Chapter 211: From Today On, I’ll Teach You To Fly
“Lucky enough to succeed in the breakthrough.”
Xia Ling looked at the astonished Zoe, nodded, and felt equally amazed in her heart.
She had originally thought she would need to spend more time before becoming a martial artist. She had not expected to succeed in one attempt through the meditation room. The effect of the meditation room was much stronger than she had anticipated.
Moreover, she knew very clearly that after cultivating Reverse Star Triple, she was far from comparable to an ordinary martial artist. Although she had not undergone specific testing with instruments, she could be sure that her strength and speed were far above those of newly entered beginner level martial artists, and not much weaker than limit beginner martial artists.
“I really didn’t expect it. In the end, you still became a martial artist one step ahead of me.” Zoe looked at Xia Ling, who had admitted it, and sighed with envy. “I originally wanted to settle things with you at the Five Cities Competition, but it seems that’s impossible now.”
The Five Cities Competition was an opportunity specially prepared by the martial artist associations of the five cities for the younger generation below martial artist level. Martial artists were not allowed to participate, even someone like Xia Ling who became a martial artist after signing up.
“It is indeed a bit of a pity.” Xia Ling said with a smile. “But we can compete again during the Genius Training Camp Assessment.”
After becoming a martial artist, one’s world was completely different. Although the rewards of the Five Cities Competition were very generous, and with her original strength it was not impossible for her to fight for the top twenty, compared to becoming a martial artist first, the competition’s rewards were no longer that important.
“Alright. Then we will settle it during the Genius Training Camp Assessment.” Looking at Xia Ling, who had become a martial artist, Zoe’s fighting spirit was also ignited.
Although she did not know why Xia Ling had become a martial artist before her, she did not think she would lose to Xia Ling. After all, she was confident she could secure a top-twenty spot in the Five Cities Competition. With the competition’s rewards, plus the cultivation from the Half-Scale training camp, she would also become a martial artist soon.
And compared with Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, the truly powerful aspect of the Half-Scale training camp was not the cultivation below martial artist level, but the cultivation after becoming a martial artist.
In contrast, Obsidian Martial Arts Hall might have produced quite a few martial artists, but in terms of guidance and cultivation at the martial artist level, it probably did not have much experience. After all, cultivating martial artists and cultivating those below that level were two completely different concepts.
Cultivation below martial artist level was nothing more than hard training combined with advanced cultivation methods and some resources.
But cultivating martial artists was different. Advanced cultivation methods and resources were only the foundation. The key was improving control over energy and mastery of qi and blood.
And improving in this area was extremely difficult. The reason the major training camps could cultivate bone forging realm experts, especially the genius training camps, was that they had summarized a large amount of training methods that enhanced these aspects, had many bone forging realm instructors share their experience, and provided various real combat trials. Only with all this combined did they succeed.
Especially in terms of real combat trials, the major training camps not only had bone forging realm instructors give one-on-one combat guidance, but also led teams into real wilderness battles, allowing trainees to fight monsters with confidence, thereby quickly improving their use and control of qi and blood.
What Obsidian Martial Arts Hall could currently show off was only Hall Master Lin Qi alone. The other strongest martial artists were merely intermediate martial artists. Forget arranging wilderness combat; even providing proper guided battles might be impossible. Relying solely on individuals to explore and train like that meant the improvement speed would be very slow.
After Xia Ling and Zoe chatted for quite a while, Zoe, in order to catch up with Xia Ling as soon as possible, immediately returned to the Half-Scale training camp to ask bone forging realm instructors to teach her cultivation methods.
And the news of Xia Ling becoming a martial artist quickly spread throughout the suburbs, making many faction members stuck at quasi-martial artist level, as well as unregistered nomads of other races, all consider joining Obsidian Martial Arts Hall to give it a try.
Previously, Obsidian Martial Arts Hall had indeed produced many martial artists, but all of them were from the human race, and each was either a direct disciple of the hall or someone favored by Hall Master Lin Qi.
For a faction with a bone forging realm martial artist sitting in town, having these people become martial artists was quite normal. As long as they were willing to spend enough resources, it was not difficult, just like the major powers in the city proper, who had many martial artists cultivated among their own kin.
But it was different now that Xia Ling had become a martial artist. Xia Ling was not of the human race, but of the Half-Scale Race. Under such circumstances, she had still become a martial artist, which showed that Obsidian Martial Arts Hall had given other races a chance to be promoted to martial artist, instead of completely shutting them out like other factions.
Moreover, Obsidian Martial Arts Hall indeed had its own system for cultivating martial artists. In just a few days, the number of disciples reported to have become martial artists in the hall was terrifying.
From having at most twelve martial artists previously to now over forty, in terms of cultivating those below martial artist level, it could probably rank at the top in the entire City of Light Chasing.
