Chapter 186: Warrior Training And The Monster Tide
City of Light Chasing, Obsidian Martial Arts Hall.
The blazing sun hung high at noon, a time when unregistered nomads should have been resting, but at this very moment, in the newly built main courtyard of the hall, over a thousand people whose strength had reached the apprentice level were lined up in a long queue. One after another, their eyes burned with desire as they gazed at the grand and imposing Obsidian Martial Arts Hall.
In front of the vast courtyard of the martial arts hall, a luxury sedan slowly stopped at the gate. Two alluring half-scale women stepped out, making many nomads in line brighten at the sight. But when they saw the Phosphor Fire Gang emblem on the luxury sedan, they quickly lowered their heads, not daring another glance.
“Xia Ling, is this the good place for training you mentioned?”
A hot-bodied half-scale woman with an oval face, tipped chin, and wearing dark blue training shorts and a short-sleeved top looked at the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall towering over the ruined street before her. Her brows were furrowed so tightly they were almost twisted together.
She was Xia Ling’s classmate at Light Chasing University, and they were participating in the Five Cities Competition together this time. As rivals of roughly equal strength, she had assumed that the place Xia Ling had specifically invited her to for special training would be somewhere impressive. She had never expected it to be a martial arts hall set up in an abandoned area.
“Zoe, I did not lie to you. This really is a good place for training.” Xia Ling looked at the deeply frowning Zoe and could not help but laugh. “You should have heard about the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall recently, right? Especially last night, when they directly sent out six martial artists to annihilate the Two-Headed Gang.”
“Of course I know that, but what does that have to do with our training?” Zoe glanced at the four big characters “Obsidian Martial Arts Hall” written over the grand gate in the distance. Those four words were now known by practically everyone in the City of Light Chasing and already represented a top tier faction in the suburbs.
But that had almost nothing to do with people like them, who were about to participate in the Five Cities Competition. After all, no matter how famous Obsidian Martial Arts Hall became, it could not affect their ranking in the competition.
“Then I can tell you that those six martial artists were all cultivated from scratch by the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall.” Xia Ling looked at the long line of apprentices and could not help but sigh slightly. “And now all these apprentices, even advanced apprentices, are coming to the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall precisely because they hope to join, hoping to improve here.”
“Those six martial artists were all cultivated from scratch by the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall? You are not lying to me?” Zoe could not help looking at Xia Ling, her small mouth slightly open, her beautiful eyes full of disbelief.
The rise of the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall was now known to everyone in the City of Light Chasing. It could be said to have slowly grown from a wilderness gang.
For the hall to produce a genius hall master like Lin Qi was already a miracle. Under normal circumstances, it was extremely difficult even for major suburban powers to cultivate a single martial artist. It was hard to imagine that Obsidian Martial Arts Hall could actually cultivate six in one go.
“Of course.” Xia Ling spoke with absolute certainty. “I personally witnessed the rise of the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall. I knew Hall Master Lin Qi back when he was not yet a martial artist. The speed of his progress is something I have never seen in my life. And now that the hall has cultivated six more martial artists, it is enough to prove that the level of its cultivation method is not low.”
“This time, Obsidian Martial Arts Hall is not only recruiting a large number of disciples, but is also opening its cultivation method and many martial skills to the public. Are you not interested?”
“If that is really the case, then this Obsidian Martial Arts Hall is indeed not simple.” Zoe could not help becoming interested in the hall.
Although her family was one of the city proper families, she herself was not someone the family valued. She did not even have the qualification to be an heir. After all, her martial talent was truly average. Giving so many resources to someone like her with mediocre talent was not as good as giving them to those talented family juniors.
But from what Xia Ling had just said, the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall should have a formidable cultivation method. Otherwise, it would have been impossible to cultivate six martial artists in one stretch. Even the martial arts halls in the city proper could not achieve this. Being able to cultivate two or three a year would already be impressive.
If she could really become a martial artist through this, her status in her family would also rise greatly. Three years from now, charging into the Genius Training Camp would not be impossible.
“However, there are only a few days left before the Five Cities Competition. Learning a cultivation method now will not be of much use. As for learning martial skills, I have already mastered one martial artist-level martial skill. Learning another martial artist-level martial skill, setting aside the issue of time, even if I do learn it, it would not improve us much.” Zoe said.
“Do not worry. Hall Master Lin said that in addition to this round of instruction, the hall has also opened VIP guest treatment. As long as you spend one energy crystal in one go, you can activate VIP guest treatment and learn the hall’s unique martial skills. Among these unique martial skills, there are even advanced martial artist-level martial skills.” Xia Ling smiled.
“Advanced martial artist-level martial skills? Obsidian Martial Arts Hall is willing to teach those?” Zoe was stunned.
Advanced martial artist-level martial skills were generally equivalent to sixth stage-level martial skills. Even the major powers in the city proper would not casually teach such skills to their own members, let alone outsiders.
“Alright, let us go in and have a look.” Xia Ling, seeing the astonished Zoe, directly pulled her into the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall.
