Return to Shadow Street

The Yellow Paper floated in mid-air like a ghost, drawing no one's attention.

Li Wei rubbed his chin. With a thought, a long passage of text appeared on the Yellow Paper, detailing his four attributes.

He selected "Spirit" and read carefully.

"Spirit, or willpower, is an invisible force within a biological entity. High Spirit can effectively coordinate the body, improve memory, analytical ability, intelligence, and coordination. It is also a prerequisite for learning magic, incantations, and other skills... The higher the Spirit, the more powerful the released skills!"

So that was it!

Li Wei felt an urge to dump all his remaining basic attribute points into Spirit, but after careful consideration, he held off. There were still a few things he needed to clarify.

Fat Pig Zhang had already gone out with Assistant Zheng and likely wouldn't return for a while. Li Wei glanced around, and seeing that no one was paying him any mind, he stood up and headed toward the restroom.

According to the rules of Shadow Street, in six days, Li Wei would be forced into a world based on a specific game to complete various tasks on the Yellow Paper. Without a doubt, the entire process would be several times more difficult than his "Initial Trial," so making thorough preparations beforehand was vital.

The restroom was empty. Li Wei entered a stall, locked the door, and summoned the Yellow Paper once more.

The method for entering and exiting Shadow Street was recorded in detail in the Green Skin Book he had purchased. He only needed to trace a pattern in the void with his finger to open a portal.

Just as Li Wei began tracing the portal pattern, the time around him seemed to slow down. Water droplets from the faucet outside descended sluggishly, eventually freezing in mid-air.

Time had stopped!

Li Wei, however, remained unaware of this, for he was already standing in a dim alleyway.

Shadow Street remained shrouded in mist. The bricks beneath his feet were damp, and the air carried a faint, musty odor. Li Wei pulled his clothes tighter and stepped out of the deserted alley.

Everyone who arrived at Shadow Street divided the place into several fixed zones. The liveliest was the Trading Plaza, formed spontaneously by the residents—the very place where Li Wei had bought the Green Skin Book last time.

Just like before, the place was bustling with noise. Li Wei strolled slowly past the various stalls, scanning the goods on display. It took him a full two hours to walk through the entire area, giving him a rough grasp of the classification and pricing of these items.

Li Wei even saw several stalls piled high with various firearms. He recognized some, but most were weapons he had never seen before. The prices for these varied, with the most expensive costing only a few dozen points.

Compared to these firearms, the market was dominated by cold weapons like swords and sabers. Their prices varied wildly, from the cheapest at just a few points to the most expensive, which reached tens of thousands.

Although he was tempted to buy some firearms, Li Wei knew that wasn't his purpose here.

He had returned to Shadow Street to see if there was any way to increase his Internal Energy. He possessed a C-Rank martial arts manual, the Cloud-Piercing Palm. After witnessing Aunt Li kill the Miao Tribe Leader with a single strike, Li Wei had been unable to stop thinking about that palm technique, yet he had no clue how to cultivate Internal Energy.

This was why he had suddenly decided to return to Shadow Street; perhaps he could find some unexpected gains in this market.

Through observation, he realized that to increase Internal Energy, one had to first choose an internal cultivation method. Only a few stalls sold them, and the prices were shockingly high.

Take the stall in front of Li Wei, for example, which only had two manuals.

"[Purple Mist Divine Skill], D-Rank internal cultivation, can be cultivated to the third level. Each level increases Strength +1, Agility +1, Stamina +3, and Internal Energy +30. Cultivation Difficulty: Normal... A superior martial art of the pugilistic world. At the start, it is elusive and soft like clouds and mist, yet the stored energy is incredibly resilient. Later on, it becomes overwhelming and unstoppable. The practitioner's face is suffused with purple energy, hence the name 'Purple Mist'!"

"[Primordial Origin Skill], D-Rank internal cultivation, can be cultivated to the fourth level. Each level increases Strength +2, Agility +1, Stamina +2, and Internal Energy +15. Cultivation Difficulty: Normal... Improves internal cultivation by tempering the skin, flesh, bones, and internal organs. It is a very balanced martial art!"

Both manuals were priced at over 5,000 points. Li Wei's scalp tingled; they were simply too expensive. His current points were nowhere near enough. After some thought, he began searching for skills that required Spirit to learn.

"[Precision] LV1, E-Rank skill, can be upgraded to LV4. After learning, it improves the accuracy of ranged weapons like firearms, bows, and throwing weapons. Requires 3 points of Spirit... 'Sometimes, you need to aim a little better!'"

"[Eye of Perception], D-Rank passive skill, can view a target's relevant attributes, item information, etc. Requires a minimum of 11 Spirit to learn... 'These eyes can see the truth hidden beneath the surface!'"

Looking at the prices, they were 60 and 100 points respectively. For Li Wei, who had thousands of points, this was nothing. What caught his attention was the [Eye of Perception].

"Friend, what kind of skill book are you looking for? I'm not bragging, but no one here has a selection as complete as mine!" The stall owner was a middle-aged man with bulging muscles that seemed ready to burst through his clothes; clearly, his Strength attribute was not low.

