A Small Test of Skill

The icy killing intent slowly receded like a tide, but the air in the abandoned factory's maintenance workshop was even more stagnant than before.

Dim explosion-proof lights cast flickering spots, stretching and distorting the figures of Lin Xiao and Su Qingxue onto the oil-stained walls.

Su Qingxue stood at the doorway, the cold moonlight outlining a solitary silhouette behind her.

She did not step into the filthy space filled with the scent of machine oil and dust, as if taking another step would be a desecration.

But her ice-cold gaze was like a tangible current of cold, locked onto Lin Xiao, who sat leaning against the wall.

"Explain," her voice was not loud, but it carried the weight of ten thousand years of profound ice, each word like an ice pick chipping at the air, "About your eyes. And, what's this about the Blood Wolf Gang you've gotten yourself involved with?"

Lin Xiao leaned against the cold wall, the pain in his right arm worsening due to the recent strenuous activity, fine beads of cold sweat forming on his forehead.

The soul depletion from overexertion continued to hum a low note beneath the figure of [-1.4].

Su Qingxue's questioning was like two blades hanging over his head, putting more pressure on him than Scarface Qiang's fists.

He looked up, the roguish, cynical smile still on his face, but a flicker of imperceptible fatigue and seriousness crossed the depths of his eyes.

"My eyes?" Lin Xiao tugged at the corner of his mouth, putting on a somewhat innocent expression. "You must be mistaken, Great Martial Artist Su? Didn't sleep well last night? Or perhaps my handsome face blinded you?"

He tried to brush it off with his usual smooth talk.

"Lin Xiao!" Su Qingxue's voice suddenly rose, filled with suppressed rage and a hint of humiliation from being toyed with!

The surrounding air temperature seemed to drop several degrees!

"Stop playing dumb with me! That color! That feeling! It doesn't belong to humans at all! What exactly are you?"

"What am I?" The smile on Lin Xiao's face vanished instantly, his gaze sharpening like a knife, carrying a hint of offended coldness. "Su Qingxue, watch your words. I am a person, a living, breathing person. As for what you saw..."

He paused, his mind racing as he wove a half-truth, half-lie. "It's a small secret technique passed down in my family, to stimulate potential by overdrawing life force. The price, well... as you can see, I'm practically half dead."

He gestured to his pale face and his right arm hidden under his sleeve, his tone laced with self-mockery and deliberately feigned weakness. "Otherwise, why do you think I, a poor student who can't even afford Body Tempering Fluid, could cripple Zhao Hu? And how could I 'help' you?"

"Overdrawing life force?" Su Qingxue furrowed her brow, her clear eyes filled with suspicion.

This explanation was too vague, and too shocking, but Lin Xiao's current state was indeed extremely poor, and the withered aura didn't seem fake.

This seemed to barely explain why he possessed such a strange ability, yet was so weak.

"As for the Blood Wolf Gang..."

Lin Xiao changed the subject, his tone becoming casual, but with a hint of cold sarcasm. "That big傻大个 Zhao Hu, relying on his strength and connections, has been causing trouble in the school for more than a day or two. He harassed Zhou Xiaoya, and I couldn't stand by and watch, so I 'acted heroically.' Who knew he was so fragile? As for that Scarface Qiang... the younger one gets beaten, the older one comes looking for trouble. Isn't that how the underworld works?"

He downplayed the important parts, attributing the conflict to "acting heroically" and normal retaliation, completely omitting his intentions of extorting Zhao Hu's subordinates and coveting the Blood Wolf Gang's territory.

Su Qingxue stared intently at Lin Xiao's eyes, trying to find a flaw in those deep pupils filled with fatigue and wildness.

Lin Xiao met her gaze calmly, even with a hint of a shameless "Look how pathetic I am" in his eyes.

A stalemate.

The cold air solidified between them.

Finally, Su Qingxue was the first to break eye contact.

She couldn't see through Lin Xiao, nor could she verify if his words were true or false.

However, that strange "ability" and the current "transaction" binding them forced her to temporarily suppress her doubts and anger.

"Lin Xiao," her voice returned to its usual coolness, but with a deep weariness and a warning. "I don't care what secrets you have, or who you've offended. Remember, your current 'friend' status was earned by exchanging my trouble! Take care of yourself, and take care of that trouble-making mouth of yours! If you bring unnecessary trouble to the Su family because of you... our 'transaction' can be terminated at any time!"

She coldly dropped this sentence, as if staying a second longer would contaminate her with the filth here, then turned. Her white figure seemed to melt into the moonlight like cold ice, disappearing silently at the doorway.

