Chasing Wind Saber Technique Reached Mastery

Half an hour later, Chen Cheng sheathed his saber and stood still, summoning the panel.

[Name: Chen Cheng

Realm: Skin-Tempering Realm (Minor Accomplishment)

Skills: Iron Garment Art (Minor Accomplishment 802/1000), Chasing Wind Saber Technique (Mastery 1/10000)

]

The Chasing Wind Saber Technique had finally reached Mastery!

Upon reaching the Mastery level, Chen Cheng gained many new insights into this saber technique.

Executing the Chasing Wind Saber Technique's moves accurately and smoothly counted as entering the door of saber arts.

At the Minor Accomplishment level, on top of executing the saber technique accurately and smoothly, one's moves became practiced and seamless, while one's physical strength was incorporated into them. Whether in force, precision, or speed, all improved step by step.

With the Chasing Wind Saber Technique's progress reaching the Mastery level, executing its moves had become as effortless as moving an arm or finger. Changing moves, dismantling moves, and switching moves all came at will; it balanced offense and defense, with almost no openings.

To put it more plainly, among martial artists of the same realm, a martial artist with a Minor Accomplishment saber technique could easily defeat three to five martial artists whose saber techniques had merely entered the door.

A martial artist with a Mastery-level saber technique, meanwhile, could defeat at least five martial artists with Minor Accomplishment saber techniques.

If a martial artist with a Mastery-level saber technique faced one whose saber technique had merely entered the door, it could almost be said that however many came, he would kill however many, until his strength ran dry. Such was the might of external martial skills. Cultivating an external martial skill to Mastery was enough to make one stand out in the martial world and carve out a name.

Official runners of the City Guard Office, minor leaders such as incense masters in martial-world gangs, martial arts instructors guarding wealthy households, and escort agency guards generally possessed this level of strength.

Of course, if their realms differed, that was another matter entirely. Chen Cheng himself had previously defeated a Mastery-level saber technique with an entry-level saber technique, relying on the crushing advantage of his martial realm.

Advancing one's martial realm not only greatly enhanced actual saber combat, but also had an extremely significant effect on increasing saber technique cultivation progress.

In truth, Chen Cheng had cultivated the Chasing Wind Saber Technique to Mastery at least a month faster than expected.

When the Iron Garment Art had just entered Minor Accomplishment, an hour of cultivation in his normal state only increased the Chasing Wind Saber Technique's progress by around 1 point.

Now that the Iron Garment Art's Minor Accomplishment progress had reached over 800 and was nearing completion, Chen Cheng could gain nearly 5 points of progress in the Chasing Wind Saber Technique per hour of cultivation.

Compared to the Chasing Wind Saber Technique's rapid progress, the Iron Garment Art's cultivation progress had clearly slowed considerably.

Chen Cheng guessed that one reason for the slowdown was insufficient weight-bearing, while another was that physical cultivation required not only an ample supply of meat, but also quite a few medicinal herbs to replenish and strengthen one's qi and blood with their medicinal power.

Otherwise, he could only cultivate slowly, letting quantitative change bring about qualitative change.

Increasing the weight he carried required buying refined iron. Soaking his body in medicinal herbs, healing injuries, and replenishing physical deficiencies also required purchasing body-tempering herbs. Everything required money.

Over the past two months, Chen Cheng's appetite had grown tremendously. He needed one or two jin of meat per meal, and food expenses alone cost over two taels, nearly three taels of silver a month. The expenditure was enormous.

He now had only a dozen or so taels of silver left. There was simply no spare money to buy refined iron, much less medicinal herbs that cost even more than refined iron.

Scholars were impoverished while martial artists were wealthy. Chen Cheng was now a poor man practicing martial arts, so naturally he was strapped for cash.

I need to find a way to make money!

As a runner for the City Guard Office, aside from drawing a monthly salary, there were actually plenty of ways to make money. For instance, while clearing corpses off the streets, one could feel around the dead for silver or valuables. That was purely a matter of luck.

Even if luck was poor, it did not matter. Strip the corpse of its clothes, and they could fetch a little money at least.

Over the past two months, Chen Cheng had helped deal with quite a few corpses, but his luck had been poor. In total, he had found less than half a tael of silver.

