Blade Technique at Perfect Mastery

The meal was soon ready.

This time, twenty jin of meat had been stewed. Feng Chen sent piece after piece into his mouth, and it vanished in no time.

Lin Qing'er sat across from him with her bowl in her hands, her eyes widening wider and wider. She opened her mouth. "Husband, you... you're eating far too much."

Feng Chen swallowed a piece of meat, set down his bowl and chopsticks, and smiled. "I've made a breakthrough in martial arts, so I can eat this much."

The surprise on Lin Qing'er's face turned to delight, and her eyes sparkled. "Husband, you're amazing! I heard martial arts are very difficult to cultivate. Some people in the village trained for half a year without even touching the threshold, while others couldn't afford the tuition and came back. You've only trained for a few days, yet you're already this incredible."

"Just a coincidence."

Feng Chen wiped the corner of his mouth. "Also, don't tell anyone."

Lin Qing'er nodded seriously and lowered her voice. "Don't worry, Husband. I understand."

After dinner, the two cleaned up the dishes and rested for a while. By then, night had completely fallen.

They decided to go to Aunt Li's house.

They found two pine-resin torches and lit them.

Holding the torches, they followed the moonlit path toward Aunt Li's home.

The night sky was clear, and the moonlight shone bright. Crickets chirped merrily in the grass, while an occasional firefly emerged from the depths, carrying a little green lantern.

Aunt Li's house was not far away. It was a dilapidated mud-brick dwelling, with several patches of peeling wall plaster and stones pressing down the thatched roof.

A faint oil lamp burned inside, its dim yellow light leaking through the cracks in the door and holes in the window paper.

Feng Chen stepped forward and knocked.

After quite a while, the door opened a crack. Aunt Li's thin, sallow face peered out. She froze for a moment, but once she recognized them, the wariness on her face melted away. She hurriedly pulled the door open. "Xiao Chen? Qing'er? Why have you come? Hurry inside."

Feng Chen smiled and planted the torch in a broken pottery jar by the courtyard wall. "I heard the little girl was sick, so we came to take a look."

Aunt Li was a widow. Her husband had fallen off a cliff while hunting in the mountains several years ago, and not even his full body had been recovered.

She raised her young daughter alone, scraping by through washing clothes for others and tending a small vegetable patch. Her life was poor and bitter.

Even in such circumstances, she had still lent them grain, so Feng Chen wanted to repay her.

He followed Aunt Li inside.

The house was tiny. The outer room served as both kitchen and hall, while the inner room was separated by a coarse cloth curtain covered in patches.

On the stove sat half a bowl of cold wild-vegetable porridge and a small dish of salt.

When the curtain was lifted, a little girl of seven or eight could be seen lying on the bed beneath a thin patched quilt. Her face was pale without a trace of blood, her lips dry and peeling, and her breathing shallow and rapid.

A wet cloth rested on her forehead, likely the only way Aunt Li could think of to bring down her fever.

Feng Chen and Aunt Li exchanged a few pleasantries.

The little girl had been fine last night, but suddenly developed a fever in the middle of the night. It had burned for an entire day without breaking.

The village quack had come to look at her and said she had caught a chill. He wanted money before he would write a prescription.

Aunt Li could not afford it, so she could only apply wet cloths and pray the fever would break on its own.

Feng Chen fell silent for a moment, then took out three taels of loose silver from his sleeve. He took Aunt Li's dry, thin hand and placed the silver in her palm.

Aunt Li looked down at it and was utterly stunned. Her fingers instinctively clenched, then abruptly loosened.

She pushed the silver back toward Feng Chen, her voice changing pitch. "Xiao Chen, where did you get so much money? Auntie can't take it. Your little family has only just begun to get back on its feet. Take it back!"

Feng Chen pushed her hand back again and smiled. "Take it, Auntie. Treating the little girl is what matters."

Aunt Li tried to stuff it into Lin Qing'er's hands, but Lin Qing'er tucked her hands behind her back and refused to accept it as well.

After a round of back-and-forth refusals, Aunt Li finally stopped pushing it away.

She stood there, so thin and small she looked like a stick of dry firewood. Her eyes suddenly reddened, and tears swirled in their deep-set sockets.

She looked at Feng Chen, then at Lin Qing'er. Her lips trembled several times before she managed a complete sentence. "Xiao Chen, thank you. Once Auntie gets through this difficult stretch, I'll definitely repay you."

Feng Chen waved his hand. "It's alright, Auntie. We can talk about that later. Getting the little girl treated comes first."

After chatting a little longer, he rose and left with Lin Qing'er.

Aunt Li escorted them to the door and watched the torchlight grow smaller and smaller until it disappeared into the depths of the night.

She closed and bolted the courtyard gate, then hurried back to sit beside the bed.

She reached out to touch her daughter's burning forehead, then lowered her gaze to the heavy silver in her palm. Every wrinkle on her face smoothed out.

Bending down, she pressed her face against the little girl's forehead and said softly, "My girl, you can live now. You'll live."

A little while later!

