The Dojo Master's Mercy

The sun had completely set, and a new day had begun at the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall.

"Did any new notices come out today?"

Fang Zhen, who had just logged in, yawned as he looked at the crowd gathered before the notice board and could not help asking curiously.

The time in High Martial Descent was almost identical to real-world time. This meant Fang Zhen had to undergo intensive training during the day, then stream himself playing High Martial Descent at night, running nonstop twenty-four hours a day.

Even a production team's donkey did not work as hard as he did.

The only fortunate thing was that playing High Martial Descent allowed his real body to get some rest. As long as he did not die and log off at the drop of a hat, it did not place much burden on his mind.

Even so, Fang Zhen still felt so busy he was practically about to burst into flames.

If he had not seen his stream's popularity reach new highs every day after logging off, while the number of people reserving High Martial Descent climbed from over thirty thousand to fifty thousand, with more and more viewers demanding that he put High Martial Descent aside and let them play instead—

Fang Zhen probably would have chosen to slack off in High Martial Descent for a while, such as following behind the Dojo Master to see whether he could pry some quest clues out of him.

"There aren't any new notices, but a new cultivation technique has appeared," said the Outlander Gunslinger, who had arrived earlier. His voice was full of eagerness.

"A new cultivation technique? What technique?"

Fang Zhen grew even more curious and walked over to take a look.

At present, there were only three cultivation techniques available to learn at the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, but every single one of them was incredibly useful.

After learning the Soul Shocking Breathing Technique, one's physical fitness improved, greatly increasing work efficiency.

After learning the Crushing Stone Fist, one's explosive strength improved, greatly increasing work efficiency.

After learning the Leopard Shadow Steps, one's movement speed improved, greatly increasing work efficiency.

That was right. Every cultivation technique taught by the Dojo Master could greatly increase work efficiency, allowing them to earn points much faster.

Now that there was a new cultivation technique, it would undoubtedly be another technique that greatly improved work efficiency. That would bring his new weapon one step closer.

Star Explosion Meditation Technique, the finest Martial Artist-level meditation technique. By visualizing a stellar explosion, one made one's spirit seem to explode like a star, thereby tempering one's mental will and strengthening one's spirit. (Required Martial Hall Points for exchange: 1,000)

"Gunslinger, my eyes aren't broken, are they?" Fang Zhen stared at the words Martial Artist-level. It was not even divided into volumes, yet it cost only one thousand points. He deeply suspected he was hallucinating. "Is this the Dojo Master's mercy? Or has the Dojo Master bugged out?"

The previous three cultivation techniques had not been of high rank. They were all Martial Apprentice-level, yet learning all of them required tens of thousands of points. Anything less was wishful thinking.

Now, a Martial Artist-level meditation technique was actually being sold for only one thousand points. If this was not a bug, probably no one would believe it.

"I don't know, but I think we should exchange for it as soon as possible. Otherwise, once the system fixes it, it'll be hard to exchange for it again." The Outlander Gunslinger shook his head slightly, a trace of reluctance in his heart. "But one thousand points is still a bit much. Unless we split up some of the dungeon points everyone earned last time, we'll have to work hard for a few more days before we can exchange for it."

"Then delay the plan. Once you miss this village, there won't be another inn." Fang Zhen did not hesitate in the slightest as he headed toward Lin Qi, intending to exchange for the Star Explosion Meditation Technique immediately.

The others present also exchanged glances and felt that Fang Zhen was right.

With one thousand points, you could not buy a loss, and you could not buy a scam.

A Martial Artist-level cultivation technique had never appeared before. Moreover, it tempered the spirit. Though they did not know what use tempering one's spirit had in the game, there was no harm in practicing it.

"They've finally come."

Lin Qi felt utterly delighted as he watched the players approach.

Those players had previously fleeced more than twenty thousand points from him. Now, they were finally about to return some of it.

As for why he did not divide the Star Explosion Meditation Technique into volumes and sell it at a high price, the reason was simple. It was not that he did not want to; he simply could not.

The entire Star Explosion Meditation Technique consisted of one large illustration, several smaller illustrations, and some text.

How was he supposed to divide that?

One character per volume, or one picture per volume?

And cultivating the Star Explosion Meditation Technique really could make one explode. One could turn into an idiot in minutes. This point had been made very clear in the detailed explanation of the test questions.

