Embroidered Spring Blade, Tempered a Hundred Times!

A damp, foul stench drilled into his nasal cavity.

It felt like small insects were crawling all over his body, and the unbearable itchiness caused Yang Xiao to jerk his eyes open.

He was met with a low, gloomy room where a dim yellow oil lamp flickered in the corner of the wall, illuminating several wooden slab beds covered with white cloths inside.

Beneath the white cloths were corpses.

Some had missing limbs, while others had their chests and abdomens torn open. Dark red blood had already congealed into patches, mixed with grass clippings, mud, and a certain fishy stench that turned one's stomach.

"Awake?"

A hoarse voice came from nearby.

Yang Xiao turned his head to look and saw an old yamen runner wearing coarse hemp garments squatting by the threshold smoking a dry tobacco pipe, his face etched with utter exhaustion.

"Since you're awake, stop lying down. Liu Family Village sent over three more corpses, and we still need to register them in a bit."

Liu Family Village? Corpses?

Yang Xiao had just wanted to speak when his head suddenly felt as though it had been fiercely struck by an iron hammer, and a sharp pain instantly exploded through it.

A massive influx of unfamiliar memories flooded into his mind.

This was a world where martial dao flourished and demons ran amok.

The Great Zhou imperial court established institutions such as the county yamen and the Demon Suppression Division, specializing in apprehending criminals and slaying demons.

And his current identity was an inconspicuous yamen runner in the Xiangyun County Yamen.

Usually, his duties involved patrolling the streets, escorting prisoners, collecting corpses, and providing disaster relief. When encountering a demon plague, he even had to risk his life following the constable outside the city walls.

If he mixed well, he could accumulate merit, exchange them for martial arts and pills, climb up to become a constable, and even have the opportunity to enter the Demon Suppression Division.

If he mixed poorly... Yang Xiao glanced at the few corpses covered with white cloths before him.

This was the end result.

"This era really is getting more and more chaotic."

The old yamen runner spat out a puff of smoke and cursed, "A few days ago, Liu Family Village only lost a few bags of grain, but who would have thought that last night a rat demon would march right into the village and drag people off?"

"I heard a child was gnawed until only the lower half of his body remained, and his mother hugged the corpse and cried all night."

"The county is short-handed, and Constable Zhang will probably have to send men to Liu Family Village again."

Saying this, the old yamen runner glanced sideways at Yang Xiao.

"You brat had better be sharp lately. If you really get assigned to Liu Family Village, Body Forging 3rd Layer won't be enough to fill those beasts' teeth."

Yang Xiao furrowed his brows slightly.

According to the original owner's memories, body forging formed the foundation of martial dao and was divided into a total of nine layers.

Body Forging 3rd Layer could only be considered at the very bottom among the yamen's various runners.

His father, Yang Dayong, was once a renowned constable in Xiangyun County and died in a demonic disaster. The magistrate, mindful of his father's merits, allowed the original owner to inherit his father's profession and enter the county yamen.

Yet the original owner happened to be utterly lacking in ambition.

Over the years, he poured his heart and soul into his childhood sweetheart Hu Qingqing, having his salary and family savings almost entirely hollowed out to give to her younger brother Hu Kai, while his own cultivation fell into disrepair.

"How fierce Yang Dayong was back then, wielding a Spring Embroidery Saber from one end of the street to the other without batting an eye."

The old yamen runner seemed to recall something as well, turning his head to eye Yang Xiao before shaking his head with a sigh. "What a pity, the son is nothing like him."

Yang Xiao remained silent. He simply lowered his gaze to look at his own hands.

These hands were fair and slender, yet there were not many thick calluses on the palms. They did not resemble those of a yamen runner who practiced with the saber year-round, looking more like the hands of an idle vagrant who possessed merely an official title and wasted his days.

In this era, demons ate humans, and low-level yamen runners could die at any moment.

Since he had survived, he was not willing to continue drifting along like this.

Just then, a burst of hurried footsteps suddenly echoed from outside.

A young yamen runner rushed into the mortuary with a pale face.

"Constable Zhang sent word that the rat calamity in Liu Family Village might not be over yet, and all shifts of runners are to remain on standby for dispatch at any moment over these next few days!"

The old yamen runner's expression turned ugly. "It looks like we won't have any leisure these next few days."

The young yamen runner swallowed a mouthful of saliva. "I heard the Demon Suppression Division is coming to Xiangyun County to select personnel in seven days, and the magistrate doesn't want a major demonic disaster kicking off at this juncture, so he'll probably want it cleaned up as quickly as possible."

The Demon Suppression Division. Yang Xiao's gaze shifted slightly.

In the original owner's memories, the Demon Suppression Division was an organization specifically dedicated to slaying demons and eliminating devils in the Great Zhou.