Feng Chen returned home, shut and bolted the door, and the two sat down in the hall.

Lin Qing'er rested her chin in her hands and gazed at the oil lamp, letting out a soft sigh. "Husband, times are truly hard now. Several families in the village are about to run out of food. The green shoots in the fields had barely emerged before insects gnawed them away. This year will probably be another poor harvest."

Feng Chen nodded. "Yeah. It's hard to deal with."

That was how ordinary people were in this world—or rather, in any world, ordinary people were always like this.

The two chatted for a while about small matters in the village and their plans for the future.

Another portion of the oil lamp burned away, and the flame gradually stretched thin.

Lin Qing'er yawned and rubbed her eyes, saying she was sleepy.

Feng Chen nodded and led Lin Qing'er back to the room.

He let her experience a Martial Artist's prowess.

Long afterward!

Lin Qing'er curled up in his arms, burying her face in the hollow of his shoulder, too embarrassed to lift her head. Her voice was muffled. "Husband, you're really so amazing now."

"Of course. I'm a Martial Artist now."

"Hehe."

Lin Qing'er smiled and let out a long yawn. "Husband, I'm so sleepy. I'm going to sleep."

Feng Chen gently placed her on the bed and pulled the quilt over her.

The moment Lin Qing'er's head touched the pillow, she closed her eyes. Before long, her breathing had become even.

Feng Chen tucked the loose strands of hair from her forehead behind her ear, then quietly got up and left.

He went to another room and lit an oil lamp.

Although Tiger Fist had already reached Perfection, and he had no higher technique for the time being to break through his realm, there were still other skills he could practice.

Basic Blade Technique was only at entry level with fifteen points of proficiency, while Basic Medicine had not even begun.

Blade techniques could give him another means in battle, while medical skills concerned bodily conditioning during future cultivation and the use of medicinal herbs.

He took out the newly purchased short blade.

It was forged from steel, its edge double-sided and gleaming with a cold, chilling light beneath the oil lamp.

He stood in the middle of the room, took a deep breath, and slashed forward.

Ding dong. Basic Blade Technique proficiency increased by one.

A notification rang out in his mind, and a wave of insight surged forth at the same time!

The angle of that slash had been off by three parts, and a small half of its force had scattered away.

After digesting the insight, he adjusted the angle of his wrist and delivered a second slash, then a third and fourth.

Every slash brought feedback, and every trace of deviation was caught and corrected by his Destiny Talent.

His movements gradually expanded from simple downward chops to horizontal cuts, diagonal slices, reverse-hand upward slashes, and turning strikes. Blade light flickered beneath the dim yellow lamp, its paths growing ever smoother and the sounds of cleaving air ever crisper.

Half an hour later.

Ding dong. Basic Blade Technique had reached the Minor Mastery Realm.

More insight poured into his mind.

He closed his eyes and absorbed it all. When he opened them again, the feeling of holding the blade had completely changed.

The handle sat more comfortably in his palm, and the distribution of the blade's center of gravity became crystal clear.

He did not stop and continued swinging the blade.

An hour later.

Ding dong. Detected that the host is earnestly cultivating Basic Blade Technique. Destiny Talent A Thousand Miles a Day has activated.

His cultivation speed suddenly soared.

Insight no longer seeped in drop by drop, but poured ceaselessly into the depths of his consciousness like a rushing stream.

The trajectory of every slash was broken down into dozens of tiny steps. Each step was polished separately before being recombined into a complete slash.

Midnight.

Outside the window, the moonlight was deep and bright, and night birds cried in the distance. Inside, the oil lamp had been trimmed once more, and a thin layer of lamp soot had settled in the corner of the table.

Feng Chen was still swinging his blade. His arm had swollen with soreness to the limit, but his eyes remained clear and focused.

Ding dong. Basic Blade Technique had reached the Perfect Mastery Realm.

A complete and profound understanding unfolded in his mind.

Chopping, slashing, hacking, sweeping, slicing, lifting, thrusting, wiping—all the essential principles of Basic Blade Technique had fused together seamlessly.

Feng Chen closed his eyes in contemplation. The blade in his hand seemed to have become an extension of his body, as though every method of using every part of it had been written into a manual within his heart.

He opened his eyes and gripped the short blade once more.

With a light flick of his wrist, he chopped once and flowed straight into three consecutive slashes. The angle and force of each strike were flawless, and the four strikes linked together without a single seam.

A smile appeared on Feng Chen's face. He sheathed the short blade and set it on the table, then sank his consciousness into the Sea of Consciousness and looked at the attribute panel.

Rapid Mastery

Host: Feng Chen

Technique: Tiger Fist (Perfection)

Realm: Body Tempering First Level (You are already very strong in the Body Tempering First Level realm)

Skills: Basic Archery (Perfection), Basic Fist Technique (Perfection)

Low-Level Hunting Skill (Perfection), Basic Blade Technique (Perfection)

Basic Movement Technique (Perfection), Basic Medicine (Not Started 0/100), Eat, Drink, and Be Merry (Perfection)