Premium: Heavenly Dipper Void-Treading Technique!

Linhai First High School, third floor of the Book Repository.

Various martial skills obtained by Linhai First High School since its founding were stored here. Students could pay the corresponding amount of Hanxia Coins to study and borrow them.

Not only were the prices far cheaper than outside, but the variety and grades were also quite extensive.

It could be considered one of Linhai First High School's important buildings.

The first and second floors mostly contained First-Tier Martial Skills, with Second-Tier Martial Skills accounting for only a small portion.

Ye Li's [Flowing Water Fist Technique] and [Cloud-Breaking Spear Technique] had been learned here.

The third floor, meanwhile, contained Second-Tier and higher martial skills, but was only open to teachers and specially cultivated students.

After swiping his waist badge, Ye Li walked straight up to the third floor amid countless curious and envious gazes.

Liu Yangde's hostility did not weigh too heavily on his mind.

After all, they were separated by a phone call, making many things inconvenient to do.

The question was: what should he do when he ran out of Malice Points?

The answer: beat the enemy senseless until they spat out the corresponding Malice Points.

So, if Liu Yangde had been sitting across from him, Ye Li was confident he could resolve the conflict between them.

Casting aside his jumbled thoughts.

Ye Li stood before the enormous electronic display and began browsing the various martial skills catalogued here—

"Second-Tier Martial Skill, Mountain-Collapsing Fist, 100,000 Hanxia Coins."

"Second-Tier Martial Skill, Serpent Form Movement Technique, 120,000 Hanxia Coins."

"D-Grade Breathing Technique, Scorching Flame Breath, 200,000 Hanxia Coins."

"..."

Ye Li's general plan was to choose a suitable movement technique and a relatively high-tier offensive martial skill.

However, perhaps the system had invisibly raised his standards.

Among the dazzling array of options, he could not find a single suitable martial skill.

The reason was simple—

It was not that they were trash; he simply felt that spending Malice Points on martial skills of this level would be somewhat wasteful.

Although low-tier martial arts were not officially divided into superior and inferior ranks, one could still discern their strengths and weaknesses from their descriptions.

By Ye Li's judgment, most of the Second-Tier Martial Skills collected here were mediocre works.

Their only advantage was that there were plenty of them.

"I can only pick a few at random for now and use them as a stopgap." Ye Li rubbed his temple with a headache.

As for a Breathing Technique, that also had to be put on the agenda.

This was a method one could only master after stepping into the Second-Tier.

Though it was called a Breathing Technique, it could also be called a Second-Tier Cultivation Method.

Like Martial Arts Talent, its grades were divided from highest to lowest into S, A, B, C, D, and E.

Ye Li looked through the Breathing Techniques collected by Linhai First High School. The highest was only C-Grade, yet it was priced at 300,000 Hanxia Coins.

And Ye Li had only a little over 100,000 Hanxia Coins on him, even if he counted every last bit.

He was truly stretched thin.

Sigh, Martial Arts High Schools only needed to put the martial skills here, while Martial Science Students like them had so much more to worry about.

"Picking out martial skills?"

As his thoughts churned, a crisp female voice sounded by Ye Li's ear.

He turned and saw an artsy-looking girl in round-framed glasses standing not far away with a book in her arms, tilting her head at him.

"You are?" Ye Li raised a brow.

"Yu Qianqian." The artsy girl smiled.

Then, as if noticing the confusion in Ye Li's eyes, Yu Qianqian hurriedly added:

"I'm on the School Team too. I watched your match yesterday. You're Ye Li, with the strength of First-Tier Level Five, right?"

"I see." Ye Li nodded politely and said:

"I'm picking martial skills. Do you need something?"

"It feels like you aren't very satisfied with the martial skills here?" Yu Qianqian stepped forward and stood beside him, looking at the electronic display with a faint smile. "You've been frowning the whole time."

"The quality is too poor." Ye Li calmly stated his opinion.

"Well, of course." Yu Qianqian laughed. "The premium martial skills are used by the school as rewards of all kinds. Why would they put them out here for sale in the open?"

"Fine, I was being an idiot." Ye Li waved a hand casually, turned, and prepared to leave.

"Wait a moment."

Yu Qianqian called after him. After pondering for two seconds, she asked, "There may not be any complete premium martial skills here, but there are still some incomplete copies. Are you interested?"

"Yes." Ye Li stopped.

"Then wait a moment. I'll look it up for you."

"Thanks."

Very soon, Yu Qianqian pulled up a name on the screen:

"Second-Tier Martial Skill (Premium), Heavenly Dipper Void-Treading Technique (Incomplete Volume), 100,000 Hanxia Coins."

"What do you think? Want to buy it and take a look?" Yu Qianqian asked tentatively.

But the instant the words left her mouth, she regretted them.

Because 100,000 Hanxia Coins was no small sum. Yu Qianqian worried Ye Li would think she was trying to rip him off.

Turning a good intention into a bad result—Yu Qianqian often made this sort of mistake.

Yet even so, she could not change her bad habit of meddling in other people's affairs.

"Sure."

To Yu Qianqian's surprise, Ye Li merely thanked her again, then swiftly paid and completed the order.

Next, all he had to do was collect the copied volume from the front desk.

"I'll get it for you."

Rarely having her emotional needs satisfied, Yu Qianqian volunteered and ran toward the front desk.

But Ye Li suspected she merely wanted to steal his book, so he followed behind her.

"Your family must be doing pretty well. You bought a 100,000-Hanxia-Coin martial skill without a second thought." Yu Qianqian joked.

Ye Li glanced at her and said flatly, "My parents are both dead. This 100,000 is the last of my savings."

[Successfully caused intense guilt to surge in Yu Qianqian's heart. Malice Points +200]

"If it turns out to be completely unusable later, I'll have to live on grass from now on."

Hearing the system prompt, Ye Li's eyes lit up, and he added.

[Detected an increase in Yu Qianqian's guilt. Malice Points +100]

"..."

Hearing that, Yu Qianqian took a deep breath and forced a smile. "Don't worry. It'll be useful. When it comes to understanding martial skills, I'm the strongest in our grade."

Ye Li nodded lightly.

The two quickly retrieved the relevant book.

Ye Li flipped through it casually and discovered that huge portions of the text were missing.

It was not the kind of incomplete volume that only lacked the latter half or the first half.

Rather, there were massive gaps throughout the text—one sentence missing here, an entire page of explanation absent there.

No matter how he looked at it, it was utterly impossible to learn from.

In short, 100,000 had been thrown into the water without even a splash.

"I'm sorry!" Yu Qianqian wished she could crawl into a crack in the ground.

She screamed inwardly.

Why was it like this again? Why did my good intentions turn into a bad result again?! This is over. Given Ye Li's situation, I'm practically guilty beyond redemption!

Ye Li did not deal with her for the moment. He merely flipped through the incomplete volume with a calm expression.

Meanwhile, upon the pale-blue panel visible only to him.

Words slowly emerged.

[Heavenly Dipper Void-Treading Technique (Not Yet Initiated)]

[Points Can Be Added]

[Current Malice Points: 3000]

Hmm, he had finally found a bargain.