Draw on Strengths to Offset Weaknesses, Fencing Stolen Goods in the Black Market

At midnight, the Diligence Rewards Log updated on schedule.

[Over the past day, you meditated for 9 hours, practiced the Six Directions Saber Art 16 times, engaged in one low-intensity real battle, used Setting Sun Blood Reversal 5 times, and attempted to fuse two mid-grade mid-tier movement techniques for 1.5 hours...]

[Today's evaluation: rising before dawn and resting after dark, delighted at the scent of battle. Diligence index: 2 (3).]

[Reward settlement]

[Additional True Qi gained from 18 hours of meditation. First level of the True Qi Realm (44% → 56%)]

[Used "Setting Sun Blood Reversal" five times. Blood and Qi value (162.5% → 161%)]

[Additional experience from executing the Six Directions Saber Art 32 times and two low-intensity real battles. Proficiency increased to (2398/10000)]

[Additional experience from using Setting Sun Blood Reversal 10 times. Completion increased to 15%.]

[Additional 3 hours of movement technique fusion experience.]

As the golden tome appeared above Chen Jue's head, the two spirit stones in his hand—one new, one old—lost their luster as well.

The good news was that, under the Threefold River Chariot Circulation, the True Qi within Chen Jue's body had grown at an encouraging pace. He gained eighteen strands of True Qi a day; at this rate, he would only need three days to steadily cultivate to the second level of the True Qi Realm.

The bad news was that he was nearly out of spirit stones. If he did not find a way to beg for alms soon, the threefold feedback from Reward for Diligence might run out of fuel.

"Maintaining that Diligence coefficient formed from spirit stones is still far too expensive. It actually costs 1.2 spirit stones every day."

"If converted into money, that's twelve thousand notes a day, not counting the rest of my cultivation expenses..."

"Tsk, tsk. Even scions of great clans probably can't burn money as fast as I do..."

Chen Jue sighed inwardly, but he had no intention of halting his cultivation mode of "one part effort, three parts reward."

Being broke was not a problem with his martial talent. It was his own problem.

Whether he borrowed or robbed, he just needed to find a way to solve it.

Next came the experience in saber arts, real combat, secret arts, and fused movement techniques, pouring into his mind one after another.

A moment later, Chen Jue looked at the final line of the Diligence Reward settlement.

It had to be said that he did have some luck on his side.

By sheer accident, he had unlocked another use for his martial talent.

It was known that the daily Diligence Reward settlement granted "perfect" experience.

Therefore, the fusion experience he received meant—

Two mid-grade mid-tier movement techniques, even if fused from beginner to mastery, could at most produce another mid-grade mid-tier movement technique.

But if the two mid-grade mid-tier movement techniques were each cultivated to perfection, fusing them could produce a low-grade high-tier movement technique.

Following that line of thought, an exceedingly bold idea suddenly arose in Chen Jue's mind.

"What would happen if I cultivated every movement technique and martial skill I obtain to perfection, then ultimately fused them into a single movement technique and a single martial skill?"

The idea was bold, but it was highly feasible.

Once his excitement subsided, Chen Jue selected the most basic and easiest-to-learn Wind-Splitting Saber Art from the many martial skills he had seized through robbery, making it the subject of his future experiment.

After muddling through another three days at his uncle's home, Chen Jue finally cultivated his Five Elements True Qi to 110 strands, successfully breaking through to the second level of the True Qi Realm.

At this point, the strands of True Qi within his body had already woven together into threads, raising both the strength and quantity of his True Qi to a higher level.

The True Qi Realm was a period of accumulation for martial artists.

Unless one's aptitude was limited and one could no longer expand one's meridians to accumulate more True Qi, martial artists were not advised to use their precious True Qi to temper the body. The loss outweighed the gain.

With that as a premise, Chen Jue's total Blood and Qi had increased somewhat with his breakthrough, but the overall increase was not great.

