Living steadily in the world of gods and mystery

In the following days, Chen Li was finally able to settle down and concentrate on his cultivation.

Inside the quiet room, the air currents surged wildly, howling in gusts, occasionally punctuated by a loud explosion.

Like firecrackers going off.

The sound of the wind abruptly stopped.

Chen Li panted heavily, thrusting his sword into the muddy ground, as copious amounts of sweat streamed down his smooth, tight muscles like rivulets.

The floor of the quiet room had been originally covered with stone slabs to prevent dampness, but after countless violent stomps by Chen Li, there were no longer any traces of the stone slabs to be seen.

They had completely turned into a mixture of stone powder and mud, trampled into an extraordinarily compacted mass.

Chen Li walked over to the small table in the quiet room, picked up a pottery jar, and guzzled down salt water to replenish the salt that his body had lost.

He opened the game panel and glanced at it.

"Basic Swordsmanship Expert: 781/800"

"It should be about ten days now."

The cultivation of swordsmanship initially progressed at a rapid pace, but the closer one got to the end, the higher the requirements for completion became, nearly demanding, thus the progress also slowed down increasingly.

Nowadays, an improvement of 3 points a day could already give Chen Li a burst of joy.

Most of the time, a progress of two points was the norm.

If he was not in good condition and his mind was not at peace, after a day of hard practice, it was not surprising to see only one point of progress.

Luckily, swordsmanship as a skill was quite special.

Even if the skill progress stalled,

As long as he continued to practice,

His strength was still improving steadily.

Strength continued to surge, bodily reactions became faster and faster.

Unlike spells and similar skills, swordsmanship’s core pursuit wasn’t raw power; even when strength improved and reactions became more nimble, they were just by-products of the practice process.

It sought complete control over the body.

The repeated honing of power deployment techniques, integrating the strength of the entire body, was precisely that.

The conscious refinement and conditioning of muscles was even more so.

"The next step will probably be the same!"

Chen Li thought to himself as he fished a piece of Demon Beast Meat from the sea bowl and began to eat it heartily.

He now had to eat five meals a day, each consisting of one and a half jin of Demon Beast Meat, in addition to taking two Qi and Blood Elixirs daily just to make up for the massive physical consumption.

"I’m becoming more and more like a glut!" Chen Li sighed.

...

"Today, people from the gang came to notify us about the protection fee, our family needs to pay two Low-grade Spirit Stones!"

At dinner, Zhou Hong started the conversation.

Chen Li was stunned and asked in surprise, "That’s so high, does every family have to pay the same?"

"It’s charged per person."

"It’s not much money, just pay it, we can’t expect them to maintain peace for us anyway," Chen Li mused and said.

Now that the elderly ancestor of the Yu Family had made an appearance, these gangs had clearly become much more active.

In the past, there was no such ’protection fee’ around here.

...

After dinner, Chen Li thought for a moment and then walked out of the courtyard.

Sure enough, outside someone was cursing and swearing in the street, indirectly venting their anger.

"Those damn bastards, born without an asshole. One Low-grade Spirit Stone per person, why not just rob us? Never in the time of the Longevity Sect or the Artefact Sect was it this high!"

"Keep your voice down; don’t you fear the Heavenly Luck Gang’s retaliation against your family?"

"What’s there for me to fear? If their boss dares to show up here, I’ll scratch his face on the spot and slap him right across the mouth, believe it or not?" A middle-aged female Loose Cultivator stood her ground, her eyes wide, and declared fiercely, "This is not about money; they’re after my life!"

"Alas, this world... Just endure it, it’ll pass after a while; times have changed." Someone kindly advised, "Nowadays, there are people whose hearts are even more ferocious than Demon Beasts."

Chen Li stopped in his tracks, silence filling his heart.

One or two Low-grade Spirit Stones, to him, were not even enough to buy a Qi Replenishing Pill.

But for the struggling lower-class Loose Cultivators, it could mean the difference between life and death.

Given the current market prices.

A low-grade Spirit Stone could buy ten large fish weighing over ten jin each, fifty jin of ordinary meat, and if one were frugal, it might even last two to three months. Its purchasing power was not low at all.

If it had been before, when they collected the security fee, you just moved elsewhere.

There wasn’t much difference between the shantytowns, plenty of vacant houses everywhere. Many Loose Cultivators who lived alone died outside, and their houses simply became vacant.

But nowadays, every household has dug a pit.

In such a short time, how could one find such a house?

"This damn woman, babbling all day long!" A middle-aged man with a face weathered by the elements rushed out, his deep forehead wrinkles bearing the heavy color of sorrow and hardship as he dragged her back home, scolding:

"Like you’re any better, you wish I’d die faster, huh? Too many opinions around here, just stop talking. I’ll figure out the Spirit Stone!"

"Figure it out, figure it out? What can you figure out, selling the Magic Artifact at a cheap price?"

"Don’t worry, I won’t sell it, I’ll always figure something out, let’s go back and talk!"

The two of them gradually walked away, their voices growing fainter and fainter.

...

Early the next morning, several ferocious-looking members of the Heavenly Luck Gang went from house to house to collect Spirit Stones.

After Chen Li paid, he wasn’t in a hurry to return.

He sat on a rock at the doorway.

Watching these people collecting money, going from one family to another.

Although reluctant, every household in the vicinity still obediently paid up under the gang’s tyranny.

When it was the turn of the middle-aged female cultivator’s household from yesterday,

It was her man who came out.

He put on a forced smile and took out two low-grade Spirit Stones, paying the money just the same.

But Chen Li acutely noticed that there was a new cut on the man’s face that wasn’t there yesterday, and moreover, there was a hint of ruthlessness that hadn’t been there before either.

He took the two low-grade Spirit Stones he was fiddling with in his hand and put them back into his sleeve.

He gave a self-mocking smile.

And stood up.

Seemingly sensing Chen Li’s gaze,

The middle-aged man gave Chen Li a smiling hand gesture of greeting.

The smile remained simple and honest, the deep forehead wrinkles still marked with indelible sorrow.

Just like yesterday!

...

The days of cultivation were dull and monotonous, and Chen Li went through his daily routine methodically.

He didn’t neglect his other practices even though his swordsmanship was on the verge of advancement, focusing solely on that above all else.

But the changes in his swordsmanship still attracted the majority of his attention.

It seemed to be on the verge of a qualitative change.

The muscular outline that his mind sensed became increasingly clear; the skin layer, fat layer, muscle layer, and even the large and small blood vessels woven throughout them like a web became vividly distinct.

Even this mapping began to spread towards his internal organs, almost imperceptibly.

Like an infection, it spread little by little, faint and vague.

A few more days passed.

This mapping had already spread to most of his internal organs and continued, the faintness becoming stable, the blurriness growing clear...

The advancement of swordsmanship took place without noise or turbulence.

It was a natural progression.

Chen Li came out of the wonderful state and opened his eyes, exhaling a breath.

This breath was incredibly smooth, as if his lungs were actively coordinating with his breathing, expelling all the turbid air in one go.

Then, he felt an urge to cough in his throat.

It was somewhat itchy.

Chen Li coughed forcefully.

Immediately, a lump of black, sticky phlegm came out of his mouth.

Looking at the black phlegm, Chen Li was at first surprised, then couldn’t help but reflect:

"Is this... the dust and impurities accumulated in the lungs, being expelled automatically?"