An hour later, Lin Yan received a visitor from Tang Mansion at home.
The Tang Mansion steward had come personally with a gift box, as agreed between Lin Yan and Tang Tang.
After seeing the steward off, Lin Yan opened the box.
On the upper tier sat two jade bottles, each labeled in small characters: Leopard Bone Tempering Pill.
Two bottles, twenty-four pills.
"These two bottles are my entire year's stipend."
Lin Yan couldn't help sighing. He and the Tang Family's eldest daughter had agreed to take his entire stipend as an Attendant in Leopard Bone Tempering Pills.
The Tang Family had built its fortune on medicinal herbs and understood Bone-Tempering Pills far better than other martial artists. In terms of medicinal potency alone, two Leopard Bone Tempering Pills surpassed one Tiger Bone Tempering Pill.
Leaving aside the chance of successfully reaching the fourth stage of Skin Polishing, Leopard Bone Tempering Pills offered better value.
With the Martial Dao Tree, Lin Yan had no need to fear failing a breakthrough, so naturally he chose the better value.
Two bottles of Leopard Bone Tempering Pills sold for twelve hundred taels. Even with the thirty-percent discount he received as a Tang Family Attendant, they cost over eight hundred taels—far more than the usual pay for a martial artist at the third stage of Skin Polishing holding an outside post.
In fact, few martial artists at the third stage of Skin Polishing in Guangping County took outside posts.
For one thing, few families could afford to hire one. More often, they merely lent their names, as they did at Lin Mansion, collecting a hundred or two hundred taels a year in name-lending fees.
For another, those who reached the third stage of Skin Polishing generally had families of their own behind them. They would never take posts with another faction.
Someone like Lin Yan, with the strength of a third-stage martial artist but an ordinary family background, was one of a kind in Guangping County.
He lifted out the upper tier. A booklet lay beneath it, and before he even opened it, he caught the scent of fresh ink.
"Looks like the Tang Family copied this out at the last minute."
Lin Yan understood. The Tang Family could hardly let the original leave their hands, so they had copied a new one. As long as the contents were right, that was all that mattered to him.
He opened the booklet. Four words on the title page caught his eye: Startling Swan Sword Technique.
Surprise flickered in Lin Yan's eyes, followed by a complicated look.
Truthfully, he had never much wanted to study sword techniques.
In his mind, sword cultivators could be summed up in one word: poor.
Thin-blooded and short-lived, poor in purse but proud in spirit.
Then again...
He looked down at the sword manual, then at himself.
The sword was the gentleman among weapons. In that respect, it did suit him.
"Having something to learn beats having nothing. Who am I to be picky?"
Lin Yan opened the manual and read it page by page, committing it to memory.
Then he closed it, went into the courtyard, and drew a longsword from the weapons rack in the corner.
His uncle by marriage from Cai Mansion had delivered the rack not long ago. As he had put it, how could a martial artist at the second stage of Skin Polishing not have a weapons rack at home?
The opening stance. The first move.
The longsword thrust out, wobbling without any form to speak of.
Lin Yan's mouth twitched. He had controlled neither its force nor its accuracy.
Again.
The second attempt was still clumsy.
The third went a little more smoothly, but it was nowhere near worthy of being called swordsmanship.
He practiced like that for an hour.
After a hundred repetitions, a clear current surged into his mind. As before, it guided him in how to circulate his energy and strike with the sword.
He had entered the first stage of the Startling Swan Sword Technique!
Lin Yan looked at the Martial Dao Tree in his mind. Another tender bud had appeared on it.
Looking over the Martial Fruits on the tree, he counted a full thirty-eight years of accumulated practice.
Thirty-eight years. If he poured it all into the Startling Swan Sword Technique...
Resolve flashed in Lin Yan's eyes.
Strike while the iron was hot!
The Martial Fruits dissolved.
Thirty-eight years of grueling practice flooded his mind like water bursting through a dam.
Lin Yan saw himself holding a sword day after day.
At first, the sword felt heavy and hard to control.
Later, it gradually grew lighter—not because its weight had changed, but because his arm had learned to move as one with it.
He saw the subtle way the air parted and closed again as the blade cut through it.
He saw sunlight flash blindingly off the blade and knew that instant was the perfect moment to strike.
He saw an opponent's pupils suddenly contract, but by then the sword was already on its way.
One year, two years, five years, ten years...
The sword was no longer something separate from him.
It had become an extension of his arm, a part of his breathing.
He no longer needed to think before striking. His wrist knew where to move, and the sword tip knew where to land.
After who knew how long, Lin Yan opened his eyes.
He looked down at the longsword in his hand and tightened his grip slightly.
Then he raised it and gave it a casual swing.
There was no technique behind it, not even a purpose. He had simply felt like swinging it.
Yet with that one motion, an incomparably sharp force burst from the blade.
Sword momentum.
It was the fruit of thirty-eight years spent honing his sword day and night, until the skill had sunk into his bones.
He did not need to summon it deliberately. With a sword in hand, the momentum arose on its own.
Lin Yan looked inward. The bud that had only just appeared on the Martial Dao Tree had become a golden leaf, its color even richer than the leaf for Mountain Splitting Fist.
"Is the sword momentum brighter than the fist momentum because it's stronger, or because I'm practicing a high-grade technique?"
Lin Yan looked thoughtful, but the sight of the now-empty Martial Dao Tree also made him click his tongue.
Thirty-eight years of sword practice had only just produced sword momentum. Had he spent that time on his fists, it would have been enough to develop fist momentum twice over.
Was sword momentum harder to attain, or was it because the Startling Swan Sword Technique was a high-grade technique?
At this rate, reaching Sword Intent would take at least another ten years.
