Looking Ahead to the Extraordinary

[Archer]

[Class change requirements: essence 1.5, spirit 1.5, archery at proficient level, 2 Class Change Stones]

A quick search told him that reaching that level of proficiency would take a very long time.

It usually took around six months to a year, and a strong body was especially important for sustained shooting and efficient learning of archery.

With the [Student] class boosting his learning efficiency, Wang An estimated he could cut that time to around 30 days.

If he could take the [Martial Artist] class and improve his physical condition, perception, and flexibility, he expected to bring it down to around 20 days.

Besides bows and arrows, I could also see if I can make a crossbow and bolts by hand.

A top-tier hunting crossbow, at its theoretical limit, has an effective lethal range of over 100 meters. It's immensely powerful and easy to use.

I can keep it as a trump card. Without access to firearms, it's already the most powerful ranged weapon available.

Wang An thought to himself.

Besides means of attack, gathering information is also very important.

According to yesterday's phone records, 16 Class Change Stones had clearly recorded landing sites.

So far, I've found 3. Even if all of them are found, it's unlikely they've all been used.

After all, there were no requirements at all the first time someone touched a Class Change Stone. They would directly take the [Intelligent Life-Form] class.

So could other life-forms take classes too?

Wang An wasn't being alarmist. He simply had a clear-eyed understanding of the human race.

The universe was so vast, and humans had already detected dozens of potentially habitable candidate planets. Life wasn't all that rare.

Since humans could take the [Intelligent Life-Form] class, other life-forms might be able to take some other class.

So, in the foreseeable future, the rise of other life-forms could be anticipated.

Classes like [Qi Refiner], which could increase all three attributes, consumed more Class Change Stones. To obtain stones from elsewhere, information about their landing sites was a necessity.

I can offer rewards online for precise landing-site information under the guise of a meteorite hunter. All I need to do is plan a route.

At present, even if some people realized that ordinary meteorites had collectible value,

there were simply too many meteorites this time. Scarcity made things valuable; once there were too many, they were no longer worth much.

So Wang An believed he should be able to gather quite a few.

All these preparations were ultimately meant to pave the way for more classes with greater bonuses and a more comprehensive range of functions.

As things stand, I have a fairly good chance of taking the [Qi Refiner] class.

As for the other classes...

[Taoist Priest]

[Class change requirements: all three attributes above 1, complete a valid talisman-register or precept-transmission ceremony, uphold the precepts for at least 3 years, 3 Class Change Stones]

[Monk]

[Class change requirements: all three attributes above 1, attend a valid precept-transmission ceremony and obtain a precept certificate, uphold the precepts for at least 3 years, 3 Class Change Stones]

These religious classes placed fairly high demands on the individual and took a long time.

Basically, only people already in those vocations could take the corresponding class with relative ease.

The [Qi Refiner] class required only proficient mastery of three cultivation methods for essence, qi, and spirit.

That was relatively simple for Wang An.

These cultivation methods were everywhere online now, but it was fairly difficult to tell the genuine from the fake. If he ended up practicing a fake, it could be very dangerous.

So Wang An gave up outright on those other methods that looked so grand and impressive.

He started directly with Health Qigong Baduanjin, promoted by the Health Qigong Administrative Center of the General Administration of Sport of China. Its detailed instructional videos were enough for a beginner.

For spirit cultivation, he simply practiced mindfulness meditation, seeking natural comfort rather than speed, while Tai Chi Chuan would do for his essence attribute.

Wang An didn't dare act rashly in fields he knew nothing about.

As he noted down the qigong and spirit cultivation methods, he began reading some theoretical books from cover to cover.

He went from introductory books like Basic Theory of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Outline of Taoist Health Preservation to The Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic: Basic Questions, along with an annotated edition.

He also read a fairly basic annotated edition of the Yellow Court Classic from cover to cover to help him understand it.

Even though there were things he couldn't understand, he now had a fairly clear understanding of Taoist cultivation.

[Health Qigong Baduanjin (not yet initiated)]

[Mindfulness Meditation (not yet initiated)]

Although he hadn't begun practicing yet, he had gained some understanding of the theory.

Taoist cultivation took "the Dao follows nature, and nature and life are cultivated together" as its foundation, pursuing the transcendence of one's level of existence through systematic cultivation.

