Subtlety 3

The taxi slowed down along the road.

After quickly turning around, Lin Sheng could see the scene of the accident from inside the car.

A large truck loaded with steel pipes had slammed into a black sedan.

The entire front half of the car had been crushed flat. Blood was faintly seeping out of the driver's cabin.

"Looks like there's no way they survived." The taxi driver sighed. "The truck driver's gone. Must've fled the scene. Who knows if the police will catch him? These are hard times..."

"Does this kind of thing happen often?" Lin Sheng heard something off in the driver's tone.

"Quite often." The driver gripped the steering wheel as he replied. "The political situation's unstable. In places like ours—ports and border towns—law and order are a nightmare to manage. There are too many foreigners, and Celine's under a lot of pressure."

"Pressure?" Lin Sheng asked, puzzled.

"It's because of the Red-Wither Ore. Celine and Redon have been arguing over it for so long, and tensions keep getting worse.

"We've heard that spies and informants from Redon often infiltrate port cities like ours. Every so often, they arrest a few."

The driver lowered his voice as he explained.

Lin Sheng fell silent.

This was what peace looked like without a nuclear chain reaction: just one large deposit of rare ore had been enough to spark a dispute between two countries.

The reason Celine's technology and economy had never taken off—and why the country was now becoming increasingly unstable—

was largely that it lacked national strength. Its rich natural resources had left its mineral deposits under the covetous eyes of other powerful nations, which kept infiltrating and suppressing it.

The driver was a real chatterbox. He was full of concern for the country, and could talk up a storm about everything from current affairs and politics to the petty matters of everyday life.

They soon arrived at the park.

Lin Sheng paid the fare and got out, then made his way into the sparsely populated Rainbow Park with practiced ease.

He had been training with his sword here for quite a while and had long since settled on a regular spot.

He hadn't brought his real sword this time. He was mainly here to practice meditation.

Following the gravel path, he turned left and right, soon reaching the depths of the park.

Then he wound along the narrow paths between flowerbeds until he came to an empty area where hardly anyone ever went.

The once-neat lawn had been trampled down, and a canal that circled the city ran alongside it. The air circulated well.

Best of all, there was a simple little pavilion nearby where people could sit and rest.

Lin Sheng usually trained in the clearing and rested in the pavilion whenever he got tired.

This time was no different. He first set his backpack on the pavilion's stone bench, then did a few warm-up exercises.

Soon, he stood still, closed his eyes, and began meditating on the Gray Seal rune.

The weather was pleasant—not too hot or too cold. Standing in his school uniform in the clearing, he drew the attention of the occasional passerby.

Lin Sheng didn't care in the slightest.

What mattered to him was what the Gray Seal rune could actually do.

Before long, he completed one cycle of meditation.

He slowly opened his eyes, feeling a little tired, and walked over to the pavilion to rest.

"Ever since I got the Gray Seal rune, I've been training for days now. I haven't noticed any obvious effects."

He was rather puzzled.

He had always taken the Gray Seal rune seriously, spending a great deal of time meditating every day.

"Too bad the Book of Inheritance didn't record what the Gray Seal does. It only mentioned things like the conditions for learning it and other miscellaneous information."

"But now that I think about it, after meditating these past few days, my previous training routine seems to have gotten easier. Am I just getting used to it, or is the Gray Seal having an effect?"

His brow furrowed slightly. He wasn't sure.

Without precise instruments to measure it, he had no way to calculate such subtle changes.

"By Black Feather City's standards, I should count as a proper first-level warrior now. But my physical abilities definitely aren't good enough for second level."

He knew very well that although he had killed the Rotten Swordsman—a veteran second-level warrior—in his dream,

he had only won by taking advantage of the situation. He was nowhere near the Rotten Swordsman in either physical ability or technique.

After thinking for a while, he had rested enough. He braced a hand against the bench and prepared to get up and continue meditating.

But as he pushed down on the stone bench, a faint sting suddenly came from his palm.

"Hm?"

Lin Sheng quickly pulled his hand back and looked at the bench.

There was a thumbtack on it!

The tack was silver, with its point facing upward and some rust on the top. Who knew how long it had been lying there?

Seeing the rust, Lin Sheng hurriedly raised his hand to inspect his palm.

To his surprise, he had clearly felt it prick him just now. But there wasn't even a mark on his palm!

"What's going on?" Lin Sheng froze for a moment, then examined his palm carefully.

Once he was sure he wasn't injured, his gaze immediately fell on the thumbtack.

"Could it be...?" A crucial thought suddenly occurred to him.

Without hesitation, he clenched his fist and punched one of the pavilion's wooden posts.

Thud.

The post didn't budge.

His fist didn't hurt at all, either.

"It feels like I'm wearing a thick leather glove." Lin Sheng marveled as he rubbed the surface of his fist.

Only now did he realize that his skin seemed to have suddenly become tougher and harder to cut.

Delighted, he got up and walked out of the pavilion, then punched a rough-barked tree with all his strength.

Thud!!

The tree shook, and a few leaves fell.

Lin Sheng stayed where he was, pulled his fist back, and examined it. His knuckles weren't even red!

"Such incredible defense."

He could feel the full force of the impact rebound onto the skin of his fist the instant it struck the tree bark.

Yet his fist didn't hurt at all, while the bark bore a shallow dent where the punch had knocked away a patch of dead outer bark.

"Let's try this next!" Lin Sheng picked up a stone from the ground, turned it so its edge was sharp, and brought it down hard on the back of his hand.

Thud.

The tip of the stone broke off.

Lin Sheng raised the back of his hand. He felt no pain, as if even his bones were protected by something.

There was only a white spot left by the stone dust.

"This defense... it's unbelievable! I've only been meditating for a few days, and already..."

Lin Sheng was stunned.

He now had some idea what the so-called Sanctuary meant.

Too excited to keep training, he packed up, slung on his backpack, and hurried out of the clearing. At a nearby park convenience store, he bought a small knife.

He quickly returned to the clearing.

With a swish, he drew the knife.

It was a small fruit-peeling knife about the length of his palm, barely a finger joint wide.

Lin Sheng gripped the handle and lightly pricked his palm.

It didn't hurt at all. His skin showed no reaction.

Then he began to apply more force and pricked himself again.

There was a slight prickling sensation.

He increased the force further, using nearly seventy or eighty percent of his strength.

The tip of the knife jabbed hard into his palm.

This time, Lin Sheng felt a stinging pain.

He lifted the knife and saw a tiny cut on his palm, with a little blood seeping out.

"This is incredible!"

Lin Sheng was stunned.

It was a knife, after all, and he'd used seventy or eighty percent of his strength. For an ordinary person, a stab like that could easily pierce halfway through their hand.

And he had been training for quite some time now, swinging a five-pound metal sword every day. Of course his strength had increased.