As for stripping corpses and selling their clothes, Chen Cheng had always been kindhearted, so he let the runners on duty with him have that opportunity.

Besides trying one's luck on corpses, one could also make money from the living.

For the more ruthless, there were countless peddlers and laborers on the streets. Catch one and frighten him with a few words, and naturally someone would obediently offer up a few copper coins.

Chen Cheng was kindhearted and could not do that sort of business. Besides, even if he were ruthless enough, he would not make much silver.

After all, the patrol area was fixed, and there were only so many merchants coming and going. He could not shear the same sheep once a day, catching honest people and bullying them endlessly! Even a rabbit would bite when cornered. If he kept shearing them every day, the merchants would definitely band together and file a complaint.

It was immoral, ruined one's character, and was unreliable to boot. It was not worth it.

There were proper ways to make money as well. That was the old trade of runners: patrol the streets seriously and arrest thieves and bandits. This work was indeed not bad. Thieves and bandits generally had some savings. Whether they carried money on them or not, once caught, they would first receive a vicious beating, and then be squeezed dry.

Chen Cheng had also caught several thieves stealing in the street and successfully squeezed several hundred copper coins out of them.

But this proper line of work was still unreliable, and he could not make arrests too frequently either. Chen Cheng had once made arrests for three days straight, only to find that from the fourth day onward, he could not encounter a single thief or bandit.

He still had to turn a blind eye, let them recuperate for ten days or half a month, then wait until the thieves grew lax and lowered their guard before striking again and raking in a hefty sum.

Beyond these, there were many other ways to make money, but most were still unstable and brought in only small sums.

If one was diligent and quick-witted, working as a City Guard Office runner could earn two or three taels of silver a month between salary and various extra incomes. It was far more comfortable than being a prison guard before.

But that was all. Making any more money was impossible.

That amount of money was naturally enough for an ordinary runner's expenses, with even a fair amount left over. But Chen Cheng urgently needed to buy medicinal herbs to cultivate martial arts. This little silver was not even enough to fill the gaps between his teeth; it was like a cup of water against a cartload of firewood. Worse still, it would delay his martial cultivation. The gains did not make up for the losses.

A man could not grow rich without a windfall, nor a horse fat without night grass. It seemed he had to pull off something big.

Chen Cheng had heard Liao San mention several times that descendants of wealthy inner-city households, once they had achieved something in martial cultivation, would come to the outer city to gain experience and carry out deeds of robbing the rich to aid the poor.

They specifically killed the rich and heartless, or gang leaders and minor chiefs whose crimes filled the scrolls.

Chen Cheng really had considered it, but only considered it. Unlike the children of wealthy inner-city families, he had powerful backers supporting him. Even if they occasionally failed, they could still retreat unscathed.

If he failed even once, he would have to leave his life and everything he owned behind.

Crooked paths could never lead far. It seemed he still had to serve honestly. If he could rise to the rank of constable, then spring might truly arrive.

Every constable commanded awe across an entire district and governed several thousand people. There would be no shortage of people coming to curry favor and offer silver.

But rising to the rank of constable was also extremely difficult.

Ruyi Ward had only six constables in total, most of them in their prime. The only one who was somewhat old and frail was already past fifty. His qi and blood had declined, and his strength was long gone from its former glory.

Yet he had no intention of retiring anytime soon. Moreover, a group of runners coveting the constable's position had long gathered under him, and he himself had begun grooming one or two successors.

He Zhiling, whom Chen Cheng had fought during the assessment competition, had chosen to serve under that constable precisely because he had this scheme in mind.

"Trying to make something of myself really isn't easy!" Chen Cheng put away his longsaber and let out a soft sigh.

"Brother Cheng, is something troubling you?"

Mu Xiaowan hung the washed quilt on a bamboo pole. Turning and seeing Chen Cheng's brows tightly furrowed, she could not help asking curiously.

Over these days, though she had smeared faint black ash over her face, leaving her complexion slightly grayish-yellow, it still could not conceal her beauty that would sink fish and make geese fall.

She had grown considerably taller again, and her cotton blouse and skirt now seemed slightly too short, barely concealing her long legs that had shot up so quickly.

With her nutrition keeping up, even her small breasts had gradually begun to take shape.

Pure and lovely, charming and adorable.