Mr. Brooks greatly enjoys teaching others, and Grace Walker, troubled by his own tendency toward illiteracy, comes to Mr. Brooks's home every day when he has nothing to do, listening to his lectures and, in the process, learning about the language and history of the Great Qian Dynasty.

At first, Mr. Brooks taught some basic introductory lessons, but soon discovered that Grace Walker could read at lightning speed and was quick to grasp new concepts, so the material became more advanced. In just over a month, Grace Walker had already read through more than half of his collection of books.

The flames of war in Lingzhou had just been extinguished when the regional governor, Dongfang Shuoming, sent a squad of soldiers to count the population and property of the six counties and twenty-two districts under his jurisdiction, and also sent some rice and grain to this small town.

Ever since learning that the people of the Great Qian Dynasty valued martial prowess, and that one only needed to save up some tuition to study at an academy or Daoist temple to learn self-defense skills, Grace Walker became much more attentive to matters of money.

However, this place was remote; not to mention opportunities to get rich, even regular jobs were scarce. Everyone relied on themselves, going out to the wilds beyond the city to gather berries and hunt wild animals—no one had spare money to hire child labor.

Aunt Sullivan treated him extremely well, just like her own son. Grace Walker, at a loss for ideas, couldn't bear to make this woman sad even once. His plans to run away from home were made and remade, but never carried out.

The only gain was that, among Mr. Brooks's collection, he found a manual called the Twelve Beast Forms, said to be a foundational martial art passed down by the Mu tribe of the Western Di. After studying it diligently, he did make some progress.

Every day after reading, he would go outside the city to a secluded spot to practice hard.

He had already found out that the military governor of Lingzhou, Yanzhou, and Qianzhou, John Harris, possessed two great family heirlooms: the Water and Fire Exquisite Pagoda, which could multiply one's true energy, and the Transformation Pearl, which allowed for endless transformations. With such detailed references, he immediately realized what kind of treasures he had gotten his hands on.

The weapons used by John Harris—the Flame Beast Spear, Fire Dragon Chariot, Serpent Flame Saber, Gold-Swallowing Armor, and Coiling Dragon Bow—were all rare and brilliant arms. The whole set was probably worth over a hundred thousand taels of gold.

Whoosh! With a single slash to the ground, the powerful gust of air blew the dirt aside, carving a deep trench.

Today, on a whim, Grace Walker took out John Harris's weapons and practiced with them. Although his poses looked cool, they were of no practical use. The Twelve Beast Forms he had found at Mr. Brooks's place were purely unarmed techniques, an ancient martial art long passed down by the Mu tribe.

In terms of status, it was about the same as Taizu Long Fist or Shaolin Fist on Earth. Anyone with the will to learn could easily pick it up, but the Mu tribe used it mainly to lay a foundation and strengthen the bodies of their youth. There were no particularly powerful techniques for defeating enemies.

Moreover, after a few days of practice, Grace Walker finally understood why Mr. Brooks had said, when he took the manual, “The Mu tribe’s martial arts are not suitable for your cultivation. You should wait until you find a skilled expert to examine your internal meridians and acupoints to determine which tribe you belong to before choosing a path.”

All the tribes of the Central Divine Continent share a common ancestor: the White Moon Demon Clan. Therefore, aside from minor tribal features, there are no significant differences in appearance. However, in addition to the blood of the White Moon Demon Clan, each of the Hundred Lands’ human tribes also has other ancestors, so their meridians, acupoints, and energy attributes differ greatly.

Each tribe’s ancestors created their own secret cultivation methods, usually tailored to their tribe’s characteristics. Other tribes, due to different constitutions, found it difficult to practice them. Even if they forced themselves to learn, they could not achieve true mastery.

For this reason, those with purer bloodlines often progressed several times faster in martial arts and cultivation than ordinary people. Those with too mixed a heritage might be able to dabble in many tribes’ techniques, but could never reach the highest levels.

Now, Grace Walker faced a major problem: he didn’t know which tribe he belonged to. Aside from practicing the Twelve Beast Forms, which made it clear he was definitely not of the Mu tribe,

Although there were many types of Western Di demon clans, only the White Moon Demon Clan, Eastern Mu Clan, Ahe Luo Feather Clan, Diga Clan, and Wuxu Clan were considered the five great demon clans; the others were relatively few in number.

After countless attempts, Grace Walker could only barely manage to practice three techniques from the Twelve Beast Forms: the Mammoth Strength Technique, the Tortoise Shell Profound Armor Refinement, and the Spirit Vulture Bone-Crushing Claw. These were all simple, brute-force skills for increasing strength.

“Damn it, I can’t use the weapons, my unarmed skills are mediocre—if I keep going like this, I’m doomed!”

Putting the Serpent Flame Saber back onto the Fire Dragon Chariot, Grace Walker transformed the finely crafted bronze war chariot back into a bronze ruler. He had learned from one of Mr. Brooks's books that the Fire Dragon Chariot was a mechanical war chariot created by the art of mechanisms, and the scarlet flame dragon beasts pulling it were not living creatures, but spirits sealed onto the chariot by mechanists using soul-sealing techniques. They had none of their former ferocity and would not attack people; they could only pull the chariot.

Likewise, as spirit entities, ordinary attacks could not harm these scarlet flame dragon beasts sealed by soul-sealing techniques. This was why, when John Harris and his soldiers died in battle, these eight exotic beasts remained completely unharmed.

Seeing that it was still early, Grace Walker didn’t want to go back and face Aunt Sullivan's expression. He also knew that Aunt Sullivan probably realized he was not her son, but she tried hard to deceive herself; otherwise, this poor woman might not be able to go on living. From others, Grace Walker had already learned that Aunt Sullivan's entire family had been killed by marauding soldiers—her husband, in-laws, parents, sisters—no one was left.