My Grandma's a Disease Cultivator, Western Expertise

"Fate Cultivators are a specialty of your Great Xin Dynasty!"

Henry made a familiar gesture as he explained, "What do you call it... reaching a higher level? Entering a trade?"

"Oh, that's what you mean."

Qin Geng shook his head. "No, I'm not one. I just pull a rickshaw. I've practiced a few rough farmhand moves, but I'm no cultivator."

"How could you not be?"

Henry plainly didn't believe him. "Why do you think we Westerners crossed the ocean to come to the Great Xin Dynasty? To learn Fate Cultivation through the Hundred Trades, of course! I've studied this stuff more deeply than plenty of your own people!"

Qin Geng found that puzzling and muttered to himself.

The Great Xin Dynasty had thrown open its gates and become a complete mess.

The foreigners had first come to sell opium. Then they had robbed antiques and stolen treasures, as if they wanted to scrape the earth three feet deep.

And now they had their eyes on the cultivation methods of every trade under the sun. They had even coined a new term for it: "Fate Cultivation"?

As Qin Geng pondered this, the heat that had long been building inside him suddenly trembled.

The feeling was hard to describe.

It was as though a gust of wind had suddenly punched through the thin sheet of paper that had always stood in his way.

[Profession: Carriage Driver]

[Experience: Overflowing]

[Level Up: 29 → 30]

[Talents Unlocked: Step-Sensing Danger, Old Horse Knows the Way]

Boom!

In an instant, Qin Geng felt the whole world change.

Not in any way he could see. It was a change in how he felt it.

The ground, once hard and cold, seemed to come alive beneath his feet.

Each time his foot touched down, the ground seemed to feed him countless details: how firm the soil was, how the road rose and fell, where the potholes lay, where loose stones waited...

There was even a strange, almost mystical premonition.

Would his next step land safely, or lead him into danger?

The answer came clearly to his mind.

This was Step-Sensing Danger!

At the same time, an invisible map seemed to unfold in Qin Geng's mind.

Before, he had learned the routes he pulled his rickshaw along through experience, memorizing them by rote until practice made perfect.

Even then, he sometimes forgot.

Now those routes seemed etched into his mind. Every turn, every shortcut, every crowded stretch, where each road led—he could see it all as clearly as if it lay before his eyes.

This was Old Horse Knows the Way!

Qin Geng was still savoring the strange thrill of leveling up, his steps growing lighter and nimbler.

Just then, a child chasing a ball darted out of the alley ahead without warning.

Qin Geng was running far too fast to brake in time.

"Watch out!"

Henry cried out from the rickshaw and instinctively gripped the armrest.

But just before the child appeared, Qin Geng's heart had given a sudden jolt.

A warning from Step-Sensing Danger!

It felt as if a needle had pricked the sole of his foot.

He was already braced to react!

Qin Geng's body moved faster than his mind.

He shot his left foot forward at an angle and touched his toe to the ground. A deft burst of force traveled through his ankle to his hips, then into his arms.

"Up!"

With a low shout, Qin Geng pushed down hard on the rickshaw handles. At an impossible angle, the whole rickshaw swept through a perfect arc.

Whoosh—

The rickshaw rounded the child without slowing in the slightest, then slipped straight back onto its course.

The child picked up the ball and stared blankly at the rickshaw vanishing in a cloud of dust, still unaware of what had happened.

Henry, meanwhile, was still shaken. Then his eyes lit up.

"Qin Geng, you lied to me."

Henry slapped the armrest excitedly. "See? See? I told you you're a Fate Cultivator! And you're definitely a Way Cultivator of the third tier or higher!"

"What you just did was beyond an ordinary person's reflexes!"

"That was 'sensing danger'! Only a Third-Tier Way Cultivator has that kind of perception!"

Qin Geng was startled himself. Step-Sensing Danger was every bit as powerful as it sounded. But he kept his face composed and steadied his breathing. "You're joking, sir. I've pulled rickshaws so long that practice has made perfect. I'm just quick on my feet."

"No, no, no!"

Henry shook his head repeatedly, looking utterly serious. "You people of the Great Xin Dynasty don't understand the science behind it."

"We've studied all three hundred and sixty trades of the Great Xin Dynasty and classified them in depth according to the nature of their cultivation."

"A Carriage Driver is merely a branch of Way Cultivation—a way to begin."

"If you think of it only as the hard labor of pulling a rickshaw, then at most you'll become an ordinary man who runs a little faster. That's where your road ends."

"But if you broaden your horizons and look beyond pulling a rickshaw, you can grasp the true meaning of the 'Way.'"

"A Divine Stride Guardian travels a thousand miles in a day, shrinks leagues to inches, and walks the whole world!"

"Then the road opens before you!"

"That is what we call a 'Way Cultivator.'"

The more Henry spoke, the more excited he became, waving his arms about.

Qin Geng listened, his thoughts surging like storm-tossed waves.

This foreigner knows a thing or two!

The terms were new to him—"Fate Cultivator," "Way Cultivator"—but the reasoning behind them was surprisingly close to the mark!

If the cultivation was in running and walking, then Carriage Driver really was only the entry level.

If I stopped pulling a rickshaw, would the Carriage Driver profession still gain experience?

Was this what they meant by different roads leading to the same destination?

Or was this foreigner bluffing?

"Could that really be how it works?" Qin Geng murmured.

"Yes, my friend."

Henry looked proud. "No one understands Fate Cultivation through the Hundred Trades better than we Westerners. We use science to unravel the mysteries of the East. It's more efficient! More professional!"

"Look."

While they waited for an automobile to pass, Henry rolled up his sleeve and thrust his thick, hairy arm in front of Qin Geng.

There, tattooed on the foreigner's burly, black-haired arm, was a crooked line of Great Xin characters, written with surprisingly vigorous strokes:

[I Grandma Disease Cultivator]

"..."

The corners of Qin Geng's mouth twitched twice.

This foreigner really was an odd one.

He had even gotten the characters wrong.

Ridiculous as the tattoo looked, Qin Geng had to admit that Henry's talk of "broadening his horizons" had given him something to think about.

At level thirty, Carriage Driver had unlocked Divine Stride, Old Horse Knows the Way, and Step-Sensing Danger.

If he kept training, could he really become a legendary Divine Stride Guardian, traveling a thousand miles a day and crossing mountains as easily as level ground?

Would that still count as the Carriage Driver profession?

Would it conflict with the Book of a Hundred Trades?

Could he eventually advance into a Way Cultivator?

"What about you?"

Qin Geng asked, "What kind of cultivator are you? A Grandma Disease Cultivator?"

"No 'grandma.' It means 'am.'"

Henry smiled mysteriously. "I'm a third-tier Disease Cultivator."

"A Disease Cultivator?"

Qin Geng nearly burst out laughing. "In the Great Xin Dynasty, we don't cultivate diseases. We have physicians. Do you specialize in learning how to get sick?"

"Not at all. Studying and controlling disease is far more powerful than treating it."

Henry lowered his sleeve with a smug smile.