A Stormy Night of Murder

Outside the window, the night wind carried a chill, and autumn rain fell without end.

Chen Jue closed his eyes and gripped his saber, listening to the sound of rain piercing the forest and striking the leaves. He carefully savored the sliver of saber insight brought by the Wind-Splitting Saber Art entering the major mastery realm.

People often said that mastery in one field led to understanding in another.

As the Six Directions Saber Art gradually touched upon the threshold of major mastery,

when Chen Jue turned back to cultivate a low-grade saber art like the Wind-Splitting Saber Art, his progress was so fast it left one dumbstruck.

This compact and concise saber art took no more than two minutes to perform each time, yet it could raise his proficiency by a full 15 points.

He had cultivated it for only four days, yet the Wind-Splitting Saber Art's proficiency had already reached 3000. It had actually beaten the Six Directions Saber Art to major mastery.

As Chen Jue fully absorbed the sliver of insight formed by the Wind-Splitting Saber Art's major mastery, the midnight settlement arrived as well.

[...Meditated for 10 hours, practiced the Six Directions Saber Art and Wind-Splitting Saber Art 20 times each, practiced the Wandering Dragon Body Technique 20 times, studied Basic Pillcraft for 1 hour, consumed two high-grade nutrient solutions, comprehended a trace of the essence of "saber-cleaving"...]

[Today's evaluation: rising before dawn and sleeping after dark, day after day without rest. Diligence Index: 2 (3).]

[Reward settlement...]

As the spiritual energy within the two spirit stones was completely consumed by the golden book,

golden rain-like light slowly fused into Chen Jue's body, causing the Five Elements True Qi in his meridians to rise steadily.

Ever since Chen Jue's blood-and-qi value broke through the 170% mark, the blood-and-qi river chariots within his three meridians could operate at full capacity.

At this moment, his efficiency in condensing true qi had reached three times that of running a single meridian. Ten hours of daytime cultivation alone could condense 7.5 strands of Five Elements True Qi.

Combined with the double true qi reward from the Diligence Reward Talent's perfect settlement—18 strands—he could now cultivate 25.5 strands of true qi in a single day.

The speed was like a rocket shooting into the heavens.

Moreover, because the divisions of true qi realms strictly followed the rule that the volume of true qi doubled with every minor realm,

he only needed to cultivate 200 strands of true qi within his body to break through to the third level of the True Qi Realm.

And reaching the peak of the third level required only a mere 400 strands of true qi.

Aside from the increase in true qi, the extra double insight into "saber-cleaving" also benefited Chen Jue enormously.

It added 100 and 600 proficiency points respectively to the Six Directions Saber Art and Wind-Splitting Saber Art.

Together with the guaranteed experience from forty saber art practices,

Chen Jue's Six Directions Saber Art proficiency directly rose to (2764/10000), leaving it only a single step away from the realm of major mastery.

As for the Wind-Splitting Saber Art, which had served as the test subject, it advanced by leaps and bounds. Its proficiency soared to (4200/10000), and the 5000-point realm of perfection was now within reach.

As for the Wandering Dragon Body Technique, each practice yielded only "3" proficiency points.

Thus, Chen Jue's accumulated progress was currently only 720. If he maintained this frenzied cultivation pace, he would still need two more days to reach the 1000 points required for minor mastery of the body technique.

As for the pitiful 150 proficiency points in Basic Pillcraft, they had all come from refining Blood-and-Qi Pills last time and from reading.

His depleted stamina and blood qi were also rapidly replenished by the medicinal effects of four high-grade nutrient solutions.

Chen Jue glanced at his current status.

[True Qi Realm, Second Level (35.5%)]

[Blood-and-Qi Value (171%)]

Tsk!~~

Chen Jue clicked his tongue inwardly. With such formidable "hybrid-drive" strength, even if he could not match an ordinary seventh-level True Qi Realm martial artist, escaping with his life should not be a problem.

Wutong Alley was a side alley, located within the twelfth deep lane of Wutong Street.

Though the alley was old and worn, it was not sparsely populated. However, because the outer city was under curfew, everyone had shut themselves inside their homes, with only the occasional faint sigh or murmur of conversation drifting out.

