The exit that Xiao Tan and Laughing Soul had found was in the forest on the western side of town. They had fallen into the hole when they were searching the empty houses on the eastern side of town. That meant that they had moved through the entire town through the underground tunnel. If they did this on the surface, the journey would have taken less than half a day, but in the underground tunnels, the roads were complicated and uneven, not to mention the various blockages along the way. They were lucky that they had been able to exit before the dawn of the third day.
When the two returned to Chang Lin Inn, it was the darkest hour of the day. The inn door was closed. Of course, there were side doors, back doors, the windows, and so on. There were many ways to enter the inn. If they were any real martial artist, with a little experience or Qinggong, entering the inn was easy, but the two of them…
Bang bang bang…
At 4 am, the time when most were sound asleep, they banged on the door quite openly. After knocking on it for a while, a man’s voice came out from inside. “Who is it?”
“We’re the guests from the Tian row. Please open the door,” Xiao Tan replied.
Several seconds later, the man opened the door and said blurrily, “It’s already so late at night—why are you guys outside?”
“Haha… I’m so sorry for disturbance.” Xiao Tan naturally would not answer the question. He gave a vague reply and went up the stairs with Laughing Soul. The man was not really interested in what they were doing. He had merely asked out of courtesy. He closed the door, returned to the counter, and fell back to sleep. There was a reason the man was sleeping in the lobby. It was not that he was afraid people might steal the money, but he was scared that people might steal alcohol. To put it plainly, he was there to guard against Lu San…
The two pushed the door open to their guest room. They saw Atobe sitting on the only bed in the room. His legs were folded underneath him, and his fingers were crossed together as they placed naturally above his legs. His eyes were closed in recovery.
“Ho, Brother Jin, we haven’t seen you for one day, but you’ve joined a wuxia school already?” Laughing Soul laughed mockingly.
Atobe had already heard their movement. He knew that it had to be a teammate who would open the door and walk in like that, so he was not worried. He slowly opened his eyes and said, “I’m using a skill to recover my Stamina Points.”
“Oh? There’s an active skill that can do that?” Xiao Tan asked. “What does this skill consume?”
“It consumes nothing,” Atobe replied. “But you have to assume this position to manipulate the flow of Qi.”
Laughing Soul seemed to have caught onto something. She asked, “Did you learn some kind of internal energy from an NPC in this scenario?”
“Bingo.” Atobe smiled. “This afternoon, Lin Chang and Su Tang came. Naturally, it was for their request. I said that I have no idea where Master Feng and his wife have been, and the two of you haven’t returned for the night, but I can be certain that all of you are alive.”
He saw the change in Xiao Tan and Laughing Soul’s expressions, so he added, “Don’t worry, I didn’t tell them about the team tab or anything. It wouldn’t have worked anyway. They wouldn’t believe me and wouldn’t understand it.
“Lin Chang and Su Tang were polite, saying that their request wasn’t urgent. After the duel, they invited all of us to be guests of the Ye family. We can continue the conversation then. After that, they were going to leave.”
Atobe’s lips curled into a smile. “At the time, a brilliant idea came to me and I told Lin Chang…”
“You wanted him to teach you the simple kung fu technique that he was about to teach our team leader?” Laughing Soul cut him off.
“That’s right,” Atobe replied. “Seeing that the third day was coming, on the day of the duel, they should be busy, and we’ll leave the scenario in a few days, so this afternoon was the only chance. Since Lin Chang promised to teach Brother Feng kung fu, it means that the kung fu must be some kind of beginner kung fu. I used the opportunity and told him that he might as well teach me the kung fu first, and then I’ll teach it to Brother Feng. That saves him the trouble of coming here again.”
“Not bad. You successfully tricked someone into teaching you a skill,” Laughing Soul commented. “As a Jin Fugui, this is already beyond your capability.”
“What do you mean by as a Jin Fugui! Is Jin Fugui a kind of animal?” Atobe grumbled. “Plus, what’s so funny about the name? Yes, it’s a bit plebeian, but it’s my parent’s wish for me, a kind of blessing!”
“What a strange wish your parents have,” Xiao Tan added snidely.
“You can’t say that. I believe most parents want the best for their child. You can only say that they have done a bad thing with good intentions,” Laughing Soul added.
“You two…” Atobe wanted to say the f word but was blocked by the system. He had no choice but to swallow his words. “Never mind… I am at least a professional player. I am not going to bother with plebs like you.”
Xiao Tan patted Atobe’s shoulder. “Friendship between men is measured by how much they mock each other, so this only means that we trust you.”
As he finished, a slap came, and Xiao Tan was slammed on the back of his head by Laughing Soul. “I am not a man!”
“Hahaha…” Atobe laughed. “And the relationship between a couple is measured by the heaviness of the woman’s attack and the tolerance of the man.”
Holding the back of his head, Xiao Tan changed the subject awkwardly. “By the way, the internal energy that you learned… that skill, what is its effect?”
“The skill’s name is called ’Qi Inducing Mantra’. It’s one of the most basic skills of the Ye family. If I sit in this position and follow a certain breathing method, my Stamina Points recovery rate will increase by one percent, and it will not affect my current recovery efficiency,” Atobe said.
“That’s not bad. That means even if your Stamina Points drop to zero, within half an hour, you’ll rise back to half, and in one hour, you’ll recover about eighty percent,” Laughing Soul commented. “That’s a good skill.”
“From my perspective, this wuxia scenario is no different from a skill treasure trove,” Atobe said. “That’s not the only thing I’ve learned. At dusk, Young Master Tang came to visit, saying that he wanted to thank me by gifting me a lot of money. I thought about it and realized that I have no use for those things. I’m not going to stay here for long. Therefore, I asked Brother Tang to teach me a simple kung fu technique to practice with. He agreed easily and taught me Stealing Wind Clasping Moon. This is a fan skill. It greatly improves the speed at which I can operate my large steel fan.
“I was practicing and experimenting with it earlier, and now I can use my fan twice as fast as before.”
“Oh, no wonder you need to recover your Stamina Points.” Xiao Tan nodded.
“Eh, do you have any news from the team leader?” Laughing Soul asked.
“I don’t. I was hoping you would bring some,” Atobe said. “The main quest to vanquish the bell demon is still there. This can only mean that they’re still tussling with the boss inside the Realm of the Bell, right?”
“Hmm…” Laughing Soul nodded in thought.
“By the way, what did you two find?” Atobe asked.
Then the three shared their information in the guestroom. Other than the information of the martial world and the gossip between Tang Size and Mu Rong Yin, the key point was the secret that Lin Chang possessed the Shapeless and Formless Law…