Advancement of the Inner Art

Two constables, two Black Guards.

Shen Yi found a total of four taels of silver, three steamed buns, two flatbreads, and two packets of golden wound medicine on them.

There was nothing particularly valuable.

Still, it replenished some of Shen Yi's scarce survival supplies.

After all, he was only a martial artist who had just entered the path, not some immortal who fed on wind and drank dew. He needed not only water, but food to restore his strength.

If time permitted,

he would have liked to hunt some game to replenish his blood and qi. Living on dry rations alone would also gradually weaken his essence, qi, and spirit.

But Shen Yi's most pressing task was to leave this place first.

These men had surely left marks along the way. The Pacification Office would likely arrive soon.

Before setting off, Shen Yi had just killed two martial artists who had entered the ranks, accumulating another two years and five months of secluded cultivation time.

At present, his internal force and saber technique were the most important means he relied upon. He first chose to devote one year to cultivating his inner art.

While cultivating the Array Breaker Art in the cave, he had already felt as though his cultivation was on the verge of breaking through, yet still held back by a final barrier.

Now was the time to press the advantage and use the surging momentum of the Array Breaker Art to smash through countless obstacles in one stroke.

You devoted one month to cultivating the incomplete Array Breaker Art, continuously refining and accumulating internal force within your dantian in preparation for breaking through the bottleneck.

Five months of devoted cultivation brought your essence, qi, and spirit to

their peak. You began attempting to force your way through the blocked meridians, but they proved more stubborn than expected. You could only chisel away at the obstruction bit by bit, like the Foolish Old Man moving mountains.

After another eight months, you continued circulating your art without pause. You also gained fresh insights into the incomplete Array Breaker Art you had explored day and night. With sincerity enough to move heaven, your internal force poured forth like a torrent. At last, it succeeded in a single stroke—your meridians connected, forming a minor heavenly circulation. Your incomplete Array Breaker Art reached the Hall-Entering realm.

When the secluded cultivation ended, Shen Yi felt the internal force accumulated in his dantian expand once more, turning from a small pool into a pond.

With but a thought, surging currents shook within him, and his internal force flowed through his limbs and bones, granting him an inexplicably tremendous strength.

Host: Shen Yi
Cultivation: Third-Rate
Martial Arts: Wind Severing Saber Technique (Great Accomplishment), Catching Hand Technique (Beginner), Incomplete Array Breaker Art (Hall-Entering)
Remaining Secluded Cultivation: 1 year 5 months

Shen Yi felt faintly exhilarated. He had finally crossed beyond the entry stage and officially joined the ranks of Third-Rate martial artists in the martial world.

From this point on, Shen Yi could call himself a Third-Rate expert before others. Though it did not sound particularly impressive...

it truly placed him above ordinary people.

Shen Yi lightly clenched his fist.

A series of soft cracks rang out.

Without hesitation, Shen Yi poured his remaining secluded cultivation time into his saber training. The next instant, the cultivation began:

Your Wind Severing Saber Technique had already reached Great Accomplishment, yet you still felt there was room to improve. However, no matter how hard you pondered, you could not grasp the key. You could only practice your saber every day, rain or shine.

After eight months of devoted training, every move of the Wind Severing Saber Technique had become etched into your heart. With every slash and form, you gradually ceased to be constrained by the outward shape of the moves, and began sinking into deep contemplation.

After one year, realization slowly dawned on you. Perhaps the saber technique could transform from mindful intent into mindless intent. Deliberate action would always be perceived; only action without intent could be considered superior. You decided this might be the direction in which you should strive.

After another year and five months, you no longer practiced the saber. You merely held your horizontal blade and sank into meditation, sensing within it the trajectory of every move of the Wind Severing Saber Technique and the source from which that saber art arose.

Let the saber become the full moon barring a river, the wolf smoke of the northern frontier, the fierce north wind, the ice and snow of Tianshan. It was as though you became the saber itself, following General of Divine Might through iron horses and golden spears, traversing ten thousand miles of mountains and rivers...

Secluded cultivation complete.

Shen Yi slowly opened his eyes. He was still just a little short.

