Chapter 152: The Little "Beggar"

Stronghold 7A28, also known as Peaceful City.

It was an A-grade, ultra-large stronghold with a population numbering in the hundreds of millions.

Peaceful City was no exception, boasting a permanent population of 280 million. When factoring in the floating population, the total number was close to 400 million.

To accommodate so many residents, Peaceful City was naturally vast, covering over eight million square kilometers. A stronghold of this scale would easily rank as a major nation back on Earth.

Before arriving at the A-grade stronghold, Lin Huang had imagined what it would look like. But upon actually reaching Peaceful City, he found it somewhat different from his expectations.

He had originally assumed an A-grade stronghold would feature towering skyscrapers and a heavy modern architectural style.

However, Peaceful City was dominated by ancient, traditional architecture, with very few modern buildings to be found. Ancient pavilions, pagodas, and city walls were everywhere, and most structures possessed a profound sense of history.

Even the houses of ordinary residents leaned heavily toward this style, characterized by red bricks and green tiles, rarely exceeding two or three stories in height.

The entire city combined bustling prosperity with historical weight, leaving an even deeper impression on Lin Huang.

The hotel Lin Huang had booked was located in a high-rise building right in the center of the stronghold. Seeing the city's authentic scenery, he briefly considered changing hotels, but after a moment of thought, he decided against it.

He checked into the hotel, his room situated on the 81st floor.

Taking the anti-gravity elevator up and locating his room number, 081029, Lin Huang swiped his card and pushed the door open.

The room was exceptionally spacious. The south-facing wall of the living room was made entirely of transparent bone plates—a special artificial skeletal material whose transparency resembled crystal, though its strength and toughness were vastly superior.

Through the transparent bone-plate wall, Lin Huang could clearly overlook a landscape stretching dozens of kilometers to the south of the hotel.

"It seems living high up has its perks." Seeing the scenery below spread out before his eyes, Lin Huang finally abandoned the thought of switching hotels.

Entering the master bedroom, he discovered a large south-facing balcony furnished with a table and chairs. His mood improved even further; he simply loved apartments with balconies.

After sitting on the balcony for a while and enjoying the breeze, he returned to the interior.

"Overall, this hotel gives quite a pleasant feel." Having toured the entire suite, Lin Huang nodded with satisfaction.

Returning to the living room and sitting on the sofa, Lin Huang began planning his itinerary for the coming days.

The ultra-distance teleportation portal ticket he had previously purchased was for thirty-three days later. Twelve days had already passed, meaning he still had twenty-one days to spend in Peaceful City.

Lin Huang had no intention of idling away those twenty-one days. Knowing that there were three Transcendental realms above the Gold rank had made his forward trajectory even clearer.

After clearing out the living room of the hotel suite, he resumed practicing the Flowing Fire blade techniques.

For several consecutive days, he started practicing at eight in the morning and continued until eleven at night. Excluding breakfast and dinner, his daily blade practice lasted nearly fourteen and a half hours.

The number of blade technique fragments accumulating within his body steadily increased.

Finally, on the sixth day, the fragments of the Flowing Fire skill stored in his body reached a thousand.

Xiao Hei's prompt finally arrived.

"Fuse." Lin Huang nodded immediately.

Normally, a Rare-grade blade technique required only three hundred fragments to complete skill card fusion, but the Flowing Fire blade technique demanded a full one-thousand accumulated fragments before triggering the fusion prompt.

Lin Huang immediately opened the skill card to inspect it.

"The skill grade cannot be viewed. That means this set of blade techniques surpasses Gold-tier combat skills and can still be used after reaching the Transcendental realm." Through his familiarity over this period, Lin Huang understood the exact implications of Xiao Hei's vague descriptions.

"Xiao Hei, I remember you saying that as long as I gather enough fragments, this Flowing Fire blade technique can evolve into an Epic-grade skill without an advancement card. Now that I've gathered the complete skill card, doesn't that mean every strike from now on will yield a fragment?" Lin Huang asked with a hint of doubt, sensing the matter was not so simple.

"What is the judgment criterion?" Lin Huang hurriedly pressed on.

"Blade intent..." Lin Huang felt the term sounded rather mystical just hearing it.

Opening the Emperor Heart Network, he began researching the term. The online explanations were obscure, lacking any precise conclusion. Reading them only left Lin Huang more confused than before.

He considered calling Yi Zheng to ask, but upon second thought, having changed his Emperor Heart Ring, calling him now would only expose his second identity. He firmly suppressed the thought and returned to practicing his blade.

An afternoon passed quickly, yet Lin Huang failed to generate a single additional skill fragment.

"What on earth is blade intent?" Harboring this confusion, Lin Huang sat on the sofa and pondered deeply. Resting his chin in his hand for a long time, a flash of inspiration suddenly crossed his mind. "A Rare-grade blade technique advancing to Epic-grade requires blade intent. The Great Wilderness Blade Sutra I've mastered is already Epic-grade, so it must contain blade intent..."

