Chapter 19: 19 Uninvited Guest

3 points remaining.

In other words, with a 10% success rate, it took Song Cheng 13 attempts at deduction to succeed.

"Add Points."

Without hesitation or waiting, he added the 3 points to "Profound Turtle Steps."

Instantly, the progress of "Profound Turtle Steps" became "Entry (1/4)."

A sense of stability rooted in the ground emerged.

Although very faint, the feeling of flesh and blood power connecting from top to bottom already had a rudimentary form.

In the fenced courtyard, the youth stood in the biting winter, wearing only a thin layer of clothing.

The cold wind came clearly from outside, but the flesh and blood within his body were like a vigorously burning furnace, warding off the cold.

Inside the house, the Young Mistress of the household yawned and walked out, carrying a piece of fur that had been sewn up.

It had been sewn onto the original padded jacket, and there was a large, fluffy gray tail at the collar, which looked very warm.

"Master of the house, try it on."

The Young Mistress of the household was bleary-eyed with sleep.

She subconsciously raised her eyes, and her gaze fell upon Song Cheng, who was wearing only a single layer of clothing; the thinly covered fabric outlined a robust and somewhat wild physique. She remembered that it was this body full of power that had been attacking her own body last night, and she couldn't help but blush again.

Song Cheng looked at his petite Young Mistress, walked over, took the garment, but gave it a shake and draped it over Tong Jia.

Tong Jia was stunned for a moment, pushed him, and said, "Aren't you tired of being clingy?"

Although she said that, her heart felt sweet.

Sweet as it was, she still pulled the garment down; after all, it was made for her own man.

"You wear it; a Martial Artist's Qi and blood are vigorous, so I can withstand the winter cold in the mountains." Song Cheng pressed down on her shoulders.

Tong Jia struggled a bit and said, "It's made for you, I'll make mine in a while."

Song Cheng still pressed down on her.

Tong Jia moved twice, only to feel the soreness in her waist and legs, so she gave Song Cheng a shy, reproachful look and said, "Why use so much strength?"

Song Cheng laughed and said, "Isn't the little enchantress waiting for me?"

Tong Jia remembered before, when Song Cheng's body was weak, and after the husband-and-wife business was over, it was always Song Cheng whose legs went soft; she would tease him, "The little enchantress is waiting for you," but she hadn't expected that today the roles would be reversed, and the one with soft legs would be her.

The Young Mistress of the household spat a "Pah," looked up, and said, "You think I'm really afraid of you?"

Song Cheng didn't waste words and picked her up by the waist.

The Young Mistress of the household had her legs hooked over his arms, kicking repeatedly, her arrogant little face losing its color, her sandalwood mouth calling out repeatedly: "Are we going to work today or not, are we going to... woo woo..."

Life in the mountains is just this shameless and unrestrained.

After Song Cheng finished adding points, he returned to the bed with the Young Mistress to warm up the bedding again.

It wasn't until noon that the two of them got off the bed.

Lunch was meat again.

Wolf meat with a bit of a fishy smell, and soup that Tong Jia had prepared with some mountain herbs.

The soup was very bland, with a faint medicinal fragrance.

After the two finished eating the meat, neither of them wanted to talk.

No flour products, not many seasonings; how good could this meat taste?

Plus, eating this stuff every day was not only a bit tiresome, but even made their bodies feel uncomfortable, mostly with weak limbs and a lack of spirit.

This was caused by a monotonous diet.

"Master of the house, on the mountain not far away, I've seen frozen mushrooms; let's go pick some during the Daytime to improve our meals," the Young Mistress of the household suggested.

Song Cheng nodded, suddenly remembering the Young Mistress's enthusiasm for practicing martial arts, so he said, "Not today."

"Why?"

"In the afternoon, you will practice the 'White Snake Blade'.

Starting tomorrow, you will practice the blade in the morning, and if you want to go to the mountain to forage for food, wait until the afternoon."

Song Cheng gave his suggestion.

After finding a bit of stability, he began to ponder the matter of "Chang Sheng Bu Lao."

He was Chang Sheng Bu Lao, but the Young Mistress of the household was just an ordinary person.

For an ordinary person, living to seventy has been rare since ancient times.

But practicing martial arts should be able to increase one's lifespan.

The moment Song Cheng saw "Yellow Grade Ding Rank," he roughly understood this classification of realms.

