A Huge Harvest

"Demon lifespan..."

Shen Lin stood in place, muttering to himself before falling silent for a long time.

So...

This System could not only consume his own lifespan, but also plunder the lifespan of others by slaying demons and monsters, using it to replace his own lifespan for deduction...

He let out a wry smile, shook his head, and cast aside useless regrets. Looking at the seventy-two years of Demon lifespan on the panel, Shen Lin felt a pang of emotion.

A lesser demon that hadn't even opened its meridians could live for 150 years.

Yet, his own strength was clearly a level higher than the demon's, but his lifespan hadn't increased at all.

The remaining lifespan column on the panel was still one year.

Moreover, there was a very important piece of information in the System's prompt just now.

[Killed an enlightened Mantis Demon, not yet entered Xiantian...]

Xiantian, this should be his next realm.

It seemed that the Xiantian realm was a watershed. If he could cultivate to this realm, his lifespan might increase.

Thinking of this, Shen Lin's mind stirred, and he poured all the Demon lifespan he had just acquired into cultivating the Blood Battle Saber Technique.

There was no use hoarding it anyway, so it was better to improve his strength as soon as possible.

[Year 20: Day after day, year after year, you relentlessly practice the Blood Battle Saber Technique, slowly impacting the second meridian with Qi and Blood Force. Finally, the second meridian is completely opened. The Qi and Blood Force within your body doubles, and your strength increases again.]

[Year 25: You find that your cultivation progress has become very slow. It seems that relying solely on the Qi and Blood Force within your body to open meridians is not the optimal solution for martial arts cultivation.

You gain a glimmer of understanding. If you had the help of some heavenly spiritual items, precious medicines, or spiritual plants, your cultivation progress might speed up considerably.

However, it is a pity that there are no spiritual items around you at the moment, so you can only rely on the Qi and Blood Force within your body to slowly wear them down.]

[Year 70: Dripping water wears through stone. Through your unremitting efforts, you finally open the third meridian. Your entire being is transformed, and your strength is incomparable. With a casual punch, you can shatter rocks.]

[Year 72: In two years, your cultivation has made no progress. No matter how you practice the Blood Battle Saber Technique, you cannot sense the existence of the fourth meridian.

Vaguely, you sense the bottleneck of the Blood Battle Saber Technique and decide to improve this technique.]

Deduction complete!

Shen Lin slowly opened his eyes and took a deep breath.

Seventy-two years of cultivation experience flowed through his mind. Shen Lin felt as if the long saber in his hand was an extension of his arm. He didn't even need to consciously make a move; his body instinctively knew how to unleash the most powerful strike.

At the same time, he felt the changes in his body.

Within the three meridians, powerful Qi and Blood Force surged, bringing with it a formidable strength that made him feel that he could now tear the previous Mantis Demon to shreds with his bare hands, even without the Steel Saber.

What he found regrettable was that the remaining lifespan on the panel was still only one year.

Seventy-two years of Demon lifespan, and he hadn't even touched the threshold of the Xiantian realm.

Thinking of the last line of text on the panel, Shen Lin's expression turned grim.

It seemed that the Blood Battle Saber Technique could, at most, allow him to open three meridians.

Based on the description of the System's last line, if he wanted to continue getting stronger, he would have to spend lifespan to deduce and improve the Blood Battle Saber Technique.

But that would definitely require a massive amount of Demon lifespan.

However, there wasn't no other way.

The Blood Battle Saber Technique was a most basic martial art, originally taught by the Great Wei dynasty to border troops to strengthen their bodies.

He could completely switch to a different cultivation technique. He believed that he could break through the bottleneck of the Blood Battle Saber Technique and open the fourth, and subsequent, meridians.

He just didn't know how many more meridians he would need to open to advance further.

Just opening the current three meridians cost Shen Lin over a hundred years of lifespan.

Further cultivation would inevitably cost countless Demon lifespans... Wait!

As Shen Lin was shaking his head in frustration, he suddenly froze, recalling the understanding he had gained during the deduction.

