System Activation

"My lord, this is the place." Lu Shaolin looked around, his voice low.

The four of them stood in a small clearing within the woods.

There were still traces of blood on the weeds in the clearing.

Zhou Yong swept his gaze around and said, "Zhang Long, Zhao Hu, you two stay here and protect him. I'll check the surroundings!"

"Yes, Chief!" The two clasped their fists and shouted in unison.

Zhou Yong untied his saber, followed the bloodstains, and strode into the forest.

Lu Shaolin and the other two remained where they were, while Zhang Long and Zhao Hu held their sabers at the ready.

After roughly half an hour, several loud booms rang out from the forest, followed by silence.

Lu Shaolin glanced at the two beside him. Seeing that they remained silent, he did not ask anything either.

A while later, faint footsteps came from the woods. Zhang Long and Zhao Hu immediately drew their sabers, bent their knees slightly, and stared warily in the direction of the sound.

Lu Shaolin, meanwhile, found his attention drawn to their sabers.

The blades carried a faint red sheen, with flame-like patterns running across them, while the edges glinted with a trace of golden light.

As the footsteps drew closer, Zhou Yong emerged from the undergrowth.

He held a green-faced, fanged monster in his right hand and a black iron spear in his left.

There was a deep hole in the monster's right eye, piercing straight into its brain.

"Chief," Zhang Long and Zhao Hu called out.

"Mm." Zhou Yong nodded, tossed the zombie onto the grass, and handed the iron spear to Lu Shaolin. "This should be your father's, but I didn't find your father's body."

"Thank you, my lord, for avenging my father!"

Lu Shaolin accepted the spear, his expression complicated.

Although he had possessed this youth's body and inherited some of his memories, he was not the youth after all. It was difficult for him to feel grief.

"It was merely my duty. You needn't thank me."

Zhou Yong shook his head.

He then looked at Zhang Long and Zhao Hu. "This matter is settled. Take the corpse outside the woods and burn it, then return to the yamen."

"Yes, Chief!"

The two answered in unison and walked toward the zombie.

Out of curiosity, Lu Shaolin stepped forward as well, intending to lend a hand.

After all, he had been a detective in his previous life. He had some nerve.

The instant his hand touched the corpse's cold, hard flesh, a hazy voice rang out in his mind: "System activated. Obtained 2 Source Points."

Just as Lu Shaolin was baffled, Zhang Long's voice sounded beside his ear. "Kid, your body is too weak. You don't have much strength, so there's no need for you to help."

"Uh, all right, Brother Zhang!"

Lu Shaolin nodded and stepped aside.

Could weakness have given me auditory hallucinations?

"Let's go!"

Just as he was about to investigate further, Zhou Yong gave the order.

Lu Shaolin could only shake his head and follow after them.

Four men and one corpse headed out of the forest.

Lu Shaolin hurried a few steps forward, came to Zhou Yong's side, and asked, "My lord, is there any way to treat an injury to the internal organs?"

Zhou Yong gave Lu Shaolin a surprised look. An ordinary youth would have been at his wits' end after encountering such a thing, yet Lu Shaolin was still thinking of saving himself.

"Yours is not an ordinary internal injury. There are only two ways to save you. One is a miraculous healing medicine, but each pill costs a thousand gold. The other way is even harder: reach the Organ-Tempering Realm in martial cultivation, and you will naturally recover!" Zhou Yong turned to look ahead, a hint of pity in his voice.

The reason he had given Lu Shaolin the pill was also because the youth was still so young, at the blooming age of life. He could not bear to see it happen.

Yet neither of these two methods was something the youth could accomplish, especially the latter. Reaching the Organ-Tempering Realm within three months was something Zhou Yong had never heard of.

Even the Commander of their Demon Suppression Bureau had reportedly taken a full year to enter the Organ-Tempering Realm, and the Commander was already acknowledged as a supreme genius!

With his father dead, three months would at least give the youth enough time to settle his father's affairs and his own.

