"Foreign language?"
His mother looked at him with some confusion, not understanding what learning a skill had to do with speaking a foreign language to her. But then, she thought of her son’s peculiar abilities and decided not to ask any more questions.
As the saying goes, no one knows a son better than his mother. Ms. Pei Lingsu considered her son’s level of foreign language proficiency and thoughtfully lowered the difficulty.
"How are you?"
Zhang Xiaoman was startled and subconsciously replied:
"I am fine, thank..."
He was halfway through when he suddenly came to his senses and quickly said, "No, mom, you think so little of me? That’s way too simple... Say something more complex, preferably something I can’t understand."
His mother thought for a moment and said:
"i’t no that...@#!%¥...%&!#..."
("It’s not that I think little of you; it’s just that if I speak even a bit more complexly, you definitely wouldn’t understand.")
Zhang Xiaoman’s face darkened. This time he got it; the Communication Skill had worked, even though his mother’s words were a bit disheartening...
He looked at his attributes and sure enough, the engraving there had changed to 3/4.
"Mom, do you know any other foreign languages? Let’s try another one. I can still learn one more!"
He planned to make the most of the opportunity and use it all up in one go.
His mother gave him a dismissive look and said irritably, "I’m not a language student. Where else would I learn other foreign languages?"
Zhang Xiaoman felt a bit deflated but then came up with a plan—to have his mother learn a new sentence on the spot and then repeat it to him.
Unfortunately, after half an hour of trying, this seemed to have no effect. The Communication Skill engraving still could not be triggered.
There was nothing to do but put the engraving issue aside for now, as tonight he still had to explore the information left by Li Xiang. He couldn’t delay any longer.
He had mastered a foreign language tonight, but the biggest gains were the upgrades to the Soul Absorption Technique and the Star Guard. It could be said that his strength had greatly improved after this upgrade compared to before.
Getting into the Anti-gravity Car and leaving, Zhang Xiaoman had become much more efficient since understanding the mechanism of the Shadow Lord.
In the city, he had always been afraid to park just anywhere, but now it was different. The Anti-gravity Car could be used almost freely, without having to worry about being discovered, which undeniably sped up his efficiency significantly.
The three locations provided by Li Xiang were, in chronological order: an abandoned ancient house on Tiger Road, a wasteland next to the Han Tomb, and the recent No Light Alley incident.
Zhang Xiaoman decided to first check out No Light Alley, given that Li Xiang had already mentioned having seen monsters there and had almost been killed. So, this information was likely accurate.
"Plant system monsters, huh... Rising from the ground, tentacles alone reaching ten meters long... They seem a bit troublesome to deal with. I should bring the Mountain and River Sword, too."
Zhang Xiaoman sorted out his equipment: a Water Bullet Gun with ten bullets, all made from Divine Grace, which should be much more powerful than ordinary Holy Water.
Then there was the Mountain and River Sword; of course, he had to bring it. If he encountered something as tough as a Mineral Essence, he’d summon the four Star Guards, give them each a sword, and hack and slash their way through.
As for the rest—the Purple Cloud Divine Sword, Hundred Flowers Brewed Cloak, Polar Star Robe—of course, he had to bring those too.
Even a lion uses all its strength to hunt a rabbit, let alone a monster.
After making sure everything was in order, Zhang Xiaoman then boarded the anti-gravity car and headed toward No Light Alley.
No Light Alley is located near the Third Research Institute of Qionghua City, just four streets west to the city center area, so the location is quite decent.
Qionghua City is known for its numerous ancient alleys. If it weren’t for those rumors, No Light Alley wouldn’t stand out much here. The main reason it became eerie is that no one lives here, and it is pitch-dark at night with no one willing to venture nearby.
But now, it was brightly lit.
When Zhang Xiaoman flew over No Light Alley in his anti-gravity car, he found the area cordoned off with police tape, and many police officers were conducting an investigation, which suggested that the government was already aware of the incident that had occurred the day before.
He lowered the flying height a bit and, with the cloaking mode activated, was not worried about being seen.
The anti-gravity car silently glided over No Light Alley. Unbeknownst to the crowd below, Zhang Xiaoman surveyed the area, but to his disappointment, he found nothing unusual—not even the so-called "Cat and Dog Moon-gazing."
"Could the monster be hiding, or has it already been captured by the government?"
Zhang Xiaoman pondered for a moment and decided to use the Spirit Detection Technique on himself. Then he further reduced the altitude of the car to get closer to the ground in an attempt to directly observe whether any monsters were hiding below.
Although his Spirit Detection Technique could observe monsters through the Dark World, the range of this observation was not unlimited. Generally speaking, the maximum distance was about 50 meters. Beyond this range, the vision would become blurry and eventually completely obscured.
Under the field of view of the Spirit Detection Technique, No Light Alley was silent and devoid of any traces of monsters.
Zhang Xiaoman guessed that since the plant-system monster could move underground, it must have already left the area.
This clue, which he thought would be the most promising, turned out to be a dead end, which left him feeling frustrated.
Glancing at the Third Research Institute standing in the dark night, Zhang Xiaoman turned the car around and headed in another direction.
Next up was the ancient house on Tiger Road.
In terms of timing, this should be the first piece of information sent by Li Xiang, dating back five days ago.
At that time, Zhang Xiaoman was dedicated to practicing the Enlightenment Technique and spent the whole day immersed in the Original Realm—he had missed many messages and hadn’t paid attention, thus delaying his response to the situation.
Tiger Road is an old-route with buildings that even date back a hundred years, preserved till today.
However, once again to his disappointment, he still found nothing abnormal in this place.
The diameter of the building wasn’t large; he just sat outside the car, floating in mid-air, and could see from one end to another at a glance.
Yet under the perception of the Spirit Detection Technique, the Dark World here was undisturbed, without a single monster in sight.
"How come there’s nothing here either? Could the information be wrong, or did I arrive too late?"
Zhang Xiaoman rubbed his temples in frustration and turned his gaze toward the last place, which was the information sent by Li Xiang three days earlier, located near a wasteland next to the Han Tomb.
He was least optimistic about this piece of intelligence because he remembered having been near the Han Tomb before; he was told there was an anomaly, but after searching for two hours, he found nothing.
"Forget it, since he sent the information, I’ll go take a look anyway. After all, I assigned him a task, and I can’t just ignore it... In the future, recruitment and task assignment should be handled by the Light Blue Clan. It’s a waste of time for me to be flying around by myself..."
Zhang Xiaoman sighed inwardly, raised the altitude, and flew toward the wasteland.

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