Da Qing 273. Your Flowing River Technique reached Major Accomplishment. Progress in martial arts had little to do with one's foundation or talent aptitude. Last simulation, you had reached Major Accomplishment during this period; this time, you had not improved any faster.
Da Qing 274. You got along quite well with Zhu Baowen. At first, you had approached him with ulterior motives, but as time passed, false affection turned into genuine feeling, and you truly came to regard him as an elder.
Moreover, some of Zhu Baowen's guidance on martial artists vaguely exceeded the insight that a self-proclaimed "Martial Master" should possess.
In Year 275 of the Daqing era, your progress in Vital Energy Infused into Bone reached twenty-five percent, and the quality of your Force Qi rose by more than double. Together with the deeper stage of the Flowing River Technique, you felt that you could take down your original self—the version of you from the beginning of that simulation—within ten exchanges.
"Self-Adversary."
Annoyed by his other self's "killing-the-Main-Body comparison method," Yun Shou was also thinking.
The bonus provided by foundation was a little too terrifying. Even though the simulated him had obtained vast Martial Dao Resources by placing in the top ten of the competition, those nutritional and medicinal supplements could not be considered heaven-defying.
Unlike Spirit Stones and Origin Stones used in cultivation, martial arts primarily depended on one's own foundation and talent aptitude. All those resources could at most increase the speed of one's martial progress by half again or perhaps double it.
Without resources, it merely meant spending two more years.
After some thought, Yun Shou decided that from now on, he would advance his foundation and Martial Cultivation side by side.
If he chose only Martial Cultivation, there might be no room for progress during the first several decades of the next simulation.
If he chose only foundation, however, piling up too much would instead yield less noticeable results.
For example, the threshold for a First-rate Martial Artist was around 130 points of foundation. Thus, someone with 140 points of talent aptitude would cultivate rather slowly; let their speed be counted as 10 points.
What about 200 points of talent aptitude? Their cultivation speed probably would not reach 70 points. After all, cultivation speed was not simply addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of resources. But reaching 50 points would not be difficult, and the difference of 60 points in talent aptitude could be made up over sixty years.
But if Yun Shou blindly piled up foundation, the gap between one point and the next amounted to years. It would likely take dozens of simulations to make up the difference, yet the cultivation speed between them would only be about twice as fast.
If he used those dozens of opportunities to choose higher Martial Cultivation instead, then as his Martial Cultivation rose, his lifespan would also grow. Afterward, he would need only ten simulations to pile up that percentage of foundation!
Now that was maximizing profit!
Da Qing 276. You participated in the Young Talents Grand Competition once more. This time, you were no longer comparable to who you had been five years ago!
This competition was held in the Qing Kingdom. It took you only a dozen or so days to reach the venue: Hundred Stone Forest. It was a valley filled with densely packed, naturally formed stone pillars arranged like an army formation. It was called Hundred Stone Forest, but in truth, there were tens of thousands of stones.
More than ten li west of Hundred Stone Forest lay the sect grounds of Yangyao Gate. This stone forest was also an excellent place for Yangyao Gate disciples to practice Lightness Skill.
In this competition hosted by Yangyao Gate, the competing martial artists had to battle while shifting and leaping between stone pillars. Those with cumbersome bodies would be placed at an enormous disadvantage.
Although some participants had entered the previous competition as well, you barely remembered them—because five years ago, those young heroes had at most made it into the top hundred. There were too few First-Rate martial artists under twenty; at least, not a single one had appeared among that generation five years ago.
Whether this generation had one or not, you did not care. In your previous life—your last simulation—you had only seen one freak who exceeded the standard. A normal genius with "Grandmaster aptitude" would generally become First-Rate in their early twenties, a Martial Master around thirty, and have hopes of challenging the Grandmaster realm at sixty.
When this competition ended, you successfully seized second place. At the age of twenty-one, you were respectfully called the Second Young Hero of the era.
You thought, Good thing this title is young hero rather than senior brother. I don't want to bear the title of Second Senior Brother.
After the competition, Yangyao Gate offered you a choice between two rewards. One was an authorized Grandmaster-level martial art, the Sunday Art. The other was a large quantity of Martial Dao Resources—at least enough to last you five years.
The first-place winner received both. You had to choose one.
Just as you were about to make your choice, Zhu Baowen's voice entered your ears. "Choose that martial art."
Your heart skipped a beat. At that moment, you stood on a high platform. Before you were Yangyao Gate's Grandmasters and Martial Masters, while the other top ten contestants stood beside you. Zhu Baowen should have been in the crowd below.
Yet after he spoke, not a single person around you showed any unusual reaction. This was a method of "voice transmission."
In many novels, "voice transmission" was considered a relatively low-level application. The protagonist could often use it for secret exchanges in the first or second realm, while in cultivation novels, one could communicate through Spiritual Sense upon reaching Foundation Establishment or Qi Refinement.
But in this world, although you were merely a First-Rate martial artist, you still knew that even Grandmaster-level existences could not perform such a precise operation as "compressing and transmitting a sentence through some method, then speaking it into another person's ear in its original order."
In truth, aside from "packaging and transmitting" it, there was another way to transmit one's voice: using energy such as Gang Jin to construct a "telephone line," then aiming the two ends of the line at the mouth and ear to achieve private communication.
But this method was even more difficult! The nearest of those crowds was nearly a hundred meters away. Constructing a hundred-meter "telephone line" and transmitting a voice through it? That too far exceeded a Grandmaster's power!
Zhu Baowen was no longer even pretending!
You chose that Grandmaster-level martial art. Yangyao Gate's Grandmaster displayed surprise, because martial arts could not be cultivated concurrently. With your talent aptitude, Cultivation Dissipation meant falling from having a high chance of becoming a Grandmaster to having almost no chance at all.
Even if your foundational martial art was only at a high-grade level, it was not worth changing martial arts!
Your expression was strange. The people of Yangyao Gate thought you might regret your decision, but something else was on your mind.
(Master Zhu isn't going to pass the Primordial Chaos Art to me again, then flee far away and run off somewhere to have fun, is he?)
(Damn it, don't do this. Even one Kun-fold of foundation isn't enough to catch your eye?)
With worries on your mind, you collected your reward. While riding back, you happened upon Zhu Baowen. This little old man, who looked fifty or sixty, smiled and asked whether you trusted him.
Naturally, you replied, "You are my master, and you've guided me so many times. How could you possibly harm your own Registered Disciple? Of course I trust you one hundred percent!"
Zhu Baowen said, "Good. Then first dissipate your current martial arts."
Yun Shou: "..."
Boss, please don't mess around.
Before you continue