Returning to Shadow Street

The Yellow Paper floated in midair like a ghost, attracting no one's attention.

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

He selected "Mental Strength" and read the description carefully.

"Mental strength, also known as willpower, is an invisible force within living beings. Powerful mental strength can greatly improve the body's coordination, memory, analytical ability, intelligence, and coordination. It is also a prerequisite for learning skills such as magic and sorcery... The higher one's mental strength, the more powerful the skills one can unleash!"

So that's how it worked!

Li Wei felt an urge to spend all his remaining Basic Attribute Points on Mental Strength. But after thinking it over, he decided against it for now. There were still several things he needed to figure out.

Fat Pig Zhang had gone out with Assistant Zheng and probably wouldn't be back anytime soon. Li Wei looked around and, seeing that no one was paying attention to him, got up and headed for the restroom.

According to Shadow Street's rules, six days later Li Wei would be forced into a world based on a particular game, where he would have to complete various tasks listed on the Yellow Paper. There was no doubt the whole ordeal would be several times harder than the "Initial Trial," so it was especially important to make thorough preparations beforehand.

There was no one else in the restroom. Li Wei went into a stall, shut the door, and summoned the Yellow Paper once more.

The method for entering and leaving Shadow Street was described in detail in the Green Skin Book he had bought. All he needed to do was trace a pattern in the air with his finger to open a portal.

As Li Wei traced the teleportation pattern, time around him seemed to slow. The drops of water from the faucet outside fell sluggishly, then came to a stop in midair.

Time had stopped!

Li Wei didn't notice any of this, because by then he was already standing in a dim alley.

Shadow Street was still shrouded in mist. The bricks underfoot were damp, and the air carried a faint musty smell. Li Wei pulled his clothes tighter and walked out of the deserted alley.

Everyone who arrived on Shadow Street divided the place into several fixed areas. The liveliest was the Trading Plaza, which people had set up on their own. It was where Li Wei had bought the Green Skin Book last time.

Just as before, the place was bustling with voices. Li Wei strolled slowly past the stalls, looking over the goods on display. He spent a full two hours browsing the whole area, and by the end he had a rough idea of how the items were categorized and priced.

Li Wei even saw a few stalls piled high with all kinds of firearms. He recognized some of them, while many others were weapons he'd never seen before. Their prices varied, with even the most expensive available for just a few dozen points.

Compared with these firearms, the market had far more cold weapons, such as knives and swords. Their prices varied too: the cheapest cost only a few points, while the most expensive ran into the tens of thousands.

Although he really wanted to buy a few guns, Li Wei knew that wasn't why he'd come here.

His purpose in returning to Shadow Street this time was to find out whether there was a way to increase his Inner Power. He had a C-Rank martial art, Cloud-Piercing Palm, and ever since he'd seen Aunt Li kill the Miao Tribe Leader with a single palm strike, he hadn't been able to stop thinking about learning it. But he had no idea how to improve his Inner Power.

That was why Li Wei had suddenly thought of returning to Shadow Street. Maybe he could find something useful in the market.

From what he could tell, to increase one's Inner Power, one first had to choose an internal cultivation method and train in it. Only a few stalls sold such methods, and their prices were astonishingly high.

The stall in front of Li Wei, for example, had only two internal cultivation manuals.

"Purple Mist Divine Skill, D-Rank internal cultivation method. Can be trained to the third level. Each level gained: Strength +1, Agility +1, Stamina +3, Inner Power +30. Difficulty: Normal... A superior martial art of the jianghu. At first, its power is faint and elusive, soft as rosy clouds, but its stored force is tenacious. Eventually, it surges forth like a vast sky, unstoppable. The practitioner's face becomes suffused with a purple glow, hence the name 'Purple Mist'!"

"Primordial Origin Skill, D-Rank internal cultivation method. Can be trained to the fourth level. Each level gained: Strength +2, Agility +1, Stamina +2, Inner Power +15. Difficulty: Normal... By tempering the flesh, bones, and internal organs, one improves one's inner cultivation. It is a well-balanced martial art!"

Both methods were priced at over 5,000 points. Li Wei felt his scalp prickle. They were simply too expensive. He didn't have enough points right now, so after considering it, he started looking for skills that required Mental Strength to learn.

"Precision, LV1, E-Rank skill. Can be upgraded to LV4. Improves accuracy with ranged weapons such as firearms, bows, and thrown weapons. Requires 3 Mental Strength... 'Sometimes you need to aim a little better!'"

"Eye of Perception, D-Rank passive skill. Allows you to view a target creature's attributes, item information, and more. Requires a minimum of 11 Mental Strength to learn... 'These eyes can see the truth hidden beneath the surface!'"

The two skills cost 60 and 100 points respectively. For Li Wei, who had several thousand points, that 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 other stall around here has a better selection than mine!" The stall owner was a middle-aged man with muscles bulging all over, as if they were about to burst through his clothes. His Strength was clearly high.

In fact, he'd noticed Li Wei a while ago. Based on his experience, Li Wei was clearly a big spender. It was just a businessman's instinct.

