Throat-Sealing Sword Technique, Lifespan Weapon Forging

"Ah..."

Amid the cries of alarm.

The Han soldiers crowding the mouth of the alley panicked and fell back in a great rush, scattering rapidly into a semicircle.

Zhao Cheng emerged slowly from the alley, wrapped in a bloody wind, with a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood behind him.

With every step he took forward, the Han soldiers retreated two steps.

A vast semicircle opened up between them, spreading rapidly outward.

Wen Mao stood at the rear, staring at it all in a daze.

He suddenly shuddered as if jolted awake. Only then did he realize that most of the two thousand troops he had brought were gone. Barely six or seven hundred remained.

The space around him seemed much emptier.

He swallowed, staring at that figure in utter dread.

As the man came toward them, a deadly sense of danger descended over him. The breath of death instantly choked him, and he turned and ran.

"Retreat! Retreat, quickly! Have the general send a large army to surround and wipe him out!"

When they saw Wen Mao leading the flight, the Han army broke and fled after him.

They ran fast, in a frantic, disheveled rout. They had completely forgotten that not long before, they had mocked and cursed the night patrolmen for doing the same.

Now they were no different from those deserters—if anything, even worse.

In the distance, some of the deserters from earlier saw what was happening and turned to run without looking back.

They had the advantage of their position and ran farther than the men ahead of them.

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

"Some damned city garrison! Against this baleful fiend, no one stands a chance!"

"If you've got the guts, then don't you fucking run!"

Zhao Cheng pursued them, charging in from behind the fleeing soldiers. He cut down nearly a hundred more, terrifying a thousand men into wailing for their parents and scrambling to escape.

Only when they were nearly back at the camp beneath the city did the sounds of death gradually fade away.

When they looked back, Zhao Cheng had already withdrawn, silently melting into the darkness.

All the fleeing soldiers immediately sat down on the ground, feeling so drained by their narrow escape that their legs nearly gave way.

Elsewhere.

Zhao Cheng sauntered back to the Government Office and jumped into its water-storage well, washing the blood from his body.

When he climbed out, he was clean and refreshed, once again the hunter from the city.

The hunter made his way to the county kitchen as if he knew it by heart, took the only two fresh roe deer left, and grabbed a jar of sealed liquor.

He also went to the storehouse and packed up every last scrap of dried meat. Only then did he leave the Government Office with his cloth bundle packed full.

The autumn breeze carried a promise, and the autumn moon stretched boundlessly across the sky.

He strolled through the city into the night wind, drinking as he went, heading for the residence in the southeast.

The city's night patrolmen and garrison troops had been so terrified by him that they had retreated to the camp beneath the walls.

There wasn't even a hint of defense anywhere in the city. The streets were empty and deserted—it was truly a place without a soul.

In the midst of his pleasant stroll, Zhao Cheng opened the system to take a look.

[By slaying enemies, you have figured out a Killing Sword Technique. Please name the technique.]

Zhao Cheng thought it over. For a sword technique used at close quarters, where blood flowed and a single strike sealed the throat, "How about calling it Throat Sealer?"

One sword to seal the throat, a sword to seal a marquis's fate.

It would be called the Throat-Sealing Sword.

[Throat-Sealing Sword Technique: Beginner.]

[Throat-Sealing Sword Technique: Minor Achievement.]

"Huh? It reached minor achievement as soon as I learned it. It looks like all that killing earlier helped the sword technique improve quickly."

"I'll test it again once I'm back and see whether practicing the Throat-Sealing Sword Technique works without killing anyone."

"After killing all night, I should have built up quite a lot of lifespan."

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

Zhao Cheng glanced at the lifespan section of the system, a smile appearing on his face.

[Remaining lifespan: 18,564 years]

[Total lifespan has exceeded ten thousand years. Lifespan Weapon Forging function unlocked!]

"Huh? Not only do I have enough for a Marrow Cleansing Pill, but the system has unlocked a new function too. This was a great haul. Being a Death Spy really is great..."

Zhao Cheng had begun to enjoy being a spy.

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

He could kill to his heart's content and improve his meals, too.

He hefted the dried meat and roe deer on his shoulder, then happily stepped into the residence. Feng Quan and Feng Ruo had been waiting in the courtyard for some time. They hurried over as soon as they saw him.

"My lord, are you all right?"

"What could possibly happen to me?" Zhao Cheng said with a smile, tossing the roe deer and dried meat from his bundle to Feng Quan. "I came back with a full haul! Let's improve our meals!"

Seeing Zhao Cheng as carefree as ever, without a single wound on him, his eyes shining and his every movement full of vigor, Feng Quan and Feng Ruo could tell he had returned with everything intact—and a full haul at that.

He had even had enough time to bring them meat.

Their hearts surged with admiration, their reverence flowing on like the endless waters of a great river.

So this was what it meant to gaze up at a towering mountain!

"My lord is mighty!"

The two of them had been hiding in the city with their hearts in their throats. They might not have known every detail of the enormous commotion in the city, but they had heard plenty.

They knew that anyone else would have faced nine deaths and one life. Even if they survived, they would have come back half-dead. How could anyone return as casually as Zhao Cheng had?

Zhao Cheng waved a hand. "Get the roe deer ready."

Feng Quan and Feng Ruo immediately set to work preparing the roe deer, both of them eager to help.

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

Feng Quan replied, "We've figured out the city's defenses, as well as the weak points in the wall's foundations."

Zhao Cheng nodded. "Good. Then tomorrow, we can send word to the general to take the city."

