This Martial Saint is Too Cautious
Chapter 9 - 7: Fortune Favors the Bold

Chapter 9: Chapter 7: Fortune Favors the Bold

It was the same dilapidated courtyard where Lin Yan had transmigrated.

The Lord Martial Artist who had appeared in the teahouse was sitting in the seat of honor, dressed in fine clothes.

If anyone with their wits about them were present, they would have noticed something was amiss.

Why would a dignified Martial Artist appear in such a run-down courtyard?

But Lin Yan was currently playing the part of a youth overwhelmed by the joyous news of being able to practice martial arts, so of course, he wouldn’t point any of this out.

"My lord, these are pastries I specially bought from Lan Gui Fang. Please accept them."

Seeing Lin Yan open the paper-wrapped package, Zhao Chuan and Zhang Dahai exchanged a look, a trace of disdain in their eyes.

’So naively stupid. To think he’d dare present a few packages of pastries as a worthy gift.’

’But this level of stupidity makes him easy to fool.’

"A thoughtful gesture."

Zhao Chuan picked up a pastry and took a bite.

"My lord, how does it taste?"

Zhao Chuan was stunned. ’What a greenhorn. The nerve of a junior to ask if his gift tastes good. That’s a question for a superior to ask when bestowing a gift, not the other way around.’

Nevertheless, Zhao Chuan subconsciously took another bite and said coolly, "Not bad."

"My lord, Lin Yan is completely devoted to learning martial arts. After you examined his Root Bone last time, he has been conditioning his body and Qi Blood with medicinal soups. This time, he hopes to take you as his master."

Zhang Dahai, at the side, couldn’t hold it in any longer. He didn’t want to watch Lin Yan act like a clown anymore and wanted to get to business.

"Is that so? I have some impression of the matter. Come forward, and I’ll check your Root Bone again."

Lin Yan stepped forward as requested. Zhao Chuan’s hand roamed over Lin Yan’s body for a moment in a show of examination. When he let go, he sighed, "Your Qi Blood is much more abundant than last time, but there’s still a gap before you can practice martial arts. It’s difficult."

"Ah, how can this be?"

Lin Yan’s expression turned anxious. Seeing this, Zhang Dahai quickly chimed in, "My lord, Lin Yan is utterly sincere. Is there perhaps some other way?"

"It’s not that there’s no way. There is an elixir called the Blood Refining Pill. Taking one can make up for the deficiency in your Qi Blood, but this pill is not cheap. A single one costs thirty taels of silver."

’Damn,’ ’This isn’t just about my old family home; they want the house my aunt and I are living in now, too.’

’An elixir for thirty taels of silver, plus the money I already owe for the medicinal soups, adds up to over fifty taels.’

Lin Yan wore a panicked expression. At his side, Zhang Dahai gritted his teeth. "Young Brother Lin has the aptitude for martial arts. I’m willing to pay this money for him. May I ask, my lord... where is this Blood Refining Pill sold?"

"The apothecaries in the city have it."

’Listening to these two putting on a two-man act, Lin Yan felt a flicker of doubt. Buy it from an apothecary? Surely the apothecaries in the city wouldn’t go so far as to play along with these two.’

"Young Brother Lin, you wait here for a moment. I’ll make a trip to the apothecary."

"Brother Zhang."

Lin Yan looked moved, but inwardly he understood. Zhang Dahai would probably just come back with some random pill to fool him.

Zhang Dahai left, thoughtfully closing the courtyard gate behind him.

"My lord, is it possible you made a mistake just now? Would you be willing to check one more time?"

Lin Yan looked unconvinced. Zhao Chuan snorted. "How could I possibly be mistaken? But since you won’t give up, come forward and I’ll check again."

Zhao Chuan placed his palm on Lin Yan’s body, and this time, Lin Yan immediately focused his perception on the Martial Arts Tree in his mind.

In his mind, the gray branch of the Martial Arts Tree had now separated from the green branch, landing to one side of the green tree to become an independent gray tree, though it was a good deal shorter than the green one.

At the same time, a leaf had sprouted on the gray tree’s trunk, and within the leaf, words appeared: Wild Ox Posture.

Just a moment ago, this scene had already appeared in his mind, accompanied by a piece of information about the Martial Arts Mountain.

