Blade Skill Perfection! (Seeking Daily Reads)

"Many thanks." Zhao An expressed his gratitude. This bottle of Earth Origin Pills from Meng Wanyi had come at the most opportune time.

Otherwise, he had no idea what kind of torment he would have to endure.

There were still three top-grade Earth Origin Pills left in the bottle, and Zhao An did not return them. He simply took out one hundred and forty taels of silver—the price for seven top-grade Earth Origin Pills.

After this lesson, he had made up his mind: no matter when or where, he would always carry a sufficient supply of pills on him to meet any urgent need.

"Zhao An, consider this bottle of Earth Origin Pills as repayment for saving my life tonight." Meng Wanyi, rare as it was, refused to take the silver.

"If you need more in the future, I'll sell you Earth Origin Pills at half price."

"Since Miss Meng puts it that way, I won't refuse." Zhao An was not one to be coy; he accepted Meng Wanyi's repayment without hesitation.

Just then, movement came from outside the door once more.

The courtyard gate was pushed open again.

"Who killed these people!" Several armored soldiers burst in, immediately spotting the pile of corpses in the yard, the most conspicuous among them being Guo Fenglin's body.

"I did." Zhao An, who had been resting on a stone stool, replied calmly.

"Who are you? State your name!" A man who looked like an officer, wearing a general's helmet and clad in chainmail, swept his gaze over Zhao An and spoke with little courtesy.

"Zhao An, an ordinary citizen. These men broke into my courtyard to commit murder; I was merely defending myself." Zhao An met the man's eyes and answered simply.

The officer wanted to say more but was stopped by someone beside him.

"Commander Yuan, let's discuss this after tonight. For now, we must hurry back to reinforce the County Magistrate's residence!"

Zhao An glanced at the names above these two men's heads.

The one who looked like an officer was named Yuan Chengye, his name a dull gray.

The man in the fine brocade outfit was named Zhuang Ge.

Notably, this Zhuang Ge had a white name, indicating he possessed some merit.

Though the white was faint and lacked any floating glow, it at least confirmed that this person was a righteous figure.

After speaking, the man said to Zhao An, "Don't touch the corpses here. Someone will come to collect them."

Then the group of soldiers hurriedly left.

Clearly, they had been pursuing Guo Fenglin to this spot. Now that Guo Fenglin was dead, they needed to rush back to the Inner City to fend off the other invading Rebel Army forces.

On the road, Yuan Chengye, while moving swiftly, suddenly grinned and spoke up: "Brother Zhuang, now that the Black Wind Stronghold bandits are on the verge of collapse, and Guo Fenglin was their great banner leader, why should we leave this head-taking merit to some commoner?

Besides, you and I were the ones who chased him here. That head should belong to us, don't you think?"

Zhuang Ge's face darkened, and he replied in a muffled, displeased tone: "Whoever killed him gets the credit. The great enemy is still before us. Commander Yuan should focus on the battlefield and not let such trivial matters distract you!"

Hearing this, Yuan Chengye cursed the man for his stupidity in his heart but said no more.

In the courtyard, Zhao An watched the soldiers leave, understanding that the County Magistrate's residence had likely regained the upper hand.

Otherwise, that officer wouldn't have had the spare strength to lead men from the Inner City in pursuit all the way here.

Meng Wanyi brought over a medicine box and, together with her sister Meng Shao, carefully applied medicine to every flesh wound on Zhao An's body.

It was only then that Zhao An had the mind to replay the perilous battle just past.

Guo Fenglin and the flying knife expert Cui Ting—there was no doubt that both were far stronger than him.

The main reason he had managed to kill them in the end was that they were already wounded, likely having fought several rounds with the pursuing officer.

If he had faced them in peak condition, Zhao An would have been the one in grave danger.

There was no helping it—after all, it had been less than a month since Zhao An had crossed over and begun practicing martial arts. The time was truly too short.

To have reached this level of martial prowess was already thanks to the Soul Slaves being effective.

Beyond that, his two uses of the Soul Slave's death-substitution skill had played a crucial role, completely turning the tide of the disadvantaged fight and allowing him to counter-kill.

And the cost? Just two ordinary Soul Slaves with a one-year enslavement period. For Zhao An, who now had a reserve of fifty or sixty Soul Slaves, it was nothing.

As it stood now, the Soul Slave's death-substitution skill was both his final life-saving measure and his unexpected trump card!

At critical moments, it could very well help him reverse a dire situation—extremely useful!

Moreover, this bout of refining Soul Slaves on the spot had not only surged his Internal Breath by sixty strands but, most importantly, his blade art had reached perfection!

He had mastered the final realm of the Fierce Tiger Blade!

For this blade art, he had invested no fewer than a dozen Soul Slaves, with their cumulative training time exceeding sixty years!

Yet in real time, he had perfected it in less than a month!

That was definitely a fast track to mastery!

"If I had used Martial Master Soul Slaves exclusively, it might have been perfected even faster..." Zhao An mused to himself.

And the perfected Fierce Tiger Blade's power far surpassed what it had been before.

In his view, even the combined improvements from the first four realms couldn't match the boost from this final step of perfection!

The significance of flawless completion was simply immense.

How many martial artists spent their entire lives unable to achieve it? And Zhao An's perfection of the blade art came not from talent or enlightenment, nor from unparalleled martial genius.

Rather, it was the result of countless Soul Slaves gathered together, grinding away over and over without end across an immeasurable span of time.

And to the outside world, being able to perfect a single martial art was equivalent to an extremely rare achievement on one's record—enough to let him dominate an entire region!

Once his Internal Breath grew a little more, even if he went to the Inner City, he would be welcomed as an honored guest by every major noble clan.

It wasn't until the dead of night that a series of piercing horn blasts rang out from all directions.

Then, warhorses galloped through the streets, sweeping past once more with a roar.

Only this time, the commotion was heading out of the city.

"Have the Rebel Army been driven off?" Only after the noise had faded for a good while did Li Gou'er dare to poke his head out and look around.

"That should be it," Zhao An nodded in agreement.

Even so, none of them felt sleepy, nor did they dare to wander far. They waited until broad daylight before commoners gradually came out to the streets to survey the damage.

Looking around, every street was littered with ruins and debris. Many houses and buildings had been burned clean by the fires of the previous night, leaving nothing behind.

There were also civilian corpses, lying haphazardly across the streets, most bearing knife wounds, spear holes, or trampled to death by horse hooves.

Without a doubt, all of this was the work of the Rebel Army that had broken into the city.

Cries of grief and wailing filled the air everywhere.

Zhao An also witnessed this hellish scene firsthand, deeply aware that if he hadn't trained in martial arts, his fate would have been the same—he would now be just another corpse.

And it wasn't just the Outer City that was like this; the Inner City's gates were also wide open, with signs of looting and chaos everywhere.

"Brother Zhao, look!" Li Gou'er suddenly pointed toward the area outside the city.

Dust rose beyond the city walls, and the thunderous pounding of hooves sent the people on the streets scrambling to flee again.

But soon, everyone saw that the rider at the head of that cavalry unit was none other than the County Commandant, who had previously set out to suppress the mountain bandits.

Their County Commandant had finally returned.