Chapter 34: The Curator’s Mercy
The sun had completely set, and the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall had also begun a new day.
“Is there any new announcement today?”
Fang Zhen, who had just logged on, yawned, looked at the crowd gathered in front of the announcement board, and could not help asking curiously.
The time flow in High Martial Arts Descend was almost the same as in reality, which forced Fang Zhen to do intensive training during the day and live stream playing High Martial Arts Descend at night, running twenty-four hours a day without a break.
You could say that even the donkeys in the production teams were not as exhausted as he was.
The only consolation was that playing High Martial Arts Descend more or less allowed his real body to get some rest. As long as he did not die and log off too often, it did not place much burden on his spirit.
Even so, Fang Zhen still felt he was so busy he was about to catch fire.
If he did not see the live stream’s popularity reaching new highs every day after logging off, and the number of people reserving High Martial Arts Descend rising from over thirty thousand to fifty thousand, with more and more viewers asking him to step away from High Martial Arts Descend and let them play instead,
Fang Zhen would probably choose to slack off in High Martial Arts Descend for a while, like tailing behind the Master of the Pavilion to see if he could get some task clues out of him.
“There is no new announcement, but a new cultivation method has been released.” Saiwai Qiangke, who had arrived earlier, spoke with clear excitement.
“A new cultivation method? What method?”
Fang Zhen became even more curious and went straight forward to check.
At present, there were only three cultivation methods available to learn at the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, but each one was extremely useful.
After learning the Startling Spirit Breathing Technique, physical fitness improved, which could greatly increase work efficiency.
After learning Crushing Stone Fist, explosive strength improved, which could greatly increase work efficiency.
After learning Leopard Shadow Steps, movement speed improved, which could greatly increase work efficiency.
That was right, every cultivation method taught by the Master of the Pavilion could greatly increase work efficiency, allowing them to earn points much faster.
Now that there was a new cultivation method, it was undoubtedly another one that could greatly increase work efficiency, bringing his new weapon much closer to him.
Stellar Explosion Meditation Technique, a top tier Martial Artist level meditation technique. By meditating on a stellar explosion, one’s spirit would seem to explode like a star, thus tempering the mind and will, and strengthening the spirit. （Martial Arts Hall Points required to redeem: 1000 points）
“Gunner, my eyes aren’t blind, are they?” Fang Zhen stared at those three big words “Martial Artist level,” saw that there was no division into volumes, and that it was being sold for only one thousand points. He deeply suspected he was hallucinating. “Is this the pity of the Master of the Pavilion this time? Or did the Master of the Pavilion bug out?”
The previous three cultivation methods were all not high-level, all at Martial Artist Apprentice level, but to learn them all, you could not even think about it without tens of thousands of points.
Now a Martial Artist level meditation technique was being sold for only one thousand points. If you said this was not a bug, probably no one would believe it.
“I don’t know, but I think we should redeem it as soon as possible. Otherwise, once the system fixes it, it will be hard to redeem it again.” Saiwai Qiangke shook his head slightly, with a trace of reluctance as he said, “But this one thousand points is still a bit high. Unless we allocate part of the points everyone earned from the last dungeon, otherwise we can only work hard for a few more days before we can redeem it.”
“If the plan gets delayed, it gets delayed. If we miss this village, there will be no next shop.” Fang Zhen walked toward Lin Qi without hesitation, planning to redeem the Stellar Explosion Meditation Technique immediately.
The others present looked at each other and felt Fang Zhen was right.
One thousand points was a deal where you would not suffer a loss or be cheated.
A Martial Artist level cultivation method, something never available before, and it tempered the spirit. Although they did not know what tempering the spirit would do in the game, practicing it definitely would not hurt.
“Finally, you are here.”
Lin Qi looked at the players walking over and felt very pleased.
Previously, these players had tricked more than twenty thousand points out of him. Now they were finally going to pay some of it back.
As for why he did not split the Stellar Explosion Meditation Technique into volumes and sell it at a high price, the reason was simple. It was not that he did not want to, but that he could not.
The entire Stellar Explosion Meditation Technique was just one large diagram with a few small diagrams, plus some text.
How was he supposed to split that?
One character per volume, or one diagram per volume?
