Peerless Halberd Art, Astral Force!

As Jiu'er played with the little mouse in her hands, she asked, "Young master, does it have a name?"

"A name?"

Li Dao replied, "I only picked it up yesterday and haven't had time to name it. Why don't you give it one?"

Jiu'er's eyes lit up, and she asked excitedly, "May I?"

Li Dao said casually, "It's just a name. Why not?"

"Thank you, young master."

Jiu'er happily looked at the little mouse in her arms and thought seriously for a moment. Suddenly, her eyes lit up. "I know what to name it!"

"What?"

"Young master, how about we call it Yuanbao?"

"Yuanbao?"

Li Dao repeated the name, then asked, "Why that name?"

Jiu'er smiled, her eyes narrowing into crescents. "Because everyone loves gold ingots!"

With that, she lifted the little mouse to face her and told it, "Little one, from now on, your name is Yuanbao. Understand?"

The little mouse nodded in response.

At the sight, Jiu'er exclaimed in surprise, "Young master, Yuanbao understands me!"

"I know."

While Jiu'er played with Yuanbao, Li Dao washed up inside before stepping out.

As soon as he emerged, he saw that the women he had rescued were already busy at work. With the village's men gone, they had to do everything themselves.

One woman was carrying two buckets of water on a shoulder pole toward the kitchen, visibly struggling.

Suddenly, a figure blocked her path.

The woman instinctively looked up, then hurriedly lowered the pole from her shoulders. "Benefactor."

"Let me help."

Li Dao looked at the woman before him. A fresh scar marked her face, only recently scabbed over, its bloody trace still plainly visible.

She was the woman who had cooked his meals yesterday, so he knew her.

He also knew how she had gotten that bloody mark. Yesterday, a Northern Barbarian cavalryman had noticed her delicate looks and tried to force himself on her. This seemingly frail woman had slashed her own face with her hairpin.

Had Li Dao's arrival not drawn the Northern Barbarian cavalrymen's attention to him, she might have ended up with far more than a single bloody mark on her face.

"No, no."

Seeing that Li Dao intended to help, the woman hurriedly shook her head.

But Li Dao paid no heed to her refusal and easily lifted the pole with one hand.

"It's only a little help."

Then he carried the two buckets toward the kitchen.

The woman hurried after him.

After setting both buckets down in the kitchen, Li Dao dusted off his hands.

Watching her benefactor lift and lower the two buckets she had struggled to carry with such ease, the woman unconsciously touched the scab on her face and murmured enviously, "You're so strong, benefactor."

Strong?

Li Dao glanced at the two buckets, which together weighed less than fifty jin, and shook his head with a smile. Perhaps this counted as strength in her eyes.

When he raised his head and met her gaze, he suddenly froze.

He saw yearning in her eyes.

It was not yearning for him, of course, but something more like a yearning for strength.

He knew that look well. When he first learned he was in the Death Row Camp, his eyes had held the same look. In those circumstances, only strength could give him a sense of security.

The woman soon came back to herself. Seeing Li Dao still standing before her, she smiled awkwardly. "Benefactor, go outside and sit for a while. It'll get smoky when I cook."

"All right."

This time, Li Dao did not hesitate. He turned and left. He was no good at cooking, after all, and staying would be of little help.

Of course, if he wanted to, his current brain would let him learn easily, even mastering it within a short time.

After leaving the kitchen, Li Dao did not wander about.

He knew how the village's women felt toward him. Roaming around would only interfere with their work.

Soon, he reached the rear courtyard alone.

Behind the carriage, he found the chest he had brought from the Earl of Anyuan's Residence.

He opened it, revealing the Dragon-Patterned Halberd inside.

Rather than focusing on the Dragon-Patterned Halberd, Li Dao reached to one side and took out the Peerless Halberd Art manual to read.

He had never had the chance to practice this supreme family art as a child. Now that he had some spare time, he could give it a try.

Leaning against the carriage, Li Dao opened the Peerless Halberd Art manual and studied it carefully.

He had owned a martial technique manual before-the Gale Saber Technique.

Compared with the Gale Saber Technique, the Peerless Halberd Art in his hands was far more profound.

If the Gale Saber Technique was simple foundational knowledge, like an elementary school textbook,

then the Peerless Halberd Art was knowledge on the level of high-school mathematics olympiads: difficult to learn and difficult to master.

