Chapter 21 - Big Harvest
"I called the police, they will be here soon," Lu Yuan reassured the girl.
He considered whether he should go back to the house and take another look.
He didn't know if the kidnappers had any accomplices, or if there were any other victims in the house that he hadn't found.
But after the girl came out, she gripped his clothes tightly, looking very insecure.
Worried that it would agitate her emotions again, Lu Yuan didn't dare to forcefully break free.
So he gave up the idea of going back.
The police would arrive soon anyway.
Lu Yuan held the girl and squatted at the door, watching the rainy scene before them.
In less than ten minutes, not a single person could be seen on the streets.
The whole world was so quiet, as if only he and the girl in his arms existed.
After a while, Lu Yuan finally heard the sound of police sirens in the distance.
He pried open the girl's gradually relaxing hands and stood up from the ground.
"Don't tell the police it was me who saved you," Lu Yuan told the girl seriously.
He didn't want his parents to know he was fighting with seven or eight armed thugs in an alley late at night.
If they knew, he probably wouldn't be allowed to continue practicing martial arts anymore.
"Here's this back," Lu Yuan took out a pink hair clip from his pocket and handed it to the girl, then turned and rushed into the rain.
He quickly disappeared into the vast streets before the police car arrived.
The girl didn't say a word the entire time.
She just held the hair clip in her hand, blankly watching Lu Yuan's retreating figure for a long time.
"With such heavy rain late at night, even if there were surveillance cameras, they probably couldn't see my face clearly.
Besides, if those guys dared to bring people here and lock them up, they probably didn't consider surveillance cameras either," Lu Yuan thought as he arrived home.
He found the door of his family's small shop still open.
His mother, Zheng Qiuling, stood at the door holding a plastic fan, looking around.
When Lu Yuan rushed in completely drenched, he gave her a fright.
When she recognized Lu Yuan's face, she cried out even louder.
"Where did you go? What happened to your face?"
"I fell in the heavy rain," Lu Yuan lied with a stiff face.
"Falling can do this much damage to you?"
Zheng Qiuling was both anxious and angry, waving the plastic fan up and down.
"Did you get into a fight?"
Lu Yuan didn't say anything, just stood there sullenly.
"Oh!"
Zheng Qiuling slapped her own thigh forcefully, threw away the fan, and ran into the inner room.
Soon she hurried back with a bath towel.
"Why did you fight with people?!"
Zheng Qiuling used the towel to wipe the water off Lu Yuan's body, continuing to question him.
This time Lu Yuan "confessed."
"They were... bullying someone."
"Bullying who? Bullying you? Who were they?"
"A few... hoodlums."
"You've really got some nerve now!"
Zheng Qiuling rubbed Lu Yuan's head forcefully, her words tinged with irritation.
Hearing Lu Yuan's muffled groan, her eyes immediately became worried again, and her actions much gentler.
"Wipe yourself, I'll go get you some medicinal wine."
Zheng Qiuling threw the towel to Lu Yuan and was about to leave.
But as if remembering something, she hurriedly ran to close the shop door first.
She seemed afraid those "hoodlums" Lu Yuan mentioned would suddenly appear again and chase into the shop.
After much fussing about, by the time Lu Yuan showered, applied medicinal wine, listened to his mother's scolding, and got to his room, it was nearly midnight.
"Ow!"
Lu Yuan pressed the left side of his ribs, hurting so much he couldn't help sucking in a breath.
The dormant pain now surged up all at once to bother him.
The most serious injuries on his body were in two places.
One was his left ribs, where the middle-aged man had viciously kicked him.
The other was his back, beaten with a stick.
The rest of him was alright, mostly just bruises and abrasions.
When he applied medicine earlier, it nearly broke his mother's heart. Lu Yuan saw Zheng Qiuling secretly wipe tears twice when she thought he wasn't looking.
"That guy was very skilled, definitely a fighting expert who reached the Martial Arts Rank.
Luckily after I added two points of strength, I knocked him out before he could react, otherwise I really might not have escaped," Lu Yuan thought.
What made Lu Yuan most grateful though,
was that those guys didn't have guns!
If any of those guys had a gun on them and I suddenly attacked like that, I'd be stone cold dead by now.
Thinking back on it now, it was so dangerous.
If it happened again, I'm not sure I'd have the courage to rush into that alley.
"Without sufficient real combat experience, I absolutely can't let myself get into such perilous situations again."
After this fight, Lu Yuan finally understood the gap between himself and true "Fighters".
The various skills on his Profession Panel, without enough real combat testing, were just pretty data.
Thinking of this, Lu Yuan remembered to check his Profession Panel.
Focusing his mind a bit, a series of message prompts immediately popped up.
[Your Basic Boxing skill has improved, +12 exp]
[Your Basic Leg Techniques skill has improved, +8 exp]
[Your Basic Footwork skill has improved, +7 exp]
Dizzying.
Lu Yuan scrolled straight to the bottom.
[You've experienced combat, +57 profession exp]
[Congratulations, your [Fighter] profession level increased!]
[Congratulations, your Basic Boxing skill level increased!]
[Congratulations, your Basic Leg Techniques skill level increased!]
[Congratulations, your Basic Footwork skill level increased!]
Seeing the series of level up prompts made Lu Yuan's breathing turn rapid with excitement.
Looking at his current [Fighter] Profession Panel:
[Profession: Fighter lv4 (8/800)]
[Basic Profession Skills: Beginner Body Tempering lv4 (36/800)
Basic Boxing lv4 (66/800)
Basic Leg Techniques lv4 (49/800)
Basic Footwork lv4 (23/800)
Basic Grappling lv2 (65/200)]
[Attr Pts: 1]
[Skill Pts: 3]
Basic Boxing, Basic Leg Techniques, Basic Footwork all rose to lv4.
His [Fighter] profession also went from lv3 to lv4, catching up to [Student].
This life-and-death brawl provided Lu Yuan with a whopping 57 profession exp, plus hundreds of skill exp combined.
Equivalent to a whole day of solo cultivation, or beating up Cheng Peng 40-50 times.
The gains were tremendous.
"As expected, [Fighters] grow the fastest through combat.
Combat is the best nourishment for increasing strength!"
The attribute point he had used during the fight returned when his profession leveled up.
Lu Yuan originally wanted to add this point to Agility.
But looking back, he found his Agility was already 9 without him noticing.
"It probably revealed itself after reaching the threshold and my Basic Footwork leveled up from the fight."
Lu Yuan understood the reason instantly.
Although his Agility increased, Lu Yuan still chose to add the attribute point to Agility.
"Break 10 first for everything before considering specialization."
1 point added to Agility brought it from 9 to 10.
Now Lu Yuan's four attributes were:
[Strength: 11]
[Agility: 10]
[Vitality: 10]
[Intelligence: 10]