It was filled with countless experts and boundless resources. For a low-level martial artist, entering the Demon Suppression Division meant truly stepping onto the path of upward mobility in martial dao.

It was just that the selection process for the Demon Suppression Division was extremely rigorous, and a small place like Xiangyun County managed to select hardly anyone each year.

Besides, he was currently only at Body Forging 3rd Layer—far too lacking.

Yang Xiao took a deep breath, forcefully suppressing the distracting thoughts in his mind.

Thinking that far ahead was meaningless right now; what he needed to do most was to survive first.

Evening.

Yang Xiao finished his shift and returned home.

This was a remote little courtyard with mottled courtyard walls and minimalist furnishings inside.

A bed, an old table, and a few empty cabinets.

Yang Xiao walked over to the bed and, following his memories, bent down to drag a dark wooden box out from underneath it.

The surface of the wooden box was covered in dust, yet it had been well-preserved.

He reached out to brush away the dust and opened the box lid, inside which a long saber lay quietly.

The scabbard was archaic, carved with golden auspicious cloud patterns. Although it had not been truly unsheathed for many years, a biting chill still rushed toward his face.

This was a Initial Realm martial weapon bestowed by the county yamen—the Spring Embroidery Saber—after his father Yang Dayong established great merits in slaying demons.

It was also the original owner's last remaining valuable possession.

Yang Xiao gripped the saber hilt and slowly drew the blade.

Clang—The blade cleared the scabbard, its cold light like water.

The dim room seemed to brighten for an instant. Yang Xiao looked at his own reflection mirrored on the blade, and a nameless sensation suddenly welled up in his heart.

At that moment, a transparent rectangular grid suddenly materialized before his eyes.

[Equippable item detected: Spring Embroidery Saber]

[Equip?]

Yang Xiao's pupils constricted slightly. Equip?

He stared at that transparent grid before him, his breathing pausing slightly.

A golden finger?

After a brief silence, he silently recited in his heart: Equip.

The next instant, the Spring Embroidery Saber in his hand transformed into a wisp of faint light and dropped into the transparent grid.

Immediately following that, lines of text surfaced.

[Initial Realm · Spring Embroidery Saber]

[Effect One: Slight increase in physical strength and vigor.]

[Effect Two: Basic Blade Technique mastery perfected.]

[Effect Three: Acquired trait (Blue) Hundred-Refined Edge: Blade sharpness enhanced, capable of piercing low-tier demon leather armor, attacks inflict continuous bleeding effect.]

[Permanent solidification condition: Equip for twelve hours, or slay a body-forging demon.]

A torrent of heat violently surged into Yang Xiao's body.

He only felt as though his limbs and bones were being washed over by warm water. His previously hollow physical strength rapidly solidified, and extra strength blossomed throughout his arms, waist, back, and legs.

More importantly, countless memories of saber practice suddenly flooded into his mind.

Cleaving, flicking, slashing, stabbing, parrying, blocking. Every single movement felt as though it had been practiced a thousand times over.

How to exert force from the wrists, how to coordinate his footsteps, how the blade edge cut into an enemy's vulnerability—all of it was exceptionally clear.

It was as if a veteran master who had practiced the saber for decades had forcefully crammed his lifelong basic blade techniques into his body.

Yang Xiao instinctively gripped the Spring Embroidery Saber that had reappeared in his hand and lightly slashed forward.

The blade pierced the air with a clean and crisp sound.

A brilliant light sparked in Yang Xiao's eyes.

Basic Blade Technique perfected. One had to know that among the forty-odd yamen runners in Xiangyun County as a whole, not even five people could push the Basic Blade Technique to the stage of great accomplishment.

Perfected? Many people spent their entire lives without even grazing its borders.

Yet he had instantly acquired it simply by equipping the Spring Embroidery Saber.

What was even more crucial was that this effect could also be solidified.

Once solidified, he could unequip the Spring Embroidery Saber and equip other items instead.

Techniques, weapons, demon cores, pills... As long as he had enough items, he would be able to continuously stack his strength.

Yang Xiao gazed at the transparent equipment slot before him, the corners of his mouth curving slowly upward.

He had thought it was a doomed opening hand, but looking at it now, it seemed there was not completely no path to survival.

Right at that moment, a sharp female voice abruptly rang out from outside the courtyard gate.

"Yang Xiao!"

"Where is that Spring Embroidery Saber of yours? Hu Kai needs to use it tomorrow, hurry up and bring it out!"

The smile in Yang Xiao's eyes faded bit by bit.

He lowered his gaze to look at the bitterly cold, gleaming Spring Embroidery Saber in his hand, his voice inaudible.

"You've arrived just in time, truly."