Perfection! Merit! Tremendous Strength!

Perfection! Merit! Tremendous Strength! What was a surprise?

This was a surprise!

The instant he turned around, Mu Yang was still wondering whether he should go outside and rig up a grill to roast the Rat Demon's corpse and give it a try.

Who would have thought he could use it directly?

After the surprise passed, Mu Yang immediately examined the equippable item, Rat Demon Corpse.

"Complete... Does that mean only a body taking up a larger proportion can be equipped? No, that's not right. That strip of Air-Dried Pork was tiny, yet by that logic, it shouldn't have been equippable..."

Mu Yang pondered slightly.

After thinking for a while and getting nowhere, he simply gave up.

When you couldn't figure something out, you should set it aside. Perhaps inspiration would come when you stopped thinking about it.

That was something the old constable had told him.

Mu Yang found it quite reasonable.

Rather than daydreaming, he might as well test the effects of the two pieces of equipment first.

Mu Yang strode to the rosewood table, picked up the strip of Air-Dried Pork as thick as an adult's forearm, and silently recited in his heart.

Equip Air-Dried Pork!

[Ding! Air-Dried Pork has been equipped!]

White trait · Muscle Growth, activate!

[Muscle Growth (White): Strength receives a slight increase.]

As the Air-Dried Pork vanished from Mu Yang's hand, a familiar warmth once again flowed through his limbs and bones.

However, compared with the warmth brought by the Tiger-Subduing Blade Technique he had equipped earlier, the warmth brought by the Air-Dried Pork was exceedingly faint.

If the former was an erupting volcano, then the latter was no more than a hot spring.

Mu Yang clenched his fist. His strength had indeed increased.

But just as the trait description said, it was truly only a "slight increase"—roughly ten or twenty jin.

Before entering the realm, its effect would have been decent. But to him now, it was practically negligible.

The Skin and Flesh Realm was the first realm of martial cultivation, and it was also Mu Yang's current realm.

Under normal circumstances, one had to continuously temper the body, forge the skin and flesh, and replenish oneself with meat until qi-blood was born within the body. Only then could one be considered to have entered the realm.

This realm was not divided into early, middle, and late stages. Instead, it was classified by the degree to which qi-blood filled one's skin and flesh.

From low to high, it went one-tenth, two-tenths, three-tenths... all the way to the highest, ten-tenths.

For every additional tenth of skin and flesh filled with qi-blood, one arm gained a hundred jin of strength.

When the Skin and Flesh Realm reached Perfection, the strength of a single arm surpassed a thousand jin.

An ordinary strong man who had not entered the realm, even clad in armor and fully armed, was nothing more than a clay chicken and porcelain dog before such an expert—something that could be wiped out with a wave of the hand.

But now, bolstered by the perfected Tiger-Subduing Blade Technique, Mu Yang's qi-blood was abundant and powerful. His skin and flesh were already filled to seven-tenths, and the strength of one arm had long surpassed seven hundred jin.

A pitiful increase of ten or twenty jin was truly tasteless as chicken ribs.

Still, little as it was, it could at least be increased permanently.

An unranked item like Air-Dried Pork only needed to be equipped for one shichen before it could become permanently equipped.

At twelve shichen a day, that amounted to roughly two hundred jin of strength—equivalent to the boost from filling two-tenths of one's skin and flesh with qi-blood.

While others suffered bitterly for one or two years, needing an unending supply of meat along the way to gain such results, Mu Yang only needed to wait steadily for a single day.

Looking at it that way, the effect of the Air-Dried Pork seemed fairly good after all.

He would use it for now.

Mu Yang placed the Air-Dried Pork into the first empty Equipment Slot, then quickly walked over to the headless Rat Demon Corpse and laid his hand on it.

The Air-Dried Pork, which slightly increased strength, only added ten or twenty jin. He wondered how much the Rat Demon Corpse, with its small increase, would add.

If it was less than a hundred jin, then it would not be as worthwhile as the Air-Dried Pork.

With that thought, Mu Yang silently recited in his heart.

"Equip Rat Demon Corpse!"

[Ding! Rat Demon Corpse has been equipped!]

BOOM!!!

A scorching heat abruptly erupted inside Mu Yang's body, catching him completely off guard.