Without using True Qi, he might still be unable to defeat a martial artist at the seventh level of the True Qi Realm, but dealing with those at the sixth level had become much easier.

At the same time, over these three days, he prioritized cultivating the Wandering Dragon Body Technique from beginner to proficient, and read through both the basic alchemy method and the basic inscription method.

Both alchemy and inscription were trades that were difficult to learn and even harder to master, yet brought in money at a frightening pace.

With the Diligence Reward Talent, it would be an affront to heaven and reason if he did not learn such profitable skills.

During this time, Pei Qingying came to visit him once more.

This time, she brought a bowl of blood bird's nest. The increase in Blood and Qi from the threefold medicinal meal surplus totaled only 17%.

After subtracting the 5% Blood and Qi consumed by cultivating Setting Sun Blood Reversal over the past three days, his Blood and Qi value reached 173%.

The effects of the medicinal meals were weakening, yet the consumption of the secret art Setting Sun Blood Reversal continued to rise as both its proficiency and Blood Burning effect improved.

Chen Jue could only grit his teeth and halt his in-depth research into Setting Sun Blood Reversal, leaving his maximum increase in strength at 15%.

On the seventh day of his injury leave, Chen Jue wrapped himself in a plain long robe and returned to Black-Clothed Alley.

A week ago, he had slaughtered three scions of great clans here and scattered much of their property throughout various hidden locations.

After a week of waiting, coupled with the continued unrest in the outer city, this unsolved case with no leads was finally shelved indefinitely. The covert watchers and patrol inspectors stationed nearby had also withdrawn one after another.

Following his memories, Chen Jue retrieved the scattered valuables one by one.

About sixty percent of the valuable items were gone.

But that was a necessary loss, and Chen Jue did not find it regrettable.

With these valuables in hand, Chen Jue deliberately took a long detour to an unfamiliar black market in the southern city to sell them.

Because he was eager to turn them into cash, he set the price very low. In less than half an hour, he had cleared out all the goods and pocketed one hundred thousand treasure notes.

"Little brother, your goods are worth at least one hundred and fifty thousand. Selling them for one hundred thousand notes—isn't that a bit like burning a priceless pearl for firewood?"

"Or do you have some excellent connections, little brother? Why not bring us brothers along to make a fortune?"

The moment Chen Jue left the black market, he was boxed in from both front and rear by a group of martial artists who had been tailing him for a long time.

He swept his gaze over these martial artists and was rendered somewhat speechless.

Weren't these people the black market's security guards?

Compared to those from the western city, people from the southern city had no manners at all. In this day and age, they were still pulling this black-eats-black routine.

Weren't they afraid of ruining the black market's reputation?

"Boss, why waste words with him? Take him down first, cut his hand and foot tendons, then slowly make him cough up the source of his money."

A sharp-eyed, monkey-like black market guard offered counsel to the burly martial artist standing before him.

Chen Jue found it amusing. Resting a hand on his saber, he looked straight at the burly martial artist. "Do you often do this kind of dirty work?"

Seeing that Chen Jue carried himself with no small amount of presence, the burly martial artist did not strike immediately. Instead, he kept his guard up. "Don't listen to Skinny Monkey's nonsense. He was only trying to scare you..."

As he spoke, he edged closer to Chen Jue. His underlings understood the cue and closed in from every direction.

"Still, some of the things you sold really did come from improper sources... Many of them are items exclusively used by the powerful and wealthy of the inner city."

"How about this? If you are willing to explain where these things came from, we'll let you leave."

"Otherwise, if their owners are alerted, I'm afraid you'll be in serious trouble."

So certain possessions of clan scions were easy to identify.

Chen Jue had learned another new lesson about fencing stolen goods.

"No need," Chen Jue said loudly.

"What do you mean, no need?" The burly martial artist was somewhat confused.

"Of course, there's no need to trouble yourselves..."

Chen Jue drew his saber one-handed, revealing the gleaming, snow-bright blade of his three-foot-one-inch horse-chopping saber.