Enlightenment: Beginning as a Disposable Warrior

Su Mu's memory kept tracing back, with scenes from the past unfolding like images before him, finally freezing at Yan Family Ridge.

Yan Family Ridge, Great Mist Mountain.

The saying goes that a maiden changes greatly in eighteen years, yet the eyebrows, facial features, and the words from those three people just now all pointed to one person, Yan Xiaolan.

She is the same Miss Yan whom Su Mu rescued from Zhao Xuan and his companions, the very first assassin bounty he accepted. Back then, it was this girl who led him to find two Tendon Pills.

Several years have passed, and unexpectedly, their reunion happened under such circumstances.

"It seems that something must have happened to the Yan Family... This girl must have gone through something, encountered some kind of opportunity, or else how could she have advanced from a commoner to Seventh Grade within just a few years... Although she's a bit too weak."

Su Mu's eyes flickered, as he now could guess what Yan Xiaolan aimed to accomplish. He recalled Yan Xiaolan's battle earlier; despite being ambushed, she was not supposed to be that weak as a Seventh-Grade Muscle-Enhancing Martial Artist.

Regardless of practical combat experience, just consider any Muscle-Enhancing Martial Artist that died by Su Mu's hand. With weapons in hand, they wouldn't easily be harmed by such a hidden weapon. Power infused in the weapon should suffice for self-defense, yet Yan Xiaolan failed even to protect herself.

With thoughts racing, Su Mu first took out a few antitoxic medicines and administered them to the unconscious Yan Xiaolan, temporarily suppressing the spread and onset of toxins within her body, then proceeded to push the wheelchair down the mountain.

Su Mu didn't head towards Baihe Town; instead, he looked afar and moved towards a village distant from Baihe Town.

"Lucky I had the old carpenter make this wheelchair back then."

At this moment, Su Mu felt somewhat helpless; the wheelchair was crafted for himself, but now it turned into a tool for transporting Yan Xiaolan, and additionally became a sort of walking stick, helping Su Mu to walk.

Trembling all the way, they went forward for several miles, and a few points of firelight appeared in front of them, with a carved stone coming into view: Wuniu Village.

Strangers entering the village caused the watchdogs to bark continuously.

Villagers soon woke up, and a farmer vigilantly grabbed a plow and looked outside, seeing a young man arriving with a wheelchair.

"Who are you?"

"It's dark, and inns are far away. We'd like to stay for a night." As he spoke, Su Mu took out a silver ingot.

After the man, a woman walked out from the courtyard, and the man hesitated, finding the two people's actions rather suspicious, with the woman wearing a mask.

But the woman only had eyes for the silver ingot. Their family couldn't earn this much in a year, and judging by the approaching footsteps of other villagers, she feared if they delayed, the silver ingot might be snatched away by another family.

"Alright, alright, come inside quickly; it's chilly outside." The woman rushed forward to take the silver and tucked it into her clothes, "Er Lengzi, what are you waiting for?"

The man called Er Lengzi saw his wife had taken the money and noted one of the two was unconscious while the other was staggering like a scholar incapable of even binding a chicken. Even if they bore ill intentions, he'd be able to defend himself.

The man gritted his teeth and led the two inside.

The man led them into the house while the woman handled the outside, quickly sending away any villagers who came upon hearing the commotion.

"Please fetch a basin of hot water for us."

"I'll make some now."

The two were placed in an annex next to the woodshed, and soon, a basin of hot water was delivered. Su Mu closed the door, and Spiritual Light flashed in his hand, producing a pack of silver needles.

Su Mu began carefully examining Yan Xiaolan's physical condition, and after confirming the location of the toxins, he immediately disinfected the silver needles by passing them over the candle flame.

"My apologies, Miss Yan."

Su Mu lightly adjusted his clothing and administered the silver needles. Before long, black blood emerged from Yan Xiaolan's chest and mouth, and Su Mu expelled all the poisoned blood from her body, wiping clean the needling areas with hot water before taking out a Qi and Blood Pill to complete the treatment.

Afterward, Su Mu let his hands wander around Yan Xiaolan's various meridians and bones, and after a thorough examination, surprise and realization showed in his eyes.

His earlier judgment was indeed correct.

Yan Xiaolan's Martial Dao was truly peculiar; in terms of bone forging, she was just a single forging Iron Bone, not even reaching Tough Bone, and as for Refining Force, it was outright absurd, merely at the Ming Force level from the first Refining Force.

Yet compared to Refining Force and Bone Forging, Yan Xiaolan had reached three-time Yijin in Muscle Changing, equivalent to Su Mu's current Muscle Strengthening Realm, which contributed to Su Mu's previous sense of oddity.

Yan Xiaolan's power for bone forging and muscle changing was entirely mismatched, giving the sense of an extraordinarily rare Jiao Tendon hung on an inferior Yang Wood Bow.

"Demon Beasts naturally open the Martial Path and are innate martial artists; their blood has the effect of refining flesh, muscles, and bones. It's likely the Fire Sparrow Blood has a special effect on strengthening the meridians."

Su Mu's eyes flickered, forming a hypothesis regarding this peculiar situation, and he couldn't help but recall the greedy glint in the cyan-robed scholar's eyes from Changping Demon Dao upon hearing about Fire Sparrow Blood.

For a moment, Su Mu's heart burned with desire, increasingly yearning for the Fire Sparrow Blood.

"If a person previously untrained in martial arts can breach three grades within a few years, it must be Sixth-Grade Demon Beast Blood!"

Su Mu checked Yan Xiaolan's bone age, merely eighteen, slightly older than Su Mu. At eighteen, achieving Seventh-Grade Yijin is beyond what Hongmen Martial Arts Hall's carefully nurtured talents like Zhang Jin and Shangguan Qing can do; throughout the Three Counties, she can be deemed a genius.