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

Zhao Cheng looked puzzled. "How is that soon?"

At his current level, even forcing the city gates open from the inside wouldn't be all that difficult.

Still, even if they opened the gates, storming a city was a poor bargain. The Qin Army would suffer heavy casualties.

There was no need to launch a full assault if they had a way to reduce their losses.

After the battle at the mountain pass, dozens of comrades who had fought shoulder to shoulder with him had died. Zhao Cheng had long since come to understand that.

Besides, the arrival of the main army might scare the enemy into surrendering outright. If that happened, there would be nothing left for him to do.

"This..."

Feng Quan found it hard to believe.

Zhao Cheng said, "Just pass the intelligence along, and make sure you deliver my message."

"You don't need to worry about anything else."

Feng Quan nodded. "Understood."

Zhao Cheng looked inscrutable, then glanced down at the fire. In an instant, he couldn't sit still.

"Move aside! You call that roasting meat? I could do a better job with my feet!"

"You nearly ruined the roe deer meat!"

Zhao Cheng took over and roasted the meat himself. Feng Quan and Feng Ruo watched eagerly from the side, feeling somewhat uneasy.

Feng Ruo summoned his courage. "My lord, let me do it instead."

Zhao Cheng scolded him. "Watch closely and learn. If you roast it this badly next time, I'll cut the both of you down!"

The two men were left speechless.

They had braved mountains of blades and seas of fire. How wronged they would feel if they were cut down over roasted meat...

Still, they held Zhao Cheng in great awe, so they began to study him with utter seriousness. Gradually, they noticed the knack of it and couldn't help nodding to themselves.

By the time the roe deer was crisp on the outside and tender within, its skin golden and gleaming with sizzling fat,

Feng Quan and Feng Ruo were swallowing repeatedly, their praise coming straight from the heart.

"My lord truly is my lord. You're a master even at roasting meat—it seems there's nothing you don't know!"

Zhao Cheng was rather proud of his roasting skills, and the flattery had hit just the right spot.

"Hmph. Those North City Garrison bastards cost me my hare and roe deer today, so I only got a single bite for myself, and neither of you got any."

"Tonight, we've at least collected a little interest."

He lifted the roasted roe deer from the fire. With a flick of his hunting knife, it was divided into several pieces.

The three of them drank as they ate their fill.

They enjoyed a hearty, thoroughly satisfying meal.

Zhao Cheng ate one and a half roasted roe deer, then roasted some dried meat as well. By the end, he felt full.

Ever since he had mastered Qi Body Refining, his appetite had stopped being as enormous as it used to be.

Before, his body had been too powerful, supported entirely by his blood and qi, which could only be condensed from food.

So he had needed to eat more just to keep his body going.

But now, he absorbed Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi with every breath, replenishing the energy his body consumed as it moved.

So even if he went without food for a long time, he wouldn't feel hungry.

After all, compared with a mass of Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi, even two roasted roe deer contained pitifully little energy.

"All right, go get some rest. We'll need to get up early and head into the mountains tomorrow."

Feng Quan and Feng Ruo went to rest.

Zhao Cheng returned to his room and began studying the system's new function.

[Lifespan Weapon Forging: Spend lifespan to forge weapons and equipment.]

[Available weapon types: sabers, spears, swords, halberds, axes, battle-axes, hooks, tridents...]

[Available weapon grades: Crude, Hundred-Refined, Precision Cast, Treasure Weapon, Divine Weapon, Spirit Weapon...]

"So many?"

Zhao Cheng's eyes nearly went blurry just looking at them. The weapon types alone covered an astonishing range.

The list of grades was even longer.

Once he reached Spirit Weapon, the lifespan requirements were too numerous to count, so he simply stopped looking.

After examining the list for a while, he finally got a rough idea.

The so-called "Crude" grade

was about the same quality as the weapons ordinary soldiers used: made from common wrought iron or bronze alloy, with a certain amount of flexibility and sharpness.

They were good enough for chopping wood and killing people, but if you tried to hack at iron helmets or the like, the edges would soon curl.

They were relatively cheap, though; forging one took only a year of lifespan.

The next grade up was "Hundred-Refined."

Weapons of this quality were made by artisans folding and hammering the metal more than a hundred times, constantly removing impurities until they became exceptionally tough and sturdy. They could break an ordinary soldier's weapon, though they still suffered some wear.

Forging one required ten years of lifespan.

Even this grade alone would be a substantial improvement for Zhao Cheng.

It was sturdy enough to support him through killing many enemies on the battlefield without having to replace his weapon again and again.

But there was an even better grade: "Precision Cast."

Weapons of this grade were already works of master craftsmanship.

Through a thousand hammer blows and careful quenching, they became exceptionally sturdy, tough, and sharp.

They could even cut through hair blown across their edge, break a Bronze Sword without suffering the slightest damage, and slice through pig iron as smoothly as cutting tofu.

Forging a Precision Cast weapon required a thousand years of lifespan.

As for "Treasure Weapons," the name said it all.

Every one was a treasure rarely seen even once in a century.

Their materials were extraordinary: either meteoric iron from beyond the heavens or meteorite iron from the sea. The proportions used in their forging were exquisitely precise as well.

Each one could be called the life's work of a master smith, a weapon that might only be forged by chance after decades of painstaking labor.

A sword of this grade could be called a treasured sword, and a saber one a treasured saber.

Even nobles and officials rarely obtained such a sword. Anyone who did would keep it for the rest of their life.

Forging one cost ten thousand years of lifespan. The price was outrageous.

"Divine Weapons"—a familiar name.

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