Book of Fate

Lin Jie smiled. "Some of the refugees have grown bold lately. Since they aren't allowed into the county town, they gather together to kill wealthy farmers and rob them of grain and money.

The Garrison sent soldiers to suppress them and killed quite a few.

With corpses piling up, an epidemic is bound to break out. The Thousand-Household Commander told us to clear the bodies and dig pits to bury them.

You don't have any digging tools, so go carry corpses with the laborers. Hand over any large valuables you find on them.

You can take a little of the smaller valuables home to help support the household."

Lin Xuan felt a chill run down his back, but when he heard there might be money to take, he still stepped forward a few paces.

After all, he had heard that these refugees killed rich farmers and robbed them of money and grain. They had to have at least some money on them, right? Bringing a little money home from this trip did not sound too bad.

Lin Jie pointed out the way for him.

Lin Xuan headed toward the place where the Garrison troops had wiped out the refugees. He could see many refugee corpses scattered inside and outside a mud-brick house. Their bodies were mostly intact, and blood had dyed the earth red.

The sight was truly terrifying.

Yet their clothes were in complete disarray, and some were even naked. Clearly, they had already been stripped once.

He realized that Lin Jie had plainly tricked him into coming here as free labor by saying he could find small valuables on the corpses!

The original owner had been simple and honest, and perhaps he would have foolishly kept searching them, but Lin Xuan was no fool.

"Old bastard." Lin Xuan cursed inwardly and turned to leave.

Before leaving, however, he unexpectedly saw two large golden words floating above a corpse: [Hunger Resistance]

Lin Xuan thought he was seeing things and rubbed his eyes, but the two large words still floated above the corpse.

The corpse belonged to a young man with a perfectly normal build. He did not look like a starving refugee at all.

As the two words floated above the corpse, a yellowed sheet of paper seemed to materialize before Lin Xuan.

Written upon it were:

[Book of Fate]

[Host Talent: None]

[Talent Pool: Can temporarily store useless talents]

[Current Plunderable Talent: Hunger Resistance]

[Talent Fusion: Integrate multiple talents into an entirely new talent]

[Dao Rhyme: Obtained by sacrificing unused talents. Current Dao Rhyme: 0]

[Talent Copy: By increasing one's understanding of another living creature, one may view that creature's talents and consume Dao Rhyme to copy them.
Sacrificed talents may retain records in the Talent Pool and can be replicated with the corresponding amount of Dao Rhyme]

[Talent Grant: May grant currently possessed talents to others and reclaim them at will]

"This is..." At the sight of those lines, Lin Xuan was overjoyed. This was his hope of surviving in this chaotic age.

Lin Xuan immediately changed his tone toward Lin Jie. "Old man, I love you to death."

Soon, the paper before him changed again:

Plunder Talent: [Hunger Resistance]?

[Yes] [No]

A thin layer of white light covered the words "Yes" and "No." Lin Xuan discovered that he could control the movement of the white light with his gaze alone.

Without the slightest hesitation, he fixed his gaze on [Yes].

Lin Xuan looked again at the corpse with the floating words and found that nothing had changed. Only the words above its head had disappeared.

In an instant, the words on the paper before him changed again.

[Host Talent: Hunger Resistance]

As Lin Xuan shifted his gaze, the white orb of light followed it until it rested on [Hunger Resistance].

He very much wanted to know how useful this talent was.

When his gaze lingered there, its detailed information unfolded as well.

[Hunger Resistance]: Reduces hunger and lowers bodily consumption.

[Equip?]

Lin Xuan chose to equip it, but since he had just eaten, the talent did not show any effect on him.

Moreover, this talent was of little help in getting him out of his current predicament. He still needed to acquire more talents.

He glanced at the Garrison soldiers' surplus family members and the banner officers, Hundred-Household Commanders, and others. No golden words floated above their heads.

