Chapter 11

“You… You are… Bone Tempering…” Kuai Wei’s body convulsed as his vitality rapidly drained from his body. He did not expect that the other party was also an expert at the Bone Tempering Realm, especially when he was a saber practitioner which was stronger than him, a leg practitioner. He actually kept pretending to be in the Skin Tempering Realm.

At this moment, Han Zhao put away his spare dagger and took off the fox mask on his face. “Aren’t you also at Bone Tempering?”

His mouth and nose were tightly wrapped in cloth, and his eyes were covered with a white veil.

As Han Zhao had been killed by lime powder, sleeve arrows, and poison in the simulation, he was especially careful and was fully prepared.

He bought a spare dagger and leather armor on credit at Edge Sharpening Manor.

Then, he used his remaining money to buy some antidote pills.

In the end, he only used the spare dagger and the white veil.

“You… lied to me…” Kuai Wei looked at Han Zhao and knew that he wasn’t blinded by lime powder at all. He immediately coughed up a few mouthfuls of blood.

How could anyone be more sinister than him?

With such unwillingness and hatred, he closed his eyes forever.

“Phew…” Han Zhao heaved a sigh of relief and took off the white veil covering his eyes. In order to adapt to his vision after being covered by the white veil, he spent a long time training every day.

He had already felt that something was wrong when he was chasing after him just now. Although the other party was a Skin Tempering martial artist who was good at leg techniques, his speed was still so fast even with his injured right leg.

Especially when he used a portion of his nourishing true qi to accelerate, the other party’s speed correspondingly increased. He felt that this Flower Picking Bee was hiding his strength.

After giving it a try, the outcome was as expected.

Fortunately, he had also hidden his strength.

Speaking of which, Bone Tempering martial artists were considered the backbone of Blackrock City’s combat strength. If they joined a large family clan in the city, they could live quite well. There was no need for them to be flower thieves. This guy was truly unique.

“Meeting on a narrow path, steady and brave!” He walked to the side of a big tree and pulled out the long saber on the tree trunk.

Then, he used his saber to flip Kuai Wei’s body over. He opened the clothes on Kuai Wei’s chest and found a few small bags of lime powder and a porcelain bottle containing pink powder.

There were also three booklets and some silver pieces. There were about seven to eight taels of silver.

One of the pamphlets was the Flying Swallow Technique that Kuai Wei had mentioned. It was not bad to be able to cultivate the leg technique to the Blood Tempering Realm.

However, he was not prepared to divert his attention to cultivating another leg technique. After all, his aptitude was there.

If it was a saber or sword technique, he might have kept it for now and cultivated it when the time was right.

Thinking of this, he looked at another booklet—Yin Plucking Technique.

It was obvious that the name was not a proper cultivation technique.

He opened it and saw that it was a cultivation technique that specialized in plucking women’s Yin Essence.

The last book was the Bone Shrinking Technique. After mastering it, one could change their figure. They could even move their facial bones and muscles for a short period of time to achieve the effect of disguise.

Han Zhao put away the three cultivation methods.

After looting the crates, he could not help but sigh. “Killing is truly the fastest path to wealth!”

Even without the bounty, there were dozens of taels of silver on this trip. However, how to sell this cultivation method was a problem.

There were naturally many people in Blackrock City who could fork out dozens of taels in one go, but he didn’t want to be in the limelight. Otherwise, there was no need for him to hide his identity and be a Saber Hunter.

“Puchi!” Han Zhao turned the long saber in his hand and Kuai Wei’s head left his body. Then, he wrapped the head with a cloth.

Looking at Kuai Wei’s headless corpse, he thought for a moment and dug out a hole with the other short knife he carried with him. Then, he pushed Kuai Wei’s corpse into the hole and began to fill the soil.

At the same time, he muttered, “Kuai Wei, I’ll let you rest in peace. If you become a ghost, don’t come to me. Otherwise, I’ll have to kill you again. Be a good person in your next life.”

Just as Han Zhao began to fill in the soil, there was a sound from the bushes, followed by hurried footsteps.

Two muscular men walked out and were stunned when they saw Han Zhao ‘skillfully’ burying the corpse.

[Two Skin Tempering martial artists. You can easily kill them, but if you do, you still have to dig two more pits. One pit definitely can’t fit them all.]

“…” Han Zhao paused.

The two of them sized up the headless corpse’s clothes and reacted.

“Friend, did you kill the Flower Picking Bee?” One of the men asked loudly.

“Yes.” Han Zhao lowered his voice and continued to fill in the soil.

“This Flower Picking Bee was injured by our sneak attack,” another man said.

“So what?” Han Zhao’s tone was calm.

“He’s a Bone Tempering martial artist. You must have expended a lot of energy to kill him, right?”

“So?” Han Zhao raised his head and looked at the other party.

As long as they did not provoke him, he was too lazy to make a move. However, if they insisted on forcing him, there was nothing he could do.

“According to the rules of the martial world, the rewards for your killings naturally belong to you. Sorry for disturbing you.” The expression of the man who was the first to speak changed slightly. He cupped his fists at Han Zhao and pulled the other person away.

