The servants of the Shen family had all seen their eldest young master, Shen Ling, waving around his sword in the courtyard.
The young master of the Shen family, who used to be a bookworm, appeared to have changed a little after recovering from his serious illness.
This got Old Master Shen a little worried as well.
Shen Ling had no idea that the servants were gossiping about him behind his back.
He was only focused on two things. He rigorously trained with his saber by day and practiced the Longevity Technique at night.
What improvements he saw made him very motivated to continue cultivating.
He put his time to good use.
Five days had passed since he had gone to Chennan Trading Company with his father.
Shen Ling's statuses were updated.
'Perseverance and Hard Work 3.0.'
'Name: Shen Ling.'
'Age: 17.'
'Cultivation Method: Longevity Technique [rank-nine low-grade cultivation method, level 3, proficiency 3025/30000].'
'Cultivation Method: Mountain-splitting saber technique [rank-nine low-grade cultivation method, level two, proficiency 1250/10000].'
'Status: Normal.'
After reaching level three of the Longevity Technique, all the poison in Shen Ling's body was gone.
After removing the poison from his body, Shen Ling was surprised to find himself feeling a little bored.
He walked through the streets and the market, but in the end, he usually had nothing to do so he would return home.
Qi Hua City was such a small city with little to no scenery at all. Compared to cultivating, it was not as interesting.
Clap —
The sharp blade of the longsword split the wooden dummy in front of him into two halves effortlessly.
Shen Ling took his time to sheath his sword.
He only had two goals now. One was to witness what would happen when he reached the highest level of proficiency in the Longevity Technique.
The other was to cultivate the Mountain-splitting Saber Technique to its fullest potential.
Both techniques had three levels in total.
At the rate he was going, it would only be a matter of time before he achieved his goals.
With notifications like 'You have complete one full training session of the Mountain-splitting Saber Technique, proficiency +5,' Shen Ling slowly put a stop to his daily morning training.
His stomach rumbled right on time. He was starving!
After eating a meal that could satisfy three people, Shen Ling's body did not take on any fat.
Compared to other martial artists, he actually looked a little thin and weak.
In the afternoon.
Shen Ling was busy practicing his saber skills, working to reach the fourth level of the Mountain-splitting Saber Technique as soon as possible.
Right then, a servant hurried over, looked at Shen Ling, and said, "Eldest Young Master, have you seen Master?"
Old Master?
Shen Ling shook his head back and forth. "He was still here during lunch. Why… Did something happen to him?"
The servant said in a hushed voice, "There was an incident in the fields."
The fields?
There was a slight frown on Shen Ling's face.
The Shen family owned this field, so it was problematic if something were to happen on this said field.
After all, the grain produced in this field made up almost half of the Shen family's income every year. It was nearing autumn now, and the autumn harvest was about to begin.
"Slow down. Tell me, what happened?"
While giving the servant words of comfort, Shen Ling slowed his breathing.
"The Green Mountain Bandits showed up."
The servant went on to say, "They just walked up to the village sharecroppers and told them that we have to give them one hundred taels of silver within two hours. If we don't do what they say, they will burn our land."
One hundred taels of silver.
With what the fields produce yearly, it was possible to give them one hundred taels of silver.
Even so, would bandits and robbers keep their word?
This was very hard to say.
"Let's head out and take a look."
Shen Ling sheathed his blade and turned to make his way out of the Shen residence.
He did not know where his father was, but the matter was too urgent to be put on hold.
"This…"
The servant turned to look at Shen Ling and said, "I'll call for more people to back us up."
"Okay, hurry."
Shen Ling did not turn him down.
An hour later, Shen Ling took the lead and guided more than twenty servants to the village where the sharecroppers were situated.
All the doors and windows of every household in the village were tightly shut. Out of the corner of his eye, Shen Ling could sense eyes peeking through the cracks of the doors. A chilling sense of unease was making people wary.
This was the first time Shen Ling had set foot in this village.
He had never been here before.
Seeing such ordinary and even somewhat dilapidated wooden houses all around him, Shen Ling's heart suddenly felt a little weighed down.
In this world, the lives of these sharecroppers were not bad.
After all, they managed to survive.
However, Shen Ling didn't feel good about this.
He shook his head in pity.
Shen Ling took the lead and continued making his way forward. In the center of the small village, he could see a group of bandits sitting there guzzling wine. Some of them were even stuffing meat into their mouths while drinking at the same time.
They appeared to be having a great time.
"They've come."
Seeing Shen Ling and the others heading over, the bandits all got up at the same time.
A man wearing an eyepatch, a bare-chested man, and a man wearing shorts all said, "Who are you? Give us your name."
"I am Shen Ling from the Shen family."
Shen Ling looked at these bandits and counted about a dozen of them.
Though there weren't many of them, each of them looked capable and strong. However, none of them had cultivated martial arts, so these were just ordinary people.
"Shen Ling?"
The man with the eyepatch turned to look at Shen Ling and said, puzzled, "Who is Shen Ling? The person we want to see is Old Master Shen."
"The person standing before you is our Elder Young Master!"
A servant opened his mouth and explained Shen Ling's identity to the bandits.
"Oh, so he's your Elder Young Master."
Hearing the servant say this, the man with the eyepatch was quick to react.
With a slight smile on his face, he looked at Shen Ling and said, "Did Elder Young Master Shen bring the money? None of you were hurt. Is this enough to show our sincerity?"
"Sincerity?"
With a grin on his face, Shen Ling looked at the man with the eyepatch. "After you take our one hundred taels, won't you be coming back in the future?"
The man with the eyepatch turned his attention to the money bag in Shen Ling's hand and chuckled. "We can't guarantee something like that. We're only responsible for collecting the one hundred taels of silver. As for whether or not we'll be coming back again, that's entirely up to our boss."
"I see."
Shen Ling's expression turned frosty. "If that's the case, then this money is not for you."
"What do you mean?!" The man with the eyepatch was startled for a moment there.
"I don't have any other meaning." Shen Ling handed the money bag over to a servant and slowly reached for his longsword. "I just want to see what is the best that you guys can do. Do you really deserve to have all this money?"
"You want to fight us?" The man in the eyepatch looked at Shen Ling with shock in his eye.
However, this man was far from panicked. Instead, he raised his knife to Shen Ling's face with a mischievous smile and opened his mouth to say, "Since Young Master Shen is interested in fighting, then us brothers will play with him. Be gentle with him. If we capture Young Master Shen, we can exchange him for at least a thousand taels."
"Move back."
Shen Ling lifted his hand and gestured for the servants to take a step back.
A servant said, "Elder Young Master, please let us help you."
"There's no need."
Shen Ling refused right away.
He slowly moved forward while looking at the bandits who were running towards him. Without saying a word, he raised the blade in his hands.
He had yet to kill anyone since he transmigrated into this world…
Killing people was not something he wanted either.
But this happened to be a chaotic world!
In such a chaotic world, he would have to kill to stop the killing and use violence to stop more violence from happening.
"Mountain-splitting Saber Technique!"
Slash!
With a slash, a bandit's head flew straight off his neck.
The corpse made two steps forward before falling right to the ground.
The bandits who had yet to reach Shen Ling saw what happened and stopped right in their tracks.
They stared at Shen Ling, whose clothes were drenched in blood. His expression while watching his victim's blood drip down his saber was very calm. At that moment, something like fear actually solidified in their hearts.
Fear brought only two results.
Either they continued to resist even more...
Or they ran away with their tail between their legs.
For a moment there, some of the bandits raised their knives unfazed by the scene before them, while others were quietly backing away.
Shen Ling stepped forward with his blade.
Vertical split!
