The Sights of Jade Gate

Pan Long slept for more than ten hours before he finally woke.

"Ah! That was a great sleep!"

Young people recovered quickly. After moving around a little and eating a hot meal, he felt full of energy. The fatigue he had built up over the past few days had vanished without a trace. He even felt ready to fight an enemy then and there.

Unfortunately, it was the middle of the night. Jade Gate City enforced a strict curfew. Forget finding someone to spar with—he could not even go out for a stroll.

As for practicing martial arts at the inn... Everyone was asleep. Was he supposed to practice in the courtyard?

Wrecking everyone's sleep would be downright inconsiderate!

It would be like running a hammer drill at five in the morning to renovate your home. If nobody came pounding on your door, it could only be because you had no neighbors!

Bored out of his mind, Pan Long thought for a while, then opened his character panel to decide which skills to choose.

His battle against the Holy Legion had earned him a huge amount of experience, bringing him to level 20, the cap for a basic class. But without an item to change classes, he could not advance yet. All he could do was stare helplessly at his long-full experience bar, like a man sighing at the ocean.

The item a thief needed to change classes would not appear until around the tenth stage. Even if he returned to the world of Sword and Lament now, there was no guarantee he would land on a stage that offered one.

Even without further levels, the stat gains from reaching level 20 had already made him much stronger. He was far more Agility than before, with sharper eyes and ears, greater strength, and a sturdier body. If he fought the Holy Legion again now, perhaps he could defeat them without the villagers' help.

Perhaps.

More than his improved stats, Pan Long cared about his skills. He had kept hesitating over which direction to develop them.

A thief had two main paths: the master thief, centered on stealing, and the assassin, centered on killing. Their priorities differed, so their skill combinations were worlds apart.

With fifteen skill points in hand, Pan Long could quickly become a capable cat burglar or a killer who struck terror into hearts at the mere mention of his name. What he could not do was become both.

Should I be an assassin or a master thief?

Pan Long sat on the inn bed, listening to snores rise and fall from the surrounding rooms, torn between the two.

But he felt he could not put it off any longer.

He had been lucky not to fight the bandits in the Black Gobi this time. His luck would not last forever.

Better to spend his skill points now than hoard them and find himself too weak when a fight came.

Even choosing the wrong path and wasting some points would be better than never using them.

Reality was not a game. If he died in the Nine Provinces, that was the end. There was no future in hoarding everything like a squirrel!

Once he had made up his mind, there was nothing left to hesitate over.

Without another word, he tapped through every available skill, putting one point into each.

"Dagger Mastery, Vital Strike, Stealth, Lockpicking, Light on Your Feet, Hidden Weapon Throwing, Backstab, Nimble Dodge, Footwork Without Trace, Trap Detection, Trap Disarming, Trap Setting, Read Expressions, Disguise... One point each makes fourteen. That leaves six skill points."

"For the master thief path, I'd focus on Nimble Dodge and Footwork Without Trace. For the assassin path, Backstab and Vital Strike."

Pan Long studied the skill tree, but his gaze settled on another skill.

[Hidden Weapon Throwing: Even monkeys can throw stones. Thieves have developed this oldest of attack methods to perfection. A practiced thief can accurately throw a flying knife or another hidden weapon and send it into an enemy. (Allows hidden weapons to be thrown. Hidden weapons include various small weapons and pebbles.)]

He could raise this skill to level five. After changing classes, he could also learn the assassin skill Deadly Flying Knife or the master thief skill Who Says This Isn't a Hidden Weapon.

Deadly Flying Knife could greatly increase a hidden weapon's power, but only if that weapon was a flying knife. Who Says This Isn't a Hidden Weapon let him throw anything he could lift as a hidden weapon. Even if he threw a living person, it would still produce the effect of a hidden weapon.

The master thief class line really did have the flavor of an action comedy.

Pan Long thought it over for a long time before realizing he had no urgent need to improve either path's skills. The ones he truly had to learn either had only one level or were useful enough at level one for now. Hidden Weapon Throwing, on the other hand, would broaden his combat options, giving him a quick way to strike at medium and long range. It filled a gap in his abilities.

He now had a bow for long range, hidden weapons for medium range, and long and short weapons plus Iron Palm for close combat. That gave him a full set of attack options.

With level-five Hidden Weapon Throwing, he could also pass himself off as an expert in hidden weapons. If necessary, he could use that to conceal his identity.

Wait! Why does something suddenly feel off?

