Wrapping Up, Unexpected Gains

With a crisp sound like clashing metal, Lu Yuan felt his long blade shudder violently in his grip.

He looked up to see that the projectile was neither an arrow nor a hidden weapon like a throwing dart, but a small iron bead the size of a peanut.

Though the bead failed to pierce through the blade, it had embedded itself firmly, leaving a web of cracks spreading across the steel.

This ordinary long blade, purchased from a blacksmith for half a tael of silver, had not even been in use for a few days before sustaining such damage.

It was fortunate that the blade had blocked the strike; had the iron bead truly hit Lu Yuan, it would surely have punched a bloody hole straight through him.

This destructive power is arguably on par with a bullet fired from a handgun!

Lu Yuan's gaze tightened. With no time to overthink, he swung his blade and charged forward.

The man who had attacked him with the iron bead was a middle-aged man with the build of a scrawny monkey.

"Swish! Swish!"

Seeing Lu Yuan charging directly at him, the monkey-like man hurriedly flicked his fingers in succession, sending two more iron beads whistling through the air.

Although these beads were slower than actual bullets, they still reached Lu Yuan in the span of a single breath.

Without a moment's hesitation, Lu Yuan lunged sharply to the left.

Under the circulation of his blood energy, his hearing had reached its peak; while he could not yet truly "listen to the wind to discern position," he could at least barely dodge the incoming beads.

Lu Yuan continued his charge toward the man, ten paces, nine paces...

"Swish! Swish! Swish!"

After dodging three more incoming beads with narrow leans to the left and right, Lu Yuan finally reached a distance of five paces from the man.

Without hesitation, he pulled an object from his robes and hurled it forcefully at his opponent.

"Bang!"

The man instantly flicked his finger, firing another iron bead that struck the object mid-air.

In an instant, a massive cloud of red and white powder exploded outward.

The man was almost entirely engulfed by the red and white dust.

"Ah... Hiss..."

The man raised his hands to clutch his eyes tightly, letting out continuous cries of pain.

Strike while the iron is hot!

"Splurt!"

A cold flash of steel sliced through the air, and a head rolled to the ground.

"Hoo!"

Lu Yuan exhaled a long breath, then leaned over to quickly search the man's headless corpse.

After fishing out about six or seven taels of silver, he stuffed them, along with the small pouch of iron beads from the man's waist, into his own robes.

"It's over!"

Lu Yuan turned his head and saw that everyone else was also searching the corpses on the ground, though they didn't seem to have found much of value.

Of the dozens of bandits, aside from a few who had fled in the chaos, almost the entire group had been wiped out, including the burly man with the twin axes; not one remained alive.

As for the caravan, not only were the Song Academy martial disciples like Wu Yu, Chen Pi, and Gu Ming all alive and kicking, but even the guards—who had never faced the bandits directly—had not lost a single hair.

As for Hong Lei and Fang Chang, the prized pupils of Master Song, they were naturally unscathed, having been personally guarded by a high-level master of the Transformation Realm.

"I killed three bandits, how about you guys?"

Chen Yong, his face stained with blood, asked the group with excitement.

"I got two!"

"Me too!"

"Heh heh... I got four!"

Wu Yu, Chen Pi, Gu Ming, and the others were all more excited than the last, despite having just experienced a bloody battle.

Even though many of them bore minor injuries, they ignored them entirely.

"I got five!"

Wang Liang wiped his blade, a triumphant smile on his face.

"I guess you're the best!"

The group cast looks of surprise toward Wang Liang in unison.

It seemed they would have to work even harder to cultivate the Wind-Breaking Blade Technique and reach the entry level as soon as possible.

"A-Yuan, how many did you kill?"

Chen Pi asked Lu Yuan with curiosity.

"Four!"

Lu Yuan replied directly.

However, although he had only killed four, the skinny, monkey-like man at the end was no ordinary bandit; he was likely a minor leader at the Mingjin level.

His technique for flicking iron beads was even highly likely to be a specialized skill.

Yet, his greatest gain from this battle was not killing a Mingjin-level bandit leader, but the six or seven taels of broken silver he had obtained from the man's body.

For this alone, he considered the trip well worth it.

If he added the five taels of reward money and the two taels he had left over previously, it would be enough for him to arrange three or five medicinal decoctions to assist his cultivation once he returned.

There was also that small bag of iron beads, which might fetch a bit more money as well.

After a quick cleanup, the caravan continued to speed through the night.

"Six taels and three mace of silver in total; a Mingjin-level bandit leader is indeed much wealthier than an ordinary bandit!"

After carefully counting his spoils, Lu Yuan couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

Although Chen Pi and the others had also searched all the ordinary bandits, they had gained at most a few dozen to a hundred copper coins, far less than his bountiful harvest.

After stowing away the silver, Lu Yuan took out the small bag of iron beads again.

Although he had quickly dispatched the skinny man and remained unscathed, the encounter had actually been quite perilous.

If he hadn't already completed his first blood-qi tempering to become a Mingjin martial artist, and if his internal blood-qi hadn't been significantly more robust than that of an average Mingjin practitioner, combined with his Five Animals Fist nearing perfection—which made his five senses much sharper than others—he might not have been able to dodge those iron beads as they came whistling toward him one after another.

"Hm?"

Lu Yuan opened the bag and discovered that, besides the iron beads, there was also a palm-sized booklet inside.

He quickly took out the booklet and began to flip through it carefully, his shock growing with every page he turned.

"This really is a specialized skill!"

Lu Yuan closed the booklet, a look of surprise in his eyes as he thought to himself.

The content recorded in the booklet was indeed a specialized skill called the Flick Finger Technique.

Its core was to use the finger as a bow and blood-qi as the string, channeling power to the fingertip before releasing it in an instant to launch an object with unimaginable lethality.

The launched object could be a soybean, a peanut, a water droplet, a grain of rice, or even a small stone or iron bead.

Taking the iron beads as an example, once one mastered the entry level of the Flick Finger Technique, they could accurately hit a target from ten paces away and inflict serious damage.

If one reached minor or major completion, they could easily hit whatever they aimed at from dozens of paces away.

Once perfected, one could strike without fail from a hundred paces away.

Lu Yuan had originally thought that the windfall of six taels and three mace of silver was the greatest gain of this escort mission, but he hadn't expected an even bigger surprise.

It was no exaggeration to say that with this Flick Finger Technique, his offensive capabilities would surely increase significantly.

Once he cultivated it to perfection, he would be able to kill enemies with a flick of his finger from a hundred paces away without needing to get close.

He could even fire in rapid succession, making it impossible for enemies to defend against.

It was fortunate that the skinny man had only mastered the entry level of the Flick Finger Technique, as his speed and force had not yet reached their peak; otherwise, he might not have survived that battle unscathed.