Ultimate Hunter (Please Recommend)

After hesitating for a moment.

Roger chose "Read."

"Studying historical records... can't count as peeping."

As he thought this, images began flashing rapidly before his eyes.

Faint scenes gradually emerged.

After watching them all.

Roger's face turned livid.

"Fuck, I got scammed!"

"This is it? This is it?"

"Not only was it as laggy as a PowerPoint, but why the fuck was everything covered in smoky mosaics?"

Roger felt as though his life had just gone through a dramatic rise and fall.

Unwilling to accept this, he picked up the other Memory Magic Crystals.

As a result, he discovered that most of them had already been damaged and could not be read.

The few that could be read were even worse than the one he had just watched!

"Please have some tea, guest."

A Ba somehow managed to brew a cup of tea and shakily carried it over.

With mixed feelings, Roger set down the heavily mosaicked Memory Magic Crystal and accepted it.

"Sorry to trouble you."

Seeing how inconvenient it was for A Ba to move around, he felt genuinely embarrassed.

But A Ba said solemnly:

"Master Qu Feng said that failing to offer tea when receiving guests was especially discourteous."

Roger looked at the murky tea and secretly cast a Qi Divination Technique.

"Severely expired tea beverage: Mild toxicity, low probability of death"

Roger could not help but shudder. He hurriedly changed the subject. "Was this place once a training ground?"

A Ba nodded.

"Now it is my private workshop."

"Actually, I invited Mr. Roger here because I have an unreasonable request."

Roger asked, "What is it?"

A Ba said seriously, "I would like to invite you to join the Clear Spring Sect and become Master Qu Feng's disciple."

After thinking for a moment, Roger asked:

"Wouldn't something like this require some kind of assessment?"

A Ba said earnestly:

"For the Clear Spring Sect in its current state, any disciple only needs to be human."

"The last one to pass the test of the Immortal Leaving Wall was a Gray Dwarf."

"Although I drove him away, he burned down the secret vault before leaving."

Roger nodded. "What was in the secret vault?"

"A large number of Martial Arts Manuals."

A Ba sighed. "And they were all personally written by Master Qu Feng."

"You know, it is much harder for Martial Artists to write Martial Arts Manuals for others to comprehend than it is for mages to copy scrolls."

Roger took out the White Raven's Crown and the Fire Aversion Pearl from his pocket.

"I've already avenged you."

He briefly recounted his encounter with the Gray Dwarf Chieftain.

After hearing it, the construct happily danced with excitement.

Though in its current condition, it looked a little like it was having an epileptic seizure. "That's wonderful! Truly wonderful."

"Please, you must join the Clear Spring Sect. Otherwise, Master Qu Feng's lifetime of unique skills will be lost forever, and that would be such a pity."

Roger asked doubtfully, "Weren't all the Martial Arts Manuals burned?"

"There are still some backups." A Ba said sincerely, "As long as you agree to become a Clear Spring Sect Disciple, I will give you all the remaining manuals."

Roger pondered. "What do I need to do?"

A Ba answered without hesitation, "Just do your best to ensure that Master Qu Feng's skills are not lost."

"If you get the chance, I hope you can visit the headquarters of the Clear Spring Sect. I have a friend named A Qi who lives there. Help me ask if I can borrow a few parts from her..."

As he spoke, he took out a prepared map and handed it to Roger.

Roger gave it a glance.

He discovered that the location of the Clear Spring Sect's headquarters almost perfectly overlapped with the direction of Gem City.

"Interesting."

"I've made up my mind. I'm willing to join the Clear Spring Sect."

Roger accepted A Ba's map and replied solemnly.

"That's wonderful."

A Ba happily rolled around on the ground.

However, before long, his movements stiffened.

"Damn... I miscalculated my remaining energy..."

"The backup... is... in the dry well..."

"Sorry... shutting down halfway through speaking is really too..."

"Too rude."

As the two red glimmers flickered rapidly before vanishing, the construct completely ceased moving.

It was out of energy?

Roger blankly pushed at the plump body, but it did not react in the slightest.