As long as someone made physical contact with him while their guard was down, the gray Martial Arts Tree could perceive their Martial Arts Realm and reveal their single strongest Cultivation Technique.

The gray tree’s height represented the Realm, and the leaf represented the Cultivation Technique.

He had already discovered that this man’s Martial Arts Tree was shorter than his own; he had only asked the man to check him again because he was afraid his perception had been wrong.

Now that he had confirmed the man’s strength was inferior to his own, there was no longer any need to play along.

"I told you I wasn’t mistaken. You are..."

As Zhao Chuan’s hand touched Lin Yan’s waist, the bones in Lin Yan’s waist jolted. He whipped his arm around and instantly threw a punch, aiming straight for Zhao Chuan’s face.

At such a close distance, he fully activated Stone Waist Barbarian Ridge.

The punch landed. Zhao Chuan didn’t even manage a muffled groan before his forehead caved in and he collapsed to the ground.

Unsure if the punch had knocked him out or killed him, Lin Yan didn’t stop. He pulled a dagger from his robes, swiftly plunged it into Zhao Chuan’s chest, and twisted it viciously. Only after confirming Zhao Chuan was as dead as could be did he pull the dagger out.

"If I’d known he hadn’t even succeeded in Nourishing Foundation, I wouldn’t have wasted the pastries."

Lin Yan glanced at the pastries on the table, a pained look in his eyes. The few packages had cost him thirty wen, and since he had drugged them with knockout powder, they were no longer edible.

For the past two months, besides practicing martial arts, he had been constantly thinking about how to deal with Zhang Dahai and his gang.

’Report them to the authorities?’ ’The Inspection Bureau doesn’t even bother with gang fights, so why would they care about such minor matters?’

The Escort Masters of the Weiyuan Escort Agency traveled far and wide and had all sorts of self-defense methods, and they were especially familiar with knockout powder. He had found Zhang Wei and asked him to have a master from the Escort Agency prepare a dose for him.

At the same time, drawing on the wisdom of his predecessors, he had two inner pockets sewn into the cuffs of his loose-fitting clothes. The left held lime powder, and the right held pepper powder. He had his aunt specially sew the pocket openings with slipknots, the same principle as the drawstring on a burlap sack—a single pull on the thread would open it.

’A pity none of it was needed just now.’

Lin Yan didn’t rush to loot the corpse. Instead, he moved to the side of the courtyard gate, clutching the pepper powder in his left hand, concentrating and waiting.

’Zhang Dahai hasn’t practiced martial arts, otherwise, the strange tree would not have remained inert after the few times we’ve made physical contact.’

But even so, he didn’t dare let his guard down.

Waiting was a tedious affair, but Lin Yan had the patience for it.

When the sound of footsteps reached him, Lin Yan tensed his body. The moment the courtyard gate was pushed open, he unhesitatingly threw the pepper powder with his left hand, his right fist following close behind.

"Fuck, I—"

THUD THUD THUD!

After a few soft thuds, the courtyard fell silent once more.

’When I killed Zhao Chuan, my heart was still beating a little fast. But when I killed Zhang Dahai, I was calm.’

Barring the courtyard gate from the inside, Lin Yan began to loot the bodies.

Zhang Dahai was very poor, with only a few dozen copper plates on him. However, besides the coins, there were also several slips of paper. Lin Yan glanced at them; his own IOU was there, but so was another person’s. All told, the scattered IOUs added up to a full fifty taels of silver.

"Damn, this guy borrowed even more than I did. Is that why Zhang Dahai was so broke? Because this guy borrowed him dry?"

Lin Yan took out a flint from his robes, burned all the IOUs, then turned to Zhao Chuan’s body and began searching it as well.

’Jackpot!’

Lin Yan was overjoyed as he looked at the silver banknote in his hand.

Fifty taels!

’With this much money, he could have drunk Qi Nourishing Soup like water and should have already entered the foundation stage. He wasn’t some kind of miser, was he?’

Of course, Lin Yan didn’t know that this money was what Zhao Chuan had prepared as a master’s fee to enter a Martial Arts Hall. In the end, it had all ended up in his hands.

Besides the silver banknote, there were also some silver fragments and copper coins, adding up to another seven or eight taels. Lin Yan took it all.

Looking at the two corpses on the ground, he felt not a trace of fear.

’Martial prowess truly does embolden a person. It’s not just an empty saying.’

