1: What is talent?

"Young Bailiff, I... I am really not the 'Lustful Woman' Yan Ji, and I have never raped and killed any men."

Qingzhou, Guangling Prefecture, Chunxiang Courtyard, inside a room exuding a rich scent of rouge and powder.

A seductive young girl, dressed in thin, light silk that clung to her alluring figure, with snow-white skin faintly visible beneath the fabric, looked pitifully at Lin Yi, who stood before her in the uniform of a temporary bailiff. Her bright, watery eyes were filled with mist.

"Hmm, I am personally willing to believe you, miss, but..."

Lin Yi nodded with a smile, his foot tapping imperceptibly against the floor.

"Clang!"

Suddenly, a four-foot-long snow-white saber fell from behind the dressing table next to the woman.

"Young Bailiff!"

Seeing the dazzling light reflected off the snow-white saber, the seductive woman's expression remained unchanged, still appearing pitiful: "You know, the world is not peaceful these days. In our line of work, we come into contact with all sorts of people, a mix of the good and the bad. So, it's only reasonable that I hid a saber in the room for self-defense, right?"

"Clang!"

As soon as she finished speaking, a dagger suddenly fell to the floor from the edge of the bed.

"Young Bailiff."

The seductive woman looked even more pitiful, clutching her chest, tears welling in her star-like eyes: "I just said it, in our line of work, we come into contact with too many people, all sorts of characters. So, I hid a dagger on the bed for self-defense. This is also quite reasonable, right?"

"Heh, reasonable?"

"Reasonable my ass!"

At this point, the smile on Lin Yi's face suddenly vanished, his expression turning cold instantly. He shouted: " 'Lustful Woman' Yan Ji, you cultivated Demonic Technique in Nanguang Town and raped and killed thirteen men in a row. The matter has been exposed, and the evidence is solid. No need to quibble anymore. Come with me to the yamen!"

"Damn it!"

Seeing this, the bewitching woman cursed angrily.

The next moment...

"Crack, crack!"

A series of bone-popping sounds erupted from her body. Her originally slender figure rapidly inflated like a balloon, and thick whiskers sprouted on her delicate face, becoming increasingly rugged.

In just a moment, she transformed from a lithe and incredibly bewitching woman into a 'monster' nearly two meters tall, with a face full of whiskers, looking like a rugged man with a super-sized stomach.

"You stinking bailiff, you're really courting death!"

The monster opened its mouth, emitting an unpleasant, duck-like voice: "A lowly temporary bailiff, a dog-like thing, actually dares to come alone to arrest your Aunt Yan Ji!"

"I originally didn't want to reveal my identity and was kind enough to let you go, but I didn't expect you to be so persistent."

"Fine! Since I have the secret art of disguise, I will kill you today. At worst, I'll just change my identity afterward and continue to live freely and happily!"

"Die!"

After speaking, Yan Ji casually grabbed the long saber from the ground and slashed at Lin Yi.

"Whoosh!"

The saber light was like lightning, fast and fierce, instantly tearing through the air and slashing directly at Lin Yi's face. If it landed, Lin Yi would likely be split in two, dying without a corpse.

However, at this very moment—

"Swish!"

In the Void Realm, a brilliant saber light suddenly flashed.

Immediately following, accompanied by a scream of "Ah," a severed arm gripping the long saber flew into the air, mixed with droplets of blood.

Yan Ji, who had been aggressive just a moment ago, was now rolling on the ground, wailing while holding her continuously bleeding severed arm, looking extremely miserable.

Her expression was twisted in pain, her stomach convulsing from the agony. Looking at Lin Yi, her eyes were filled with fear and disbelief: "Ho... how is this possible? You are just a small temporary bailiff, how can you have such saber technique?"

"Let alone a temporary bailiff, even among the official bailiffs of the prefecture city, few have your skills. Who... who exactly are you?"

"Clang!"

The saber chimed.

Inside the room, Lin Yi sheathed his saber and spoke indifferently: "Guangling Martial Academy, 286th batch Disciple, Lin Yi."

"Currently working as a temporary bailiff at the Guangling Prefecture yamen to earn some silver."

"What! You are actually a Martial Academy Disciple."

Hearing this, Yan Ji's face showed great shock, and then she smiled bitterly: "It seems I didn't fall unjustly this time!"

Guangling Martial Academy is the only official martial academy established in Guangling Prefecture city by the 'Heavenly Mountain Sect,' the hegemon of Qingzhou—a major martial arts sect that rules over the eight prefectures and one hundred and six counties of Qingzhou.

