Wealth, Pills, and a Treasure Saber! (Seeking Daily Reads)

"A total of nine gift lists, amounting to thirteen hundred taels of silver and sixty Earth Origin Pills! Plus two precious blades, rare herbs, silk brocades..."

"Big Brother truly has foresight; taking the Martial Examination can earn so much money!" After finishing the count, Li Gou'er's face was flushed with excitement, his admiration for Zhao An reaching an absolute peak.

He had never seen so much money in his entire life.

"If we were still back in our old village, I'm afraid we wouldn't have saved up this much wealth even after a hundred years of farming!"

He assumed Zhao An had anticipated all of this, which was why he had chosen to participate in the county examination.

However, Zhao An had been completely caught off guard by this massive windfall.

Simply because he had performed well in the county examination, hundreds of taels of silver were handed over as if they were nothing, along with a pile of invaluable Earth Origin Pills, herbs, and brocades.

Those aristocratic clans residing in the Inner City were so wealthy that the common folk at the bottom could hardly even imagine it.

"Big Brother, we must hide this money well." Li Gou'er kept grinning foolishly, his eyes already reflecting the luster of the silver.

"When all this silver is laid out together, how can it look so beautiful..."

"No wonder everyone breaks their heads trying to earn a title; this title is money itself!"

"Don't be so small-minded; there will only be more money like this in the future." Zhao An tapped Li Gou'er on the head, snapping him back to reality.

"Yes, yes, Big Brother is a Martial Star descended to earth; you will surely be a remarkable figure in the future. This is just small change, small change." Li Gou'er scratched his head and chuckled.

Moving the pile of wealth into the inner room for safekeeping, Zhao An kept only the dozens of Earth Origin Pills and the two precious blades by his side.

A full sixty Earth Origin Pills were enough to sustain him for quite a while. Although their quality varied, they were worth several hundred taels of silver in total—no small sum!

As for the two precious blades.

One was a long horizontal blade, its edge shimmering with a cold, crystalline blue light, like a lake in autumn; its sharpness was extreme and peerless.

Even a layman would recognize this as an exceptional weapon.

At the base of the blade, near the hilt, two characters were engraved.

Clear Water!

The precious blade Clear Water, its cold light reflecting the moon!

Zhao An swung it twice, the blade emitting a soft, melodic hum in the air that was quite pleasant to the ear.

"A fine blade." Zhao An was very satisfied with it.

As for his original standard-issue Wild Goose Blade, he had already cast it to the back of his mind.

The second precious blade was a top-tier hundred-forged blade. The body was wider and heavier than Clear Water, qualifying it as a heavy blade; it was equally sharp, and its swings carried a more imposing, domineering aura.

If on a battlefield, there was no doubt this heavy blade would be more suitable.

Zhao An liked both blades, so he simply decided to use both as his personal sidearms.

After the county examination concluded, the many candidates did not leave; they still had to wait for the results to be posted in half a month.

For most, success or failure hinged on this single moment.

Because of this, after the initial celebrations, the county city quickly descended into an even more tense atmosphere, waiting only for the day the results were posted.

Every candidate waited with bated breath; most had spent ten years of hard study waiting for this moment that could change their destiny.

Just as many were waiting for the results, an even more distressing piece of news swept through Lianjiang City like a hurricane.

Months ago, the Moon People from the west had already reached Xiding Province, and even near Qinghu Prefecture, where Lianjiang County was located, fleets of Moon People warships had appeared!

This meant that in the near future, the war would very likely spread to their Lianjiang County!

In an instant, the public was in chaos. Although the Moon People had not yet arrived, the citizens within the city were already panicking.

For thousands of years, the western border of the Great Wu Dynasty had been in constant conflict with the Moon People, with endless mutual slaughter.

Both sides knew each other well; the Moon People were notoriously cruel and ruthless, and they had committed many acts of burning and slaughtering entire cities.

Under such dire news, had the County Magistrate's office not acted promptly to soothe the public, it would likely have triggered a massive wave of refugees.

If this continued, the decline of Lianjiang County would be irreversible, and clearly, this was not something the newly appointed County Magistrate wished to see.

"Chunzi, if this war really reaches us, we must run quickly. If we are too slow, not only will we lose this wealth, but we might not even keep our lives!" Having heard the news of the Moon People's invasion, Li Gou'er was deeply worried.

"Where would we even run to?" Zhao Chunzi asked.

