Surprise-bro, you killed all these?

"I didn't expect Intermediate Blade Technique to be upgraded to Advanced!"

"Advanced Blade Technique? I heard that for an ordinary martial artist to raise a basic martial art to the advanced level, it would take at least ten years.

Even talented geniuses would need four or five years of tempering!

But it hadn't even been two days for me, right?

And I'd already gone from basic to advanced!"

"The thrill of cheating is so damn good!"

Li Ziyu once again marveled at the system's power.

However, he hadn't used his blood energy to improve his blade technique.

After all, blade technique was like external offense. No matter how powerful it was, it still needed blood energy to support it.

It was just like boxing.

No matter how excellent your technique was, without a physique and strength to back it up, facing an opponent several times stronger than you would still be futile.

Even if you hit someone several times, it wouldn't do as much damage as a single punch from them.

"Improve my realm!"

Name: Li Ziyu.

Realm: Level One Intermediate Martial Artist.

Combat Skills: Intermediate Blade Technique, Basic Movement Technique.

System: Martial God System.

Function: Can absorb all things and increase blood energy. Other functions await the host's own discovery.

Ding! As Li Ziyu's thought fell,

the column representing his realm on the virtual panel in his mind changed to Level One Intermediate.

In an instant,

a warm current surged into all four limbs and hundreds of bones.

It nourished his muscles and bones.

Black impurities slowly began to seep from the surface of Li Ziyu's body.

This time, the impurities took longer to seep out than before.

They were also much darker.

At that moment, Li Ziyu's body looked as if it had been smeared with a layer of mud.

After a while, the mud peeled away, revealing the skin beneath.

"It's even smoother than before, and more elastic too."

"And my strength and speed have both increased by at least twice as much as before!"

Li Ziyu quickly threw several punches into the air before him, stirring up waves of sonic booms.

He then drew the long blade at his waist and swung it fiercely at the wall before him.

The several-meter-high wall seemed to have been struck by a heavy hammer.

It collapsed in an instant.

A cloud of dust billowed up.

"I take back what I just said. My strength has definitely increased by more than twice as much as before."

"My blood energy has also increased considerably. As for exactly how much, I'll have to test it."

"Perfect. It's about time anyway. I'll take these Shadow Cat corpses back, then go to the Martial Arts Association to take the Level One Martial Artist test!"

With that thought,

Li Ziyu lifted the still-warm Shadow Cat corpse before him and placed it on the wooden sled behind him.

There were already nine on the sled. Counting this one, there were exactly ten.

This time, he hadn't brought a sack.

Nor had he planned to carry all these Shadow Cat corpses back.

The combined weight of ten Shadow Cat corpses was nearly ten tons.

With his current strength, he simply couldn't carry them.

Even dragging them on the wooden sled was somewhat strenuous.

"If only I had a ring that could store items, like in the novels."

"But even if such a thing existed, it probably wouldn't be something I could afford right now."

The sky was hazy, the moon setting as the sun rose.

With the appearance of the first ray of sunlight,

the outline of the city wall appeared in Li Ziyu's line of sight.

He had run quite far this time.

He was several thousand meters from the city wall.

It had taken considerable effort to drag the Shadow Cat corpses back.

On the city wall,

a guard yawned, then slapped his own face.

He forced himself to stay alert and swept his gaze around the city wall.

Suddenly,

he seemed to see something unbelievable.

His eyes, which had been slightly bleary with sleep, widened at once!

After rubbing them, he stared fixedly into the distance.

He saw a plain-dressed, youthful-looking boy slowly walking toward the city wall.

A dark-red long blade was strapped to the boy's back.

But none of that was what shocked the soldier.

What left him stunned was the wooden sled the boy was dragging behind him!

The sled was completely packed with Shadow Cat corpses!

A rough estimate put the number at no fewer than ten!

"Hiss! Holy crap! I'm not seeing things, am I? Ten Shadow Cats!?"

"Could all of these have been hunted by this boy?"

"What level is this boy? Are young people really this strong now?"

The squad leader saw them too.

He stared blankly at Li Ziyu's approaching figure for a long while, unable to say a word.