For a time, large numbers of expert vagrants from various races, as well as experts from the major suburban factions, began to sign up to join Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, making the hall’s courtyard packed with people taking assessments even at midnight, so busy that Meng Wei felt he was going crazy.
Lin Qi, however, was very pleased with this.
No faction’s experts existed from the start. They were all slowly cultivated from a vast base of grassroots members. The larger the base, the more experts would emerge in the future.
Especially since many of those who came to sign up were limit apprentices and quasi-martial artists. These people had high talent but were stuck due to a lack of resources and cultivation methods.
With these people joining, the hall’s guard corps could grow quickly and become a force not inferior to the players.
In just one night, Obsidian Martial Arts Hall gained several thousand more disciples, bringing the hall roulette wheel’s accumulated draws up to ten.
The impact of Xia Ling becoming a martial artist was indeed great.
Unfortunately, Xia Ling was not a martial artist cultivated by the players, so Lin Qi did not complete the advanced task issued by the system.
Feeling helpless about this, Lin Qi simply used all ten accumulated draws at once.
“Did I run out of luck before?”
Looking at one white one-star reward after another, Lin Qi could not help feeling a bit of a headache.
The ten consecutive draws turned out to be all one-star prizes. Compared with the previous ten draws, this result was horribly unlucky.
The only consolation was that he got two qi and blood watermelons, which could help quite a few people with insufficient qi and blood break through to martial artist.
Just as Lin Qi put away all the rewards on the table, his smart watch on his wrist suddenly chimed with a string of message alerts.
“Messages from big brother Qin Mu and the association?”
Lin Qi glanced at the information on his smart watch and could not help feeling strange. Just as he wondered why the two messages had arrived at the same time, there was an urgent knock at the door.
“Come in.”
As Lin Qi spoke, Meng Wei walked in with an extremely ugly expression. As he entered, this nearly fifty-year-old man, who had weathered countless storms, even had slightly trembling hands.
“Hall Master, something big has happened!” Meng Wei said, his voice trembling. “Not long ago, a key frontline town collapsed. The guard corps members stationed there by the five major cities suffered heavy casualties. Vice President Elder Liu of the association fell in battle…”
“Elder Liu? Liu Tianzong?” Lin Qi froze for a moment when he heard this, finding it hard to believe the news.
Liu Tianzong was not only the vice president representing the Martial Artist Association of the City of Light Chasing, but also one of the top experts of the city. He alone could fight a high-level lord, and he was the stabilizing pillar of the human race in the city.
Humans made up a very small portion of the City of Light Chasing. They did not even have many more bone forging realm experts than the weaker races, yet they still had a considerable voice in the city and even had their own large towns in the wilderness, all because of Liu Tianzong.
For such a figure to fall was simply unimaginable for the human race of the City of Light Chasing.
“This news has already spread through the Martial Artist Association.” Meng Wei said darkly. “And because of this, several other powerful races have set their sights on Yunxia Town. They believe that a major resource stronghold like Yunxia Town cannot be held without an expert like Elder Liu in town and want to arrange for others to take over Yunxia Town.”
“They really act fast.” Lin Qi frowned as he listened.
Yunxia Town had existed since the founding of the City of Light Chasing. It had always been a human settlement and not only had a medium-sized energy vein, but was also a necessary passage for caravans from other regions coming to the surrounding Five Cities.
The fact that several powerful races were now targeting Yunxia Town suggested that the news about Liu Tianzong was likely true, which was why they were so brazen about trying to take Yunxia Town.
“Hall Master, what should we do now?” Meng Wei asked worriedly. “When we established Chiyue Town, Wanxing City did not act, which already made many major powers in the city think. They only held back because Elder Liu was there. But now, many already know that we have recruited a large number of hall disciples to mine energy ore, and that there is a small energy vein in Chiyue Town. With Elder Liu gone, those major powers will probably start eyeing Chiyue Town as well.”
“It’s not ‘probably,’ they are already eyeing it.” Lin Qi shook his head and forwarded Qin Mu’s message to Meng Wei.
The messages from Qin Mu and the Martial Artist Association both informed him of Liu Tianzong’s death. However, Qin Mu also shared some information about the frontline and the City of Light Chasing’s arrangements for the association.
Because a key frontline stronghold had collapsed and a large amount of supplies was needed, the city planned to begin the second mobilization as soon as possible.
And with Liu Tianzong gone, the frontline escort tasks assigned to the human race would be the same as those for other weak races in the city, sending them directly to the most dangerous strongholds, which were frontline battlefields where the five major cities cleared monster hordes.
As a bone forging realm expert of the association, Qin Mu was assigned to personally lead a transport convoy there.
“This is going too far. Previously, the ones transporting supplies to the frontline battlefields were all convoys led by at least intermediate bone forging realm martial artists. Now they want you, a newly entered bone forging realm martial artist, to be the leader, which is basically sending you to your death.” Meng Wei said angrily after reading Qin Mu’s message.