“Zhang San, what are you doing?! We…” The other man seemed unwilling, but he was quickly dragged away with his mouth covered.

After the two of them walked a few hundred meters in one go, the man finally could not help but shout, “Zhang San! Why didn’t he take the opportunity to attack just now? He must have consumed a lot of stamina after killing the Flower Picking Bee. He might even be injured. It’s not impossible to win a two-on-one.”

“Do you think we can provoke someone who still has the leisure to dig a hole and bury a corpse after killing a martial artist of the same level?”

“This… seems to be the case.”

“Let’s go. Staying alive is the most important.”

…

Han Zhao heard the commotion and sped up when she saw that the two of them had really left.

He had basically heard from Lu Yi that there were 20 to 30 Force Tempering Martial Masters in the city, and 12 of them had opened martial arts schools.

As for quasi-Martial Masters at the Blood Tempering Realm, they were all well-known figures.

Force Tempering Martial Masters usually did not attack. Blood Tempering was the top combat strength of Blackrock City.

There were only 40 to 50 martial artists at this level. The reason why there were so few was that many martial artists at the Blood Tempering Realm had gone to larger cities.

Although big cities were more dangerous, there were also more opportunities for breakthroughs.

Reaching the Blood Tempering Realm could increase one’s lifespan by 20 years. Before the age of 40, one’s blood qi would be at its peak and one would have more time to advance to become a Force Tempering Martial Master.

Those who stayed in Blackrock City were either relatively young or over 40 years old. Their chances of advancement were greatly reduced.

As for experts at the Bone Tempering Realm, Lu Yi did not say how many there were. At his level, he probably only cared about quasi-Martial Masters at the Blood Tempering Realm and experts at the same realm.

After letting Kuai Wei rest in peace, Han Zhao carried his head to collect the reward money.

What he did not expect was that gold could be exchanged in the saber hunter’s stronghold, and the exchange rate for gold and silver was 1:11.

This was much safer than exchanging at the bank in the city. After all, it was easy to attract attention if he exchanged it too many times.

Before he was strong enough, his identity as a Saber Hunter was more suitable for him to hide and develop.

After all, what did Song Que’s fame have to do with him?

When he returned this time, he would cultivate the Bone Shrinking Technique to increase his insurance of hiding his identity.

Then, he asked around where he could buy and sell cultivation methods. In the end, the stronghold also accepted cultivation methods, so he sold the Flying Swallow Technique for 70 taels and the Yin Plucking Technique for 11 taels. In addition to the 10 taels of silver reward he obtained from killing Kuai Wei, he exchanged it for 8 taels of gold on the spot, leaving him with 3 taels of silver.

As a leg technique that could be cultivated to the Blood Tempering Realm, the Flying Swallow Technique could be sold for a higher price, but it was indeed very convenient to directly use it.

If he went to the black market and was targeted, he would be in trouble.

It was better to avoid trouble.

He had to develop and increase his strength first. When the time came, he could earn more money.

“Lord Song, this is your gold. Please keep it well.” The official handed 8 taels of gold and 3 taels of silver to Han Zhao and reminded him, “Lord Song, according to the rules, you can keep a copy of these cultivation methods, but you can’t sell them again. Otherwise…”

Before the official could finish speaking, Han Zhao replied, “Don’t worry, I understand the rules.”

No one wanted the cultivation methods they had spent money to buy to be common goods, especially since these cultivation methods could not be used to grasp Internal Force. If they were copied in large quantities, the price of such cultivation methods would plummet.

Otherwise, he could have copied dozens or hundreds of copies. Even if he sold one for a few taels of silver, he could still earn a large sum.

However, destroying the market would cause a lot of trouble. He did not want to try.

Any cultivation method that could be cultivated to the Blood Tempering Realm would have an exclusive blood qi circulation diagram. If one did not cultivate the cultivation method to the corresponding level, it was impossible to copy it.

As the saying went, the slightest mistake could lead to a thousand miles of error.

Back then, when Han Zhao handed the Thousand Silk Guide to Lu Yi in public, this was also the reason why no one suspected that he had left behind a copy.

As for selling the copied cultivation technique and keeping it for himself, he would not do such a stupid thing.

Even if high-level martial artists did not cultivate their cultivation methods to the corresponding level, they could still see some clues.

Those cultivation techniques that could only be cultivated to the Bone Tempering Realm were not even interesting to him. In any case, he would not cultivate them.

Before reaching the Blood Tempering Realm, he would only major in the Mountain Splitting Saber Technique and the Life Nurturing Technique. At most, he would add one sword technique.

Cultivating other cultivation methods would completely slow down his cultivation progress. The gains would not make up for the losses.

After putting away the money, Han Zhao left the Saber Hunter stronghold.

After walking into the deserted forest, he changed out of his mask and clothes and put them away in his bag.

As for the 8 taels of gold in his pocket, he directly charged it into the system.

[Current Balance: 8 taels of gold]