Chapter 4: Chapter 4: Are You Looking for Death?

"This feeling of rapid improvement..."

"It’s truly captivating."

Su Xing murmured, gripping the sword in his hand in a daze.

But in the next second, an intense feeling of hunger and thirst washed over him.

’Damn it!!!’

Su Xing suddenly felt like he was losing control of his body. A sore ache spread through every muscle, as if he’d pulled several all-nighters in a row. The exhaustion was so profound that even the slightest movement felt like a monumental effort.

At the same time,

Su Xing’s stomach began to growl incessantly, punctuated by sharp, convulsive pains. He felt like a wild beast, as if his stomach could devour anything.

Su Xing scrambled over to the table, snatched the kettle with the remaining tea, and chugged it all down.

Water is very filling.

After downing the large kettle of tea, the color returned to Su Xing’s face, and the pangs of hunger subsided significantly. However, he could still feel the weakness in his muscles. He had to eat something with calories.

Su Xing hurriedly set the kettle down with a CLANG and sprinted toward his room.

Because Su Xing normally trained a great deal,

he kept a large stash of meat and carbs in his room.

The moment he got back to his room, he yanked out his food storage box. In his haste, food spilled all over the floor, but Su Xing didn’t care. He grabbed whatever could be eaten raw and started stuffing his face.

He devoured things like bananas by the bunch.

Su Xing buried his head and ate ravenously. Beef jerky, pork jerky, protein bars, compressed biscuits, bananas—a huge pile of assorted packaged foods all went into his stomach.

He didn’t stop until he had devoured nearly two-thirds of the food packed inside the box.

Finally, Su Xing let out a loud burp and slumped against the side of his bed. The floor was a complete mess, littered with wrappers, fruit peels, and cookie crumbs.

"*BURP*!"

’Man, that was dry. I need to get some hot food next time I have the chance.’

Su Xing grumbled to himself, then slowly stood up. He grabbed a nearby broom to quickly sweep the floor, then stripped off his clothes—revealing muscles as chiseled as marble—and took a quick shower.

After stepping out of the bathroom, Su Xing glanced at his nearly depleted food supply. After a moment’s thought, he grabbed his backpack and stuffed it with some protein bars and cookies in case he got hungry on the way. Then, he got dressed and headed out to the supermarket to restock.

Soon,

Su Xing had filled his backpack with food and was ready to head back.

On the way back from the supermarket, Su Xing’s legs weren’t the only thing that didn’t stop moving—his mouth didn’t either. He would periodically pull a protein bar from his backpack, holding it and taking bite after bite. A few minutes after finishing the protein bar, he’d start on a cookie.

Although the initial ravenous hunger had passed, a faint sense of weakness and fatigue still lingered.

It was as if this breakthrough had thrown his body into a deficit. He needed to keep eating to replenish his energy and make up for the shortfall.

The reason was actually easy to understand.

While the Sword Dao Points could instantly grant him the understanding of the Sword Dao that would normally take years to cultivate, along with the physical enhancements that came from such training,

this advancement required a corresponding amount of energy. The human body can typically only acquire that energy from food. Therefore, after every upgrade, Su Xing had to eat voraciously to replenish the energy he had expended, and he had to continue until the deficit was filled.

Su Xing could feel it.

His understanding of the "Slash" Sword Technique was not only deeper than before, but his muscular strength had also become far more developed.

Although,

developing into a muscle-bound hunk

kind of went against the image of the graceful, otherworldly Sword Immortal he had in his head.

But Su Xing knew deep down that this was the correct path. No matter the weapon or the technique, physical conditioning and muscular strength would always be the foundation of all skills.

An ordinary person, whether armed with a sword or any other bladed weapon, could never defeat a trained martial artist who was fighting bare-fisted.

Night fell.

The Sword Hall was in a remote location. It was quiet during the day and even more so at night.

The only light on the road came from flickering street lamps, illuminating the white-bricked pavement beneath Su Xing’s feet. A cool, crisp wind blew from the small woods nearby, carrying the RUSTLE, RUSTLE of swaying branches, like the forest’s soft weeping.

Su Xing followed the path back to the Sword Hall.

The woods beside the road were as quiet as ever, with only the chirping of a few nameless insects.

Just as he was about to reach the lake beside the Sword Hall, Su Xing suddenly froze. Amidst the incessant chirping of insects, he heard the sound of something falling into the water.

’Something fell in the water?’

’Did someone fall into the lake?’

’Someone couldn’t be committing suicide by jumping into the lake, could they? Right on my doorstep?’ 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

At this thought, Su Xing’s expression changed. He snatched a thick, fallen branch from the woods and ran toward the lake.

’If I have to save someone,’

’a sturdy branch is the best tool for the job.’

But when he burst onto the lakeshore, he was met with an unexpected sight: two men in bizarre outfits walking toward him.

Their robes were pure white and covered in strange drawings, depicting what looked like a group of disemboweled people kneeling on the ground, praying to an evil god descending from the heavens.

The two men looked to be about the same age, likely in their thirties. Their muscles were so developed that they strained against the white fabric of their robes. One was bald, the other had a buzz cut. Both had frenzied expressions, their eyes unnaturally webbed with bloodshot veins.

They looked like some kind of crazed religious fanatics.

The bald man was clutching a small knife. Its blade reflected the moonlight, allowing Su Xing to clearly see the crimson blood dripping from it, drop by drop.

’Goddammit...’

’What shitty luck!’

’This isn’t a suicide, these guys just murdered someone and are here to dump the body!’

Su Xing’s expression instantly changed. He tightened his grip on the branch—it was the only thing he had that could serve as a sword for self-defense. He’d only been going to the supermarket, so he hadn’t brought his blade with him. And now he’d run into two psychos.

Su Xing’s sudden appearance was clearly not part of their plan.

Their expressions faltered for a moment before turning grim. They began speaking to each other in some incomprehensible language, likely a unique tongue specific to their religion.

Although Su Xing couldn’t understand most of it, he could pick out a few syllables that sounded similar to his own language, allowing him to roughly guess what they were saying.

It was simple, really.

They wanted to kill him.

Su Xing felt something awaken deep within his blood. He bared a row of chillingly white teeth and spoke in an icy voice,

"Are you looking to die?!"