Crimson Word: Myriad Arts Insight!

In the blink of an eye, two days passed. Wei Xuanfeng sat by the campfire, eating half-cooked rabbit meat.

Now, he truly understood just how damn incredible the red trait Heaven's Motion was.

Two days ago, he had been on the verge of death, yet after one night's sleep, he was immediately full of life again!

Not only had the aftereffects of the Strength Pill and Armor Horse completely vanished, even the saber wounds on his body were gradually healing.

By his reckoning, today was also the final day of the seven-day trial.

Beside him, the left ears of Soft-Boned Rabbit Demons had already piled up into a small mountain.

Ever since his battle with Wei Zhaoting, the days that followed had been utterly uneventful.

During the day, he killed rabbits.

At night, he practiced martial arts, rotating through the Black Dragon Grappling Hand, Grand Ancestor Saber Technique, and One Reed Crossing River.

The days were dull, yet fulfilling.

The only regret was that his progress in the Grand Ancestor Saber Technique was far too slow.

Whether he was slaying demons or training, he had not unleashed a single saber aura.

It left him deeply frustrated.

Fortunately, he had amassed plenty of gold coins from killing demons these past few days—more than eleven thousand in total.

"System, time to draw!"

After eating until he was seventy percent full, Wei Xuanfeng wiped his mouth and closed his eyes.

Once the system popped up, it jumped to the draw page.

With over ten thousand gold coins, he could draw around fourteen times.

They couldn't all be white, right?!

Wei Xuanfeng was an atheist, but at this moment, he prayed to every god he could think of.

At his command, the draw page began to spin.

[Congratulations, Host. You have drawn the trait: Rapid March (Blue)—Speed +3]

[Congratulations, Host. You have drawn the trait: Wisdom (White)—Comprehension +1]

[Congratulations, Host. You have drawn the trait: Savage Bull (Green)—Strength +5]

[Congratulations, Host. You have drawn the trait: Mountain Tiger (Purple)—Constitution +5]

[...]

After a ten-pull, Wei Xuanfeng was starting to lose it.

What, did this piece of crap system not have a pity mechanic?

How was the best one only purple, with nothing but blue skies and white clouds for the rest?!

Fuck, he'd been set up by capital—he'd become a goddamn worker for the system!

Looking at his dwindling gold coins, Wei Xuanfeng completely lost his head.

All in!

He drew three more times in a row, and they were still all white...

Just as he was so angry he nearly laughed, a faint red glow seeped out from the results screen of the final draw.

Could it be...

[Congratulations, Host. You have drawn the trait: Myriad Arts Insight (Red)]

[Myriad Arts Insight: Comprehension +20. Photographic memory.]

Huh?

That was it?

Wei Xuanfeng stared blankly at his attribute panel for a moment.

[Host: Wei Xuanfeng.]

[Cultivation: Martial Warrior Realm, Level 5.]

[Attributes: Constitution 26, Strength 23, Speed 31, Comprehension 42.]

[Martial Arts: Black Dragon Grappling Hand (Minor Mastery), Grand Ancestor Saber Technique (Minor Mastery), One Reed Crossing River (Beginner).]

[Red Traits: Heaven's Motion, Myriad Arts Insight.]

They were both red traits, so why did Myriad Arts Insight have absolutely no presence compared to Heaven's Motion?!

Could there be differences even among red traits?

Honestly, Wei Xuanfeng disliked this Myriad Arts Insight from the bottom of his heart.

Those twenty attribute points, if added to any one of Constitution, Strength, or Speed, could visibly raise his combat power at a rapid pace.

But they had all gone into enlightenment.

That made him...

Really damn frustrated!

And though they were both red entries, Myriad Arts Insight's passive, Eidetic Memory, was practically Heaven's Motion's little brother!

A little brother among little brothers!

After brooding for quite a while, he finally got up, packed up, and prepared to head down the mountain.

He had lost the pouch issued by the Demon Suppression Directorate, so he could only weave a grass net from vines and pack the rabbit ears into it.

Over the past few days, he had killed more than a thousand rabbit demons. Altogether, they weighed over two hundred pounds.

Yet in Wei Xuanfeng's one hand, they felt as light as nothing.

This was the most direct sensation he had gained from increasing his attributes.

If it came down to a purely physical clash, Wei Xuanfeng was now confident he could wrestle with a Martial Master.

The journey down the mountain was uneventful.

Branches blotted out the sky in the forest. Only when Wei Xuanfeng reached the foot of the mountain did he see the long-missed sun.

As the sunlight fell on him, Wei Xuanfeng actually felt as though a lifetime had passed.

After leaving the mountain, Wei Xuanfeng headed toward the agreed gathering place.

From far away, he spotted the Demon Suppression Directorate's carriage.

Several large iron pots had been set up beside it.

The firewood beneath them burned fiercely, white steam rolling upward as the rich, gamey aroma of mutton drifted dozens of paces away.

Seven or eight Demon Suppression Directorate demon slayers gathered around a table, noisily shouting, "Bet big or bet small! Bets are final once placed!"

When Wei Xuanfeng approached, one of them finally noticed him.

