Throat-Sealing Sword Technique, Lifespan Weapon Forging

"Ah..."

Amidst the startled cries.

The Han Army soldiers piled at the mouth of the alley retreated in a panicked roar, scattering rapidly into a semicircle.

Zhao Cheng stepped slowly out of the alley, shrouded in a foul wind, a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood trailing behind him.

For every step he took forward, the Han Army soldiers retreated two.

A massive, widening semicircle formed between the two sides.

Wen Mao stood in the rear, watching everything with a hollow soul.

He shuddered as if suddenly jolted awake, realizing that of the two thousand troops he had brought, more than half were gone, leaving only six or seven hundred.

The surroundings felt suddenly empty.

He swallowed hard, watching that figure with immense trepidation.

Seeing him walk outward, a lethal sense of crisis descended upon him, the scent of death instantly suffocating him, and he turned to flee.

"Retreat! Retreat quickly! Have the General mobilize the main army to surround and annihilate him!"

Seeing Wen Mao take the lead in fleeing, the Han Army soldiers broke into a rout as well.

They ran with extreme speed, extreme haste, and extreme wretchedness, completely oblivious to the fact that not long ago, they had been sneering at and berating the night watchmen for doing the exact same thing.

Yet now, they were no different from those deserters, perhaps even worse.

In the distance, the earlier deserters saw this scene and turned to run without looking back.

Occupying advantageous positions, they ran even further than those in front.

As they ran, they cursed, "I knew it, damn it!"

"Bullshit garrison troops; when facing this Sha, no one stands a chance!"

"If you've got the guts, why don't you stop running, you bastards!"

Zhao Cheng pursued them, cutting into the rear of the fleeing soldiers and slaughtering nearly a hundred more, terrifying the thousands into wailing for their parents and scrambling for their lives.

It was not until they were about to flee into the camp beneath the city walls that the sound of death gradually faded.

When they looked back, Zhao Cheng had already withdrawn, silently melting into the darkness.

All the deserters immediately collapsed to the ground, the feeling of surviving a catastrophe leaving them utterly drained.

On the other side.

Zhao Cheng swaggered back to the government office and jumped into the water storage well to wash away the bloodstains from his body.

When he climbed back out, he felt refreshed, once again becoming the hunter of the city.

The hunter walked familiarly to the kitchen of the county office, retrieved the only two remaining fresh wild roe deer and a jar of sealed wine.

He then went to the storehouse, packed up all the remaining dried meat, and left the government office carrying a bulging cloth bag.

The cool breeze carries promise, the autumn moon is boundless.

Facing the night wind, he drank his wine and strolled leisurely through the city toward the residential area in the southeast.

By now, the night watchmen and garrison troops in the city had been scared out of their wits and had retreated to the camp under the city walls.

The entire city was devoid of any defense; walking the streets was empty and desolate, truly a land with no one to stop him.

In his contentment, Zhao Cheng opened the system to take a look.

[By killing enemies, you have explored a lethal sword technique. Please name the sword technique.]

Zhao Cheng thought for a moment; for a sword technique that involved such close-quarters combat and sealed the throat upon drawing blood, "How about we call it Throat-Sealing."

A single sword to seal the throat, a sword to seal one's rank.

Let it be called the Throat-Sealing Sword Technique.

[Throat-Sealing Sword Technique: Beginner.]

[Throat-Sealing Sword Technique: Minor Achievement.]

"Huh? It reached Minor Achievement just after starting? It seems the massive amount of killing earlier helped the sword technique progress very quickly."

"I'll deduce it further when I get back to see if practicing the Throat-Sealing Sword Technique without killing has any effect."

"Regardless, after killing all night, my lifespan should have accumulated quite a bit."

"At the very least, I definitely have enough for a Marrow Cleansing Pill."

Zhao Cheng looked at the lifespan column in the system and revealed a smile.

[Current remaining lifespan: 18,564 years]

[Total lifespan has exceeded ten thousand years, unlocking the Lifespan Weapon Forging function!]