The heavy pressure lessened with Su Qingxue's departure, but Lin Xiao's heart sank even deeper.

The foundation of this "shield" was more fragile than he had imagined.

Those "azure eyes" had become a thorn in Su Qingxue's mind that couldn't be removed.

"Brother Xiao... Miss Su... School Belle Su..."

Fatty Wang finally dared to peek out from behind a pile of discarded sacks, his chubby face full of lingering fear.

"It's fine now."

Lin Xiao interrupted him, his voice carrying a hint of barely perceptible hoarseness. "Fatty, don't go running around these next couple of days, especially stay away from that second-hand market near the school's back gate."

Scarface Qiang, having suffered such a significant loss, would not give up easily. While wary of Su Qingxue on the surface, covert probing and retaliation could come at any time.

However, trouble arrived sooner than expected.

On the third day after school, Lin Xiao deliberately avoided the crowded routes, choosing a relatively secluded path near the edge of the western industrial zone to go home.

The setting sun stretched his shadow long, and the evening breeze carried the smell of industrial waste.

The pain in his right arm had slightly eased, but the feeling of depletion from [-1.4] still lingered like a shadow.

He needed to get an Energy Stone as soon as possible, even just a fragment! The "Old Ghost" that Skinny Monkey had inquired about was his only hope.

Just as he passed a fork in the road piled with abandoned shipping containers—

Whoosh!

A sharp whistling sound suddenly attacked from his rear flank!

Carrying a sinister and tricky gust of wind!

It wasn't the berserk strength of Scarface Qiang, but a treacherous sneak attack like a viper flicking its tongue!

Lin Xiao's hairs stood on end instantly!

Almost instinctively, he rolled forward in a clumsy tumble!

The movement strained his injured right arm, and the sharp pain made him grunt!

Shing!

His school uniform on his back was ripped open by a long gash!

The cold metal grazed his skin, leaving a fiery sting!

A dart, shimmering with an azure glow and clearly poison-laced, embedded itself deeply into the ground half a meter in front of him, its tail still quivering slightly!

"Not bad reaction, kid." A sinister voice slithered out from the shadows of the container stacks.

A man in a tight grey suit, thin as a bamboo pole, with half his face hidden by a metal mask, emerged like a ghost.

He held three similar azure-glowing darts in each hand, his eyes as cold as a viper's, locked onto Lin Xiao.

The aura he exuded was that of a peak One-Star Martial Artist!

And he was exceptionally skilled in stealth and sneak attacks!

Scarface Qiang's man, and a genuine elite thug!

"Brother Qiang sent me to tell you," the masked man's voice rasped like a snake sliding over the ground, "the Su family's reach doesn't extend here. Breaking one of your legs is a return courtesy!"

Before his words even finished, he flung his hands forward!

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Three poison-laced darts flew in a triangular formation, tearing through the air with deadly azure light, like three cold, life-snatching stars, instantly covering Lin Xiao's upper, middle, and lower body!

The angles were tricky, and the speed was astonishing!

Unavoidable! Lin Xiao's pupils constricted!

He had just rolled to his feet, his balance unstable, his right arm injured. Facing such a treacherous sneak attack, he had no way to dodge them all!

At the brink of life and death!

Buzz!

Lin Xiao's consciousness, like a dying beast, erupted with unprecedented speed, crashing violently into the azure light screen deep within his mind!

[Target Locked: Grey-clothed Masked Man (Peak One-Star Martial Artist)]
[Scanning Modifiable Aspects... (Core Restricted, Speed Delayed)...]
[Detected 0.1-second instability in target's left ankle joint during force exertion (old injury?)... Modify?]
[Modification Direction: Temporarily amplify instability effect (Estimated Effect: Cause momentary disruption in his footwork)]
[Required Source Energy Points: 0.2 (Energy consumption increased by 100% due to core restriction)]

0.2 points! Deducting another 0.2 from [-1.4] makes it [-1.6]! Adding insult to injury!

But his life was on the line, why hesitate?!

"Modify!" Lin Xiao roared in the depths of his soul!

[Command Received! Source Energy Points Deducted: 0.2!]
[Source Energy Points: -1.4 - 0.2 = -1.6]
[Parameter Modification in Progress... (Speed Sluggish)... 1%... 50%... 100%... Modification Complete!]

The prompt sounded with a heavy sense of overexertion.

The very instant Lin Xiao confirmed his intent!

The grey-clothed masked man, who was about to exert force again and adjust his angle for a fatal strike, felt his left foot, as it pushed off the ground, as if pierced by an invisible, barbed ice pick at his ankle joint!

