Breakthroughs and Cultivation Resources

With the martial art manual the old man had given him, Shen Lin eagerly returned home.

Though his predecessor had earned quite a bit through both open and covert means, most of the money had gone toward helping struggling young ladies. As a result, his residence was rather shabby.

The courtyard was overgrown with weeds, a piece was missing from the courtyard gate, and the room inside was an even greater mess.

Shen Lin had obtained quite a bit of money from the Mantis Demon. Even after distributing some of it as compensation to the families of his fallen brothers, he still had nearly a thousand taels of silver on him.

That was enough to buy a three-courtyard estate, with enough left over to hire a few maidservants.

But he had no time to think about such things. His mind was entirely occupied with cultivation.

Sitting on the steps, he opened the martial arts manual the old man had given him.

"Gale Sword Technique"

Where wind and waves are stirred, bloodshed is sure to follow!

From a mountaintop, this old man observed the formless gale and comprehended the wind-walking sword technique. With one strike of the sword, one may slash or thrust, chop or sweep upward, carrying the force of a raging gale and torrential rain, leaving the enemy no time to defend themselves.

With this sword technique, this old man slew countless foes and never suffered a single defeat.

Judging from the introduction on the first page alone, this Gale Sword Technique seemed to have an extraordinary origin, a first-rate advanced martial art.

Yet beneath those words, a line of crooked handwriting stomped its lofty reputation straight into the mud.

"What the hell are you bragging about? Didn't I still slaughter you? This sword technique is crap. Don't learn it!"

Shen Lin shook his head helplessly.

Clearly, the creator of this sword technique, who had supposedly never been defeated, had met his first defeat only to die at his opponent's hands—and that opponent had thought very little of the technique.

Forget it. It was not as if he had any better martial arts manuals right now.

Shen Lin shook his head and turned the pages, studying them earnestly.

After a long while, he let out a slow breath and closed the book.

At the same time, the system's voice immediately rang out in his mind.

Having learned the martial art "Gale Sword Technique," would you like to expend lifespan to perform a deduction?

Shen Lin hesitated for a moment, but ultimately decided to give it a try.

After all, he had already deduced the Blood Battle Saber Technique to its inherent limit. If he wished to deduce it further, he would need to improve it and create a martial art of his own.

And who knew how much Demon Lifespan that would consume.

As for the Gale Sword Technique before him, since Master Yuan had said it was somewhat better than the Blood Battle Saber Technique, it had to be of some benefit to him.

With a thought, the panel rapidly unfolded before his eyes.

In the first year, you began cultivating the Gale Sword Technique. Your martial arts experience from cultivating the Blood Battle Saber Technique proved greatly beneficial to your swordsmanship cultivation, and your progress was swift. In just one year, you cultivated it to Minor Accomplishment.

In the fifth year, as you endlessly swung your longsword and sensed the faint breeze raised by every strike, you seemed to feel the state of mind of the technique's creator. Gale Sword Technique, Great Accomplishment!

In the twelfth year, while swinging your sword rain or shine, you felt as though the longsword in your hand had become one with you. With a single swing, it was like a howling gale. Gale Sword Technique, Perfection!

In the fifteenth year, after the sword technique reached Perfection, you continued cultivating and discovered that, along with the technique's cultivation, the Blood Qi Power within your body was gathering toward specific locations. With your experience cultivating the Blood Battle Saber Technique, you understood that these were the locations of new meridians.

Upon carefully sensing them, you discovered that the Gale Sword Technique was connected to a total of four meridians. Though two of them had already been opened while cultivating the Blood Battle Saber Technique, you still found two new meridians.

In the forty-eighth year, you successfully opened one meridian. The Blood Qi Power in your body rose once more, taking your strength to another level.

In the fifty-second year, you attempted to strike while the iron was hot and open the fifth meridian, but under the bombardment of Blood Qi Power, that blocked meridian stood as immovable as a towering mountain.

