Looking further down, he saw that his Slaughter Points were at 147, and then nothing else had changed.
Wait!
How had his Slaughter Points dropped to 147???
Lu Hao stared at the Slaughter Point count on the panel, baffled. At first, he thought he'd missed a zero, but when he looked again, it still said 147. Nothing had changed.
That didn't make sense. He hadn't spent any Slaughter Points, so how had they dropped to 147?
Lu Hao thought it over. The only change between before and now was that he'd advanced to martial artist.
Could it be that he earned fewer Slaughter Points after advancing? Had his original 1,475 points been reduced to 147?
Did that mean killing a pig would only earn him 0.2 Slaughter Points now?
Lu Hao felt sure he'd guessed right. After all, if Slaughter Points didn't diminish, he could just keep killing pigs until he became a high-rank Grandmaster. That was impossible.
It looked like his Sword God of Ten Mile Slope plan had fallen apart before it even began.
Lu Hao thought it through. Before, he'd been a quasi-martial artist, so killing pigs earned him Slaughter Points.
Now that he'd broken through to become a first-rank martial artist, did he have to kill opponents of the same rank to earn Slaughter Points?
Were there any farm animals with first-rank strength?
Perhaps animals in the Earth Cave were born with first- or second-rank strength, but there were no farm animals like that on Earth.
That meant the only way for him to earn Slaughter Points was to target humans—to kill wanted martial artists.
Lu Hao headed to the washroom, thinking about what to do next as he washed up.
He tried using Slaughter Points to recover his Vital Blood and mental strength, but nothing had changed. One point still restored 10 units of Vital Blood or 5 hertz of mental strength.
It seemed only the way he earned them had changed.
He'd broken through to first rank after tempering his bones three times. An ordinary first-rank martial artist had between 180 and 250 units of Vital Blood. Even a martial artist who had tempered their bones only once would have around 250 units upon reaching the peak of first rank.
His Vital Blood was currently at 241, already not far off theirs. And most martial artists who committed crimes were independent martial artists; students from Martial Universities were rare.
As a result, these independent martial artists usually cobbled together their own moves. Few of them had learned a complete Basic Combat Technique.
Although their bones were fully tempered, giving them much better defense, he could forge himself a good weapon. Add in his exceptionally high Vital Blood and his ability to replenish it whenever he wanted—
This plan could work.
Lu Hao made up his mind. Tomorrow, he'd check how many Slaughter Points he got from killing pigs. If it really was only 0.2, he'd have to start training hard in combat techniques. Once he'd reached minor mastery, he'd take on missions to earn more Slaughter Points.
But there was one problem: if he wanted to take on missions, he couldn't avoid telling his mother. And if she found out, she definitely wouldn't agree.
He'd have to take things one step at a time. First, he'd train the Basic Combat Technique to minor mastery, then find a way to persuade his mother.
After washing up, he skipped his Stance Technique because he'd used up too much Vital Blood that day and went straight to bed.
The next day,
After breakfast, Lu Hao went to the Martial Arts Training Room to practice the Basic Combat Technique and Stance Technique. But because his Vital Blood had increased so much after breaking through, he was having trouble controlling it.
Before, one strike with his blade could just about split a bluestone into three or four pieces, showing that his control over his Vital Blood had improved considerably. But today, the stone shattered with a single strike. He'd lost control of his Vital Blood.
There was nothing for it. Lu Hao had to start again with the basics: leg techniques, punches, and simple chopping strikes. He began getting used to his surging Vital Blood.
But thanks to his previous experience, he was able to improve his control over it much faster than before.
In the afternoon, Lu Hao went to the slaughterhouse.
But after killing just one pig, his face darkened. The panel didn't even display anything, let alone show an increase in Slaughter Points. It seemed that from now on, only martial artists of the same rank could earn him Slaughter Points.
Fortunately, even after the Slaughter Points he'd saved up had been reduced, he still had enough to replenish his Vital Blood two or three times.
But since he was already there, he might as well finish the day's work before quitting.
That evening, after finishing his work for the day, Lu Hao told his boss he was leaving. He said school was starting soon and he wouldn't be able to keep working there, so he had to quit.
The boss didn't say much. He paid Lu Hao his wages, and Lu Hao left.
As he walked along, he weighed the five thousand yuan in his hand. That wasn't even enough to apply to Martial Arts University. Taking the martial arts entrance exam cost twenty thousand yuan.
Ordinary people struggled to scrape together even that much, never mind the various pills needed for martial arts training. The cost of those was beyond imagination.
After dinner, Lu Hao's Vital Blood had fully recovered, so he began tempering his bones. There were 62 bones in the lower limbs at first rank; once he finished tempering them, he could break through to second rank.
Lu Hao began spending Vital Blood to temper his toe bones. As Vital Blood flowed into one of them, it gradually grew translucent, while black impurities seeped out.
Half an hour later, Lu Hao felt he'd used up most of his Vital Blood, so he stopped.
[Vital Blood: 27/241]
Lu Hao roughly estimated how much more tempering the bone needed. It would take a little more than one more session to finish.
Once his Vital Blood ran out, he needed a day to recover. That meant tempering a bone took a little over two days, but less than three.
Lu Hao used Slaughter Points to replenish his Vital Blood and continued tempering. He wanted to find out exactly how many Slaughter Points it took to temper one bone.
Half an hour later, he finished tempering the toe bone and felt his Vital Blood increase.
Lu Hao opened the panel.
[Vital Blood: 23/242] [Slaughter Points: 117]
Tempering one bone had increased his Vital Blood by one unit.
He'd spent 30 Slaughter Points, equivalent to 300 units of Vital Blood. Including what he'd used at the start, tempering one bone took around 500 units of Vital Blood—that was 50 Slaughter Points.
Without using Slaughter Points, it would take him about two days to temper one bone. With 62 bones, that meant 124 days, and that was a conservative estimate. In reality, it would take quite a bit longer.
In other words, if he relied only on his own tempering and didn't use Slaughter Points, it would take him more than four months to reach the peak of first rank. It was March now, so he'd probably reach it sometime in July.
That was far too slow. He'd have to start taking missions to earn Slaughter Points as soon as possible.
If people who had tempered their bones once or twice heard him say that, they'd definitely curse him out. What a heartless thing to say—he thought that was slow? Then what about their own tempering speed?
Lu Hao was so envious of Fang Ping's Wealth Value System. With Wealth Value, he could temper his bones directly. If he had Fang Ping's system, he was confident he could break through to second rank within a month.
As for now, all he could do was train his combat techniques first. Once he'd reached minor mastery, he'd tell his mother he planned to take on missions.
This lousy panel was forcing him to kill people—to go after martial artists.
Cheating was great, but it came at a price.
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