Afterward, Ji Ruo taught Liang Shixian for a while longer. The class monitor had decent talent, but he was still some distance away from First Glimpse of the Path.
Ji Ruo had already taught him everything he could. From here on, Liang Shixian just needed to practice—a lot.
Two hours later—
Li Nannan stretched her limbs. She had almost fully recovered.
She called to the students, "Everyone, take a break."
The exhausted students nodded. They hadn't had a proper rest in days, but now that Li Nannan had recovered some of her fighting strength, they could finally let their taut nerves relax.
With conditions so limited, they lay straight down on the ground without complaint, ready to sleep right there.
The four boys lay on either side of Li Nannan. Zhang Quan and Liu Neng were on one side, lying very close to her.
Ji Ruo and Liang Shixian lay on the other.
They were all utterly exhausted. Liang Shixian had nearly fallen asleep the moment he lay down.
Ji Ruo was tired too, but he didn't go to sleep right away.
He still had one chance to choose an achievement to upgrade, and he planned to spend it before sleeping.
"System."
Ji Ruo called softly in his mind.
A light screen, visible only to Ji Ruo, suddenly appeared before him.
The screen's edges were decorated with extremely simple line drawings. Judging by the style, they looked like the kind of crude doodles an elementary schooler might draw on a blackboard with chalk.
[Host: Ji Ruo] [Unlocked Achievement Categories: Martial Dao, Sword Dao, Utility] [Number of Unlocked Achievements: 6] [Stage Achievement: 1] [Martial Dao: Iron Sand Palm at Six] [Sword Dao: Were I to Hold This Staff in My Youth, Ten Miles of Rapeseed Would Bow Their Heads] [Utility: Diplomatic Spokesperson, Gold Medal Tour Guide, Hide-and-Seek Grandmaster] [Stage Achievement: Sincere Praise from an Elder (1/10)]
Those were all the achievements Ji Ruo had unlocked so far. Every achievement came with an ability, except for the stage achievement.
Upgrade opportunities were precious. Ji Ruo ruled out Iron Sand Palm first, then Diplomatic Spokesperson.
The abilities attached to those two achievements had fairly simple upgrade requirements, so he wouldn't consider them.
Of the remaining abilities, the ones Ji Ruo most wanted to upgrade were [Gold Medal Tour Guide] and [Hide-and-Seek Grandmaster].
[Absolute Sense of Direction] was incredibly powerful. It could be used not only to find one's way, but also for Treasure Hunting.
If its accuracy reached 100%, Ji Ruo could find anything he wanted. It was the achievement he most wanted to upgrade.
The [Camouflage] skill, meanwhile, boosted the effectiveness of camouflage by 40%. It was so powerful that even the Spider Queen, at the peak of the Qi Pulse Realm, hadn't been able to detect him!
Of course, that was also because the conditions had been perfect. The Spider Queen had been blinded by rage, and the Six-Whiskered Catfish had distracted her. Those factors came together and sparked a chemical reaction.
Ji Ruo wanted to upgrade both achievements, but he only had one chance.
After thinking it over, he decided not to upgrade either one.
Earlier, when Ji Ruo had camouflaged himself at the edge of the swamp, he had managed to fool a Demonic Beast nearly a whole major realm stronger than himself. He had even camouflaged his whole team. Perhaps that was why he had gained a huge amount of "experience" all at once.
The [Camouflage] skill had leveled up directly, improving from its original 40% boost to 41%.
That made Ji Ruo realize that skills and abilities displayed as percentages probably increased by a percentage point with each upgrade.
He just didn't know how much a single "upgrade" opportunity would add. Since he only had one, if he chose one of the two achievements and the upgrade only improved it by 1%, he might as well not upgrade it at all.
Since he especially wanted to upgrade both achievements, he decided that, to be fair, he wouldn't upgrade either one.
After weighing everything, Ji Ruo decided to use this precious upgrade opportunity on the achievement [Were I to Hold This Staff in My Youth, Ten Miles of Rapeseed Would Bow Their Heads].
The [Sword Dao Favor] buff raised Ji Ruo's ability to comprehend the Sword Dao to the maximum of his current level.
The buff was currently at First Glimpse of the Path, which meant that, in theory, he could learn any sword technique at that level in an extremely short time, as long as he wanted to.
It was undeniably powerful.
As for an ability with no specific proficiency rating, only a level, Ji Ruo figured that upgrading it would raise that level accordingly.
