With seventy taels in his pocket, Lin Guanhuo made his way back to the County Office's Miscellaneous Room.
"I thought I'd get thirty or forty taels at most. Who would've thought Scarred Madman would be such a connoisseur, willing to pay seventy?"
Lin Guanhuo was secretly delighted.
He'd asked around before. First Rank martial arts manuals on the market were worth thirty taels of silver at most.
Yet Precept Breaking Saber Art had fetched an even higher price, which showed that the killing techniques it contained were truly extraordinary.
As Lin Guanhuo walked, he weighed the cloth pouch in his hand. It was full of banknotes and broken silver.
With this money, he'd have enough for medicinal baths and meat for the coming month.
At that moment, he was passing through a withered forest outside the city.
Few people usually came through these woods.
Only a sparse scattering of footprints marked the snow on the ground.
"Hm?"
Suddenly,
Lin Guanhuo stopped, frowning.
After many days of practicing martial arts and drawing his saber, his perception had improved.
He could sense that ever since leaving Mad Saber Martial Arts School, someone had been following him.
"Come out. You've been following me this whole way."
Lin Guanhuo turned around and coldly swept his gaze over a withered tree.
"Heh. This is interesting."
As the words fell,
A cold laugh rang out.
A tall figure dressed in black and wearing a mask slowly emerged from behind the tree.
He held a long saber and blocked Lin Guanhuo's path.
"Kid, you're pretty alert." The Black-clothed Man's voice was low, tinged with mockery. "Since you know you've been followed, why not get on your knees and hand over the money?"
Lin Guanhuo looked at the man's build and said flatly, "Scarred Madman sent you, didn't he? He just bought the manual, and now he wants to kill me and take the money back? Mad Saber Martial Arts School sure knows how to do business."
At that, the Black-clothed Man stiffened noticeably.
Then he slowly reached up and pulled off the black cloth covering his face, revealing a broad-eyed face with thick brows. It was Huang Bao, the same man who had swaggered around the County Office's Miscellaneous Room that day.
The mask of hypocrisy had now been torn away from his face, leaving only a vicious expression.
"Now that you've recognized me..."
Huang Bao rolled his neck, killing intent gleaming in his eyes. "You have to die!"
Huang Bao couldn't be bothered with any more talk. He was in a hurry to report back and collect his reward.
He'd even already decided which Little Sprite to take to Spring Red House that night.
The next instant!
Huang Bao stamped hard, unleashing the full aura of a Ranked Martial Artist. He struck with a killing move right away.
"Bang!"
Snow burst from the ground.
As a First Rank Martial Artist in the Body Tempering Realm, his explosive strength was formidable. Like a hunting leopard, he covered seven or eight meters in an instant, his long saber cutting through the air with a howl as he brought it crashing down at Lin Guanhuo's head!
The blow was heavy and powerful. If it landed, it would be enough to cleave a person in two.
"Die!" Huang Bao sneered.
But the next second, his smile froze on his face.
"Clang!"
A sharp metallic ring rang out.
Lin Guanhuo's saber had somehow already left its sheath, and he had blocked the mighty strike solidly!
His arm was tingling, and the snow beneath his feet had been crushed down a little, but he had actually stopped the blow!
Even Lin Guanhuo himself was a little surprised.
One or two months ago, he'd been a weak, ordinary person, so powerless he couldn't even truss a chicken. If a demon had so much as pawed at him, he might have died without a burial place.
But now, he could face a Ranked Martial Artist head-on!
So this was the Martial Dao?
"What?!"
Huang Bao was clearly taken aback. "You... you have a saber too?"
"You're a Martial Artist?"
Huang Bao's expression changed dramatically. Lin Guanhuo looked like nothing more than a White Servant in the yamen.
Just like his cousin, he seemed to be the sort who was only there to freeload and wait for death.
How could he have such strength and reflexes?
"Not bad."
