New Rare Trait, Spider Senses!

New Rare Trait, Spider Senses! ["Hurry inside! It's spacious in here! No one will ever find us!"]

[To stay alive, you pinched your nose and plunged straight in!]

[Year Sixteen, age thirty-three.]

[Extracting trait...]

[Extraction successful!]

["Spider Senses" (Green): When danger approaches, your hairs stand on end and goosebumps break out all over your body.]

[Adjust trait?]

[Yes/No]

[You replaced "Effort Will Be Rewarded" with "Spider Senses".]

[Thanks to "Spider Senses," which let you sense danger ahead of time on many occasions, you and Old Liu narrowly escaped death on the battlefield.]

[In this battle, the Suzhou border army was completely wiped out, and not a single civilian at Yan Pass survived.]

[After Sun Cheng'en fell, the Dashiguo army had no more obstacles in its path. It swept forward unopposed, taking thirty-one cities in Suzhou in succession and completely occupying an entire province.]

[The laughable thing was that the imperial court still believed Sun Cheng'en's border army had failed to hold the enemy back, allowing the mere southern barbarian state of Dashiguo to seize a province of the Central Plains.]

[After learning this, Old Liu told you that you would have to conceal your identity from now on.]

[Though the border army had been wiped out, what it received was not glory, but criminal charges. That meant you were now guilty on top of guilty.]

[Old Liu was just a nobody, and no one would necessarily remember him.]

[But you had been too famous in the border army. If the imperial court learned you were still alive, it would definitely hunt you down.]

[In a feudal society, concealing your identity was not difficult. You only needed to change your name.]

["Boss Chen, where are you headed?"]

["I want to find a Martial Dao sect and see whether they'll take me in as an overage disciple, then reward me with a Spirit Gathering Pill."]

[You had heard Sun Cheng'en mention that Martial Dao sects on the continent did not involve themselves in war or politics, so your status as a criminal should not greatly affect your joining one.]

["You still want to break through to the Spirit Gathering Realm?

Not that I'm saying anything, but this stuff depends on fortune too. Some people with Low-Grade Bone Structure break through without any pressure, while others can never make it up there in their entire lives. Better not waste your effort.

Look at me. I've been stuck at the Ninth Stage of Body Refining for years. There's no hope for me."]

[You shook your head slightly, your gaze resolute.]

[Year Seventeen, age thirty-four.]

[While searching everywhere for Martial Dao sects, you made a detour to Old Liu's hometown.]

[Seeing the broken walls and collapsed houses of his old home, Old Liu learned that, as the only young and able-bodied man in his family, after he had been sent to the army for just a few years, his parents had been stripped of everything. His younger sister had even been sold to a brothel, where she died a few years later.]

[That day, Old Liu, who had always been so carefree and flippant, vanished for three days.]

[You knew he was devastated, so you did not disturb him. Instead, you went alone to a nearby town to gather information.]

[At a teahouse, you heard scholars and refined gentlemen discussing how that muddleheaded Dagan Emperor still believed Sun Cheng'en was alive, hiding somewhere to avoid the war.]

[He had even issued a Wanted Poster, ordering the Dragon Protectorate throughout the land to arrest a dead man.]

[Furthermore, ever since Dashiguo seized Suzhou, the nations of the Southern Border had risen up one after another.]

[They all thought, if Dashiguo could do it, then so could they. They all wanted to come carve themselves a share from the rich and fertile lands of the Central Plains.]

[It was not only the Southern Border. The three great dynasties of Western Liang and the various tribes of the Northern Territory were all stirring restlessly, seeking to contend for the Central Plains.]

[The Eastern Wilderness had made no move because there were no nations there, only deep mountains and ancient forests, with lofty peaks and treacherous waters.]

[The Dagan Emperor saw that the situation was turning dire.]

[Though Dagan was a unified empire, it could not withstand wars breaking out on three fronts at once.]

[Especially after General Sun Cheng'en's death, resentment in the army ran deep. It had reached the point where the soldiers would not leave camp unless they received their full military pay.]

[Thus, the imperial court decided to marry Princess Baihua, whose beauty was renowned throughout the Five Domains, into the Dashiguo royal family as the bride of the Dashiguo King.]

[It would also cede some of Suzhou's territory.]

[By using a policy of marriage alliance and territorial concessions, it hoped to make Dashiguo—the madman leading the charge—stop, lest the situation spiral beyond all control.]

["They're actually ceding land and offering a marriage alliance! They've thrown the ancestors' honor into the mud!!"]

[When the people in the teahouse discussed this matter, some were so enraged that they smashed their cups outright.]

["Well smashed! Tea is on the house!!"]

[The teahouse owner was a man of temperament too. Any patron who smashed a bowl in anger over the imperial court's humiliation of the nation would have their bill waived.]

[That day, the sounds of cups smashing rang out without cease throughout the teahouse.]

[You sighed. "This Dagan is just like these shattered bowls. It's rotten..."]

[With the nation tottering in the wind and rain, where would you go from here?]

[1. Gather righteous men and raise the banner of rebellion. With your super memory, you would surely make something of yourself;]

[2. Continue searching for Martial Dao sects and travel the world;]

[3. Find a place to farm and settle down, eking out a life until old age and death.]

[You chose 2.]

[You suddenly realized that you seemed to be living in the final years of a powerful dynasty, which was why you could witness all this absurdity.]

[Sun Cheng'en's death had already made you completely lose faith in the imperial court. They even owed you a Spirit Gathering Pill!]

[So, you no longer cared where Dagan was headed.]

[From now on, you only wanted to live as long as possible, draw more traits, and find a Martial Dao sect willing to take you in and give you a Spirit Gathering Pill.]

[Old Liu returned after disappearing for three days. From that day on, his hair began to turn white.]

["Boss Chen, I have no home or family anymore. Can I follow you from now on?"]

[When you escaped from Yan Pass, you had brought quite a bit of silver with you.]

[Bottom-rung soldiers like Old Liu had no savings at all. If he did not follow you, even finding food to eat would be a problem.]

[You had shared many years of military life, so naturally, you did not mind taking him with you.]

["All right."]

[You and Old Liu continued on your way, visiting Martial Dao sects throughout the Central Plains.]

[There were quite a lot of sects in different places. For the famous major sects, all you had to do was ask around, and someone would tell you where they were.]

[But sects like those would definitely not take in a thirty-something, midlife good-for-nothing like you, who had yet to reach the Spirit Gathering Realm.]

[What you needed to find were those small and medium-sized upstart sects. They needed manpower, and they had a few resources on hand as well.]