And to cultivate the Stellar Explosion Meditation Technique, it really would cause an explosion, turning you into an idiot in minutes. This was made very clear in the detailed explanation of the real exam questions.
You could say the Stellar Explosion Meditation Technique was a kind of mad hypothesis made by some insane scientists more than a hundred years ago, from which this meditation technique was created.
This kind of meditation technique existed only in theory. To master it, you had to keep becoming an idiot. With such a pitfall of a meditation technique, if he did not quickly sell it cheap, once some player redeemed it and became an idiot after cultivating it, who else would dare to learn it?
Of course, players would not truly become idiots. At worst it was just a matter of dying, but if they could not complete it and could not see any concrete effect, there still would not be any players willing to redeem it.
Rather than have it rot in his hands, it was better to sell it cheaply to players, so that they all could experience what a stellar explosion was.
Inside the martial arts hall lounge, in just a short time,
ten players each held a copy of the Stellar Explosion Meditation Technique, consuming a total of ten thousand points between them, which made Lin Qi very satisfied.
In the past, copying martial skills took a long time even just to copy an upper volume, and his hands would get sore.
But this time copying the Stellar Explosion Meditation Technique was completely different. He even cut out the diagrams from those detailed explanations and pasted them directly, then added his text. Altogether, it came to less than five pages. Compared with copying other cultivation methods and martial skills, this was an absolute win.
And this ten-thousand-point consumption would also rein in these players a bit and make them focus their efforts on repairing the martial arts hall first. After all, the tasks he posted every day to patch the walls and lay the floor paid far more points than exploring.
Watching the departing players, Lin Qi’s gaze shifted down to the display in his vision.
System: Task one “Completely repair the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall,” current repair progress: 7%.
With more than a hundred people working together for a whole day, if they had not slacked off to go digging holes, the progress absolutely could have reached more than 5%.
“Should I go make another transaction and recruit more vagrants?” Lin Qi quickly shook his head. “No, this kind of transaction cannot be too frequent. Better wait a while.”
Crocodile Fang Rhinoceros Beef was very rare. Stealing it every few days was already risky. If he did it once every day or two, that would be openly telling others that the meat in his hands was picked up, come kill me quickly.
Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, training ground.
Bang!
Bang! Bang!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
In an instant, the ten people repairing the martial arts hall walls all clutched their heads on the spot and collapsed onto the floor one after another, their whole bodies convulsing.
Ten people convulsing together was quite a spectacular sight.
“Damn, what kind of meditation technique is this? It is way too hard to cultivate. I have already died more than ten times.” After resurrecting, Saiwai Qiangke looked at the meditation diagram in his hand and suddenly felt like his wallet had exploded.
“No wonder it is a Martial Artist level cultivation method. The difficulty really is high.” Yi Qiang Ba Jue nodded, then immediately toppled straight to the ground.
“You guys have it easy. You have only died a bit more than ten times.” Twilight of the Gods looked at the fallen Yi Qiang Ba Jue with a near-death expression. “I have died more than fifty times in one night. The people in my dorm all suspect I have gone insane. Every ten minutes I wake up from the game pod shouting, and now they do not even dare come near me.”
“Looks like right now, aside from Sister Wu and Sister Qing Wei having reached entry-level, everyone else is a lot worse.” Saiwai Qiangke glanced at Yi Ye Fu Yun in the distance, only to see Yi Ye Fu Yun barely lift his hand to swipe the wall before he fell straight to the floor, dying miserably. He was the worst of them all.
“I did it! I did it!”
With a loud shout, everyone present turned to look at the excited Fang Zhen as he stood up.
At this moment, blood flowed from Fang Zhen’s nose and mouth like pillars. His hands and feet seemed no longer his own, each moving differently, as if his four limbs and even every cell were alive, each with its own will.
Obviously, as the book had said, he had succeeded. His control over his body had greatly improved, but it was clear he would not live long. It was extraordinarily life-consuming.
“It is getting late. I still have a simulation match today. I have to go early, so I will not stay and practice with you all.”
Without another word, Fang Zhen spat a mouthful of blood three feet high and fell straight to the ground. His corpse then slowly disappeared from everyone’s sight. The entire process was indescribably smooth, without a single extra action.
Everyone nodded and continued meditating on the stellar explosion one after another.