In particular, he learned from the Peerless Halberd Art manual

that all its power lay in the word "peerless."

Anyone without innate prodigious strength would struggle even to begin practicing the Peerless Halberd Art. Its sweeping movements followed a fierce, domineering path, and it required a heavy halberd as well.

For ordinary people, that entry requirement alone barred most from learning it.

At the same time, beneath its broad, sweeping movements lay all sorts of intricate, delicate techniques.

In short, strength without intelligence would not suffice, nor would intelligence without strength. Only someone possessing both could master it.

He remembered his father telling him when he was a child that even the founder of their Li Family had never brought the Peerless Halberd Art to major mastery.

The reason was that their ancestor had possessed both strength and intelligence, but not all that much intelligence.

That made sense, though. Most military generals were lacking in certain respects.

Difficult though the Peerless Halberd Art was, it could not have suited Li Dao better.

As for strength, his physique could improve without limit. With his current physique, he could already exert over ten thousand jin of force, and unleashing his full power could multiply that figure several times over.

As for intelligence, photographic recall and an extensive, powerful memory were merely a few basic abilities his brain had acquired after numerous enhancements-a glimpse of just how powerful it was.

Li Dao continued leafing through the Peerless Halberd Art in his hands.

Meanwhile, a miniature figure had automatically formed in his mind.

Holding a heavy halberd, the figure kept swinging it within his mind as he read more and more.

An incense stick's worth of time later,

Li Dao turned the final page of the Peerless Halberd Art. He had committed the entire manual to memory.

He sat cross-legged before the carriage, closed his eyes, and began to meditate.

The figure in his mind also began repeatedly practicing the Peerless Halberd Art he had just learned from the manual.

Again and again, over and over.

After an unknown length of time, Li Dao suddenly opened his eyes.

He sprang behind the carriage and reached into the chest, easily lifting the Dragon-Patterned Halberd, which weighed over two hundred jin, with one hand.

Moving to the open center of the rear courtyard, he closed his eyes and began practicing the newly learned Peerless Halberd Art alongside the figure in his mind.

The Dragon-Patterned Halberd swept through the air, its two-hundred-plus jin weight feeling like nothing in his hands.

Perhaps because Li Dao's strength was too great, every swing made the air give a dull rumble.

As time passed, the Dragon-Patterned Halberd moved faster and faster.

Its tip skimmed above the ground. Though it never touched, it inexplicably left a long mark in the earth.

A little over ten minutes later,

Li Dao's movements gradually came to a stop.

When he opened his eyes and looked around, he found the entire rear courtyard in disarray, gouges everywhere.

Even a wall several meters away bore a shallow mark, yet he had not felt the slightest impact while practicing the Peerless Halberd Art.

Whoosh!

This time, Li Dao swung the Dragon-Patterned Halberd with his eyes open.

As he swung it, he saw with his own eyes an invisible blade emerge from its tip.

"Astral force!"

Li Dao murmured to himself.

The Peerless Halberd Art contained an account of astral force.

Astral force was something produced through the combination of strength and technique.

Fierce and domineering, it grew more powerful with greater strength and possessed greater destructive power than true qi.

Since astral force could not be acquired through cultivation, but only developed through pure strength and delicate technique, very few people could wield it.

Once a practitioner of the Peerless Halberd Art developed astral force, it meant they had reached minor mastery.

"Minor mastery already?"

Once again, Li Dao had underestimated his talent for practicing martial techniques.

His ancestor had spent an entire lifetime practicing the Peerless Halberd Art and achieved only minor mastery, never touching the threshold of major mastery even at his death. Li Dao had done it in less than an hour.

Of course, Li Dao had only just reached minor mastery and was still short of his ancestor's level, which had approached major mastery infinitely closely. Even so, this was astonishing enough.

Glancing at the Dragon-Patterned Halberd, which felt increasingly natural in his hands, Li Dao put it back into the chest.

It was not that he did not want to advance the Peerless Halberd Art further. Rather, according to the manual, rote practice would do little to bring it to major mastery. He chiefly needed to fight on the battlefield, continuously honing it against enemies.

After setting down the Dragon-Patterned Halberd, he returned the Peerless Halberd Art manual as well, then turned his attention to the remaining two manuals.

He quickly dismissed the Tyrant Tiger Mental Art.

