Chapter 23

Without a sound, a wisp of black thread steamed off the Rotten Swordsman, zipped through the air toward Lin Sheng, and rapidly burrowed into his chest.

Lin Sheng's head suddenly felt heavy, as if a massive, chaotic jumble of visual information were being forcibly stuffed into an already overstuffed suitcase.

He felt as though his head were splitting apart, and sweat poured from his body as if it were free.

The sensation lasted for three full breaths before Lin Sheng managed to suppress the headache and scan his surroundings.

Three more Rotten Swordsmen had silently manifested on all sides and were currently moving toward him.

"Damn it!"

He turned on his heel and bolted.

Before leaving, he glanced at a streetlamp; three directions were carved into the post: one toward Black Feather City, another toward Ravel Manor, and a third toward the Black Swamp.

Having obtained these memory fragments, Lin Sheng found the most convenient aspect to be the language.

At the very least, he wouldn't be running around like a headless chicken as he had when he first arrived.

In the darkness, Lin Sheng sprinted, head down, charging along the road toward Black Feather City.

He didn't care how many dangers he disturbed on either side of the path; his priority was to hold out until the memory integration was complete.

After running for over ten breaths, just as Lin Sheng's stamina was about to give out, the memory fragments in his head finally finished downloading.

"Mercenary? Women, fine wine? Gambling?" Lin Sheng rapidly scanned the segments of memory he had just acquired.

To his disappointment, the content of these memories contained little regarding combat. They were mostly garbage memories about daily life.

The owner of the memories seemed to be a wandering mercenary who went wherever the pay was highest.

The money he earned was spent either on gambling or on prostitutes, or otherwise on drinking and bragging.

The memories were filled with nothing but useless information.

Lin Sheng had been full of anticipation, but now it seemed...

"I suppose I can't run into a good person like Ravel every time."

Fortunately, while there wasn't much combat memory, the mercenary's recollections still contained a small amount of muscle memory—bits and pieces regarding the application of basic moves and training methods.

"Not a total waste of time, then." After running for a while, Lin Sheng stopped only when he could no longer hear any sounds behind him.

He was currently standing on a road that was pitch black in both directions.

A faint, grey mist permeated the surroundings, and for a moment, he couldn't even tell if his feet were touching the ground.

On both sides of the road stood hazy rows of wooden fences.

These fences were broken and tattered, some draped with rags of unknown origin.

Lin Sheng gripped his black sword, continuing forward while carefully organizing the mercenary memories he had just seen.

Although most of it was dross, if he dug deep into the few remaining details, he could still glean quite a bit of information.

"A sudden cold wind and thick fog? Everyone infected by some unknown disease?" Lin Sheng frowned.

Soon, he found another familiar name—LS Bell.

"Seems to be the third-ranked blacksmith shop in Black Feather City?"

Lin Sheng quickly searched for the route to LS Bell, but unfortunately, the mercenary's fragmented memories did not contain that information.

He continued along the dark road for several more minutes.

Gradually, a vast structure filled with black, gaping holes emerged in the greyish-white distance ahead.

"Looks like a city gate?" Lin Sheng paused, hesitating. "This must be the Black Feather City that Ravel mentioned."

He gazed into the distance, just about to lift his feet to continue his journey, when a faint tremor surged through his heart.

"Waking up now? Perfect. I need to spend some time carefully excavating these mercenary memory fragments."

Lin Sheng stood where he was, taking one last look at the massive, gloomy city before his vision suddenly went black and he lost consciousness.

He slowly sat up from his bed.

Lin Sheng tugged at his soaked undershirt, feeling somewhat helpless.

"Have to wash my own clothes again." In this day and age, there were no fully automatic washing machines; he had to scrub them by hand, which was quite a hassle.

He got out of bed, quietly made his way to the washroom by moonlight, wiped his body down with hot water from a thermos, and changed into a clean undershirt before returning to the bedroom to lie down.

The big-eared black pig alarm clock on the nightstand showed the hands at only 3:40.

Lin Sheng still had plenty of time to sort things out.

"Let me take a good look. If I look closely enough, I'm bound to find some useful information."

Lying in bed, he began to recall the mercenary's fragmented memories bit by bit.

Time ticked away, and before he knew it, the sky outside the window grew brighter.

Lin Sheng had actually fallen back asleep while lying there, and in his grogginess, he heard his parents washing up in the bathroom.

He jolted, instantly waking up. His body had returned to reality, but his mind was still lingering on the fragmented memories from before.

"Right, today is Sunday. I don't have to get up early; I can definitely sleep in!" Lin Sheng suddenly remembered the date.

It was a pity, but since he was already awake, he couldn't fall back asleep even if he wanted to.

Lying in bed, Lin Sheng listened to the movements in the living room hallway while continuing to carefully study the mercenary's fragmented memories.

Finally, he unearthed and noticed an extremely minute detail.

"In Black Feather City, mercenaries usually accept missions at the Black Feather Guild, and the Black Feather Guild is located between the Valen Temple and the Tax Bureau. Valen Temple??"

Lin Sheng sat up, got out of bed, and sat at his desk. He pulled open the drawer, took out his notebook, and carefully wrote down the name with a pen.

'Valen Temple'

The four characters, written in Chinese, stood out prominently on the white paper.

Lin Sheng closed his eyes, and the content regarding this place from Ravel's memories quickly surfaced in his mind.

Soon, by combining it with the mercenary's memories, he finally pieced together a startling piece of information!

"The Valen Temple is where the temple trains apprentice warriors and passes down the Sacred Rune? Sacred Rune??"

Even after combining all the memory fragments from Ravel and the mercenary, Lin Sheng could only find this one sentence.

"Sacred Rune." A strange look appeared on Lin Sheng's face.

"Perhaps I can go there and try my luck. I might be able to find some items or books containing extraordinary power. This 'Sacred Rune' doesn't sound simple at all just by its name!"

Up until now, all the memory fragments he had obtained were purely physical and completely unrelated to the extraordinary.

If he could find a path to the extraordinary from this small temple, he would definitely go and try, no matter how dangerous it was! This was his shared dream from both his past life and his current one.

Having made his plans, Lin Sheng put on his clothes and tucked away his notebook. He left the bedroom and walked to the kitchen.

In the kitchen sat a plate of large meat buns and a glass of freshly warmed milk.

His parents had both gone out; one to work, the other to run their shop.

Lin Sheng pulled up a chair and sat down, grabbing a meat bun to eat. After stuffing three in a row and downing the milk in one breath, he changed into sportswear and headed out.

He had just attended a guidance session at the Steel Scale Club yesterday, so he didn't need to go there for the time being.

Lin Sheng first took a bus to Rainbow Park, which was not far from his home.

Rainbow Park was one of only three parks in Huaisha City. Because it was near the coast and featured seaside scenery like coconut trees and beaches, many newlyweds would gather there during the day to take wedding photos.

But Lin Sheng wasn't going to Rainbow Park for fun; he was going to collect money.

As an adult who had awakened the memories of a past life, finding a way to earn some pocket money wasn't a difficult task.