With the seventh-grade Exotic Beast Meat won by the Red-Skinned Ascetic, the Black Market auction drew to a close.
Zhang Meng took Li Beichen to pay the six hundred taels in silver notes.
They left with ten jin of ninth-grade Exotic Beast Meat, along with the manual and small swords for Shuriken.
Lady Li even gave Li Beichen a Sword Pouch as an extra gift.
Made of cowhide, it was like a belt that could be wrapped around the waist. Hidden pockets inside could hold eighteen small swords.
It was quite ingenious.
Zhang Meng stared at it, dumbfounded.
"You brat, don't tell me Lady Li really has her eye on you. I've never seen her give anyone anything before."
"Wait, that's not right. Old Seven, you're wearing a mask. She can't even see what you look like."
"Senior Brother, there's such a thing as charisma..."
"Get out of here..."
By the time Li Beichen returned to Jinglong District, the moon was already high in the sky.
The watchman's clapper sounded in the distance.
It was already the Hour of the Rat.
He wasn't in a hurry to sleep.
He went to the kitchen and carefully sliced off a piece of ninth-grade Exotic Beast Meat.
He roasted it lightly over charcoal.
Then he sprinkled on a little salt.
A rich meaty aroma filled the room.
His mouth instantly began to water.
He didn't even mind that it was hot, and popped it straight into his mouth.
He chewed slowly.
"Delicious! Absolutely delicious!"
Li Beichen couldn't help praising it.
As soon as he swallowed, a wave of heat spread through his body.
Li Beichen studied the sensation, a trace of surprise appearing on his face.
"This is several times as potent as the Black-White Strange Pig!"
Li Beichen estimated that one jin of dried Black-White Strange Pig meat might only be equivalent to three liang of this Exotic Beast Meat.
After thinking it over, he felt the difference probably came from the Black-White Strange Pig's special effect on the spirit.
Li Beichen went to the front courtyard and practiced the Giant Elephant Fist twice.
He found that this was indeed the case.
After eating dried Black-White Strange Pig meat, he was not only full of energy; more importantly, his mind was clear and his senses keen.
After training, he never felt mentally exhausted.
But after eating the Exotic Beast Meat he had bought at the Black Market auction, he felt a hint of drowsiness after practicing twice.
Its effects were completely different from those of the Black-White Strange Pig.
Moreover, after eating Black-White Strange Pig meat for so long, Li Beichen had clearly noticed that his memory was better than before.
He had thought it was because of his training.
Now, it seemed more likely that the Black-White Strange Pig was responsible.
From Meng Juxiang's few words about Spirit-Refining Martial Artists, Li Beichen knew the Black-White Strange Pig was probably worth far more than he had imagined.
"Good stuff should be eaten as soon as possible."
Li Beichen made up his mind to finish the dried meat quickly and not let a word of it slip.
The next day, Li Beichen opened the manual documenting Shuriken.
Inside, lines of tiny characters had been written with a wolf-hair brush.
There were even diagrams, with arrows indicating how to apply force.
The instructions were extremely detailed.
After reading through it once, several lines of small text appeared before his eyes.
[Technique: Shuriken (Novice Practice)]
[Progress: (0/100)]
[Traits: None]
Li Beichen set up a straw target in the courtyard, took out a small sword, and tried throwing it using the Shuriken technique.
With his foundation in Locust Stone, his eyesight and aim were precise.
Though it was his first time practicing Shuriken, the small sword still struck the straw target squarely.
A trickle of insight welled up in his mind.
The Shuriken progress on his panel quietly increased by one.
Li Beichen realized that, unlike Locust Stone, which made a sharp whooshing sound as it flew, the small sword was very quiet when thrown.
Its sound was hard to distinguish in a noisy environment.
He took the small sword from the straw target and examined it closely in his hand.
Though it looked like a sword, it had some unusual features.
The tip wasn't a simple triangle; it was rounder, like a spike.
A few small fins extended from the end of the hilt, like the feathers on an arrow.
This design made the Shuriken more discreet and stable in flight. With the same amount of force, it had half again the killing range of a Locust Stone.
"Looks like I'll need to find a blacksmith to make a batch of these small swords."
Li Beichen made a note of it, then returned to practicing.
Li Beichen found that his Shuriken progress was remarkably fast. After just one day, his panel gave him a notification.
[Technique: Shuriken (First Glimpse of the Way)]
[Progress: (0/200)]
[Traits: Wrist Strength Slightly Increased; within thirty paces, hits a stationary target ten times out of ten and a moving target six or seven times out of ten]
A stream of heat surged into Li Beichen's wrist from somewhere unseen, strengthening it further.
Looking at the small text on the panel, Li Beichen raised an eyebrow.
"Shuriken really is extraordinary. Even at First Glimpse of the Way, its traits surpass Locust Stone's Threshold of Mastery. And with Locust Stone as a foundation, my Shuriken progress is especially fast."
"Looks like this technique will soon be useful in a fight."
In the days that followed, Li Beichen devoted most of his energy to practicing the Giant Elephant Fist, but also set aside some time to hone his Shuriken technique.
The Giant Elephant Fist was at Slight Mastery. Reaching the next level, Mastery and Integration, would take another thousand points of progress.
Li Beichen estimated that at his current pace, it would take two or three months.
As for Shuriken, it reached Threshold of Mastery just three days later, and after ten days, it had advanced straight to Slight Mastery.
Li Beichen rubbed his chin, feeling the bristles of his green stubble, and curiously examined the two newly generated traits.
[Technique: Shuriken (Slight Mastery)]
[Progress: (0/1000)]
[Traits: Sharpness, Bow-Like]
[Sharpness: Sharp swords, sharp eyes; greatly increases accuracy]
[Bow-Like: The body is like a great bow, the thunderstring sings; greatly increases killing power]
Just now, Li Beichen had felt his eyesight grow stronger again. Even tiny things like mosquitoes, fifty paces away, were clearly visible to him down to the feathers on their wings.
Li Beichen knew this change came from Sharpness.
As for Bow-Like, Li Beichen felt that, under the unseen stream of heat, the major tendons inside his body had developed new pathways, stretching toward one another.
He applied a little force and felt his whole body draw tight like a longbow, his major tendons serving as the bowstring.
In an instant, he could unleash immense strength.
"These traits don't just improve my Shuriken technique. They also greatly improve my Giant Elephant Fist."
Powerful contraction and expansion of the fascia, a ferocious burst of force, and increased speed.
These were signs of the Eighth Grade Muscle Refining realm.
Li Beichen's two-courtyard residence had an Outer Courtyard that was sixty paces wide at its broadest.
He placed the straw target at the farthest point and set a copper coin on it.
From sixty paces away, he raised his hand and the Shuriken shot across the distance in an instant, passing precisely through the coin's hole and splitting the whole coin in two.
Li Beichen tried many times, and never once missed.
Moreover, at a distance of sixty paces, he could even pierce the straw target with all his strength and pin the small sword into the earthen wall.
This power was already quite impressive.
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