"The Life-Snatching Tri-Immortal Sword truly lives up to its name." Drawing the longsword from the man's chest, he muttered inwardly, "Jin Dada certainly didn't lie to me."

Then, with a flourish, he executed a quick sword twirl with the blade held in his right hand, standing proudly on the spot, while thinking to himself, "Perhaps now my cheap junior sister will look at me with a slightly better opinion?"

Stealing a glance, he saw that his Junior Sister Ning was using some scrap of cloth, found from some unknown source, to wipe down her own longsword—her blade had also slain many people just now and was already stained crimson with blood.

In reality, Ye Wen's sword was much the same; furthermore, neither of their swords possessed any miraculous quality to repel blood. Thus, every time they were used, they required meticulous maintenance, lest they break down after only two or three uses.

Therefore, Ning Ruxue's first concern at that moment was maintaining her own longsword; the sudden improvement in her senior brother's swordsmanship was a secondary matter.

However, she was secretly astonished, unable to comprehend the sword technique her senior brother had just employed; how could it be so fierce? "Judging by its appearance, it doesn't seem to be one of our sect's techniques?"

The Shushan Sect was a minor school; its martial arts held nothing extraordinary, perhaps only slightly superior to what common martial arts halls taught, and possessing no notable advantages even when encountering somewhat larger establishments. This was one reason why the Shushan Sect, despite having six generations of sect masters, had seen no great development and, instead, had gradually declined.

After all, in this era, most people who studied martial arts did so with the ambition of achieving renown as heroes, or at the very least, learning skills sufficient to guarantee their life and property. Both aims presupposed the ability to acquire superior martial arts.

Consequently, no one held the Shushan Sect's mediocre martial arts in high regard. With no disciples coming to seek tutelage, this small sect naturally withered further. One only needed to observe that Ye Wen's master's only two apprentices were infants he had both picked up from the mountainside to understand the situation.

Thus, the Shushan Sect truly possessed no so-called ultimate or secret arts. The sect's 'Shushan Sword' set essentially encompassed all the techniques of this small school. Apart from the basic fist, foot, palm, and sword training upon entry, both Ning Ruxue and Ye Wen had only practiced this single sword form.

Yet, the sword moves Ye Wen had just displayed were not found within any part of the Shushan Sword set.

"Although they resemble certain moves, they are definitely not the same. Moreover, while the Shushan Sword technique is concise and fast, it lacks this level of sharpness."

With her mind unable to grasp why, Ning Ruxue, after putting away her longsword, began rummaging through the bodies of the fallen bandits, her thoughts incessantly turning over the strange changes in her senior brother these past few days.

"I didn't see him use this during the sparring match that day either. Could it be he hadn't learned it then? But he has been with me these past few days, and I haven't seen him practice any martial arts... It's truly strange."

Ye Wen was unaware that deploying the Tri-Immortal Sword had drawn suspicion from Ning Ruxue. He was engaged in the same activity as her, searching the corpses for anything valuable.

At first, he hadn't understood what Ning Ruxue was doing, but upon seeing his cheap junior sister pull out several pieces of broken silver from one of the men, he immediately grasped the situation.

"Black eats black, eh..."

Killing the robbers and then looting their belongings certainly qualified as 'black eats black.' Moreover, so-called martial artists, even those claiming to be righteous, were little different from later-day gang members. Thus, Ye Wen's categorization of Ning Ruxue's actions was not wrong.

Coupled with the fact that their current financial situation was dire, if they didn't find some silver soon, they would be starving and freezing by the day after tomorrow. With money delivered right to their doorsteps, he had no reason to refuse it.

What was strange, however, was that Ye Wen kept discovering copper coins scattered on the ground, which perplexed him; he couldn't figure out why so many coins would spill out during a fight.

He soon recalled that Ning Ruxue had suddenly scattered a large handful of shining yellow objects during the preceding brawl. The movement had been too swift, and he had been more focused on their hands, so he hadn't paid close attention to what she threw.

"Could she have thrown copper coins?"

Making this inference, Ye Wen began collecting the coins on the ground one by one. At the same time, he saw his junior sister, after searching the belongings of the corpses near her, indeed bending over and searching the ground, occasionally picking up a coin and carefully stowing it away.

"Junior Sister, your move 'Heaven and Earth Toss' was executed perfectly,"

Perhaps the atmosphere was too oppressive, or perhaps the silence between them, contrasted with the corpses littering the ground, made Ye Wen uneasy. So he cracked a joke to ease the tension and to help steady his own trembling hands—whether he was slow-witted or not, he hadn't felt anything while killing, but now, while searching the bodies, he began to feel unaccustomed to the reality.

"Heaven and Earth Toss?"

Ning Ruxue had no idea what this legendary technique was, but the name suggested it was very powerful. "Which sect's ultimate skill is that? Why have I never heard of it?"

