Qualification

"Hmph, Lu Bai, I've fallen into your hands today. Kill me or butcher me, do as you please. If my head rolls, it's only a bowl-sized scar. If I so much as furrow my brow, I lose!"

One of the bandits, a burly man with thick brows and big eyes, shouted bravely at Lu Bai despite being tied up on the ground.

"Exactly! The three of us brothers have shared life and death. We fear nothing and will never bow our heads to you."

"Good brothers, we'll be together again in our next lives!"

The three bandits lay bound on the ground, tears welling in their eyes. They acted as if Lu Bai, their enemy, weren't even there.

"Very well. I'll grant your wish." Lu Bai admired people who faced death without flinching.

"Someone, leave one of them here. Drag the other two out and flay them alive!"

The thick-browed bandit's expression changed at once. Still bound, he wriggled toward Lu Bai like a worm, practically ready to lick his shoes.

"Brother! Brother Lu! Ancestor Lu! I was wrong. I was just joking before." The thick-browed man now acted completely differently from before, like he was an entirely different person.

The other two bandits immediately groveled as well, lowering themselves as much as they could.

"Boss, you called us here to ask questions, right? Ask whatever you want. We'll tell you everything."

"That's right, that's right. I know the most, so just ask me. Those two don't matter."

"I've got exclusive information they don't know about. Just keep me here, Ancestor Lu!"

The three brothers who had sworn to stick together in their next lives turned on one another completely.

They confessed everything without even needing to be tortured.

They were all local thugs from Yongfeng City. A little over a year ago, they had met the bandit chief, Boss Zhang.

From then on, Boss Zhang had them do all sorts of dirty work.

Sometimes, Boss Zhang would suddenly take them to different parts of Yongfeng City to investigate and follow someone.

Most of the time, though, Boss Zhang wouldn't make a move.

He hadn't carried out many snatchings like the one where they'd suddenly appeared in a van and grabbed someone.

Lu Bai was the third person they'd targeted. After the first two were captured, their Death Compensation had been stolen.

But according to the bandits, Boss Zhang hadn't gotten much of a cut.

"Ancestor Lu, that bastard definitely has someone backing him. They give him information about Awakened like you, and then he does the most despicable things for the smallest cut."

"That's right, Ancestor Lu. It was the same this time. We barely investigated you at all, but that bastard had already pinpointed your location and rushed straight in with his men."

"I suspect someone close to you leaked the information."

Their former leader, Boss Zhang, was soon branded a bastard by the men, who hurled all sorts of even nastier insults at him.

Lu Bai didn't care about that. He was more concerned about where the information had come from.

After sleeping for seventy-seven years, he had awakened inside the Church of Thousand Dimensions. The church had given him Death Compensation, then secretly arranged a desk job at a small company so he could adjust to the new era.

After that, he'd spent his days coasting along while looking into the news of the new era.

Once he had confirmed what Travelers were, he'd waited for the Tianwu Group to start selling tickets to its 'Jianghu' dimension.

Throughout all this, Lu Bai had barely interacted with anyone. He'd kept a low profile and stayed out of the limelight.

And they'd still set their sights on him?

"Is there a problem within the Church of Thousand Dimensions?" Lu Bai shook his head. It didn't seem likely.

A Special Extraction Point might be precious to him, but it wasn't much to the people at the Church of Thousand Dimensions.

"I just need to go back and eliminate the people around me one by one. Then I'll know."

Lu Bai mentally listed a few suspects, then continued asking questions.

Boss Zhang had awakened before him and had even joined an organization. He must know more about Travelers than Lu Bai did.

These bandits had followed Boss Zhang for a long time. And since they'd all accidentally entered this dimension together, they must have learned something from him.

"You're saying you only have one Skill Bar?" Lu Bai looked at the thick-browed man, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, Boss Lu." The man immediately answered. "According to that piece of human trash, when you enter a dimension, its power invades and transforms your body. Your panel and Skill Bar are formed from that power."

"The number of Skill Bars you develop depends on your constitution and how well you adapt to the dimension."

"Some people enter a dimension seven or eight times and still can't form even one complete Skill Bar."

"Those people aren't qualified to become Travelers."

No wonder Lu Bai had felt these men didn't seem like Travelers. As long as they had modules, they should have been able to quickly put together a skill. They shouldn't have been stuck with a weakened little pistol, going pew-pew-pew.

The bandits told Lu Bai that shooting martial artists with a pistol could only produce the most basic Internal Force modules, and Boss Zhang had taken all of those modules for himself.

In other words, they only had incomplete Skill Bars now, with no modules on them.

"Every dimension has a corresponding theme."

"Only by following that theme can you obtain the most modules."

"Any power unrelated to the theme will only reduce your gains, and it could also cause problems and trigger terrible events."

"He got really nervous whenever we used pistols."

"When that bastard told us all this, he looked terrified. Something must have happened to him before—that's the only reason he'd be so scared."

"That's right. I remember it clearly. After he came back that time, he stayed in his room for ages. That night, he woke up screaming."

"His pants were wet, too. He must've been scared shitless."

With just a few remarks, the men had exposed everything about Boss Zhang.

Lu Bai focused on the crucial information: each dimension had a theme, and anything unrelated to it would reduce one's gains and might trigger terrible events.

"Is this the restriction?"

Lu Bai had long since figured there must be some kind of restriction in place to keep the Martial Forest as it was.

Otherwise, it would have been subjugated by all kinds of modern weapons long ago and turned into a modern colony.

"Terrible events..." Lu Bai pondered what could have made a Traveler wet his pants in fear.

The bandit chief hadn't performed too badly earlier. His fighting ability had been poor, and in the end he'd lost his nerve, but when it mattered, he'd still dared to fight.

If a man like that had wet himself, then he must have encountered something so terrifying that it was far beyond what he could handle.

"This information is worth keeping in mind."