Perfect Mastery Lightness Skill

Night Patrol Office.

Cremation Ground courtyard.

Lin Qing and a large group of other boys had been called over again to move corpses.

After entering the courtyard, Lin Qing did not rush to work. He made a quick circuit and picked out a middle-aged man's corpse. The man was lean and muscular, with calluses on his hands—clearly someone who had practiced martial arts.

Lin Qing reached out and grabbed him. Information appeared before his eyes. Sure enough, the man had been a martial artist.

[Deceased: Flying Thief Chen San]

[Realm: Bright Force]

[Deliverance progress: 0%]

[Reward: One talent, martial art, or skill]

Delighted, Lin Qing took him to the cremation room and swiftly burned him to ash. A flood of fragmented memories poured into his mind.

"Sir, have mercy. Give us a bite to eat, please. Sir, my mother and I are starving."

"Fuck off! Don't block the road!"

A dark, painfully thin woman begged along the street with a child beside her.

"Mother, wake up! Please, wake up!"

In the cold wind, a boy held the woman and wailed.

"I pity you, so I'll teach you a martial art. Remember: you must never use it to do evil."

"What would you like to learn?"

"Lightness skill!"

"Chen San! You colluded with the Bai'e Cult and stole from the government armory. You deserve ten thousand deaths. Surrender now!"

"Hah! There isn't a good one among you officials. I'll never bow my head!"

With that, the images dissolved. Lin Qing shook his head, his feelings tangled.

"When the granaries are full, people know propriety; when they have food and clothing, they know honor and shame."

"When you can't even eat your fill, how can you worry about righteousness or honor?"

As Lin Qing reflected on this, more information appeared before him.

[Please choose one martial art, skill, or talent to copy]:

1. Water Skimming (Perfect Mastery)

Widely practiced across the waterways of Jiangnan, this skill was refined by thieves adept at escape and scouts of the canal gangs. At Perfect Mastery, its practitioner moves with drifting agility. It is a consummate skill for slipping free, infiltrating, and fleeing.

2. Lockpicking (Major Mastery)

An unusual skill of the martial world. It can silently open most locks within ten breaths and also works on certain simple mechanisms.

3. Stealth (Proficient)

A practical skill of the martial world, distilled from years of moving at night and evading pursuit. Its practitioner knows how to conceal their tracks as far as possible and control their breathing and footsteps, allowing them to evade ordinary guards and soldiers to a limited degree.

4. Night Vision (Tier Three · Excellent)

A tier-three talent. The retina is more sensitive to dim light, providing visual clarity far beyond that of ordinary people under moonlight, starlight, or faint lamplight.

Lin Qing's heart jolted. One lightness skill, two practical skills, and a talent—he wanted them all.

"Water Skimming speaks for itself. With a lightness skill at Perfect Mastery, my chances of staying alive will rise enormously."

"Stealth would let me move more discreetly, and Night Vision would greatly increase my fighting ability at night."

"As for the last skill, Lockpicking is a little less useful, though I can't say it's useless."

Lin Qing weighed his options for a while before choosing Water Skimming.

In terms of practical value, the lightness skill won out.

Dusk fell.

On his way back to the courtyard, Lin Qing willed Water Skimming into his equipment slot. His body suddenly shuddered, and a vast amount of information surfaced in his mind.

He closed his eyes and quietly absorbed it, feeling the changes in his body.

Fifteen minutes later, Lin Qing opened his eyes. He had completely mastered the lightness skill.

"To train Snow Skimming to Perfect Mastery would take more than ten years of bitter practice. Then you could cross snow without leaving a trace, land without a sound, run as fast as a galloping horse, and leap to and from a building thirty feet high."

Seeing no one around, Lin Qing burst forward. In the blink of an eye, he was several strides away, as though a strong wind were lifting him from behind, ready to carry him into the sky.

His gaze swept to a nearby tree. He leaped, tapped against its trunk several times, and shot up into its branches. Then he jumped down from thirty feet above, rolled as he landed, and shed the force perfectly. He was unhurt.

