Again 2

It was past six in the evening when he stepped out of the internet cafe, the sky already dimming.

Lin Sheng grabbed a bite at a street stall, then hailed a taxi and headed straight home.

Back at home, his father was out, and only his mother, Gu Wanqiu, was sitting in the kitchen peeling potatoes.

Lin Sheng quickly busied himself alongside her, preparing two dishes, and the mother and son sat down at the table to eat.

Gu Wanqiu asked about his outing today, and Lin Sheng naturally spun a web of lies, brushing her off with ease.

As far as he was concerned, he didn't want his family to know about him joining a swordsmanship club.

Just as he had no desire to join Sears' so-called company. That was an entirely different, complicated circle.

Moreover, he knew nothing about Sears.

What did he do for a living? What was his character like? What was his background? Was he a good person or a bad one? He knew absolutely nothing. To join the man solely for the sake of money?

That was certainly unrealistic; it required careful consideration.

After finishing dinner and washing the dishes, Lin Sheng used studying as an excuse, quickly washed up, and retreated to his bedroom.

He completed two sets of review questions before feeling a wave of drowsiness. He put on his jacket and changed into the sneakers he had prepared.

Fully clothed, he lay down on the edge of his bed and closed his eyes to rest.

Valen Temple.

Inside the grey-white temple.

Lin Sheng slowly sat up from the middle of the pews, his gaze habitually sweeping over his surroundings.

The temple remained exactly as it had been when he last left.

The air was filled with a soothing aura, and the doors and windows were intact and tightly shut.

Lin Sheng stood up from the pew and checked himself.

He was wearing the black tracksuit and sneakers he had put on before sleeping, and his weapon—the Elite Rotten Longsword—leaned against the chair.

Picking up the sword, he walked out from the pews, bypassing the prayer altar in the center and heading straight for a small door at the very back of the temple.

He had already explored every other part of the Valen Temple; only this storage room at the back remained.

The entire temple consisted of a main hall, a side hall, a bedroom for the clergy, and a kitchen and restroom.

He had searched all those areas, but aside from some daily necessities, there was nothing else.

Now, only this remaining storage room was left to check.

Tightening his grip on the hilt, Lin Sheng quickly reached the storage room and reached out to grasp the cold brass handle.

He pulled it outward.

Creeeak.

With a faint friction sound, the grey-white wooden door slowly swung open.

Inside was a small space of about one square meter.

It didn't contain much, just a carved stone pillar about a meter tall that looked like a stele.

The stone pillar was grey-white, with a pattern of a crescent moon nestled against three stars carved at the very top.

Below that appeared to be a series of markings resembling a scale.

At the very bottom, a line of text was carved.

Lin Sheng leaned in to take a closer look.

'Test Tower: A stone tower for professional rank assessment. The scope of measurement includes Temple Knights, Warriors, and Monks.'

"Test Tower?" Lin Sheng was taken aback; this was his first time seeing such a thing.

He had heard in many memory fragments about people being warriors of this or that rank, but no one had ever mentioned how these ranks were actually determined.

Or perhaps the fragments he had absorbed simply lacked that information.

But right now, it seemed this little stone tower was related to that professional rank assessment.

He walked up to the stone tower and examined it carefully.

Aside from the patterns and scales on its surface, the tower only had two protruding rod-like handles on the left and right.

Symbols indicating where to grip were carved onto the edges of the handles.

Lin Sheng reached out and gripped both handles with his hands.

Inexplicably, he felt an incredibly faint, warm current seep from the handles into his palms, then race up his arms and circulate through his body in a flash.

The warmth quickly returned to the stone tower and vanished.

Hum.

A faint, vibrating sound echoed.

Under Lin Sheng's surprised gaze, the scale on the front of the stone tower slowly began to glow with a soft white light.

Like a thermometer, a white line as thick as a finger began to rise from the very bottom of the stone tower.

The white line slowly stopped at the mark for level two, then remained motionless.

"Level two?" Lin Sheng's heart stirred, and he immediately let go of the handle.

As he released his grip, the white line instantly dimmed, quickly fading away until it vanished.

"Does this mean I'm currently at the level of a level two warrior?" Lin Sheng guessed.

He gripped the handle once more.

The white line soon glowed again, rising to the level two mark, but the faint warmth he had felt before did not reappear.

"Interesting. I wonder what standard this thing uses for testing."

He let go of the handle, allowing the white line to disappear.

After rummaging through the storage room, Lin Sheng saw nothing else besides this Test Tower.

Carrying his Rotten Longsword, he returned to the front of the Temple gates.

He was no longer prepared to remain in this safe zone.

The Temple was devoid of any monsters or dangers, and he had already come to regard it as a safe zone for rest and recovery.

Although this place is great, I didn't come to this dream realm just to stay in a safe zone.

Lin Sheng gently pulled open the main hall doors.

The doors parted silently, and a gust of bone-chilling, cold air surged in.

Lin Sheng shivered, but he still stepped out of the hall, sword in hand.

Standing at the entrance of the Temple, he could see the streets of Black Feather City lit by streetlamps.

The streets were empty and silent, lined with decaying, dilapidated buildings.

In the distance stood a towering, sharp black spire, surrounded by massive, sprawling city walls.

"This place is like a giant cage," Lin Sheng muttered, his gaze scanning for a direction to head next.

He carried his sword and walked slowly to the iron fence of the courtyard, his eyes landing on a mansion directly opposite the Temple.

It was a Fish-Shaped Mansion that resembled a manor.

The exterior of the gray-white building was carved with numerous reliefs resembling cherubs, with delicate patterns like wisteria flowers in some areas.

Compared to the surrounding buildings, the entire mansion was much better preserved; even the outer perimeter walls were perfectly intact, with no gaps or damage.

The mansion had three floors, and the doors and windows on every level were tightly shut.

From Lin Sheng's vantage point, he could see a dried-up black fountain in the middle of the opposite courtyard, with a white stone tablet standing in front of it.

Under the soft moonlight, he could faintly make out some text carved into the tablet.

He thought for a moment and decided to go check out the mansion across the way.

It wasn't just because the mansion was well-preserved and might contain useful items; more importantly, it was the closest building to the Temple, which might make it relatively safer.

Furthermore, compared to the other surrounding buildings, the mansion was significantly shorter. Some of its details were also not as exquisite or luxurious as the other structures nearby.

Clearly, the owner of the mansion did not hold a high status.

In a place fraught with danger, a lower status usually meant a lower level of threat.

Creeeak.

Lin Sheng gently pulled open the iron gate and stepped out slowly.

The moment he left the coverage of the circular halo above the Temple, he felt a chill wash over his entire body.

A faint, bone-piercing sense of threat welled up in his heart.

Lin Sheng gripped his Black Sword tightly, glanced left and right, and dashed toward the iron gate of the mansion opposite.

With a few quick strides, he crossed the dozen-meter-wide street and soon arrived before the iron gate.

Reaching out, he gave it a gentle pull, and the iron gate of the mansion slowly creaked open.