True Meaning Swimming Dragon Step, Level Three Authority Holder

Three months later.

"Honey, guess what I..."

Lin Hai had just returned home and opened the door, intending to share his joy with his wife, but the words caught in his throat before they could leave his mouth.

Because an utterly incomprehensible scene was unfolding in the living room.

At that moment, Lin Rou was practicing her punches in the living room, move by move.

If that were all, there would naturally have been nothing strange about it.

He knew perfectly well the path his eldest daughter had chosen, and he had always supported her wholeheartedly.

Though there had been times when being subdued by his own daughter had left him embarrassed, it was still gratifying when the student surpassed the master. What was past was past.

But the problem was, while Lin Rou was practicing her punches, what was nine-month-old Lin Xuan doing beside her, copying her moves??

"What's going on?"

Lin Hai glanced at his wife on the sofa, then pointed at Lin Xuan as he asked.

With laughter in her eyes, Ye Hongyu said, "The baby seems especially interested in Xiao Rou practicing martial arts, so I let him follow along. He's just playing with Xiao Rou."

"What the heck?"

Lin Hai suddenly felt as though his brain had crashed.

Lin Xuan naturally noticed his father, Lin Hai, returning home, but he had no intention of stopping.

Another three months had passed since he unlocked the Martial Artist profession. During those three months, he had already gotten his family used to the fact that he could walk independently without holding onto the wall.

Most babies could only walk by themselves after turning one, but there really were some who could walk before then. It was not too outrageous.

Now that he could finally walk without worrying, Lin Xuan no longer needed to hide it. Whenever his eldest sister Lin Rou practiced her punches, he would come over to 'mooch off her training.'

The benefit of doing this was that not only had his True Meaning Five Elements Fist gained quite a bit of proficiency, but he had also comprehended another skill.

Its name was—True Meaning Swimming Dragon Step!

Judging from the name, this martial arts technique likely came from the same school as True Meaning Five Elements Fist, and both were related to the words "True Meaning" at the beginning.

But Lin Xuan had no intention of digging deeper into it. To him, as long as he got his foot in the door, everything else would be easy.

Lin Rou held nothing back as she demonstrated it over and over before him. Even if he merely copied every movement, there was no way he could fail to get started.

"You are practicing True Meaning Five Elements Fist. Proficiency +1, Constitution +0.01"

"You are practicing True Meaning Swimming Dragon Step. Proficiency +1, Constitution +0.01"

As he observed the differences between each of Lin Rou's movements and his own, Lin Xuan continually corrected his posture and trained with great seriousness.

He was so focused that he automatically ignored the notifications in his mind.

But it was obvious that no matter how seriously he trained, he could not change the fact that a nine-month-old baby practicing martial arts looked utterly adorable.

That much was clear just from Ye Hongyu's nonstop laughter at the side.

They said that when a young tiger roared in the valley, all beasts trembled in terror.

But anyone who had truly seen a little tiger roar knew that not only would it fail to make the beasts tremble, it would instead make people feel that it was unbearably cute.

That was exactly the impression Lin Xuan gave off right now, so Ye Hongyu could hardly be blamed for finding it so funny as his mother.

By then, Lin Hai had sat down beside his wife. Leaning close to her ear, he murmured with a sigh, "Don't you think our son is a little too monstrous? He's so young, yet he already wants to practice martial arts. Could he be a one-in-ten-thousand martial arts prodigy?"

"The baby doesn't really understand these things. He probably just thinks it's fun." Ye Hongyu did not think that far ahead. Smiling, she said, "Have you forgotten how Xiao Wu followed Xiao Rou to practice martial arts for a while out of curiosity? But when we actually tried to enroll him in a martial arts class later, it was like taking his life."

"That's true." Lin Hai could not help nodding.

As the eldest daughter of the family, every move Lin Rou made naturally influenced her younger siblings, whose values had yet to fully mature.

Lin Wu had indeed been interested in martial arts when he was little.

But in the end, just as Ye Hongyu had said, once Lin Wu grew a little older, he came to utterly detest the very idea of practicing martial arts.

"Let him play by himself. It's still too early to talk about this."

Having said that, Ye Hongyu turned to her husband and asked, "What were you about to tell me when you came in? Something about guessing how your day went?"

"I nearly got sidetracked and forgot."

Only then did Lin Hai remember that he had not finished what he originally wanted to say. A hint of excitement entered his voice as he said, "Guess who I met today?"

"Did Crimson Flame finally reach a decision?" Ye Hongyu guessed.

"Hahaha, as expected of my wife. Nothing gets past you!"

Lin Hai burst into laughter. "Today, that officer's subordinate came to the bureau to help me complete the transfer procedures... In other words, starting next month, your husband will be an external affairs assistant at Crimson Flame's Dragon River City branch!"

Lin Hai's words immediately drew the attention of both Lin Xuan and Lin Rou.

Lin Rou ended her practice early for the day and asked curiously, "Is an external affairs assistant's status in Crimson Flame really that high? Is it actually better than Dad being a chief inspector?"

Lin Xuan, with a pacifier in his mouth, pricked up his ears as well.

Because what his eldest sister Lin Rou had just asked was precisely what he wanted to know.

The title of external affairs assistant did not sound nearly as impressive as a Public Security Bureau chief inspector, no matter how he looked at it. So why did Dad, Lin Hai, look as though he had won the lottery?

"Honey, explain it to our daughter," Lin Hai said, looking at his wife.

Ye Hongyu knew that her husband wanted to show off a little in front of their daughter, so she cooperatively explained with a smile, "An external affairs assistant's status in Crimson Flame truly isn't considered high. Their job is mainly to handle everyday affairs for Crimson Flame's official members, and they generally don't need to fight on the front lines. But even so, they are still Level Three Authority Holders."

"Level Three Authority Holder? I remember Dad has been a chief inspector for so many years, yet he's only a Level Two Authority Holder, right?" Lin Rou was somewhat surprised.

"That's right. In the Dragon River Public Security Bureau, a Level Three Authority Holder would at least have to be a district deputy director. If your father were to slowly build up his seniority, it would still take him at least ten years to reach that position." Ye Hongyu nodded.

Authority User?

It had been quite some time since Lin Xuan had heard an unfamiliar term from his family, because he had already heard most of this world's common knowledge.

But this time, there was clearly another new piece of knowledge, and he immediately marked it as important in his mind.

From the context before and after, he could roughly guess what the term meant. It was most likely a distinction in rank within the official system.

He had guessed long ago that the Public Security Bureau and Crimson Flame were both official departments, and that guess had later been confirmed.

Since both belonged to official departments, then even if their internal positions differed, they surely shared a common set of rank standards.

But wasn't this gap a little too huge? Crimson Flame's most basic level was already equivalent to a district deputy director in the Public Security Bureau?