Chapter 27: Improving Shadow Guards' Strength!

The sky had turned completely dark after Ling Yuyan finished the matter about her martial realm breakthrough.

Ling Yuyan immediately realized that she was already extremely hungry right now since her stomach was growling loudly in protest.

Ling Yuyan hastily headed to the canteen to eat her dinner, but unfortunately, she was a bit too late and all the food had already been finished by the other maids and servants.

Without any other choice, Ling Yuyan could only send An Yue to steal... cough, I mean 'borrow' some food directly from the kitchen to fill their growling stomachs.

After their stomachs felt full, Ling Yuyan did not immediately return to the maid's bedroom like the other maids.

In these few days, An Yue's [2nd Tier Shadow Guards] had already reached more than sixty.

It was because An Yue got a lot stronger after consuming [Dragon Elephant Divine Pill], so she could summon more shadow guards than before.

Ling Yuyan planned to let An Yue merge her [2nd Tier Shadow Guards] to create higher tier shadow guards!

Rather than having so many Low-Rank Martial Warrior realm shadow guards, Ling Yuyan and An Yue clearly preferred to have a few Martial Commander realm shadow guards.

Ling Yuyan and An Yue entered the nearby unoccupied guest room.

"Let's begin, An Yue!" Ling Yuyan said to An Yue.

An Yue nodded at Ling Yuyan with a serious expression and released five [2nd Tier Shadow Guards] that she put in her [Shadow Empress Ring] before.

The five [2nd Tier Shadow Guards] began to blend and merge into one.

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[3rd Tier Shadow Guard]

[Martial Realm: High-Rank Martial Warrior]

Martial Arts: Traceless Assassination Blade Techniques (Small Success), Silent Wave Steps (Entering the Room), Secret Weapon Throwing (Beginner)]

[Spells: Perfect Stealth, Shadow Bind, Lethal Poison Enhancement]

[Equipment: (Shadow Guard's uniform), (Assassination Blades) x2, (Flying Knives) x12, (Hidden Needles) x30]

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"Well... Not bad, their martial realm actually increased from the Low-Rank Martial Warrior to the High-Rank Martial Warrior. So, they directly skipped Mid-Rank Martial Warrior? Is it possible that every tier increase would increase their martial realm by two small ranks?" LIng Yuyan muttered in a very curious tone.

Other than that, some of their martial arts proficiency also increased such as [Traceless Assassination Blade Techniques] increased from [Entering the Room] to [Small Success] while their [Secret Weapon Throwing skill] had increased from [Entry] level to [Beginner].

An Yue kept merging her [2nd Tier Shadow Guards] one after another, and finally, she got fourteen [3rd Tier Shadow Guards] in total.

But An Yue and Ling Yuyan did not plan to stop yet, they immediately merged ten [3rd Tier Shadow Guards] to create two higher tier shadow guards.

"I hope the [4th Tier Shadow Guards] can reach the Martial Commander realm." Ling Yuyan murmured full of hope with an excited tone.

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[4th Tier Shadow Guard]

[Martial Realm: Top Peak-Rank Martial Warrior]

Martial Arts: Traceless Assassination Blade Techniques (Small Success), Silent Wave Steps (Small Success), Secret Weapon Throwing (Entering the Room)]

[Spells: Perfect Stealth, Shadow Bind, Shadow Spikes, Lethal Poison Enhancement]

[Equipment: (Shadow Guard's uniform), (Assassination Blades) x2, (Flying Knives) x12, (Hidden Needles) x30]

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Both An Yue and Ling Yuyan sighed in disappointment when they saw two [4th Tier Shadow Guards] were only at Top Peak-Rank Martial Warrior.

But it actually made sense since the distance between martial realms clearly could not be compared with a mere two small ranks.

So many people were even stuck at Top Peak-Rank for so many years and were unable to breakthrough to the higher martial realm.

Despite that, the aura of two [4th Tier Shadow Guards] was actually much more powerful than the most Top Peak-Rank Martial Warrior experts, so they might only be a half-step away from the Martial Commander realm.

"Sigh, forget it~! They are already quite good for now." Ling Yuyan said in a comforting tone to An Yue.

An Yue nodded and replied: "We are not in a hurry anyway. I think if we can upgrade them to reach the 5th tier, their martial realm might directly skip the Entry-Rank and reach the Low-Rank Martial Commander realm."

With An Yue's current strength, she could even defeat the Top Peak-Rank Martial General realm experts, so Martial Warrior realm subordinates were a bit too low to reach her standard.

Of course, it did not mean [4th Tier Shadow Guards] was weak.

After reaching the 4th tier, the shadow guards have improved their martial arts proficiency even further.

Their [Silent Wave Steps] had reached [Small Success] which means they could move much faster and harder to detect than before.

The proficiency of their [Secret Weapon Throwing skill] also reached [Entering the Room].