He didn't know what people outside called the realms, but he had never heard anyone mention the words "Yellow Grade Ding Rank."

Therefore, this "Yellow Grade Ding Rank" was most likely a classification given by the panel.

In other words, no matter what people outside said, this panel had already divided the realms of this world into four grades: "Heaven, Earth, Profound, Yellow," and four ranks: "Jia, Yi, Bing, Ding."

Just at the Yellow Grade Ding Rank, he already felt powerful, let alone the realms that followed? Practicing martial arts must be able to increase one's lifespan.

Therefore, he hoped that the Young Mistress of the household could also practice along with him.

If she practiced well and lived a long life, he wouldn't be heartbroken after a hundred years.

However, compared to being "heartbroken after a hundred years," Song Cheng felt more anticipation in his heart.

"Chang Sheng Bu Lao," how many people dream of this but cannot attain it?

This meant that he could experience different lives and enjoy life to the fullest.

Once he became strong, he would go and experience different roles, living out everything he could think of: scholar, farmer, artisan, merchant, wandering knight, general, monk, Daoist, and even kings, nobles, ministers, demons, monsters, gods, and immortals. He would not only experience these roles but also experience different beauties, see the thousand kinds of customs in the world, and enjoy the ten thousand kinds of luxuries in the human realm.

As for that high-and-mighty "Supreme Forgetting of Emotions," he, Song, did not like it.

What he liked was life.

He was full of passion for life.

To put it plainly, it was the experience of food, clothing, housing, transportation, and the pleasures of the flesh.

He did not like things that were ethereal or immortal; the more worldly they were, the more passionate he became.

Of course, these were still just his daydreams.

He had to be able to grow stronger first, and survive in this world of the "Avici Hell" before anything else.

And as Tong Jia was the first wife he had bound to himself, he naturally hoped that this wife could stay with him for as long as possible.

"Practice!"

Song Cheng pulled the Young Mistress of the house up, tossed the bamboo blade he had made to her, and began to explain the most basic parts of the White Snake Blade and the Mysterious Turtle Step.

In the past, at Huichun Hall, he had no meat to eat, so his body could not grow strong, and thus he could not practice martial arts.

But now, in these deep mountains and old forests, there was plenty of meat.

Half an hour later.

Young Mistress Tong Jia had turned into a puddle of water, crying out repeatedly: "I can't do it, I can't do it, I really can't do it anymore..."

Song Cheng smiled, picked her up, placed her on the couch, and sat to the side, performing simple stretches for her to improve the effectiveness of the exercise. Then, he closed the door and went outside to chop wood, light a fire, and cook meat and vegetables.

In deep winter, in the mountains, it got dark very early, and it was the kind of pure blackness that had almost no light at all. Fog rose outside the window.

White fog.

The mist was cold and gloomy.

Song Cheng locked the door tight, then also got onto the couch, looked left and right, saw no data, and saw none of that terrifying red, only then did he embrace his Young Mistress and go to sleep.

The Young Mistress of the house grimaced and said: "It hurts, it hurts, don't move."

In the middle of the night, some strange beast sounds rang out in the mountains, like wolf howls, like tiger roars, mixed with unknown insects, and the mountain wind whistling through the gaps, forming a hair-raising ensemble.

The Young Mistress of the house was in pain all over and could not sleep well, only shivering as she huddled in Song Cheng's arms.

Song Cheng also had the feeling of being completely separated from the human world.

The next day.

Tong Jia could not go up the mountain and could not practice, so she stayed at home sewing "fur."

Song Cheng added the 7 newly obtained points to the Mysterious Turtle Step, making the progress become "(Minor Achievement) (4/8)."

And his strength also increased to "14~27."

The increase was very small.

Song Cheng thought for a moment and felt that this was likely because "all of his own skills were actually in the blade."

He dropped the blade and looked at his strength again; the strength became "11~11."

Sure enough, the combat method of the White Snake Blade must rely on the blade to be executed, and the upper limit of his strength was supported by this combat method.

Looking at it this way, this "very small increase" was not strange.

On the other hand, it was probably because of the "limitations of the realm itself."

Thinking this, Song Cheng practiced the blade in the courtyard for a while.

Suddenly, the door opened, and the Young Mistress of the house walked out, leaning against the wall, holding a long strip of wolf-skin product in her hand, and called out: "Master of the house!"

