Chapter 118: Danger in the Time of Peace
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After chatting with Tan Zhenping for a while, Fang Ping politely refused his invitation for a meal
together.
As he agreed with the Tan Hao brothers to meet up at the gate of No.1 High School in the afternoon, Fang Ping and his father left the courtyard.
...
Once Fang Ping had left, Tan Zhenping sighed. “The circle will be different in the future.”
Ever since Fang Ping mentioned that he had killed two martial artists of Peak Rank 1, Tan Zhenping realized they were not the same type of people.
For a group of casual martial artists like them, the main purpose of cultivating martial arts was to obtain privilege and status.
However, as the vice head of the ministry of education, he clearly knew that no martial artists were the same.
There was also another type of martial artist who joined the circle of martial arts not for the privilege and status. They were not casual martial artists. Tan Zhenping categorized this type of martial artist as the combat type.
The combat type martial artists and people like them would rarely get into the same circle...
In essence, the combat type martial artists looked down on casual martial artists like them, to the point of not recognizing them as martial artists.
Tan Zhenping glanced at his sons. At first, he envied Fang Ping but after it giving some thought, he suddenly felt that he would be content if his sons became like himself.
Fang Ping had made light of his situation but to think that he already went through a life and death situation just after entering university. Tan Zhenping did not want his sons to get killed suddenly one day.
He was about to ask his sons to learn more from Fang Ping but now he decided against it.
...
That afternoon, Fang Ping met with a few people including Wu Zhihao, Yang Jian, and Liu Ruoqi.
Everyone had made improvements. During the college entrance exam, the one with the highest Vitality amongst them had 120cal while the one with the lowest Vitality had only 115cal.
Now, five months later after cultivating the Methods of Honing and pole-standing, their Vitality reached an average of 130cal.
Everyone was in a relatively good mood, seeing their old classmates.
As they chatted away, the topic turned to the issue of resources. Wu Zhihao was feeling helpless. “Nanjiang Martial Art University awarded 30 credits and it’s already considered a fair amount. If exchanged, I can get two Rank-1 Vitality Pills.
“However, one Rank 1 Vitality Pill is 15 credits and one Bone-honing Pill is 25 credits.
“Adding on the usual cultivation, we need at least five regular Vitality Pills for us to nurture our Vitality up to 150cal and above, and that requires another 30 credits.
“Counting this in, it’s close to 70 credits.
“The deficit is still quite large even if we receive more rewards from some exams. One year on, the maximum credit we can gather is 20 credits.
“We probably need to fork out 400,000 yuan to have any hope of gathering enough resources for a Rank-1 breakthrough. The cost of entering a martial arts university is extraordinarily high.”
For Nanjiang Martial Arts University, 20,000 yuan was needed to exchange for one credit point.
Wu Zhihao and others like him needed to invest at least four or five hundred thousand in cash to breakthrough as martial artists.
That was also the main reason why many students of martial arts universities were unable to breakthrough even after a long time.
As Wu Zhihao droned on, Liu Ruoqi and a few of them also felt helpless.
Yang Jian thought for a bit and said, “Tiannan Martial Arts University recently opened a special training class for new students. I heard that if you join it, you would get some credit rewards. I’m considering joining it for a bit. Does Nanjiang Martial Arts University have classes like this?”
“Special training classes?”
“You guys have it too?” Wu Zhihao asked with surprise. “We have it here too, although recruitment is quite strict. You need Vitality of at least about 140cal.
“Not to mention, there are also requirements for pole-standing. It’s necessary to be able to enter a stable position.”
A few people were chatting about this and Fang Ping was slightly astonished and raised a question.
“Special training classes? What’s the point when we’ve already entered a martial arts university?
The teaching methods were different in martial arts universities: usually one instructor was in charge of guiding a few students. Was it even necessary to hold special training classes?
“I don’t know. I’m some distance away from the special training class so I have not asked about it.”
While Wu Zhihao simply answered, Yang Jian said, “I heard that the special training class trains a group of top students on actual combat.”
“Is that so?”
Fang Ping lightly nodded and did not pursue the subject. It was not too big a deal for martial arts universities to gather elites and give priority to cultivating freshmen with practical abilities.
Everyone was chatting noisily. In general, the normal atmosphere in martial arts universities was better than schools like MCMAU.
It was not too tense. Everyone had their own goals.
In ordinary martial arts universities, most people thought that if they desired to become a martial artist, reaching Rank-2 would be the best. If that was not attainable, Rank-1 was also fine.
University had only just begun so they still had a lot of time to prepare.
In normal martial universities nowadays, there was not a great pressure because there were no martial artists amongst the new students.
On the other hand, in MCMAU, the pressure of new students was immense as many were already martial artists.
In every school, however, there were always top students.
Tiannan Martial Arts University and Nanjiang Martial Arts University currently had students with Vitality exceeding 150cal and were progressing toward twice-honed.
Everyone was chatting up a storm and eventually the topic of Fang Ping’s breakthrough to a martial artist was brought up.
This topic was no longer a secret and many people knew about it.