With this thought, Lin Huang sprang up from the sofa and began practicing his blade once more. However, instead of Flowing Fire, he practiced the Great Wilderness Blade Sutra.

As the Great Wilderness Blade Sutra was executed, an abstruse quality flowed between the stances. The sensation was extraordinary; it felt as though every subtle detail within the movements could be clearly perceived by him. Even while wielding this technique, every microscopic speck of dust in the air felt as though it could be cleaved in two at his will.

Having run through the Great Wilderness Blade Sutra three times consecutively, Lin Huang roughly understood what he was looking for.

Next, he practiced Flowing Fire over and over again, beginning to meticulously study the nuances of each movement in the technique.

Hours slipped by in this practice. When Lin Huang finally snapped back to reality, it was past midnight.

The fragments of the Flowing Fire blade technique within his body had unexpectedly accumulated by another dozen or so. He finally knew he was on the right track.

Glancing at the time, Lin Huang realized it was already late into the night, and a rumble came from his stomach. Having eaten breakfast at around seven in the morning, a full seventeen hours had passed, and feeling hungry was only natural.

"It's getting this late, and I'm so hungry... I wonder if there's anything to eat outside at this hour." Lin Huang lowered his head and looked downward through the transparent bone-plate wall. Most areas were already dark, but he noticed a small zone not far away still glowing with lights and bustling with people—it appeared to be a night market.

His original thought was to head downstairs and casually buy something to fill his stomach if nothing else was available. But having discovered a night market, he naturally wanted to eat his fill.

Taking a quick shower of a few minutes, Lin Huang swiftly changed clothes and headed downstairs.

Leaving the hotel, he made a beeline for the night market.

Though it was midnight, the night market was still brilliantly lit and teeming with moving crowds.

"It seems no matter which world it is, the number of foodies who love foraging late at night never dwindles..." Arriving at the entrance of the night market and seeing the dense crowd, Lin Huang couldn't help shaking his head with a smile.

Following the aroma, Lin Huang quickly located a barbecue stall.

The vendor was an elderly man in his sixties, short and plump, with a glowing red face—whether from the charcoal heat or naturally, was impossible to tell.

On the grill sat several meat chops roughly the size of an adult's palm, sizzling away.

Catching the scent, Lin Huang couldn't help swallowing a mouthful of saliva.

"Boss, what kind of meat is this? Why does it smell so good?" a nearby customer couldn't help asking.

The rest of the patrons, including Lin Huang, immediately pricked up their ears to listen closely.

"This here is called aromatic piglet, a new variety bred by crossing wild boars with fragrant swine. It only hit the market in the last two years, making it a novel ingredient. That's why the price is a bit on the higher side; I hope everyone understands..." the vendor explained in great detail.

The aroma had whetted everyone's appetite, and they nodded in agreement.

In an A-grade stronghold like Peaceful City, hunters were numerous. Many of those out searching for food late at night were hunters who had toiled all day. As long as the food genuinely tasted good, they cared little about how many credit points it cost—credit points were merely numbers to them.

On the grill, the savory fragrance of the meat grew increasingly intense, and the sizzle of rendered fat further stimulated everyone's appetite.

The plump vendor picked up his tongs and began flipping the meat chops one by one.

Suddenly, a dark shadow flashed, and a meat chop vanished abruptly from the grill.

Lin Huang saw the scene clearly; the person who had reached out to steal the meat chop was a child. Presuming the child was driven by extreme hunger to steal, he did not intervene.

However, a hunter nearby took offense to the act, reaching out to grab the child by the collar.

The child tripped and fell, gazing with extreme vigilance at the hunter who had grabbed him while clutching the meat chop tightly to his chest, terrified someone would snatch it away.

"Little beggar, stealing in front of so many people—do you think we're all blind?" The hunter raised a hand to teach the child a lesson, only to be stopped by Lin Huang.

"He must have been starving to steal food," Lin Huang said with a smiling shake of his head. "Boss, I'll pay for this meat chop."

After swiping his credits to pay, Lin Huang walked over to the child and squatted down. "Stealing is not a good behavior. Where are your parents? Did you get separated?"

The child did not look entirely like a beggar. Although his clothes and face bore stains, they appeared to have been dirtied recently rather than accumulated over a long period.

Hearing Lin Huang's question, the child hesitated for a moment before nodding.

"Alright then. After you finish eating, I'll take you to the night market exit to wait for them. They'll definitely pass by there on their way home." Lin Huang reached out to pull him up, glancing at the slightly soiled meat chop in the child's hands. "You don't need to eat that one. I'll have the boss grill you another."

With that, he turned back to the vendor and called out, "Boss, give me two more to take away."