His comprehension of the Wind Severing Blade had risen to another level. Though it remained at Great Accomplishment, it was only a hair's breadth from Perfection.

Shen Yi's saber at this moment

could no longer be mentioned in the same breath as it had been before.

Even if Sun Lin and Ma Cheng came back to life and attacked together, Shen Yi would not need to use the constables' corpses to draw their attention this time.

He could take both their lives within three moves.

After all, throughout the entire Dong Commandery Pacification Office, among Black Guards below the rank of Squad Leader, those able to settle down and cultivate the Wind Severing Saber Technique to Great Accomplishment were as rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns. That was why Sun Lin had been so astonished that someone with Shen Yi's talent had lingered in the garrison all this time.

Shen Yi rested one hand on his saber hilt. He did not know whether it was merely an illusion, but he felt his connection with the saber had grown even closer.

By then, the morning sun had already risen.

Daylight shone brightly. Shen Yi drew a deep breath, taking in the fresh scent of morning dew in the air, then strode onward along the mountain foothills.

Not long after Shen Yi left,

a party of more than ten men appeared at the cave entrance. Three men in black led the way, followed by twelve men in dark blue.

The leader wore black robes embroidered with a silver crane, with a cloud pattern stitched onto his collar, marking him as a Squad Leader of the Pacification Office.

He had rough features and a face covered in thick whiskers.

He carried the bearing of a man whose authority inspired awe even when he was not angry.

Had Shen Yi been there, he would likely have recognized him at once. This was Cui Kui, the man in charge of the Southern District Garrison and Niu Ben's uncle.

Because Shen Yi had defected from the Southern District Garrison, Cui Kui had specifically obtained authority from the commandery office to capture this wanted criminal.

He could freely mobilize eighteen Black Guard Captains and nearly a hundred constables from the garrisons of all four districts to pursue and encircle Shen Yi.

He had received a report from the constable Sun Lin had sent back.

Knowing that Shen Yi had fled through the northern city gate, he immediately gathered all the captains and constables to close in from the north.

He himself led a group of men, following the marks Sun Lin and Ma Cheng had left behind all the way to this place.

However, when Cui Kui saw the four corpses stretched across the ground, his eyes narrowed at once, and a trace of shock flashed through them.

They had still come too late.

The Black Guard Captains and constables beside Cui Kui moved swiftly, immediately searching the cave and examining the four corpses.

Before long, a Captain came forward to report:

"Reporting to Squad Leader."

"All four died of saber wounds. Their dry rations and money were taken. This man's saber techniques are vicious and ruthless. It must have been that villain Shen Yi."

Cui Kui was inwardly shocked.

Leaving aside the two constables, he could clearly see the bodies of Sun Lin and Ma Cheng clad in black.

Anyone qualified to wear black was undoubtedly a martial artist who had entered the ranks.

Shen Yi had faced two such martial artists and still managed to kill them instead? How had he never heard that the garrison under his jurisdiction had such a man?

Though Cui Kui was astonished,

he remained confident.

It was not as if Cui Kui had never seen fiercer or more vicious criminals. But the Pacification Office had great numbers and an established inheritance.

They were far beyond comparison with these scattered wanderers of the martial world.

More importantly, Cui Kui had no son of his own and had always treated Niu Ben as his biological child.

Not only had he spoiled him within the garrison, he had even secretly left the inner art transmitted by the Pacification Office for Niu Ben to practice.

He had also built him a hidden chamber with mechanisms to store the manuals.

But now Niu Ben was dead.

The inner art manual had likely fallen into Shen Yi's hands as well.

No matter what, he had to capture Shen Yi and bring him to justice, then try all seventy-two tortures of the Imperial Prison on Shen Yi one by one.

He would let him experience what it meant to be worse off than dead!

"Squad Leader!"

"Footprints were found over there. After killing and robbing them, the criminal must have fled into the mountains," another Black Guard reported after returning from scouting the surroundings.

Cui Kui waved his hand.

"Fire the signal arrows! Have the brothers converge on us, and we will continue tracking him along the route!"