Disappointment

After killing the second Rank-1 martial artist, the panel updated to show that he had gained 187 Slaughter Points.

The Slaughter Points from this martial artist were not as high as the first young man. Lu Hao felt that even if Slaughter Points were not directly absorbing vitality, they were still linked to vitality values, because although both were mid-stage Rank-1, the second martial artist had clearly tempered fewer bones than the first, resulting in lower vitality and fewer Slaughter Points gained.

After this Life-Death Arena match, Lu Hao did not fight anymore, but instead continued to review the battle he had just finished. Although he had killed his opponent, that did not mean there was nothing for him to learn from the other side.

In the evening, at the dinner table.

"Hao'er, did you kill someone today?"

Bai Qiuyao asked from across the table. She had noticed something off the moment Lu Hao returned today. If the original Lu Hao was a weapon still being polished, he was now a sharp blade that had been unsheathed.

Bai Qiuyao could feel the presence of killing intent on Lu Hao, something that hadn't been there over the past few days, which meant that Lu Hao had undergone a change.

"Yes, that's right. I fought two Life-Death Arena matches today. The opponents were very weak and not worth mentioning."

Lu Hao said casually. He didn't want his mother to worry too much, and the truth was exactly as he said; the opponents hadn't caused him any real trouble, and as for those minor injuries, Lu Hao was already used to them.

"Hao'er, did you feel any discomfort after killing someone for the first time today? If you feel uncomfortable, you don't have to force yourself to hold it in; you can tell Mom."

Bai Qiuyao said with concern. After all, killing someone was different from normal combat. What mattered more when killing was the mental hurdle; if one didn't adjust in time, it wasn't impossible to evolve into a killing machine.

"Mom, I didn't feel any discomfort. After fighting and seeing so much, there's no difference between killing and normal combat to me. Have you seen any changes in me today? I don't think so."

"Then Hao'er, you must remember, don't let the slaughter control your original heart. You are not killing for the sake of killing."

Seeing Lu Hao eating his meal with relish and appearing unchanged, Bai Qiuyao still felt uneasy and knew she needed to observe him more.

"Don't worry, Mom. I won't kill without reason. I understand."

After dinner, Lu Hao went to the training room. Now that he had plenty of Slaughter Points, he began to recover his vitality while using it to temper his bones.

Lu Hao felt an endless stream of vitality pouring into his bones, tempering them, but he knew this was just an illusion—a side effect of the recovery provided by the Slaughter Points.

An hour later, Lu Hao successfully completed the tempering of one bone, bringing his total tempered bones to 14.

This speed of tempering, compared to the previous rate of one bone every two days, was like comparing a bicycle to a rocket.

Although he had consumed nearly 50 Slaughter Points, he could continue to earn more in the Life-Death Arena tomorrow.

Lu Hao continued to practice bone tempering.

The next day, Lu Hao got up early and went to the Duel Arena. After all, if he wanted to make rapid progress, he needed Slaughter Points, and the best place to get them was the Duel Arena.

Over the past night, Lu Hao had tempered a total of five bones, consuming 250 Slaughter Points. It wasn't that he didn't have enough points, but rather that his mental energy was too depleted after tempering so many; although he could consume Slaughter Points to recover mental energy, Lu Hao wasn't yet extravagant enough to use them for that. After all, a good night's sleep could recover most of it, so why waste the points?

If he could temper five bones every day like he did yesterday, he could break through to Rank-2 in less than half a month, and break through to Rank-3 in less than a month and a half.

Just calculating this cultivation speed left Lu Hao shocked. With this kind of speed, who would ever worry about not being strong enough?

When Lu Hao arrived at the Duel Arena, he was full of enthusiasm to earn Slaughter Points, only to be told by Viper that there was no one participating in the Life-Death Arena today.

Under Viper's explanation, Lu Hao learned that the Life-Death Arena wasn't held every day; having one or two matches a month was already considered quite good.

As for yesterday, it was originally supposed to be a match between the two of them, but because Lu Hao wanted to enter the Life-Death Arena, Viper had split their fight and turned it into a match against Lu Hao.

No wonder his mother asked the guard if there were any Life-Death Arena matches when she first came here; it turned out this thing was so rare.

So, there would be no life-or-death battle today.

Lu Hao's original plan had died in the cradle before it even started. With no other choice, since he was already here, Lu Hao went to the Standard Match area to continue fighting peak Rank-1 martial artists and hone his martial arts techniques.

On April 1st, Lu Hao spent the entire day in the Duel Arena honing his martial arts, and his techniques improved significantly.

Returning home in the evening, he continued to temper his bones, consuming 200 Slaughter Points to temper four bones, while keeping 50 points in reserve to recover vitality in case of danger.

His tempered bones reached 22.

On April 2nd, there were still no life-or-death matches, and the day was spent once again honing martial arts against peak Rank-1 martial artists.

Life-Death Arena, why is no one fighting in the Life-Death Arena? Isn't it said that there are many conflicts between martial artists? Why doesn't anyone come here?

Lu Hao didn't know that even if there were conflicts, martial artists usually settled them in Standard Matches. Generally, no one would come to the Life-Death Arena; after all, you only have one life, and once it's gone, it's gone.

On April 7th, a week had passed, and Lu Hao still hadn't encountered anyone fighting in the Life-Death Arena. It seemed he had been truly lucky a week ago to encounter two people who wanted to fight to the death.

There was no help for it; even if the plan failed, life had to go on.

Now, Lu Hao's life was very regular: he went to the Duel Arena in the morning to hone his martial arts, continued honing them in the afternoon, and tempered his bones at home in the evening.

He had reached 24 tempered bones, almost at the level of a mid-stage Rank-1, and his vitality had increased to 265 cards, reaching the strength of some weak Rank-2s.

Speaking of which, had Fang Ping transmigrated over at this point in time? He remembered that there was a foolish peak Rank-2 martial artist over there right now.

Huang Bin, the only peak Rank-2 martial artist in the entire series to be outsmarted and subdued by an ordinary person.

If he could kill Huang Bin, how many Slaughter Points would he gain? Lu Hao couldn't help but shed tears of humiliation.

It was a pity that he didn't know what the current situation was, or whether Fang Ping had already made a move. After all, he only remembered the most important plot points; if he hadn't suddenly thought of this minor detail today, he might have forgotten it entirely.

Forget it, forget it. Since he didn't know the situation on Huang Bin's end, he shouldn't rush over and risk making things worse. After all, against a Rank-2 peak martial artist, he definitely wouldn't be able to win unless he went all out and used Slaughter Points to recover his vitality.

What is gained is my fortune, what is lost is my fate.

His current rate of growth was not slow at all.