Chapter 53
After dealing with all thirty-seven wild wolves, Su Wangchuan and Lin Xun parted ways.
Early the next morning, everyone gathered again at Tianshui Village.
The wolves’ organs and entrails had already been eaten clean. The village was in complete disarray, but the cellar entrance had been sealed tightly and remained undamaged.
Lin Xun arrived with a convoy. This time, it was Qingfeng Escort Agency from the county seat.
Because the county magistrate had issued a winter bounty order, hunting a single wild beast now earned a reward of two taels of silver. As a result, the purchase price had risen to five taels per wolf.
Lin Xun and Su Wangchuan kept three taels as their share, handing the rest over to Qingfeng Escort Agency. Everyone was satisfied.
As the middleman, Lin Xun ran back and forth handling arrangements and split the proceeds fifty-fifty with Su Wangchuan.
Su Wangchuan naturally had no objections. With a generous wave of his hand, he handed the remaining 5.5 taels in loose silver to Bai Yuhui and Hong Kaibao to divide between themselves, while he pocketed fifty taels.
The two junior brothers were overjoyed.
Two days out, and they had earned more than three taels each, equivalent to two months of mining. Following their senior brother really meant good food and good living. After the convoy departed, Su Wangchuan and Li Zekai continued their training as usual.
By shooting fish in the stream, the two of them quickly completed their realm advancement.
Ding!
System Notification:
“《Archery》 has broken through from ‘Minor Mastery’ to ‘Practice Makes Perfect.’ Reward: +1 Strength, +1 Agility.”
A smile spread across Su Wangchuan’s face.
He had succeeded.
With 《Archery》 successfully advancing, he could clearly feel that drawing the bow had become lighter and smoother. His rhythm was faster, and there was a calm confidence to his shots, as if he could hit wherever he pointed.
He summoned his Status Panel and took a look:
Su Wangchuan: Male (Blacksmith) (Hunger 82/100)
Strength 8+6; Attack 4–5;
Agility 8+4; Defense 2.4; Speed +12;
Stamina 8+2; HP 100/100;
Spirit 8: (Unactivated).
Life Skill ‘Hundredfold Steel Forging Technique’: Entry-Level Mastery, next realm ‘Integration’ 4/2000;
Combat Skill ‘Archery’: Practice Makes Perfect, next realm ‘Entry-Level Mastery’ 0/500;
Combat Skill ‘Basic Spear Technique’: Practice Makes Perfect, next realm ‘Entry-Level Mastery’ 0/500;
Current Location: Southern Sky Continent, Nanyu Kingdom, Sanhe Commandery, Huishui County, Blackstone Village.
“Thank you, Brother Lin!”
“My 《Archery》 has reached Practice Makes Perfect.”
Lin Xun nodded with a smile.
“That’s good. Both you and Li Zekai have successfully advanced your 《Archery》. From now on, shooting fish and sparrows will no longer help you accumulate experience. You can set 《Archery》 aside for the time being.”
“Mm.”
With money earned and realms advanced, Su Wangchuan was in an excellent mood, smiling brightly.
“Now that both of my combat skills have reached Practice Makes Perfect, I’ll go back and continue forging, training my 《Hundredfold Steel Forging Technique》.”
“And after that?” Lin Xun asked pointedly.
“I remember you only have these three skills. At this stage, you should already be hitting a bottleneck. Further progress will be difficult.”
“Please enlighten me, Brother Lin,” Su Wangchuan said, cupping his fists.
Lin Xun smiled with an expression of approval and said,
“You are already a Quasi-Martial Artist. There are now two paths open to you. The first is to seek out other basic techniques to further improve your foundational attributes. However, the gains from this path will be limited. You already possess 《Basic Spear Technique》 and 《Archery》, two basic techniques from different routes. Your Strength and Agility are developing evenly. Only your Stamina is relatively weak, so you could choose techniques that focus on improving Stamina.”