After hearing Zhou Yong's words, Lu Shaolin pursed his lips and clasped his fists. "Thank you for informing me, my lord!"

He slowed his pace and fell behind the other three.

A miraculous healing medicine, a thousand gold for one pill!

Reach the Organ-Tempering Realm within three months!

Lu Shaolin firmly committed both methods to memory.

Once they reached the edge of the woods, Zhou Yong and the other two chose a patch of yellow earth, threw the corpse onto the ground, doused it in lamp oil, and silently watched it turn to ashes.

Elsewhere, in Old Li's home.

"The lords from the Demon Suppression Bureau truly said that? That Lu family brat can still live another three months?" A broad-shouldered, thick-waisted woman in the hall narrowed her tiny eyes as she asked.

"Yes, madam!" Old Li nodded firmly.

His first wife had already passed away. This woman was the wife he had taken after remarrying.

When he had married her, the entire village had envied him, saying his wife was plump and gentle, surely a good homemaker who would bear children easily.

He had been immensely pleased with himself too. Who could have imagined that she was a tigress? And he could not even beat her!

"We can't wait three months. Yesterday, I already settled my nephew's marriage arrangements with my family. All that's left is a decent house, and the girl's side will marry her directly over."

"I thought the Lu family was destined to die without descendants. Who knew he could still cling to life for three months? You needn't concern yourself with this. I'll have my nephew handle it." The woman's tiny eyes narrowed even further.

As the last piece of bone turned to ash, the four of them headed toward the village once more.

At the village entrance, three Black-Mane Horses were tied to an old tree, chewing on the sparse grass scattered across the ground.

Earlier, they had not left through the village entrance, but had taken a small path instead.

"Youth, this is where we part. Take care of yourself!" Zhou Yong untied a horse's reins and swung himself into the saddle.

"Take care, kid!" Zhang Long and Zhao Hu said together before mounting their horses as well.

At the shout of "Hyah," the three galloped away.

Lu Shaolin leaned on the black iron spear and watched the three until they vanished from sight.

He tightened his grip on the spear, turned around, and headed home.

After returning home, he propped the black iron spear against the wall, walked into the courtyard, and raised his head to the sky as he pondered how to survive.

No money, no martial arts. Was he truly doomed to die?

No, he did have martial arts. In his memories, the original owner's father had taught him a few spear techniques. They seemed to be called the Three Absolutes Spear. The name sounded impressive enough, but it was merely an unranked farmer's style.

It only had fighting techniques and focused on methods of exerting force rather than cultivation. There was no inner cultivation method or anything similar, so it could not raise one's cultivation realm.

He also had memories of the martial realms. The original owner's father had mentioned them in idle conversation: Skin Tempering, Tendon Tempering, Organ Tempering. Beyond that, even he did not know.

He had heard that the strongest experts in the county city had only reached the Organ-Tempering Realm.

Suddenly, Lu Shaolin recalled the abnormality that had occurred when he touched the corpse.

"Modifier?" No response!

"Cheat?" Still nothing!

"System?" The moment the word left his mouth, a transparent panel appeared before Lu Shaolin's eyes, displaying several lines of information:

Name: Lu Shaolin

Source Points: 2

Martial Realm: None

Martial Skills: Three Absolutes Spear (Proficient), Eight Extremes Fist (Minor Mastery).

There really was a system! Lu Shaolin clenched his fists!

He had sacrificed himself for justice in his previous life, after all. Heaven would not leave him without a path to survival!

The Three Absolutes Spear should have been learned by the original owner, while the Eight Extremes Fist was something Lu Shaolin had known in his previous life.

As an undercover detective in his previous life, one could not stand firm without being ruthless, so he had devoted great effort to learning the Eight Extremes Fist.

He carefully studied the system panel.

There was a plus sign after both martial arts under the martial skills section. It seemed he could raise their levels by consuming Source Points.

Earlier, he had gained Source Points by touching the zombie's corpse. In other words, if he wanted to obtain more Source Points, he would most likely need to kill demons and monsters, then touch their corpses!