The Flaw

So Shi Kang unleashed his vital blood, knocking Lu Hao's blade aside. He even tried to seize the opportunity to attack Lu Hao.

But the moment Lu Hao saw his first strike get deflected, he immediately used the Stance Technique of the Void-Standing Realm to retreat. Even so, Shi Kang's punch landed on his leg.

A powerful burst of vital blood struck Lu Hao, instantly inflicting a serious injury. Pain surged through him and he furrowed his brow. Fortunately, he'd suffered plenty of injuries in the Duel Arena before, so he could endure this much pain.

Lu Hao didn't keep retreating. Instead, he swung his blade. This strike once again reached the level of a finishing move.

Across from him, Shi Kang didn't notice.

He didn't gather much vital blood in his arm to defend himself. Instead, he concentrated most of it in his legs, preparing to attack again after this strike.

Bang! Crack!

The strike caught Shi Kang by surprise. The vital blood cleaved through his arm and reached his chest, tearing open a huge wound. His entire body flew backward.

Lu Hao hurriedly pressed his attack, kicking Shi Kang in the chest several times. Only after seeing Shi Kang's vital blood rapidly dissipate did Lu Hao stop.

Even as he died, Shi Kang couldn't understand how Lu Hao had unleashed another finishing move, or how he had so much vital blood.

[Enemy killed. Slaughter Points +237]

After Shi Kang died, Lu Hao took a Healing Pill from his Storage Space and swallowed it, then drank a bottle of Healing Water. Only then did he feel the wound on his leg begin to heal.

That had been close. If Lu Hao hadn't made a habit of saving Slaughter Points, he might have ended up dying alongside Shi Kang.

After catching his breath, Lu Hao called for the people below to come up and deal with the aftermath. He and Shi Kang had practically wrecked the entire room.

After leaving the room and giving the police an account of what happened, Lu Hao went straight home in Viper's car.

As for his leg, thanks to the Healing Pill, it had stopped bleeding. It would heal considerably by tomorrow, at least enough not to interfere with his normal activities.

When he got home, his mother was still awake, waiting for him on the sofa. She knew Lu Hao would be safe, but what mother could truly stop worrying?

As soon as Lu Hao entered, Bai Qiuyao noticed the injury on his leg. Fortunately, after he explained what had happened, she didn't feed him a Life Recovery Pill.

Back in the Martial Arts Training Room, Lu Hao didn't practice his combat techniques because of his injured left leg. Instead, he began tempering his bones.

With a thought,

[Slaughter Point System]

[Host: Lu Hao]

[Vital Blood: 57/286 cal]

[Spirit: 176/299 Hz+]

[Storage Space: 10 cubic meters]

[Slaughter Points: 307]

His vital blood had reached 286. Over the past two days, he had tempered eight bones in total, bringing his number of tempered bones to 45. He was 17 bones away from reaching the peak of the first rank.

As for his Slaughter Points, he'd spent 10 today to restore his vital blood when fighting Shi Kang. With the points he gained from killing him, he had 307 left in total.

He kept 57 and used the rest to temper his bones. That was just enough to temper five, bringing him to his limit for the day.

As he tempered his bones, Lu Hao began reflecting on himself. He relied too heavily on Blood Battle Mad Blade. That meant that to unleash a finishing move, he first had to swing his blade once to build momentum. Only the second strike could reach the level of a finishing move.

That wasn't a problem when facing opponents around his own level.

But against enemies stronger than him, it was a fatal flaw.

His control over vital blood still wasn't good enough to unleash a true finishing move. His finishing move relied on the boost from his combat technique.

Only when he could control his vital blood well enough to unleash a fifth of it with every move would he truly have mastered the finishing move.

He'd thought he could reach the level of a finishing move, or even a secret technique, by relying on Blood Battle Mad Blade. Now it seemed he still needed to master a true finishing move.

Otherwise, he would always have a vulnerability. It wouldn't matter much against people weaker than him, but against opponents evenly matched with him, it could become the key to defeating him.

It seemed he needed to train his vital blood control. From now on, he would practice the Basic Blade Technique for two hours each evening after returning home, improving his control until he mastered a true finishing move.

The next day, after checking that his leg had mostly healed, Lu Hao couldn't help thinking how good the medical care in a world of high-level martial arts was.

As long as an injury didn't affect anything vital, one pill was enough to have you bouncing around the next day.

So he contacted Viper to take on another mission and headed to the Detective Bureau to submit his previous one.

On April 26, Lu Hao chose another mission targeting someone at the peak of the first rank and began searching for the target.

He searched all day but found no clues at all. Lu Hao even wondered if the person was still in Beiding District. How could there be no trace of where they'd been living?

But the Detective Bureau told him that ever since the suspect had fled, checkpoints had been set up at bus stations, train stations, and airports. The person had to still be in Beiding District.

But Beiding District was enormous, so Lu Hao could only investigate slowly. He had no intention of abandoning the mission, and not because of the small penalty for breaking the contract.

He'd already checked the other missions when choosing this one. They were all much the same, with targets who would take a while to find. So, for the Slaughter Points, Lu Hao could only keep his head down and search.

On April 27, he spent the day searching but found nothing. Lu Hao thought, It's so hard to get by without Slaughter Points. He'd grown used to the improvement they brought.

He almost couldn't settle down to temper his bones on his own, but thankfully, he stamped out that thought as soon as it appeared.

After all, he was the one who owned the system. If he let Slaughter Points control him, leaving him obsessed with them, he'd become their slave.

If things continued like that, he'd turn into someone who'd do anything for Slaughter Points. He might even start targeting ordinary martial artists for them.

How would that make him any different from the martial artists he'd killed and hunted over the past two days?

At the thought, Lu Hao broke into a cold sweat. After that, he stopped worrying and patiently began tempering his bones. He could still improve even without Slaughter Points.

On April 28, he still hadn't found anyone. Lu Hao wasn't in a hurry. When he couldn't find the target, he practiced the Basic Blade Technique and improved his control over vital blood.

That evening, he successfully tempered one bone, bringing his total to 51.

On April 29, he searched all day again but got no results. Lu Hao was almost ready to give up, but when he returned to the Detective Bureau, he saw the same few missions still listed. No one had found their targets.

There was no choice. Lu Hao still didn't abandon the mission. He asked the police to keep searching while he went home to practice his blade technique and control his vital blood.

Lu Hao had planned to keep improving this way, but an unexpected piece of news arrived and forced him to put those plans on hold.