"Are there many Martial Artists in your Black Wind Stockade? What realms are they in?" Su Mo continued pressing him.
"I'm a Minor Leader of Black Wind Stockade. Above me, there are several Major Leaders who are Martial Artists. They're all in the Body Tempering Realm. Besides them, the four leaders are also all Martial Artists in the Body Tempering Realm. The Great Leader seems to have already surpassed the Body Tempering Realm and reached the Meridian Opening Realm. Throughout Qingliang Mountain, our Black Wind Stockade is the greatest power..."
Although the Bearded Man was terrified, he spoke with great confidence when discussing the strength of Black Wind Stockade, as though he wanted to intimidate Su Mo with it. He even claimed that Black Wind Stockade was connected to one of the major gangs in the town.
But the answer he received was a Hunting Knife. Su Mo flipped the blade, and its cold gleam flashed. The Bearded Man was cut down, blood spraying across the ground.
"Martial Artist realms are divided into the Body Tempering, Meridian Opening, Bone Forging, Sinew Changing, and Blood Exchange Realms... This is the Martial Dao Realm that this man knew of."
"Black Wind Stockade doesn't merely have Martial Artists in the Body Tempering Realm. It also has a Martial Artist in the Meridian Opening Realm holding down the fort. No wonder they dare to run rampant throughout Qingliang Mountain. If I want to wipe out Black Wind Stockade, the road ahead will be long and arduous!"
Su Mo sighed inwardly. Black Wind Stockade was a scourge, and sooner or later, if he got the chance, he would eliminate it. Otherwise, the villages surrounding Qingliang Mountain would never know peace, living every day beneath the shadow of fear cast by Black Wind Stockade.
According to the Bearded Man, to become a Martial Artist, one had to temper the skin and flesh, hone the body, and purge the impurities within, gaining strength and speed far beyond ordinary people. Ordinary punches and kicks could barely injure them, their muscles were taut, and the sound of their qi and blood flowing could be heard. This was the Body Tempering Realm.
Clenching his fist and sensing the surging Great Strength throughout his body, as well as his powerful physical density, Su Mo felt that he should not be far from the Body Tempering Realm.
"Basic Saber Technique?"
After killing the Bearded Man, Su Mo found an old, plain-looking manual on him. Four large words—Basic Saber Technique—were strikingly written on its cover. It was relying on this saber technique that the Bearded Man had barely managed to block his arrow.
Su Mo remembered it well.
The other men from Black Wind Stockade had nothing valuable or useful on them. After making a few minor adjustments to their corpses and erasing the traces around them, Su Mo carried the corpses of the Mountain Boar and Green Wolf and left Qingliang Mountain.
Before long, the corpses of these men would be devoured by the wild beasts and Fierce Beasts in the mountains.
After returning to the village, Su Mo preserved the Wild Boar Meat and Green Wolf Meat. With this much meat, he had enough to survive the entire harsh winter.
Over the next stretch of time, Black Wind Stockade seemed to be furious over the deaths of the Bearded Man and the others. They dispatched many gang members and stockade soldiers to patrol Qingliang Mountain, sweeping through it in search of the person who had killed their men.
This left everyone in Qingliang Mountain on tenterhooks. Many people no longer dared enter the mountains to hunt, afraid of encountering Black Wind Stockade.
During this period, Su Mo did not enter the mountains to hunt either. He focused on tempering himself, fusing and mastering the innate traits he had obtained from wild beasts. He also cultivated his archery frenziedly, allowing his archery to break through from the Minor Accomplishment Realm to the Proficient Realm in a short time.
With archery in the Proficient Realm, within fifty meters, no living thing could escape a shot once the arrow was loosed. It could truly be called shooting through a willow leaf from a hundred paces away, but it required extremely formidable physical strength and endurance.
With such a level of archery, even ordinary hunters who had hunted for thirty years would find it nearly impossible to reach. It placed tremendous demands on the body.
Of course, another reason was Su Mo's terrifying comprehension and talent. Without that, merely possessing a powerful body would not have been enough to reach the Proficient Realm in archery.
The Basic Saber Technique he had obtained from the Bearded Man was also cultivated by him during this period. His family happened to possess this ancestral Hunting Knife, and it was extremely comfortable to use, so Su Mo did not switch to another weapon while practicing his saber technique.
At that moment, saber shadows filled the courtyard where Su Mo lived. The icy blade light flashed as though it could cleave apart anything. With a single slash, the wooden stake used for martial practice in front of him instantly split into pieces, sending wood chips flying.
If the Bearded Man had still been alive and witnessed this scene, he would surely have been shaken beyond words, because this was clearly the Basic Saber Technique in the Great Accomplishment Realm.
Su Mo had needed only a few short days to cultivate it to the Great Accomplishment Realm.
This was a level of saber technique that the Bearded Man could never have reached in his entire life.
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