Commander Wang was like a huge treasure. His methods were painless and swift, keeping Master Zheng coming back for more.
[Intuition] has been upgraded to "Entry."
[Intuition (Entry)]Your fate has been fraught with misfortune. Having experienced displacement and the loss of your family at a young age, you possess an uncommon alertness that often allows you to sense impending danger.
Upgrading [Intuition] to "Entry" increased its trigger chance from "occasionally" to "often."
[Scouting] has been upgraded to "some accomplishment."
Because there were no restrictions on when this Trait could be used, it upgraded extremely slowly. However, since the difficulty of upgrading it wasn't high, Zheng Xiu wasn't bothered by this.
By grinding it from time to time, even a "thin" amount of Experience Value would eventually add up.
Besides Traits, among the Incarnation's Basic Attributes, [Step Technique] increased from "Ten (Agile and Sharp)" to "Seventeen (Walking Like the Wind)." Because his foundation was weak, the increase was huge.
[Muscle Strength] and [Constitution] increased slightly.
With this, Zheng Xiu finally escaped the predicament of being a "short-legged Mighty Painter" and advanced into a "high-speed Mighty Painter"—a true cause for celebration.
Additionally.
Whenever he had nothing to do, Zheng Xiu would perform a [Medical Principles] check in the woods, and he actually managed to find some roots and bark that could barely be used as medicine.
After constantly picking up junk and accumulating Experience Value, [Medical Principles] successfully advanced.
[Medical Principles (some accomplishment)]You were born into a Xinglin Family of physicians, but your family fell into decline. Your parents died early, before they could pass on their knowledge. Through your family's books, you have taught yourself the basics of medical principles. You can treat simple, superficial injuries, identify some wild medicinal herbs, and have learned to craft simple Golden Wound Medicine.
Zheng Xiu had also crafted [Golden Wound Medicine] before, and the process was rather crude. To put it simply, he took some roots, bark, and wild herbs identified via a [Medical Principles] check, chewed them into a paste, slapped the mixture onto a torn cloth, and voila.
Surprisingly, Zheng Xiu had tested it on himself, and it really did have hemostatic and analgesic effects. It just wasn't very aesthetically pleasing, looking like some crude poultice.
'I've been slacking.'
Looking back at his Incarnation's progress, Zheng Xiu secretly blamed himself.
Perhaps it was because dying at Wang Cangyun's hands was so easy and pleasant that Zheng Xiu was reluctant to leave such a treasure.
In comparison, Li Dachui, who ran rampant on the main road, was just trash.
This Ghostly Realm was like a massive treasure trove, making Zheng Xiu linger, reluctant to advance the plot.
Perhaps it was Master Zheng's professional instincts kicking in—once he found a high-quality sheep, he felt compelled to fleece it for all it was worth.
But today, the news Scarface Liu brought about "getting out of prison" put Master Zheng on alert.
Master Zheng told himself he was strong and unyielding, unafraid of the hardships of prison.
What he worried about most now was that if he were let out of prison just like that, his dream of many years would be destroyed in an instant.
"I absolutely cannot let them ruin this for me."
Zheng Xiu made up his mind. 'I'm staying in this prison, no matter what.'
After once again having his head comfortably chopped off, Zheng Xiu re-entered the Ghostly Realm, returning to the starting save point of Act Two.
The scenery was the same, but the person had changed. [Zheng Shan]'s abilities were now worlds apart from what they were before.
'No blade on a rainy night.'
Zheng Xiu chuckled, tossed his blade aside, and rolled around in the mud, getting himself thoroughly filthy.
After finishing his preparations and making himself look destitute, Zheng Xiu finally stepped into Baili Village.
'Wang Cangyun must have an extraordinary background.'
'If this world had something like Heaven and Earth Rankings, Wang Cangyun would probably be near the top.'
'In front of a character like that, carrying a blade wouldn't just be useless for self-defense; it would only provoke his vicious nature.'
'It's kind of like pepper spray in modern society.'
'A petty thief wouldn't back down after being sprayed. Instead, they'd say, "Well, what a coincidence. Doesn't this just make things more exciting?"'
Zheng Xiu was certain that while Baili Village seemed peaceful, it was definitely hiding something.
He had tried spending the night in the forest, hoping to survive until dawn.
He had died a total of three times.
Once, he was killed by a mangy wolf that appeared out of nowhere.
Once, he was struck dead by a bolt of lightning from a clear sky.
The third time was very strange. He had drowsily fallen asleep in the woods when he heard the sound of dragging metal. Just as he was about to open his eyes, he was killed.
The pain from that time was so unforgettable that Zheng Xiu didn't dare try it again.
'Ghostly Realm... Could it be that there are actually unclean things here?'
A few thoughts flashed through Zheng Xiu's mind, but he couldn't be sure.
'I'll go in first and see what happens.'
The Ghostly Realm was like a maze.
Zheng Xiu was a survivor, searching for the one and only path to survival within that maze.
Zheng Xiu deliberately wandered outside the village for a while to avoid Wang Cangyun's mealtime.
Timing it perfectly, just as the village chief was warmly serving fish soup to Wang Cangyun and his men, Zheng Xiu quietly snuck into the village.
'That's right. When I used Scouting on the main road, the result said the rain would last all night. Why did it stop as soon as Act Two began?'
Zheng Xiu habitually used [Scouting].
