The next morning, sunlight finally broke through the endless rain.
Liam stretched, feeling power humming in his veins.
Two maids fussed over him.
> "Young Master, please don't move around too much—"
"Relax, I feel amazing."
He strode down the corridor, passing by servants gossiping:
> "Did you hear? The Lu family's young master vanished last night!"
"Vanished? You mean in that cursed Fu'an Alley?"
"Yeah! They say the place is haunted—people who go there never return!"
Liam's ears perked up.
He stopped and casually asked for details.
They told him the story—
about creepy nursery rhymes that spread across Azure Sun City:
> "The bride in red waits for her groom,
but her head is gone—beware the doom…"
Each rhyme tied to a string of disappearances,
all traced back to the same place—Fu'an Alley.
Even constables who investigated ended up dead or insane.
Since then, locals called it Ghost Alley.
> "The Lu family's second son," Liam thought,
"isn't that my old drinking buddy, Lucas Lu?
Damn… better steer clear of that place."
He shook his head and continued toward the family's apothecary.
Inside the Qin family's medicine storeroom,
he found rows upon rows of ginseng, herbs, and rare tonics.
Just the sight made him grin.
> "Let's see how much essence I can milk from these."
He began snacking on medicinal roots like candy.
Every bite brought a flash of light:
Omni Essence +1, +1, +1...
Soon, dizziness struck again.
He stopped just in time.
Current Essence: 12
He invested most into Constitution,
then split the rest between Agility and Strength.
When his stats reached human-normal levels,
he could feel the world itself sharpening around him.
> "Perfect. Time to see what this world really has to offer."