The route to the frontline battlefield would almost certainly encounter lord monsters. Normally, it required an intermediate bone forging realm martial artist to hold out for long against a junior lord. Lin Qi was not a member of the city guard, and he did not even have proper weapon and equipment suited for a bone forging realm martial artist. Sending him to the frontline battlefield was essentially sending him to die.
“It’s not to the point of certain death.” Lin Qi shook his head and said calmly, “What they really want is to force me to voluntarily give up this mandatory task so they can justifiably expel me from the City of Light Chasing. Once I am expelled, I lose my city council member status, and then they can naturally take over Chiyue Town that I established on Crimson Moon Mountain.”
“Hall Master, why don’t we join Wanxing City? Then, once Chiyue Town is established under them, those factions won’t be able to do anything.” Meng Wei said through gritted teeth.
“Even if we join Wanxing City, without sufficient strength, the result will be the same as now.” Lin Qi shook his head.
Before, he had thought that as long as he had enough martial artists and occupied a town, carving out territory and gaining a king seal would be easy. But now it seemed that if there was no sufficiently powerful race in the city behind them, it was impossible.
There were hardly any humans in Wanxing City. If they went there, things would only be worse.
Meng Wei did not know what to do for the moment.
Accepting the task would not work, and giving it up would not either. For the human race to gain a foothold in the city now was incredibly difficult.
“The task of transporting to the frontline is not the real problem.” Lin Qi said calmly as he looked at the troubled Meng Wei. “The real problem is you.”
“Us?” Meng Wei was stunned, not understanding what Lin Qi meant.
“I am ultimately a city-certified council member, and they know that if I encounter an irresistible crisis during transport, I can still escape, and the city will not hold me accountable afterward,” Lin Qi explained. “But in this mobilization, you are likely to be assigned to other dangerous convoys. You are only beginner and intermediate martial artists. Forget encountering a lord; you wouldn’t even be able to escape from mid-level monsters. Their real goal is to get rid of you so the hall cannot develop in the short term. Without enough martial artists, we naturally cannot look after Chiyue Town in the wilderness.”
“They are ruthless.” Meng Wei cursed after understanding.
In the wilderness, it was easy for a bone forging realm martial artist to escape, but for martial artists like them, it was very hard.
“This move is indeed vicious, but if they think they can easily take Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, they are far too early.” After some thought, Lin Qi directly ordered Meng Wei, “Go summon all the martial artists of the Martial Arts Hall Guard Corps. Have them gather now in the largest training room.”
He was not worried about the players or his own safety.
If players died, they could resurrect. As for him, if he wanted to leave, even a high-level lord could not hold him. But the martial artists of the hall, whom he had finally cultivated, could not be allowed to fall easily in the wilderness.
In less than ten minutes, all the martial artists of the guard corps, including Xia Ling, had gathered in the largest training room on the first floor, all curious about why the hall master had suddenly summoned them.
As guard corps martial artists, they were already quite busy every day. Aside from their own training, they trained the guard corps apprentices, and the day passed by before they knew it.
Among the martial artists present, the most helpless was Xia Ling.
She had thought that after advancing to martial artist and becoming a captain of the hall guard corps, she would receive further cultivation from the hall. But after becoming a martial artist, Obsidian Martial Arts Hall did not give any special cultivation for martial artists; she still had to rely on herself.
Now, the time she should have been cultivating had to be spent watching over apprentices’ cultivation, which reduced her own cultivation time.
Fortunately, the hall gave compensation to guard corps captains: eight fixed hours of meditation room use every day, plus an extra two hours for good performance, for a total of up to ten hours per day in the meditation room, which made up for the time spent supervising apprentices.
While the guard corps martial artists were discussing for a short while, Lin Qi walked in from outside.
“Hall Master, everyone is here.” Meng Wei reported.
“Good.” Lin Qi glanced over everyone, nodded, and raised his voice. “You are very fortunate, because starting today, you will begin training and cultivation specifically for martial artists at our Obsidian Martial Arts Hall.”
“Training and cultivation for martial artists?” Everyone could not help becoming excited when they heard this.
After advancing to martial artist, they had not known how to improve quickly and thought Obsidian Martial Arts Hall would be like other suburban factions, leaving them to explore on their own.
They had not expected the hall to have specialized training and cultivation for martial artists. This was definitely a pleasant surprise.
Xia Ling’s beautiful eyes lit up with joy. Obsidian Martial Arts Hall had indeed not disappointed her.
“Seeing you so happy makes me very pleased.” Looking at the excited crowd, Lin Qi felt that Meng Wei’s choices had been good. He then said, “So let’s begin. The first step to becoming true disciples of Obsidian Martial Arts Hall is for you to learn how to fly.”
