Choice

"Hmm, a Ninth Stage Houtian Martial Artist, and a murder case on top of that. No wonder he was stronger than those petty thieves who were locked up." Shen Zhui thought to himself.

The Merit Points obtained were related to the target's Sin Value and cultivation.

Usually, the higher the cultivation and the deeper the sins, the more Merit Points one obtained.

Once the number above someone's head was red, it meant that person's sins had reached the Execution Threshold.

"A Houtian Martial Artist from the first to the ninth stage could have only so many Merit Points obtained, no matter how deep their sins ran, because of the limits of their cultivation. Basically, it wouldn't exceed ten thousand.

"Liu Bin was a Houtian Martial Artist Ninth Stage and gave me 7,600 Merit Points. That's considered normal." Shen Zhui thought to himself.

If only sins counted while cultivation did not, Shen Zhui might as well stop looking for highly cultivated targets and go straight for those with low cultivation.

Of course, the system couldn't possibly let Shen Zhui exploit such a loophole.

"Looks like if I want to accumulate Merit Points, I still have to find those who committed heinous crimes and can be executed directly. And preferably, the higher their rank, the better."

When he had previously captured Yang Cheng, who was at the Sixth Stage Houtian, he had obtained only 160 Merit Points.

Now, killing Liu Bin had earned him 7,600 Merit Points. The speed of accumulation was worlds apart.

Of course, the difficulty was on an entirely different level as well.

Capturing Yang Cheng had taken practically no effort, whereas killing Liu Bin had nearly cost Shen Zhui his life.

Now, he had no choice but to recuperate for more than half a month.

With a soft sigh, Shen Zhui noticed that rich medicinal fragrances had begun wafting from the furnace. He stopped thinking about it and focused on boiling the Medicinal Herbs he had bought for dozens of silver taels.

Fortunately, injuries sustained while handling cases were an everyday occurrence for constables of the county yamen, and they were all highly experienced in preparing various prescriptions.

Once the medicinal soup was ready, Shen Zhui drank down a large bowl. He immediately felt wisps of heat arise within his body, bringing a flush to his face. The emptiness inside him was finally eased a little.

"Knock, knock, knock!"

Just as Shen Zhui was about to drink a second bowl of medicinal soup, knocking sounded from outside the courtyard gate.

When he opened the gate, he found a minor clerk skilled with brush and knife who often served under Steward Liu.

The minor clerk held a wooden box in his arms. The moment he saw Shen Zhui open the gate, he explained his purpose.

"Constable Shen, I have come under the Steward's orders to deliver something."

Shen Zhui hurriedly clasped his hands in a formal salute before accepting the box.

"May I ask, my lord, what is inside?"

The minor clerk smiled. "I'm only in charge of delivering it. As for what it is, Constable Shen will know once you open it. This is a reward from the County Governor. The Steward knew you needed to recuperate quietly, so he instructed me to deliver it into your hands. I imagine it should be related to this matter."

"Shen Zhui thanks the County Governor and the Steward. Sorry for the trouble of making you come in person. Please come inside and rest for a while."

"Constable Shen, you're too polite. Steward Liu said that you should simply recuperate at home. You may decide for yourself when to return to the office. I still have to go back and report, so I won't disturb you any longer. Farewell."

"Take care, my lord."

"The County Governor gave me something?" After seeing the visitor off, Shen Zhui returned to his room and placed the box on the table.

"Let's see what it is." He opened the box and found a blue silk cushion inside. Two white porcelain bottles sealed with soft stoppers lay across the cushion.

A faint fragrance drifted out, and Shen Zhui immediately felt his spirits lift.

"This fragrance is..." Shen Zhui froze, then hurriedly opened one of the bottles.

"The Great Return Pill? It's actually the Great Return Pill!"

Shen Zhui grew excited. Both bottles were filled with Great Return Pills—ten pills in total!

"The County Governor really treats me generously..." Shen Zhui couldn't help sighing.

In this world, one silver tael was enough to support a poor household for two months, while a middle-class household's expenses for a month amounted to no more than ten silver taels.

Yet a single Great Return Pill was worth five hundred taels on the market!

Five hundred taels was enough to buy a decent residence in the county town!

Ten Great Return Pills were worth five thousand taels!

With Shen Zhui's current rank as a Ninth-Rank Constable and his monthly salary of fifty taels, even including the rewards he earned from handling cases, he would have to save for nearly ten years without eating or drinking!

"Earlier, when I was promoted ahead of schedule, I was given one Great Return Pill. Now I've been given another ten..." For some reason, Shen Zhui felt the reward weigh heavily in his hands.

He wasn't a fool. There had never been a free lunch in this world.

