That was the difference between a Ranked Martial Artist and an ordinary person.
Even though Wang Tiedan had trained for years and possessed plenty of brute strength,
in front of a true martial artist, he was still nothing more than someone who could be killed in an instant.
"Tiedan!" His wife shrieked and threw herself toward him, weeping uncontrollably.
Just then, Zhao Sihai, the deputy foreman of Miscellaneous Room Courtyard, heard the commotion.
Only then did he bring a few of his trusted men hurrying over from the back hall.
"Who's causing trouble?! Have you all gone mad?!"
Zhao Sihai stood with his hands behind his back and shouted with an air of authority.
But when he saw that the person standing in the middle of the courtyard was Huang Bao, he paused briefly. Clearly, they knew each other.
Then his expression instantly turned ingratiating. "Well, well! If it isn't Master Huang from Mad Saber Martial Arts School! What brings you here?"
Although Zhao Sihai usually threw his weight around, the only people under his charge were a few lowly White Servants.
In front of a truly Ranked Martial Artist, he still had to bow his head.
"Foreman Zhao, you've come at just the right time." Huang Bao brushed his sleeve and said coldly, "Your men don't know the rules. They hurt my cousin, and then tried to lay hands on me. What do you think should be done?"
At that moment, Wang Tiedan, lying on the ground, saw Zhao Sihai as if he were a lifeline.
He struggled to lift his head, his mouth covered in blood. "Foreman Zhao... You have to stand up for me! His cousin was the one who harassed my wife first. I'm innocent..."
He thought Zhao Sihai would at least say a word in his defense.
However, Zhao Sihai turned around.
"Pah! Innocent, my ass!"
Zhao Sihai pointed at Wang Tiedan and cursed, "What kind of person is Master Huang? Why would he frame a worthless peasant like you? Your wife must've been shamelessly seducing him! And you have the nerve to hit someone?"
"Hurry up and kneel to apologize to Master Huang!"
Wang Tiedan froze, despair written all over his face!
Only now did he realize that the fairness and reason he believed in...
were so utterly fragile in the face of absolute strength and status.
He regretted it a little. If he'd listened to Lin Guanhuo and the others earlier, he wouldn't have ended up like this.
People might not learn from other people's advice, but one hard lesson from experience was enough.
"An apology won't be necessary."
Just then,
Huang Bao sneered, walked over, and looked Wang Tiedan up and down.
Then he yanked a patched money pouch from Wang Tiedan's robes.
"My cousin got beaten up that badly. You'll have to pay for his medical expenses, won't you?"
The money pouch jingled. It probably contained a few hundred Wen Coins.
Seeing this, Wang Tiedan went mad and clung to Huang Bao's leg. "No! That's my money! I've been saving it for a whole year to pay my daughter's tuition at the village school! You can't take it! Please!"
"Get lost!"
A trace of disgust flashed through Huang Bao's eyes. He kicked Wang Tiedan hard in the face, leaving it covered in blood and knocking him unconscious.
"Let this teach you a lesson. If you dare bother my cousin again, next time I won't take your money—I'll take your life!"
After that, Huang Bao weighed the money pouch in his hand and smiled with satisfaction before turning to stride away.
But as far as Huang Bao was concerned, whether the man was his cousin or not didn't matter in the slightest.
What mattered was having that gleaming silver in his pocket.
A while later, Wang Tiedan was carried back to his room like a dead dog, leaving only his wife's stifled sobs echoing through the courtyard.
"All right, all right, break it up!"
"Quit gawking! Move along, move along!"
Cursing, Zhao Sihai drove away the onlookers, and Miscellaneous Room Courtyard once again sank into its usual lifeless stillness.
Xu Dadao and Li Hu exchanged a glance and shook their heads helplessly.
Xu Dadao sighed. "We tried to talk him out of it, but he wouldn't listen. Now look at him—half dead and penniless."