"To the Prefecture City. If the Prefecture City falls, we head east; it must be safe there." Li Gou'er's mind raced as he began calculating escape routes.

"That's right, Brother Zhao, we must ask those escort agencies and merchant caravans to buy some maps to keep on hand, so we don't take the wrong road later!"

"Mm." Zhao An practiced his punches, agreeing to Li Gou'er's suggestion.

It was never wrong to be prepared.

Since the Moon People had been able to fight the Great Wu Dynasty for thousands of years, they were naturally not easy to deal with.

Looking at the history of the dynasty, these three western provinces had been invaded and ravaged by the Moon People since ancient times, so this was nothing new.

When the county city truly reached its end, he had no intention of holding his ground here.

Even if he were to choose to stay at that time, it would not be for the sake of defending the country.

His home and country were not here; he remained only to see just how many Red Names could be harvested from the Moon People army...

Furthermore, the strength of the Moon People did not lie in the martial path they cultivated, but in the unique spell techniques and incantations exclusive to them.

Zhao An was curious: if he were to obtain a Soul Slave of the Moon People clan, could he make these Moon People Soul Slaves cultivate these exclusive abilities for him?!

Just like that, the end of the month arrived in the blink of an eye.

On this day.

In the small courtyard, Li Gou'er and Zhao Chunzi brandished short staves, chasing Zhao An with horizontal slashes and vertical strikes. After a long while, the two were exhausted to the point of collapse, yet they hadn't even managed to touch the hem of Zhao An's clothes.

Even though Zhao An was constantly circling right against their bodies, he had managed to leave them dizzy and disoriented until, in a moment of carelessness, the two collided heads and tumbled to the ground.

"Zhao, Brother Zhao, I can't do it anymore." Li Gou'er was drenched in sweat, rubbing his head and groaning in misery.

Now that they had the means, the two had also begun practicing martial arts at Zhao An's request.

He didn't expect them to be of great use in the future, but at the very least, it would strengthen their physiques so they could be more nimble when running errands for him later.

"Brother Zhao, what kind of movement technique are you practicing? It's truly incredible!" Li Gou'er exclaimed in wonder.

It was clear that during their previous chases, Zhao An hadn't been this agile or swift, and would occasionally be cornered by the combined efforts of him and Zhao Chunzi.

But now, as long as Zhao An wished, they could chase him from dawn until dusk and still not lay a finger on him.

"Roaming Body Steps, an eighth-grade movement technique given by the County Vice-Magistrate," Zhao An replied.

He had already mastered this set of movement techniques before the county examination, and had even tested his skills during the martial gathering.

Today, the Soul Slave Zhou Hu had even helped him cultivate this technique to the second realm.

Flowing Cloud Circling Steps!

His footwork was now perfectly fluid and circular, landing without a sound, like flowing clouds surrounding his body, shifting his form and changing his position!

Let alone Li Gou'er and his companion, even if a few real Martial Masters were to come, unless they possessed high-level movement techniques themselves, they would find it just as difficult to touch him in this small courtyard!

After all, this was the result of the Martial Master Zhou Hu's twenty years of bitter practice within the Soul Pool!

Zhao An could sense that he was only a hair's breadth away from the final push to cultivate this movement technique to the third realm!

A Martial Master Soul Slave is truly useful; they are worth more than three or five ordinary Soul Slaves practicing together... Zhao An thought to himself after testing his footwork.

The higher the grade of the martial art, the less effective it was for ordinary Soul Slaves, who lacked both good comprehension and the corresponding trait bonuses, resulting in extremely slow progress.

It was precisely for this reason that his eighth-grade Hard Bone Skill, Roaming Body Steps, and that Heavenly Profound Pulse-Severing Finger were currently being trained by the Martial Master Soul Slave.

As for the ninth-grade Gale Palm and Mountain Crushing Fist, he was using ordinary Soul Slaves to pile up the realm through sheer numbers.

It's just a pity that Martial Master Red Names are rarely seen in the Outer City; they are becoming somewhat insufficient, Zhao An mused privately.

If he truly couldn't secure enough Martial Master Soul Slaves in the future, he would have no choice but to revert to using ordinary Soul Slaves.

And should that happen, the progress of his martial arts realms would be significantly slowed down.

Suddenly, a commotion erupted from the street outside the courtyard.

"The results are posted! The results are posted!"

"The county exam results are out!"

Hearing the shouts clearly, Li Gou'er, who had just sat down to rest, sprang up from the ground and said excitedly, "Big Brother, they say the yamen has posted the results!"