In Shen Zhui's mind, the county yamen, the County Governor, and himself were merely a company, its boss, and an employee.

If he had previously thought that his exceptional promotion was because his performance had deserved the reward,

then with this reward ten times as generous bestowed upon him now... in this world, its meaning was actually crystal clear.

"This is payment for selling my life..." Shen Zhui murmured.

Regardless of whether the County Governor had intended it or thought of it that way, once the reward fell into Shen Zhui's hands, he ought to have this awareness.

Shen Zhui pondered for a while before reaching a decision.

"Even without this reward, in outsiders' eyes, I'm already considered one of the County Governor's people."

"The County Governor represents the orthodox authority of the government. He acts according to the law and governs with principles. In the two years since taking office, the county has enjoyed peace and prosperity. He has struck at powerful clans and wealthy families, making him a rare good official."

"I'm merely a humble commoner, yet the County Governor has promoted and valued me all along. This is the grace of recognition."

"Besides, whoever I sell my life for, I'm still selling it. If I don't work for the County Governor, should I pledge myself to the Li and Yang Families instead?"

"Moreover, I only need to possess this awareness. It doesn't necessarily mean I must do anything for the County Governor that endangers my life. As long as I have enough strength to protect myself and display greater potential... even if some major undertaking awaits, amid the struggle between the County Governor and the powerful families, I won't be a chess piece that can be discarded at will."

"The more outstanding I am, the more resources I'll receive, and the safer I'll be."

"On the contrary, if I become a fence-sitter like Yang Wu, or pledge myself to the Li and Yang Families, then once the winds and clouds shift, that will be true danger."

Once he had thought it through, Shen Zhui happily opened the stopper, poured out a round, pale-green pill, and swallowed it.

The medicinal power spread through his body. A vast surge of Essence of Vital Energy traveled through his meridians and acupoints, gently repairing them and replenishing the vital energy he had previously lost.

The Great Return Pill was not a healing pill, but merely a supplement for vital energy. It happened to make up for the depletion of Shen Zhui's vital energy—not caused by injuries, yet resembling injury—perfectly.

A single Great Return Pill had previously helped Shen Zhui break through his eighth acupoint and successfully reach the Eighth Stage of Acquired Realm.

Now that it was being used merely for recovery, its effects were naturally even more extraordinary.

"Pop~"

A faint sound came from inside his body, and a strand of Essence of Vital Energy instantly took shape.

After that, the speed increased, and a string of sounds rang out.

"Pop, pop, pop, pop~"

By the time Shen Zhui opened his eyes, fourteen strands of Essence of Vital Energy had already recovered within his body.

With only two or three more days of recuperation, he would be able to fully recover to his peak state of sixteen strands.

"Between this gain and loss, the third layer of the Blood Burning Art has improved a little more. As expected, martial artists break through only amid life-and-death battles."

"Now my movement technique is still a hair's breadth away from the Great Accomplishment Realm. There's no need to hurry and take another Ninth Stage Houtian case. I'll first use Enlightenment Time to train my movement technique to the Great Accomplishment Realm!"

Shen Zhui got out of bed and opened the door.

"System, exchange half my Merit Points for 'Enlightenment' Time."

"3,800 Merit Points can be exchanged for 38 seconds of Enlightenment Time. Would you like to exchange them now?"

"Yes."

"Exchange successful! The 38-second Enlightenment countdown begins. Thirty-seven, thirty-six..."

Shen Zhui drifted into the courtyard and began practicing the movement technique Flowing Cloud Steps.

The instant the Enlightenment Time countdown began, the battle between Shen Zhui and Liu Bin suddenly replayed before his eyes.

"Die!" A phantom figure seemed to appear in his eyes. It was identical to Liu Bin, and it brought a blade down from above, cleaving straight toward Shen Zhui's head.

Shen Zhui lightly tapped the ground with his foot and shifted sideways. The short blade swept past his chest and struck empty air.

"Kill, kill, kill!" The phantom Liu Bin swung his blade furiously.

Meanwhile, Shen Zhui had no weapon in hand. His feet moved wildly as he continuously "evaded" Liu Bin's attacks.

"Swish, swish, swish~"

Within a few breaths, Shen Zhui had shifted and turned, evading thirty-four of Liu Bin's blades.

Immersed in this imagined battle, Shen Zhui repeatedly practiced the evasive movements, and his Flowing Cloud Steps grew increasingly adept.

"To illuminate action through observation—that is Enlightenment."

Each time he discovered a flaw, he immediately compared it with the previous scene and corrected it.

Shen Zhui's movement technique gradually acquired a hint of seamless naturalness.

Liu Bin's blade came faster and faster. Before long, Shen Zhui had evaded more than twenty strikes!