It could be said that the Star Explosion Meditation Technique was a meditation technique created from a mad hypothesis conceived by some mad scientists more than a hundred years ago.

This meditation technique existed only in theory. To master it, one had to keep turning into an idiot. If he did not hurry and sell this scam of a meditation technique at a low price, then once some player exchanged for it and practiced himself into an idiot, who else would dare learn it?

Of course, players would not truly become idiots. At most, they would just die once or twice. But if they could not master it and had no idea what specific effects it had, no players would exchange for it afterward anyway.

Rather than letting it rot in his hands, he might as well sell it cheaply to the players and let them all experience what a Stellar Explosion was.

Inside the Martial Arts Hall's lounge, before long—

The ten players each had a copy of the Star Explosion Meditation Technique in hand. Ten thousand points had been spent in one stroke, leaving Lin Qi very satisfied.

Previously, when copying martial techniques, even copying a single volume—just the first volume—took a long time, until his hands grew tired.

But copying the Star Explosion Meditation Technique this time was completely different. Lin Qi had even cut out the illustrations from those detailed explanations and pasted them directly onto the pages. With his text added in, it came to fewer than five pages in total. Compared to copying other cultivation techniques and martial arts, it was simply a huge profit.

Furthermore, the expenditure of ten thousand points would also help these players settle down and focus their energy on repairing the Martial Arts Hall first. After all, the points he gave for tasks such as patching walls and laying floorboards every day were far higher than those for exploration.

Lin Qi watched the players leave, then shifted his gaze to the bottom of his field of vision.

System: Mission One, 'Completely Repair the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall.' Current repair progress: 4.7%.

More than a hundred people had worked together for an entire day. If the players had not slacked off to dig holes, pushing the repair progress beyond 5% would definitely not have been a problem.

"Should I make another trade and recruit more vagrants?" Lin Qi quickly shook his head. "No. These trades can't happen too frequently. Better wait a while before going again."

Crocodile Fang Rhinoceros meat was rare. Stealing it once every few days was already risky enough. If he did it once every day or two, he might as well openly tell everyone that the meat in his hands was stolen and invite them to come kill him.

Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, training ground.

Bang!

Bang! Bang!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

For a moment, the ten people repairing the Martial Arts Hall's walls all clutched their heads where they stood and toppled to the floor one after another, their entire bodies convulsing.

Ten people convulsing together made for quite a spectacular sight.

"Damn, what kind of meditation technique is this? It's way too hard to cultivate. I've already died more than ten times." After reviving, the Outlander Gunslinger looked at the meditation diagram in his hand and suddenly felt as though his wallet had exploded.

"As expected of a Martial Artist-level cultivation technique. The difficulty is indeed high." Peerless One Shot nodded, then promptly collapsed to the ground.

"You guys are doing fine. You've only died more than ten times." Twilight of the Gods looked at the fallen Peerless One Shot with an expression like death itself and said, "I've died more than fifty times tonight. The people in my dorm suspect I've gone mad. Every ten minutes or so, I wake up from the gaming pod and scream. They don't even dare come near me anymore."

"Looks like, aside from Sister Wu and Sister Qing Wei getting started, everyone else is still far behind." The Outlander Gunslinger glanced at One Leaf Floating Cloud in the distance. One Leaf Floating Cloud had barely raised his hand to brush a wall before dropping straight to the floor, dying with utter abandon—more than anyone else.

"I did it! I made it!"

Following that shout, everyone present turned to look at Fang Zhen, who had risen to his feet in excitement.

At that moment, blood streamed from Fang Zhen's nose and mouth like columns. His hands and feet seemed no longer to belong to him, each moving on its own. It was as if his limbs—even every cell in his body—had come alive and developed wills of their own.

Clearly, just as the book had said, he had succeeded. His control over his body had improved greatly. But he also obviously would not live much longer. This technique did not just consume one's life—it devoured it.

"It's getting late. I still have a practice match today, so I need to leave early. I won't be practicing with everyone."

Without another word, Fang Zhen spat a mouthful of blood three feet into the air and collapsed to the ground. His corpse then slowly vanished from everyone's sight. The whole process was indescribably smooth, without a single unnecessary movement.

The others nodded as well and continued visualizing the Stellar Explosion.