After all, it was a method for cultivating true qi, completely useless to someone like him, born without meridians. Reading it would only add to his sorrow.

That left him with the manual titled Pagoda Art of War.

Sitting back down by the carriage, Li Dao picked up the Pagoda Art of War and casually began leafing through it.

A few minutes later,

after reading a tenth of it, Li Dao found that it truly was a military strategy manual.

Unlike the conventional strategy manuals circulating openly, however, this was an exclusive art passed down within the Li Family.

The Pagoda Art of War recorded a method for training a troop type called the Iron Pagoda, along with numerous battle formations suited to them.

As Li Dao recalled, his father had once spoken to him about the Iron Pagoda.

Supposedly, their ancestor had been granted the rank of first-class marquis because, during the wars to establish the empire, the Iron Pagoda under his command had earned countless merits in service of Great Qian's founding emperor.

According to his father, their Li Family ancestor had only joined Great Qian's founding emperor midway through his rise.

Otherwise, the Iron Pagoda's achievements alone would have comfortably earned the Li Family a dukedom, if not a princely title.

Unfortunately, because the Iron Pagoda were so difficult to train, and because none of their ancestor's descendants proved to be indigo bluer than the plant it came from, they had gradually vanished into the river of history.

At that thought, Li Dao quickly turned to the Iron Pagoda's training methods.

One look was enough for him to understand why training the Iron Pagoda was considered so difficult.

Even their initial requirements for recruits were outrageous.

They had to stand eight chi tall.

Eight chi in Great Qian was roughly one meter eighty-five.

They also had to be physically robust.

And those were merely the entry requirements.

Only afterward came the Iron Pagoda's actual training methods.

After reading through the whole regimen, Li Dao felt that the Iron Pagoda were none other than the modern special forces of his previous life.

With equal numbers, if one side consisted entirely of ordinary people and the other entirely of special forces, would that not be an absolute rout?

According to the Pagoda Art of War, the Iron Pagoda could face enemies numbering more than ten times their own.

The Pagoda Art of War even claimed that, with a sufficiently powerful commander, the Iron Pagoda at their strongest could face enemies a hundred times their number.

And that was with both sides possessing equal individual strength.

In his previous life, Li Dao would definitely have called anyone making such a claim a fraud.

But this was an age with cultivation methods, and that changed everything.

Especially since he had seen many things in the Pagoda Art of War that he did not understand.

For instance, it said that training the Iron Pagoda first required condensing their military formation, then transforming that military formation into military might through continuous slaughter.

Further on, there were things such as military souls.

In short, it was complicated.

After a little over ten minutes, Li Dao had committed the entire Pagoda Art of War to memory.

He had merely memorized it, though. Some of its contents were too unfamiliar, and he needed time to digest them.

Just then, Jiu'er's voice came from the front courtyard.

"Young master, it's time to eat."

"Coming."

After answering, Li Dao opened the chest, put the Pagoda Art of War back inside, and left the rear courtyard.

Not long after the meal, Jiu'er came to find him with the little mouse, now named Yuanbao, in her arms.

"Young master, when are we leaving?"

Jiu'er asked as she approached him.

"Leaving?"

Li Dao paused. "Do you want to leave sooner?"

"No, no."

Jiu'er hastily waved her hands, then said softly, "I just thought the women here had suffered so much. I was wondering if we could stay a few more days to keep them company."

"That's all?"

"Young master, do you mean..."

Li Dao chuckled. "We're not in a hurry anyway, so we can stay a few more days."

"Really?"

Jiu'er beamed with delight. "You're so good to me, young master."

"Wasn't I good to you before?"

"You were good before, but you're even better now."

"You little flatterer. Go on, go play."

"Bleh, bleh, bleh! I'm off to play with Yuanbao."

Watching Jiu'er run off, Li Dao smiled and shook his head, then turned his gaze to the other women busy in the courtyard. In truth, even if Jiu'er hadn't brought it up, he wouldn't have left so soon.

He knew one thing very well: the women of Peach Spring Village had only just suffered such a tragedy, and their emotions were still unstable. The only reason they had managed to calm down was that he had given them some sense of safety.

So if he stayed a few more days and waited for the women to gradually accept reality before leaving, he wouldn't need to worry.

Besides, he had fought his way out of Death Row Camp, headed straight for the Imperial Capital, and then spent another half month traveling without pause. It was time he took this opportunity to get some proper rest.