Compatibility

Friendship had been relatively pure in their student days.

That was especially true for former favored sons of heaven like them, who had taken part in the Immortal Ladder Project. Talk about talent all you wanted, but family background? Vulgar!

At least, that was how it had been in their dorm room.

Of course, it might also have been because they were all broke as hell and didn't have much family background to speak of.

In any case, Hu Mang had been friends with these people for nearly ten years. He only knew roughly what they were doing now; he really couldn't claim to know much about their actual financial circumstances.

Old Third and Fourth Brother are out first. Old Third has already donned the yellow robe; his luck is too great, so I can't borrow from him. As for Fourth Brother, he took over someone's cave abode at a premium, lost money buying an immortal workshop in an unfamiliar field, paid tuition for his children at top-tier academies, and forced his way toward the Golden Core realm several times. He's collected all four pieces of the middle-aged cultivator's bankruptcy set. I haven't even given his son and daughter their first-meeting gifts yet, let alone borrowed money from him.

As for Fifth Brother, I don't really know his family background, but judging by how determined he is not to let society beat him down, his family probably isn't short of money. Besides, he researches materials, so trading him some Spirit Stones for emergency funds might work.

As for Boss Gu, judging by how generously he used to take us out to eat, he's probably from an Aristocratic Clan. Borrowing a few hundred thousand shouldn't be a problem. Worst comes to worst, I can put up the thunder crystals as collateral.

When Hu Mang didn't answer, the other four continued loudly making a fuss as they ran the dungeon, but several more private messages came in.

Seeing them, Hu Mang hurried to reassure Old Third and Fourth Brother. He stressed that his injuries had healed long ago and that he was just recuperating at home. It was nothing serious.

But soon, two dings sounded as two transfers came in.

"You have received one Spirit Coin red envelope containing 25,000 Spirit Coins. Please claim it."

"You have received one Spirit Coin red envelope containing 10,000 Spirit Coins. Please claim it."

"Second Brother, don't be polite. We're all family here. I'll get you some nourishing treasures from the underworld later to help you recover." - Old Third

Nourishment from the underworld? Shouldn't it be from the world of the living?

"Brother, this is all the spending money I've got. It's just a little something, so don't turn it down for being too little." - Fourth Brother

Hu Mang wasn't in a hurry to reply to the one who had "donned the yellow robe." He contacted Fourth Brother first.

"I heard you lost quite a bit investing in spirit stocks, and you still have those two precious pearls of yours to raise. Take care of the little ones first. Don't worry about an old guy like me." - Hu Mang

"Are you looking down on me, brother? I've already put that cave abode up for sale. As for the stock market, ahem, that's all just a technical correction. Cut the crap. If we're brothers, take it. If I were really in trouble, wouldn't I ask you for a loan?"

"You sold your place? Where are you living now?"

"At my mother-in-law's."

"Married into her family?"

"Married into her family, my ass. I'm just staying there for a bit. I'm already getting ready to buy a new place. I've got money; I can spare you this much."

"Then where did your money come from? Wasn't it all tied up in the stock market and the property market?" Hu Mang replied, puzzled.

"Ahem, mostly from my mother-in-law's personal support. She's a really good person."

"All right, I'll take it, then. Thank your mother-in-law for me."

"No problem. If you really feel bad about it, I can set you up with my mother-in-law. She's been a widow for years and has always wanted to find another companion. I think you'd be a good fit. Back then, you and Boss Gu each had your own specialty: one seduced female cultivators over forty, and the other attracted young girls. I've got high hopes for you."

"..."

Why has Fourth Brother gotten hornier and hornier since he got married? Trouble in the bedroom?

Hu Mang wondered, but since the other man had gone that far, he could only accept the money.

As for Old Third, he wouldn't stand on ceremony.

"Keep at it. See if you can run enough deliveries to get your second brother an apartment."

"You got it, Second Brother. Just sit back and enjoy the good life."

Thirty-five thousand was already quite a bit.

But compared with what Hu Mang needed for his plan, it was only a fraction.

Then Hu Mang got another private call. It was Boss Gu.

Hu Mang glanced at the game channel. Sure enough, Boss Gu had temporarily turned off private messages in the game.

Hu Mang answered.

A cool voice sounded.

"How much did the others give you?" Boss Gu was as sharp as his sword.

"Old Third gave me twenty-five thousand. Fourth Brother gave me ten thousand."

"Mm, that's pretty good."

"How much more do you need?"

Hu Mang pondered for a moment. He generally didn't lie, especially to his friends.

"I really don't need money to take care of my health. It's just that I'm short quite a bit of startup capital for a renovation project I've taken on."

"How much?"

"Four or five hundred thousand."

"Give me your account number. I'll transfer it to you."

Apparently, red envelopes couldn't be sent for amounts over fifty thousand.

"..."

Hu Mang thought for a moment, then replied.

"Boss Gu, have you got the wrong idea about me?"

"No, I haven't. Of the five of us brothers, I understand you best. I know exactly what it's like to be desperate to restore your cultivation after a devastating injury. You must be feeling helpless and desolate right now, with no one to turn to. That's why you're in such a hurry to act."

Hu Mang looked at the little mountain of crystals worth twenty million in front of him and pondered again.

"Do I have to be helpless? Can't I not be helpless?"

"No. Only by being true to yourself can you be true to your spear. There was a reason you lost to me when we fought back then."