It took him over a hundred years to open three meridians through the System's deduction.

Even if others had better aptitude than him, the time required wouldn't be much less.

After all, in the System's deduction, he was completely focused, with his entire mind concentrated on cultivation.

In reality, how many people had that kind of perseverance?

Therefore, the cultivation of a Martial Artist must have some unique tricks.

Otherwise, how could the legendary Martial Artists, who could fly through the air and shatter mountains with their fists, reach such realms before their lifespans ran out?

After thinking for a while, he suddenly recalled the old man who taught them the Blood Battle Saber Technique at the County Office. A while ago, the old man had suddenly changed his stingy personality and treated them, the Constables, to a night of pleasure.

At that time, someone curious had asked him what good day it was that made him, a miser, finally spend money.

The reply was that the prefecture had sent him a Meridian Unblocking Pill.

At the time, Shen Lin hadn't paid much attention, being too engrossed in his "deep exchange" with the ladies.

Now that he thought about it, that so-called Meridian Unblocking Pill might be a cultivation resource.

These cultivation resources must be difficult to obtain and incredibly valuable...

With that thought, he stopped standing around and began searching the room.

Whether it was martial arts superior to Blood Battle Saber Technique, or cultivation resources like Meridian Unblocking Pill, they were all extremely precious and certainly required a lot of money.

And now, this was an opportunity.

The Mantis Demon had killed quite a few people, so it must have obtained a lot of spoils.

The Constables of Qiulin County all knew how terrifying Demons were, but their desire to slay them was not diminished in the slightest.

This was because after killing a Demon, one could exchange the Demon's corpse with the Demon Suppression Bureau in the prefectural capital for many benefits.

At the same time, a Demon's private stash was also a windfall.

Sometimes, it wasn't even less than the reward from the Demon Suppression Bureau.

As expected, after searching for a while, Shen Lin found a wooden box under the bed.

When he opened it, the dazzling light made Shen Lin's lips crack into a smile.

Ten silver ingots, neatly stacked.

Five hundred taels of silver!

The chief official of Qiulin County, a County Magistrate of the seventh rank, Lin Youwei, only earned three to four hundred taels a year.

In those days, five hundred taels of silver could even buy two houses in the county town.

Not only that, but in a corner next to the silver ingots, seven or eight pieces of jewelry were also stacked.

Jade bracelets, gold and silver hairpins, pearl necklaces...

Shen Lin didn't know the price of these items, but he guessed they were worth at least as much as the silver ingots.

"I'm rich..."

Shen Lin rubbed his hands together, looking at the wooden box that was difficult to move, and decided to find a cloth bag to transfer these valuables.

The moment the thought crossed his mind, he paused as if he remembered something, and turned to look at the burlap sack the Mantis Demon had carried in.

He got up and walked to the burlap sack, lightly turning his Steel Saber in his hand, and opened it.

Lifting the burlap sack, Shen Lin confirmed his guess.

"Kong Yu! Wake up!"

After patting him a few times, Kong Yu's pale face furrowed slightly, and he slowly opened his eyes.

For this case, Shen Lin and his team had come with seven people in total.

Head Constable Sun Zhi had parted ways with them midway, saying he had discovered new clues and they should split up.

Among the remaining people, only Shen Lin and this guy had survived.

The reason was simple.

Old Shen was a well-known handsome young man in the area, and Kong Yu was not bad either.

With his good looks, Kong Yu had married into one of the most prominent families in Qiulin County and secured a lucrative position as a yamen runner.

At this moment, his first reaction upon regaining consciousness was to look for the Mantis Demon.

Only when he saw the remains scattered all over the floor did he breathe a sigh of relief.

He looked at Shen Lin with a complicated expression and said, "Brother Shen, you've got some skills..."

He had originally thought that after Shen Lin was tortured to death by the demon, it would be his turn, and he felt immense sorrow.

However, from the last conversation he overheard before he fainted, the flirtatious sounds between Shen Lin and the demon...

It was hard to say who was doing the tormenting.