Its ultimate goal was to reach a state where body and spirit were both wondrous, united with the Dao in truth.

Its central aim was the ideal state of profound harmony between body and mind, penetrating wisdom, and autonomy over one's life.

Though there was no mention of magical power or divine abilities, merely attaining profound harmony between body and mind was already extraordinary.

It brought enormous benefits to the strengthening of essence, qi, and spirit, as well as the improvement of concentration.

Not to mention how much a state like that, combined with the [Student] class skill, would improve his ability to absorb knowledge and his learning efficiency.

And if he kept breaking through the limits of the human body with the support of various classes, who could say that wasn't extraordinary, even without extraordinary powers?

Just like that, time passed bit by bit.

As the New Year approached, Wang An's Avatar finally finished searching for and collecting the meteorites deep in the mountains.

Including the three from the first day, he had collected 16 Class Change Stones in total.

Two of them had already been used. Wang An didn't know whether it had been humans or other animals, but his conjecture was gradually being confirmed.

On the morning of New Year's Eve, Wang An's family was putting up Spring Festival couplets.

A few village thugs walked over.

Spraying obscenities and acting extremely arrogantly, they said, "Wang An, didn't a meteorite hit your house on Little New Year? Where is it?"

Wang An's heart skipped a beat when he heard them. Here comes trouble.

He had long known he couldn't keep the meteorite everyone knew about.

After all, the noise at the time had been fairly loud, and someone might have seen or heard it. He hadn't expected them to come so soon.

The man in the lead came closer with a cigarette dangling from his mouth and said quietly, "Our boss is buying it for a high price."

At that time, almost everyone was putting up Spring Festival couplets, and relatives and neighbors were right nearby.

Wang An's father, Wang Rushan, was also beside them, cutting tape, so they held themselves in check and made no aggressive moves.

Even so, Wang An figured that if he didn't part with the meteorite that had been exposed, there would certainly be no end of trouble in the future.

A few of these men had used drugs, after all, and Wang An had always judged people like that with the worst possible assumptions.

At that moment, Wang An's father sensed something was wrong with the atmosphere. He tightened his grip on the scissors and held them behind his back.

He spoke up loudly. "You there, what do you want with Xiao An?"

The nearby relatives and neighbors heard him and came closer, pointing and commenting on the men.

His second uncle, Wang Ruhai, hurried over with a pair of kitchen fire tongs.

Only when Wang An saw that things were about right did he speak. "I can sell you what you want, but I want to discuss the price with your boss."

The men were somewhat at a loss after hearing that.

Seeing so many people present, they knew they couldn't take advantage of the situation, so they sent one of their underlings running off. He brought back an expensive phone, and they gestured for Wang An to take the call.

Wang An took the phone and called one of the men, his father, and his second uncle into the house.

The crowd gradually dispersed.

Half an hour later, only after another bank transfer record for 100,000 yuan came through did the men wrap up the meteorite and take it away.

Watching them go, his second uncle remarked, "I didn't expect that thing to be worth so much."

Wang An explained, "Maybe it's worth that much because it's fairly big."

"Didn't a few meteorites land in the mountains too? You could try your luck, Second Uncle."

His second uncle chuckled. "How could a lucky break like that ever fall to us?"

"Believe it or not, news of this morning's sale has only just gotten out, and people will be heading into the mountains this afternoon."

Wang An nodded and thought, I'd guess their boss was already putting together a team to go into the mountains before he came here.

Although there was no primeval forest in their area, those meteorite landing sites were several kilometers from the village.

Hunting wild boar had previously been prohibited, causing their population to recover very quickly over the past few years, and they had already begun ravaging crops.

The chances of running into one in the mountains now were far from low.

Wang An's Avatar had encountered large wild boars weighing 200 to 250 kilograms foraging on several occasions.

His father, Wang Rushan, showed no change in expression, as if he had known all along that this would happen. He said little, only asking Second Uncle to stay for lunch.

Just like that, more and more people went into the mountains over the next few days.

Then, on the second day of the first lunar month, a group of young people home for the New Year ran into a large wild boar in the mountains, and a large hole was gored in a belly.

Only then did officials come and put a stop to it. The boss who had been buying meteorites at a high price was summoned for a talk, and the enthusiasm gradually died down.

A few days later, Wang An's panel also showed a small change.