The Reason

"Sixth Grade Knight Attendant, what a little genius. Hiss, this wound is really deep..."

When he stood up and rolled his shoulders, tugging at the saber wound on his shoulder, the former shut-in loser from Earth immediately sucked in a breath from the pain.

Compared to his previous body, this one was terrifyingly strong. It still looked somewhat thin, at most well-proportioned, and its face was not particularly handsome, merely carrying the delicate, dashing looks of a young man.

Yet its strength and speed gave him a sense of utterly explosive capability. Though he had no testing equipment, the massive Database within him was no joke. With a little comparison, he learned that once fully recovered, this body could lift at least six hundred jin.

The world record for weightlifting in his previous life had only been a little over five hundred jin, and that required specialized training of specific muscle groups. Yet every muscle in his current body had been thoroughly trained, with no weaknesses. It was not merely capable of lifting things; the power behind its punches and other movements also matched its current level.

With proper form and the right punching speed, he could probably strike with over a thousand jin of force. Even boxer Tyson would have had to bow in defeat. The most outrageous part was that this was the body of a sixteen-year-old boy, and it did not even look particularly muscular, much less like those people with bulging muscles.

Sure enough, the supplementary effects of things like magical beast meat and Qi and Blood herbs in this world were incredibly powerful. The muscles of this body had probably mutated along with it.

"Hmm, the simplest basic rating standard for Knight Attendants is a hundred jin of lifting strength per level, paired with corresponding combat techniques? In that case, ordinary adults only need some relevant combat training to become Level 2 or Level 3 Knight Attendants. But Knight Attendants above Level 4 probably need sufficient Qi and Blood replenishment, something ordinary civilians cannot sustain."

At least in Stanrosai City, ordinary people struggled just to eat their fill, so becoming a knight was not even worth considering.

Because Level 2 and Level 3 Knight Attendants had relatively low entry requirements, even if they became combatants and joined hunting teams, they would only be cannon fodder or porters. Only Level 4 Knight Attendants truly crossed the threshold, forming the largest group among the main fighting force. Only those above Level 7 Knight Attendants could be considered experts.

For wealthy nobles, however, enough resources had been piled onto them since childhood. They could probably even bathe in herbs mixed with beast blood. Even a cripple, as long as they were willing to work hard, could reach Ninth Grade Knight Attendant before declining with age around fifty.

But for civilians, that was an insurmountable gulf. Aside from those with genuine talent, ordinary people who walked this path and relied on risking their lives to earn money for cultivation resources would reach their limit at Sixth Grade Knight Attendant.

That was because Sixth Grade Knight Attendant was the normal limit of the human body. To go further, ordinary flesh and blood food were no longer enough; they needed magical beast flesh and even more precious medicinal herbs.

As for beyond Knight Attendant, those were truly important figures who had condensed their own Professional Core. Once one entered the Professional Rank, it was a transformation in the very essence of life, an evolution of species.

The father of this body, Xuangui, was himself a Ninth Grade Knight Attendant and had already touched the edge of the Professional Rank. Even in Stanrosai City, he was a fairly famous expert, capable of ranking among the top hundred!

As a commoner, suppressing so many descendants of great noble houses was something to be proud of.

Originally, with such a powerful father, one who served the Kende Family, the third-largest power in Stanrosai City, combined with his own outstanding talent, Xuan Ye should have been able to embark on a promising path despite his commoner status and rise above others.

A path that ordinary people could only look up to for their entire lives.

At the very least, he would not have ended up lost in the desert, hungry, thirsty, and wounded by a blade as he was now.

Yet fate was unpredictable. In the end, the Bloodline inheritance that Xuan Ye's father had always taken pride in, the deepest source of his pride and the pillar of his spirit, brought father and son the disaster now before them!

He had worked painstakingly and risked his life all along to provide "him" with resources not much inferior to those of great noble houses, allowing him to reach Sixth Grade Knight Attendant. That was already no easy feat. The potential of a Ninth Grade Knight Attendant had been developed to its limit.

After Sixth Grade Knight Attendant, one had to choose a path and develop the Inner Palace of the flesh. This was an immensely important turning point, and the resources required increased exponentially. With Xuangui's strength alone, even though he risked his life for the third-largest power in Stanrosai City, he could not obtain enough resources.

Continuing cultivation was naturally not a problem. There was almost no doubt that, given Xuan Ye's talent, he could slowly grind his way to Ninth Grade Knight Attendant in five to ten years. He might even have a chance to challenge the Professional Rank before forty.

But without question, that was not the limit of the talent Xuan Ye had displayed. The lack of resources would drag out his cultivation too much and waste his golden years.

