What was a surprise?
This was a surprise!
As he turned, Mu Yang was still wondering whether he should go outside and rig up a grill to roast the Rat Demon's corpse and see what happened.
He had never expected he could use it directly.
After the surprise passed, Mu Yang immediately examined the Rat Demon Corpse, this equippable item.
"Complete... does that mean a body with a larger proportion is needed to serve as equipment? No, that's not right. That strip of Air-Dried Pork was tiny, yet by that logic, it shouldn't have been usable as equipment either..."
Mu Yang sank into thought.
After pondering for a while and getting nowhere, he simply gave up.
When something could not be figured out, it was better to set it aside. Perhaps inspiration would strike when he stopped thinking about it.
That was something the old constable had told him before.
Mu Yang thought it made a great deal of sense.
Rather than daydreaming, he might as well test the effects of the two pieces of equipment first.
Mu Yang strode to the redwood 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 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 flowed through his limbs and bones once more.
However, compared to the warmth brought by the Tiger-Subduing Blade Technique he had just equipped, the sensation from the Air-Dried Pork was faint.
If the former was an erupting volcano, 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"—perhaps ten or twenty pounds.
Before entering the realm, it would have been fairly effective. But for him now, it was practically negligible.
The Skin and Flesh Realm was the first realm of martial cultivation, and it was also his current realm.
Under normal circumstances, one had to continuously temper the body, forge the skin and flesh, and replenish oneself with meat until Blood Qi 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 extent to which Blood Qi filled the skin and flesh.
From low to high, it was one-tenth, two-tenths, three-tenths... all the way to the highest, ten-tenths.
For every additional tenth of the skin and flesh filled, the strength of one arm increased by a hundred pounds.
At Perfection in the Skin and Flesh Realm, the strength of a single arm exceeded a thousand pounds.
An ordinary strong man who had yet to enter the realm, even clad in armor and helmet, fully armed from head to toe, 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.
And now, bolstered by the perfected Tiger-Subduing Blade Technique, Mu Yang's Blood Qi was abundant and his skin and flesh had already been filled to seven-tenths. The strength of one arm had long surpassed seven hundred pounds.
A measly increase of ten or twenty pounds was truly as useless as chicken ribs.
Still, little as it was, it could at least be added permanently.
An unranked item like Air-Dried Pork only needed to be equipped for one shichen before it could become permanent equipment.
Calculated by the twelve shichen in a day, that meant roughly two hundred pounds of strength—the equivalent of the boost from filling two-tenths of his skin and flesh.
Others had to train bitterly for one or two years, with a constant supply of meat along the way, to gain such rewards. Mu Yang merely had to wait steadily for one day.
Viewed that way, the Air-Dried Pork's effect seemed rather good as well.
He would use it for now.
Mu Yang placed the Air-Dried Pork into the first empty Equipment Slot, then quickly walked 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 pounds. He wondered how much the Rat Demon Corpse, which offered a small increase, could add.
If it was less than a hundred pounds, 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 equipped! ]
BOOM!!!
A sudden, searing heat erupted within Mu Yang's body before he could react.
His muscles swelled, and his Blood Qi surged wildly.
The two traits, Sturdy Physique and Qi-Blood Abundance, were taking effect!
The Blood Qi that had already filled seven-tenths of his skin and flesh, then been completely consumed, was born from nothing once more. Following the skin-and-flesh tempering method of the Tiger-Subduing Blade Technique, it filled his flesh anew.
Seven and a half tenths!
Eight-tenths!
Nine-tenths!
Ten-tenths!!
Once all the newly born Blood Qi had fused into his skin and flesh, Mu Yang reached out and pinched his arm.
The texture was taut and solid, heavy, tough, and fine beneath his fingers, like superb leather that had been polished to perfection.
Skin and flesh as dense as leather—this was the mark of Perfection in the Skin and Flesh Realm.
"I've reached Perfection in the Skin and Flesh Realm just like that?"
Mu Yang was somewhat dazed.
Hadn't it said a small increase in Blood Qi? This had added nearly half as much Blood Qi as he had possessed before. Was this what counted as a small increase?
As expected of a cheat that had only come online after twenty years—it had some real bite!
Mu Yang was delighted.
What delighted him even more was that aside from the immense thousand-pound strength brought by Blood Qi filling his skin and flesh, the Rat Demon Corpse's Sturdy Physique trait had also granted an additional increase in strength.
Three hundred pounds!
A full three hundred pounds!
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 superiority was obvious at a glance!
Dried meat was indeed far too weak.
And that was only in terms of strength!
Beyond the increase in physical strength, the trait also improved things such as reaction speed.
However, those effects were not as intuitive as an increase in strength, so Mu Yang could not judge them for the moment.
There was only one thought in his mind now—
Slay monsters! Slay monsters! Keep slaying monsters!!
The conditions for permanently solidifying equipment were to equip an item for a certain amount of time, or to kill a demonic beast while the item was equipped.
The former was certainly safe and effortless, but the latter's returns were clearly far greater.
Slay monsters, solidify equipment, obtain new Monster corpses, equip them again, continue slaying monsters, complete the solidification...
A proper positive cycle—becoming infinitely stronger!
With such speed of progress, the Wang Family was nothing worth mentioning.
Monsters, I need you to help me cultivate!
"Should I take the rat's head back?"
After slightly calming the excitement in his heart, Mu Yang suddenly thought of a very practical question.
That was whether he should bring the rat's head back to the yamen and exchange it for merit.
The Great Jing Dynasty decreed that no matter who or where one was, as long as one slew a monster and delivered its head to the local government office, 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 silver, or for martial arts.
Mu Yang did not care much about the silver. Though the old constable had died early and left little inheritance besides a house, Mu Yang could rely on a constable's salary. So long as he did not touch Golden Silk Tobacco or visit theaters and brothels, food and drink alone would never be a problem.
What he lacked most now were martial arts that would allow him to continue cultivating.
After all, the Tiger-Subduing Blade Technique was merely Lower-Grade Martial Arts. It only recorded methods for filling the skin and flesh with Blood Qi, and had no techniques at all for using Blood Qi 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 using Blood Qi to temper the sinews and bones was compared to walking, then having a systematic martial art was like walking on a smooth asphalt road. Without it, one had to carve a path through a wild, overgrown wasteland himself. Which was faster and which was slower was obvious at a glance.
"I remember that a ranked monster is worth at least a hundred Merit Points, equivalent to a hundred taels of silver. That's enough to exchange for one set of Mid-Grade Martial Arts."
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 him?
What Mu Yang needed to do was seize this period to develop with everything he had, and then...
Wipe out his entire family!
Before you continue