"Buzz~"

A faint tremor gradually arose in Shen Zhui's mind.

His evasion failed!

On the twenty-ninth strike, Shen Bin's short blade grazed beneath Shen Zhui's ribs.

Shen Zhui suddenly understood something and continued dodging.

But immediately afterward, the thirty-second strike slashed across his left arm!

Shen Zhui's consciousness began to grow hazy, and beads of cold sweat seeped from his forehead.

"Swish, swish~"

The fifty-sixth strike! Shen Zhui bent at the waist, and the blade passed across the tip of his nose!

The sixty-sixth strike! Liu Bin's short blade countered upward, its glint sweeping across Shen Zhui's face.

The seventy-eighth strike! The short blade hanging beneath his armpit suddenly snapped upward!

The eighty-third strike...

The ninety-fifth strike...

"Ah!"

Shen Zhui suddenly jolted awake!

Liu Bin's hundredth blade had "chopped off" his head!

"Three, two, one. This Enlightenment Time has ended."

The countdown ended.

There was nothing before Shen Zhui—not Liu Bin, nor any injuries.

Everything just now had merely been an imagined battle while he was in a state of Enlightenment. But the sweat soaking his body was undeniably real.

"I used the battle against Liu Bin as an imagined fight. I only dodged without attacking and endured a hundred strikes. I completely evaded only sixty-eight of them. I'm still some distance from the seventy-five-strike standard of the Great Accomplishment Realm."

Shen Zhui frowned and carefully savored the movement technique he had practiced during the Enlightenment Time.

"I'm still a little short of reaching the Great Accomplishment Realm. Where exactly is the problem..." Shen Zhui murmured.

"Especially Liu Bin's hundredth strike, unleashed in a desperate burst. That final strike was impossible to evade. If I didn't withstand it, I would die. I'm afraid that even a movement technique at the Great Accomplishment Realm would have difficulty evading it completely."

The experience of 38 seconds of Enlightenment Time had ultimately failed to push his movement technique into the Great Accomplishment Realm.

It wasn't that Shen Zhui didn't want to exchange his Merit Points for the more powerful "Awakening" Time.

But he had only 7,600 Merit Points. If he exchanged them for "Awakening" Time, the experience would last only seven and a half seconds—far too short.

"I thought I was only one step away from the Great Accomplishment Realm and wouldn't need to save Merit Points to exchange for Awakening Time. Now that I think about it, breaking through this movement technique to the Great Accomplishment Realm is much more difficult than I imagined."

Shen Zhui shook his head, but he wasn't discouraged.

"System, exchange the remaining Merit Points for another 38 seconds of Enlightenment Time."

"Exchange successful. The 38-second Enlightenment countdown begins. Thirty-seven, thirty-six, thirty-five..."

Time slowly passed. This time, Shen Zhui didn't move at all.

Instead, he closed his eyes and carefully recalled the thirty-two strikes that had "hit" him just now.

When the countdown ended, Shen Zhui opened his eyes.

"The movement technique takes the waist as its axis. The muscles of the waist, abdomen, chest, shoulders, and back must coordinate to express it. Each school has its own applications, but they all mainly involve stretching and contracting, opening and closing, flashing and unfolding, bending and leaning, twisting and turning, flipping and stumbling, charging, colliding, squeezing, and leaning."

"Of those strikes, I now understand why I couldn't evade two of them. It was because I didn't exert enough force through my waist and abdomen... If I try again, I'm certain I can evade them..."

Shen Zhui smiled.

Although all 7,600 Merit Points had been exhausted, he still hadn't broken through to the Great Accomplishment Realm in his movement technique.

He was now only five strikes short of the seventy-five strikes required to reach the Great Accomplishment Realm.

This meant that his success rate at evading with his movement technique had improved by the slightest bit.

"Improvement is good. Other martial artists might not achieve as much even after training for three to five years as I do in an hour under Enlightenment Time... What I fear is making no progress at all during this 'Enlightenment' Time. That would be disastrous."

Enlightenment Time was not omnipotent. One still needed a certain foundation.

For example, a martial artist who had never learned blade techniques and didn't even know what blade techniques were would gain nothing even if given a day of Enlightenment Time, because there would be nothing to understand.

Likewise, someone with a defective mind, a fool, could not possess enlightenment either.

Enlightenment Time first required accumulated knowledge, and second, a certain degree of innate comprehension.

Of course, Shen Zhui estimated that a level like "Enlightenment" Time would probably still be useful for breaking through to the Great Accomplishment Realm. But afterward, if he wanted to break through to the "Perfection" Realm,

then the effects of "Enlightenment" Time probably wouldn't be so obvious.

Please recommend this new book and add it to your collections!