This was naturally unacceptable to Xuangui, who regarded Xuan Ye as his treasure and hope. On the day Xuan Ye broke through to Sixth Grade Knight Attendant, Xuangui took him to the best restaurant in the city for a celebration. That night, Xuangui pondered for an entire night.

Early the next morning, he left home looking deeply troubled and headed for the main residence of the Kende Family. When he returned, Xuangui had somehow brought back several cartloads of cultivation resources for Xuan Ye!

Not only that, but among them was an incomparably precious item: a bottle of High Quality Professional Baptism Potion!

Due to their innate defects, the Human Race could not condense Energy Cores on their own as magical beasts could. Their only way forward was through the alchemical creation perfected by generations of sages, the Professional Baptism Potion, or through other Professional Class Change Rituals.

Among Stanrosai City's four hundred thousand permanent residents and one hundred thousand transient residents, fewer than fifty experts had completed a Professional Class Change and entered the Professional Rank!

Though the Kende Family was the third-largest power in Stanrose, it possessed only seven Professional Rank experts. The first and second powers had twelve and eight respectively. Aside from those three overwhelmingly powerful factions, the remaining forces divided up the rest of the Professional Rank experts.

Even though the Kend Family possessed immense resources in Stanrosai City and valued martial strength highly, never being stingy with cultivation resources for its younger generation, even members of the main Kend Family could receive only ordinary-quality Professional Baptism Potions upon reaching Ninth Grade Knight Attendant!

Even that was already a privilege unique to the top three powers in the entire city! Forget ordinary Professional Baptism Potions—anything related to Baptismal Potions, even inferior products, defective products, and half-finished products used by apprentices for practice, would be fought over. Only the City Lord's Mansion, the Temple, and the Kend Family could provide complete ordinary Baptismal Potions as benefits.

As for High Quality Professional Baptism Potions, even those three great powers absolutely had very few in reserve. Only internal geniuses confirmed to possess extremely high talent, those almost certain to cross the threshold into the Professional Rank, could enjoy such treatment, because high-quality potions could slightly increase the chance of awakening Bloodline Power.

Clearly, regardless of whether Xuan Ye and his father's talent qualified for that level, the Kend Family would never take out a high-quality potion as a reward for outsiders like them. Their own people were not even sufficiently supplied, so why would outsiders be more trustworthy than family?

Yet Xuangui had somehow managed it. Not only had he obtained this potion, but he had also brought back a huge amount of resources and medicinal herbs that Xuan Ye would need afterward.

Though Xuangui never said how he had done it after returning, Xuan Ye vaguely understood. The only thing in their home that was valuable enough—or perhaps even more valuable—was the inherited Talent Rune, Bright Eyes, which his father had constantly warned him must never be leaked, lest he betray their ancestors.

If Bloodline Power was an innate power determined at birth, then Talent Runes were an acquired means of alteration. Only Professional Rank experts could make such changes by engraving Talent Runes onto their own Professional Cores, such as Strength Amplification, accelerated casting, speed enhancement, and so on.

The Human Race relied on Bloodline Power for innate strengthening and Professional Cores and Talent Runes for acquired compensation. That was how the frail Human Race had ultimately emerged victorious from the struggle of the hundred races and ruled an era.

However, the process of engraving Talent Runes was cumbersome, making scrolls directly was expensive and complicated, and inheritance was rare. Therefore, for the vast majority of people, especially physical combatants who focused on the body, even after breaking through to the Professional Rank, they could not obtain suitable Talent Runes. Those slots generally remained empty.

Take Stanrosai City, for example. Previously, only the City Lord's Mansion possessed its own secret inherited Rune!

Without question, Xuangui could only have moved the Kend Family by offering this, convincing them to yield such enormous benefits.

Though the Bright Eyes Talent Rune mainly enhanced vision and reduced eye fatigue, effects that seemed rather useless, every Talent Rune also had a universal effect: strengthening the stability of the Professional Core. This stability might not greatly increase absolute strength, but it could solidify one's foundation and improve control and the chances of breakthrough.

If this thing were sold to the City Lord's Mansion, they might not offer much of a price since they already possessed their own secret inherited Rune. But if it were sold to the Kend Family, which desperately needed such foundational treasures, it could be exchanged for tremendous value.

Originally, there was nothing wrong with such a trade. Everyone benefited. The Kend Family could not lower itself to target Xuangui, a meritorious and hardworking guest retainer, over these things. After all, the entire Kend Family had only seven Professional Rank experts, and Xuangui was practically the strongest person below the Professional Rank.

