Chapter 147: Peak Rank-1
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
As the days went by, the National Championship grew more and more popular!
“The nation’s first open martial arts championship!”
“The first among tens of millions of new students!”
“The fight between MCMAU and CCMAU!”
“...”
All kinds of controversial topics were being released continuously.
The fight between MCMAU and CCMAU had been going on for many years. Even though CCMAU was widely known to rank first, people from the South were reluctant to acknowledge that. They thought that MCMAU was no worse than CCMAU.
This was also the first time both schools participated in an open championship.
In mid-December, the Ministry of Education released an announcement to the public!
The National Championship was officially opened to the public!
At the same time, the location was also officially set to be at MCMAU’s gym!
The location was in MCMAU, no other place was more suitable than this!
This was also a trial from the Ministry of Education to let ordinary people understand martial arts universities at a deeper level to stimulate their yearning for it.
MCMAU had an extremely spacious gym. However, they were only selling 5000 tickets to the public this time.
Only 5000 tickets. As the first open martial arts championship in the nation, it was too few!
Before the tickets had even started selling, everywhere online and in the real world, many people had already started waving their cash around, willing to pay a high price for the tickets!
...
MCMAU.
Once again, Fang Ping received a call from Fang Yuan.
The little brat’s excitement had reached the extreme. She spoke excitedly, “Fang Ping, you are in MCMAU, can you buy the tickets in advance?”
“What are you trying to do?” Fang Ping had a sense of foreboding.
“This is the opportunity to earn a buck! The official price is only 999 per ticket. Many people are planning to get them. Some are even willing to pay as much as two to three thousand!
“If you can buy them in advance, we should buy all 5000 tickets...”
Fang Ping was speechless. This little brat must be dreaming!
Was she thinking of becoming the largest scalper there was?
She had also overestimated her brother!
5000 tickets too. Even 5 tickets were difficult to purchase!
Fang Ping replied helplessly, “Can’t do. Stop thinking about getting rich doing this. I’ll ask around. We may have free tickets.”
Participants like them would surely receive free tickets, though not many.
The championship this time was regarded as an extremely important event.
People from the Ministry of Education were coming. People from all kinds of martial arts universities were coming. There were even students from all kinds of martial arts universities coming to watch the match. They were all categorized under the internal ticket.
MCMAU could easily fit ten thousand people.
However, selling 5000 tickets to the public meant that each university could only distribute 50 tickets before reaching the limit.
Fang Ping and the rest of the participants would be lucky if they could lay their hands on three tickets.
Upon hearing that there were free tickets, Fang Yuan was suddenly elated, “How many free tickets?”
“I don’t know. Maybe two to three.”
“So few?”
“How many more do you want?”
Fang Ping snapped, “Don’t even think about it. What are you thinking about?
“If you want to come, then you should do well during your exam. It will be your final exam soon. Where did you get all this energy to think of other things!
“Don’t even think about going anywhere if you do not perform well in your exam!”
After chiding his sister, Fang Ping ignored her long-winded chatter, reminded her to eat well before hanging up her call hurriedly.
...
After hanging up, Fang Ping exhaled and said, “The honing of lower limbs has finally completed!”
In the past half a month, Fang Ping was distracted in cultivating combat techniques, therefore his progress was slow.
The honing of the final 3 bones had used up half a month of Fang Ping’s time.
This had something to do with Fang Ping upgrading the system last time. He did not hone his meridians and physical body then. Fang Ping had noticed the disadvantages that came with it.
He noticed that with the lack of nourishment towards his meridians and physical body, his combat technique outbursts were slightly flawed and pressured. It did not meet his expectations.
In the past half a month, Fang Ping did not rush the bone-honing process as well. Alternatively, as he was cultivating the combat techniques, he used the Body-strengthening Elixir he purchased to hone his body.
“Not many bones were honed the past half a month. Even the spending was not small.”
At the start of the month, Fang Ping’s Wealth was nearly 13 million. After that, he claimed another 80 credits, and his Wealth amounted to almost 15 million.
However, the cultivation of middle-ranked combat techniques consumed an enormous amount of Vitality!
When he hacked at full force, it was not Vitality that was spent but Wealth!
At this time, Fang Ping had had total control of his energy. When hacking at full force, he could achieve Vitality outbursts of up to 35cal!
To recover would cost 35 thousand Wealth!
Of course, he did not need to perform full outbursts every time he cultivated. Even so, Fang Ping’s daily spending had reached 200 thousand Wealth!
At this time and moment, Fang Ping had truly understood what it meant to spend money like water.
In half a month, including bone-honing, cultivation of honing techniques and body-honing...