"With this lightness skill, my chances of staying alive have risen tremendously!"

Lin Qing was overjoyed.

"But..."

He glanced at the panel. The Rebirth Record was level 1, with 6.8% progress.

"Leveling up is too slow. At tier one, I only have one equipment slot, and I can switch what's in it only once a day. That's not enough!" Lin Qing frowned. "If I reach level 2, I can equip both Eight Strikes of the Spirit Snake and Water Skimming. My strength would at least triple."

"I need to make money."

"Collecting corpses can raise my level too, but it's far too slow. At this rate, I won't reach level 2 in a year."

"Gold, silver, and rare objects can speed it up, but medicinal supplements cost money too."

"When it comes down to it, I need money!"

Thoughts churned through Lin Qing's mind.

The next day.

Early that morning.

Lin Qing took leave to visit home.

Twenty days had passed since his last visit. With evil spirits and gangs running rampant in the city, he could not set his mind at ease without checking on his family.

Passing an apothecary, he spent twenty copper coins on seven or eight kinds of common medicinal herbs.

When he got home, Lin Cheng and Han Ying had not yet returned.

Lin Qing went to the kitchen and used a copper pot to brew two bowls of medicinal broth.

Before long, they came back. The scent of herbs greeted them as soon as they entered the courtyard.

"Little Qing is home." Han Ying's face lit up with a bright smile.

"What's that smell?" Lin Cheng asked curiously. He glanced around and spotted two bowls of herbal broth on the table.

"Father, Mother, it's called Longevity Soup. It's made especially for aching old legs. Try it. Three bowls at most, and the medicine will cure you," Lin Qing said with a smile.

"Is it really that effective? Then I have to try it." Lin Cheng's eyes brightened. His legs had troubled him for years, and no treatment had ever helped.

"Little Qing, wait here. I'll buy some pork from Old Zheng's. We're having noodles with minced pork today." Smiling, Han Ying turned and went out.

"Wonderful. Your noodles are my favorite, Mother." Lin Qing smiled.

At noon.

The family sat down to eat together. The noodles smelled so good that Lin Qing ate three large bowls in one go.

"Have some more," Han Ying urged.

"Mother, I've had plenty. You two barely ate anything. Have some more yourselves," Lin Qing said with a smile.

"I'm full too," Lin Cheng replied. Then he suddenly sighed, picked up a bowl of noodles, and headed for the door.

"Father, where are you going?"

"To bring Uncle Gao a bowl," Lin Cheng called back.

"Uncle Gao's leg was broken. If no one helps him, he might starve to death," Han Ying said.

"What happened?" Lin Qing frowned. Uncle Gao was a neighbor who, as far as Lin Qing remembered, was good-tempered and lived on odd jobs.

"Rong Futong demanded money to hold a White Emperor Assembly. Uncle Gao couldn't pay, and he's stubborn, so he talked back a little. They broke his leg on the spot. The authorities won't do anything either. What kind of world is this?" Han Ying sighed.

"Filth like Rong Futong will get what's coming to him. Has our family paid?" Lin Qing asked.

"Not yet." Han Ying shook her head. "Business at the general store has been poor. We can't come up with the money right now."

"Mother, put it off for now. Don't confront Rong Futong head-on," Lin Qing said.

"I know."

Before long, Lin Cheng returned, and the three chatted a little longer.

Lin Qing got up and went out, Han Ying's words echoing in his mind.

"Ordinary people's lives are worth nothing in this world. I need money. I need to get stronger!"

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

Night spread across the sky as snow fell. The pearly moonlight met the thin layer of snow on the ground, and both gleamed.

In a corner of the Artisans' Office courtyard, Lin Qing practiced martial arts alone amid the falling snow.

He leaped, ducked, struck forward with his palm, and kicked back.

Every movement was impeccably precise. From a distance, his practice had a distinctive beauty, like a martial arts performance from his previous life.

At one point, Lin Qing gave a low shout and struck a willow tree before him with his palm.

Smack!

Snow scattered from the trunk and fell onto Lin Qing's sweat-covered forehead. The flakes melted at once, without a sound.