The [Entry] level of [Secret Weapon Throwing skill] could only hit a slow-moving target within 10 meters, and the [beginner] level could hit several slow-moving targets accurately within 15 meters.

Then the [Entering the Room] of [Secret Weapon Throwing skill] could already hit a few fast-moving targets accurately within 20 meters.

If it was combined with their [Lethal Poison Enhancement], the [4th Tier Shadow Guards]'s lethality and threat level would increase significantly.

Not to mention their new spell, [Shadow Spikes], has a high degree of flexibility and is very suitable for the sneak attack.

Overall, Ling Yuyan and An Yue were still very satisfied with the strength improvement of their shadow guards.

Currently, An Yue has two [4th Tier Shadow Guards] and four [3rd Tier Shadow Guards].

Ling Yuyan began to discuss with An Yue: "The Crown Prince and Third Prince will return to the Capital City tomorrow, so we can start to prepare after they go out from Wang Family's mansion."

After the Crown Prince and Third Prince went back to the Capital City, Ling Yuyan would follow Wang Qingling to depart from Spring River Town and head to the western region where the Disciple Enrollment Ceremony would be held.

Even though there was still around one month before the Disciple Enrollment Ceremony started, but they had to depart early since it would take more than two weeks to reach the western region from Spring River Town.

An Yue nodded her head in agreement and said: "We already have an unlimited supply of water in [Kirin Chariot], so we should prepare more food and medicine instead."

Wang Family would surely prepare some water, food, and medicine for their journey, but almost all of them were for Wang Family's descendants and guards.

As for lowly servants or maids like Ling Yuyan, they might only get barely enough food and water, since they do not need to fight with bandits or beasts like Wang Family's descendants and guards on their way.

"Winter will come soon, so we also need to prepare some thick warm clothes." Ling Yuyan added.

However, they immediately found the most crucial problem…

They actually have no money to buy anything right at this moment!

"I can steal some money from Wang Family's treasury." An Yue gave her suggestion to Ling Yuyan.

But Ling Yuyan shook her head to reject An Yue's idea and said: "The situation is still too tense and chaotic right now. I do not want to pour oil into flame and make the situation even worse than it is."

Ling Yuyan's cautiousness was actually not wrong since maids and servants were at the bottom of the hierarchy, lower than even the guards.

They were basically slaves that were bought from their poor families, and Wang Family have full rights to decide their lives.

The Wang Family could even give them away or sell them to other people or brothels if they wanted.

Even though it sounds terrible for modern people like Ling Yuyan, but in reality, most of these maids and servants actually live much happier than when they were with their poor families.

There was drought and famine everywhere out there, but here in the Wang Family's mansion, they could at least eat and drink every day without worry.

Guards were actually also the same, but Wang Family had already spent their money to fund their martial training resources, so of course, Wang Family would value them more compared to the maids and servants.

Anyway, borrowing some food from the kitchen and borrowing some money from Wang Family's treasury were two completely different matters, since Wang Family should have strict financial account records.

If Wang Family tried to investigate the stolen money case later, the maids and servants would definitely be the ones who suffered the most, and of course, that included Ling Yuyan herself.

Rather than stealing money from the Wang Family, Ling Yuyan preferred An Yue to steal money from rich merchants living in Spring River Town.

It was clearly much safer that way.

An Yue immediately agreed with Ling Yuyan's idea, and she even praised Ling Yuyan's meticulous thought.

However, Ling Yuyan gave An Yue another requirement that she could only steal from black-hearted merchants.

Although Ling Yuyan just transmigrated into this world for less than one month, and she very rarely went out from Wang Family, but she already obtained a lot of information about this world from reading the book.

There should be many black-hearted merchants who cheat or extort poor people every day out there, and they are the perfect targets for An Yue.

Just like Robin Hood, An Yue would steal from the rich and wicked people, then give them to the poor.

Of course, the poor in this story was Ling Yuyan herself...

After concluding their discussion, An Yue blended into Ling Yuyan's shadow again to secretly guard her as usual, while Ling Yuyan went back to the maid's bedroom and soon fell asleep on her bed.

.....

Ling Yuyan woke up very early the next morning since she had to help the Third Prince, Jing Weiyuan, pack his things because he would return to Capital City with the Crown Prince today.

They should actually stay for a few more days, but the Crown Prince got creeped out by the Lin Family's sudden extermination case, so he decided to return to Capital City earlier.

It made sense for the Crown Prince to be so freaked out because the case was so strange like the entire Lin Family suddenly evaporated into thin air without leaving any trace of clue behind.

Besides that, both the Crown Prince and Third Prince should also report this case to his royal father, the Dajing Dynasty's Emperor, as soon as possible.

After putting on her maid clothes and makeup, Ling Yuyan hastily headed to Jing Weiyuan's courtyard, but Jing Weiyuan had actually already waited for Ling Yuyan in his courtyard.