His muscles swelled, and his qi-blood surged madly.

This was the power of the Sturdy Physique and Qi-Blood Abundance traits!

The qi-blood that had already filled seven-tenths of his skin and flesh, and had been completely exhausted, was born from nothing once more. Following the skin-and-flesh tempering method of the Tiger-Subduing Blade Technique, it filled his skin and flesh.

Seven and a half tenths!

Eight-tenths!

Nine-tenths!

Ten-tenths!!

Once all the newly born qi-blood had merged into his skin and flesh, Mu Yang reached out and squeezed his arm.

The texture was tight and solid, the touch heavy, tough, and fine—like superb leather that had been carefully polished.

Skin and flesh compact as leather—this was the hallmark of Skin and Flesh Realm Perfection.

"I've reached Skin and Flesh Realm Perfection just like that?"

Mu Yang was somewhat dazed.

Wasn't it supposed to be a small increase in qi-blood? This increase was nearly half of all the qi-blood he had possessed before. This was a small increase?

As expected of a golden finger that had taken twenty years to come online—it really packed a punch!

Mu Yang was very happy.

What made him even happier was that, aside from the thousand-jin tremendous strength brought by qi-blood filling his skin and flesh, the Rat Demon Corpse's Sturdy Physique trait also granted an additional increase in strength.

Three hundred jin!

A full three hundred jin!

Its effect was twenty times that of the Air-Dried Pork!

The Rat Demon Corpse's time needed for permanent solidification was only ten times that of the Air-Dried Pork, yet its effect was twenty times greater.

The difference was obvious at a glance!

Dried meat really was far too weak.

And this was only in terms of strength!

Besides increasing physical strength, the traits also improved things such as reaction speed.

It was just that such effects were not as obvious as increased strength, so Mu Yang could not judge them for the time being.

There was only one thought in his mind now—

Slay demons! Slay demons! Keep slaying demons!!

The conditions for permanently solidifying equipment were to either equip an item for a certain period of time, or kill a demon beast while it was equipped.

The former was certainly safe and hassle-free, but the latter clearly offered far greater rewards.

Slay demons, solidify equipment, obtain new demon corpses, equip them again, continue slaying demons, complete solidification...

A perfect positive cycle—growing infinitely stronger!

With such a rate of progress, the Wang Family was nothing worth mentioning.

Demons, I want you to aid my cultivation!

"Should I take the rat's head back?"

After slightly calming the excitement in his heart, Mu Yang suddenly thought of a very practical issue.

Should he bring the rat's head back to the yamen and exchange it for merit?

The Great Jing Dynasty had a decree: no matter who or where one was, as long as one slew a demon and delivered its head to the local authorities, one could receive a reward.

Outsiders were usually rewarded with silver or medicine, while insiders like Mu Yang received merit points.

They could be exchanged for both silver and martial arts.

Mu Yang did not care much about silver. Although the old constable had died early and left behind little inheritance apart from a house, Mu Yang could live comfortably on a constable's salary as long as he did not touch Golden Silk Tobacco or frequent theaters and brothels. Food and drink would absolutely not be a problem.

What he lacked most right now were martial arts that would allow him to continue cultivating.

The Tiger-Subduing Blade Technique was, after all, only a low-grade martial art. It recorded only the method for filling the skin and flesh with qi-blood, and had no techniques at all for using qi-blood to temper the sinews and bones.

It was not as though he could not continue cultivating without martial arts, but the efficiency would be worlds apart.

If tempering the sinews and bones with qi-blood was compared to walking, then having a systematic martial art was like walking on a smooth asphalt road. Without one, it was like personally carving a path through a weed-choked wilderness. Which was faster and which was slower was obvious at a glance.

"I remember that a ranked demon is worth at least a hundred merit points, equal to a hundred taels of silver. That should be enough to exchange for a mid-grade martial art."

As for whether the rat's head would draw Dianshi Wang's attention?

It was not that Mu Yang looked down on himself. He was merely a minor constable, while the other man was a prominent figure in Qingxi County. How could he have the time to keep watching Mu Yang?

What Mu Yang needed to do was make every effort to develop during this period, and then...

Wipe out his entire family!

If you can't find the book by its title, try searching for the author instead. It may simply have been renamed!