He was in the Ming Dynasty, and his adoptive father was Governor Cao.

Ming dynasty.

The 7th day of the second month of the 32nd year of Tianfu.

Torrential rain.

Three days of continuous cold snap and torrential rain, along with suddenly rising waves at sea, turned the area around Heiya Reef in the Lingnan waters upside down.

On the reef, a white-hulled ship lies broken into pieces, its keel snapped into three sections.

Two figures lay motionless amidst the wreckage of the ship.

Xiao Ting was awakened by excruciating pain.

A sharp, stabbing pain shot up from his left rib, making his vision go black and almost causing him to faint again. His throat was filled with a salty, fishy taste, and he couldn't tell if it was seawater or blood.

He took a deep breath, and the air mixed with rainwater rushed into his lungs, causing him to cough violently.

This movement caused pain all over my body, especially in my chest and back, which burned intensely.

"Ahem... The Universiade has come to the company?"

He forced his eyes open despite the dizziness. The leaden sky was covered with dark clouds, and raindrops pelted down on him. In his blurred vision, a distorted face suddenly loomed in front of him!

The face was less than a foot away from him, pale and swollen from being soaked in seawater.

A grotesque, centipede-like scar ran diagonally from his left temple to the corner of his mouth, the skin and flesh torn open.

At this moment, Scarface's eyes were closed, his brows were furrowed, and with his weak breathing, bloody bubbles kept coming out of his nostrils and the corners of his mouth.

Who is he?

where is this?

Xiao Ting struggled to his feet and looked around blankly.

Just a moment ago, he was slacking off at the office reading a novel, only remembering a game pop up, a martial arts game called "Jianghu Lu" (Records of the Martial World). The background description was incredibly flowery: "In the Ming Dynasty, a time of great martial arts, the world is turned upside down. The emperor seeks immortality through alchemy, while treacherous officials seize power and disrupt the court..."

He casually tried to close the page, but accidentally touched something, and everything suddenly went black.

My last memory before losing consciousness was the character creation screen flashing by on the screen, and the "Random talent selection in progress..." message that I hadn't even had time to see clearly.

No way...

Xiao Ting had a vague premonition that something was wrong.

Just then, a sharp pain shot through his brain, and memories of another person flooded his mind.

"Xiao Ting... a criminal officer in the Eastern Depot... the Angry Dragon Gang... kidnapped in Lianzhou..."

After processing these memories, Xiao Ting was shocked and completely stunned.

I actually got transported into the game!

This body is also called Xiao Ting. He is twenty years old this year. He is a criminal officer of the Embroidered Uniform Guard and a criminal officer of the Eastern Depot. At the same time, he is also the adopted son of Cao Guangxian, the eunuch in charge of the Pearl Picking Division in Lingnan.

What is the Pearl Digging Bureau?

The Pearl-Picking Bureau was first established during the reign of Emperor Taizu of Ming.

After more than three hundred years of evolution, by the twelfth year of the Tianfu era, the system had reached its zenith, and its power had reached its zenith.

At that time, Emperor Tianfu's demand for South China Sea pearls increased dramatically in order to refine elixirs and decorate palaces. He specially ordered the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs and the Directorate of Palace Attendants to cooperate and dispatched a trusted eunuch as the "Eunuch in Charge of the Pearl Pools" to oversee pearl harvesting in Lei and Lian prefectures. This eunuch was directly under the inner court and local government was not allowed to interfere.

It can be said that Cao Guangxian is the god of Lingnan!

In this gray area granted by imperial authority, he was the Yama, the ruler of life and death, and countless people tried desperately to gain entry into his service but failed.

The original owner of the body, Xiao Ting, was an anomaly.

His father, Xiao Yuan, had a life-or-death friendship with Cao Guangxian and died saving him.

On his deathbed, Cao Guangxian entrusted his adopted son to him, and he truly treated him as his own son, giving him treatment far exceeding that of ordinary people, and even securing him the powerful position of "Hundred-Household Officer in Charge of Criminal Justice" early on.

However, the original owner of this body blamed Cao Guangxian for her father's death and had her contempt for eunuchs etched into her bones.

For eight years, while enjoying Cao Guangxian's protection, he also defied him in various ways to "retaliate." He felt that Cao Guangxian's bringing him to Lingnan was an "exile" and a way to "use him as a scapegoat," so he intensified his troublemaking: burning account books, overturning tables, and destroying sentry boats...

Ultimately, he successfully put himself in danger.

Three days ago, he was misled into thinking he could release a group of pearl farmers under the cover of rain. However, he was ambushed by pirates and kidnapped by the "Angry Dragon Gang" to blackmail his eunuch adoptive father, who was a master of martial arts.

The kidnapping went smoothly.

Taking advantage of the darkness and the storm, the Angry Dragon Gang planned to transport him to the open sea in a small boat.

But they miscalculated one thing—Cao Guangxian's reaction.