Everyone was envious but Fang Ping had already reached 149cal in Vitality five months ago. They were not surprised by his achievement.
They were all students of martial sciences. As they had dinner at night, not one of them consumed any alcohol.
Alcohol easily numbed the nerves and would cause a delay in one’s reaction. With the absence of alcohol, the crowd also scattered quickly.
...
Upon reaching home, Fang Ping did not forget his daily cultivation.
Martial arts were industrious and unconstrained. No matter what happened, big or small, cultivation could not be delayed.
After completing his cultivation that night, Fang Ping took a look at his strength and once again saw some growth.
Wealth: 610000000
Vitality: 265cal (271cal)
Spirit: 235Hz (240Hz)
Fang Ping had received four Rank-1 Vitality Pills from Liu Yongwen the day before. His wealth had increased by 800,000 yuan and his wealth had once again recovered to more than 6 million.
At this moment, Fang Ping had also made progress in his bone-honing; he had honed 27 bones in his right lower limb, which was not far from the complete honing of 31 pieces.
Apart from the improvement in his martial arts, Fang Ping also had a fair number of Vitality Pills on his hands.
He had six regular Vitality Pills, 11 of Rank-1, and one of Rank-2. Plus, a pair of grade E alloy boots and grade D-class brass knuckles.
The performance of the grade D-class brass knuckles in the arena the day before was not exceptional but then again, Fang Ping had used his unhoned fist to easily mangle the honed left arm of Chen Guolong. Overall, the weapon still served its purpose.
“I do not need to use the regular and Rank-1 Vitality Pills anymore but the Rank-2 Vitality Pill can be left to use for Rank-1 breakthrough.
“Let’s find a way to sell these six regular Vitality Pills and 11 Rank-1 ones.”
On one hand, it was to raise funds for the expansion of the express delivery distribution points. The current number of distribution points could not even cover the university city which made it difficult to receive any business.
The news of Old Ma breaking through to grandmaster had been confirmed and with that, the Raccoon would certainly speed up their pace of expansion. Fang Ping had to keep up with the rhythm too.
On the other hand, it was also to increase his wealth by making money.
The system gave 70,000 wealth value for regular Vitality Pills and 200,000 wealth value for Rank-1 ones.
These six regular Vitality Pills and 11 Rank-1 Vitality Pills would give Fang Ping a total wealth of 2.62 million. If the value exceeded 2.62 million after selling them off, the difference would be compensated by the system and that would continue to increase his wealth.
“According to the market price, these pills are worth 3.9 million. Of course, if not sold via the proper channels, its value would be reduced. Selling them off for 3.5 million seems more than fair.
“Even so, I should be able to rake in a wealth value of nearly one million.”
“Also, I still have 202 credits that haven’t been used. Can I exchange them for more pills to sell?”
His 202 credits had helped him increase his wealth with 4.04 million. As long as the selling price was more than 4.04 million when he made exchanges, the difference between the prices would continue to compensate for the wealth value.
“The selling price of regular Vitality Pills is 90,000 yuan each and the exchange value is 3 credits. That’s a wealth value difference of 30,000. 1 credit brings a 10,000 difference in price.
“One Rank-1 Pill is worth 10 credits. If I sell that, it can probably fetch about 270,000 yuan, with a wealth value difference of 70,000. 1 credit has only a wealth value difference of 7000.
“Based on the calculations, it is more cost-effective to exchange regular Vitality Pills. Not to mention, regular Vitality Pills are easier to sell compared to Rank-1 Pills...”
Rank-1 Vitality Pills were too expensive and they had fewer pursuers. Even Rank-1 martial artists rarely used them, instead it was the Rank-2 and Rank-3 martial artists who mostly used them.
“Now I am mainly using wealth to exchange for Vitality to hone my bones. There is no use in keeping the remaining credits. If they are used to exchange for Pills, not only will wealth value be increased but I would also have ample supplies on hand.
“The 800,000 in cash we got from selling the nine regular Vitality pills last time is also almost running out...”
Recently, Li Chengze added several distribution points in the university city. Benefiting from Fang Ping’s status as an official martial artist, the other express delivery companies had reluctantly acknowledged it.
Besides, their company still had not much business and was at the stage of burning money.
After a while, Fang Ping decided to go back to the university and use his credits to exchange for pills. Regular Vitality Pills!
202 credits could be exchanged for 67 pills and from that, they could make more than 670,000 in wealth value. If they were sold, they could fetch 90,000 yuan each and that was another 1.34 million more in wealth value.
A wealth growth of 2.01 million plus 6.03 million in cash!
Even when rounded down, that was 2 million in wealth and 6 million in cash.
After making up his mind, Fang Ping hesitated no longer but he was uncertain if the exchange office would allow him to exchange so many regular Vitality Pills.
Thinking no further since he would know in due time, Fang Ping went to bed peacefully.
...
The next day.
October 3rd.
Only now did Fang Ping have the time to check Fang Yuan’s cultivation progress.
