Settlement Event: Ambush Kill (1 / 2)

Though Zhao Er rushed forward and swung his blade quickly, he made plenty of noise. Together with the sounds of the woodcutting cleaver biting into flesh and striking bone, it was impossible for the underling urinating with his back to Li San not to notice.

"Ah!! Who are you?!"

But the underling was right in the middle of relieving himself, enjoying the release. With his trousers still down, he had no way to attack Zhao Er and could only turn his head and shout.

Hearing the shout, Zhao Er immediately let go of the cleaver, then turned and thrust his palm forward. His four fingers pressed together, like a spirit snake flicking its tongue, he jabbed the underling in the throat with blinding speed.

Training in the Poison Sand Palm had made Zhao Er's hands exceptionally hard. This move, Spirit Snake Flicking Tongue from the Five Poisons Fist, was all about speed, precision, and ruthlessness.

Crack!

Zhao Er's strike landed squarely on the underling's throat. A crisp crack rang out as the cartilage shattered. Clutching his neck, the underling slowly collapsed, his shout abruptly cut off.

Zhao Er turned and saw Li San lying behind him, both hands pressed to his neck. Li San stared at him with wide eyes, the cleaver still lodged in his neck.

Without hesitation, Zhao Er stepped forward, gripped the handle, and jerked his arm upward, pulling the cleaver free.

Spurt!!

Blood gushed from the wound, splattering all over Zhao Er.

"Hrrk..."

Despite the torrent of blood, Li San did not die immediately. He even raised a hand toward Zhao Er, seemingly begging for mercy.

But Zhao Er remained expressionless. He raised the cleaver and brought it down again with savage force.

Clang!

This blow also struck the neck, severing it completely. The cleaver hit a stone on the ground and scattered sparks, the sound carrying far through the darkness.

At that, Zhao Er turned with the cleaver in hand. Behind him, the underling sat on the ground clutching his throat, his legs kicking frantically as he tried to move away from Zhao Er.

Zhao Er advanced with the cleaver, raised it, and finally swung it down under the underling's despairing gaze.

Blood splashed across the spot where the underling had just been urinating.

Once it was done, Zhao Er did not hurry away. He searched inside both men's clothes and around their waists, and only after finding two money pouches did he leave the residential alley with the cleaver in hand.

As Zhao Er ran, he felt his heart pounding, but he paid no attention to where he was going. He did not even look back once, simply taking whatever road appeared and charging straight ahead.

Only when the town had dwindled to a tiny silhouette did Zhao Er stop, panting heavily.

"Huff... huff..."

Zhao Er let go of the cleaver and braced his hands on his knees, gulping down air. Only then did he notice that his fingers were still trembling slightly.

"It's fine. It was my first time. Being nervous is normal. Even though I didn't pay him back with a lash just now... I don't hate Li San anymore, so from now on, there's no bad blood between us... Hmm, the cleaver wasn't quite sharp enough. I'll have to sharpen it next time..."

Zhao Er struggled to calm himself, muttering incessantly to dispel the negative emotions brought on by his first killing.

But as he muttered, text appeared before his eyes.

"Event complete. Beginning settlement!"

"Settlement event: Ambush kill!"

"Successfully ambushed and killed unranked martial artists ×2"

"Experience gained: Five Poisons Art +10, Five Poisons Fist +10, available skill points +2"

[Cultivation: Unranked]

[Cultivation art: Five Poisons Art (green) lv.1 (41+10/100)]

[Combat technique: Five Poisons Fist (white) lv.1 (6+10/100)]

[Available skill points: 2]

"That much!"

Zhao Er's nervousness and the rush of his first killing vanished instantly. His eyes shone as he stared at the Settlement Panel.

It was hardly surprising that the Settlement Panel appeared now that the ambush was over. After all, his cheat settled rewards based on events.

Zhao Er simply had not expected such generous rewards. The Five Poisons Art and Five Poisons Palm had both gained ten experience points, which was already a delightful surprise.

Even more unexpected was that the available skill points, whose workings he had never figured out, actually required killing martial artists to obtain. No wonder he had never earned any before.

"So killing martial artists at my own level rewards skill points? Then what am I waiting for? Deep Blue... no, allocate skill points!"

At this point, Zhao Er had no attention to spare for the improvement his increased cultivation-art proficiency brought him. Instead, he stared at the panel with shining eyes, then willed it to act, eager to test what these skill points could do.

"No cultivation arts available for fusion. Point allocation failed!"

However, the increase in cultivation-art level Zhao Er had anticipated after allocating skill points did not happen. The art's tier did not rise, nor did its proficiency increase significantly. Instead, a notification appeared telling him the allocation had failed.

"Skill points aren't for improving skills, but for fusing them?"

Zhao Er stared at the lone Five Poisons Art on his cultivation-art panel and could not help frowning.

Cultivation arts were not easy to obtain in this world. Acquiring an orthodox art usually required taking a master or joining the relevant faction. Even then, the art would be taught in stages, demanding considerable time and money.

As for unorthodox arts, not only did they have serious flaws, their quality varied wildly, and obtaining a complete one was no easy task either. Zhao Er had his elder brother to thank for the Five Poisons Art he was practicing now.

Otherwise, he would probably have had to buy it from the authorities, one stage at a time...

"No, that's not quite right. Other cultivation arts are hard to obtain, but there's one that definitely isn't."

As Zhao Er pondered, the name of a cultivation art surfaced in his mind: the Ginseng Spirit Art.

Unorthodox cultivation arts like the Ginseng Spirit Art, which demanded heavy investment, carried high risks in training, and benefited others rather than the practitioner, were not difficult to acquire. Zhao Er did not have it, but Zhao Cai did.

"Skill fusion... what would happen if I fused the Five Poisons Art with the Ginseng Spirit Art?"

The appearance of the Settlement Panel and the various thoughts flitting through Zhao Er's mind had actually taken only a few moments.

That brief interval was enough for Zhao Er's breathing to steady, and the last trace of his nervousness had completely disappeared.

Knowing this was no place to linger, Zhao Er picked up the sticky cleaver again, checked his bearings, and began retreating under the night's faint light.

By the time he reached home, the afternoon's training and the evening's intense strain had left Zhao Er utterly exhausted. Still, he washed himself by the well, then rinsed his clothes and the cleaver before leaving them soaking in a wooden basin. Only then did he drag his weary body into his room.

Once he climbed into bed, Zhao Er glanced at the panel again, then drifted easily off to sleep.

When Zhao Er woke, the sun was already high in the sky.

"Oh no!"

The sunlight on his face startled Zhao Er awake. He had planned to get up in the morning and, once it was light enough to see, check whether he had washed all the blood from yesterday's clothes. But now...

Yet when Zhao Er pushed open his door, he saw that the clothes he had left in the wooden bucket beside the well last night had already been washed clean and hung on a bamboo pole to dry. Nearby, his father, Zhao Dazhu, was sharpening the cleaver he had used to hack people down yesterday against a stone step.