"Because I wasn't sincere enough?"

"No, because your spear skills sucked."

"..."

Hu Mang sighed.

"All right. If you insist that I'm helpless, I can be helpless for a bit."

"Mm. Send me your account number."

The problem that had been giving him a headache had been solved just like that. As expected of Boss Gu: whether in his conduct or his actions, he was as sharp as his sword.

"How about I give you some collateral? This thing might be useful to you."

To repay Boss Gu for "taking pity" on him, Hu Mang thought he could take a small risk.

"No need. My sword needs no external objects."

Boss Gu's tone was as pretentious as ever.

"...You're something else. Back when I was in Java, I heard you'd tried forming your Golden Core on your own again. Was that your third or fourth attempt? What, did it fail?"

"Mm. I kept feeling I was just a little short, so I gave up."

"You're still the fierce one, Boss Gu," Hu Mang said with feeling.

Failing to break through to the Golden Core realm and giving up of one's own accord were two entirely different things.

The former was a straightforward failure. The latter meant one could have succeeded but had chosen to give up.

The reason he had given up was simple: Boss Gu wanted to attain a National Standard Golden Core through his own efforts.

With his abilities, he could in fact have attained a High-Standard Golden Core long ago. But Boss Gu wanted to attain one of the very highest grade, so every time, he had pulled back on the verge of success.

Attaining a Golden Core was hard enough, but pulling back was even harder. To retreat to the peak of Foundation Establishment without suffering any injury was a feat that could only be called supernaturally skillful, a veritable miracle.

Only someone like the man before him, whose swordsmanship transcended the mundane, could pull off such an "injury-free rollback."

"Boss Gu, how high is your flying sword Compatibility now?"

"Eighty-two percent with an ordinary flying sword. With Listening to the Tide, I can reach ninety."

"Damn, that's impressive!"

Hu Mang spoke from the heart.

When it came to flying sword realms, the Heavenly Gate had abandoned the old "sword Dao realms" and forged a new path.

The group that had reformed Law Techniques and Divine Abilities back then had reportedly considered the ancient methods unreliable. In particular, the realms of the ancient methods had been almost entirely lost, and those that had survived weren't much good either. Thus, they had conceived the idea of developing new methods.

They had learned from the flaws of the ancient methods, in which every realm required its own dedicated training and the realms were often almost entirely unrelated. They had reworked the entire "realm system," replacing the realms of the ancient methods with "Compatibility."

This wasn't a matter of simply changing a term. It involved sweeping changes to every cultivation method, Divine Ability method, and even the development of Law Treasures.

Calling it major surgery on an entire cultivation system would not have been an exaggeration.

The benefit was that once the required Compatibility was reached, comprehending the corresponding "swordsmanship realms" and "Divine Ability realms" might be only one-tenth as difficult as it had been for those who cultivated Divine Abilities before, or even less.

The key, however, was that while the difficulty of various Divine Abilities and Law Techniques had decreased, raising the corresponding Compatibility grew harder and harder the higher it went, to an almost absurd degree. Anything above ninety percent was downright heaven-defying.

Hu Mang had been tested once before heading out to sea. Even for a combat genius like him, with his family background, the highest score he had ever achieved in his best skill, spear arts, was only seventy-one percent.

The other man could achieve eighty-two percent Compatibility with an ordinary flying sword, or rather, even with a shared flying sword. Hu Mang was prostrate with admiration.

Eighty-two percent meant that he had mastered at least four or five minor sword Dao realms.

If he used his ancient sword, Listening to the Tide, it meant he had definitely mastered a major sword Dao Divine Ability.

Something like the Saber Domain Hu Mang had just witnessed.

"Second Brother, I remember you telling me that you made considerable progress in combat by fighting life-and-death matches overseas. Tell me, if I went, could I take my sword Dao a step further?" Gu Yunshu asked on a sudden whim.

Somehow, the two of them had gotten onto this subject.

"Boss Gu, don't kid around. With your swordsmanship, only Golden Core cultivators could put pressure on you. In the overseas underground world, a Golden Core cultivator is at least a local boss or a gang leader, if not a leader of the overseas natives. If you killed even one of them, as soon as the other powers tracked you down, they'd join forces to take you out, even if you were from the Heavenly Gate."

"When that happens, I'm afraid it won't be one Golden Core cultivator hunting you down, but more than a dozen."

"So what?" the cool voice on the other end replied.

Hu Mang chuckled.

"The problem is, you have the ability to kill Golden Core cultivators. If they have any brains, they definitely won't act separately, and they certainly won't send only Golden Core cultivators to surround and kill you. They'll throw everything at you: the Thunderclap Cannons, City-Breaking Guns, and Repeating Divine Arrow Towers the old Heavenly Gate left overseas, and even the sacrificial methods the demonic path left behind back then."

"If you want a seat at the table, no problem. But if you want to flip the table, everyone will come after you."

"And there's one other crucial point: safe areas with high-grade Spiritual Qi are scarce overseas. Even if you broke through in the middle of a fight, where would you form your Golden Core?"

Gu Yunshu nodded silently.

He wasn't someone who refused to listen to advice. When it came to navigating the jianghu, he really couldn't compare with Hu Mang.

"Then forget it."

Meanwhile, Hu Mang was considering getting his Compatibility tested again when he had time. His Compatibility with the Immortal Weapon Shattering Thunder should be above eighty percent by now, shouldn't it?