What is Talent?

"Officer, I... I'm really not the 'Lustful Woman' Yan Ji, and I've never murdered any men."

Inside a room in Chunxiang Courtesan House, Guangling Commandery, Qingzhou, thick with the scent of powder and perfume.

A charming young woman, clad in thin silk robes that clung to her alluring figure, her fair skin peeking through the sheer fabric, looked pitifully at Lin Yi, who was dressed in a temporary constable's uniform. Her large, watery eyes were filled with mist.

"Hmm, I'm willing to believe you, miss, but..."

Lin Yi nodded with a smile, his foot tapping almost imperceptibly.

Clang!

A four-foot-long snow-white saber suddenly fell from behind the dressing table next to the woman.

"Officer!"

Seeing the blinding glare of the snow-white saber, the charming woman's expression remained unchanged, her gaze still pitiful.

"As you know, these are troubled times, and the people we interact with in my line of work are a mixed bag. So, I keep a knife in my room for self-defense. That's reasonable, right?"

Clang!

As soon as she finished speaking, a dagger suddenly fell to the floor by the edge of the bed.

"Officer."

The charming woman's face grew even more pitiful. She clutched her chest, her starry eyes welling up with tears.

"I just told you, I meet too many people in my line of work, all sorts of people. So, I keep a dagger under the bed for self-defense. That's reasonable too, right?"

"Heh heh, reasonable?"

"Reasonable my ass!"

At this point, the smile on Lin Yi's face vanished, his expression instantly turning cold. He shouted, "Lustful Woman' Yan Ji, you cultivated Demonic Cultivation Art in Nanguang Town and murdered thirteen men. This matter has come to light, the evidence is conclusive, there's no need to argue further. Come with me to the yamen!"

"Damn it!"

Seeing this, the seductive woman cursed.

The next moment...

Crack crack crack!

The sound of bones cracking echoed from her body. Her slender figure rapidly swelled like a balloon, and her beautiful face quickly grew a beard, becoming more rugged.

In just a moment, she transformed from a graceful and incredibly seductive woman into a "monster" nearly two meters tall, with a face full of beard, a rugged appearance like a large man, and a super-sized stomach.

"You damned yamen runner, you're looking for death!"

The monster let out an unpleasant sound in a deep, gravelly voice.

"A mere temporary constable, a dog like you, dares to come alone to arrest your Auntie Yan Ji!"

"Auntie originally didn't want to reveal her identity and kindly let you go, but you insisted on pestering me."

"Fine! Since Auntie has the Disguise Secret Technique, I'll kill you today. At worst, I'll change my identity afterward, and Auntie will still live a carefree life!"

"Die!"

With that, Yan Ji casually grabbed the saber from the ground and slashed it towards Lin Yi.

Whoosh!

The saber light was like lightning, fast and fierce, instantly tearing through the air and heading straight for Lin Yi's face.

If it had landed, Lin Yi would have been split in half, dying without a whole corpse.

But, just then—

Swish!

In the void, a brilliant saber light suddenly flashed.

Immediately after, accompanied by a scream of "Ah!", a severed arm holding a saber, mixed with specks of blood, flew through the air.

Yan Ji, who had been so ferocious moments before, was now clutching her bleeding severed arm and rolling on the ground, wailing in agony. It was truly pathetic.

Her face was contorted in pain, her stomach spasming with agony. She looked at Lin Yi, her eyes filled with fear and disbelief.

"How... how is this possible? How can a mere temporary constable like you possess such saber techniques?"

"Let alone a temporary constable, even among the official constables in the commandery city, few possess your skill. Who... who exactly are you?"

Clang!

The sound of steel against steel.

In the room, Lin Yi sheathed his saber and said calmly, "Guangling Martial Academy, 286th cohort disciple, Lin Yi."

"Currently working as a temporary constable at the Guangling Commandery Prefecture yamen to earn some money."

"What! You're actually a disciple of the martial academy."

Upon hearing this, Yan Ji's face showed great shock, followed by a bitter smile.

"Looks like I didn't lose unfairly this time!"

The Guangling Martial Academy was the only official martial arts academy in Guangling Commandery established by the overlord of Qingzhou—the "Tianshan Sect," a great martial arts sect that commanded the eight prefectures and one hundred and six commanderies of Qingzhou.

Every year, the academy selected only three hundred children under the age of twelve from the vast land within a thousand-mile radius of Guangling Commandery City, with a population of over twenty million.

