Chapter 21 – A Great Gain, All Tens

“I’ve called the police. They will be here soon.”

Lu Yuan comforted the girl.

He contemplated whether he should go back to the house to check once more.

He didn’t know if these kidnappers had any accomplices or if there were any victims he hadn’t discovered yet.

But the girl in his arms had been clutching his clothes tightly since they came out, looking extremely insecure.

Worried about further agitating her emotions, Lu Yuan didn’t dare to forcefully break free.

He decided to give up on the idea of going back.

After all, the police would arrive soon.

Lu Yuan held the girl, squatting at the shop entrance, watching the rain scene before them.

It wasn’t even ten o’clock, yet the streets were already deserted.

The whole world seemed so empty, as if only he and the girl in his arms were left.

After a while, Lu Yuan finally heard the sound of sirens in the distance.

He pried open the girl’s gradually relaxing hand and stood up from the ground.

“Don’t tell the police that I saved you.”

Lu Yuan instructed the girl seriously.

He didn’t want his parents to know that he had fought seven or eight knife-wielding men in an alley late at night.

If they found out, he probably wouldn’t be allowed to continue practicing martial arts.

“Here, this is yours.”

Lu Yuan took a pink hairpin out of his pocket and handed it to the girl, then turned and disappeared into the rain.

Before the police car arrived, he quickly vanished into the vast street.

The girl didn’t say a word from beginning to end.

She just held the hairpin in her hand, staring blankly at Lu Yuan’s departing figure for a long time.

“It’s raining heavily at night. Even if there were surveillance cameras, they wouldn’t be able to see me clearly. Besides, since those people dared to bring their victim here, they probably weren’t so amateurish as to not consider the surveillance issue.”

When Lu Yuan got home, he found that the door of their Small Shop was still open.

His mom, Zheng Qiuling, was standing at the shop door, holding a plastic fan and looking around.

When Lu Yuan rushed into the shop, drenched from head to toe, he startled her.

When she saw Lu Yuan’s face clearly, she screamed.

“Where have you been? What happened to your face?”

“Got caught in the heavy rain and accidentally slipped.”

Lu Yuan gritted his teeth and lied.

“A fall could do this?”

Zheng Qiuling was both worried and furious, her plastic fan waving up and down in agitation.

“Did you get into a fight?”

Lu Yuan said nothing, just stood there silently.

“Ai!”

Zheng Qiuling slapped her thigh hard, threw the fan aside, and quickly ran into the inner room.

In no time, she hurried back with a bath towel.

“Why did you have to fight?!”

Zheng Qiuling wiped the water off Lu Yuan with the towel, continuing her questioning.

This time, Lu Yuan “confessed.”

“They were bullying someone.”

“Bullying who? Bullying you? Who were they?!”

“Just some punks.”

“You’ve really grown some nerve!”

Zheng Qiuling rubbed Lu Yuan’s head forcefully, her words tinged with frustration.

Hearing Lu Yuan grunt in pain, her expression immediately softened with concern, and her movements became much gentler.

“Dry yourself off. I’ll get some medicinal liquor for your wounds.”

Zheng Qiuling handed Lu Yuan the towel and was about to leave.

Before going upstairs, she seemed to remember something and hurriedly ran to close the shop door.

It was as if she feared that the “punks” Lu Yuan mentioned might suddenly appear and chase him into the shop.

After much fussing around, by the time Lu Yuan finished his bath, applied the medicinal liquor, and listened to his mom’s lecture, it was almost midnight.

“Hiss”

Lu Yuan pressed the outside of his left rib area, wincing in pain.

It was only now that the lingering pain surged up, causing him trouble.

The most severe injuries on his body were primarily in two places.

One was his left rib, where the middle-aged man had kicked him hard.

The second was his back, which had been hit with a stick.

Other areas weren’t as bad, mostly bruises and scrapes.

When applying the medicinal liquor earlier, his mom had been heartbroken. Lu Yuan saw Zheng Qiuling secretly wipe away tears twice behind his back.

“That guy was really strong, definitely a skilled martial artist.

Luckily, after adding two points to my strength, I managed to knock him down before he could react. Otherwise, I might not have escaped.”

What Lu Yuan felt most fortunate about, though, was that those guys didn’t have guns!

If any one of them had a gun and decided to shoot, he would already be long gone.

Looking back, he realized how dangerous it had been.

If he had to do it again, Lu Yuan wasn’t sure if he would have the courage to rush into that alley.

“Until I have enough actual combat experience, I must not let myself get into such dangerous situations again.”

This battle made Lu Yuan fully aware of the gap between himself and a true [martial artist].

The skills on his professional panel, without enough real combat validation, were just impressive-looking numbers.

With this in mind, Lu Yuan remembered to check his professional panel.

Focusing his thoughts, a series of message prompts appeared before him.

[Your skill basic fist technique has improved, experience points +12]

[Your skill basic leg techniques has improved, experience points +8]

[Your skill basic footwork has improved, experience points +7]

The messages were dazzling.

Lu Yuan scrolled directly to the bottom.

[You have experienced a battle, professional experience +57]

[Congratulations, your [martial artist] professional level has increased!]

[Congratulations, your skill basic fist technique has leveled up!]

[Congratulations, your skill basic leg techniques has leveled up!]

[Congratulations, your skill basic footwork has leveled up!]

A series of level-up messages made Lu Yuan’s breath quicken with excitement.

He then looked at his current [martial artist] professional panel.

[Profession: Martial Artist Level 4 (8/800)]

[Basic Professional Skills: Basic Body Training Level 4 (36/800)]

[Basic Fist Technique Level 4 (66/800)]

[Basic Leg Techniques Level 4 (49/800)]

[Basic Footwork Level 4 (23/800)]

[Basic Grappling Level 2 (65/200)]

[Attribute Points: 1]

[Skill Points: 3]

His basic fist technique, basic leg techniques, and basic footwork had all advanced to Level 4.

His [martial artist] profession had also leveled up from Level 3 to Level 4, catching up with his [student] profession.

This life-and-death brawl provided Lu Yuan with a substantial fifty-seven points of professional experience and several hundred points of skill experience in total.

It was equivalent to him training alone for an entire day or beating up Cheng Peng forty to fifty times.

This was a huge gain.

“As expected, [martial artists] grow sufficiently fast only through combat. Combat is the best nourishment for improving strength!”

The attribute points he had used temporarily to boost his combat power were now replenished thanks to the breakthrough in his professional level.

Lu Yuan initially thought about adding this point to his agility points.

But upon closer inspection, he realized that his agility points had already reached 9 at some point.

“It must have been from reaching the critical value and the basic footwork level-up during the fight.”

Lu Yuan blinked, quickly figuring out the reason.

Even though his agility points had increased, Lu Yuan still decided to add the attribute point to agility.

“Let’s break ten across the board first, then consider specialization.”

He added 1 point to agility, raising his agility points from 9 to 10.

Now, Lu Yuan’s Four Attributes were:

[Strength Points: 11]

[Agility Points: 10]

[Constitution Points: 10]

[Intelligence Points: 10]