In fact, he had noticed Li Wei long ago. Based on his experience, Li Wei was clearly a big client—a businessman's intuition.

Seeing the [Precision] and [Eye of Perception] in Li Wei's hands, he immediately made a calculation. [Precision] was a very common ability. Because it was easy to obtain, the price was generally low, and many people were willing to choose it, especially since upgrading it to LV4 allowed for perfect accuracy with firearms.

[Eye of Perception], however, was a bit of a "chicken rib"—tasteless to eat but a waste to discard—mainly because its Spirit requirement was too high. The average human's Spirit was between 2 and 3, with some reaching 4 or 5, but this skill required 11. Basically, no newcomer had a chance to learn it.

As for the "veterans" of Shadow Street, while they had enough points to exchange for basic attribute increases, most spent them on practical attributes like Strength, Agility, and Stamina. After all, no matter how strong one's Spirit was, it couldn't be used to directly attack enemies.

Therefore, this skill book had remained ignored. Furthermore, throughout the market, skills requiring Spirit were generally priced low and usually went unasked for, so he was eager to get rid of it.

"'Eye of Perception' is a D-Rank skill. You can have it for just 100 points. If you pair it with 'Precision,' I can give you a 20% discount. Both skill books for just 140 points!"

Li Wei didn't speak, merely nodding. The stall owner clearly hadn't expected the deal to be completed so easily.

"By the way, do you have any C-Rank skill books?" Li Wei asked casually.

The stall owner was stunned for a moment before looking troubled. "How could I have C-Rank skills? Those can only be obtained in scenarios rated C-Rank or higher. The highest-level items I have are those two D-Rank internal cultivation manuals. But I might be able to get a few in the next plot scenario, and I'll be sure to notify you then!"

Li Wei nodded and left the stall without another word.

He gave up on buying an internal cultivation manual. For one, he didn't have enough points. Furthermore, he had discovered a problem: it seemed that Spirit was not highly valued here. Almost all skill books involving Spirit were priced lower than others. This was certainly no coincidence; clearly, the people of Shadow Street already knew that Spirit was not very useful for passing plot missions.

At the very least, it wasn't as important as a powerful attribute like Strength. Was his previous decision to spend a basic skill point to increase his Spirit worth it?

That was a basic attribute point, and Li Wei now knew how precious those were.

Among his basic attributes, Strength was 4, Agility 5, Spirit 10, and Stamina 3. Spirit was his highest stat, while the others were no different from an average person. Since Spirit was his strength, there was no reason not to capitalize on it.

This was why Li Wei had temporarily given up on learning internal cultivation to buy Spirit-based skills. Besides, [Eye of Perception] was indeed a very practical ability.

Having made up his mind, Li Wei summoned the Yellow Paper, raised his Spirit to 11, and learned [Eye of Perception].

A flash of light passed, and the skill book in his hand vanished. At the same time, Li Wei's eyes emitted a faint red glow, as if he were wearing blood-red contact lenses, giving them an eerie, crimson look. Soon, the red glow faded, and his eyes returned to black.

Externally, there was no change, but Li Wei knew he had indeed mastered a skill.

He used [Eye of Perception] to check the stall owner from earlier. Immediately, a detailed set of information appeared before him, like a holographic projection.

"ID 917, Human (Martial Artist), Strength 8, Agility 5, Spirit 2, Stamina 7... Skills: Shaolin Long Fist LV3, Primordial Origin Skill LV1, Destructive Power 28, Comprehensive Rating E(3)"

It was truly practical. With this perception skill, he could basically grasp the opponent's strength and data, allowing him to seize the initiative in combat or run away immediately if he was outmatched.

The world through the Eye of Perception was full of novelty. For items that previously required the Yellow Paper to view attributes, Li Wei could now understand more detailed information with just a glance. Some information, such as martial arts, wasn't even indicated on the Yellow Paper.

In Li Wei's eyes, the formerly ordinary skill books were now divided into different colors: white, red, and purple.

White was attribute-less and could be cultivated by anyone. Red was Yang-attribute; after cultivation, one's personal attributes would become Yang-aligned, and one could only cultivate martial arts of the same attribute thereafter. Yin-attribute was the exact opposite.

Li Wei felt a secret sense of luck. If he hadn't gained the Eye of Perception and learned about attribute alignment, he might have suffered a great loss by cultivating blindly in the future.

As for those two internal cultivation manuals, the [Purple Mist Divine Skill] and [Primordial Origin Skill], Li Wei felt the prices were simply too high. He only had 4,610 points left and couldn't afford them.

[Cloud-Piercing Palm] was a C-Rank martial art. If he sold it, he could naturally fetch tens of thousands of points, but Li Wei wouldn't sell it. He wanted to learn this powerful palm technique himself. Aside from this manual, he really didn't have anything else to trade for points.

Wait!

Li Wei suddenly remembered he still had two [Refined Steel Miao Sabers]. If he exchanged them directly for points, each would fetch 1,024 points. If he set up a stall, he could definitely sell them for more than that.

Since he had two, why not sell one? That way, he would have enough points to buy an internal cultivation manual. Thinking of this, Li Wei found an empty spot, spread a cloth on the ground, and began to set up a stall, just like everyone else.