"Thanks." Zhao An thanked her. Meng Wanyi's bottle of Earth Origin Pills had arrived just in time.
Otherwise, he had no idea what kind of torment he would have had to endure.
There were still three top-grade Earth Origin Pills left in the bottle. Zhao An didn't return them; he only took one hundred and forty taels of silver, the price of seven top-grade Earth Origin Pills.
After learning his lesson this time, he had made up his mind: no matter when or where, he would always carry a sufficient supply of pills in case of emergencies.
"Zhao An, consider this bottle of Earth Origin Pills repayment for saving my life tonight." It was rare for Meng Wanyi not to ask for money.
"If you need more in the future, I'll sell them to you at half price."
"Since Miss Meng puts it that way, I won't refuse." Zhao An wasn't one to stand on ceremony, and he accepted her repayment without hesitation.
Just then, another commotion came from outside.
The courtyard gate was pushed open again.
"Who killed them?" Several armored soldiers rushed in. At a glance, they saw the pile of corpses in the courtyard, with Guo Fenglin's body standing out most of all.
"I did." Zhao An, seated on a stone stool and resting, replied calmly.
"Who are you? What's your name?" A man who looked like an officer, wearing a military helmet and chain mail, gave Zhao An a once-over and asked rather brusquely.
"Zhao An, an ordinary citizen. These men broke into the courtyard and attacked us. I was only defending myself." Zhao An looked straight at him and answered simply.
The officer was about to say something, but someone beside him stopped him.
"Commander Yuan, we can discuss this after tonight. Right now, we need to hurry back and reinforce the County Magistrate's residence!"
Zhao An glanced at the names above their heads.
The officer was named Yuan Chengye, and his name was gray.
The man in fine clothes and fitted martial attire was named Zhuang Ge.
Notably, Zhuang Ge was a white-name with merit to his credit.
Though the white was faint and gave off no glow, it at least confirmed that he was a good man.
After saying that, the man turned to Zhao An. "Don't touch the bodies here. Someone will come to collect them."
Then the soldiers hurried off again.
They had evidently pursued Guo Fenglin all the way here. Now that Guo Fenglin was dead, they needed to hurry back to the Inner City and defend it against the other invading Rebel Army troops.
On the way, Yuan Chengye suddenly grinned as he hurried along. "Brother Zhuang, the Black Wind Stronghold bandits are on the verge of defeat. Guo Fenglin was one of their chief leaders. Why hand over the credit for taking his head to some commoner?
"Besides, we chased him here ourselves. That head ought to belong to us. Don't you agree?"
Zhuang Ge's face darkened, and he grumbled in displeasure, "Whoever killed him gets the credit. The enemy is still upon us. Commander Yuan, focus on the battlefield. Don't let a trivial matter distract you!"
Yuan Chengye cursed Zhuang Ge for being an idiot in his heart, but said no more.
In the courtyard, Zhao An watched the soldiers leave. He understood that the County Magistrate's residence must have regained the upper hand.
Otherwise, that officer wouldn't have had the spare strength to lead men from the Inner City all the way here in pursuit.
Meng Wanyi brought over the medicine chest. She and her younger sister, Meng Shao, sat on either side of Zhao An, carefully applying medicine to every cut and scrape on his body.
Only now did Zhao An have time to think back over the perilous battle he had just fought.
Guo Fenglin and Cui Ting, the expert with the flying knives, were unquestionably formidable. Both were far stronger than him.
One major reason he had managed to kill them in the end was that they were already wounded. They had probably fought several battles against the pursuing officer.
If he had met them in their prime, Zhao An would have been the one facing certain doom.
There was no helping it. All told, Zhao An had been cultivating martial arts for less than a month since arriving in this world. It was simply far too short a time.
The fact that he had reached his current level of martial prowess was already thanks to his powerful Soul Slaves.
Besides that, using his Soul Slaves' death-substitution ability twice had also played a crucial role. It had turned the tide in a disadvantageous fight and let him strike back.
The price was only two ordinary Soul Slaves, each with a servitude period of just one year. With fifty or sixty Soul Slaves in reserve, Zhao An barely felt the loss.
Now that he thought about it, the Soul Slaves' death-substitution ability was both his final means of survival and a trump card he could play to catch his enemies off guard!
At a critical moment, it might just help him turn a desperate situation around. It was incredibly useful!
What was more, refining Soul Slaves in the middle of battle had not only boosted his Internal Breath by sixty strands; most importantly, his blade technique had reached perfection!
He had mastered the final realm of the Fierce Tiger Blade!
He had invested more than a dozen Soul Slaves in this blade technique over time, and their combined cultivation time had long since surpassed sixty years!
Yet in real time, he had perfected the technique in less than a month!
That was undoubtedly a shortcut!
If I'd used Martial Master Soul Slaves to train, I might have perfected it even faster... Zhao An mused.
And the perfected Fierce Tiger Blade was far more powerful than before.
In fact, in his view, the gains from perfecting the technique in that final step surpassed those from the first four realms combined!
The significance of perfection without a single flaw was simply too great.
Countless martial artists spent their whole lives unable to achieve it. Zhao An, meanwhile, had perfected his blade technique through no special talent, insight, or peerless martial ability.
He had done it by gathering countless Soul Slaves and having them grind away at it over and over, endlessly, across a vast stretch of time.
To the outside world, perfecting a martial art was an exceedingly rare achievement on one's record, enough to let him dominate an entire region!
Once his Internal Breath grew further, even if he went to the Inner City, the great clans and prestigious families would welcome him as an honored guest.
It wasn't until the second half of the night that loud, piercing bugle calls rang out from all directions.
Then warhorses thundered down the streets, rushing past once more.
Only this time, the commotion was heading out of the city.
"Have the Rebel Army been driven away?" Only after the noise had faded for quite a while did Li Gou'er dare poke his head out to look.
"Probably," Zhao An replied with a nod.
Even so, none of them felt sleepy, and they didn't dare go far. They waited until the sky grew bright before the townspeople began trickling into the streets to survey the damage.
They looked around.
The streets were strewn with rubble and wreckage. Many houses and buildings had been completely consumed by last night's fire, leaving nothing behind.
The corpses of townspeople lay scattered across the streets, many bearing knife cuts or spear holes. Others had been trampled to death by horses.
Without a doubt, the invading Rebel Army had done this.
Cries and wails filled the air.
Zhao An witnessed this hell on earth. He knew that if he hadn't practiced martial arts, he would have met the same fate and become just another corpse.
And the devastation wasn't limited to the Outer City. The Inner City's gates had been thrown wide open, and its streets were equally littered with the wreckage left behind after it had been plundered.
"Brother Zhao, look!" Li Gou'er suddenly pointed toward the city gates.
Dust billowed outside the city, and the thunder of hooves rolled closer, frightening the townspeople in the street into fleeing once again.
But soon, they realized the man at the head of the cavalry was none other than the County Commandant, who had previously set out to suppress the bandits in the mountains.
Their County Commandant had finally returned.
Before you continue