Black Tiger Baleful Heart, Alarming the Soldiers

"Yellow Grade High-Tier, and an inner cultivation art?!"

Seeing that today's settlement had actually earned a C-Low Mid-tier evaluation, Chen Mu jolted upright in bed.

The martial arts of this age were divided into four ranks: Heaven, Earth, Profound, and Yellow, with each rank further split into high, mid, and low tiers.

The gap between every tier was as vast as heaven and earth, and inner cultivation methods were especially precious.

Yellow Grade cultivation methods corresponded precisely to the three realms of Common Bone martial cultivation: Body Tempering, Qi Accumulation, and Meridian Opening.

A Yellow Grade Low-Tier breathing method like Rampaging Bull Force could only be cultivated to the peak of the Body Tempering Realm.

Only mid-tier methods and above counted as true inner cultivation arts, capable of nurturing true qi.

A Yellow Grade High-Tier cultivation method could be cultivated directly to Great Completion of Meridian Opening!

Even in the entire Azure Dragon Martial Academy, perhaps only Liu Qingcang's personal disciples were qualified to cultivate one.

Thinking of this, Chen Mu did not even bother with his injuries. Suppressing the joy in his heart, he quickly rose and took stock of his gains.

First came the changes to the panel. He had killed many people on this trip, seizing quite a bit of Blood Essence and Karmic Slaughter.

His Blood Essence had now broken through the two-hundred mark and was closing in on 300 strands!

He had also accumulated 12 points of Karmic Slaughter!

That was enough for him to bring several more martial arts to entry level, or push Rampaging Bull Force into its next realm.

But Chen Mu was in no hurry to practice. He looked to the pills first.

He was seriously injured at the moment and badly needed healing. He wondered how effective this Bone-Strengthening Pill would be.

With that thought, Chen Mu piled the fifty taels of patterned silver that had fallen from nowhere at the head of his bed, then carefully picked out a small jade bottle.

When he opened it, he found three pills within, each smooth and lustrous as jade.

The instant he held one in his palm, a rich medicinal fragrance rushed into his face.

Chen Mu merely took one breath, and immediately felt the Blood Essence throughout his body churn.

Even the saber wound on his waist and abdomen eased considerably, carrying a faint itchy numbness as though new flesh were growing.

"This effect is absolutely from a graded pill!"

Chen Mu could not help but be overjoyed.

In past daily settlements, he had only received D-rank evaluations. The Blood-Qi Pills he obtained were utterly beneath notice.

But these three Bone-Strengthening Pills were likely graded pills that only true alchemists could refine.

Even if they were merely the lowest ninth grade, they were still priceless treasures that money could not buy.

Not only could they greatly advance cultivation, they could save one's life at a critical moment. Any single pill would spark a scramble from all sides.

Chen Mu forcibly suppressed the urge to swallow one immediately. He returned the three pills to the jade bottle and hid it close to his body.

Only then did he pick up the secret manual with its black cover and inspect it.

The Yellow Grade High-Tier Black Tiger Baleful Heart Art was indeed an excellent inner cultivation breathing method.

Chen Mu quickly flipped through it once and discovered that it also included a tiger-shaped stance, as well as diagrams of the qi circulation route.

"Looks like it comes as a set with that blade technique..."

Chen Mu then took out the Yellow Grade Low-Tier Black Tiger Blade Technique he had looted from Ma San's room.

Comparing the two, he found that the martial arts complemented each other and were clearly passed down from the same lineage.

The killing move Ma San had used—the three sabers in an instant—was also recorded within.

The Slaughter Register had likely not given such a reward without reason. Ma San might have possessed the original copy or a fragment of the Black Tiger Baleful Heart Art.

He just did not know where Ma San had hidden it, or how he had obtained such a fortuitous opportunity.

As he pondered, Chen Mu flipped the Black Tiger Baleful Heart Art to its final page and noticed that it recorded a secret art.

He had not expected another pleasant surprise!

To cultivate this art, aside from the daily tempering of stances, one had to use tiger blood to temper the body, then draw Killing Intent into the body to forge the sinews and bones.

This method was called the Blood-Burning Secret Art. In a moment of crisis, it could detonate the Killing Intent accumulated within the body over time.

Once activated, the Killing Intent would scorch the heart meridians and internal organs while stimulating the eight extraordinary meridians, making the Blood Essence boil like fire.

If cultivated to a profound level and paired with a dense accumulation of Killing Intent, one's strength could more than double at the moment of eruption.

After sorting through and digesting all these gains, Chen Mu finally felt lingering fear.

Fortunately, Ma San had not cultivated deeply, and his greed for life and fear of death had exposed a flaw. Otherwise, it remained uncertain who would have lived and who would have died tonight.

That feeling lasted only an instant before Chen Mu immediately steadied his mind.

He stored the worthless fist manuals he had gathered, along with the silver, in the hidden compartment beneath his bed.

He planned to study them later and see whether he could draw upon the strengths of many schools to further deduce the Mighty Bull Fist.

But none of that could be rushed.

The most urgent matter was healing his injuries. Once dawn came, the authorities would certainly conduct a sweeping search.

If Chen Mu still carried a body full of wounds by then, he would definitely give himself away.

Fortunately, he had just obtained the graded Bone-Strengthening Pills.

Chen Mu took one from the jade bottle and swallowed it with warm water. Then he sat cross-legged in the room and circulated his cultivation to regulate his breath.

