Perfection

Chen Mu had expected that taking in Wang Ni would bring some trouble, but the trouble had come even faster than he had anticipated.

Only three evenings after he took Wang Ni in, someone came knocking.

"Something you need?"

Chen Mu pulled open the door and saw a man with a rather shifty, rat-faced look standing outside.

When the man saw Chen Mu, he rubbed his hands together and said with a smile, "You must be Runner Chen, sir. I am Wang Zhao. I heard that my uncle passed away a few days ago, and that Runner Chen helped lay him to rest. As his nephew, I only just heard the news. I truly feel ashamed. I must thank Runner Chen for not leaving my uncle's body to rot in the wilderness."

As he spoke, he forced out an expression of grief.

Chen Mu said evenly, "Just call me Chen Mu. Old Man Wang and I were neighbors, so there is no need for such courtesy."

Old Man Wang had died, and Chen Mu had handled the matter quietly at the time, barely disturbing the neighbors. Yet in less than three days, Old Man Wang's distant relatives had come knocking. They had probably rushed over as soon as they heard the news.

Chen Mu had also asked Wang Ni about some things. Ever since trouble had befallen Old Man Wang's family, none of those so-called distant relatives—including Wang Zhao before him—had ever come to visit. Now that the man was dead, they had immediately appeared. There was no need to guess what they wanted.

Sure enough.

After putting on a show of mourning, Wang Zhao immediately peered into the house. "My niece is only ten years old, and now she has lost both her father and mother. As her uncle, I cannot let her drift alone. I must thank you for looking after her these past few days."

As he spoke,

he called into the house, "Ni Er, I am your distant cousin-uncle. I've come to take you home."

Wang Ni had been staying with Chen Yue. Upon hearing Wang Zhao's words, she immediately shivered slightly and looked hesitantly at Chen Yue beside her. Chen Yue showed a thoughtful expression, then lowered her head and whispered something into her ear.

Wang Ni nodded somewhat dejectedly, then walked to the doorway and softly called, "Cousin-uncle."

Chen Mu watched this unfold without much change in expression. He merely looked warmly at Wang Ni and said, "Little Sister Ni Er, do you want to go back with your cousin-uncle, or live here with Big Sister Yue Er?"

In truth, Chen Mu had not gone through many of the formalities of taking Wang Ni in, including changing her household registration. In the past, the usual procedure would have been either adoption or entering her into slave registration.

But now that official governance had decayed, those rules existed in name only. In other words... the final say belonged to the powerful and privileged.

Chen Mu roughly knew what this distant cousin-uncle Wang Zhao was after. He had hurried here so anxiously because he likely wanted to snatch Wang Ni away before Chen Mu registered her under his household. After all, Chen Mu was only a yamen runner, not one of the powerful and privileged.

"Grandpa told me to listen to Brother Mu in everything."

Wang Ni curled half her body behind Chen Mu's back, revealing only half her little head as she spoke softly, not quite daring to look at Wang Zhao.

At her age, she could not truly distinguish many things. Yet no matter what, she knew that these distant relatives of Wang Zhao's had never visited Old Man Wang. She had barely seen them a few times in her life; to her, they were practically strangers.

Compared to Chen Mu, who had saved her in her time of danger, and compared to what Old Man Wang had told her, there was still a little clarity in her little heart.

Hearing Wang Ni's answer, Chen Mu smiled faintly.

Wang Zhao's expression, however, immediately turned unpleasant.

Chen Mu looked at Wang Zhao and said calmly, "Before Old Man Wang passed, he entrusted Little Sister Ni Er to my care. I have already agreed. Yue Er likes this child as well and has always treated her as a little sister."

Wang Zhao's face darkened. "Since Uncle said so, then I'll trouble Runner Chen to care for Little Sister Ni Er for a few more days. But I recall that Uncle should have left behind a deed to the house..."

If it had been Old Man Wang's dying wish, and Wang Ni herself felt this way, then forcibly taking her would indeed have been improper. Chen Mu was still a yamen runner, after all. But the two old houses Old Man Wang's family had left behind could not possibly be handed over to outsiders.

Seeing that Wang Zhao was no longer bothering to conceal his intentions, Chen Mu gave a cold laugh. "The house deed Old Man Wang left behind naturally belongs to Ni Er. What, are you, her cousin-uncle, planning to seize it by force?"

These words made Wang Zhao's face turn first green, then red. He cast a sidelong glance at the Yamen Saber at Chen Mu's waist, and in the end, he did not dare make a loud scene. He turned and left in resentment.

Watching Wang Zhao's back disappear into the alley, Chen Mu closed the door with an indifferent gaze.

He then turned to Chen Yue, who came running out from inside, and smiled. "Were you the one who taught Ni Er to answer like that just now?"

"Of course not."

Chen Yue grinned, took Wang Ni by the hand, and wrapped an arm around her as she led her inside. "I only told Little Sister Ni Er not to be afraid, and to say whatever she truly thought."

"Is that so?"

Chen Mu shook his head with a laugh. Looking at the still somewhat innocent Wang Ni and the adorably guileless-looking Chen Yue, he finally felt somewhat at ease. He had never noticed before that Chen Yue was not only gentle and lovely, but also rather shrewd.

Still, that was quite good. At the very least, she would not let herself be taken advantage of.

After eating with Chen Yue and Wang Ni, Chen Mu sent the two of them off to the bedroom while he remained alone in the woodshed. Tonight, he planned to practice his saber through the night.