“Before that, I happen to have a copy of 《Basic Fist Technique》. I can sell it to you cheaply—ten taels of silver.”
Su Wangchuan’s eyes lit up, and he took it without hesitation.
Ten taels was nothing.
“And what is the second option?” he asked.
Lin Xun pondered briefly.
“If you do not yet wish to join any of the local factions in Huishui County, you can consider taking out one hundred taels of silver and purchasing a first-rank martial art from the black market.”
Hearing this, Su Wangchuan’s eyes brightened.
“You can buy first-rank martial arts on the black market?”
This was something he had not expected.
“Of course,” Lin Xun said with a smile. “Practicing martial arts burns money. Martial artists usually do not have stable livelihoods, so they naturally need ways to make money. That said, first-rank martial arts are not easy to find. They usually leak out from proper gangs or martial artists with solid backing.”
“Does Brother Lin have any recommendations?” Su Wangchuan asked directly.
“Yes,” Lin Xun replied, introducing three first-rank martial arts on the spot.
“Our Yulong Gang’s 《Gale Saber Art》 is fairly common in the Jianghu. It mainly focuses on improving Agility.”
“Kongming Temple has 《Arhat Long Fist》. It is also a first-rank martial art, widely circulated, and primarily improves Stamina.”
“The last one is the almost ubiquitous 《Black Tiger Fist》. It is said to be a first-rank martial art as well. This one improves attributes more evenly—Strength, Agility, and Stamina all increase. You could say it is a higher-tier basic martial art.”
“My suggestion is that since you already know 《Basic Spear Technique》, it would be best to choose a first-rank spear technique. Training it would yield twice the results with half the effort. After all, you also have a teacher guiding you. By following your existing training methods, you could reach Practice Makes Perfect very quickly.”
Lin Xun’s guidance was extremely detailed.
Su Wangchuan nodded, deep in thought.
Lin Xun did not rush him.
After a moment, Su Wangchuan made his decision.
“Brother Lin, I would like to trouble you to help me purchase a first-rank martial art from Huishui County—《Black Tiger Fist》.”
“Hm?” Lin Xun was genuinely surprised.
He had not expected Su Wangchuan to choose the one he least favored among the three.
“Why 《Black Tiger Fist》?” Lin Xun asked.
Beside them, Li Zekai also looked astonished.
He had not expected this choice either.
Su Wangchuan explained, “Brother Lin, you know that I used to be a fitness content creator. I prefer balanced development across all aspects of the body. Only then can I properly control my core strength and fully unleash all my power and speed. Especially since I am also a blacksmith, balance between Strength and Agility is very important when forging.”
“Moreover, after mastering 《Basic Fist Technique》, training 《Black Tiger Fist》 should yield twice the results with half the effort.”
He was not sure whether Lin Xun truly understood.
After months of forging, he had clearly felt that excessive Strength actually required more concentration to control force, consuming additional stamina and focus.
The blacksmith profession was very special.
Lin Xun shook his head, clearly unable to understand.
“All right.”
“I do not understand forging, but I respect your decision. In any case, 《Black Tiger Fist》 is only a transitional choice. In the future, you will train many more martial arts.”
Lin Xun was very open-minded.
Su Wangchuan took out his money pouch.
He had not handed over all the silver he had submitted last week, keeping fifty taels for himself. Now, he could just make up one hundred taels to buy a first-rank martial art.
“For 《Black Tiger Fist》, it only costs eighty taels on the black market. Take these twenty taels back,” Lin Xun said, returning twenty taels of silver.
“Tomorrow, I’ll bring the manual to Blackstone Village to find you.”
With that, he left together with Li Zekai.
Su Wangchuan departed Tianshui Village with his two junior brothers.
On the road, Bai Yuhui suddenly asked, “Senior Brother Wangchuan, do you think we should also start saving up and buy a first-rank martial art to practice?”
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