After thinking about it, Fang Ping could not stop himself from catching a glimpse of his current statistics:
Wealth: 11000000
Vitality: 299cal (319cal)
Mentality: 259Hz (279Hz)
Bones honed: 62 bones (90%), 144 bones (30%)
“From the start of the month until now, I have spent an estimated total of 3.5 million Wealth!”
“I even spent about 1 million to purchase Body-strengthening Elixir!”
This was also why Fang Ping could increase his Vitality upper limit by 7cal when he was honing the final three bones. Following the increased strength of his body, his Vitality upper limit had also increased.
In the training room, Fang Ping murmured, “If this is all converted into money, it will be about 4.5 million now.
“I am only at Rank-1!”
From the beginning of his cultivation until achieving peak Rank-1 now, the whole process had cost Fang Ping almost 20 million Wealth!
If these were all converted into money, it would be 20 million!
Normal martial artists did not need to spend this much from the start of their cultivation to peak Rank-1. After achieving Rank-1, 2 million was sufficient if they did not focus too much on the speed and take it slow every time they hone their bones.
5 million was also more than enough with even enough to spare if they did not focus on the speed and take it slow from Rank-1 to peak Rank-1!
Fang Ping’s spending was four times or more compared to them!
Undoubtedly, the effect was evident as well.
From knowing nothing about martial arts up until now, in 8 months, he had thrice-honed at peak Rank-1, cultivated two middle-ranked combat techniques, and raised Vitality to the point that it was almost 320cal. These were his payback.
...
Beverage store at the dormitory area.
Fang Ping ordered a cup of black tea, sat down and smiled. “How’s your progress?”
Zhao Xuemei sighed. Her tone sounded helpless. “Since I did not twice-hone, my progress was not too fast. 53 bones honed currently. 9 bones left to go.
“Furthermore... my spending had gone through the roof!”
For Zhao Xuemei to say that her spending had gone through the roof, it meant that she had truly spent a lot of money.
Within half a month, she had used 7 Rank-2 Vitality Pills, 3 Rank-1 Bone-honing Pills, and millions worth of Body-strengthening Elixir. Altogether she had spent 7 million now!
Zhao Xuemei’s family was not considered poor. Her parents were Rank-4 martial artists, hence they possessed a considerable amount of fortune.
However, it was hard for Zhao Xuemei to watch all her money being spent.
After hearing what Zhao Xuemei had said, Fang Ping felt comforted instead. “I am much happier now.”
Others had spent more than him, but their progress was not even comparable to him, he was relieved by this!
Zhao Xuemei shot him a glance and snapped, “Is there anyone else who gloats like you? Thankfully, instructor had mentioned that she would supply the pills to me for half the price, or else I would have wavered...”
“What?”
Fang Ping’s face was full of indignance when he said, “Instructor did not tell me that. Who do you think you are!”
Lu Fengrou was too biased!
Supplying it for half the price. This was not just a small amount of subsidy.
“Cheh, the instructor said that you have too many pills to the point that you cannot finish them. You can even sell them to others in bulk, how can she give you subsidiaries for it...”
“Since when, wouldn’t I be broke then?”
“Who would believe you!”
Zhao Xuemei sneered. She then carried on and said, “Only before I achieve peak Rank-1. Do you think the instructor owns a pill company business.”
Before peak Rank-1, Lu Fengrou will sponsor them some of it, after this, they will have to depend on themselves.
Fang Ping felt slightly helpless. He exchanged too many pills. This was no secret to Lu Fengrou and the rest. He had been selling huge amounts of pills to others, of course, Lu Fengrou did not want to subsidize him.
Trying not to get too caught up with this, Fang Ping asked, “You have been honing your bones the past half a month, did you not learn combat techniques?”
“I have learned a set of low-ranked staff techniques, plus the Puncture Kick last time, that would suffice.”
Learning two low-ranked combat techniques at Rank-1 was more than enough. Besides, Zhao Xuemei did not have so much energy to learn other combat techniques as well.
“How much Vitality outburst can you achieve?”
“It’s a secret!”
Zhao Xuemei glared at him. How could you have the nerves to ask?
“Am I not trying to see if you can participate in the championship? You fail to recognize a kind-hearted person!”
As they were chatting, Fu Changding and a few others walked in. Once they had entered, Fu Changding gave a hearty laugh and said, “I told you that Fang Ping is here on a date, you didn’t believe me!”
Fang Ping threw him a glance. He spoke with a faint smile, “It seems like you have progressed a lot the past half a month. You have swelled up a lot!”
Fu Changding did not keep things vague as well. He beamed and said, “Indeed, I progressed well. I did not swell up though. You can try it out with Zhao Lei first, he’s a bit swelled up.”
