"Howl-"
A moment later, a wave of strange cries erupted.
The wave of cries spread in every direction, echoing through the open mountain range.
Soon, a large troop of Copper Coin Monkeys emerged from the mine, shovels in hand, and charged into the forest in search of Su Wen.
Su Wen was hiding in the bushes, also holding a shovel.
He had taken it from a dead Copper Coin Monkey. After a quick comparison, he had found it to be the best of the lot and picked it up.
He might have been an ordinary person just a day ago, but who didn't know how to swing a shovel?
If he really ended up surrounded by Copper Coin Monkeys, facing them with a shovel was bound to be different from facing them barehanded.
"Converted four Heavenly Mandate Copper Coins. Wealth Source Points +0.04."
"Converted three Heavenly Mandate Copper Coins. Wealth Source Points +0.03."
"Converted six Heavenly Mandate Copper Coins. Wealth Source Points +0.06."
"..."
Su Wen hid in the shadows, repeatedly shooting nearby Copper Coin Monkeys dead with stones.
But because throwing the stones required large movements, his stealth attacks were always noticed by the slightly smarter Copper Coin Monkeys.
Once spotted, he would leap out with his shovel and swing it until he had killed them all.
After comparing the fights, he found that these Copper Coin Monkeys couldn't get anywhere near him.
If one came, he swung it dead!
If two came, he swung them both dead!
During the fighting, he was also surprised to discover that alternating between the fifth and sixth breathing methods of the Body Refining Art every thirteen seconds helped restore his stamina.
Though the recovery was nowhere near enough to make up for what he spent, it was still a little surprise.
So he decisively changed his fighting style and began openly swinging his shovel to kill the Copper Coin Monkeys.
After all, picking them off from behind with stones was far less efficient than attacking head-on.
As for the shovel's quality?
Every Copper Coin Monkey had a shovel. If he really broke his, couldn't he just grab another one from nearby?
"These Copper Coin Monkeys..."
After swinging his shovel until he had killed the entire squad of Copper Coin Monkeys surrounding him, Su Wen frowned slightly.
He noticed that the copper coin patterns covering their faces were giving off a faint blood-red glow.
At first, he thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. But after stopping to think it over, it seemed that the more Copper Coin Monkeys he killed, the faster and stronger the ones that came after him became.
"Experience: 6.5%."
"Wealth Source Points: 0.65."
Su Wen glanced at his status panel, then abandoned the idea of continuing to earn Wealth Source Points.
That was enough!
Besides, he wanted to see whether the buff on the Copper Coin Monkeys would disappear once he left the fight.
Most importantly, he had already killed sixty-five Copper Coin Monkeys since coming to this training realm.
He was a little tired.
Perhaps he could kill a few more, but he still had to be careful not to stumble.
It would be awkward if he really did stumble.
"Technique: Body Refining Art (+)."
[Proficient stage: The technique's effect is roughly equivalent to practicing the eighteen body-strengthening exercises for three years.]
Sitting beside a stream, Su Wen looked at the plus sign after the Body Refining Art and breathed a sigh of relief.
He could finally add points!
The Body Refining Art at the proficient stage should be enough, as long as he was careful in the training realm.
But after learning that one Copper Coin Monkey was worth one hundred thousand, he had already changed his mind.
The Star God meant for him to leave as soon as he advanced in rank.
But he didn't see it that way. He wanted to get some proper "training" in this training realm.
He was already here. If he didn't get some proper training, how could he do the name justice?
"Technique: Body Refining Art."
[Mastered stage: The technique's effect is roughly equivalent to practicing the eighteen body-strengthening exercises for ten years.]
"Hum!"
A plume of smoke formed from qi and blood slowly rose above Su Wen's head. It was unmistakably the blood-qi beacon described in the legends of ancient texts!
"It seems I can..."
Su Wen carefully sensed the condition of his body and murmured softly.
Then he took a deep breath and, looking at the stream not far away, abruptly exhaled.
"Whoosh!"
An arrow of blood shot through the air, its powerful force blasting a large pit directly into the stream.
"Ten years of cultivating the Body Refining Art is enough to break through and gain this kind of power?"
Su Wen's eyes lit up. In future battles, Heavenly Mandate Bearers were evidently the main force wielding power.
Ordinary people might not even have a chance to go onto the battlefield.
Although ordinary people cultivated far more slowly than Heavenly Mandate Bearers, at least they now had a path of cultivation.
In future battles, the role played by those who weren't Heavenly Mandate Bearers on the battlefield might exceed everyone's expectations.
After all, Heavenly Mandate Bearers would always be fewer in number than ordinary people.
Seen this way, as long as the Body Refining Art was passed down, the first batch of new fighting forces would emerge ten years from now.
Even if this force was extremely weak, given enough time, its role would inevitably grow more and more important.
There was another possibility: his own talent might not be very good, and when someone with extraordinary talent appeared, perhaps they could condense the power of qi and blood in just a few months.
"Wealth Source Points: 0.15."
[Wealth Disrupts Space-Time (activated)]
"My strength has made a qualitative leap this time. If I go to the future again, I should be able to kill that vicious beast, right?"
"Even if I can't, escaping would be fine too."
"Hmm... if I really can't escape, I can hold out for a while and see if I can get some more techniques."
"..."
Su Wen looked at his Wealth Source Points, many thoughts welling up in his mind.
He was currently in the training realm, and raising the Body Refining Art from the proficient stage to the mastered stage had cost him 0.5 Wealth Source Points.
To raise it any further would cost at least one Wealth Source Point, perhaps even more.
Besides, his physical condition was fairly good now. What he lacked were techniques for exerting force and methods of attack.
So why not take a look at the future? What if he gained something?
It was only ten Copper Coin Monkeys anyway, right?
With that thought, Su Wen willed it and activated the Wealth Disrupts Space-Time sub-talent once more.
[As a zero-rank God of Wealth who has yet to get started, you spent most of your Wealth Source Points to disrupt space-time with the power of wealth.]
[The powerful force of wealth shook space-time, shaking loose extremely faint and fragmented wisps of space-time power that carried you ten years into the future.]
[But this time, your surroundings were completely different from what you saw and felt on your last visit, filling your heart with questions.]
[You looked around and spotted several characters on a damaged sheet of metal not far away.]
[Of those characters, you could only make out four: Jiang City Battlefield.]
[The roars and sounds of explosions and fighting coming from every direction also made you realize that Jiang City in this space-time had not fallen. Instead, it was locked in a stalemate with the other races, forming a battlefield like a meat grinder.]
[O God of Wealth from the past! The Jiang City Battlefield welcomes you.]