Now that she had cultivated and advanced two levels, her fatigue was significantly reduced. Although the physical pain still lingered, it couldn't have mattered less to Lin Wuyue. She stood up and quickly returned to the river. She had already stripped off all her clothes, and without a second thought, she plunged straight into the water.
She had trained extremely hard and hadn't eaten anything, yet she didn't feel hungry at all. What she felt instead was intense discomfort—the sticky feeling of sweat clinging to her skin. At that moment, all she could think about was washing herself and changing into clean clothes.
She glanced at her small bag of clothes, then at the outfit belonging to the ancient skeleton. She could tell at a glance that the material was of extremely high quality.
"I'll wash you properly tomorrow—very thoroughly," she said while observing the clothes. They would still be far too large for her, but that wasn't a problem at all. She would grow eventually. No matter how pretty and delicate her female body was, no matter how feminine her face looked, she absolutely refused to dress like a woman or wear makeup.
When she imagined herself like that, she shook her head repeatedly.
"It wouldn't be a problem for me to pass as a man for the rest of my life," she told herself. For her, it truly wasn't an issue at all. In fact, she had never considered herself a woman in any sense.
"Tsk tsk… what a pity my little friend didn't survive. I could've had another harem of two thousand beauties. How disappointing," she thought to herself as she finished bathing and changed her clothes.
She had no idea how much time she had been trapped here. She couldn't ask the serpent—it still hadn't responded—and she didn't dare venture outside on her own, unsure whether those brothers were still nearby. So she picked up her sword once more.
"Second technique of the Blood Demon… Ten Thousand Piercing Cuts. The purpose is to pierce the enemy's vital points—the heart, lungs, spleen, and temples. If the enemy realizes this, they can block them… no, even if they do block them, they'd need extremely high defensive capability and sharp instincts. Heh. So the true strength of this technique lies in speed—to the point where the enemy can't block the points in time and is pierced repeatedly in the same spots. Without a doubt, it's an evil technique… not bad at all," she muttered mockingly to herself as she swung her sword.
Perhaps because her physical endurance had improved—or perhaps because she had grown accustomed to the sword's weight—she was able to lift it more easily this time, even though it still required great effort. She adopted the same stance shown in the illustration, took a few steady breaths, and struck the rock in front of her at different points with precision.
Even though it was just a rock, imagining it as an enemy felt perfectly natural.
She continued striking the same spots over and over. At first, it was nothing more than light tapping, but as her speed increased, something became clear—she never once strayed from the vital points.
30… 40… 60…
Her speed kept increasing.
600… 700… 1000…
In truth, her speed wasn't much different from that of a teenage martial artist—but she was only five years old. She didn't even reach an adolescent's waist. It was an astonishing sight.
1200… 1500… 2000…
Despite delivering two thousand strikes, she felt no fatigue at all, unlike the first time. On the contrary, she felt incredibly good.
4000… 5000… 7000…
Lin Wuyue's speed had increased to the point where only her afterimages could be seen.
10,000.
When she reached ten thousand strikes, Lin Wuyue released the sword. She hadn't sweated at all—she felt fresh and deeply relaxed. Letting out a long sigh of relief, she realized her physical endurance was improving rapidly. Strangely enough, she was in a better mood.
"I can't believe I'm happy over something like this… there's still a long road ahead," she said with an ironic smile.
She looked at her trembling hand but didn't feel discouraged in the slightest. She sighed heavily and glanced at the river again. She absolutely refused to eat fish again.
"Maybe if I go outside…" she thought, but quickly shook her head. She still wasn't strong enough.
She decided to take out the silver needle she had used to fish last time, but stopped halfway.
"Now that I think about it… I haven't fixed my clothes yet. If I use this needle to fish again, won't it smell like fish?"
In truth, Lin Wuyue was just making excuses.
"I'm not that hungry anyway," she comforted herself. She didn't want to eat fish, and she had no intention of doing so for the time being.
She swung her sword again, turned the page, and practiced the third stance. The third stance wasn't anything special—it was a cross-shaped slash meant to dismember the enemy from multiple angles.
"The Blood Demon's sword techniques are truly brutal and crude… not bad," she said as she moved on to the next page.
When she reached the fourth stance, she was genuinely surprised. The fourth stance was a combination of the previous three. That meant learning it required internal energy. Practicing it without internal energy could improve physical endurance, but if she wanted to release a powerful sword aura, internal energy was absolutely necessary.
Approximately two years had passed since she first began practicing the Blood Demon Sword Technique. She practiced each stance one by one and never neglected her cultivation. In fact, she had already reached the Spiritual Elder Realm, two levels above the Spiritual Warrior Realm.
Her physique had also improved significantly—her arms were more toned, her waist more defined. She had grown taller and no longer looked so small.
She was euphoric.
"It's time to carve the sword spirit into this rock…"
Activating her internal energy, she began executing the first stance of the Blood Demon Sword Technique. Her speed was terrifyingly fast—it was as if time had rewound, showing the small girl who could barely lift the sword, forcing herself to swing it until she collapsed, and then fast-forwarding to the present, where her movements were nearly invisible.
"Second stance!"
Her internal energy surged, releasing an intense aura as she pierced holes into the rock as if trying to drill through it. Her technique was just as fast as before.
"Third stance!"
Her internal energy reached its peak.
"Fourth stance!"
When she executed the fourth stance, the river's waters began to churn violently—a clear sign that she was pushing past the limits of her internal energy through all four stances. In truth, she had spent two full years perfecting the four stances of the Blood Demon Sword Technique.
She clenched her teeth.
According to the manual, she was supposed to combine the first stance with the third, then perform the second last.
"They're actually very basic… like something meant for a beginner. Sometimes I wonder if someone foresaw that I'd be here and prepared this just to teach me."
She executed the fourth stance with ease, perforating the rock so violently that dust burst upward like smoke.