Not long ago, I said Dad was wasting his time practicing with a sword in his left hand and spreading himself too thin. I even said that if he'd put all his effort into Iron Palm, he would have beaten the Six Fairies of Purple Cloud Palace into six blobs of fairy paste and tossed them into a ravine for the wolves. So why am I spreading myself thin to learn another skill?

Does the "I take it back" rule work even in this world?

He sat stunned for a while, then shook his head and found himself an explanation.

...No, this isn't my fault! Thief skills don't include unarmed attacks! Even if I wanted to strengthen my Iron Palm, I don't have a good way to do it. I can't just keep leveling Vital Strike. One hit from my Iron Palm basically kills an opponent anyway, so what difference does it make whether I hit a vital spot?

Of course, he knew he was just twisting words to justify himself. A little more attack power could only help.

But after thinking it through, he still put his remaining two skill points into Nimble Dodge.

Nimble Dodge was an interesting skill. As long as he carried no more than half his maximum load, it gave him an extra evasion bonus. It also let him dodge in all sorts of poses that did not quite obey the mechanics of the human body.

Back when he played the game, several streamers had loved using the skill to make their characters dodge in poses ranging from cool to ridiculous. A few of those clips had racked up plenty of views. One, titled "I Have Special Knowledge (Pose) Techniques," had even topped the gaming category's monthly views.

Pan Long had raised Nimble Dodge to level three, which was already fairly high. If he needed to, he could pull off something similar and show off in a way perhaps only he would understand.

Ha! That actually sounded fun...

After allocating his skill points, he saw that it was still early and lay down for another sleep. This time, he slept until dawn was just breaking and the city bell rang to end the curfew.

At the inn, the caravan members who had woken early were already impatient. As soon as they heard the bell and knew the curfew was over, they poured out the door and scattered to amuse themselves.

The caravan would spend one more day resting in Jade Gate City before leaving the next morning. That day was theirs to wander about and enjoy themselves.

When Han Feng saw Pan Long get up, he sprang to his feet. He had been pacing like an ant on a hot pan and immediately clamored for them to go out and see the sights together.

"What sights does Jade Gate City have?" Pan Long asked in surprise. "What is there besides the Gobi?"

Han Feng burst out laughing. "Ha! I knew you hadn't done your homework! Jade Gate City may sit on the edge of the northwestern Gobi, but it actually has several famous sights!"

"Oh? Like what?"

"I'll tell you on the way!"

Han Feng ran so fast he was like a husky let off its leash. If Pan Long had not kept close behind him, he would have lost him in the blink of an eye.

In less than half a quarter-hour, they reached Jade Gate City's northern gate. The curfew had just ended, and the gate had not yet opened, but guards were already there to keep order and prepare to open it.

Han Feng pointed toward the gate from a distance. "See that?"

"What's so special about a city gate?" Pan Long asked. "Your family watches a gate in Dingfeng Town. Don't tell me gates make you feel at home. Oh, right, your family watches the northern gate too..."

Han Feng jumped in exasperation. "I don't mean the gate! I mean the gate tower! Can't you see it? That's one of Jade Gate City's famous sights—the human-head wind chimes!"

Pan Long looked up from the gate and saw that many human heads hung from the tower. They were still too far away for him to make out their faces. He could only see the rising sunlight fall across them, gilding them in gold.

"How does that count as a sight..." he muttered. "Human heads are scenery now?"

"Don't underestimate those heads!" Han Feng insisted. "A lot of them belonged to bandit chiefs who were notorious throughout the Black Gobi. Quite a few were even Innate Masters!"

Pan Long was astonished. "Even an Innate Master was killed, beheaded, and hung up here?"

"That's why it's famous." Han Feng brightened when Pan Long finally looked interested. "Besides, an Innate Master's flesh is tough. If the heads are preserved carefully, they can hang there for ten years, even several decades. Once we go up, we might see bandit chiefs who were famous fifty or sixty years ago!"

Pan Long's interest was piqued, and he followed Han Feng to the gate tower. The soldiers guarding it were easy enough to deal with. A few pieces of silver bought the two of them permission to go up.

It seemed the soldiers did this all the time.

In my old world, Jade Gate City's gate tower would probably be a paid attraction... They'd have a ticket window downstairs, maybe even let people pay by scanning a QR code...

Pan Long pictured it and could not help laughing.

Up on the tower, the heads looked even more savage and terrifying at close range. Han Feng had been full of excitement a moment ago, but surrounded by them, he seemed uneasy.

He was a son of the Northlands and had studied martial arts since childhood, but he had never seen so many human heads. In all his fifteen years, the biggest things he had killed were wolves, and he had killed only two.

As sights went, the human-head wind chimes were a little too much for him.