After a full meal, the apprentices saw Master Lin back to his home. It was already midnight.
Zhou Heng bade farewell to Yu He and the others. He headed toward the outskirts of the city.
His rented residence was located on the outskirts.
It was a much cheaper option.
Not many street lights lit the outskirts of the city. The moonlight struck the pathway, and there were a lot of weeds growing at the sides of the road. They were almost half as tall as a human.
As he came to a secluded area, Zhou Heng's ears suddenly twitched.
Swish!
The wind broke apart, revealing a sword that glimmered in the moonlight. It rushed toward him.
A human burst out of the bushes.
He was dressed in all black, had a mask, and held a long sword in his hand!
"Who are you?!"
Zhou Heng exclaimed as he shifted his feet to allow the sword to pass harmlessly by his side.
It was a paper-thin evasion!
The tip of the sword nearly grazed his nose!
He was fast!
Was he a ninth-class martial artist?!
"You've applied the Ninth Class Eight Flying Grass Steps to narrowly avoid an attack. The level of proficiency has increased by 3."
"Sun Zhengfeng's applying the Ninth Class Thirteen Autumn Rain Swords to attack you, and you've successfully evaded it. Your level of proficiency with the Thirteen Autumn Rain Swords increased by 0.04."
The notifications prompted in his mind.
Sun Zhengfeng?
Thirteen Autumn Rain Swords?
Zhou Heng was stunned.
What was the relationship between this man with Sun Zhengpin?
Was this a night raid? Ugh! Or was it a midnight ambush?
"How interesting!"
Sun Zhengfeng chuckled. He looked completely smug and calm, unaware that his identity had been exposed. The moment he realized that he had missed his target, he immediately turned and left. Soon, he vanished into the darkness.
"What was that all about?" Zhou Heng looked at where Sun Zhengfeng had vanished. Then, he touched his chin and asked doubtfully, "What was he doing here?
"To assess my ability on behalf of Sun Zhengpin? Was there more to it? Anyway, let's go home first."
Opening the Lucky Bag and exploring Solo Nine Swords should be his current priority!
The encounter just now was shocking, but not dangerous. To Zhou Heng, it was just a trivial matter.
All that occupied his thoughts now was to get back home and "draw lots" for his lucky draw.
He would go around and get some information on Sun Zhengfeng tomorrow.
The remainder of his journey was smooth and uneventful. Soon, Zhou Heng reached his rented place on the outskirts of the city.
It was an old hut. The floor was not particularly big, and weeds grew in abundance. There were only one larger main room and two rooms by the sides. The rafters were somewhat decayed.
Clearly, it was an old, rundown house.
It was not in a good condition, but the rental was dirt cheap. It was only one tael of silver annually.
Zhou Heng climbed over the wall carefully and tiptoed back to his own rented room located by the side.
He tried hard not to make any noise.
The other room by the side was occupied. On top of that, the landlord himself stayed in the main room.
The landlord went to bed early.
He usually fell asleep as soon as the day turned dark and was easily awakened. If anything woke him up, he would cuss and swear.
As such, when Zhou Heng returned home every night, he tried his best not to make any noise.
This was partly why he wanted to own a house by himself.
By then, he could enter the house at his convenience, he could go in through the door, climb over the wall, or even dig a hole to go back from the underground…
Nobody would care.
Yes, if only he were qualified as Longevity Sect's external disciple. Part of its perks was staying in Longevity Mansion.
After he returned home, Zhou Heng took a shower and changed his clothes. He washed his hands more than twenty times.
Just like back in those days on Earth, it was the same ritual he practiced while playing a gacha game.
After that, he called up the system interface.
"The Silver Lucky Bag is a bag equipped with literally everything. Once you open it, you'll gain a reward you will not expect."
The exciting moment had come!
Would it be a surprise, or something delightful?!
"Open it!"
A flash of silver light glimpsed before Zhou Heng's eyes. He could vaguely see that a Lucky Bag was being opened.
The way it opened up was in total silence and completely different from the Bronze Lucky Bag!
Obviously, this was of a much higher standard!
"Congratulations! You've gained 3 distributable points for your level of proficiency with ninth-class martial arts!"
