Strength Increase

"Only bringing this up now? If I'd known, I would've kept a few zombies back in Bright City."

Little Black Ball flitted around before Xin Yang, looking as though it were saying, You never asked me back then.

"If I don't ask, you won't take the initiative to tell me?"

"You need to be a mature companion wraith. If you have any abilities, you should take the initiative to tell your master."

At that moment, information surfaced in Xin Yang's mind again. Once Little Black Ball advanced to the Disaster Anomaly tier, it would gain a new ability—one that seemed quite important.

"Burial Temple Wraith, do you have a name?" Xin Yang looked curiously at the Burial Temple Wraith.

"This old servant is named Zhou Qian, courtesy name Shangzhi."

"My lord may simply call this old servant Shangzhi..." the Burial Temple Wraith answered rigidly.

"Shangzhi, can you search for nearby wraiths?"

"In reply to my lord, this old servant can."

Xin Yang had not forgotten why he had come to Checkpoint 108.

Xin Yang and the Burial Temple Wraith began searching for wraiths.

"I found you!"

A sharp glint flashed through Xin Yang's eyes. Without hesitation, he drove the vine in his hand toward the ground behind him.

There was nowhere to hide on the open ground, yet a ghost was there.

If the wraith was not behind him, Xin Yang could not think of anywhere else it could be.

Of course, he could not rule out the possibility that this wraith could turn invisible.

But he believed there would not be such a powerful wraith at Checkpoint 108.

Sure enough, as the vine in Xin Yang's hand lashed out, the wraith behind him twisted in pain. It seemed as though something was trying to emerge from the ground behind him.

Xin Yang turned around.

The vine under his control trembled continuously, yet remained firmly embedded in the ground.

"A ghost that can be easily suppressed by a single vine?"

"It really is weak."

Xin Yang muttered to himself. Sure enough, there were no longer any wraiths in Checkpoint 108 that could threaten him.

The fundamental difficulty of the newcomer assessment lay in finding ghosts.

But with the Burial Temple Wraith, that problem became much easier.

After all, as long as one put in the effort, they would eventually find these things.

So the real test was finding ghosts and speeding up the time needed to kill wraiths.

Xin Yang no longer wanted to toy with this wraith.

The vine tightened. The wraith was killed.

[You have killed a Tier 1 Disaster Wraith: Chameleon Wraith]

"Congratulations, my lord. Your strength has increased greatly once more."

The Burial Temple Wraith stood beside Xin Yang, speaking with an ingratiating expression.

Today!

It was already Xin Yang's third day inside Checkpoint 108.

Only half a day remained before the assessment ended.

Over the past few days,

Xin Yang had taken Shangzhi—the Burial Temple Wraith—around to find and kill wraiths.

All the "experience" had been allocated to Little Black Ball. It had now reached Tier 7 Disaster Wraith.

Why had he allocated the "experience" to Little Black Ball first?

Because Little Black Ball kept telling Xin Yang in his mind that once it reached the Disaster Anomaly tier, it would gain an ability extremely important to Xin Yang.

Not only that, over the past few days, Xin Yang had also used his "Resurrection" ability to obtain some attributes, a new wraith skill, and a new curse ability.

The newly acquired wraith skill was [Vine Control].

He had obtained it from a Vine Wraith.

[Vine Control Analysis: Consumes wraith energy to create or control nearby vines. The higher the wraith skill level and the stronger the companion wraith's tier, the greater the power of the wraith skill.]

The newly acquired curse ability was [Tree Bark].

Yes, it was precisely the curse ability Zhang Liang had been so proud of during the Wu City student competition.

[N-Grade Curse Ability Tree Bark Analysis: Slightly increases the defensive capabilities of certain parts of the body.]

Xin Yang had obtained this curse ability from a Tree Wraith.

"Let's go, Shangzhi. It's time for me to return to the village. Before the newcomer assessment ends, I need to find a way to get a village cultivation art."

"Yes, my lord."

"Lead the way."

"Yes!"

When he returned to Bama Village again,

it was already the morning of the third day.

There should be seven or eight hours left before the assessment ended.

After passing the wraith-detecting stone test administered by the Night Patrol Team at the village entrance,

Xin Yang chose to return to the ancestral hall first and check on the other newcomers.

When he arrived at the village ancestral hall,

he saw extinguished fire pits at a glance. Around them, newcomers lay sprawled all over the ground. The ones who had risen early were still chatting and boasting.

Several dozen other newcomers had their arms wrapped around their chests and were curled up on the ground like shrimp, sleeping soundly.

Xin Yang did not try to wake them. They were merely unambitious newcomers. Even if he tried, he would not be able to wake them.

After leaving, Xin Yang considered how he could obtain a cultivation art.

Xin Yang was a rather serious and persistent person. Since he had decided to obtain a cultivation art, he would rack his brains to find a way.

He asked the villagers,

"Where is the Night Patrol Team's training ground?"

The villagers pointed Xin Yang in a direction, and he headed that way.

Only after arriving at the Night Patrol Team's training ground did Xin Yang realize that it was near the fence he had climbed over to leave the village that night.

Many members of the Night Patrol Team were doing strength training on the training ground.

The methods of strength training were simple and not difficult. Push-ups, squats, and weightlifting, for example, could all train a person's strength.

In a secluded corner of the training ground, Xin Yang began doing set after set of push-ups, squats, and weightlifting.

Push-ups and squats required no equipment, but weightlifting did. Fortunately, such equipment was easy to find. He only needed to pick up a fairly heavy stone from beside the training ground.

After training for more than ten minutes, the others on the training ground began noticing Xin Yang.

The stone Xin Yang was lifting was one that many Night Patrol Team members could not lift successfully.

The surrounding Night Patrol Team members immediately became interested in Xin Yang!

"Outsider, what are you trying to do?"

"I want to learn the cultivation art you practice," Xin Yang said directly.

"Hahahaha." The surrounding group burst into laughter.

"Outsider, perhaps you don't know this, but you outsiders cannot learn cultivation arts."

"I know, but I just want to take a look."

The group around him immediately became interested. "It's not impossible to tell you the cultivation art."

"How about this? You arm-wrestle three people we choose, one after another. As long as you win, we'll teach you our village's Ironwood Art." They merely wanted some amusement. Telling an outsider the cultivation art was basically harmless, because no outsider could learn it anyway.

Besides, their village's Ironwood Art was no secret. It was common knowledge in the surrounding villages and towns.

"Fine. I hope you'll keep your promise when the time comes."

"Oho, this outsider kid is interesting!" Everyone began jeering, then pulled out a burly man.

The burly man said, "Kid, what tier is your wraith?"

"Tier 4 Disaster Wraith." Xin Yang immediately released his companion wraith, Dream Origin.

"Kid, I'm currently at Body Tempering Tier 6, equivalent to your Disaster Wraith Tier 6. If you don't want to compete, you can admit defeat now."

"Enough nonsense. Let's begin!" Xin Yang's face was full of confidence.

The arm-wrestling match began.

The surrounding Night Patrol Team members shouted.

"Come on!"

"Come on!"

"Come on!"

Naturally, they were cheering for the burly man. How could they possibly cheer for Xin Yang?

Some even tried to distract Xin Yang from beside him.

Yet the burly man's face had turned red, as though he were using all the strength in his body.

Xin Yang's hand did not move even the slightest bit.

A minute passed.

Xin Yang finally began exerting force.

Bang!

The burly man's wrist was instantly forced down by Xin Yang.

Xin Yang won.

It was only normal for him to win. It would have been strange if he had lost. He was now at least fifty percent stronger than on the day he entered the checkpoint.