Lightness Skill Martial Arts, Leg Dao Divine Ability!

"This... how could I possibly accept this?" Lu Ming said, holding the Grass Gliding manual in his hands.

Li Youning smiled faintly. Over the past ten days, she had secretly observed Lu Ming and noticed that his light-footed gait indeed appeared quite often.

Lu Ming truly had talent in lightness skills!

She wasn't the only one who had noticed this.

This morning, Wu San had broken through two realms in a single go, displaying the strength of Three Breaths Nine Breaks. She had a vague feeling this was Shen Jue's design. Shen Jue was trying to capture Lu Ming's attention, hoping to recruit him.

So, she couldn't afford to wait any longer.

Fortunately, she had learned that Lu Ming had once saved Li Hu from Wu San's hands. This incident could, to some extent, speak to Lu Ming's character and integrity.

With that thought, she took out another wooden box and opened it for Lu Ming to see.

Inside the box were six packets of medicinal powder.

Seeing the confusion in Lu Ming's eyes, she patiently explained:

"This is Qi-Nurturing Powder. Drinking it can invigorate your blood and qi, greatly improving your training efficiency.

"One day of training with this is at least worth two days of someone else's!

"Wu San relied on this medicine to make such rapid progress."

Lu Ming suddenly understood. So that was why Wu San had advanced so quickly.

A flicker of heat rose in his heart. This was good stuff!

With this, he should be able to break into the Skin Refining martial realm soon!

"These are for me too?" Lu Ming stared at Li Youning and said, "At this point, Senior Sister Li, you might as well tell me plainly what you need me to do. Otherwise, with things this valuable, I can't accept them with an easy mind."

Hearing this, Li Youning sighed and said:

"To be honest, the Li Family's situation isn't good.

"Don't let my current cultivation level fool you—it's just the result of training since childhood. My talent has basically reached its limit.

"So I can hardly help with the difficulties my family faces.

"But you're different, Junior Brother. You're just starting out.

"I only hope that if the Li Family ever falls into trouble, and you have the ability, you might lend a hand.

"After all, if Junior Brother Lu can develop his lightness skill talent, you'll almost certainly enter the sect.

"The status of a sect disciple is already quite impressive in Red Cloud County.

"Though the top hundred candidates in the grand exam are all martial arts prospects, not every prospect can enter the sect."

Lu Ming understood. Li Youning's words didn't surprise him.

He pondered for a moment and said, "If I face a life-or-death crisis..."

Li Youning immediately replied, "I would never send you to your death."

Lu Ming finally nodded. "Alright, I agree."

It wasn't just for the grand exam. The appearance of demons in Red Cloud County also stirred a sense of urgency in his heart.

In this martial world, he had to improve his strength as much as possible.

And if he could learn lightness skills, even evolve them into a divine ability... his survival capability would be greatly enhanced.

Qi-Nurturing Powder was also something he urgently needed now, to boost his training efficiency.

These two items, in exchange for a promise within his ability, felt like a good deal to him.

Hearing this, Li Youning broke into a smile and breathed a quiet sigh of relief. No matter what, she had done her utmost to recruit a talented disciple for her family.

She could only hope that Lu Ming's lightness skill talent would be as strong as possible!

She turned around, opened the courtyard door, and stepped outside.

Suddenly, her expression froze. Two people were walking briskly toward the small courtyard, stopping abruptly when they saw her.

It was none other than Shen Jue and Wu San!

So Shen Jue had indeed come to recruit Lu Ming.

Shen Jue's face shifted from surprise to gloom, finally settling into a forced smile. He said:

"Big beauty Li, if I recall correctly, when I wanted to invite Lu Ming to the banquet before, you said not to bother, didn't you?

"So you were planning to recruit him yourself.

"We're friends here—did you really have to play these mind games? If you'd said earlier you wanted to recruit Lu Ming, I'd have gladly let you have him."

Li Youning's face was stiff at first, but hearing this, a flash of anger appeared in her eyes. She couldn't help but retort:

"The decline of my Li Family has your Shen Family's hand in it! And now you say such hypocritical things—aren't you embarrassed?"

Shen Jue narrowed his eyes slightly, his face perfectly calm.

"So you've known all along. It must have been hard for you, playing along with us for so long."

"However, the marketplace is a battlefield! After the Li Family patriarch passed away, your family should have foreseen this day.

"The Li Family Bank has shone brightly for so long—its time to close the curtain has come."

He gave a faint cold smile, turned, and left with Wu San.

But in his heart, he silently regretted it.

He had indeed come to recruit Lu Ming.

Lu Ming had a steady temperament and good character—once subdued, a man like that would be a loyal and devoted enforcer, not someone Wu San could compare to.

A pity Li Youning had beaten him to it.

Still, so be it. Lu Ming's cultivation talent was rather ordinary. Even with Li Youning's help, how much could the Li Family, now struggling to save itself, spare to aid him?

He wouldn't get far.

As for the observed talent in lightness skill, it was hard to say how remarkable it was. After all, Lu Ming had been hanging around the Martial Arts Arena for so long—Wei Jinlin had seen it all.

If Lu Ming's lightness skill talent were truly that high, Wei Jinlin would have reacted long ago. Since he hadn't, it meant it was mediocre.

Thinking this, Shen Jue's faint regret faded, and he left calmly.

Li Youning took a few deep breaths, her expression returning to aloofness, then turned and walked away.

In the courtyard, Lu Ming watched Shen Jue and Li Youning depart in opposite directions and slowly closed the door.

The strife between great families—he didn't understand it. Right now, he only wanted to focus on improving his own strength.

That night, with a single lamp flickering like a bean in the room, Lu Ming flipped through the Grass Gliding manual, studying it carefully.

"Roots never touch dust, leaves never hold dew. Borrow the force of others, walk my own path..."

The Grass Gliding manual was slightly more complex than the finger techniques of the Bone-Unraveling Technique. He spent a full two hours silently reading it before committing it all to memory.

"This Grass Gliding—the name sounds like some low-tier lightness skill, but the content is actually decent."

Lu Ming set down the manual and thought to himself. Once Grass Gliding was trained to completion, he could tread on grass for thirty zhang—roughly a hundred meters.

If he were sprinting normally on solid ground, his speed would be even greater. Li Youning hadn't fobbed him off with inferior goods.

"The core principle of Grass Gliding lies in the word 'borrow'—pushing the art of borrowing force to its extreme, so that a blade of grass can support the weight of a grown man!"

Imagining the scene of mastering this lightness skill, Lu Ming couldn't help but yearn for it, itching to start training immediately.

At the same time, he still wasn't sure—could practicing lightness skills and body movement actually evolve a divine ability?

His body couldn't sustain further training today. Everything would have to wait until tomorrow.

"Phew!" Lu Ming blew out the candle, plunging the world into darkness. The night was deep, and amid the faint, distant sounds of wooden stakes being struck, he fell into a deep sleep.

The next morning.

He stepped out of the room in high spirits, his body fully recovered, brimming with inexhaustible strength.

He glanced at the wooden Nine Palaces Stakes but didn't rush to walk them. Instead, he assumed the training posture for Grass Gliding—he wanted to try practicing lightness skill first!

Grass Gliding began with training on flat ground; only after achieving some mastery in the later stages could one train on grass.

Relying on last night's study, he now practiced the entry-level Grass Gliding lightness skill.

After a long while, he stopped and stood upright, feeling his thighs sore and aching, breathing slightly heavily.

Suddenly, a message came from the Divine Ability Panel within him.

[Currently evolving Leg Dao Divine Ability (1/100)...]