Those who could become disciples of the academy were all peerless geniuses, one in ten thousand!

And she, the Lustful Woman Yan Ji, was merely a minor Eighth-Rank Martial Artist. She only relied on her rather exquisite Disguise Secret Technique to cause a little trouble. It was truly not unfair to be defeated by such a genius today!

"Haha! Little brother Lin Yi, you're amazing! You actually managed to capture this Lustful Woman Yan Ji in just a few days!"

"Here! This is your reward for catching the thief this time, twenty taels in total. Please accept it."

In the evening, at the Guangling Commandery yamen, a middle-aged man of about thirty, dressed in a black constable's uniform, enthusiastically handed two silver ingots to Lin Yi.

"Thank you, Constable."

Lin Yi reached out and took them. He weighed them in his hand and found that the weight was not lacking in the slightest. He immediately tucked them into his embrace and turned to leave.

Afterward, he walked onto the street and found another corner. After carefully observing and confirming that no one was around, he thought in his mind:

"Attribute Panel, recharge."

As the thought faded, the twenty taels of silver Lin Yi had just received, along with the approximately eighteen taels he had found on Yan Ji, suddenly disappeared from his embrace.

At the same time, a transparent attribute panel slowly appeared before Lin Yi's eyes--

[Dao Master: Lin Yi]
[Cultivation: Eighth-Rank Early Stage (93%)]
[Cultivation Method: Sixth-Rank Cultivation Method Whale Swallowing Breathing Technique]
[Martial Arts: Sixth-Rank Martial Art Bright Moon Saber Art (Great Accomplishment, 96%) Ninth-Rank Martial Art Black Tiger Saber Art (Perfected, 73%)]
[Immortal Skill: Evolve Talent]
[Existing Talent: Saber Dao Genius (Crimson Grade, Attribute Panel free gift)]
[Current Recharge Progress: 94.7% → 96.6% (Talent evolution can be performed after reaching 100% recharge.)]

"96.6%, still need 3.2% more. That means about 68 taels of silver will be enough to reach 100% progress, and then I can truly evolve my first talent."

A smile appeared on Lin Yi's face.

That's right! He was a transmigrator!

Fourteen years ago, due to a car accident, he was reincarnated into the Jiuzhou World. At the age of eight, he awakened this attribute panel that could evolve talents and received the Crimson Grade talent—Saber Dao Genius—for free!

In the attribute panel, talent levels were divided into six tiers, from lowest to highest: Pure White, Crimson, Bright Yellow, Azure Green, Mysterious Purple, and Radiant Gold.

Crimson Grade was the second tier. It seemed relatively low-level, but in reality, it was already one in a hundred thousand!

After all, what is talent?

It is a gift bestowed by heaven!

Therefore, every talent, even the lowest-level Pure White Grade talent, was extremely rare, considered one in a thousand.

Afterward, with each increase in talent level, the rarity of the talent would increase by a hundredfold.

As for Radiant Gold Grade talent, it was a terrifying talent that could only be born among one in ten trillion living beings. Such a talent likely hadn't even existed in the thousands of years of martial arts history in the entire Jiuzhou World.

It was precisely because this golden finger's talent was so terrifying that Lin Yi, despite having ordinary physical cultivation aptitude, was able to defeat a group of competitors at the Ninth-Rank Peak and Eighth-Rank Early Stage at the age of twelve with a mere Ninth-Rank Mid Stage martial cultivation. He narrowly met the age requirement to join the Guangling Martial Academy and become a disciple.

However, he was merely a disciple.

Among the three hundred people in his cohort, Lin Yi had always been at the bottom, ranked around two hundred and forty to two hundred and fifty.

This was because compared to other disciples who were worth millions of taels or even came from centuries-old martial arts families.

Lin Yi's family was simply too poor!

As his thoughts drifted, Lin Yi had unknowingly arrived in front of a small, humble adobe house in the southern city.

The adobe house was only about two to three zhang in area, extremely narrow, and situated next to a stinking ditch filled with black, churning sewage and the stench of garbage.

It was entirely built of yellow earth, and its roof was covered with a thin layer of dry, yellow thatch.

The surrounding walls, seemingly due to too much exposure to wind and rain, were now cracked everywhere.

In the middle of summer, gusts of hot wind carrying a foul odor poured in through the gaps.

And this was Lin Yi's home in this life.