His knowledge of constructs was nonexistent, so he did not dare meddle with it.

He waited there for a while.

When there was still no movement, he got up and pushed A Ba into a clean room.

Only then did he go looking for the dry well A Ba had mentioned.

Fortunately, it was not difficult to find. It was about a hundred meters from the training grounds.

Roger jumped into the dry well and searched for a while before finding an unremarkable wooden box.

The six manuals in the wooden box could be divided into two grades: ordinary and exquisite.

There were four ordinary ones.

They were Basic Breathing Exercises, Iron Body Skill, Horse Stance, and Clear Spring Sword.

Together with the Plum Blossom Stakes Roger had looted from the Gray Dwarf Chieftain's tent, these martial arts manuals had relatively low comprehension requirements. Anyone with 8 points or more could learn them.

The exquisite grade, however, was different.

"Mountain Splitting Fist: Clear Spring Sect's ultimate art, created by Qu Feng"

"Traits: A forceful and expansive fist technique with extremely strong offensive power"

"Requirement: Comprehension 12"

"Shattering Palm: Clear Spring Sect's ultimate art, created by Qu Feng"

"Traits: A powerful palm technique that uses the power of 'qi' to directly strike the enemy's internal organs and bones"

"Requirement: Comprehension 14 / Understand 'qi'"

The Drunken Fist in his hands was even more outrageous—it actually required at least 16 points of comprehension! "The comprehension requirements for martial arts manuals are really high."

Roger muttered.

He put away the other manuals, then spread open the only exquisite martial art that met the requirements—Mountain Splitting Fist.

"You begin comprehending Mountain Splitting Fist"

"You have comprehended part of the profound meaning of Mountain Splitting Fist. Comprehension progress +10"

Three hours later.

"You successfully comprehended the full essence of Mountain Splitting Fist!"

"You obtained martial art: Mountain Splitting Fist"

A wonderful sensation surged into Roger's heart.

He instinctively clenched both hands into fists, only to hear a series of crackling sounds like beans popping in a pan.

With his battle lust at an unprecedented high, Roger found a training dummy to test it on and discovered that Mountain Splitting Fist was indeed ferocious.

Compared to the other combat techniques he had mastered, Mountain Splitting Fist had a special effect: powerful knockback and launching force! The only problem was, after throwing too many punches, his fists easily started to hurt.

"I can get myself a pair of gauntlets or something later."

Roger thought.

As for learning ordinary secret manuals like "Iron Body Skill" to improve his defense and physique, Roger did not even consider it.

There was a limit to the number of martial arts a Martial Artist could cultivate.

Before comprehending "qi," the limit was "number of rings + 1."

In other words, Roger could currently master at most three martial arts.

Such precious slots should be reserved for martial arts of at least the proficient grade.

After learning Mountain Splitting Fist, Roger wandered around the dojo for a while longer.

Unfortunately, though the dojo was large, the vast majority of its buildings had become hazardous structures that would collapse at the slightest touch.

Nor did he find any rare curios like White Raven's Crown or the Fire Aversion Pearl.

Several hours later, he went back and pounded on A Ba's body for quite a while.

Only after confirming that the construct truly could not be restarted did he leave the Clear Spring Sect dojo.

To Roger, learning martial arts was merely a minor interlude in strengthening his immediate combat power.

What truly deserved his effort remained the collection of Sin Marks.

So he did not return to the surface.

Instead, he chose to remain stationed near White Moon City.

The poor Gray Dwarves of White Moon City, having lost their Great Prophet, entered an unprecedentedly dark period.

Just like that, more than half a month passed in a blur.

"You killed 1 Swamp Gray Dwarf. Total Swamp Gray Dwarves killed: 11,936. Your milestone—Race Butcher—has set a new record."

"You gained 1 XP."

"Your Toughness has increased slightly."

"Your Toughness has increased to 100% (cannot be increased further)."

"You completed the second Sin Mark and gained the feat: Ultimate Hunter."

"Finally, I got stronger... by a tiny bit!"

Seeing the changes in his attributes panel, Roger's eyes grew slightly moist.