Every year, the academy selects only three hundred children under the age of twelve from the over twenty million people living within a thousand-mile radius under the jurisdiction of Guangling Prefecture city to enter the academy.

Those who can become Martial Academy Disciples are all one-in-ten-thousand peerless Geniuses!

And she, the Lustful Woman Yan Ji, was merely a small Eighth-Rank Martial Artist who relied on a rather exquisite secret art of disguise to stir up trouble. Losing to such a Genius today was truly not unjust!

...

"Haha! Little Brother Lin Yi, amazing! In just a few short days, you actually captured this Lustful Woman Yan Ji!"

"Here! This is your reward for catching the thief this time, twenty taels in total. Please take it."

In the evening, at the Guangling Prefecture yamen, a middle-aged man around thirty years old, dressed in the black uniform of a head bailiff, enthusiastically handed two ingots of silver to Lin Yi.

"Thank you, Head Bailiff."

Lin Yi reached out and took them, weighing them in his hand to find not a single bit missing, then immediately tucked them into his bosom and turned to leave.

Afterward, he walked onto the main street, found a corner, observed carefully, and after confirming no one was around, he moved his thoughts internally: "attribute panel, charge."

As his thought fell, the twenty taels of silver Lin Yi had just received, along with about eighteen taels found on Yan Ji, abruptly disappeared.

At the same time, a transparent attribute panel slowly appeared before Lin Yi's eyes—

[Dao Lord: Lin Yi]

[Cultivation: Eighth Rank Initial Stage (93%)]

[Cultivation Technique: Sixth-Grade Cultivation Technique "Whale Swallowing Breathing Technique"]

[Martial Arts: Sixth-Grade Martial Art "Bright Moon Saber Technique" (Major Achievement, 96%), Ninth-Grade Martial Art "Black Tiger Saber Technique" (Perfection, 73%)]

[Immortal Skill: Talent Evolution]

[Existing Talent: Saber Dao Genius (Crimson Grade, gifted for free by the attribute panel)]

[Current Charging Progress: 94.7% → 96.6% (Talent Evolution can be performed after charging reaches 100%.)]

"96.6%, still 3.2% short, which means about 68 taels of silver will be enough to bring the progress to 100% and then truly evolve the first talent."

A slight smile appeared on Lin Yi's face.

That's right! He was a Transmigration traveler!

Fourteen years ago, due to a car accident, he was Reincarnation-ed into the Jiuzhou World, and at the age of eight, he awakened this attribute panel capable of Talent Evolution, and was gifted the Crimson Grade talent—Saber Dao Genius—for free!

In the attribute panel, talent Ranks are divided into six levels, from low to high: Pure White, Crimson Grade, Bright Yellow, Azure, Profound Purple, and brilliant gold rank.

Crimson Grade Ranks second; it seems relatively low-level, but in reality, it is already one in a hundred thousand!

After all, what is talent?

Its meaning is a gift bestowed by the heavens!

Therefore, every talent, even the lowest Pure White Grade Talent, is extremely rare, counting as one in a thousand.

Afterward, for every level the talent Rank increases, the rarity of the talent skyrockets a hundredfold.

Increasing all the way to the brilliant gold rank talent, that is a terrifying talent that can only be born among a vast population of ten trillion living beings. It is unknown if such a talent has even existed in the entire thousands of years of martial arts history of the Jiuzhou World.

It is precisely because this Golden Finger talent is so terrifying that Lin Yi was able to defeat a crowd of Ninth-Rank Peak and Eighth Rank Initial Stage competitors at the age of twelve, despite his ordinary Physical Body cultivation Aptitude, and join the Guangling Martial Academy just in time, becoming a Martial Academy Disciple.

However, he was merely a Martial Academy Disciple.

Among the three hundred people in the same batch, Lin Yi had always been at the bottom, ranked around two hundred and forty or fifty.

Because compared to other Martial Academy Disciples who often had family fortunes of millions of strings of cash, or even those born into century-old martial arts families, Lin Yi's family was simply too poor!

As his thoughts turned, before he knew it, Lin Yi had arrived in front of a small, low earthen hut in the South City.

The earthen hut was only two or three zhang in size, extremely narrow, and situated next to a foul-smelling ditch with churning black sewage and stinking garbage.

It was built entirely of yellow earth, and the roof was covered with a thin layer of withered yellow thatch.

The surrounding walls seemed to be cracked everywhere due to too much wind and rain.

In the middle of summer, waves of foul-smelling, hot wind surged in through the cracks.

And this was Lin Yi's home in this life.