Armor-Piercing Dart Technique Perfected! [Please Read On!]

"Twenty-five coins per handle."

The blacksmith's voice was rough and hoarse: "Minimum order of ten, no credit."

Su Yang picked up one and weighed it in his hand. It was cold and heavy, rougher than he had expected, and extremely difficult to balance. Compared to the three streamlined, sharp, and gleaming poison darts in his arms, it was like comparing stubborn iron to fine steel.

With his minor mastery of armor-piercing dart techniques, using it wouldn't be a problem.

"I want thirty."

He counted out 750 copper coins and neatly stacked them on the table.

Thirty pieces are enough.

The blacksmith glanced at the copper coins, said nothing, turned around and grabbed several more handfuls from the wooden box. Without counting them, he wrapped them all in an old, oil-soaked piece of parchment, tied them haphazardly with straw rope, and pushed them over. "Here, more than enough."

The bundle felt heavy in my hands, and the rough paper surface was uncomfortable to hold.

Su Yang untied the straw rope and took a look. Inside were countless crude iron darts, some with forging burrs on the edges.

He didn't count them again, and tied them up again.

Just as he was about to leave, his gaze swept over several throwing knives hanging on the wall, clearly much more sophisticated and with blood grooves. He paused slightly: "How much for those on the wall?"

The blacksmith followed his gaze, grinned, revealing teeth yellowed from smoke: "That's a 'penetrating dart,' with a blood groove, once it starts bleeding, it's hard to stop. One hundred and fifty coins apiece."

He paused, sizing up Su Yang: "If you want to forge a truly good weapon that can save your life or kill someone, you need good iron and repeatedly forge and adjust the center of gravity. Those kinds of weapons cost at least an ounce of silver each."

"One tael of silver per weapon?"

Su Yang understood.

This is the price of a true "weapon," forty times that of an ordinary iron dart and nearly seven times that of a finely crafted throwing knife. It's expensive, but it's expensive for a reason—the craftsmanship, a matter of life and death, is worth the price.

However, that's not something he can hope for right now.

"Thanks, shopkeeper."

He didn't ask any more questions, picked up the heavy bag of "iron nails," and turned to walk out of the blacksmith's shop.

The afternoon sun slanted down, casting a long shadow of him carrying a coarse cloth bundle.

The money pouch in his arms was lighter, but the bag of rough ironware represented the most substantial "combat strength reserves".

"We still have nearly nine taels of silver left. Tonight, let's perfect the Armor-Piercing Dart Technique!"

Su Yang secretly made his plans.

.............

As night fell, the lamplight flickered in the steward's office of the Huang residence.

Fei Jianhua sat at the octagonal table, the account book spread out under the oil lamp, the ink characters densely packed, making him furious. The cold tea tasted bitter on his tongue, and the chirping of insects outside the window made his temples throb.

Regarding the Liu Family Village incident, the master's comment, "The accounts are ugly," felt like a slap in the face.

What's even more infuriating is Su Yang—he's only been here a few days, yet he's already caught the master's eye and will be promoted to first-class guard next month!

How many years did Fei Jianhua endure, how many smiles did he have to put on, to keep this lucrative business afloat?

His knuckles turned white from clenching his fists.

Three knocks sounded at the door, one short and one long.

"Come in."

Fei Jianhua didn't look up.

Zhao Liu slipped in like an eel, a cool night breeze wafting in through the curtain: "Master Fei! Big discovery! This servant spotted Su Yang at Lan Yue Tower!"

The pen stopped, and a small blot of ink smudged on the ledger.

"Go on."

"Absolutely true! He sat alone in a corner of the Good Fortune Restaurant and ordered a pot of 'Angelica and Astragalus Chicken Soup,' a plate of braised pork, rice, and seasonal vegetables'!" Zhao Liu leaned closer to the table, his voice extremely low: "Where would a poor wretch who just joined the guards get the money for such luxuries? It must be from that time at Liu Family Manor..."

Fei Jianhua raised his hand, and Zhao Liu's words came to an abrupt halt.

The room was so quiet that only the crackling of the lamplight could be heard. Fei Jianhua slowly leaned back in his chair, the hardwood chair making a soft creak. His gaze fell on Zhao Liu's face, his cloudy eyes like oil-soaked stones: "The report Wang Tiezhu submitted only said that some loose silver and medicine were lost, all of which were recorded as losses."

"But those men in black ransacked the place so thoroughly, just for this little bit?" Zhao Liu said anxiously, "That kid must have taken advantage of the chaos to steal from the dead!"

"The dead's spoils..." Fei Jianhua's lips curled into a cold smile: "That's a good excuse. Embezzling war spoils and concealing them without reporting them, according to the prefectural rules, the lightest punishment is caning and expulsion, and the heaviest is being sent to the authorities."

Zhao Liu's eyes lit up: "Then what about us?"

"What's the rush?" Fei Jianhua interrupted him, tapping his fingers lightly on the table. "You can't convict someone based on just one meal. What if he says it's his savings, or a reward from the master last time? Yang Yunxing is just worried about not having a chance to protect his own."

Zhao Liu choked.