"Uh..." Ye Wen paused, then could only start weaving a lie: "This Heaven and Earth Toss is indeed an ultimate skill, and it doesn't belong to any single sect. The method is actually quite simple and straightforward; basically, anyone can master it. However, there is one condition that must be met."

"Oh? What condition?" Once martial arts were mentioned, Ning Ruxue stopped dwelling on the source of her senior brother's marvelous swordsmanship and became curious about what kind of technique an ultimate skill accessible to anyone could be.

"You must have money."

"Money?" Ning Ruxue was initially puzzled, but when she thought of the copper coins clutched in her hand, she recalled the handful of coins she had casually scattered during the fight to slow down the opponents.

In truth, during the fight, she had inadvertently glanced toward her senior brother, seeing him kick up a cloud of dust to obscure his opponents' vision and seize the opportunity to press the attack. In that instant, she thought this was a good way to quickly dispatch enemies.

However, she had nowhere suitable nearby to grab dirt, and she couldn't suddenly squat down in the middle of a fight, so in desperation, she had simply flung a handful of her spare copper coins—she hadn't considered anything else. Afterwards, she felt this action was perhaps less than honorable, especially since she had learned it by mimicking her senior brother, whom she held in low esteem.

Now, hearing Ye Wen say it, she assumed he was subtly mocking her, and her face immediately changed: "It’s certainly more honorable than the sect leader's underhanded tactic of kicking up dirt to blind opponents."

With that, she ignored Ye Wen and focused intently on searching the belongings of the other corpses on the ground. Ye Wen was somewhat bewildered by Ning Ruxue's glare, but since she clearly didn't want to talk to him, and he had no habit of inviting trouble, he stopped speaking and concentrated on searching the several bodies.

Eight men had left behind eight corpses. Except for the two killed by a slit throat, where he had accidentally gotten some blood on himself due to the excessive spray, the others were easy to manage. Soon, the two of them had turned out everything removable from the eight men.

Only their outer clothing remained on their bodies; nothing else of value was left on them.

"A total of eighteen taels of broken silver, and over a hundred wen in copper coins—not bad at all." Ye Wen, having no concept of the currency's purchasing power in this world, could only judge from Ning Ruxue's gradually clearing expression that this was quite a substantial sum.

Besides that, he also found some notices on a few of the bodies. He hadn't paid them much attention at the time, but now, using the firelight, he could examine them properly. The corpses had been moved to a corner, and the fire had been rekindled; the two planned to rest before burying the bodies—after all, killing was against the law and not something that should be publicized.

However, the notices Ye Wen found spared them that immediate trouble...

"Wanted Posters?" Ning Ruxue immediately recognized what these papers were. Snatching them over and glancing at them closely, she instantly started laughing: "I didn't expect these fellows to be notorious bandits in this area, currently being sought by the authorities."

It turned out that these eight big men were well-known villains around the Shushan area, usually intercepting passing merchants, stealing their wealth, and occasionally taking lives. Furthermore, the eight men rarely showed themselves in public; when they did, they would quickly eliminate their targets and vanish, meaning they had never been caught. The authorities, helpless, could only post rewards for their capture.

In truth, among the eight, only the leader's martial arts were respectable; the others were quite ordinary. If they had truly encountered a master, there was a ninety-nine percent chance they would have died instantly.

But these men were very sharp in their judgment: if a target seemed too tough, they would resolutely back off, which is why they had committed villainies for quite some time without incident. Today, the eight men had discovered they were wanted and had gathered here to discuss whether they should retreat to another region to lie low—that was how Ye Wen and his junior sister chanced upon them, hence the appearance of their own wanted notices.

They never expected that this time they would fall to two youngsters who looked so young. Besides having lost their usual judgment due to drinking, they had also made fatal errors in assessing the situation, leading to their deaths.

First, they underestimated Ning Ruxue's skill. Second, they regarded Ye Wen as an ordinary young swordsman from the jianghu. Finally, the leader, whose martial arts were superior, never anticipated that the sword technique Ye Wen deployed at the critical moment would be so fierce; he drank the sword's poison before he could even react—though Ye Wen did gain an advantage through surprise.

It could be said that their deaths were fated, which is why this string of events unfolded.

However, the deaths of these men brought Ye Wen and Ning Ruxue a considerable amount of silver. Especially since the eight were wanted by the government, Ye Wen and Ning Ruxue could even use their corpses to claim the bounty.

"If that's the case, not only will we cover our food and daily expenses, but we could even buy a residence somewhere new," Seeing the bounties on the men, a smile finally appeared on Ning Ruxue's face.

As for Ye Wen, upon hearing the mention of buying a residence, his mind suddenly felt momentarily blank, as if a voice were incessantly trying to tell him something.

P.S: Watched two football matches last night... everything feels so awkward...