By then, his [Sword Dao Favor] buff might reach the Entering the Hall stage.
Sword techniques at the Entering the Hall stage could use Sword Qi. It couldn't travel far, and its lethality was nowhere near that of a real sword, but Sword Qi was still Sword Qi!
Who cared if it couldn't hurt anyone? The important thing was that it looked cool!
So Ji Ruo decided to upgrade [Were I to Hold This Staff in My Youth, Ten Miles of Rapeseed Would Bow Their Heads].
[Little Host, are you sure you want to upgrade this achievement? Be sure to think it over~]
Ji Ruo: "..."
Honestly, there was something wrong with this Achievement System's built-in voice pack.
Still, it was pretty useful.
"Confirm."
[Upgrade Chance × 1 consumed. Specified upgrade: "Were I to Hold This Staff in My Youth, Ten Miles of Rapeseed Would Bow Their Heads."]
[Congratulations, Little Host! Achievement successfully upgraded!]
[Sword Dao achievement upgraded to a Weaponry achievement!]
[Sword Dao Favor buff upgraded!]
[Congratulations, Little Host! You have obtained the buff: Dual Mastery of Blade and Sword! (First Glimpse of the Path)]
Ji Ruo: "???"
He'd thought the buff's level would be upgraded. He hadn't expected the achievement category to change!
But this seemed pretty good too!
Lying on his side, Ji Ruo instinctively reached back and grasped the handle of the Miao Saber on his back. This was Ten Thousand Beast Mountain. Even in his sleep, he couldn't let his weapon out of reach!
In an instant, countless insights into the blade flooded his mind.
The Miao Saber was a two-handed weapon with a long, slender blade, shaped like a rice seedling—hence the name Miao Saber.
Ji Ruo understood. This kind of saber was incredibly fast!
He recalled some rather absurd anime and movies he'd seen in his previous life, and tried using the [Dual Mastery of Blade and Sword] buff to understand their techniques.
With just a brief recollection, he could grasp the gist of those saber techniques. His talent and comprehension truly lived up to their maxed-out rating!
"Haaah—"
Lying on his side, Ji Ruo suddenly drew in a deep breath.
His breathing followed a strange rhythm, and he held his breath for a long time.
As he breathed, faint streams of electricity seemed to dance through his hair!
"Ha!"
Ji Ruo let out a long breath without using the saber technique.
Yet just by trying, he had mastered that cool saber technique that existed only in the realm of fantasy!
"Not bad!"
Delighted and satisfied, Ji Ruo was just about to go to sleep.
Suddenly—
Rumble!
The earth shook like never before!
The ground trembled. Boulders kept tumbling down the sides of the ravine, and a huge crack split the earth open. Thunder boomed in the sky, as if heaven and earth were falling apart!
"What's going on?"
Ji Ruo sprang up in alarm.
"Everyone, come to me—" Li Nannan cried. She had just started gathering the students when Zhang Quan and Liu Neng, who had been startled awake, rushed ahead of the others and clung to her, sobbing, "Teacher, save me!"
Because of where they had been lying, Ji Ruo and Liang Shixian were separated from Li Nannan and the others by the huge fissure.
Scalding red lava gushed from the crack. Mountains shifted, and the Earth Vein twisted.
A boulder came rolling down toward Ji Ruo's head. The first thing Liang Shixian did after getting up wasn't to run to Li Nannan. He dashed toward Ji Ruo instead and shouted, "Ji Ruo, look out!"
"Ji Ruo!"
Li Nannan cried out. She surged forward with her movement technique, rushing toward Ji Ruo, but the two human-sized babies hanging off her had left her movements restricted.
Before she could cross the fissure, the surrounding scenery began to race past like slides in a projector.
At that moment, Ten Thousand Beast Mountain seemed to come alive. The whole mountain convulsed, throwing every region into chaos once more. The speed and scale of its movements were beyond imagination!
By the time the four of them came to their senses, they had been forcibly separated, with no idea where they were.
Thanks to reader "Insomniac Patriotic Cultivator" for the 100 tipping points!
Thanks to reader "Great Power" for the 200 tipping points!
Thanks to reader "Li · Madman" for the 1,500 tipping points!
P.S. Chapter 26 is written, but I feel like there might be a problem with how it connects to the following story, so I've decided to revise it a little. It may be a bit late~
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