However, after arriving at MCMAU, Fang Ping was hesitant about whether he should continue to teach Fang Yuan martial arts.
Martial arts universities were not as peaceful as he had imagined!
According to the rules, if his sister was an ordinary person, martial artists could not target ordinary people. This was not only the rules of martial arts universities but also the rules of society as a whole.
Fang Ping felt that he would be more likely to provoke enemies in the future.
If his younger sister was an ordinary person, the average person would not risk having to deal with his family but if his sister became a martial artist...
“Forget it, there’s no point in overthinking it. Even if she becomes a martial artist, as long as she knows her place, the dangers won’t be too much.”
Similar to the life and death challenge, no one could force it on you if you did not agree.
For other matters such as dangerous missions, it would not matter even if one refused to participate. The school would not force the matter as everyone should be doing it on their own volition.
That was because if one did not carry out the missions, there would be no resources. If there were no resources, then one’s strength could not be improved.
Fang Ping felt that he would have no problems supplying his sister resources once Fang Yuan officially became a martial artist. He would not let his sister take the risks of carrying out any sort of mission.
People like Tan Zhenping did not even know any combat techniques, yet they were able to live comfortably.
Gymnasium.
He let Fang Yuan do pole-standing for a while, then complained. “Too slow!”
It had been 3 months since Fang Yuan started pole-standing and yet she still had not even gotten into stable stance, unlike him who had quickly attained stable stance after cultivating pole-standing for a short while. His pole-standing had even gotten to the elevated stance before the school opened.
Fang Yuan felt wronged and pouted. “I still have to go to school and also have a business with my stalls...”
Fang Ping cut her off. “Can you not bring that up?”.
Then, he said as an afterthought, “Have you finished the Blood and Qi-replenishing Pills?”
“No way they’d dry up so soon, there are still 10 left.”
Fang Yuan did not consume many of the 10 plus Vitality Pills that Fang Ping had left for her previously.
She did not particularly enjoy eating them. For one thing, she would lose her appetite for a couple of days every time she ate one. It was also due to the fact that Vitality Pills were too expensive and she could not bring herself to eat them.
Fang Ping thought for a bit and said, “Take one Blood and Qi-replenishing Pill every 5 days. Don’t cut corners with the pole-standing. Continue to practice it and get into a stable stance as soon as possible.
“I will leave another 3 Vitality Pills for you after you finished the previous Blood and Qi-replenishing Pills. When your pole-standing has gotten to the stable stance, you can continue to eat this new one that I’m giving you. For the new one, you can consume it once per month and continue the routine until the end of the year.
“Your Vitality level is around 110cal now...”
“Really?”
Fang Yuan had not checked her Vitality before and was really happy when she heard that her Vitality had reached 110cal.
Fang Ping instantly shot her down, saying, “Is 110cal that high? Don’t compare yourself with normal people. In MCMAU, lots of people are already martial artists when they enter school and there are martial artists who are twice-honed!
“Their Vitality is all above 200cal!
“With your progress, it is only in 3 years that you will reach 3rd year in high school. As the progress will be more difficult the further the progress is, your Vitality might not be higher than others.
“And you still have to consume pills to replenish your Vitality...”
Fang Ping did not complete what he wanted to say. The price of 3 years worth of supply of pills was enormous.
If he wanted his sister to reach the twice-honed stage during her college entrance exam, the price spent on pills would be in the millions.
“200cal?”
Fang Yuan was shocked. That was even more powerful than Fang Ping!
She still remembered that Fang Ping was at 149cal when he had his Vitality checked last time. Previously, she had thought that that was superb already but now that she has come to think of it, it did not seem that impressive.
Fang Ping paid no attention to what she was thinking. He hesitated and then said, “Other than pole-standing, you can now actually start cultivating the Method of Honing...
...
“Forget it, we will wait till you have studied general studies of martial sciences.”
Besides, regarding the teaching of the Methods of Honing, it was better to have someone guiding at the side as it involved the stripping of clothes.
Even though Fang Yuan was still young, the things that should be avoided still need to be avoided. Fang Ping planned to ask Liu Ruoqi to help guide his sister the next time he saw Liu Ruoqi when he returned again.
Since Fang Yuan did not have a full understanding of things like meridians, it may not be a good idea for her to cultivate so soon.
Sensing Fang Yuan’s excitement, Fang Ping shook his head and said to himself, ‘Let’s not teach her combat techniques. This girl, it would not be bad for her to just be a casual martial artist.’
Casual martial artists had social status, though they would have to rely on themselves for resources. Still, it was safer and granted more freedom.
Besides, with an active personality like Fang Yuan’s, Fang Ping was worried that she would cause trouble if she learned combat techniques.
‘If Fang Yuan became a casual martial artist, she will have a decent social standing with many risks. Even if I get myself into trouble one day, there will still be protection for the family...’
Fang Ping laughed at himself for a while. It felt like he was jinxing himself. However, it was appropriate to think of a plan B when everything was safe.
The deeper he dove into the martial arts circle, the more Fang Ping felt that the martial arts circle was more dangerous than he ever imagined.