For a martial artist immersed in cultivation, five years passed in the blink of an eye.
In a humble little courtyard east of Peace Town, Lin Hanzhou had lived a quiet life for five years.
And during those peaceful years, his strength had undergone a tremendous transformation.
In the middle of the courtyard, Lin Hanzhou stood with a long sword in hand, his eyes closed.
He seemed to have become one with his surroundings.
Suddenly, he opened his eyes and casually swung the sword in his hand.
There was no astonishing Sword Qi, nor any sharp whistle as it cut through the air.
His sword flowed like clouds and water, its movements continuous and unbroken; it shifted like roiling clouds, its changes unpredictable.
In his hands, the entire sword technique had become a seamless, natural expression.
This was the very sign that the Flowing Cloud Sword Technique had reached great mastery.
"Whew..."
After completing the set, Lin Hanzhou lowered his sword and let out a long breath of stale air.
Half a year ago, his cultivation had already advanced naturally to the peak of the second tier of the Qi Gathering Realm.
He was only one step away from the third-tier Qi Sea Realm.
His cultivation speed could only be described as astonishingly rapid progress.
After all, there were no rare treasures in Peace Town to help him cultivate.
He had achieved this cultivation entirely by drawing the thin spiritual energy from the air and forcing his way forward.
Even so, in just five short years, he had advanced from the third level of the Qi Gathering Realm all the way to the ninth-level peak.
Lin Hanzhou couldn't help but marvel once more at how powerful the talent provided by the system was.
Over the past five years, he had also lived quite comfortably in the town.
With the strength of a second-rate martial artist and his status as a constable, he was a fairly prominent figure in town.
The highest cultivation in the whole town belonged to the old mayor, who had only reached the peak of the first-rate martial artist level.
There wasn't another person in the entire town like Lin Hanzhou, who had become a second-rate martial artist at such a young age.
That was why life in town had been so comfortable for him all these years.
Wherever he went, people respectfully addressed him as "Constable Lin."
Many people in town knew of Constable Lin, a highly skilled and kindhearted man, and were happy to befriend him.
The wealthiest merchant in town, Master Zhang, had even sent a matchmaker to his door.
He was willing to offer a hundred taels of gold as a dowry and marry his beloved sixteen-year-old daughter to Lin Hanzhou.
Unfortunately, Lin Hanzhou had politely declined.
The reason was simple: he didn't want to settle down here.
Peace Town was simply too small. He couldn't stay here forever; one day, he would have to leave.
If he was going to leave anyway, why take a wife and raise children here?
He had always been carefree and couldn't stand being tied down like that.
For five years, Lin Hanzhou's daily life had remained very simple.
During the day, he cultivated in his courtyard.
At night, he patrolled the town.
Though he called it patrolling, most of the time he was just slacking off.
Sometimes, he would simply stroll down the street and call it a night.
After all, Peace Town really was peaceful. Crimes almost never happened there.
The main reason for that was directly related to him.
It had happened two years ago. A gang called the Flying Fish Gang had arrived outside Peace Town.
The gang had reportedly fled from some major city to escape their enemies' revenge.
At first glance, they seemed like a pack of stray dogs, nothing to fear.
But the gang had several first-rate martial artists among its ranks, and its leader was a first-rate martial artist at the peak of his level.
That lineup was enough to sweep through several Peace Towns.
After all, the only first-rate martial artist at the peak in Peace Town was the old mayor.
He was also advanced in age, his vitality already declining, so in terms of actual combat strength, he might only have been an ordinary first-rate martial artist.
For that reason, the old mayor had no choice but to let them into Peace Town.
He knew perfectly well that if he refused, the Flying Fish Gang would force its way in.
With so many first-rate experts, he couldn't stop them on his own.
After arriving in Peace Town, the Flying Fish Gang showed its true colors, burning, killing, looting, and committing every kind of crime.
They seemed to be trying to make a comeback, and even recruited local thugs and hooligans into the gang.
For a time, everyone in Peace Town lived in fear, and the residents hardly dared leave their homes.
The old mayor wanted to fight back, but he was powerless to do so and could only hole up in one corner.
That was when Lin Hanzhou stepped forward.
By then, he had lived in Peace Town for two years. It was impossible for him to feel no attachment to it.
He couldn't stand by and watch the Flying Fish Gang commit evil. They had crossed his bottom line.
Besides, he was Peace Town's constable. Maintaining law and order was his duty.
So, on a dark and windy night, Lin Hanzhou went alone to the Flying Fish Gang's stronghold.
With just a man and a sword, he slaughtered all one hundred-plus gang members in less than the time it took for an incense stick to burn.
Killing martial artists who hadn't even reached the second tier was as easy for him as chopping melons and slicing vegetables.
Afterward, Lin Hanzhou erased the traces as usual and buried all one hundred-plus members of the Flying Fish Gang underground.
First, he taught them physics, then geography. That was a two-part lesson.
That was why most of Peace Town's original thugs and hooligans had died in the Flying Fish Gang.
As a result, once peace returned to Peace Town, there were no more thugs and hooligans causing trouble.
Lin Hanzhou's life as a constable became even more leisurely. He might go several months without encountering a single case.
When patrolling at night, all he had to do was keep watch for wild beasts approaching town from the mountains.
With his current peak second-tier senses, he could immediately detect any wild beast approaching, no matter where he was in town.
With a human radar like that, he had no fear of neglecting his duties.
In his spare time, Lin Hanzhou would visit the little Spring Breeze Pavilion in town, listen to music, and drink with the courtesans.
As he put it, he was "helping fallen maidens and experiencing the hardships of the human world."
He certainly knew how to enjoy himself.
Sometimes, Lin Hanzhou even wondered whether he should simply marry and have children in this little town, then live out his life in peace.
This leisurely, carefree life really was enchanting.
But he would soon stamp out the thought himself.
Clearly, he couldn't let himself sink into this kind of decadence.
He knew very well that everything peaceful and comfortable he had was ultimately rooted in his strength.
With enough strength, he would have everything.
That was what gave Lin Hanzhou the drive to endure loneliness and cultivate in monotonous repetition, day after day.
Besides that, he often visited the town's taverns and asked traveling merchants for news from the outside world.
Many things had happened across the Great Gan Dynasty over the past five years.
The ailing Gan Emperor seemed to be growing ever sicker. Rumor had it he was on his last legs.
As a result, open unrest had begun to spread throughout the Great Gan Dynasty.
Several provinces had seen large-scale peasant uprisings amid natural and man-made disasters.
The three vassal kings who commanded powerful armies, meanwhile, were recruiting soldiers and expanding their forces under the banner of "suppressing the rebellion."
They were making their final preparations for the chaotic age that was about to arrive.
The three great sects and the Great Qing Dynasty in the north were also stirring.
Like sharks that had caught the scent of blood, they all wanted to tear a hefty chunk from the Great Gan Dynasty, the giant on the verge of collapse.
The whole world was like a powder keg on the verge of exploding.
Peace Town, where Lin Hanzhou lived, was merely a temporarily calm harbor before the storm.
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