Difficulty of Sound Transmission

[Da Qing 273, the depth of the "Flowing River Technique" reached the Major Accomplishment realm. The progress of martial arts has little to do with one's foundational talent aptitude. Last simulation, you reached Major Accomplishment at this point in time, and this time it hasn't improved any faster.]

[Da Qing 274, you got along quite well with Zhu Baowen. At first, you approached him with ulterior motives, but as time passed, pretense turned into genuine feeling, and you truly came to regard him as an elder.]

[And Zhu Baowen's guidance on certain martial artist matters vaguely exceeded the insight that a self-proclaimed "Martial Master" should possess.]

[Da Qing 275, your Vital Energy Infused into Bone progress reached twenty-five percent, and the quality of your vital energy more than doubled. Combined with a deeper stage of the "Flowing River Technique," you felt you could take down your Main Body—the you at the start of this simulation—within ten exchanges.]

"Self-Adversary."

Annoyed at his other self's "kill the main body comparison method," Yun Shou was also thinking.

The boost from foundation was too terrifying. Even though the simulated him, thanks to being in the top ten of the Grand Competition, had obtained a large amount of Martial Dao Resources, these dietary and medicinal resources weren't heaven-defying.

Unlike the Spirit Stones and Origin Stones of immortal cultivation, martial arts training mainly depended on one's own foundation and talent aptitude. Those various resources could at most increase his martial arts progress speed by half or a full fold.

Without resources, it would just take an extra two years of effort.

After thinking it over, Yun Shou decided to advance both foundation and Martial Cultivation in tandem from now on.

If he only chose Martial Cultivation, there might be no room for progress in the first few decades of the next simulation.

If he only chose foundation, then after piling too much, the effect would instead become less pronounced.

For example, a First-rate Martial Artist's standard line was roughly 130 points of foundation. So someone with 140 points of talent aptitude trained slowly, let's say their speed was 10 points.

What about 200 points of talent aptitude? 70 points of training speed probably wasn't possible, since training speed wasn't purely addition and subtraction of resources, but getting 50 points wasn't hard. A 60-point gap in talent aptitude wasn't big; live 60 years and you could add it on.

But if Yun Shou blindly piled foundation, point by point, the difference between them was a full year. It would probably take dozens of simulations to add it up, but the training speed between them was only about twice as fast.

With those dozens of opportunities, choosing higher Martial Cultivation meant increased cultivation and longer lifespan. After that, just ten times would be enough to pile on % of foundation!

That was true profit maximization!

[Da Qing 276, you once again participated in the Young Talents Grand Competition. And this time, you were incomparable to five years ago!]

[This time, the competition location was in Qing Kingdom. It only took you a little over ten days to reach the venue: Hundred Stone Forest. This was a valley, with dense natural stone pillars arranged like a formation. They called it a hundred stones, but there were actually ten thousand.]

[About ten li west of Hundred Stone Forest was the sect grounds of "Yangyao Gate." This stone forest was also an excellent place for Yangyao Gate disciples to practice their Lightness Skill.]

[In this competition, hosted by Yangyao Gate, participating martial artists needed to leap and shift between stone pillars to fight. Those with heavy bodies would be at a severe disadvantage.]

[In this competition, although some had participated in the previous one, your impression of them was faint—because five years ago, these young heroes could at most break into the top hundred. First-rate martial artists under twenty were too rare. At least, none appeared in that generation five years ago.]

[Whether this generation had any or not, you didn't care. You had only seen one freakish anomaly in your last life (last simulation). Normal "Grandmaster talent" level geniuses became First-rate around twenty, Martial Masters around thirty, and had a chance to reach Grandmaster by sixty.]

[This competition ended, and you successfully took second place. At twenty-one years old, you were honored as the contemporary "Second Young Hero."]

[You thought to yourself, at least the title from this competition was "Young Hero" and not "Senior Brother." You didn't want to be stuck with the name "Second Senior Brother."]

[After the competition, Yangyao Gate gave you a choice of rewards. One was an authorized Grandmaster-level martial art: the Sunday Art. The other was a large amount of Martial Dao Resources, enough for at least five years.]

[The first-place winner got both. You had to choose one of the two.]

[Just as you were about to make your decision, you heard Zhu Baowen's voice enter your ear: "Choose that martial art."]

[Your heart jumped. At this moment, you stood on the high platform, with Yangyao Gate's Grandmasters and Martial Masters ahead and the other top ten contestants beside you. So Zhu Baowen should be in the crowd below.]

[But after he spoke, none of the people around showed any abnormality. This was a "sound transmission" technique.]

["Sound transmission" was a relatively low-level application in many novels. The protagonist could often use such methods for covert communication at the first or second realm. In cultivation novels, Foundation Establishment or Qi Refining could already perform "Spiritual Sense communication."]

[But in this world, even though you were only a First-rate Martial Artist, you were clear: even a Grandmaster-level existence couldn't perform the delicate operation of "compressing a sentence, transmitting it through some method, and then having it spoken in the original order in someone else's ear."]

[In fact, besides "packet transmission," there was another way to transmit sound: using energy like Gang Jin to construct a "telephone line," aligning both ends of the line to the mouth and ear to achieve private communication.]

[But this method was even harder! You were at least a hundred meters away from the nearest crowd. Constructing a hundred-meter "telephone line" and transmitting sound? That also far exceeded Grandmaster power!]

[Zhu Baowen had stopped pretending!]

[You chose that Grandmaster-level martial art. At this, Yangyao Gate's Grandmaster showed surprise, because martial arts couldn't be cultivated concurrently. With your talent, dispersing your cultivation would reduce you from a high probability of becoming a Grandmaster to almost no chance.]

[Even if your foundational martial art was only at the advanced level, it wasn't worth switching martial arts!]

[Your expression was strange. The Yangyao Gate people thought you might be regretting your choice, but your mind was on something else.]

[(Master Zhu isn't going to pass me the "Primordial Chaos Art" again, then run off somewhere far away to play, is he?)]

[(Damn it, don't mess with me. You can't even look at a one Kun-fold foundation?)]

[With a heavy heart, you collected your award. On the way back while riding your horse, you happened to meet Zhu Baowen. This little old man, who looked fifty or sixty, chuckled and asked if you trusted him.]

[You naturally replied: You are my master, and you've guided me so many times. How could you harm your own Registered Disciple? Of course, I trust you one hundred percent!]

[Zhu Baowen: Good. First, disperse your current martial arts.]

Yun Shou: "..."

Big shot, please don't mess with me.