"Thanks, Qingzi."
After checking Fang Qingyu's back and finding no serious injuries, Lu Chen came over to thank him at once.
"It was nothing."
Fang Qingyu waved his hand.
As a team member with this ability, he had naturally stepped in.
From what Old Jiao had said tonight, it was clear that martial artists were, for the most part, quite united.
So there was no need to take such a minor matter to heart.
"Come on. I'll teach you how to find life orbs."
Old Jiao had also regained his composure. He led Fang Qingyu to the wall where the corpses had just been shattered.
"Life orbs are the most important things we get from killing life spirits. They're generally located around the heart or in the skull."
Fang Qingyu followed beside him and listened attentively.
Whenever someone entered a new field, being guided by another person was a kindness.
"How did it go, Brother Chen?!"
Not long afterward.
The other team members also arrived one after another.
As long as they carried Barrier-Breaking with them as well, they could enter the force field Old Jiao had opened at the designated location.
"It's done. There are five in total."
Lu Chen said with a smile.
The harvest this time was quite good.
Usually, it was rare to encounter several at once.
Most were solitary types.
They were difficult and exhausting to kill, and all one got in return was a single life orb.
Although that life orb contained more energy for a martial artist to cultivate the Contemplation Method with,
it was certainly less worthwhile than several orbs combined.
"Not bad. You got off to a great start with a lucky break!"
The others praised him one after another, their eyes full of envy.
Life orbs were distributed according to contribution.
When the others arrived, the battle was already over, so they naturally could not receive any life orbs.
"Sorry to make you all come out here. Let's clean up and go."
Lu Chen could also receive one life orb this time.
He was delighted.
He would never complain about getting only one.
Although Brother Jiao was taking the lion's share—three of them—one had to be handed over to the Association, one was payment for killing the life spirit, and the last had been won by risking his life to open the force field.
As for a mad genius like Fang Qingyu, he was taking one orb.
Lu Chen had no objections whatsoever.
Who knew when he might need Fang Qingyu to save his life?
"Let's go."
Old Jiao called out. He had more or less finished explaining what needed to be explained.
The life spirits' bodies had all been packed up as well.
As for combat,
he did not think he was qualified to teach Fang Qingyu anything.
"Fall back~!"
Everyone was happy whenever they survived an encounter with life spirits.
Whether it had been their own battle or not.
When the roaring sound of the crowds surged into their ears again,
what lay before them
was actually a small street stall!?
"Before we come out each time, our people set up camouflage at the site of the fluctuations in advance."
Old Jiao offered an explanation when he saw Fang Qingyu's reaction.
That was far too thorough.
Fang Qingyu nodded inwardly. No wonder he had not found the slightest trace of anything supernatural before.
They returned to the car from the pedestrian street.
Looking at the lively scene outside, Fang Qingyu felt as though he had passed through another lifetime.
They had clearly still been fighting for their lives moments ago,
yet the pedestrians on the street did not feel a thing.
If the three of them had not intervened just now,
to put it mildly,
given the Marrow Gu's destructive power,
several dozen people would have died at the very least.
Although he had done it to improve his martial arts, an indescribable feeling still welled up inside him.
It seemed
not bad at all.
However, for the rest of the night, the radio was as silent as if it had run out of power.
There was not another message.
It was not until two in the morning
that Old Jiao turned around awkwardly.
"Sorry, Qingzi. We usually run into two or three incidents, but today was relatively safe."
"It's fine."
Fang Qingyu shook his head with a smile.
If life spirits had erupted across the city, things could not have remained this peaceful.
He had already anticipated this before setting out.
Besides, they had been assigned to a low-risk area tonight, so the chances of life spirits appearing were indeed quite low.
"Then should I have someone take you home?"
As he spoke, Old Jiao opened the car door.
"No need. I can go back myself."
Fang Qingyu did not want to trouble the two of them any further, so he hailed a cab home.
This hunting trip for life spirits
ended there.
Still, he had learned a great deal.
For example, life spirits did not necessarily appear alone.
And he had become familiar with the entire process.
It was just a shame that he had not encountered any members of the Divine Church.
Fang Qingyu really wanted to see how strong they were in reality.