Gale Sword Technique, Perfection!

Shen Lin slowly opened his eyes, excitement filling them.

Though he had exhausted all the Demon Lifespan earned from killing the Ape Demon in one go, his gains had been substantial.

Different martial arts corresponded to different meridians. The Gale Sword Technique was more advanced than the Blood Battle Saber Technique and was connected to four meridians.

Though two of them were also meridians connected to the Blood Battle Saber Technique, he had still discovered two new meridians and opened one of them. Shen Lin was already very satisfied.

At that moment, he felt Blood Qi Power surging through his body, filling him with strength from head to toe.

His strength had increased greatly, but a new problem followed.

Shen Lin frowned, pondering the final sentence on the system panel.

The difficulty of opening the fifth meridian had increased once again. With the amount of Blood Qi Power he currently possessed, every attempt produced very little effect.

He made a rough estimate. At this rate, he would need at least a hundred years to open the fifth meridian.

A hundred years... He would need to kill two more Ape Demons like the last one.

He could only hope that Sun Zhi would prove somewhat useful.

Early the next morning, he woke up.

Martial Artists who had developed Blood Qi Power were full of vigor and did not need much sleep to recover their energy.

But Shen Lin had too many worries on his mind and still had not rested well. With dark circles under his eyes, he got up, casually bought a few buns on the street for breakfast, and headed to the County Yamen.

"Steward Qian, have there been any clues about demons lately?"

He found the Criminal Affairs Steward, hoping to find some demons to kill as soon as possible.

Steward Qian shook his head. "Where would so many demons come from? Sigh..."

With a sigh, he looked at the case files in his hand, his face full of worry.

Then he looked up at Shen Lin tentatively. "Brother Shen, there's a case here. It's quite serious. Would you be willing to..."

If this had been the old Shen Lin, Steward Qian would not have been so polite. He would have simply assigned him the task.

But after becoming a Martial Artist, although Shen Lin still fell under Steward Qian's authority, his strength was there for all to see. Whatever Steward Qian did, he had to discuss it with him first.

Shen Lin asked curiously, "What case? Does it involve demons?"

"It isn't demons, but a flying thief!" Steward Qian shook his head. "Recently, who knows where a Gentleman on the Beam appeared from in the city. Several wealthy households have already had their valuables stolen."

"A thief and bandit? Wouldn't it be enough to send a few constables to investigate?"

Faced with Shen Lin's confusion, Steward Qian said bitterly, "The key is that this isn't an ordinary thief. The wealthy households that were robbed are all prominent names in Qiulin County, and each has quite a few guards.

"Look at the Wang Family and the Zhao Family—even they have Martial Artists stationed in their homes.

"Last night, the thief visited the Lu Family. They are one of the top five wealthy households in the county and have three Martial Artists serving as guards. But what happened? This morning, they discovered that one Martial Artist had vanished. After searching for a long time, they finally found his corpse—his throat had been cut with a single sword strike!"

Hearing this, Shen Lin understood why Steward Qian wanted him to take charge.

This flying thief was at least a Martial Artist who had cultivated Blood Qi Power.

Ordinary constables truly could not deal with him.

It was just a pity that Shen Lin had no interest whatsoever in cases unrelated to demons.

After politely declining Steward Qian, he was about to leave when he suddenly seemed to recall something and asked, "Why not ask the other captains, Steward Qian? Hasn't Captain Sun been free lately?"

"Old Wu needs to recover from his injuries, and I've sent the others out of the county. Your Captain Sun just received the cultivation resources issued by the Demon Suppression Division of the provincial capital today, so he hurried back to cultivate."

Shen Lin froze for a moment, but his expression did not change in the slightest. "I see. Then I'll be leaving first, Steward Qian."

After walking out of the room, he stopped and slowly turned to look to one side.

That was the direction of Sun Zhi's home.

"Cultivation resources... Ha."