New Skill, Level 3!

The qi within his body flowed without cease.

Zhou An's gaze sharpened. In the pitch-black alley, he raised his left leg and stepped forward.

Air currents circulated between his legs.

Zhou An's legs crossed as he began to run at the end of the alley.

Running was the method he had come up with.

The Golden Finger he carried was a small game he had created in his previous life, and it could only draw from things related to life skills.

When he had first created this game, he had been extremely enthusiastic, checking the forum every day for all kinds of feedback.

Running had also been included back then.

Moreover, someone on the forum had thoroughly grinded Running, and the results had been unexpectedly good.

Zhou An had figured it out. He needed both movement techniques and speed, and Running was the best option.

Qi continuously circulated through his legs. In the blink of an eye, Zhou An had run from the end of the alley to its middle.

But regrettably, no proficiency prompt appeared.

Zhou An stopped in the middle of the alley, frowning.

My trigger method must be wrong.

He thought of how Wok Flipping had been triggered.

At the time, he had completed everything related to stir-frying before triggering Wok Flipping's proficiency.

Since Running could not trigger proficiency now, there had to be a flaw in his process.

Zhou An paced back and forth through the dark alley.

Combining it with the conditions for triggering Wok Flipping, he thought it over carefully and finally sorted out the logic.

The running posture had to be wrong!

More precisely, it was not that his running posture was wrong, but that his breathing while running was wrong.

He had run for exercise before.

At first, he had found it exhausting, so he had looked it up online.

Someone had said that when running, one had to coordinate with one's breathing to reduce the burden considerably.

When he had tested it just now, he had been focused on triggering proficiency as quickly as possible and had not paid attention to such things.

Now, it seemed that the problem lay there.

With that in mind, Zhou An returned to the corner and ran through it again.

This time, he paid attention to his breathing, adjusting it to its optimal state as he ran the entire length of the alley.

Yet he still did not trigger proficiency.

Zhou An knew that he had not regulated his breathing properly, because he still felt a slight discomfort while running.

He returned to the end of the alley and started running again.

As he ran, he adjusted his breathing once more.

After running back and forth more than ten times, Zhou An finally got his breathing under control.

After the entire run, not a trace of disorder remained in his breathing.

When Zhou An ran through the alley once again, he finally triggered proficiency. A line of text appeared before his eyes.

Running lv.1: 1/10000

Finally!

Zhou An was overjoyed as he watched the words appear before him.

As long as it could be triggered, he could continue grinding it.

After thinking it over carefully, Zhou An decided to grind Running tonight.

Both Object Juggling and the Butchering Ox Skill had reached Level 3, and their progress had clearly slowed afterward.

Running was only at Level 1, and its progress was fast. He would raise Running first, giving himself another means of survival.

With that in mind, Zhou An continued running back and forth.

You would never know if you did not run. Once he started running seriously, Zhou An discovered that there was much more to it than he had imagined.

By regulating his breathing, he could make his movements flow smoothly.

As he ran, his proficiency rose rapidly.

After running for a long time, his legs naturally grew sore, but with qi circulating within his body, the aching and numbness quickly vanished.

Zhou An had originally planned to sleep for an hour and a half. Now that the qi in his body had increased, an hour and a half was more than enough.

But after gaining a new ability, he became even more excited and wanted to grind a little longer.

Maintaining that excitement, he ran through the entire night.

Only when dawn began to break and roosters crowed from every direction did Zhou An finally emerge from that state of excitement.

A line of text appeared before his eyes.

Running lv.2 (Speed +1): 1/20000

Just as when he had grinded Knife Skills, he had gained a level in one night. However, the further he progressed, the harder it became to raise proficiency.

After Speed increased by one level, it was no longer limited to using the Butchering Ox Skill. As long as he ran, he would gain one point of speed.

Zhou An gave it a try. He lifted his foot and ran to the left, swiftly turning into an afterimage.

Qi circulated through his body, and he naturally followed the breathing rhythm for Running.

As he ran, a sense of exhilaration rose in his heart.

With this kind of speed, I have another trump card.

Having acquired a new skill, Zhou An felt immensely pleased.

It was time to report for duty. After returning home to wash up, Zhou An headed toward the yamen.

After reporting for duty at the yamen, Zhou An waited outside as usual for Yu Hang to arrive so they could patrol the streets together.

Nothing happened today either. Everything was so quiet that it felt abnormal, without even the slightest stir.

Many more days passed, and everything remained as usual.

Zhou An's life became regular as well.

Because he had to patrol the streets every day, he had no way to go to the kitchen and practice Object Juggling.

Now that he had three skills to grind, Zhou An temporarily decided their priorities.

He put the Butchering Ox Skill and Object Juggling on hold first.

Proficiency became harder to raise the further he progressed, while what he needed now was rapid improvement.

So he put all his efforts into Running first.

Over these days, Zhou An's life had become highly routine. It seemed dull, but he enjoyed it.

Every morning, he got up early to run. After running, he reported for duty and patrolled the streets.

When he was not on night patrol, he ran at night as well.

Day after day, he repeated this routine.

The further proficiency advanced, the more slowly it rose. But as long as it kept rising, Zhou An never grew tired of it.

During this time, Yu Hang had also been particularly nervous, and Zhou An could sense it.

The closer the Imperial Examination drew, the worse Yu Hang's mentality became. His two previous failures had also been related to his state of mind.

Whenever Zhou An comforted him, Yu Hang said that he understood.

But there had been no visible improvement.

I can reach Level 3 today.

In the morning, Zhou An stood outside his door and looked at the text before him.

Running lv.2 (Speed +1): 19858/20000

Over these many days, day and night, whenever he had free time, he ran.

He had grinded intensely.

That was how this life-skill mini-game worked.

As long as one was willing to put in the effort, one would definitely gain something.

With Zhou An grinding like this for so long, Running was finally about to undergo a qualitative change.

Begin!

In the morning alley, only Zhou An's footsteps echoed.

If an outsider had seen him, they would have discovered that Zhou An was incredibly fast.

Moreover, his footsteps made extremely faint sounds whenever they touched the ground.

If the surroundings had not been so quiet, they probably would not have heard his footsteps at all.

To grind his proficiency to Level 3 today, he had gotten up especially early.

Zhou An was so absorbed in running that he even forgot the passage of time.

When the footsteps of townsfolk began sounding from the street outside, Zhou An stopped at the entrance and let out a long breath.

A line of text appeared before his eyes.