Lin Xuan looked into the distance. A few corpses seemed to have words floating above them too, but he could not see them clearly and needed to get closer.

Among the hundred-odd refugee corpses, only two or three appeared to have small golden words floating above them.

There were over two hundred Garrison households and officers, yet not a single one had words floating above their head. That did not quite make sense.

Combining this with the information he already had, he guessed that talents could only be plundered from the dead.

With no reward in it, Lin Xuan had no desire whatsoever to do this work. After plundering [Hunger Resistance], he walked toward another corpse with small golden words floating above it.

Above the second corpse floated the words [Silent Step].

Following his previous procedure, Lin Xuan placed Silent Step into his Talent Pool.

[Silent Step]: Leaves no trace upon snow, makes no sound while walking.

Lin Xuan equipped the talent again. This time, he could clearly feel its effects.

He felt that the way his legs and feet exerted force while walking had changed, as though he had practiced it hundreds and thousands of times. There truly was no sound at all.

This meant it was perfect for assassination and hunting.

"What, did it scare you?" Lin Jie was surprised to see Lin Xuan only looking around without working. The boy was not usually like this. Whenever asked to help with work, he never hesitated, yet today he was acting strangely.

Judging by the state of these Garrison soldiers, it would probably be difficult to finish the work today. That was why Lin Jie had wanted to pull Lin Xuan over as free labor.

Hearing this, Lin Xuan turned back and said with a faint smile, "Second Granduncle, you tricked me. These corpses have obviously all been searched already. If I come carry corpses, I'll just be working for nothing."

Lin Jie frowned. There was now an extra trace of disdain in his gaze, and his face showed a hint of impatience.

"Why are you so lazy, boy? Getting you to do a little work is such a struggle."

Lin Xuan ignored his manipulative talk and continued, "I'm leaving. Mother is still waiting for me to buy salt and bring it home. If I get back too late, she'll worry."

As he spoke, he walked toward the next corpse with floating words.

Above this corpse floated four words: [Martial Prodigy].

The talent came from a boy who was probably less than one and a half meters tall. He was so thin that he was little more than skin stretched over bones, and his tattered clothes made him look like a skeleton wrapped in a layer of skin.

He had no wounds and had not bled. He must have starved to death alive.

At the sight of those four words, Lin Xuan's spirits soared. He immediately used the Book of Fate to record the talent.

After recording it, he could not wait to open its detailed information.

[Martial Prodigy: More easily remembers martial arts techniques and movements. Learns martial arts three times faster than ordinary people, and condenses true qi five times faster.]

After seeing the effect, much of the weariness in his body and mind dissipated. This meant that if he pursued the martial path, he would surely achieve twice the results with half the effort.

Training three times faster than others! What kind of concept was that?

He only needed to train for two and a half years to surpass someone who had trained for over seven years.

More importantly, his true qi condensation speed was a full five times that of ordinary people! That was what mattered most.

Having just acquired it, Lin Xuan impatiently equipped [Martial Prodigy].

With this, he could swiftly gain an entry into the martial path, and his chances of surviving would rise considerably.

Yet although this boy was a martial prodigy, he had life but no fortune. Before he could shine, he had already met his end.

Lin Xuan could not help but sigh.

"It was the times, and it was fate. If not for Qiangqu's invasion and the Roaming Bandits stirring up trouble, then in a few years, once his talent emerged and his martial strength surpassed those of his age, he might have earned merits and become a hereditary officer, perhaps even a general.

What a pity. He did not die on the battlefield resisting foreign invaders. He actually starved to death alive."

Lin Xuan sighed, picked up the pitiful boy, and walked toward the mass grave the Garrison households had dug.

Seeing that he had finally started helping with the work, Lin Jie felt somewhat smug, believing his words had worked.

But to his surprise, after Lin Xuan placed the boy's corpse into the mass grave, he directly stepped onto the official road and left without looking back.

Seeing him show so little respect, Lin Jie snorted coldly to himself.