"When you have money, you want to spend it." Fei Jianhua leaned forward, the light casting a clear contrast of light and shadow on half of his face. "Keep a close eye on him. See where he goes and what he buys. Pay special attention—whether there are any unusual things around him."

He paused, lowering his voice even further: "It's not the weapons or hidden weapons issued by the government, or... those old booklets or diagrams and the like."

Zhao Liu was taken aback: "Books? Those things are valuable?"

"Whether it's valuable or not is not for you to decide," Fei Jianhua sneered. "Just say it's stolen goods taken from the man in black, of unknown origin. Who can say for sure? If something can't be explained, it's evidence of a crime."

He stared at Zhao Liu, his eyes like hooks: "Remember, don't alert him. Yang Yunxing and the master are both watching him; without solid evidence, you can't do anything."

"This servant understands! Keep a close eye on him!"

"Go ahead, but don't go through the main entrance."

Zhao Liu bowed and withdrew, the curtain rose and fell, and the room returned to silence.

Fei Jianhua picked up the now-cold teacup and drank it all in one gulp.

The icy liquid slid down my throat, but it couldn't extinguish the fire in my heart.

.........

The following night.

Inside the side room of Jingjie Courtyard, the moonlight filtering through the window barely outlined Su Yang's cross-legged figure.

[Armor-Piercing Dart Technique Proficiency +1!]

【……】

He held the underwear in his left hand and the needle and thread in his right.

In the dim light, those eyes gleamed with a strange light, as calm as a deep pool yet as sharp as a knife. With each stitch he made, the panel in his mind flickered.

For the past two days, in addition to his training, he has been constantly "threading the needle," a practice that is both extremely tedious and extremely focused.

[Armor-Piercing Dart Technique Perfected!]

As the third watchman's clapper sounded, the panel in Su Yang's mind flashed again.

Simultaneously.

A powerful stream of information flooded into my mind, containing my experience and insights into perfecting the Armor-Piercing Dart Technique!

Moreover, the transformation brought about by the perfect "Armor-Piercing Dart Technique" was like mercury flowing onto the ground, silently and thoroughly reshaping his body.

He felt that this transformation was not a brute increase in muscle strength, but a deeper metamorphosis. The fascia and fine muscles of his arms, wrists, and even the joints of his fingers seemed to have been tempered and refined, containing explosive instantaneous power and precise control of force.

He felt that if he were to flick a copper coin at this moment, its penetrating power would be no less than that of an arrow shot from a powerful bow.

Outside, the moon hid behind the clouds. In the dimly lit room, he could not only see the grain of the wood and the cracks in the peeling paint, but his eyesight had also reached an unbelievable level. If a mosquito or fly flew by at that moment, in his eyes, the frequency of its wingbeats and the path of its flight were so clear and slow that they seemed to be still.

He also discovered that while his fingers remained long and slender, the knuckles seemed more defined, and beneath his skin lay a rock-like stability and vine-like flexibility. He could make his fingertips perform any incredible, minute flexion, extension, and tremor, perfectly matching any shape of concealed weapon, and transferring all his strength without loss to the very last moment of launch!

The state of perfection brings not only the pinnacle of skill, but also a comprehensive transformation of the body to adapt to this skill.

At this moment, even without darts in his hand, he could still shoot and injure people by picking up stones and branches.

He took out a copper coin and shot it at the shadow in the corner of the wall.

"laugh!"

A very faint sound of wind breaking.

A spider spinning its web in the shadows was struck by the coin and instantly split in two.

The greatest truths are the simplest.

[Su Yang]

[Martial Arts/Skills: Tiger Form Fist (Perfect), Blade Breaker Technique (Perfect), Forty-Nine Style Overlord Blade - Incomplete 25/49 (Unskilled 0/1000), Armor-Piercing Dart Technique (Perfect)]

[Simplified point: 79.3]

"Perfect Armor-Piercing Dart Technique, not bad!"

Su Yang slowly withdrew his hand, put away the panel in his mind, and a look of satisfaction appeared in his eyes.

Through the accumulation of simplified points and the regular eating and breathing exercises over the past two days, I am steadily approaching the 80 mark.

The perfected "Armor-Piercing Dart Technique" was like a ring of invisible yet deadly spikes around him. His main task now is to continue working on simplification points, accumulating 100 to simplify the Overlord Blade!

"It's a pity there's no internal energy cultivation..."

Su Yang's eyes showed a thoughtful expression. As far as he knew, this world of the Legend of the Twin Dragons of the Tang Dynasty had the War God's Manual, the Longevity Manual, the Heavenly Demon Strategy, the Compassionate Sword Manual, and the True Qi Cultivation Method. He had perfected his Armor-Piercing Dart Technique, Tiger Fist, and Blade-Breaking Technique, but he lacked internal strength and even true qi. This would be a great loss for him.

If the Armor-Piercing Dart Technique contains true energy, its power can definitely be increased more than tenfold!

"I wonder... does Instructor Yang possess any internal energy cultivation techniques?"

Suddenly, Su Yang had an idea.

If you can't get your hands on a high-level internal energy cultivation method, a low-level one will do, right?

.............