"Huh? Not only do I have the Marrow Cleansing Pill, but the system also unlocked a new function. This haul is very profitable; being a deep-cover agent is truly great..."

Zhao Cheng began to grow fond of the feeling of being an infiltrator.

Deep behind enemy lines, one could do whatever one pleased.

Not only could one kill to one's heart's content, but one could also improve the quality of their meals.

He weighed the dried meat and the roe deer on his shoulders, stepping into the civilian residence with a grin. Feng Quan and Feng Ruo were already waiting in the courtyard, and they immediately stepped forward upon seeing him.

"My Lord, are you unharmed?"

"What could possibly happen to me?" Zhao Cheng laughed, tossing the roe deer and dried meat from his pack to Feng Quan. "Returned with a full haul! We're going to eat well tonight!"

Seeing Zhao Cheng as relaxed as ever, without a single scratch on his body, his eyes bright with spirit and his movements full of vigor, Feng Quan and Feng Ruo realized he had returned completely unscathed and laden with spoils.

He even had the spare energy to think about bringing them meat to eat.

In that instant, their hearts surged with emotion, their reverence flowing like an endless, torrential river.

Was this not the very definition of looking up to a mountain of a man?

"The Lord's divine might is peerless!"

The two of them had been lurking in the city, trembling with fear; while they didn't know every detail of the massive commotion that had erupted, they knew enough.

They understood that for anyone else, this would have been a near-death experience. Even if they had managed to return alive, they would have been half-dead—how could anyone be as carefree as Zhao Cheng?

Zhao Cheng waved a hand. "Process the roe deer."

Feng Quan and Feng Ruo immediately set to work, acting with great enthusiasm.

Zhao Cheng sat on a bamboo chair in the residence, drinking wine and gazing at the moon. "How did your reconnaissance go?"

Feng Quan replied, "The strength of the city's defenses and the weak points in the wall foundations have all been mapped out."

Zhao Cheng nodded. "That is good. Tomorrow, we can send word for the General to breach the city."

Feng Quan and Feng Ruo were startled. "Tomorrow? So soon?"

Zhao Cheng asked curiously, "Is that fast?"

Setting everything else aside, with his current level of skill, breaking open the city gates from the inside during a full-scale assault would not be a difficult task.

However, even if the gates were breached, a direct siege was still highly inefficient, and the casualties among the Qin Army soldiers would undoubtedly be significant.

If there was a way to minimize losses, there was no need for the main army to force an assault.

After the battle at the Mountain Pass, where dozens of comrades who had fought side-by-side with him had perished, Zhao Cheng had long since realized this truth.

Furthermore, the arrival of the main army might even scare the enemy into surrendering directly, at which point there would be nothing left for him to do.

"This..."

Feng Quan found it hard to believe.

Zhao Cheng said, "You just need to deliver the intelligence and pass on my message while you're at it."

"As for the rest, you don't need to worry about it."

Feng Quan nodded. "This subordinate understands."

Zhao Cheng looked unfathomable, but when he lowered his head to glance at the fire, he couldn't sit still any longer.

"Move aside! The way you're roasting this meat, I could do a better job with my feet!"

"You've nearly ruined this roe deer!"

Zhao Cheng took over the roasting himself, while Feng Quan and Feng Ruo watched from the side, feeling somewhat apprehensive.

Feng Ruo gathered his courage and said, "My Lord, let me do it."

Zhao Cheng scolded, "Watch closely and learn! If you roast it this poorly next time, I'll have both your heads!"

The two were stunned into silence.

They had braved mountains of blades and seas of fire; how unjust would it be to be executed over a piece of roasted meat?

However, they held Zhao Cheng in such awe that they began to study his technique with great seriousness, gradually discovering the nuances and nodding to themselves in secret.

By the time the roe deer was charred on the outside and tender on the inside, its skin golden and sizzling with fat, the two were already swallowing their saliva, praising him from the bottom of their hearts.

"The Lord is truly the Lord; even in the art of roasting meat, he is so refined. There is nothing he cannot do."

Zhao Cheng was quite proud of his roasting skills, and the flattery hit the mark.