He estimated ten years because the leaf for the Startling Swan Sword Technique was a deeper gold than the one for Mountain Splitting Fist. Sword Intent might still be far away, or it might be only one step off. He had simply picked a figure somewhere in between.
Ten years. Killing a few people would be enough.
Unfortunately, Lin Mansion had encountered no trouble, and he could hardly attack martial artists at random for Martial Fruits.
If he did, how would he be any different from those he had struck from the rolls of humanity?
Martial artists from gangs steeped in evil would be fair targets, but as far as he knew, the Four Seas Gang had taken over both the west and north of the city. The other gang members had either joined them or left Guangping County.
With only third-stage Skin Polishing, he was no match for a behemoth like the Four Seas Gang.
Lin Yan drew his thoughts back. He was about to resume practicing when he heard footsteps at the courtyard gate and looked over.
The gate opened, and his aunt Liu and Li Min walked in.
"Yan'er, you're back."
Seeing Lin Yan in the courtyard, Li Min greeted him first with a smile.
Ever since Lin Yan had solved Cai Mansion's problem, Li Min had grown close to Liu and often invited her over. Lin Yan understood what his fourth aunt had in mind, but he did not object to her befriending Liu.
The Cai Family had given him a martial arts manual. Besides, Liu had seldom been in touch with her birth family because of him. His fourth aunt's company could help fill that absence.
"Fourth Aunt, welcome."
After greeting her, Lin Yan noticed his little brother was nowhere in sight. "Aunt, where's my little brother?"
"Jun has reached the age to learn his characters, so my husband hired a tutor. Mo'er is learning his characters too, isn't he? I had him study alongside Jun'er at the mansion. Once lessons are over, a servant will bring him home."
Li Min smiled as she explained. Lin Yan nodded. "My little brother can be a handful. Sorry for the trouble, Fourth Aunt."
"It's no trouble. We're family—there's no need to be so formal. Jun'er and Mo'er hit it off. They're as close as brothers."
Lin Yan smiled. He was certain his uncle by marriage and fourth aunt had spoken to their son. When one side made a point of being friendly, how could the two boys not get along?
"May I ask if this is Young Master Lin Yan's home?"
A voice suddenly came from the gate. A middle-aged man in fine clothes stood there, with two property brokers behind him.
Before Lin Yan could answer, the man's eyes lit up at the sight of him. He stepped forward. "Young Master Lin, I'm the manager of the brokerage. Our proprietor heard you've reached the third stage of Skin Polishing and sent me to congratulate you. Here's the deed you left with us when you bought the house."
The brokerage manager?
Lin Yan was surprised. "I don't believe I know your proprietor. This doesn't seem appropriate."
He had financed the purchase of this house and still owed a hundred taels. He had planned to pay it back near the end of the year. He had not expected the brokerage to simply waive the debt.
"Young Master Lin, your breakthrough is cause for celebration throughout the county. Every family will offer a token of congratulations. It's been the custom in Guangping County for years. Please accept this, so I can report back to our proprietor."
"In that case, please thank your proprietor for me."
Hearing that, Lin Yan declined no further and accepted the deed from him.
"I won't keep you any longer, Young Master Lin."
The middle-aged man left with the brokers. In the courtyard, Li Min's eyes shone, and her body trembled despite her efforts to control it.
Unless she had misheard, Lin Yan had reached the third stage of Skin Polishing.
A martial artist at that stage was a person of real importance in the city.
The Lin Family was rising, and her own family would share in its good fortune.
"Yan'er, you've reached the third stage of Skin Polishing?"
Liu had learned a little about martial arts because her nephew practiced it. She knew the second and third stages of Skin Polishing were impressive, but she did not truly grasp what the breakthrough meant.
"Yes. I broke through yesterday. I didn't expect the county's families to hear about it so quickly."
"How could they not? This is the third stage of Skin Polishing! There are only a few dozen people at that level in the whole county, and Yan'er is still so young. His future knows no bounds."
Li Min mastered her emotions and hurried over to take Liu's hand. "Sister-in-law, you can look forward to an easy life now."
The brokerage proprietor's gift was like a horn sounding before the charge. Over the next hour, visitors from the county's major families arrived one after another. Some sent stewards; others came in person.
Liu could scarcely keep up with the guests. Fortunately, Li Min had experience with such visits from her years at Cai Mansion. She received them and recorded each gift they brought.
Only when night fell did the Lin household finally grow quiet.
Li Min stared at the gift list in astonishment. No individual family had given much—most gifts were worth twenty or thirty taels, with an occasional fifty—but there had been so many visitors that the total exceeded a thousand taels.
What excited her even more was that many visitors had been stewards of great families. Her husband had often hosted dinners for such men, hoping to sell cloth to their employers. Those stewards had always looked down their noses at him. Today, once they learned she was Lin Yan's aunt, they had not bowed and scraped, but they had been remarkably warm. Several had even hinted that they would like to visit her home.
Li Min looked at the calm Lin Yan beside her. She knew perfectly well that all of this was because of her nephew.
When one man attained the Dao, even his chickens and dogs ascended to heaven.
No, I need to talk to my husband when I get home. This time, our family must send a generous gift.
Beside her, Liu was still so overwhelmed that she had yet to recover her wits.
"Aunt, are you all right?"
Lin Yan watched her sit silently on the stone stool and asked with concern.
"I... I'm fine."
Liu picked up the teapot and poured herself a cup to soothe her dry throat. "Yan'er, go... go pay respects to your parents and our ancestors. Thank them for watching over us."
The simple-hearted Liu had no other thought left in her mind. She only wanted to thank the Lin Family's ancestors for their protection.