The outer city's drainage system was atrocious.

As the midnight rain grew heavier, foul stagnant water began flowing through the alley district of Wutong Street, carrying floating household refuse with it.

Wutong Alley was no exception. The water gradually rose over the thresholds, while a woman's abruptly cut-off sobs faintly echoed from deep within the side alley.

Half a minute later, a dim yellow candle lamp lit up in the small courtyard deep within the side alley.

In the hazy lamplight,

a sinister man, bare from the waist up and covered in scratch marks across his chest and shoulders, came to the battered frosted window and sprawled onto an old peeling sofa.

He panted heavily.

Behind him lay a woman's corpse, her head smashed apart by a blunt weapon and her clothes torn to shreds.

In the corner lay a boy who had been violently thrown to death, his body bent at a grotesque angle.

This man was the Rat Gang's Fourth Boss—Du Kui.

The week was up. This vicious giant rat could no longer wait to crawl out of the ground and carve the culprit who had reduced everyone's painstaking efforts to ashes into a thousand pieces, torturing him to death.

Splash, splash, splash!

In the silent side alley, the sound of a pedestrian wading through the water, one step deep and one step shallow, suddenly rang out.

Du Kui's ears twitched. A thief's instincts made him rise from the sofa at once, press his eyes close to the frosted glass, and observe the movement in the dark alley.

Under the pitch-black night, a staggering figure was struggling forward through the severely flooded Wutong Alley.

Du Kui made out the man's appearance. It was the underling he had sent out during the day to investigate He Yuanshan's residence.

As for what the fellow was called, he had already forgotten. He only remembered that the man's wife had tasted quite good—fiery, too.

Rumble!!!

A massive bolt of lightning flashed across the sky. Raindrops the size of beans instantly turned into a downpour, pounding the rooftops in the alley with sharp clattering sounds, as though someone were walking overhead.

"You damned useless lump! I told you to scout out an address, and you still took this long to get back!"

Du Kui shouted furiously at the figure in the rain. Yet his shrill voice, like a broken gong, did not even carry ten meters through the rumbling rain before vanishing without a trace.

The figure therefore continued as before, swaying as it slowly trudged through the stagnant water.

Du Kui grew irritated. Disregarding his bare upper body, he strode into the rain.

"I'm talking to you! Are your ears deaf?!"

Du Kui took two or three steps to reach the figure, raising a hand to give the distraught young man a resounding slap.

Swish!

Yet at that moment, a chilling flash of saber light descended alongside a tall figure leaping from a nearby rooftop.

The rain curtain was cleaved apart, and the sharp edge pointed directly at Du Kui's unprotected upper body.

Clang!

A foot-long golden melon hammer appeared from who knew where in Du Kui's hand, smashing sideways into Chen Jue's downward-cleaving horse-chopping saber with an ear-piercing crash.

Slash!

Chen Jue's leaping downward strike was not merely powerful—it was overwhelmingly powerful. Even though the blade was struck sideways by the blunt hammer, its edge deviated only slightly from its path, savagely shaving a large chunk of flesh from Du Kui's left shoulder.

Pain shot through Du Kui's shoulder, blood pouring freely. His feet, planted in the stagnant water, kicked off sharply as he rapidly retreated.

"Who are you?! What grudge do you have against me?!"

Du Kui retreated ten meters in succession. Like a wounded beast, he fixed his bloodshot eyes on the black figure that had landed and roared loudly.

After landing, Chen Jue did not say a word. He splashed forward, saber in hand, charging straight at Du Kui's face.

"You're courting death!"

Du Kui stamped the ground. His body shot up from the water like a sky-piercing firecracker, flying toward a tall wall less than half a meter away.

At the same time, the golden melon hammer in his hand vanished abruptly, replaced by three-inch-long silver needles.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!!!

The instant Du Kui leaped onto the high wall, Azure-Wave Sun-Shooting True Qi erupted violently within his body.

He turned, and a burst of snow-white vapor exploded from his fingertips. Driven by that vapor, three silver flying needles tore through the rain curtain toward Chen Jue's face at speeds comparable to heavy crossbow bolts traveling one hundred meters per second.