"Fate Cultivators are a specialty of your Great Xin Dynasty!"
Henry gestured as he explained, "You know, what you call... advancing to a higher level? Entering a trade?"
"Oh, that's what you mean."
Qin Geng shook his head. "Then no, I'm not one. I just pull a rickshaw. I've practiced a little rough-and-ready fighting, but I'm no cultivator."
"How could you not be?"
Henry clearly didn't believe him. "Why do you think we Westerners crossed the ocean to the Great Xin Dynasty? To study cultivation through the Hundred Trades, of course! I'm telling you, I've researched this more deeply than plenty of locals!"
Qin Geng found that puzzling and muttered to himself.
The Great Xin Dynasty had thrown open its gates and was now in chaos.
The foreigners had first come to sell opium. Then they had started plundering antiques and stealing treasures, as if they wanted to scrape three feet of soil off the land.
Now they had even set their sights on the cultivation methods of the Three Teachings and Nine Schools, and coined a new term for them: "Fate Cultivator"?
As Qin Geng pondered this, the heat that had long been building inside him suddenly trembled.
It was a feeling beyond words.
As though the thin paper covering a window that had always blocked his way had suddenly been pierced by a gust of wind.
[Profession: Carriage Driver] [Experience: Overflowing] [Level increased: 29 → 30] [Talents unlocked: Step-Sensing Danger, Old Horse Knows the Way]
Boom!
In an instant, Qin Geng felt the whole world change.
It wasn't a change he could see. It was something he could feel.
The ground, once hard and cold, seemed to have come alive beneath his feet.
Each time his foot landed, the ground seemed to feed him a flood of information: how firm the soil was, where the road rose and dipped, where potholes lay, where gravel had scattered...
There was even a mysterious kind of premonition.
Would his next step land safely, or bring danger?
The answer came through to his mind with startling clarity.
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 roads he traveled by pulling his rickshaw through accumulated experience, memorizing them by rote until practice made perfect.
Even then, he sometimes forgot.
Now those roads seemed engraved in his mind. Every turn, every shortcut, every crowded stretch, and where every route led stood clear before him.
This was Old Horse Knows the Way!
Still immersed in the strange exhilaration of leveling up, Qin Geng's steps grew lighter and more nimble.
Just then, a child chasing a ball darted out of the alley ahead without warning.
Qin Geng was pulling the rickshaw far too fast to stop in time.
"Watch out!"
Henry cried out from the seat, instinctively gripping the armrests.
But just before the child appeared, Qin Geng's heart had lurched.
It was a warning from Step-Sensing Danger!
The sole of his foot felt as though a needle had pricked it.
He had already sensed what was coming!
Qin Geng's body moved faster than his mind.
His left foot shot diagonally forward. His toe touched the ground, sending a deft burst of force through his ankle, into his waist and hips, then up to his arms.
"Up!"
With a low shout, Qin Geng thrust down on the shafts. The entire rickshaw swung through a perfect arc at an impossible angle.
Whoosh—
The rickshaw swept smoothly around the child without slowing in the slightest, then returned to its course.
The child picked up his ball and stared blankly at the rickshaw vanishing in a cloud of dust, still unable to grasp what had happened.
In the seat, Henry 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 Third-Tier Way Cultivator or higher!"
"What you just did was no ordinary person's reaction!"
"That's called 'sensing danger'! Only a Third-Tier Way Cultivator has that perception!"
Qin Geng was secretly startled himself. Step-Sensing Danger was formidable indeed, but he kept his expression steady and calmed his breathing. "You're joking, sir. Pull a rickshaw long enough, and practice makes perfect. I just have quick eyes and hands."
"No, no, no!"
Henry shook his head repeatedly, his expression earnest. "You people of the Great Xin Dynasty don't even understand the science behind it."
"We've divided the Great Xin Dynasty's three hundred and sixty trades according to the nature of their cultivation."
"A Carriage Driver is merely a branch of Way Cultivator cultivation, a way to enter it."
"If you insist on seeing it as nothing more than the hard labor of pulling a rickshaw, then at best you'll be an ordinary man who runs a little faster. That's as far as your road will go."
"But if you broaden your vision and look beyond pulling a rickshaw to grasp the true meaning of movement—"
"The Divine Stride Guardian travels a thousand miles in a day, Shrinks the Earth to an Inch, and roams the world!"
"Then the road ahead of you opens up!"
"That is what we define as a 'Way Cultivator.'"
The more Henry spoke, the more excited he grew, waving his arms about.
Qin Geng listened, his thoughts churning like storm-tossed seas.
This foreigner... actually knows a thing or two!
The terms Henry used—"Fate Cultivator," "Way Cultivator"—were new to him, but the reasoning behind them wasn't far off at all!
If cultivation meant training oneself to run and walk, then Carriage Driver really was just an entry-level stage.
If I stopped pulling a rickshaw, would my Carriage Driver profession still gain experience?
Was this what they meant by different paths 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 Cultivators of the Hundred Trades better than we Westerners. We use scientific methods to analyze the mysteries of the East. It's more efficient! More professional!"
"Look."
While an automobile passed them, Henry rolled up his sleeve and thrust his thick, hairy arm in front of Qin Geng.
On the foreigner's muscular arm, amid the black hair, was a line of crookedly tattooed Great Xin characters, each stroke bold and forceful:
[My Grandma's a 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 words about broadening his vision 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 who could travel a thousand miles in a day and cross mountains as easily as flat 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 do you cultivate? Grandma Disease Cultivator?"
"No grandma. Grandma means 'yes,' right?"
Henry smiled mysteriously. "I'm a third-tier Disease Cultivator."
"Disease Cultivator?"
Qin Geng nearly laughed. "In the Great Xin Dynasty, we don't cultivate disease. We have Physicians. Do you specialize in learning how to get sick?"
"Not at all. Studying diseases and controlling them is far more impressive than treating them."
Henry smugly lowered his sleeve.
Before you continue