In the end, he forced two words through clenched teeth:

"Badass!"

Once Li Ziyu came closer,

before he could take the initiative to speak,

the squad leader first ordered the soldiers to open the city gate, then hurried forward to meet him.

When he drew near, he asked tentatively, his attitude carrying a hint of awe:

"Brother, did you kill all these?"

As he spoke, he couldn't help glancing at the pile of corpses on the wooden sled behind Li Ziyu.

"Yeah."

"I was lucky and ran into quite a few."

Li Ziyu nodded with a smile.

After receiving Li Ziyu's affirmative answer, the way the squad leader looked at him changed completely.

A student who hadn't even graduated had gone out alone for one night and hunted ten Level One Intermediate fierce beasts, Shadow Cats?

It wasn't as if the squad leader had never fought fierce beasts before.

He knew better than anyone how terrifying fierce beasts were.

If ordinary people faced Shadow Cats, even a fully armed special forces squad would probably be wiped out!

Yet this not-yet-graduated boy had hunted them all alone!?

And there were ten of them at that?

The squad leader's gaze toward Li Ziyu was now completely different.

Unconsciously, his eyes filled with respect.

If seeing Li Ziyu hunt a Shadow Cat alone yesterday had merely made the squad leader appreciate him as a promising junior,

then now, he already regarded Li Ziyu as his equal!

After all, even he couldn't have achieved such results at Li Ziyu's age!

"Brother, after graduation, have you considered developing your career in our Eastern War Zone?"

The squad leader's attitude was fervent.

After martial artists attended a martial arts university, they could choose to join the army.

For a genius like Li Ziyu, if they could recruit him into the Eastern War Zone, that would absolutely be a great achievement!

"Uh, we'll see. I haven't even taken the Martial Arts Exam yet."

Such matters were too far away. After all, he hadn't even taken the Martial Arts Exam yet.

After chatting with the squad leader for a while longer, Li Ziyu headed toward Precious Martial Pavilion.

However, he didn't drag the wooden sled. The squad leader had specifically arranged a military truck for him, and Li Ziyu didn't refuse.

After all, dragging it to Precious Martial Pavilion would have been far too conspicuous.

Precious Martial Pavilion.

Tang Xuan yawned.

Still bleary-eyed with sleep, he pushed open the door of Precious Martial Pavilion.

He had been sleeping soundly when the shop assistant's call woke him.

Although he was a Level Two Martial Artist with abundant energy and could stay awake for several days and nights without much trouble,

he was still somewhat displeased at being woken so suddenly.

However, when he heard that Li Ziyu had come to sell fierce beasts again, Tang Xuan got dressed and rushed to the shop without another word.

The reason he took it so seriously

was, first, that he felt the boy had excellent potential and was worth investing in.

Second, the other shops in Xujiang City had recently shown signs of joining forces against him.

These past few days, under pressure from his rivals, far fewer martial artists had come to Precious Martial Pavilion to sell fierce-beast materials.

That was another reason he valued Li Ziyu so highly.

He wanted to find a stable source of goods.

"This time, it should still be Red-Eyed Rabbits."

"If he's lucky, there might be two Shadow Cats."

"But that's probably impossible. Li Ziyu hunted one during the day. There's no way he could hunt a second one so quickly."

"After all, martial artists need to rest too."

Tang Xuan thought as he pushed open the door and entered.

The moment he stepped inside, he froze where he stood.

His eyes stared straight at the neatly arranged Shadow Cat corpses filling the hall.

For a long while, he couldn't say a word.

"Boss Tang? Do you still buy Shadow Cat corpses?"

It wasn't until a hand waved in front of him that Tang Xuan came back to himself.

He hurriedly pulled his shocked gaze away from the Shadow Cats and turned toward the boy before him.

The boy's face still carried a trace of the youthful awkwardness belonging to a high school student, and he was staring at him excitedly.

But Tang Xuan no longer dared to underestimate him because of his age.

Instead, in his eyes, the boy's figure had become incomparably mysterious.

He was so young, yet he could hunt ten Shadow Cats?

This boy's strength was terrifying!

"We do! Brother Li! No matter how many fierce-beast corpses you have, I'll take them all!"