Seeing Precision and the Eye of Perception in Li Wei's hands, he immediately sized up the situation. Precision was a very common skill. Since it was easy to obtain, it usually wasn't expensive, and many people were willing to choose it. Once upgraded to LV4, it let you shoot with firearms without ever missing.

The Eye of Perception, on the other hand, was a rather useless skill, mainly because its Mental Strength requirement was so high. Ordinary humans had between 2 and 3 Mental Strength, and a few individuals could reach 4 or 5. This skill, however, required 11. Basically, no newcomer had a chance to learn it.

The "old hands" of Shadow Street had plenty of points to spend on improving their basic attributes, but most of them put those points into practical attributes such as Strength, Agility, and Stamina. After all, no matter how powerful your Mental Strength was, you couldn't use it to attack your enemies directly.

So no one had paid any attention to this Skill Book. Besides, skills that required Mental Strength were generally cheaper throughout the market. Usually, nobody wanted them, so the stall owner was eager to get this Skill Book off his hands.

"The Eye of Perception is a D-Rank skill. You can have it for only 100 points. If you take it together with Precision, I can give you a twenty-percent discount. Both Skill Books will be just 140 points!"

Li Wei didn't say anything, merely nodding. The stall owner clearly hadn't expected the deal to go through so easily.

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

The stall owner was taken aback, then looked troubled. "How could I possibly have a C-Rank skill? Those can only be obtained in scenarios rated C-Rank or higher. The highest-level items I have are these two D-Rank internal cultivation manuals. But I might be able to get a few next time I go into a scenario. I'll be sure to let you know then!"

Li Wei nodded and said nothing more before leaving the stall.

He gave up on buying an internal cultivation method. First, he didn't have enough points. Besides, he'd noticed another problem: Mental Strength didn't seem to be valued much here. Nearly every Skill Book involving Mental Strength cost less than other Skill Books. That couldn't be a coincidence. Clearly, the people of Shadow Street already knew that Mental Strength didn't do much to help with completing scenario missions.

At least, it wasn't as important as a powerful attribute like Strength. So had it really been worth spending a Basic Attribute Point to increase his Mental Strength?

That was a Basic Attribute Point, after all. Li Wei now understood just how valuable they were.

His basic attributes were Strength 4, Agility 5, Mental Strength 10, and Stamina 3. Mental Strength was his highest attribute, while his others were no different from an ordinary person's. Since Mental Strength was his strong suit, there was no reason not to make use of it.

That was also why Li Wei had put off learning an internal cultivation method and bought a Mental Strength skill instead. Besides, the Eye of Perception really was a useful ability.

Once he had made up his mind, Li Wei summoned the Yellow Paper, raised his Mental Strength to 11, and learned the Eye of Perception from the Skill Book.

A flash of light passed, and the Skill Book in his hand vanished. At the same time, Li Wei's eyes glowed red, as if he were wearing blood-red contact lenses. They looked strangely crimson. Soon, the glow faded, and his eyes returned to their normal black color.

There was no visible change, but Li Wei knew he'd mastered a skill.

He used the Eye of Perception to examine the stall owner from earlier, and a detailed block of information appeared before him, like a holographic image.

"Number 917, human (martial artist), Strength 8, Agility 5, Mental Strength 2, Stamina 7... Skills: Shaolin Long Fist LV3, Primordial Origin Skill LV1, Destructive Power 28, Overall Rating E (3)."

It really was useful. With a skill like this, he could basically learn an opponent's strength and stats, giving himself the upper hand in a fight. Even if he couldn't win, he could make a quick escape.

The world seen through the Eye of Perception was full of wonders. Items whose attributes he had previously needed the Yellow Skin Book to check could now be examined with a glance, revealing even more detailed information. Some information, such as the attributes of martial arts, didn't appear on the Yellow Paper at all.

In Li Wei's eyes, ordinary Skill Books were now divided into several colors: white, red, and purple.

White meant no attribute, and anyone could practice it. Red meant Yang attribute. After practicing it, one's personal attribute would become Yang, and from then on one could only practice martial arts of the same attribute. Yin attribute was the exact opposite.

Li Wei was secretly glad. Without the Eye of Perception, he'd have had no idea about these attributes. If he had practiced the wrong skills recklessly, wouldn't that have done more harm than good?

The two internal cultivation methods, Purple Mist Divine Skill and Primordial Origin Skill, had seemed far too expensive to Li Wei. He had only 4,610 points left, nowhere near enough to afford them.

Cloud-Piercing Palm was a C-Rank martial art, and if he sold it, he could certainly get over ten thousand points for it. But Li Wei wasn't going to sell it. He wanted to learn this powerful palm technique himself. Aside from that Skill Book, though, he didn't have anything else he could trade for points.

Wait!

Li Wei suddenly remembered that he still had two Refined Steel Miao Sabers. If he exchanged one directly for points, he could get 1,024 points for it. If he set up a stall, he could definitely sell it for more.

Since he had two, why not sell one? That would give him enough points to buy an internal cultivation Skill Book. With that thought, Li Wei found an empty spot, spread a piece of cloth on the ground, and, following the example of the others, set up a stall.