A sudden, utterly unnatural sense of severe imbalance and needle-like pain shot up from his ankle!

"Ugh!" The masked man let out a short grunt, his body staggering uncontrollably!

His originally fluid and vicious throwing motion instantly became distorted!

The trajectory of the darts held in his hands shifted with an extremely subtle yet fatal deviation!

Now!

Fierce light erupted in Lin Xiao's eyes!

Within the thousandth of a second that the opponent lost balance and the darts' trajectories shifted, he endured the intense pain in his right arm and the dizziness from overexertion, stomped his left foot down, twisted his waist and hips, and pushed the refined essence of his 'Long Fist' to its absolute limit!

Power surged from the soles of his feet, through his waist and hips, along his spine, and concentrated in his left fist!

The entire process was smoother and faster than ever before!

"Break!"

A suppressed low roar!

Lin Xiao's left fist, like an enraged dragon breaking free from its chains, carried an unprecedented condensed gust of wind, tearing through the air, and precisely piercing the gaps between the three slightly deviated darts!

The point of his fist aimed directly at the unprotected chest and abdomen exposed by the masked man's loss of balance!

Too fast! Too tricky!

A flicker of disbelief and horror flashed in the masked man's eyes!

He had no idea why he had suddenly lost his balance!

Even less did he understand how Lin Xiao's punch had so accurately seized this fleeting, almost non-existent opening!

In his haste, he only managed to cross his arms in front of his chest, channeling his true energy for defense!

Bang!

A dull, heart-stopping impact!

Lin Xiao's fist, carrying the power of breaking through limits and a resolute ferocity, smashed hard against the masked man's crossed arms!

Crack!

A clear bone-snapping sound!

"Argh—!" The masked man let out a shrill scream!

He felt as if his arms had been hit by a speeding truck, a piercing pain shooting from his forearm bones. He was sent flying backward like a kite with a broken string, knocked off his feet by the immense force!

Thump!

He landed heavily on the concrete ground several meters away, rolling several times before stopping.

His arms hung limply, clearly fractured!

The face beneath the mask contorted in agony, and his gaze towards Lin Xiao was filled with horror, malice, and a ghost-like fear!

Lin Xiao, after throwing the punch, also felt a massive recoil force. His left arm went numb, his chest felt like his Blood Essence was surging, and his vision swam. The dizziness from overexertion washed over him like a tide.

He stumbled back two steps before managing to stand steady, gasping for breath. Sweat instantly soaked his back.

He won! A narrow victory!

He stared intently at the masked man groaning in pain on the ground. A tired, roguish grin reappeared on his dust-stained face, tinged with the ferocity and excitement of having survived a close call!

The optimized "Long Fist"! Combined with the Modifier's divine "micro-manipulation"!

Field test! Remarkable results!

"Go back and tell Scarface Qiang," Lin Xiao's voice was hoarse, but carried a chilling killing intent, "If he wants to move against me, he should come himself! Sending a piece of trash like you isn't enough!"

The masked man glared at Lin Xiao with malice, enduring the intense pain. He struggled to get up and stumbled away into the shadows of the container stacks, disappearing.

Only after the enemy had completely vanished did Lin Xiao's tensed nerves suddenly relax.

The immense fatigue and dizziness engulfed him like a landslide and tsunami.

He could no longer support himself. Leaning against the cold container wall, he slowly slid to the ground, gasping for breath. Every breath sent pain through his entire body.

Source Energy Points: [-1.6].

His overdraft was deeper.

His left arm was sore and weak from the full-power burst.

The dart-pierced wound on his back burned fiercely.

"Brother Xiao!" Fatty Wang ran over breathlessly from a distance, clearly having heard the commotion.

Seeing Lin Xiao sitting on the ground, his face ashen, and then spotting the poison-laced azure dart on the ground, he was terrified. "Brother Xiao! Are you okay? Just now..."

"Can't die..."

Lin Xiao waved his hand, his voice weak.

His gaze swept over the direction the masked man had disappeared, then landed on his own slightly trembling left fist.

Power! Still too weak!

If not for the Modifier's crucial "nudge," he would be the one lying here today!

To become stronger! He needed more Source Energy Points!

His gaze finally fell upon a crumpled piece of paper that had fallen to the ground as Fatty Wang ran – it was the last clue Skinny Monkey had provided about "Old Ghost's" activity behind the second-hand market.

"Fatty," Lin Xiao's voice was hoarse from exhaustion, but held an undeniable resolve, "Help me up, let's go to the second-hand market!"