The middle-aged man at the forefront revealed a complex expression, "Master Wu has been assisting us, the night patrol officers, in handling cases for not even two years, and the number of suspects who have died at his hands is close to a hundred if not eighty."
The man who had spent money in the brothel couldn't help but lament, "If only Master Wu could always assist us in handling cases, that would be the best."
"Don't daydream, we night patrol officers are nothing but minor characters under the 'City Guard Mansion'! Master Wu is not one of us..."
The middle-aged man spoke in a low voice, "I heard that Master Wu is from the Observatory, but for some reason, he has faced difficulties in getting promoted and has been deliberately obstructed, so he was transferred here to assist us in handling cases in order to accumulate merits."
After a pause, he couldn't help but sigh, "It's a pity that he's too heavy-handed, with too strong a killing intent; I'm afraid others will use that against him... and that his promotion might fail again this time."
——
The man known as Master Wu stepped outside the courtyard, closing his eyes slightly.
In his mind, a passage of text emerged.
Name: Lin Yan.
Cultivation Technique: Five Elements Inner Breath Technique.
Cultivation: Peak of Internal Strength (996/1000) +
Divine Power 1: Devouring Evil Qi!
Divine Power 2: Demon Suppression!
The techniques are as follows:
Thunder Blade First Layer (87/100) +
Turning Paper into Horses (12/100) +
Disguise Technique (67/100) +
Concealing Breath Technique (21/100) +
Evil Qi: 3 strands.
"I'm still short by two strands of Evil Qi."
Lin Yan's brows furrowed slightly as he thought, "This flower thief has also entered the threshold of the Martial Arts Realm; his flesh, skin, muscles, and bones have been somewhat tempered, but killing him has only yielded three strands of Evil Qi."
He felt somewhat helpless as he was just that little bit away from breaking through to the Refining Essence Realm.
Unconsciously, since his awakening and recalling his past life, he had been on the path of cultivation for two and a half years.
Initially, he accumulated Evil Qi by slaughtering pigs and sheep, making slow progress, and it took him more than half a year to forge through the four realms of skin, flesh, muscles, and bones.
These four levels are known as the first major barrier of martial arts.
Later on, by some stroke of fate, he met an influential person and was invited to join the Observatory, adopting the alias Wu Chang.
Not long after that, the influential person recommended him for the position of Flag Commander in the outer city.
But the Observatory headquarters in the inner city rejected the application, believing that he was too inexperienced and had too few merits to hold the position of Flag Commander.
Hence, he ended up assisting the night patrol officers in catching criminals to accumulate merits.
But he was upright and abhorred evil, so he usually left no survivors.
This led to his merits often being offset by his actions; to this day, he still hadn't accumulated enough merits for promotion to Flag Commander.
However, during this period, he had gained a lot of Evil Qi, strengthening his cultivation and steadily advancing as if breaking through bamboo.
The second major barrier of martial arts had two levels: Refining Blood and Cleansing Marrow.
"I advanced to the second major barrier of martial arts a year ago, and it took me only half a year to complete 'Refining Blood' and 'Cleansing Marrow'!"
"The third barrier involves forging the five viscera and six entrails, known as 'Internal Strength', and I am already at the peak!"
Lin Yan thought to himself, "According to ancient records, before the world changed, martial artists at the peak of Internal Strength were considered the pinnacle among ordinary Martial Artists, reaching the limit of human physical strength."
"But in this era, after the world has changed, one only truly commences the martial journey and barely possesses the ability to protect oneself by transcending the mundane and entering the Dao!"
"This step is known as the Refining Essence Realm!"
He paused for a moment, then looked back.
The city was brightly lit.
Beyond the city was dark and still.
This was a chaotic and disorderly era, where the law of the jungle prevailed, and demons roamed while Evil Spirits lurked.
This High Willow City, built for one hundred and twenty years, was gradually restoring the embryonic form of the Human Clan's civilization system.
Although it was still in a crude and barbaric stage, it seemed to be slowly developing and improving.
"After all, being born in High Willow City, this starting point of my transmigration isn't too bad," Lin Yan thought to himself as he walked into an alley and kneaded his face.
Then, he peeled off a layer of skin.
The cold and resolute face was just a disguise.
His true face seemed somewhat delicate.
And the skin that had been hidden under the mask for a long time was pale as if devoid of any blood color.
He took off the black robe he was wearing, turned it inside out, and it was unexpectedly a pale yellow robe, washed out to the point of being white, with even two or three patches on it.
At the other end of the alley, the man who emerged was no longer the infamous Master Wu from High Willow City.
Instead, he was a delicate and frail, plainly dressed poor young man.
He moved quietly through the night, crossing over the district gate from the southern area of the city and into the alleyways.
After walking briskly for a while, he arrived at an old street and entered an old house at the end of it.
This dilapidated house was no more than six steps wide left to right and less than twelve steps from front to back.
The entrance led directly to the kitchen.
A wooden bed was separated by a small door inside.
This was his home.
It had been his ancestral home since his grandfather's generation when they fled to High Willow City and spent all their savings to buy this piece of land to settle down in this chaotic world.
"Hmm?"
As Lin Yan entered, he saw two cloth bags placed by the stove, one large and one small.
Opening them, he found the larger bag filled with rice and the smaller one with salt.
"Looks like my second brother has been here," Lin Yan thought to himself, a smile appearing on his face.
He still had relatives in this world.
His sister had been married off into the inner city five years ago but would return two to three times a year.
His eldest brother had originally become a city guard in High Willow City, but six years ago got transferred to the Qifeng Prefecture City, a step up, and had sent back Silver Taels intermittently.
As for his second brother, he had built a house with the support of his uncle after getting married; it had three rooms and two corridors.
Originally, the new house also had a planned place for Lin Yan to live.
But just before the house was completed, he suddenly awakened his past memories and initiation into cultivation.