If they really did something over this, it would undoubtedly chill the hearts of all guest retainers unaffiliated with the Kend Family. Clearly, it was not worth the cost.

Making this exchange could also win people's loyalty. Both sides obtained what they wanted. Besides, if Xuangui used the potion to break through to the Professional Rank, it would still increase the Kend Family's overall strength. When the time came, they could simply marry off a branch-family daughter to his son and tie him to their war chariot.

Yet originally, the deal should have ended there. They only needed to wait for Xuangui's class change. Compared to the earliest days of the Human Race, when their ancestors had directly swallowed magical beast cores raw to condense Professional Cores, resulting in an absurdly high mortality rate—

Today's Baptismal Potions, even inferior ones, could still greatly improve the user's physique and strength after a failed attempt, producing malformed "Level 10" or "Level 11" Knight Attendants. This high-quality bottle would naturally have had an even better effect. No matter what, it would not be a loss.

But unexpectedly, Xuangui cared far too much about his son. He had probably thought that he was already so old that even if he broke through to the Professional Rank, there was not much left to expect. So he forcibly gritted his teeth and held himself back from using it, wanting to raise his son as quickly as possible and let him use it instead.

After all, he no longer had anything of value to exchange for another high-quality Baptismal Potion. Even if he successfully became a Professional Rank expert, he would not be able to obtain one.

Under such circumstances, it naturally drew the attention and greed of those with ulterior motives. A High Quality Professional Baptism Potion! It was something that would burn the hands of even a One-Star Professional Expert. Xuan Ye's Ninth Grade Knight Attendant father naturally could not provide enough deterrence!

Though Xuangui was cautious and stayed every day within the Kende Family's protection while carefully teaching his son with those ample resources, he could not stop his precious son from being inexperienced and at the restless age of sixteen.

He was actually sweet-talked by a woman until he could no longer tell east from west. In the end, to show his devotion and seriousness, he stole out the potion that had originally been meant for him.

That woman had said,

"I only wanted to see what place I hold in your heart. Wasn't this potion going to be used by you in the end anyway?"

But clearly, the script unfolded in the familiar, expected way. Just as Xuan Ye stole out the potion to show his "lover," he was sent flying by a palm strike the next moment, and the potion was snatched away.

The person who stole it was also an outside guest retainer of the Kende Family, a Ninth Grade Knight Attendant! Sassaro, who had addressed Xuangui as a brother in ordinary times! He had even been the one to recommend Xuangui when he joined the Kende Family.

And that woman was his daughter, Sally, Xuan Ye's childhood sweetheart whom he had known since they were young!

What happened afterward was naturally simple. Sassaro consumed the High Quality Baptismal Potion overnight and successfully condensed a Professional Core in the Strength Inner Palace he had opened within his body, becoming a Professional Rank expert.

Once the Kende Family learned of this, it became a simple choice. On one side was someone who had already become a Professional Rank expert; on the other was a Ninth Grade Knight Attendant. Or were they supposed to take out another High Quality Baptismal Potion themselves? Besides, it was not their own family that had done this. It was that father and son who had brought disaster upon themselves. The side to choose was obvious.

The cruelest blow to Xuan Ye was that, perhaps because they feared the Kend Family might cause trouble, or perhaps because they had been involved all along, when Sally appeared again before Xuan Ye, who had always believed that she had been deceived by her father, she was actually with the second young master of the Kend Family.

Fortunately, there were no Professional Rank experts nearby at the time. Sally's father had just broken through and was stabilizing his realm, while the Kend Family's own Professional Rank experts seemingly could not be bothered to lower themselves. They merely dispatched several Ninth Grade Knight Attendants and a large number of Intermediate Knight Attendants to capture father and son.

Well, since things had already come to this, they might as well smash the pot and pull out the roots!

Besides, they had still cared somewhat about public opinion before, so they had let things stand as they were. Now that they had discarded all pretense, they naturally wanted to capture the pair and torture them for information, to see whether they had any other secrets. If they had anything else comparable in value to a Talent Rune, they could recover the value of the reputation they had lost.

This was no longer the glorious age when the Human Race stood at its peak, when honor was more important than life. Now, everything could be simply measured in value.

But clearly, they had still underestimated this Ninth Grade guest retainer who had always served the family quietly and diligently. Facing three experts of the same level and a large number of ordinary Knight Attendants, Xuangui forcefully protected Xuan Ye and carved a bloody path out, even escaping the city.

But after they left the city, a Professional Rank expert of the Kend Family pursued them after receiving the news. To protect Xuan Ye, Xuangui lured that expert away, while Xuan Ye stumbled all the way into the Desert of the Dead, where his soul was shattered and his body was possessed...