"Yo, the first one out. Brother, hurry and have some mutton." Since they would all be comrades in the future, the demon slayer was quite polite. "Give me the rabbit ears, and I'll register them for you... Holy shit, brother, that many?!"

His cry of surprise drew the other demon slayers' attention.

They had all gone through the assessment of killing Soft-Boned Rabbit Demons and collecting rabbit ears.

But back then, they had collected at most three or five hundred.

Those who could gather more than eight hundred had long since reached the Martial Master realm.

Yet this blade trooper had at least a thousand rabbit ears in the grass net he carried...

"Just lucky..."

Wei Xuanfeng modestly replied, then tossed aside the grass net and lunged straight for the iron pot.

Ignoring the scalding heat, he fished out a snowy-white rack of lamb ribs and shoved it into his mouth.

Over the last few days, Wei Xuanfeng had finished his salt bricks.

Without salt, every bit of meat he roasted carried a rank, fishy stench.

Now, with this pot of mutton before him, it was no less than an imperial feast to him.

"Brother, eat slowly. Hand me your token first, and I'll register you..."

The demon slayer came over, his tone friendly.

"Much appreciated, brother."

Wei Xuanfeng casually tossed him the Demon Suppression Directorate blade trooper token and continued wolfing down the food.

"You're the ones who had it rough. Eat slowly. Once we're back, Boss Wu will treat you to drinks."

The demon slayer accepted the token, then wrote in the register.

Wei Xuanfeng: 1,164 rabbit ears...

That result seemed to be more than ten higher than even Boss Wu's back in the day.

The other demon slayers exchanged glances, all arriving at the same thought without a word.

A man like this—curry favor with him. Don't offend him!

This kid's future achievements would definitely be no lower than Boss Wu's current ones...

While Wei Xuanfeng happily devoured the stewed mutton, the other blade troopers taking the assessment gradually came down from Wumeng Mountain as well.

With a sweep of his peripheral vision, he saw that their pouches held only one or two hundred rabbit ears each.

The fewest among them did not even have a hundred.

That shouldn't be...

The other blade troopers clearly all knew one another, gathering in twos and threes in their own little circles.

Only Wei Xuanfeng had this whole pot of mutton to himself.

Wei Xuanfeng was somewhat puzzled. The Soft-Boned Rabbit Demons were not particularly strong; anyone with half a brain should have been able to deal with them.

These blade recruits did not look weak either. Even if they killed over fifty rabbits a day, after seven days they should have gathered three or four hundred rabbit ears.

So how...

Before long, though, he had his answer.

Because he saw Fox Murong...

Judging by the rabbit ears she had brought back, even a conservative estimate...

Put the number at over a thousand!

"I thought Wei Xuanfeng was already unrivaled under heaven. I never expected someone even fiercer than him!" The demon catcher in charge of registration sighed. "Miss, please show me your token."

"Of course, of course..." Fox Murong smiled radiantly.

Wei Xuanfeng noticed that the other blade recruits undergoing the assessment were looking at Fox Murong with complicated expressions.

There was resentment, infatuation, and even...

Pride...

So she had simps working their fingers to the bone for her.

No wonder...

"This woman really does have some skills."

Wei Xuanfeng could not help but think more highly of her. He had worked himself half to death, yet the rabbit ears he had collected did not even compare to hers.

Heroes under heaven were as numerous as crucian carp crossing a river; none could be underestimated.

Just as he was feeling sentimental, a fragrant breeze drifted beneath his nose.

"Brother Wei, seven days apart and your bearing is as splendid as ever." Fox Murong's voice sounded beside him. "Quick, serve me a bowl of mutton too."

Wei Xuanfeng's instincts were exceptionally sharp. The instant Fox Murong sat beside him, he could clearly feel several gazes land directly on him.

"You should have them serve you instead. I think they have plenty they'd like to say to you..."

How could Wei Xuanfeng fail to see that Fox Murong was trying to divert trouble his way? He was not afraid of trouble, but neither did he want to be used as someone else's spear.

"A bunch of fools blinded by beauty. I can't be bothered to listen to them..." Fox Murong's pretty face was brimming with seductive charm. "Brother Wei, you're amazing. Over a thousand rabbit ears—how did you manage that?"

"Obviously, I killed the rabbit demons myself and saved them up," Wei Xuanfeng said leisurely. "What else could I have done? Trick others into working for me like you?"

When he exposed her method in a single sentence, a flicker of embarrassment passed through Fox Murong's brows.

But she swiftly buried it.

"I didn't trick them. They gave them to me willingly..." Fox Murong said with a smile. "I looked at the register just now. The top three will probably be no one but the two of us. Once we return to the Demon Suppression Directorate and become blade catchers, Brother Wei, you'll have to look after your little sister."

As she spoke, her body edged closer and closer to Wei Xuanfeng.

After seven days of sleeping in the wind and eating in the open, she still carried the scent of gardenias. This woman...

She truly possessed an innately bewitching fox spirit body.

"Return to the Demon Suppression Directorate..." Wei Xuanfeng chuckled and pointed behind her. "Talk about that after you manage to return alive."

Fox Murong froze. Turning around, she saw a petite figure slowly approaching.

"Fox Murong, die!"

Before the words had even faded, a flash of cold light shot straight for Fox Murong's throat.