bookandnovel Chapter 33: Sword Skill Perfected!
Chapter 33: Sword Skill Perfected!
"Thank you very much." Zhao An said, thanking Meng Wanyi for giving him this bottle of Earth Origin Pills at just the right time.
Otherwise, he would have had to endure even more torment.
There were three high-grade Earth Origin Pills left in the medicine bottle, which Zhao An did not return. Instead, he took one hundred and forty taels of silver, which was the price of the seven high-grade Earth Origin Pills.
Having learned his lesson, he made up his mind to always carry a sufficient supply of pills with him, no matter when or where, in case of emergency.
"Zhao An, consider this bottle of Earth Origin Pill as repayment for saving my life tonight." Meng Wanyi unusually refused to accept any money.
"If you need it again in the future, I'll sell it to you at half price."
"Since Miss Meng puts it that way, I won't refuse." Zhao An wasn't one to be coy, and readily accepted Meng Wanyi's repayment.
Just then, there was another noise outside the door.
The courtyard gate was pushed open again.
"Who killed this person!" Several armored soldiers rushed in and immediately saw a pile of corpses in the courtyard, the most conspicuous of which was the body of Guo Fenglin.
"It's me," Zhao An said calmly as he sat resting on a stone bench.
"Who are you? What is your name?" A man who looked like a general, wearing a helmet and chainmail, looked Zhao An up and down and asked rather rudely.
"Zhao An is just an ordinary citizen. These people broke into my courtyard and committed crimes. I was merely acting in self-defense," Zhao An replied simply, looking directly at the man.
The general wanted to say something, but was stopped by someone next to him.
"Commander Yuan, let's discuss this matter after tonight. Right now, it's crucial to get back to the county magistrate's office immediately!"
Zhao An glanced at the names above the heads of the two men.
The man, named Yuan Chengye, resembled a general, but his name was grayish.
The man in the brocade robes was named Zhuang Ge.
It is worth mentioning that Zhuang Ge is a person with a white name who has performed good deeds.
Although the white color is pale and there is no shimmering light, it is at least certain that this person is a positive character.
After saying that, the man said to Zhao An, "Do not touch the corpses here; someone will come to collect them."
Then the group of soldiers hurriedly departed.
Clearly, they had been chasing Guo Fenglin here, and now that Guo Fenglin was dead, they needed to hurry back to the inner city to defend against other invading rebel forces.
On the way, Yuan Chengye walked briskly and suddenly grinned, saying, "Brother Zhuang, the bandits of Black Wind Stronghold are about to be defeated. Guo Fenglin is the chief of Black Wind Stronghold. Why should we give the credit for beheading him to an ordinary commoner?"
Besides, we chased him here, so the head should belong to both of us, don't you think?"
Zhuang Ge, his face grim, said in a muffled voice, his tone filled with dissatisfaction, "Whoever killed them is whoever killed them. The formidable enemy is still at hand. Commander Yuan, you must focus on the battlefield and not let such trivial matters distract you!"
Upon hearing this, Yuan Chengye cursed the other party inwardly for being stupid, but remained silent.
In the courtyard, Zhao An watched the soldiers leave, and he understood that the county magistrate's office had regained the initiative.
Otherwise, this general wouldn't have had the spare capacity to lead his men to pursue them all the way from the inner city.
Meng Wanyi brought over a medicine box, and together with her sister Meng Shao, they carefully applied medicine to every skin and flesh injury on Zhao An's body.
Only now did Zhao An have the mind to review the thrilling battle that had just taken place.
Guo Fenglin and Cui Ting, the expert in throwing knives, were undoubtedly far more skilled than him.
The reason he was able to finally kill the two men was largely because they were already wounded, suggesting they had fought several battles with the pursuing general.
If they were both in good condition, Zhao An would be the one in grave danger.
There was no way around it; after all, Zhao An had only been here for less than a month to begin cultivating martial arts, which was far too short a time.
The fact that the Soul Slave has achieved this level of martial arts strength is already a testament to its power.
In addition, his two uses of the Soul Slave substitution skill played a crucial role, turning the tide of the game and achieving a comeback victory.
The cost was merely the loss of two ordinary soul slaves whose enslavement period was only one year. For Zhao An, who now had a reserve of fifty or sixty soul slaves, it was insignificant.
Now it seems that the Soul Slave's substitution skill is not only his last means of survival, but also his trump card to catch people off guard!
In critical moments, it can help him turn the tide, it's quite useful!
In addition, this last-minute soul slave refining not only increased his internal energy by sixty strands, but most importantly, it perfected his swordsmanship!
He has mastered the final stage of the Fierce Tiger Blade!
He has used no fewer than a dozen soul slaves to cultivate this sword technique, and the total cultivation time of these soul slaves has long exceeded sixty years!
However, in reality, he completed this task in less than a month!
It's definitely a crash course!
"If we use martial arts master soul slaves to train, we might be able to reach perfection even faster..." Zhao An pondered to himself.
The fully-mastered Fierce Tiger Blade is far more powerful than before.
In his view, the combined improvement from the first to the fourth stage was not as great as the improvement from this final step of perfecting the sword technique!
The significance of perfection is truly immense.
Many martial artists spend their entire lives without achieving this, and Zhao An's mastery of the sword technique is naturally not due to innate talent or unparalleled martial arts ability.
Rather, it is the result of many soul slaves coming together and spending a long time repeatedly and endlessly refining and polishing it.
For outsiders, being able to master a martial art is equivalent to an extremely rare achievement, enough to make him invincible!
Once his inner energy continues to grow, even if he goes to the inner city, he will be treated as an honored guest by all the famous and powerful families.
Until late into the night, the high-pitched blasts of horns echoed everywhere.
Then, warhorses galloped through the streets, roaring past once more.
This time, however, the commotion was directed towards the outskirts of the city.
"Have the rebels been driven away?" Only after the commotion had subsided for a while did Li Gou'er dare to peek out.
"It should be," Zhao An nodded.
Even so, none of them felt sleepy, nor did they dare to go far. They waited until it was broad daylight before people began to come to the street to check the situation.
Look around.
Ruins and rubble were scattered along every street. Many houses and buildings were completely burned to the ground by last night's fire, leaving nothing behind.
There were also corpses of civilians lying haphazardly in the streets, their bodies riddled with knife wounds and gunshot wounds, and some even trampled to death by horses.
Without a doubt, this was all caused by the mutinous army that stormed into the city.
Cries and wails were heard everywhere.
Zhao An also witnessed this hellish scene and knew that if he hadn't practiced martial arts, he would have ended up like this, and would now be a corpse.
Not only the outer city was like this, but the inner city was also wide open, with the city gates wide open and the place littered with the mess of looting.
"Brother Zhao, look!" Li Gou'er suddenly pointed towards the direction outside the city.
Dust and smoke rose outside the city, and the thunderous sound of horses' hooves frightened the people on the streets, causing them to flee again.
But soon, everyone discovered that the leader of the cavalry was none other than the county magistrate who had previously led the campaign against the mountain bandits.
Their county magistrate has finally returned.