After finally calming himself down, Guan Ning hurried to consider his future.
First, he would definitely have to practice the Dugu Sword Art. To conceal its existence, he also needed to buy another manual as a cover.
Right, that was it!
Once he had it figured out, he immediately opened the online shop. It contained everything under the sun: all kinds of guiding techniques, movement manuals, blade manuals, firearms, cold weapons, gene serums, and more. In short, the online shop was where you went to spend money.
Guan Ning tapped at the wireless keyboard and touchscreen, opening the online shop. At once, the enormous screen on the media room wall filled with detailed categories for all kinds of products. Guan Ning selected "Manuals" and then "Attack Techniques." After clicking through three times, photos of the manuals appeared on the screen, along with their names and prices.
World Destroyer
Category: Spearmanship
Rating: Ultimate
Price: 100 billion Huaxia Currency (full price); 50 billion Huaxia Currency (half price, requirement: Four-Star Contribution Points)
Nine-Layered Thunder Blade
Category: Blade Technique
Rating: Ultimate
Price: 100 billion Huaxia Currency (full price); 50 billion Huaxia Currency (half price, requirement: Four-Star Contribution Points)
Phantom Blade Art
Category: Blade Technique
Rating: SS-level
Price: 10 billion Huaxia Currency (full price)
5 billion Huaxia Currency (half price, requirement: Three-Star Contribution Points)
Mist Sword
Category: Sword Technique
Rating: S-level
Price: 3 billion Huaxia Currency (full price)
1.5 billion Huaxia Currency (half price, requirement: Three-Star Contribution Points)
Looking over the long list of manuals, Guan Ning remained calm and expressionless. Compared with the Dugu Sword Art, these manuals were like fireflies beside the sun.
He opened Mist Sword without even reading its description.
Instead, he clicked directly on one of the options below:
Mist Sword, first two levels — Price: 200 million Huaxia Currency (full price); 100 million Huaxia Currency (half price, requirement: Three-Star Contribution Points)
"You'll do." Guan Ning took a deep breath and lightly tapped the touchscreen.
"Please confirm your purchase of the first two levels of Mist Sword. Payment of 100 million Huaxia Currency is required!" A prompt appeared on the big screen. It was Guan Ning's first purchase, and under his contract with the Limit Martial Hall, his first purchase of an attack technique, movement technique, or blade manual was exempt from the contribution-point requirement, allowing him to enjoy the best price directly.
"Confirm!" Guan Ning tapped the screen.
"Please verify your fingerprint to confirm." A reminder appeared on the screen.
Guan Ning placed his finger on the fingerprint scanner in the wireless keyboard.
"Beep!"
"Fingerprint verified."
"Purchase successful!"
"Payment successful!"
"The first two levels of Mist Sword will be delivered to Mr. Guan Ning's home within 24 hours." Prompts appeared on the screen one after another.
He would have preferred to buy only the first level, but the money for manuals came from a spending allowance, not cash. He might as well spend as much of it as he could.
"Good thing it isn't my money." Guan Ning's parents were both high-level warriors, but this was the first time they had spent 100 million all at once. It was hard not to feel a little pained.
With the manual purchased, the next step was to buy weapons, a combat suit, and so on.
Seeing the 60 million in his account, Guan Ning smiled faintly. Now he could afford some better equipment.
The Qingming series of battle swords Guan Ning used was known for its sturdiness and decent resilience. Its sharpness was only average, though. Since Guan Ning had no shield, his sword had to serve both offensive and defensive purposes, which was why he had chosen the Qingming series.
He opened the weapons page and found the Qingming Battle Sword No. 1 series. The No. 1 series was the highest quality.
Qingming Battle Sword No. 1 series,
A1 model — Price: 150,000 Huaxia Currency (full price); 75,000 Huaxia Currency (half price, requirement: 1 Contribution Point)
A2 model — Price: 600,000 Huaxia Currency (full price); 300,000 Huaxia Currency (half price, requirement: 1 Contribution Point)
A5 model — Price: 7 million Huaxia Currency (full price); 3.5 million Huaxia Currency (half price, requirement: One-Star Contribution Points)
A7 model — Price: 90 million Huaxia Currency (full price); 45 million Huaxia Currency (half price, requirement: One-Star Contribution Points)
A9 model — Price: 3 billion Huaxia Currency (full price); 1.5 billion Huaxia Currency (half price, requirement: Three-Star Contribution Points)
Then he looked up the prices of Communication Watches, backpacks, and combat suits.
After carefully weighing his options, he settled on the A6 Qingming Battle Sword, which could pierce the defenses of high-level Beast General monsters. It cost 20 million at full price or 10 million at half price;
an A6 Combat Suit, which could withstand attacks from high-level Beast General monsters. It cost 90 million Huaxia Currency at full price or 45 million at half price;
and a Type 7 dagger for cutting up corpses and collecting materials from monsters. It cost 4 million at full price or 2 million at half price;
even the best Combat Backpack and Communication Watch cost only 200,000 altogether.
The total came to 57.2 million, which was still within his means.
As for the contribution-point level required to buy equipment, Guan Ning had no intention of buying it himself. Donating 10,000 was enough to earn one Contribution Point! But the Type 7 dagger required Two-Star Contribution Points, equivalent to a full 1 billion Huaxia Currency—far beyond what Guan Ning could afford. So he planned to have someone else buy it for him.