As the two entered, they saw that the vast first floor training ground was already filled with a large number of people who had come to learn cultivation methods and martial skills. Among them were not only formal residents of the suburbs, but also apprentices from many wilderness and suburban gangs. Obsidian Martial Arts Hall did not mind in the slightest; as long as they paid, everyone was accepted, with no intention of holding anything back.
“Hello, we would like to open two VIP guest accounts.” Xia Ling looked at the human receptionist girl hired by Obsidian Martial Arts Hall and directly took out two energy crystals.
“Xia Ling, that is too extravagant. I can get my own guest card.” Zoe watched Xia Ling pay, then carefully took out the energy crystal she had been saving to charge into the Martial Artist Realm and handed it to the receptionist with a pained expression.
“Alright, these are your two guest cards, please keep them safe.” The human receptionist put away the two energy crystals, then took out two pitch-black metal cards and a list. “Now you are both guests of our hall. This list shows the unique martial skills provided by our hall. The cost to purchase each of these martial skills is a flat five hundred thousand bit. The tuition fee is ten thousand bit per hour. If you are formal disciples of our hall, all of these fees are discounted to twenty percent.”
But it was as if the receptionist’s words did not reach Xia Ling and Zoe at all. The two of them simply stared fixedly at the A4-sized sheet.
There were not many martial skills recorded there, only seven in total: Point Star, Rippling Wave Saber, Sword Qi Slash, Boundless Full Moon, Spiral Demon Spear Kill, Sword Control Art, Eight Leaves One Sword Flash. But each one was marked with a sixth stage percentage level.
The strongest, Point Star, could reach 95% of the sixth stage. The weakest, Spiral Demon Spear Kill, could reach 65% of the sixth stage. Any one of these martial skills could be treated as a heirloom by a martial arts hall in the city proper, yet now all of them were available for them to learn freely. It was simply unbelievable.
“I will learn Point Star.” Xia Ling, looking at the martial skill Point Star that was close to seventh stage level, paid five hundred thousand bit without the slightest hesitation.
“I am skilled with blade techniques, so I will learn this Eight Leaves One Sword Flash.” After looking over the list, Zoe decided to choose the fast blade skill she was best suited for.
“Alright, please go to the training room. Your coaches will be there shortly.” The receptionist nodded, then tapped her smart watch and sent a notification message to Luo Wu Shang and Chen Ya.
As Xia Ling and Zoe headed toward the training rooms, they suddenly saw a woman wearing a metal mask and an old man in B4-grade battle armor walk into the hall, instantly bringing silence to the entire first floor training ground.
“Why is Estina here?” Zoe stared in shock at the three-eyed tribe woman wearing the metal mask, her heart full of astonishment. “Is she here to study as well?”
In the current city proper, Estina was a household name. She had even become the first in line to inherit the Bolan Main Family, an absolute special grade potential genius. Among their generation, she could be ranked in the top five and was completely out of reach.
“So she really came.” Xia Ling watched Estina walk directly into the hall master’s lounge without the slightest surprise.
She and Estina had both personally witnessed the growth of the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall. Now that the hall had a total of eight martial artists sitting in town, among all major suburban powers, there were probably none besides the two publicly recognized top factions who had so many martial artists.
Adding in the genius martial artist Lin Qi, Obsidian Martial Arts Hall’s future move into the city proper was practically guaranteed. Estina had no reason not to come for cooperation.
Inside the hall master’s lounge.
“Miss Tina, I do not know what advice you bring with such a sudden visit?” Lin Qi looked at Estina in her white dress, who still vaguely gave off a sense of danger, and smiled as he spoke.
His impression of Estina was that she was a young lady from a great family, very forceful. Let alone now, when Estina had already become a martial artist and a genius martial artist certified by the Martial Artist Association, making her even more unimaginable.
It was hard to imagine that such a young lady would personally come again after he had refused her previous invitation.
“Hall Master Lin, you flatter me. Hall Master Lin is a genius martial artist; what advice could I possibly give you?” Estina chuckled carefreely. “This time I am here on behalf of the Bolan Main Family, bringing sincerity to seek cooperation with the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall.”
“Cooperation? What kind of cooperation?” Lin Qi asked curiously.
In the city proper of the City of Light Chasing, the Bolan Main Family could be counted as a first-class family. Based on known information, they had no fewer than two Bone Forging Realm martial artists. For the current Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, that was an existence far beyond its reach.
“Hall Master Lin, you should know about Emerald Sky.” Estina said with a smile. “Emerald Sky was destroyed by a monster tide. The city senior officials have nearly finished investigating this matter. According to the results from the various investigation teams sent out, the monster tide that attacked Emerald Sky, for some unknown reason, caused those monsters to scatter across our region, bringing many more monsters into our area. With winter approaching and food becoming scarce, the conflicts among those monsters have grown increasingly fierce, and even the small towns near our city have frequently suffered monster attacks.”
“According to the analysis of the investigators from our City of Light Chasing, our region is very likely to see the formation of a monster tide that will attack the surrounding major cities, and our City of Light Chasing is very likely to be the first!”