The pill melted the instant it entered his mouth. A scorching current flowed down his throat and into Chen Mu's abdomen.

He immediately felt pain like blazing fire searing every limb and bone in his body.

Dense beads of cold sweat sprang across Chen Mu's forehead, but he did not cry out. Gritting his teeth, he began circulating his Blood Essence.

Boom! A surging torrent of Blood Essence began roaring through his meridians.

What would normally take several hours to circulate once now completed a full cycle in less than the time it took to drink half a cup of tea, bolstered by the Bone-Strengthening Pill.

The cold sweat on Chen Mu's forehead began steaming into white mist.

His breathing grew ever deeper and longer. The muscles, flesh, and skin throughout his body became increasingly taut and resilient, while his joints gave faint crackling sounds.

But it was not over. Chen Mu entered a state of complete self-forgetfulness and circulated his Blood Essence through more than a dozen consecutive cycles.

The savage saber wound on his waist and abdomen, deep enough to expose bone, actually healed rapidly and scabbed over during this cultivation.

Nearly two hours passed like this before Chen Mu suddenly jolted awake from his immersion.

"Unfortunately, the medicinal power of a single pill is ultimately limited..."

He sighed, feeling intense hunger rise from his abdomen as his stomach growled.

The medicinal power of that Bone-Strengthening Pill had already been completely refined.

At that moment, the pain throughout his body had vanished, and the wound at his waist had fully closed.

Chen Mu casually wiped it, and the layer of blood scab fell away on its own, revealing tender new flesh beneath.

He was completely uninjured!

And that was not all. Though the newly grown flesh was pale in color, Chen Mu ran his hand over it and could feel that it was tougher than cowhide.

After some thought, he took out a small knife and lightly drew it across his skin. It only left a faint white mark.

"Have I reached minor completion in Skin Refining?!"

Chen Mu was overjoyed and immediately summoned the panel to inspect it.

[Slaughter Register · Chen Mu (Common Bone)]

[Realm: Martial Master (Body-Tempering First Stage · Skin Refining Minor Completion)]

[Martial Arts: Rampaging Bull Force · First Glimpse of the Doorway (20/100), Ox-Slicing Saber Technique · Perfect Mastery (98/100)]

[Blood Essence: 320/1000]

[Karmic Slaughter: 12]

Looking at the brand-new panel, Chen Mu was beside himself with joy.

By refining this pill, combined with the gains he had seized through last night's slaughter, his Blood Essence had more than doubled!

Chen Mu's physique had undergone an earth-shaking transformation compared with before he left home last night.

He felt that if he faced Ma San again now, he could punch him to death within a few exchanges.

Moreover, the practical combat experience from that life-and-death battle had directly added 20 points of proficiency to his Rampaging Bull Force!

Chen Mu knew very well that the further one advanced in martial arts, the more Karmic Slaughter was required for advancement.

A Yellow Grade Low-Tier martial art like Rampaging Bull Force required only 1 point of Karmic Slaughter to reach entry level.

But to break through from First Glimpse of the Doorway to Entering the Hall, it would require more than ten times as much Karmic Slaughter.

If he could raise proficiency on his own, he could save Karmic Slaughter to practice more martial arts.

Thinking of this, he could no longer restrain himself. He took out the newly acquired Black Tiger Baleful Heart Art and its paired blade technique, intending to cultivate them to entry level in one go while the iron was hot.

Just then, a sudden clatter of footsteps and the collision of armor rose from the alley outside.

"Not good! Government soldiers!"

Chen Mu had been to the East City Drill Ground. The instant he heard them, he knew they were the government soldiers under Commander Zhao coming to investigate.

He truly had not expected them to react so quickly. They had found their way to Rubble Ward before dawn had even broken.

It was the middle of the night. The flames in the direction of Central Peace Street outside the window had long since burned out.

Ma San should already have become a charred corpse.

But these soldier-bandits had clearly not come for no reason.

Had he left behind some flaw?

Chen Mu's heart tightened. He knew there was no time for wild guesses.

He immediately rose and stored all the stolen valuables in the hidden compartment beneath his bed, yet he still did not feel at ease.

After some thought, Chen Mu simply took an oilcloth bundle and tightly wrapped the gold, silver, and secret manuals within it.

He left only a dozen or so taels of loose silver in the hidden compartment beneath his bed, then made his way through the darkness to the livestock shed in the courtyard.

The place was filled with filthy blood, dung, and urine left behind from slaughtered livestock, foul beyond description.

Chen Mu hid the bundle inside a large vat filled with sheep offal.

It was packed with all manner of organs and bloody water, the stench so pungent that ordinary people could scarcely keep their eyes open.

Just as he finished, clusters of torchlight flared outside, accompanied by government soldiers pounding on doors from house to house:

"People of Rubble Ward, listen up! You have half a quarter-hour to get the hell out here!"

"Commander Zhao has questions for you! Whoever is slow, watch out for the soldiers' blades! We'll skin you lowborn vermin alive!"

The moment Chen Mu heard that, he knew things had gone wrong. This attitude made it clear that they were certain Rubble Ward held an important clue.

But there was no use avoiding them now. He was about to go out and deal with them when, just after leaving the livestock shed, his heart suddenly clenched.

"Who's there? Come out!"

Chen Mu suddenly shouted, startled to discover a vague figure beneath the largest jujube tree in the courtyard.