But the text that appeared next left Zheng Xiu slightly stunned and quite surprised.
[The sun sets in the west, and the villagers have retired for the night. The doors of every household are shut tight, and the village path is deserted.]
[As you wander helplessly through Baili Village, you suddenly feel a gaze from behind that sends a chill down your spine.]
[You...]
When the text reached this point, Zheng Xiu quickly turned around.
Only then did the rest of the text gather like a swarm of gnats.
[...dare not turn back.]
A small, thin figure flashed past in the darkness and vanished.
In that fleeting glimpse, Master Zheng vaguely saw that the figure was a child in ragged clothes. Dull, yellowed hair covered most of their face, obscuring their eyes, ears, and nose, revealing only a pair of shriveled lips.
'Trying to spook me with a creepy kid?'
If this were reality, having a child stealthily following you in a mountain village at night might indeed make the atmosphere feel off.
But in the Ghostly Realm, for a Zheng Xiu who had experienced nearly a thousand deaths, it was far too soon to speak of fear.
Zheng Xiu gave chase.
The village path was straight, but the village itself was pitch-black. The child was familiar with the roads and vanished after a few turns.
He performed a Scouting check.
After upgrading it to "some accomplishment," the point requirement for a Scouting check dropped to ten. Zheng Xiu casually took the Dice from his mind, tossed them, and got a twelve, passing with ease.
The minor success from [Scouting] only gave Zheng Xiu a single piece of information.
[You look down and are instantly relieved. It seems talk of ghosts and gods is indeed baseless; you were just scaring yourself. As the strange child left, they left behind a line of faint footprints.]
Huh?
If [Scouting] hadn't mentioned it, in this dim light, with Zheng Xiu's Incarnation being so tall and sturdy, the so-called footprints were truly a case of "the darkest place is under the candlestick." The taller one is, the less attention one pays to the ground.
Zheng Xiu got down on the ground.
The child's weight, like their appearance, must have been very light. Even on the muddy ground after the rain, they didn't leave many footprints.
Zheng Xiu followed the few footprints, passing several village houses with tightly shut doors. After some difficulty, he found the right place and stood before a large, pitch-black lacquered house.
In front of the house was a dilapidated stall. There was a wooden plaque above the door, but it was so weathered by sun and wind that the characters were illegible. Zheng Xiu could vaguely make out the first character, "Feng," and the last character, "Shop."
It was some kind of shop in the village.
A square flag hung beside the door. The cloth was tattered, and on it was written the character for "Meat."
After another Scouting check.
Zheng Xiu learned the name of the shop—Feng's Meat Shop.
He walked a circle around Feng's Meat Shop. The shop was strange; its door was shut tight and had been nailed shut from the outside with wooden planks. Zheng Xiu didn't find any more footprints.
Just then.
[You are a natural. With your meticulous mind, you have successfully followed the child's trail and grasped the Trait "Tracking."]
[However, as you were grasping it, you perceived the bottleneck of being Human.]
[Grasping failed.]
[You will attempt to grasp it again before re-entering 'Ghostly Realm - Baili Village - Act Two'.]
The twisted font turned into gray-black dust and dissipated before Zheng Xiu's eyes.
Zheng Xiu recalled the contents of the Rulebook.
A newly created Incarnation starts with three Traits and is capped at five.
This was the "bottleneck"—the bottleneck of the Rules.
So much for 'you can never have too many skills.'
See? They're weighing me down.
Just as Zheng Xiu was hesitating whether to risk "life and limb" and barge in, a chill rose from the crown of his head and shot straight to his forehead.
His Entry Level [Intuition] triggered.
Following his [Intuition], he glanced back, and his pupils constricted violently.
Behind him, the tightly shut doors of the village houses had, at some unknown point, all opened a crack.
Behind each crack, pairs of hungry eyes were staring intently at Zheng Xiu. Their gazes involuntarily reminded him of a starving dog seeing raw, bloody meat.
No matter how desperate the villagers' gazes were, the surroundings remained deathly silent. The eerie contrast made Zheng Xiu feel extremely uncomfortable.
GULP.
He swallowed hard.
Zheng Xiu felt like the villagers were coveting his body... or rather, the meat on it.
"Oh, my dear young man, to think you've come all the way to Baili Village! Forgive this old man for not welcoming you sooner! Forgive me!"
The village chief's voice arrived before he did, his hurried footsteps SQUISHING in the mud.
Amidst the hair-raising silence, the village chief appeared, holding a torch, followed by Wang Cangyun and his men.
'Perfect timing!'
Zheng Xiu had just been worrying about how to restart. What a coincidence. The moment Zheng Xiu saw Commander Wang, he had an idea and actively stepped forward to receive his death.
[Taunt successful.]
Wang Cangyun let out a furious roar, and the glint of his blade flashed like lightning, severing the Mighty Painter's head.
Painless and quick.
Wang Cangyun was highly vigilant, a ruthless man of few words. Although he was an obstacle to Zheng Xiu clearing the Ghostly Realm, he was perfect for restarting right now.
After being chopped back to reality by Commander Wang's blade, it was already close to noon. Master Zheng patted his stomach; he wasn't hungry yet. He took a sip of water to wet his lips, shifted into a more comfortable position in his Grandmaster's Chair, closed his eyes, and prepared to start another round.
'Oh, right. I should also check the effect of that [Tracking] Trait.'