What Was Talent?

"Young constable, I... I really am not Yan Ji, the 'Lustful Woman,' and I've never seduced and murdered any men."

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

A delicate, alluring young woman stood before Lin Yi, dressed in a thin silk robe that clung to her enticing figure. Her snow-white skin showed through the gauzy fabric, and she looked at him pitifully, her limpid eyes brimming with tears.

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

Lin Yi nodded with a smile and gave an almost imperceptible tap of his foot.

"Clang!"

A four-foot-long, snow-white saber suddenly tumbled from behind the vanity beside the woman.

"Young constable!"

The alluring woman's expression didn't change at the sight of the blinding gleam reflected from the saber. She still looked utterly pitiful.

"You know how dangerous the world is these days. In our line of work, we meet all sorts of people—good and bad. So I keep a saber in my room for protection. That's reasonable, isn't it?"

"Clang!"

As soon as she finished speaking, a dagger suddenly dropped to the floor beside the bed.

"Young constable."

The woman looked even more pitiful. She clutched her chest, her starry eyes glistening with tears.

"I just said, we meet all sorts of people in our line of work. So I also keep a dagger under the bed for protection. That's reasonable too, isn't it?"

"Heh. Reasonable?"

"Reasonable my ass!"

As he spoke, the smile vanished from Lin Yi's face. His expression turned cold, and he barked, "Yan Ji, the 'Lustful Woman'! You practiced a Demonic Cultivation Art in Nanguang Town and seduced and murdered thirteen men in a row. The truth is out, and the evidence is conclusive. Stop making excuses. You're coming with me to the yamen!"

"Damn it!"

The seductive woman cursed when she saw this.

The next moment...

"Crack-crack!"

A series of bone-cracking sounds came from her body. Her slender figure swelled rapidly like an inflating balloon, while whiskers sprouted across her pretty face, making her look increasingly rough and rugged.

In the space of a few moments, the graceful, bewitchingly beautiful woman had turned into a nearly two-meter-tall "monster" with a face full of whiskers, a burly appearance, and an enormous stomach.

"You stinking constable, you're asking for death!"

The monster spoke in an unpleasant, nasal voice.

"You're just a lowly temp constable, a dog of a man, and you dare come alone to arrest your granny Yan Ji!"

"Granny didn't want to reveal her identity and was kind enough to let you go, but you just had to keep pushing."

"Fine! I have my Disguise Secret Technique. I'll kill you today, then take on another identity. Granny can live it up just the same!"

"Die!"

With that, Yan Ji casually snatched up the saber from the floor and slashed at Lin Yi.

"Whoosh!"

The Saber Light flashed like lightning, swift and fierce. It tore through layer upon layer of air and slashed straight at Lin Yi's face.

If it landed, it would likely split Lin Yi in two, leaving him dead and dismembered.

But just then—

"Swish!"

A dazzling Saber Light suddenly flared through the air.

Then, with a scream, an arm still gripping the saber spun through the air, flecks of blood scattering around it.

Yan Ji, who had been so aggressive just moments ago, now clutched her bleeding stump and writhed on the floor, howling in agony.

Her face twisted in pain, her enormous stomach spasming. She stared at Lin Yi with terror and disbelief in her eyes.

"W-what... how is this possible? How does a mere temp constable know saber techniques like that?"

"Forget temp constables—even among the official constables in the Commandery City, few have skills like yours. Wh-who are you?"

"Clang!"

Steel rang against steel.

Lin Yi sheathed his saber and said calmly, "Lin Yi, a disciple of the 286th class of Guangling Martial Academy."

"I'm currently working as a temp constable at the Guangling Commandery yamen, earning a little silver."

"What! You're a disciple of the Martial Arts Academy?"

Yan Ji's face filled with shock. Then she gave a bitter laugh.

"Looks like I didn't lose unfairly after all!"

Guangling Martial Academy was the only official academy in Guangling Commandery, established by Tianshan Sect—the martial arts giant that ruled Qingzhou, overseeing the Eight Prefectures and one hundred and six commanderies.

Every year, the academy selected just three hundred children under the age of twelve from the vast lands within a thousand li of Guangling Commandery City, home to more than twenty million people.

Every single disciple accepted into the academy was a peerless genius, one in ten thousand!

Yan Ji, the Lustful Woman, was only a lowly Eighth-Rank Martial Artist. She'd made trouble only because she had a rather refined Disguise Secret Technique. Losing to a genius like this today wasn't unfair at all!

"Ha ha! Little brother Lin Yi, impressive! You caught the Lustful Woman, Yan Ji, in just a few days!"

"Here! This is your reward for catching the criminal. Twenty taels in all. Please take it."

That evening, at the Guangling Commandery yamen, a middle-aged man in his thirties, dressed as a constable captain, warmly handed Lin Yi two ingots of silver.

"Thank you, Captain."

Lin Yi took them, weighed them in his hand, and saw that not a fraction was missing. He tucked them into his clothes and turned to leave.

Afterward, he walked down the street, found a secluded corner, and carefully checked that no one was nearby. Only then did he think to himself:

"Attribute Panel, charge."

As soon as the thought crossed his mind, the twenty taels of silver he'd just received, along with the roughly eighteen taels he'd searched from Yan Ji, abruptly disappeared.

At the same time, a transparent Attribute Panel slowly appeared before Lin Yi—

[Dao Master: Lin Yi]

[Martial 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, gifted free by the Attribute Panel)]

[Current charge: 94.7%→96.6% (Talent Evolve available once charge reaches 100%.)]

"96.6%. I'm short by 3.2%, which means about sixty-eight taels of silver should bring the charge to 100%. 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, he'd been reborn in the Jiuzhou World after a car accident. Then, at eight, he'd awakened the Attribute Panel, which could evolve talents, and received a free Crimson Grade talent—Saber Dao Genius!

The Attribute Panel had six talent grades, from lowest to highest: Pure White, Crimson, Bright Yellow, Azure, Mysterious Purple, and Radiant Gold.

Crimson Grade was only the second tier. It might have seemed low, but in reality, it was one in a hundred thousand!

After all, what was talent?

It was an endowment bestowed by heaven!

That meant every talent, even the lowest-grade Pure White one, was extraordinarily rare—one in a thousand.

Each successive talent grade was a hundred times rarer than the one before it.

At the very top was Radiant Gold Grade Talent, a terrifying gift that appeared only once among ten trillion living beings. In the thousands of years of martial arts history in the entire Jiuzhou World, it was anyone's guess whether such a talent had ever existed.

It was precisely because his cheat's talent was so terrifying that Lin Yi, despite having only average physical aptitude, had managed to defeat a host of Ninth-Rank Peak and Eighth-Rank Early Stage competitors at the age of twelve. With the deadline looming, he'd made it into Guangling Martial Academy and become one of its disciples.

But he was only a disciple. Nothing more.

Among the three hundred students in his class, Lin Yi had always languished near the bottom, around two hundred and fortieth or fiftieth place.

That was because, compared to the other academy disciples—many of whom came from families with wealth worth millions of strings of cash, or from century-old martial arts clans—

Lin Yi's family was simply too poor!

Lost in thought, Lin Yi soon found himself standing in front of a small Earthen House in the southern part of the city.

The house was barely two or three zhang across and extremely cramped, tucked beside a foul ditch where black wastewater churned and garbage stank to high heaven.

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

The walls were riddled with cracks, weathered by years of wind and rain.

In the height of summer, waves of scorching, foul-smelling air poured in through the gaps.

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