Surviving in the chaos of war begins in the wilderness.

Chapter 82 My Heart Is Bleeding

Time passed slowly, and the battle had reached a fever pitch.

Actually, neither side is in a very good state right now.

Senior Brother Liu, a master of the Ming Jin realm, was already feeling increasingly sluggish, as the anesthetic and poison in his body began to take effect. Zhou Ye's internal energy was also being depleted rapidly, because the difference in their cultivation levels was simply insurmountable; his internal energy was far inferior to that of a master of the Ming Jin realm.

Now it all comes down to who can hold out until the very end.

However, no one expected that the first thing to give way was Zhou Ye's thick-backed sword.

With a loud "boom," the thick-backed blade exploded. The continuous heavy blows from the previous battles had pushed the blade to its limit.

Upon seeing this, Senior Brother Liu Mingjin was stunned for a moment, then overjoyed. His opponent's knife was actually damaged? Wasn't that enough for him to slaughter?

But in the heat of battle, how could you possibly have a chance to daydream?

Taking advantage of the moment when Senior Brother Mingjin was stunned, Zhou Ye threw the broken knife in his hand. Seeing Senior Brother Mingjin dodge, three small round balls appeared in Zhou Ye's hand.

Then, a series of cracking sounds were heard as Zhou Ye used his Muscle Softening Powder once again.

By this time, Senior Brother Liu, who possessed great strength, was already at his limit. When he saw that Zhou Ye had not given up and was still choosing to fight him to the death, whether it was due to the effect of the muscle-softening powder or because he had finally lost his will to fight, Senior Brother Liu fell backward to the ground.

The last thing he saw was Zhou Ye pulling a dagger out of his boot...

At this moment, Senior Brother Liu of the Mingjin realm wore a pleading expression. "I've only just entered the Mingjin realm; my future is limitless. My martial arts journey has only just begun..."

Then a sharp pain shot through my eye socket, and I was plunged into endless darkness...

……

As dusk fell, Zhou Ye carried a mountain of things back to his small home. He finally smiled happily.

Regardless, he was the victor in this battle, having killed three extremely powerful opponents, including a Ming Jin master.

Furthermore, the experience points for martial arts skills are being gained at an astonishing rate.

I've already mastered intermediate sword and shield techniques. My third-rate archery has also reached mastery. I've even gained half the experience points needed for the advanced stage of the Cloud Ladder technique, saving almost a month and a half of martial arts training time.

Then there were the spoils of war: the two heavy swords and the rapier. Unfortunately, these swords were all custom-made by the disciples of the Falling Flower Martial Arts School and couldn't be sold at all.

But there is also a twelve-stone bow, which is the bow that Senior Brother Liu Mingjin carries on his back.

Among all hard bows, the eight-stone bow is the basic one. Above that are ten-stone, twelve-stone, and fifteen-stone bows. A fifteen-stone bow requires 1500 jin of force to draw, and these hard bows are generally used by Ming Jin martial arts masters.

As for bows with higher stone counts? Those cannot be purchased on the market; they must be custom-made by a bowsmith and require very rare materials.

In addition, there are medicinal pills. We found a bottle of nine mid-grade Qi and Blood Pills on Senior Brother Mingjin Liu.

This Ming Jin master is clearly penniless. Judging from the grade of the pills, low-grade Qi and Blood Pills are not very effective for Ming Jin martial artists. Mid-grade Qi and Blood Pills can only provide minor support. It's best to take high-grade Qi and Blood Pills.

On that swift-sword senior brother Huang, we found 4 mid-grade Qi and Blood Pills. There were also several bottles of low-grade Qi and Blood Pills, totaling 37 pills.

That's basically all.

Of course, Zhou Ye also managed to snatch the earth dragon back.

But just then, a leopard suddenly appeared beneath Zhou Ye's feet. It wagged its tail happily and leaped back and forth in front of Zhou Ye.

Zhou Ye laughed and scolded, "Hua Hua, you've disgraced all beasts. All you ever think about is freeloading. From now on, you're not a big leopard anymore, you'll be called a little kitten."

Hua Hua remained completely unmoved: "Two-legged creature, I can actually be a kitten too. Meow—!"

Alright! This idiot has no shame whatsoever. Now, whenever Zhou Ye returns to the little home, it just pops up out of nowhere.

After thinking for a moment, Zhou Ye began by breaking down the earthworm's materials. After removing the earthworm's internal organs, he fed the little glutton beside him.

Every part of the earthworm is valuable. Its skin can be used to make armor, and its scales can be used in medicine. As for the heart meat, that's for ourselves. The rest of the ordinary earthworm meat can be sold to those two families in the county town…

Those people before didn't know how to process it properly; they didn't even drain the blood completely. This will inevitably affect the quality of the earthworm meat.

After finishing all that, it was already past dinnertime. Surprisingly, Hua Hua didn't go back to the mountains; it simply slept in the yard.

Fortunately, they no longer raise pheasants, ducks, or bamboo rats in the yard, otherwise a large number of them would be scared to death.

Now, Zhou Ye finally began to summarize the lessons learned from this battle:

It should be said that through this battle, Ming Jin martial artists are no longer so mysterious; all their attributes have been increased by 10.

Given this, his agility of +11 already puts him at the level of Ming Jin (a martial arts skill). His strength of +6 is slightly lower. However, his biggest weaknesses are his health and constitution. In a war of attrition, he simply cannot withstand the onslaught.

However, even if he can't fight back, he still has a chance to escape. As long as he doesn't encounter a Ming Jin master who excels in agility, his own agility will be higher than his master's.

That said, it would be best to get Agility to +15, as that would give people more peace of mind.

And what about Senior Brother Liu of the Ming Jin school? This Ming Jin martial artist is not representative. He couldn't even wield heavy weapons with ease. In order to unleash the power of his heavy sword, he sacrificed some of his agility. He has absolutely no experience in life-or-death combat. Among Ming Jin practitioners, he's a complete novice.

Or rather, Senior Brother Liu of Mingjin was not a qualified Mingjin martial arts master at all.

To be honest, although they are not qualified, Ming Jin martial arts masters are really troublesome, and they are really hard to kill!

So this time I acted a bit impulsively... what a load of rubbish!

To think that a full 6 points of natural attribute were spent—6 points! Enough to increase one's constitution by 1. That's a lifetime's worth of constitution improvement? And now it's all gone?

Thinking of this, Zhou Ye felt as if his heart was bleeding. This battle was a huge loss; no amount of money could buy back those natural attribute points!

Another issue is Ming Jin (明劲). Whether it's a Ming Jin martial artist or a Ming Jin demon beast, it's best to avoid engaging in combat with them.

We must remain calm and avoid recklessness. The path of prudent conduct is the way to victory!

Finally, there was that dark forest. Although the mountains were vast, there were only a few paths leading into the deep mountains.

My little home is too remote, so no one ever comes here. But there are many mountain travelers venturing deep into the mountains from the Black Forest, so you're bound to run into a few of them.

Even if we don't encounter it this time, we will encounter it in the future...