"Stay away from Huang Dazui from now on." Li Hu looked wary too. "With Huang Bao backing him, that kid will probably be able to do whatever he wants around the courtyard."
The crowd dispersed dejectedly, each person returning to their room.
Lin Guanhuo said nothing. He returned to his little room and quietly closed the door.
He pulled the oil-paper package out from under his bed. Only one small piece of Braised Beef remained inside.
The two Taels of Silver the crazy old man had given him had been completely transformed into qi, blood, and strength after all his hearty eating and drinking over this period.
"This is the last meal."
Lin Guanhuo swallowed the beef in two or three bites. After eating, he quietly made his way to the secluded corner of the back courtyard and began drawing his sword as usual.
This was also the one part of his daily training he never missed.
Swish, swish, swish, swish!!
The sound of his sword being drawn rang out without pause.
He no longer drew it as awkwardly as he had at first, and his success rate had improved considerably.
Half an hour later,
Lin Guanhuo returned the sword to its sheath and breathed lightly.
After diligently practicing his draws these past few days, he had accumulated quite a few more Draw Sword counts.
He should be able to improve again.
"System."
[Name: Lin Guanhuo] [Realm: Mortal (Half-Step Body Tempering, Copper Skin embryonic form)] [Martial Art: Precept Breaking Saber Art, Basic Form, First Layer (87%)] [Remaining Draw Sword counts: 105]
Looking at the "87%,"
Lin Guanhuo silently thought, Pour it all in!
After sitting quietly for several hours,
at a certain moment,
[Precept Breaking Saber Art upgraded to Second Layer (0%)]
Only then did Lin Guanhuo open his eyes.
Before him lay the rarely visited back courtyard, surrounded by weeds and snow.
Strangely, even though he had only been sitting in this courtyard for one night,
his body felt as though it had spent decades, even a century, practicing saber techniques in another dimension.
Every move and stance was etched in his mind, his body thoroughly familiar with them.
Lin Guanhuo gripped the hilt and suddenly swung his saber!
"Shhk—!!!"
A fierce gust seemed to rush past his ears!
The blade hadn't struck anything, but the instant it swept through the air, an invisible force burst from it.
It carved a saber mark more than ten meters long through the snow three meters away.
Even the stone slabs beneath it had been split in two.
Lin Guanhuo looked delighted.
Blade Wind!
The Precept Breaking Saber Art truly lived up to its name as a secret Buddhist technique. At only the second layer, it could already produce such fierce Blade Wind!
He looked down at his hands as well.
By the moonlight, he saw that his skin, which had previously been only faintly dark, now glimmered with a distinct bronze sheen.
Although he still hadn't fully reached the Copper Skin stage, he had clearly made much greater progress than before.
Though he still hadn't fully entered the Body Tempering Realm, with the martial art he had trained to the second layer...
"Now, against a First Rank Martial Artist, I'm all but guaranteed to win!"
Lin Guanhuo silently assessed his combat strength.
"If it's a fight to the death, I can kill him!"
"Even against a Second Rank martial artist, with this Blade Wind, I can hold my own and retreat unharmed."
But soon, the problem of reality stood before Lin Guanhuo once more.
He was out of money!!
The beef was gone. If he wanted to maintain this high-intensity training and become a Formal martial artist as soon as possible,
he absolutely needed plenty of meat and medicinal baths.
"Money..."
Lin Guanhuo touched the copy of the Precept Breaking Saber Art tucked against his chest.
He pondered briefly, as if he'd thought of something.
"I've already mastered this martial art. From here on, all improvements depend on the system's infusion, so keeping it is pointless... I might as well..." Lin Guanhuo murmured.
To other people, this was a family heirloom.
But to him, with his system, it was nothing but a pile of scrap paper.
Since it was useless to him, he might as well turn it into something useful!
"Sell it!"
"Turn it into silver, turn it into meat, turn it into strength!"
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