That someone was Qian Yun, Chief Instructor of the Limit Dojo in Suzhou City. As Chief Instructor, Qian Yun had to have at least Three-Star Contribution Points, so she could buy the equipment at half price.
Someone else could buy the equipment for him, but not the manual. He had to purchase that himself. If he secretly taught a manual to someone else and got caught, he would be arrested for suspected illegal copying.
After finishing up, Guan Ning browsed a lot of posts on the Martial Artist Forum: "50 Questions About Hunting Monsters," "Wilderness Survival Knowledge," "How to Avoid Provoking Beast General Monsters," "28 Ways to Escape with Your Life"... The posts covered all sorts of topics, and Guan Ning learned a great deal. He also came to understand how hard life as a warrior could be!
He kept reading until five or six in the afternoon. After washing up, he went to Qian Yun's home. She had called earlier to invite him over for dinner, but he had been at Zhong Liang's home at noon, so they had agreed on the evening instead. It was a good chance to discuss the equipment.
Early the next morning, after finishing his morning lesson—reciting the Dao Scripture—Guan Ning washed up and headed out.
Over dinner at Aunt Qian's the previous night, she had told him that today she would take him to Jiangnan Base City to undergo the Global Headquarters special envoy's assessment.
If he passed, he would be able to enter the Basic Training Camp at the Limit Martial Hall's Global Headquarters.
But after thinking about the progress he had made in his training over the past few days, Guan Ning felt he could try for the Elite Training Camp.
A thought suddenly crossed his mind: Could the special envoy from Global Headquarters be War God Yang Hui?
After thinking it over, he finally remembered. In March 2057, the protagonist of the original story, Luo Feng, had passed the assessment the day before yesterday. Anyone who passed the Trial Tower's B-level assessment could join the Elite Training Camp. He wondered if he might get the same opportunity.
As his thoughts raced, he arrived at the Limit Dojo in SZ City. After meeting up with Qian Yun, he took the train to the general hall in Jiangnan Base City, then rode the elevator to the 31st floor.
The 31st floor of the Limit General Hall was a huge, open training room. The entire room was silver-white. Yu Sen, one of the four leading executives and the deputy director, was talking with two men.
One wore a white training outfit and had enormous hands, each as large as two ordinary hands. An invisible energy seemed to ripple around him.
Between the two stood a middle-aged man in a gray robe. He looked to be in his thirties, but the world-weariness in his eyes made it clear he was much older than that.
"The one with the enormous hands is Zhou Zhengyong, the head of the general hall in Jiangnan Base City and the War God known as Iron Hand. The one in the middle should be the special envoy from headquarters, War God Yang Hui."
These thoughts flashed through Guan Ning's mind. He didn't slow his pace, following closely behind Qian Yun.
Yu Sen smiled and nodded slightly at Guan Ning, then stepped forward and said, "Qian Yun, Guan Ning, this is the head of the hall, Zhou Zhengyong. And this is Mr. Yang, the special envoy from the global headquarters of our Limit Martial Hall. Mr. Yang is a War God."
"Qian Yun greets Deputy Director Yu, Head Zhou, and Mr. Yang." Qian Yun bowed slightly.
"Guan Ning greets Deputy Director Yu, Head Zhou, and Mr. Yang." Guan Ning also bowed respectfully.
"Mm."
Head Zhou Zhengyong and the special envoy, Mr. Yang, merely nodded without speaking. Their eyes were fixed on Guan Ning!
"Guan Ning," Yang Hui said.
"Mr. Yang," Guan Ning replied at once. He looked calm, but inside, he was extremely excited.
Yang Hui said gravely, "Guan Ning, I came here to assess you. You can enter the Basic Training Camp only if you pass."
"The assessment is simple. It's mainly to verify whether your swordsmanship has truly reached the Mastery-Level."
"You'll attack me with your swordsmanship. I won't use more strength or speed than you."
Guan Ning's heart tightened. Even if their physical attributes were the same, Yang Hui had far more experience with swordsmanship than he did. He would have to stay on his toes.
"Xiao Ning, do your best."
Seeing that Yang Hui had already picked up a War Blade, Qian Yun reminded him before stepping back.
"Don't worry, Aunt Qian."
Guan Ning held his battle sword as well.
Once Guan Ning was ready, Yang Hui wasted no time. He brought his War Blade down at Guan Ning in a clean, swift strike. Guan Ning dodged, but Yang Hui shifted his left foot and swept the blade across.
The angle was vicious, as if he meant to cut Guan Ning in half at the waist.
"Clang!"
Guan Ning gripped the Qingming Sword tightly. Blade and sword collided with a crisp ring.
"Bang!"
Everyone stared in astonishment at the War Blade flying away. Even Yang Hui was stunned.
From the clash, Guan Ning had realized that Yang Hui had adjusted his strength based on Guan Ning's physical condition from half a month ago.
But Yang Hui didn't know that Guan Ning's physical attributes had improved tremendously over the past half month, far beyond what they had been before. Caught off guard, Yang Hui had been disarmed.
However, as a War God-level warrior, Yang Hui quickly recovered. He glanced at Guan Ning in surprise, then clenched both fists and struck at him.
Guan Ning was just as undaunted. He thrust the Qingming Sword forward, aiming to pierce Yang Hui's fist.
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