It was not entirely because that petty man Wang Zhao had suddenly come knocking. He was now less than thirty experience points away from filling the required amount. One night would be more than enough, and he had waited over half a year for this day.

Under the pitch-black night sky, no lamp was lit in the woodshed. One could not see one's fingers before one's face. Yet even without sight, Chen Mu knew the stove, water vat, and everything else in the woodshed like the back of his hand. The saber in his grip flashed up and down, stirring up gust after gust of chaotic wind, yet he remained as steady as a rock, never touching the stove or the walls.

No saber light could be seen before his eyes. Only the ceaseless howl of the wind remained.

"Force..."

Chen Mu murmured inwardly.

To advance further from Major Accomplishment and fully cultivate the Whirlwind Saber Technique to Perfection, he had to comprehend a thread of Saber Force. This so-called force was something profoundly mysterious. Even the manual had never clearly explained what it truly was.

In truth, ever since reaching Major Accomplishment in saber technique, Chen Mu had practiced bitterly for nearly six months. He had hoped to rely on his own effort and comprehension to see whether he could touch that so-called force and break through in one stroke. But the reality was that after six months of practicing saber day after day, other than making his arms stronger and his stamina fuller, nothing else had changed.

The proficiency of the saber technique had already reached its peak at Major Accomplishment.

"Force is the force of wind, the Raging Wind Stance. But how exactly can it be grasped? It is no longer simply a matter of changing techniques."

Chen Mu knew that even someone of mediocre comprehension could cultivate saber techniques to Major Accomplishment through ten years of bitter practice. But the step toward Perfection had trapped countless saber wielders. It was certainly no ordinary step.

Perhaps what was needed was not merely practice and comprehension, but true battle against countless opponents, tempering oneself in every kind of situation, experiencing the razor-thin line between life and death and all its uncertainty—only then could one seize that flash of inspiration, shed the cocoon and become a butterfly, and rise above the rest.

Time passed bit by bit.

Until the next day, when the first ray of dawn shone through the crack in the door into the woodshed, Chen Mu had already sheathed his saber and stood quietly in the center of the room, bathing in that slanting beam of sunlight.

"Looks like I still cannot comprehend it on my own."

After a night of bitter practice, he had ultimately failed to touch the mystery of Saber Force. But when he considered how many people practiced saber techniques their entire lives only to remain trapped here, he accepted it. He then summoned the System Panel.

Martial Arts: Whirlwind Saber Technique (Major Accomplishment)

Experience: 3000 points

On second thought, these three thousand experience points were the result of his six months of bitter practice. Using them to break through to Perfection in saber technique was not much different from comprehending it himself. Either way, he had relied on his own efforts and not depended on anyone else.

Chen Mu slowly closed his eyes. With a thought, he chose to upgrade.

Buzz!

The three thousand experience points were instantly consumed.

In their place, countless immersive scenes flooded into his mind. They were battles soaked in blood, struggles for life and death—wandering saber wielders of the martial world, soldiers on the battlefield, breaking out of traps, killing atop mountain peaks... all manner of scenes.

Every scene felt as though he were truly there, as though each had been personally experienced. Yet in a single instant, all those experiences were compressed into one moment, allowing him to reach the end in a single step.

In fact,

the scenes he experienced this time, added together, did not even amount to the additional years of tireless saber-practice memories that had appeared when his saber technique advanced from Initial Accomplishment to Major Accomplishment. Yet every scene was incomparably perilous!

Nearly every exchange had balanced on the line between life and death. Every memory seemed to pass with death brushing against him. At the edges of life and death, time and time again, a flash of inspiration finally appeared within his saber technique. The techniques that had once merged into a single line gradually transformed in his eyes into countless "spirit threads." These threads were chaotic and vast, yet amidst their intertwining, one thread ran through them all from beginning to end.

That was... force!

Chen Mu suddenly opened his eyes.

He gripped the Yamen Saber in his hand again and lightly spun it through the air.

This was not any move from the Whirlwind Saber Technique. It was merely an action he had casually swung out, yet it still stirred a spiraling wisp of saber wind, sweeping several pieces of straw from the ground.

His saber technique was no longer bound by form. Every move and stance carried the Raging Wind Stance. At last, he had shed the cocoon and become a butterfly, reaching the realm of perfection.

Whirlwind Saber Technique, Perfection!

Out of dozens of saber practitioners, many could spend more than ten years in bitter practice to reach Major Accomplishment. Yet only a handful could enter the realm of Perfection and comprehend Saber Force. Chen Mu, however, had spent less than nine months to finally step into this level.

Saber technique at Perfection, Saber Force formed—it could not be said that he had become overwhelmingly powerful, but at least in this Outer City, in Nine Stripes Ward, there were already few who could defeat him. Ten ordinary armed Martial Warriors would find it difficult to get near him. With a saber in hand, he was already the match of dozens!

In the past, he could have easily earned the title of Martial Scholar.

Now, he could just as easily become a Head Runner. Even in a fierce gang like the Red Gold Gang, with over a hundred members running rampant through an entire ward, he could become a deputy gang leader and sit in one of the highest-ranking seats.

If saber technique at Major Accomplishment merely meant possessing a little strength, then saber technique at Perfection meant truly possessing the power to change one's status. He had even gained a certain degree of freedom—how he wished to change things was now his own choice.