Lin Guanhuo's face remained expressionless. He tensed his arm and knocked Huang Bao's long saber aside. Now it was Lin Guanhuo's turn to attack.
"You're asking for death!"
Huang Bao was, after all, a genuine First Rank Martial Artist with plenty of combat experience.
Though surprised, he didn't panic. He turned his saber and blocked Lin Guanhuo's attack, then relied on his greater strength to launch a furious counterattack.
Boom!!
Boom!!
Boom!!
Saber light flashed!!
The longer they fought, the more shocked—and furious—Huang Bao became.
Lin Guanhuo might have been weaker than him, but his footwork was nimble and the angles of his attacks were devilishly tricky. He was actually holding his own!
"So this is your trump card?"
Huang Bao laughed in a rage. "I don't know where you picked up a few worthless tricks, but in the face of absolute strength, they're nothing but fancy flourishes! Die for me!"
He drew a deep breath. The muscles across his body swelled, and a cold glint flashed along his long saber.
He unleashed Mad Saber Martial Arts School's technique, Mountain Splitting Slash!!
Huang Bao's talent was limited, and he'd struggled to learn the technique. It had taken him half a year just to grasp its rudiments, but it was still his strongest killing move.
The blow came down with the force of Mount Tai pressing on him. Lin Guanhuo could feel the air around him compressing, letting out a sharp whistle.
Yet in the face of this fatal strike, Lin Guanhuo didn't retreat. He advanced instead.
"I've had enough."
Lin Guanhuo murmured.
In that instant, the blood and qi within him surged wildly along a strange path. He swung his long saber with explosive force!
Precept Breaking Saber Art, second layer!!
Screee!!
A piercing sound burst through the dense woods.
The strike was too fast!
So fast that Huang Bao didn't have time to change his move!!
He saw Lin Guanhuo's saber flash and tried to block!!
But he hadn't expected that, although Lin Guanhuo's saber blade was still three inches from his neck, an invisible, razor-sharp Blade Wind had already shot from it!
"What?!"
Huang Bao realized what was happening and was horrified, cold sweat instantly covering his head!
He suddenly understood that Lin Guanhuo had likely mastered a powerful martial art, and that his skill in it far surpassed Huang Bao's own mastery of Mountain Splitting Slash.
But Huang Bao had realized it too late.
"Pfft!"
Blood burst into the air.
Huang Bao's body, his long saber still raised high, froze in place.
He felt a chill at his neck, then the world spun around him.
Thud.
His body fell stiffly into the snow, staining a wide patch of white red.
He died with his eyes open.
Lin Guanhuo sheathed his saber and looked at the body on the ground, his expression stern.
This was his first fight since beginning his martial arts training.
"If I hadn't trained so hard these past days... I'd be lying dead in the wilderness right now..."
"Only by practicing martial arts can I truly take control of my own fate!"
Then he walked over and skillfully searched Huang Bao's body.
For a White Servant, this was practically an essential skill.
The quick got the loot; the slow got nothing.
People like them who worked as White Servants managed to save up a little money—put bluntly, they took it from the dead.
Before long, Lin Guanhuo found a cloth pouch on Huang Bao's body. It held about ten taels of silver.
Besides the silver, Lin Guanhuo also picked up the long saber Huang Bao had dropped.
Its blade was long and slender, gleaming coldly. It hadn't even been nicked by their clash.
"This is a good saber."
Lin Guanhuo flicked the blade and listened to its clear ring, nodding in satisfaction. "If I had it made at a Blacksmith Shop, it'd probably cost several taels of silver..."
On this trip, he'd not only earned eighty taels of silver for nothing, but also picked up a fine saber.
The old saying was right: kill and rob, and a golden belt will be yours.
Lin Guanhuo pocketed the silver and carried the Hundred Refinements Long Saber. Without even sparing the body on the ground a glance, he brushed the snow from his clothes and turned to walk deeper into the woods.
The wind and snow continued.
Before long, heavy snow covered the body, as if nothing had ever happened there.
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