Upon learning that his adopted son had been kidnapped, Cao Guangxian immediately mobilized more than 1,600 guards from the Pearl-Picking Division, nearly 1,000 troops from the Eight Great Strongholds, and all the garrison troops within Lianzhou. He first blockaded Lianzhou, and then, with the force of a plowing away the den, wiped out the twelve secret outposts of the Angry Dragon Gang along the Lianzhou coast overnight, capturing over a thousand people!

They slaughtered until heads rolled and blood stained the dock!

No handing over the person, no sealing of the sword!

In the chaos, He Shan, the third leader of the Angry Dragon Gang, known as "Ghost Blade," seized the opportunity to kidnap the original body and jumped onto the only small boat that broke through the encirclement, attempting to take the hostage back to the Angry Dragon Gang's headquarters.

As a result, a storm swept the boat into the reef.

The ship wrecked.

He Shan was injured while escaping, and then hit a reef, losing consciousness. Xiao Ting was lucky and his injuries were not serious, but as a playboy, he suffered one major misfortune after another, and died of shock not long after falling into the water.

Xiao Ting understood what was going on and only had two words to say about it:

--idiot!

"I'm twenty and still working part-time to support myself, I'm so damn ungrateful!"

Xiao Ting was speechless.

They come, the security.

The rain poured down, and he was starving and freezing. He tried to recall the martial arts techniques he had learned in the original body and use his internal energy to dispel the cold, but he found that he only had the seventh-grade foundational internal martial art of the Huashan Sect, "Hun Yuan Gong", in his mind.

It was passed down from his biological father when he was still alive...

The problem is, Cao Guangxian's "Tiangang Yuanqi" is a divine skill ranked third grade, personally taught by the Grand Eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial! Cao Guangxian even specifically sought permission to teach the original owner everything he knew, but the original owner refused on the grounds that he "didn't practice eunuch martial arts"... refused...

Not only that, he also refused all of Cao Guangxian's possessions, whether silver or rare and precious materials.

As I recall, I had just recently thrown away a breast protector that Cao Guangxian had given him...

Thinking of this, Xiao Ting felt even more uneasy and quickly sat cross-legged to check his cultivation level.

As expected, his internal energy was mediocre...

Xiao Ting thought back carefully. The six realms of martial arts are: Body Tempering, Acquired, Innate, Profound Realm, Grandmaster, Great Grandmaster... He was at the fifth level of Acquired... the fifth level...

"Holy crap!!!"

"This is outrageous!"

"What's the difference between this and a blank account?"

My relationship with my thighs is deteriorating...

Being targeted by various hostile forces...

He lacks ambition, has a bad reputation, and has enemies everywhere...

This is even worse than a blank account.

Xiao Ting was practically in tears: "There's also a 'talent,' but I didn't even see what it was... Do you have any return tickets? I want to go home..."

"water……"

Suddenly, a faint groan came from beside me.

Xiao Ting suddenly turned her head and saw He Shan's eyelids trembling and his lips moving; he was about to wake up!

Danger!

He Shan is a true disciple of the Cangfenglou sect, a major school in Lingnan, and has reached the Innate Realm!

Even if he is severely injured and on the verge of death, killing a fifth-level Acquired Realm cultivator is no different than crushing an ant!

If he wakes up, it's all over!

Xiao Ting's hair stood on end instantly. He instinctively grabbed a rock and, just as He Shan's eyelids were about to lift, used all his strength to smash it down hard on He Shan's right temple!

boom!

A muffled thud.

The last bit of spirit that He Shan had managed to muster instantly vanished!

Xiao Ting was afraid that he wasn't quite dead, so he grabbed the stone and smashed it against his temple repeatedly!

boom!boom!boom!boom!boom!

After several strikes, He Shan stopped moving completely.

A mixture of red and white substances, along with rainwater, slowly seeped from the cracks in the skull.

Xiao Ting was breathing heavily, his hands trembling slightly. His body was too weak; those few moves had almost exhausted the little strength he had just recovered.

He stared at He Shan's corpse, his expression shifting.

He committed murder.

In this godforsaken place, it's either you or me who dies.

The original owner left behind a huge mess, had a terrible relationship with Cao Guangxian, the strongest protector, was being targeted by pirates, and had very weak strength... In this martial arts world of Ming, he was practically a walking fat sheep!

"This can't go on."

Xiao Ting forced himself to calm down. First and foremost, he had to survive. He didn't even know where he had drifted to. If the Angry Dragon Gang found him first, he was doomed!

Xiao Ting struggled to get up, and her hand accidentally landed on He Shan's arm.

In that very instant—

boom!

Countless unfamiliar memories, like a treasure trove exploding, instantly flooded my mind!

[The "Hand of the Bright Soul" talent has been triggered... Target: "Ghost Blade" He Shan...]

[Analysis begins... Extraction successful!]

[Acquired a Rank 6 High-Tier Sword Technique: "Guicang Yidao"!]

[Gained thirty-four years of cultivation experience!]

[Skill in progress...]