Song Cheng hurried over, picked up the long strip of wolf-skin product she handed over, looked at it, and realized: "A scabbard?"

Tong Jia smiled and said: "Don't look down on it."

Song Cheng's scabbard had been lost in the water before, and for the past few days, the blade had been exposed.

He tried it, and it was a perfect fit.

It was clear that Tong Jia had put her heart into it.

With the leather scabbard, Song Cheng could also carry the long blade on his back.

A moment later, he picked up an axe and began to continue clearing the miscellaneous trees around the wooden house; one reason was to open up the view, and the second was to store firewood.

By the evening, he was just preparing to light a fire to cook, when he suddenly looked up and scanned the area, only to see three sets of data appearing on the distant mountainside.

【Strength: 6~10】

【Favorability:??】

【Strength: 0~0】

【Favorability: 60】

【Strength: 1~1】

【Favorability:??】

The favorability was a question mark because the other party had never seen Song Cheng, so naturally, the favorability was undetermined.

But the one with a favorability of 60 was clearly from Tanghe Village.

Because Song Cheng did not step out of his gate or cross his threshold, only the villagers of Tanghe Village would recognize him.

Song Cheng narrowed his eyes. He glanced at his own "14~27," then looked at the other party's "6~10," and a murderous intent suddenly arose.

Those with the villagers of Tanghe Village were most likely bandits who had fled.

He suddenly moved, rapidly entering the house, and said: "Wife, come with me."

Having said that, the two quickly climbed the mountain, hid beside the only path to this small house, and peered into the distance.

There were rules for Taboo killing.

Yun E turning into a Taboo was also a recent change, and her strength might not be that strong yet.

Therefore, Tanghe Village, and even the bandits, might not have been completely wiped out.

'Are these the ones who slipped through the net?'

'Perhaps I can use them to understand the situation in Tanghe Village.'

Just as he was thinking this, the three people on the other side seemed to have noticed the small house here, as well as the traces left by life, and so they quickened their pace.

When they got close, Song Cheng pulled open his scabbard in advance and gestured for Tong Jia to cover her mouth.

Tong Jia obediently complied.

Song Cheng, meanwhile, peered through the gaps in the trees to get a clear look at the three people.

In the lead was a savage man with a hooked nose, hawk-like eyes, and a face full of flabby flesh, whose strength was at the "6~10" level.

Behind him were two Young Mistresses in disheveled clothing.

One was Young Mistress Nan Hui from Tanghe Village, who was quite beautiful; she was the daughter-in-law of the village head, and her husband had been conscripted and died on the battlefield. The villagers whispered that the "village head was having an affair with his daughter-in-law," but no one dared to say it to his face.

Song Cheng had seen Nan Hui when his Soul left his body for a night excursion.

The other was a young girl with snow-white skin and a flower-like appearance, whose temperament and bearing were nothing like those of a country bumpkin.

Even though the girl's hair was only carelessly combed, it could not hide her temperament.

After noticing the traces of the small cabin, the savage man pushed the two Young Mistresses down and said viciously, "Wait here."

Then he added, "If you dare to run, I'll hang you on a tree and let the wolves eat you clean."

Nan Hui was trembling with fear.

The other girl, however, said, "We won't run."

The savage man groped her chest and said, "As expected of someone from a wealthy family."

The girl's eyes were icy, yet she did not resist, presumably having already resigned herself to her fate.

After giving his instructions, the savage man stooped, gripped his blade, lightened his footsteps, and stuck to the shadows of the trees, cautiously heading toward the wooden cabin, his inverted triangular eyes filled with a murderous glint.

He was going to launch a sneak attack!

Hidden behind a tree, Song Cheng had already seen everything clearly and concluded that the savage man must be a bandit, so after the man passed by his side, he lunged out in a sudden stride. With his legs stepping and waist moving, the flesh-and-blood power cultivated from the White Snake Blade surged through his body in a single line, gathering into the blade with tricky and treacherous force.

He slashed from behind.

Swish! The savage man's arm holding the blade was severed.

The blade's momentum coiled like a snake, then circled again, the snake's head biting fiercely and piercing through his leg.

In the blink of an eye, the ambushed savage man had already lost a hand and suffered a leg injury, rolling down the slope while screaming in agony.

Song Cheng hurried up, stepped on the man's other hand, and pointed the tip of his blade at his neck.

The process was swift and done in one go.

The hard work had not been in vain!

(End of chapter)