What was that?
What were distributable points for the level of proficiency with martial arts?
Did it truly mean what it meant?
As Zhou Heng's mind raced, various levels of proficiency with his martial arts skills passed through.
Ninth-Class Prosperity Inner Strength Stance Technique. High Level: 2651+/3000.
Ninth-Class Eight Flying Grass Steps. High Level: 2222+/3000.
Ninth-Class Twelve Mountain Splitting Saber Techniques. Perfection: 125+/5000.
Ninth-Class Eighteen Divine Power Styles. Average Level: 36+/2000.
Ninth-Class Thirteen Autumn Rain Swords. Not learned yet: 0.04 +/1000.
Unranked Zhou Family Saber Technique. Perfection: 5000/5000.
He discovered that this was different from the previous one.
Originally, there was no plus sign behind the number for the levels of proficiency.
This had suggested that he could actually add the 3 distributable points to the level of proficiency of any martial arts!
"But I've only got three points. I can gain these points through self-learning, and it's not time-consuming either."
Zhou Heng was slightly disappointed.
However, soon, he discovered the key point.
"Does that mean I can add the point for Thirteen Autumn Rain Swords too? I've not learned the skills and my level of proficiency is only 0.04…"
He changed his mind, and one point was added to the level of proficiency for Thirteen Autumn Rain Swords.
After that, Zhou Heng felt his vision blur.
A greyish, translucent shadow was seen holding a longsword in his hand as he appeared out of thin air.
Soon afterwards, the shadow started to show the skills of the technique one by one at a time before him.
That also came with explanations.
"You're watching a sword phantom practice Ninth Class Thirteen Autumn Rain Swords. The level of proficiency increased by 0.02."
"You're listening to a sword phantom's explanations for Ninth Class Thirteen Autumn Rain Swords, and you gained insights from it. The level of proficiency increased by 0.1."
"You're watching a sword phantom practice Ninth Class Thirteen Autumn Rain Swords. The level of proficiency increased by 0.03."
"You're listening to a sword phantom's explanations for Ninth Class Thirteen Autumn Rain Swords, and you gained insights from it. The level of proficiency increased by 0.2."
"Your level of proficiency with Ninth Class Thirteen Autumn Rain Swords has reached 1. You've officially acquired the martial art skills!"
A series of notifications prompted.
At the same time, there were certain changes to the message on the panel of the martial arts.
Ninth Class Thirteen Autumn Rain Swords. Novice Level: 1+/1000.
Zhou Heng was dumbfounded.
That fast? Excuse me?!
He stepped out of his room and climbed over the wall carefully.
He broke a branch as a substitution for a sword. He practiced the complete set of Thirteen Autumn Rain Swords smoothly for several times.
He wanted to confirm the result of his learning.
Also, he wanted to farm tens of points for his level of proficiency.
He wanted to confirm his own understanding, as well as completely acquire the skills of the legendary Sun Family's ninth class sword techniques!
Although his level of proficiency was not high and he could not apply in practical combat yet, it was because he still lacked practice.
Proficiency was all that he needed for now.
If a person attacked him by using this martial art skill, the resulting impacts would be greatly reduced!
Sun Zhengpin, who excelled in Thirteen Autumn Rain Swords was in trouble now!
It was Sun Zhengfeng who had started all this first by applying that sword technique to ambush him, which subsequently led him to current state.
Sun Zhengfeng did it once only!
All because of him, Zhou Heng had acquired the ninth class sword technique!
The level of proficiency of the sword technique was actually gained from the sword phantom, but to the outsiders, the entire teaching process had been as swift as the blink of an eye!
In other words, Zhou Heng had grasped his martial art skills in a blink!
This also suggested that as long as he managed to defuse or avoid any attack from a ninth-class martial art successfully, he could apply the additional point method to learn a skill on the spot!
Indeed, this was a cheat code!
Zhou Heng's heart fluttered happily!
"Oh my, Sun Zhengfeng. I don't know why you tested me, but I really have to thank you and your eight generations of ancestors for this!"
"Let's see if I can draw the lot for Solo Nine Swords next!"