This Blade, Twenty-Two Years!

As Lu Chen's thought landed, the number representing lifespan on the system panel began to jump wildly.

Twenty-three... fifteen... seven...

Finally, the number settled firmly on "one."

At the same time, prompts regarding the [Demon Suppressing Saber Technique] cascaded like a waterfall.

[You expended five years of lifespan, and through countless practice swings, finally grasped the basics of the Demon Suppressing Saber Technique, successfully entering the threshold.]

[You expended eight years of lifespan, focused without distraction, your saber technique growing increasingly refined, your insight into the weak points of demonic bodies as clear as a flame—reaching the Minor Completion stage.]

[You expended nine years of lifespan, comprehending the true intent of the saber technique amidst monotonous repetition. The blade must draw blood with every strike; a single cut severs a demon's meridians. The Demon Suppressing Saber Technique is now at Grand Completion!]

[Demon Suppressing Saber Technique (Grand Completion)]

[Stage entered: Mortal Bone Stage, Early Phase]

A full twenty-two years!

Countless insights and muscle memories of swinging, chopping, and parrying flooded into Lu Chen's mind and limbs like a bursting dam.

His originally somewhat slender frame, lacking in exercise, rapidly became firm and powerful in an almost unbelievable way.

The skin on the back of his hand remained pale, but the tendons and bones beneath felt as if they had been tempered through a thousand strikes, brimming with explosive strength.

Especially his right hand, which gripped the saber—its five fingers were long, knuckles distinct, and steady as a rock.

It felt as though he had truly spent twenty-two years in this gloomy mortuary, accompanied by demonic corpses, training the saber technique with single-minded devotion!

All of this, though lengthy to describe, took but an instant.

The Fox-faced Evil Spirit, condensed from Demonic Sha resentment, had already lunged to within a foot of Lu Chen's face!

Its chilling aura nearly froze his blood, and the crimson gleam in its eyes brimmed with the greed and glee of an impending possession.

It seemed to see this young body as its new plaything, a vessel to return to the world of the living.

But what awaited it was a flash of cold light, swift beyond measure!

Clang!

Lu Chen didn't even rise; he remained seated cross-legged on the stone bed.

He simply reached out, pulled a Boning Knife from the nearby tool rack used for dissecting demon corpses, and swung it backhand.

The motion was plain, without a trace of excess.

The blade sliced with pinpoint precision across the center of that twisted fox face.

"Skree—"

A shriek sharp enough to pierce eardrums exploded through the mortuary!

The fox face formed of black qi was cleaved cleanly in two by that single strike, splitting apart and churning violently like smoke, yet unable to reform.

The two crimson gleams flickered wildly, filled with disbelief and terror.

The Demon Suppressing Saber Technique was created specifically to restrain demons and evil spirits.

One slash, and the evil scattered!

"This one slash! Twenty-two years of skill! Wonder if you can take it!"

Lu Chen's gaze was icy, giving the enemy no chance to recover.

He twisted his wrist, and the Boning Knife lashed out again like a silver lightning bolt.

This time, an invisible sharp aura clung to the blade—the "Demon Suppressing Qi" barely generated after reaching Grand Completion in the technique!

Pfft!

The black qi, already split in two, hissed and sizzled like snow under a scorching sun, rapidly dissolving and dispersing.

Before the fox face vanished entirely, its twisted features held nothing but endless venom and unwillingness.

After all this, Lu Chen finally let out a long breath of turbid air.

He looked down at the still-sharp Boning Knife in his hand, then at his own slightly trembling palm.

Though it was his first time slaying an evil spirit, it felt as familiar as if he'd done it thousands of times.

The overwhelming confidence from his muscle memory quickly suppressed the lingering fear and shock in his heart.

So this... is what power feels like.

Lu Chen stood up, stretching his limbs, feeling an inexhaustible strength surging through him.

He carefully wiped the Boning Knife clean on the fur of the Vengeful Fox's corpse, then placed it back on the tool rack.

It was fortunate that this evil spirit had only just coalesced from Demonic Sha and wasn't fully formed; otherwise, those twenty-two years of lifespan might not have been enough.

Just then, the Bronze Tome appeared before his eyes once more.

A line of golden text made Lu Chen's eyes go wide.

[Vengeful Fox Evil Spirit slain, unranked. Total lifespan: one hundred twenty years. Remaining lifespan: seventy-eight years. Absorption complete.]

[Demonic lifespan detected. Can be used to infuse martial arts or repair one's own lifespan deficit.]

Code
[Current personal lifespan: one year]

[Demon Devil Lifespan: seventy-eight years]

"..."

Lu Chen's heart pounded traitorously.

The life-draining mode actually had a way to renew?!

He forcibly suppressed the wild joy surging in his chest and carefully studied the changes on the panel.

Demon Devil Lifespan could substitute for his own lifespan to deduce martial arts.

It could also... make up for his own lifespan deficit?

In other words, as long as he killed enough demons, he could not only endlessly improve his martial arts but even achieve... immortality?

Immortality!

This thought struck like a thunderbolt, exploding in Lu Chen's mind.

In his past life, he had been mediocre and died young.

In this life, he had thought he would repeat the same fate, or even live more miserably.

"Hah..."

Lu Chen walked over to the fox corpse, looked into its unclosed eyes, and sincerely said, "Thank you."

Whether it was this evil spirit or its original body, both were his benefactors.

He covered it again with the white cloth, but his gaze fell on his remaining one year of lifespan.

It felt like guarding a mountain of gold with only a single copper coin in his pocket—a deeply unsettling feeling.

He picked up his tools. The mastered Demon Suppressing Saber Technique was not just a killing art; it also contained a profound understanding of demon bodies.

Now, he applied his expert-level dissection skills, moving several times faster than before.

Extracting the Demon Core, skinning the Fox Fur, dismantling the bones and sinews...

The entire process flowed like water, a pleasing sight to behold.

By the time he had sorted all the materials neatly, only the time it took to burn one incense stick had passed.

Lu Chen wiped his hands, looked at his handiwork, and nodded with satisfaction.

Just then, the stone door was pushed open again.

"You... you actually finished handling it?"

Foreman Wang's gaze darted between the tidy materials and Lu Chen, his shock gradually turning into a dark scowl.

He had been certain this brat would die, and had even thought of a replacement.

He never expected the man not only to survive but to process the corpse of that Vengeful Fox, still thick with Killing Intent, so cleanly and swiftly in such a short time.

There had to be something strange about this!