"Hmph, the North City Garrison cheated me out of my wild rabbits and roe deer earlier today, leaving me with only a single bite, and you two didn't get to taste any either."

"Tonight, we've collected a bit of interest."

He lifted the roasted roe deer from the fire, flicked his hunting knife, and the meat was divided into several portions.

The three of them drank wine and feasted to their hearts' content.

It was a hearty, satisfying meal.

Zhao Cheng ate one and a half roe deer, then roasted some dried meat, feeling fully satiated.

Ever since his Qi Body Refining had reached a certain level, his appetite was no longer as voracious as it once was.

Before, his body had been overly powerful, relying entirely on his life force to sustain it, and that life force could only be condensed from food.

Therefore, he had to eat a lot to maintain the body's requirements.

But now, through breathing and meditation, he was absorbing the vital energy of heaven and earth at every moment, replenishing the energy consumed by his physical movements.

Thus, even if he did not eat for a long time, he would not feel hungry.

After all, even two roasted roe deer contained pitifully little energy compared to a mass of vital energy.

"Alright, you two go get some rest; we have to rise early tomorrow to head up the mountain."

Feng Ruo and Feng Quan went off to rest.

Zhao Cheng returned to his room and began to study the new function of the system.

Lifespan Weapon Forging: Consume lifespan to forge weapons and armaments.

Forgeable weapon types: blades, spears, swords, halberds, axes, battle-axes, hooks, forks...

Forgeable weapon grades: Crude, Hundred-Refined, Precision Cast, Treasure Weapon, Divine Weapon, Spirit Weapon...

"So many?"

Zhao Cheng was instantly dazzled; the variety of weapon types alone was all-encompassing.

And looking at the quality, there was an even longer list.

Beyond the Spirit Weapon grade, the required lifespan was so high he couldn't even count the digits, so he simply stopped looking.

After roughly browsing for a while, he finally understood the general gist.

The so-called

Crude

.

It was comparable in quality to the weapons used by ordinary soldiers, made of common wrought iron or bronze alloys, possessing a certain degree of toughness and sharpness.

They were decent enough for chopping wood or killing people, but if used to strike iron armor or the like, the edges would roll before long.

However, they were relatively cheap, requiring only one year of lifespan to forge.

The next level up was

Hundred-Refined

.

Weapons of this quality were equivalent to those forged by craftsmen through hundreds of folds and strikes, constantly removing impurities to make the weapon exceptionally tough and sturdy. They could snap the weapons of ordinary soldiers, though they would still suffer some wear and tear.

A single piece required ten years of lifespan to forge.

This tier alone provided a significant boost to Zhao Cheng.

It was sturdy enough to support him in slaughtering large numbers of enemies on the battlefield without needing to constantly replace his weapon.

However, there was an even better

Precision Cast

.

This quality was already considered a masterpiece of craftsmanship.

Through thousands of hammerings and exquisite quenching, the weapons were made incredibly sturdy and tough while remaining exceptionally sharp.

They could even slice through a hair blown against the edge, snap a bronze sword without suffering the slightest damage, and cut through pig iron as smoothly as slicing tofu.

Such a Precision Cast weapon required one thousand years of lifespan to forge.

As for the

Treasure Weapon

, it was exactly as the name implied.

Each one could be called a treasure rarely seen in a century.

Their materials were special, being either extraterrestrial black iron or meteorite iron from the seas, and the forging ratios were perfected to the pinnacle.

Each one could be considered the life's work of a master smith, forged only by chance after decades of painstaking effort.

If it were a sword, it could be called a Treasure Sword; if a blade, a Treasure Blade.

Even high-ranking officials and nobles rarely obtained such blades, and once they did, they would keep them as lifelong collections.

Forging one required ten thousand years of lifespan—it was outrageously expensive.

Divine Weapon

, a term familiar to all.

Gan Jiang and Mo Ye, Chunjun and Zhanlu, Yuchang and Gelu, Juque and Xuanyuan, Longquan and Taie, the Green Dragon Crescent Blade, the Painted Halberd...