accomplishment.

At night, he rewarded himself with increasingly refined Culinary skills. His little life was wonderfully satisfying.

At dusk, Residence Number One on the easternmost side.

Chen Mu used this place as his kitchen. He only ate here.

The Square Table sat in the courtyard, and his entire body was bathed in the sunset.

He picked up a piece of golden-brown, succulent honey-roasted pork. Its perfectly balanced salty-sweet flavor gave his taste buds a rich burst of stimulation.

Chen Mu nodded happily in enjoyment. "As expected of me! My cooking is simply flawless!"

In his previous life, he had wanted to become a gourmand who both knew how to eat and cook.

Now, the Gray Proficiency Wall had given him that chance.

Chen Mu summoned the Gray Wall.

Writing: 1495/10000/Second Tier;

Drawing: 1365/10000/Second Tier;

Throwing: 2503/10000/Tier 3;

Red Falcon Body Tempering Technique: 6134/10000/Second Tier;

Culinary: 4516/10000/Tier 1;

Medicine Crafting: 6042/10000/Tier 1;

Sleeve Sword: 359/10000/Tier 1;

His calligraphy and painting business had been cut off for nearly four or five months. Chen Mu had stopped putting effort into them, so the Proficiency for Writing and Drawing had barely changed.

He had continued practicing Throwing, but after reaching Tier 3, using Flying Locust Stones to train made his progress somewhat slower.

It would be best to pair it with all kinds of unique concealed weapons.

Chen Mu did not have the means for that.

Since Flying Locust Stones could still increase Proficiency, he had no plans to forge unusual concealed weapons.

Chen Mu valued the Red Falcon Body Tempering Technique highly. It could transform his body.

Its Proficiency had now passed the halfway mark. In another two or three months, it would break through to Tier 3 and complete Bone Strengthening.

Medicine Crafting was progressing quickly, which surprised Chen Mu.

He had merely read a few more medical books, yet it had quietly passed six thousand.

Tier 1 was the foundation, while Tier 2 would bring a qualitative transformation.

He was quite looking forward to Tier 2 Medicine Crafting. He wondered what special changes it would bring.

The Sleeve Sword was the sword art he had picked up from the black market last time.

It was not complicated. In fact, it was simple.

In short: hide a sword in the sleeve, then launch a fatal surprise attack.

The manual described how to conceal the sword, how to focus strength when drawing it, and from what angles to secretly strike, among other things.

Chen Mu had tried for several days before getting started.

With Proficiency helping him afterward, he set aside time every day to practice, and his progress was quite fast.

He had made gains grinding Proficiency, Qingshan County was still relatively peaceful, and Chen Mu was fairly satisfied with his life.

Only one thing gave him a bit of a headache.

The meat he had stored was no longer enough to eat.

Butcher Zheng had closed shop for a long time.

Chen Mu had specifically gone to ask him about it.

Butcher Zheng said that even he himself could not get any meat to eat. His cheeks had grown thin.

He had even wanted to buy back some of the air-dried ham from Chen Mu.

Naturally, Chen Mu shook his head and refused.

He practiced at high intensity every day and needed to replenish a great deal of protein.

If not for the eggs provided by the five old hens,

the little meat he had stored would have run out long ago.

Besides, meat was difficult to preserve, and he had not bought much to begin with.

His stock had now reached the danger line.

May 21, Eight Directions Pavilion, Anle Ward.

"Doesn't that make Assistant Magistrate Li practically the same as the County Magistrate now?" A customer spat out a melon seed shell and whispered.

"The County Magistrate is gone. The three squads of Yamen Runners all answer to Assistant Magistrate Li. The Commander of the city guards and patrol soldiers is also from the Li Family. Now he only lacks the title of County Magistrate," the person beside him explained.

"Would the other two great families agree to that?" the first person asked in confusion.

"What is there not to agree to? Trace things back a little. Forget just the three families—even including the exterminated Wang Family, Zhou Family, and Zheng Family, all Six Great Families can claim kinship with one another." The person beside him curled his lip.

"You're right."

"These truly are troubled times. A family that lasted a hundred years can vanish just like that. Sigh..." another companion chimed in.

"Exactly. If the Zuo Family's eldest young master had not shown his might, the Zuo Family might have been wiped out too."

In the corner, Chen Mu quietly listened to the news drifting in from all around.

"It seems Qingshan County is temporarily stable."

"But outside Qingshan County, things are still far from peaceful."

Before coming here, he had stopped by Butcher Zheng's place on the way. There was still no meat.

He could only try his luck later at the vendor street in East Market.

Hunters from the villages and towns below occasionally came there to sell game.