“Your fist work is basic, your footwork is ordinary — and yet every technique you use is refined to a degree that defies explanation.”
“Talent like yours, wasted in the government. What a shame.”
Zhang Tuhu walked into the duty room, grabbed the water barrel, and poured a long draught down his throat, shaking his head.
“The Demon Suppression Division is inferior to the jianghu sects?”
Shen Yi was genuinely curious about these things he’d never been taught.
“Not at all. The Division draws on martial arts from every corner of the Daqian Dynasty — in terms of depth and backing, it’s the finest institution there is.”
Zhang Tuhu set down the barrel. “It’s the rules. Everything done in order, climbing one rung at a time. With your talent, a sect like the Jingang School would make you a personal disciple of an elder on the spot — priority access to rare medicines and quality weapons.”
He sighed. “That door’s closed now, though.”
Shen Yi looked at him. “Why?”
“Think about it. If you were mediocre, I’d have no trouble smoothing things over, maybe obscuring your background a little. But with your ability — no one’s going to believe the Division passed on you. Not a single sect in Qingzhou would accept your application, no matter how it was worded.”
Zhang Tuhu reached into his front and produced several pages of yellowed paper, clearly prepared in advance.
He was less straightforward than he appeared. A single observation of Shen Yi’s Serpentine Eight Strides the day before had apparently been enough to map out his situation.
“I entered the Jingang School at six. My master called me a natural genius. I’m forty-eight now — slain more demons than I can count, consumed more beast cores and rare medicines than I remember — and I’ve only opened seven apertures.”
“Two reasons. First, the Jingang School takes a different approach from most sects. We use the breath of heaven and earth to refine the body directly — the majority of the absorbed energy goes into the flesh and bone, not into cultivation. Progress is several times slower than conventional methods.”
Zhang Tuhu bared his teeth and held up his arm. “You’ve seen the results. Just now, if I’d actually drawn on my apertures instead of letting you hit the exterior — I couldn’t have put you down, but I’d have had no trouble protecting myself.”
“I can’t give you the Jingang Sacred Body art. But look here.”
He pressed the yellowed pages into Shen Yi’s hands. “Something I worked out myself. Also why I’m only barely at mid-Threshold after all this time.”
Shen Yi unfolded the paper and flipped through it — not that he understood most of what he was reading, but some things you had to see for yourself.
“The jianghu has its own problems. Offend the wrong person and your path forward simply disappears.” Zhang Tuhu’s voice was even as he said it. “They wouldn’t give me Jade Liquid Realm techniques, so I worked it out myself. Took over a decade, and I barely got past the threshold — it’s speculation, not certainty, so don’t treat it as gospel. But refined to Major Mastery, it shouldn’t fall short of the Jingang Sacred Body.”
“The lower volume covers the Jade Liquid material. I’ll explain it properly once I’ve thought it through myself.”
Shen Yi turned the pages slowly. The panel surfaced before him.
【Jade Liquid · Golden Sun Eight Treasures Mysterious Body, Volume One — Untrained】
He forced his breathing to stay even. It didn’t entirely cooperate.
Zhang Tuhu had described this as Threshold Realm work, with the Jade Liquid portion only speculation. But the panel had just confirmed that the speculation was correct. All it lacked was time and a completed lower volume — and then this would be a genuine Jade Liquid Realm cultivation art.
Against that, the Blood-Corruption Bladework — devastating as it was — had obvious growth limitations and specific conditions attached. The difference in long-term value was almost incomparable.
Shen Yi went quiet. Zhang Tuhu, for his part, started looking somewhat anxious, scratching the back of his head.
“It’s my own thinking, but the foundation borrows from the Jingang Sacred Body — heh — so it should be sound enough. I’m already using it myself, so if anything goes wrong you’ll know before you have to decide.”
“You have exceptional talent, senior.”
Shen Yi set the pages down with care, something genuine in his expression.
Using the panel, simply deriving a Threshold Realm bladework had taken fifty simulated years. This man had produced something of equivalent scope — without any external assistance — in just over a decade. That was what real genius looked like.
“I told you not to call me senior.” Zhang Tuhu clicked his tongue and headed for the door, rolling his eyes. “The technique exchange is just part of it. I walked here from Qingzhou and spent every coin I had on the road. From now on I’m calling you boss and eating at your table — anyway, you’re busy. Write up the bladework when you get a chance and hand it over then.”
Shen Yi watched him go, shaking his head.
Baiyun County was small, but there were plenty of wealthy households that would have leapt at the chance to house a Threshold Realm practitioner. Why this particular posting?
He let it go.
He closed the newly-fitted door and turned his attention to the panel.
【Remaining Demon Lifespan: 226 years】
He’d been planning to hold these reserves until Lin Baixi finished the transcription. But after last night, the urgency of having better defensive capabilities had become considerably more concrete.
He almost laughed at himself.
When he’d had one year of lifespan left, he’d charged at the black-furred Dog Demon without a second thought.
Now he had forty-six years, and two snake women had rattled him.
Valuing your life really is instinct. Even a borrowed life counts.
He gathered himself and began channeling demon lifespan into the new technique.
【Year one — you learn to use the breath of heaven and earth to refine the body. Unlike the Thunder-Wind Scripture, this does not make the flesh into a vessel — it uses qi to forge the blood and bone into something like a divine weapon.】
【Year two — with twelve apertures at Perfection, your qi is deep and continuous. This grinding process presents no difficulty. Time and accumulation are all that is required for a natural transformation.】
【Year seven — Jade Liquid · Golden Sun Eight Treasures Mysterious Body, Volume One: Novice.】
【Year fifteen — Minor Mastery.】
【Year twenty-nine — Major Mastery.】
【Year forty-two — Perfection. The flesh crosses into a new order of being.】
【Remaining Demon Lifespan: 184 years】
He wasn’t sure whether it was because he’d wasted so much in previous derivations, but watching it resolve this smoothly felt strange.
That’s it?
He’d noticed a pattern across enough simulations now. Techniques that were purely about accumulated effort — no insight required, just time — cost almost nothing. Techniques that demanded a flash of understanding had essentially no upper limit on what they consumed.
Zhang Tuhu’s speculation had proven out. The question was whether it was as formidable as the man had hoped.
Shen Yi looked at the saber on the table, rolled up his sleeve, and drew a light line across his forearm.
Nothing.
He increased the force, again and again, watching the blade deflect each time.
Then he channeled the corrupting qi, let the Blood-Corruption Bladework gather full strength, and struck properly.
A layer of dark light flared across the skin of his forearm. The red mist dispersed instantly.
Crack.
Shen Yi looked at the broken saber in his hand.
After cutting down demon after demon without a chip, it had finally snapped on him.
Perhaps a touch excessive.
So this was what sect lineages were built on.
He crouched and picked up the broken half. The saber hadn’t been cheap, but he could put the blame on yesterday’s tiger demon and get a replacement from the armory.
(End of Chapter)