"Y-Yes!" Feng Tian stammered, his eyes red and swollen, and his voice slightly wavering. Moving his legs, he quickly caught up with the old man. Walking away, for the last time, he turned his head around. From the corner of his eye, he saw his parents still wearing a warm smile.

'Even if temporary... I kinda like this...' Stretching his lips ear to ear, he waved goodbye and smiled playfully.

***

Continuously walking through the silent streets of the outskirts of Xiouyue, Lucian could feel the soft reflection of the moon lighting the entire area.

The streets that were bustling with people in the morning seemed barren, as if not a single soul had stepped on them in ages. The windows of the nearby houses were open, yet not a speck of light shone from the inside.

But in the distance, where the outskirts came to an end and the true Xiouyue began, the bright lights of the streets and soft churn of muffled voices could still be seen and heard from the outskirts.

It was contradictory, yet it flowed well enough to be referred to as two sides of the same coin. Quietly walking alongside the old man, Lucian's eyes wandered into the air.

'System, sign-in.' He called out in his mind, waiting for the system to respond accordingly.

Just like he had expected, a bright cerulean light appeared right before his eyes as a sharp notification rang through his ears.

---

———————————————————

[#~System Notification~#]

———————————————————

[Daily Sign-in complete!]

[Current streak - 1 day!]

[Reward - Temporary Skill Card]

***

[#~Item~#] - Temporary Skill Card

[• Grade] - B

[• Time Limit - 1:30 minutes]

[• Description]:-

└ [Allows you to temporarily copy anyone's techniques up to 50% of their max proficiency.]

└ [The desired skill can only be copied if a certain requirement has been fulfilled.]

[• Usage Requirement]:-

└ [You must have seen the technique at least once to be able to copy it.]

---

"And I struck gold again, huhu..." Unknowingly, Lucian's lips curled into a smirk, his eyes forming a crescent shape as he smugged.

Although the old man had already noticed this, he decided to ignore it, thinking it was his way of playing. His thoughts weren't wrong, but the thing is, he had neither any idea nor any intuition that the one he had accepted as his disciple wasn't some 5-year-old but a 17-year-old.

Soon enough, as they reached the inner streets of the Xiouyue, the environment had changed completely. Mere steps away, where the streets oozed of the fragrance of flowers and earthen scent, this inner street smelled of alcohol and countless artificial scents.

Even if Lucian was an adult, it was also a fact that his body was nothing but that of a 5-year-old. His nose was extremely sensitive, and the fact that he had never experienced something other than flowers in his neighborhood only made it worse.

As soon as he entered the street, his nostrils flared with a mix of sharp and pungent smells. Covering his nose, he closely followed the old man by grabbing onto a small piece of his robe. It was all so he wouldn't get lost in such a dense crowd.

One step after another, they kept walking. It was to the point that even Lucian began to heave for air. Sweat broke out on his forehead while the old man seemed completely fine. Let alone heaving for air, there wasn't a speck of sweat on his body.

*Huff... Huff...*

"What the hell... Is this... Old man... Made out of?" Gasping heavily for air, Lucian muttered in a low, almost inaudible voice as his legs tirelessly moved to follow behind his master's steps.

Not long after, a sharp snarl of someone's voice appeared at a distance. The voice was still unclear, but it wasn't alone. Following the first voice, countless voices rose. They were similar in nature. Cursing and reflecting hostility towards someone.

It was then that a voice jolted him awake into his senses. "Whatever you see there, do not react excessively." The old man muttered; his voice, unlike before, seemed slightly unstable.

Upon getting closer, Lucian found himself in a strange area. A point where all streets converged and stretched into a giant open space. In the middle, a gigantic statue made of glittering gold and silver stood tall. The statue was that of a man. A man that Xiouyue praised as their hero.

Of course, that was a long time ago. "But the fact that a statue was praised as such... Could that be the hero of Xiouyue, Shie Wusheng?' Lucian thought to himself, pondering as he strictly followed his master.

According to the bedtime stories Lucian had heard from his parents, Shie Wusheng was the generational hero of the people of Xiouyue, since he not only saved the benevolent princess of Xiouyue from the grasp of a demonic practitioner but even slew the practitioner, who went berserk after not being able to obtain what he sought—the princess.

It was quite a popular tale, at least in the Xiouyue. According to common knowledge, this matter alone was thousands of years old; however, to remember the hero and criticize the villain, just how deep did the loyalty for the princess run in the lineage of Xiouyue?

To Lucian, the situation felt... Well, not good.

If it truly was the truth, then it was eerie. For someone's loyalty to run so deep, one would either have to be a saint or a demon that had put curses on one's body.

Either way, it wasn't something that would make him shudder any longer. Why? Because he now possessed a powerful master, not to forget about his cheat system.

However, fate did not allow him to ignore his worries any longer. Since just as he came within a radius of 5 meters of the statue, a system screen abruptly flickered before his eyes. His body froze as his eyes couldn't help but tremble upon reading the system's message.

---

———————————————————

[#~System Notification~#]

———————————————————

[#~Warning~#]

[A player's breath has been detected!]

[Do you wish to know more details?]

---

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