Eternal Life Begins with Learning

"Five..."

Chu Mu repeated the number in his mind.

It was still unclear how many Inspectors were dead or injured.

But the five severed heads piled up where the Thousand Households was standing were perfectly clear.

Evidently, the Inspectors’ gains from the recent ambush weren’t as meager as Chu Mu had first thought.

At the very least, they had taken five heads.

Of course, the loss ratio was certainly grim.

Chu Mu glanced around, but his thoughts couldn’t help but return to the furious storm of attacks from just moments ago.

In this life and his last, this was undoubtedly the first time he had faced another’s blade.

It had only been eight strikes!

But...

[Name: Chu Mu]

[Skill:

Basic Blade Technique (Initial Glimpse) 103/500]

[Spiritual Radiance Value: 59.3%]

Chu Mu stared at the Light Curtain Panel in his vision, his eyes flickering with obvious surprise.

If he remembered correctly, his Blade Technique Skill Level was only at twenty last night. After practicing for over an hour this morning, it had increased by three points.

And now... it was one hundred and three.

In other words, by surviving that near-death experience and enduring the boy’s eight strikes, his Blade Technique Skill Level had risen by eighty points!

’Was it my potential bursting forth in a life-or-death moment?’

Chu Mu replayed the scene of the exchange in his mind and quickly dismissed this guess.

Chu Mu slowly raised his saber, trying to put himself back into that fight. Gradually, he seemed to realize something.

’Real combat!’

Putting himself back in that mindset, Chu Mu was certain he could face the boy’s assault much better now.

It wasn’t that his Blade Technique had improved drastically, but rather that his mentality had made great strides—one might even call it a transformation—after this brief yet extremely dangerous taste of real combat.

Fearing death is a human instinct.

When faced with a weapon that can threaten your life, it’s also instinctual to be afraid—afraid of pain, afraid of death. It’s all instinct.

After this battle, perhaps he hadn’t completely overcome these instincts, but... when facing real combat, when facing the threat of life and death, he would absolutely have a better mindset.

’The tempering of real combat, the improvement of one’s mentality...’

Chu Mu muttered to himself.

Without real combat, relying on imagination alone, he would never have known what kind of threat a blade swinging at him represented, or what kind of terror it would bring.

Most importantly, he wouldn’t have known what his own instinctive reactions would be under such threat and fear, nor whether he could overcome them.

Without experiencing it firsthand, everything else was just wishful thinking.

Even if he practiced his Blade Technique to an extremely profound level in isolation, without experiencing a genuine battle, he probably couldn’t even bring out a fraction of its true power.

Chu Mu swung his Long Saber. With his transformed mentality, the moves of his Blade Technique seemed to flow more smoothly, more freely.

"The Thousand Households has given the order! Maintain alert and move out!"

Chu Mu looked up, scanned the Inspectors who were preparing to leave, and then turned to Xu Yuan and the others beside him.

"Let’s go."

Chu Mu let out a long breath. His gaze toward the dense forest now held a hint of eagerness.

The party set off again. They had gone no more than a *li* or two into the dense forest when they were ambushed once more.

This time, however, having already endured several ambushes, the Inspectors entering the mountain had undoubtedly gained some experience. Faced with a surprise attack, they didn’t panic as they had before.

As a result, although their gains weren’t impressive, the attackers also paid a heavy price.

Of the nine attackers in total, only three managed to escape.

The boy who had nearly taken Chu Mu’s life was severely wounded in a group attack led by Li Gang and several other skilled Inspectors, but his accomplices managed to rescue him in the end.

This time, Chu Mu didn’t have a chance to participate, but because he was on the sidelines, he saw everything clearly.

Several of the Squad Leaders and Team Leaders had some real skill, and the few burly men accompanying the Thousand Households were exceptionally capable.

He hadn’t seen the Hundred Households, He Ping, make a move, so his true strength was unknown.

Clearly, not everyone among the Inspectors was just slacking off. A good number of them were genuinely skilled.

The rest of the journey was, without a doubt, peaceful.

Aside from a few unlucky souls who were injured by traps, the rest arrived outside Qili Village without a hitch.

Night had fallen. Even with the flickering light of torches, it was difficult to make out the village shrouded in darkness.

At a shouted command, the Inspectors entered the village one after another.

"Brother Mu, why do I get the feeling everyone in this village has run off?"

Xu Yuan sidled up to Chu Mu, scratching his head as he spoke.

"It’s not just a feeling. Why else do you think those people on the mountain attacked us so desperately? It was to buy time!"

"If they didn’t run, were they supposed to stay and fight us to the death?"

Despite saying this, Chu Mu didn’t let down his guard. He surveyed his surroundings by the flickering torchlight.

Just as he’d read in the gazetteer, Qili Village was indeed not large. The village was built along the mountain’s slope, giving it an inclined layout.

Dozens of houses were scattered in small groups across the hillside. From a good vantage point, one could take in the entire village at a glance.

The wide-open doors of the houses along the road and the clutter scattered on the ground all indicated that the villagers had left in a great hurry!

"Search every house!"

"Don’t even spare the damn latrines!"

Chu Mu glanced at He Ping, who was shouting orders at the village entrance, then turned his attention to the courtyard before him.

An earthen wall enclosed the entire courtyard. The bamboo-woven gate stood open. Standing at the entrance, he could make out the general scene within by the flickering torchlight.

With just a single glance, Chu Mu’s heart couldn’t help but skip a beat, and he quickly walked into the yard.

The yard’s furnishings were simple. A mulberry tree grew on one side, with a lounge chair and a small stone table placed beneath it. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

On the other side of the yard was a row of wooden man targets, a Sandbag Array, and a pile of stone weights of various sizes in the corner, clearly used for strength training.

The ground was pitted and uneven, clearly marked by years of martial arts practice.

Such a scene was undoubtedly unusual for a small mountain village.

Subconsciously, Chu Mu pictured a scene in the courtyard.

Someone lounged leisurely under the mulberry tree, sipping tea or tasting wine.

Meanwhile, a group of youths trained their strength on the other side, practicing their martial arts diligently.

It all seemed to line up with reality.

In the ambushes just now, most of the attackers were highly skilled and not very old.

How could a tiny mountain village produce so many skilled fighters?

If the Hunters were all this formidable, Qili Village wouldn’t be a small hamlet of just a few dozen households.

Obviously, someone had been teaching the village youths martial arts.

Just like the scene Chu Mu had imagined.

Martial artists use their strength to defy the law!

When one possesses uncommon skill, how could they allow themselves to be ordered around by others?

That must be why this violent resistance to the levy happened, and why Inspectors were killed...

’But... where in this small mountain village did such a capable person come from?’