What he was thinking about now was how to dispose of the bodies and eliminate all traces.

’Zhang Dahai and his partner were engaged in shady business; they certainly wouldn’t have told anyone about it. As long as I get rid of their bodies, suspicion won’t fall on me anytime soon.’

A moment later, Lin Yan scaled the wall and left. Half an hour later, he scaled the wall back in, opened the courtyard gate, and pushed in a four-wheeled cart. He tossed the bodies of Zhang Dahai and the other man onto the cart, covered them with a white linen cloth, and then brazenly pushed it out the gate, heading toward the city gate.

Along the way, many pedestrians he encountered moved aside with looks of disgust.

Even at the city gate, the few soldiers on duty only glanced over, neither stopping nor questioning him.

Only after Lin Yan was a good distance away did a few of the soldiers start talking.

"Looks like another gang fight in the city. Someone even died this time."

"These gang members live it up, eating and drinking well, but when they die, they just get wrapped in a linen cloth and tossed into the mass graves. Not even a proper tombstone."

"The gang fights have been fierce lately. I hear a new gang is fighting for territory."

...

Lin Yan was betting on the principle that it’s darkest under the lamp!

After all, no one would believe that a murderer would dare to brazenly push a cart with corpses right out of the West City Gate.

Upon reaching the mass graves outside the city, Lin Yan dumped Zhao Chuan’s body but kept Zhang Dahai’s. He found another spot, dug a pit, and threw Zhang Dahai’s body in. Then he planted a Wooden Token in the ground and carved words into it with his dagger: "Tomb of Second Uncle Zhuang Hai. Erected by his nephew, Zhuang Zheng!"

After doing all this, Lin Yan returned to the city through a different gate and went home.

He bathed, burned his clothes, and hid the silver coins.

Once all that was done, Lin Yan returned to his room, took out a notebook, and began to recall the day’s events.

’I was still a bit reckless.’

After a long moment, Lin Yan wrote one word heavily on the paper: "Reckless."

Although he had planned for this, looking back, he had still been a bit impulsive.

’Zhang Dahai brought me there today to trick me into signing a large IOU, but I didn’t have to act so quickly.’

’They would have surely waited a month or two before trying to collect the debt.’

’I could have continued my Cultivation of the Rock Pillar Posture to get stronger and investigated the backgrounds of Zhang Dahai and his partner before making a move.’

"What one learns from paper always feels shallow; true knowledge comes from personal practice," Lin Yan murmured.

He had read so many novels in his past life, but when it actually happened to him, it was inevitable he’d be too caught up in the moment to think things through completely.

’Next time, I have to avoid this kind of situation.’

After finishing his self-reflection, Lin Yan began to use Introspection. But one look left him completely stunned.

The gray tree had returned to its original form, once again intertwined with the green tree. However, the gray-green leaf from before had, at some unknown point, transformed into a gray fruit.

The next moment, a piece of information appeared in Lin Yan’s mind.

[Martial Arts Fruit: Formed by taking the life of a Martial Artist. Contains the Martial Artist’s Cultivation time and can be used to increase the proficiency of a Cultivation Technique.]

"A Martial Arts Fruit... created by killing and plundering. A good thing, indeed."

A bright light shone in Lin Yan’s eyes. ’With this Martial Arts Fruit, all the Martial Artists in the world are nothing but walking medicinal ingredients to me.’

’Kill someone, plunder their martial arts cultivation time, and infuse it into myself.’

’This isn’t just a golden finger anymore; this is a full-blown cheat.’

[Zhao Chuan’s Martial Arts Fruit: Five months and four days.]

Lin Yan stared at the gray fruit. With a thought, he tried to consume it to cultivate his Rock Pillar Posture.

However, the fruit didn’t budge.

The next moment, another piece of information appeared in his mind.

Lin Yan: ???

Reviewing the information again, Lin Yan came to a realization.

’The time from a Martial Arts Fruit can only be applied to the proficiency of a Cultivation Technique.’

’The Rock Pillar Posture is only for increasing Qi Blood, and it’s already maxed out; it can’t be improved any further.’

’It makes sense, when you think about it. If I could use it to cultivate the Rock Pillar Posture, wouldn’t that be creating Qi Blood from thin air?’

’This means that if I want to advance further, I have to learn a Skin Smoothing Technique.’