They were actually capable of suppressing martial artists.
But there would still be plenty of opportunities in the future.
There was no need to rush.
After returning home,
Fang Qingyu sat on the sofa and began counting his gains.
He opened the compendium.
Life Spirit · Marrow Gu recorded. Reward: 1 skill point. Resentful Infant Type · Mother-Child Symbiotic Type Collection progress: 2/7
This time, he had killed another new life spirit.
The reward was one skill point.
Together with the two from before, he had three points saved up in total.
Fang Qingyu had originally intended to save them for upgrading the Contemplation Method.
But the number of life orbs required by the Contemplation Method far exceeded his expectations.
So he might as well add them to other skills first, increase his combat strength, and improve the speed at which he farmed life orbs.
The sooner he used them, the sooner he would benefit.
At present, there were two skills most worth upgrading.
Baji Quan and Thunder Slash.
After several days of training, Baji Quan's progress had risen from 75 to more than halfway.
It only needed one skill point to level up.
As for Thunder Slash, he had not practiced it because the weapon was not ready yet.
But in future battles against life spirits, Thunder Slash would definitely be used more often than Baji Quan.
So there was no problem putting the remaining two points into it.
With that thought, Fang Qingyu did not hesitate any longer.
He allocated all three skill points.
First was Baji Quan.
One skill point vanished.
Dense cracks suddenly rang out from his spine, while the fascia beneath his skin writhed and rearranged itself like countless ants crawling beneath it.
Fang Qingyu instinctively assumed a stance.
The instant his knees bent slightly, the air around him seemed to be drawn along with him.
It abruptly sank.
Countless details of Baji Quan
awakened among his neural synapses.
His muscle memory surged like boiling water.
The previously sluggish connections between his joints suddenly opened up, as though rusted gears had been polished and oiled anew.
The angle of his slightly bent knees was now three percent more precise than before.
Any more and he would become stiff; any less and he would become unstable.
The coordination between his latissimus muscles and his waist and hips became smooth as silk. The point of exertion that had occasionally felt like it was "missing a breath" during his past training now meshed with perfect precision, like interlocking gears.
Fang Qingyu pushed his palm lightly toward the air, and his shoulder blade gave a soft click.
The waist-and-horse strength that had once required deliberate control now flowed naturally along his spine to his fingertips.
His breathing rhythm changed unconsciously.
As he inhaled, his rib cage expanded like bellows, and Turbid Qi sank to his dantian.
As he exhaled, his chest resonated like muffled thunder, while his pores opened and closed faintly in time with his breath.
Fang Qingyu finally understood why Coach Zheng always said
that the boxing frame had to be nurtured within the breathing method.
But that was not the end.
Fang Qingyu then invested all his remaining skill points into Thunder Slash.
The instant the second skill point sank into the plus sign beside Thunder Slash,
Fang Qingyu's pupils suddenly contracted to pinpoints.
Countless afterimages of blades appeared across his retinas.
It was as if memories of battles spanning time and space had been forcibly infused into him.
His right hand unconsciously curled into the shape of a blade.
The latissimus muscles on either side of his spine suddenly contracted, forming two streamlined bands of muscle.
His shoulder blades spread like blade guards, correcting the path of his arm's swing to millimeter-level precision.
"Whew."
Fang Qingyu leaned against the wall and panted.
Next time,
he should try not to upgrade two skills at once.
The aftereffects were a little intense.
After recovering for quite a while, Fang Qingyu finally looked at the panel.
Congratulations. Your profession Advancement Skill "Baji Quan" has reached Lv.3 (12/300) Congratulations. Your profession Advancement Skill "Thunder Slash" has reached Lv.3 (0/300) Strength: 21.6→22.1 Speed: 19.2→19.7 Physique: 20.2→20.7
His various Attribute Points once again experienced explosive growth.
Fang Qingyu walked into the bathroom.
He looked at the mirror.
The muscle lines in his reflection had become even smoother. They were not exaggerated bulges like a strongman's, but rather a lean, taut, and harmonious build like a cheetah's.
Other than Fang Qingyu himself, no one knew how much explosive power lay beneath this flesh.
Now, it seemed
he could kill his former self with a single punch!
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