“Give me a break.”
Fang Ping invited him to take a sit. It was the weekend. A moment’s rest was hard to come by hence everyone came out to relax.
The students who came with Fu Changding were all from the special training classes.
Fu Changding was a nosy parker who had plenty of inside information.
Very soon, Fang Ping had learned that the other people had also improved tremendously in the past half a month.
Zhao Lei had honed 59 bones now. The latest he would achieve peak Rank-1 was by the end of the month. Furthermore, this fellow seemed to be cultivating new combat techniques as well. He was not sure whether it was low-ranked or middle-ranked ones.
Yang Xiaoman was equally fast. 58 bones, the same as Fu Changding.
Fu Changding did not know how Chen Yunxi was doing. She was a person of few words and would not typically communicate with them.
“If that’s the case, the few of you can achieve Rank-1 by the end of the month then?”
“Yup, that is possible.”
Fu Changding smiled. “However, it is impossible to achieve Rank-2. At peak Rank-1, the Vitality still needs some time to nourish. Let both the body and Vitality achieve the peak state. Plus, there was no use to achieve a breakthrough in a hurry.
“Breaking through Rank-2 in a hurry, where bones were not even honed, was no different to peak Rank-1. Why not spend more time to cultivate combat techniques which could enhance combat effectiveness.”
Upon entry to Rank-2, if the bone-honing process was not carried out, besides slightly increasing the upper limit of Vitality, there was not much use for it.
Moreover, it will take time to stabilize it. If breakthrough had occurred suddenly, it was hard to say that the ability would be more powerful than now.
These people would not choose to breakthrough days before the competition. The gains were not enough to make up for the losses.
However, after the winter break, when everyone had returned to school, the few of them would most probably have achieved Rank-2 then.
With faster speed comes greater spending.
Although Fu Changding did not mention, Fang Ping knew without asking. These guys had spent a considerable amount during this period. Fu Changding’s credit had mostly emptied. His family had also subsidized a lot of money.
“Sigh, if MCMAU does not obtain a good result this time, it will be a huge loss for us.”
Fu Changding lamented whilst drinking a fruit juice.
Three lower ranks could advance at lightning speed if a huge amount of money was spent. However, it was not worth it to increase spending by several-fold just to save a small amount of time.
It was also a coincidence this time. If it was not for the championship which was near at hand, these people would never invest without taking account of the cost.
Only by scoring a good result and obtaining the school’s credit subsidiary would they break even. At the same time, they could save less than half a year’s time.
After lamenting, Fu Changding asked, “Fang Ping, how are you doing?”
“Normal. I don’t have the time to cultivate combat techniques recently. Plus, I ran out of money. Sigh, I am not like all of you. You will never understand the suffering of the poor. ”
“Cheh!”
Everyone looked at him with disdain. Who could be richer than you?
The weapons were all D-class alloy!
Even Fu Changding and the others were using F-class. It was not because they could not afford it, the point was that there was no need for them to use high-level alloy weapons.
If Rank-1 martial artists used D-class weapons, could they even hack off F-class alloy?
Lu Fengrou had said that unless Fang Ping could achieve Vitality outburst of more than 50cal in every move, and it should be three consecutive hacks that kind, only would he be able to hack off F-class alloy.
Among Rank-1 martial artists, only a few of them could fulfill this requirement. The majority of them were Rank-1 martial artists who had remained stagnant in their ranks all year round. They had immersed themselves in the combat techniques for many years to finally achieve this accomplishment.
“Right, do you think there are new Rank-2 students in other universities?”
Fang Ping inquired.
Fu Changding laughed, “If they advance without thinking of the consequences, then surely yes. Even so, like what I have said, the ones who achieve Rank-2 now experience losses more than gains.
“It is not very useful for Rank-2 martial artists to complete honing a few bones.
“At least complete honing foot bones and hand bones to enhance combat effectiveness.
“26 foot bones and 27 hand bones. Do you think anyone can take the lead by that much?”
MCMAU was the place where geniuses gather!
Right here, even the people from the School of Social Sciences were geniuses.
Fu Changding and the guys were considered geniuses among geniuses for being able to hone more than 50 bones at this time, plus they were supported by a good familial background!
CCMAU had geniuses as well. At best, those geniuses were equivalent to them.
Achieving Rank-2 was nothing. However, Fu Changding thought that it was impossible for those who had achieved Rank-2 and lead by honing 20 more bones than them.
Fu Changding continued, “I can guarantee that when the time comes, it will still be a duel between peak Rank-1 martial artists. Even if someone breaks through Rank-2, it will not make much of a difference. On the contrary, time will be delayed for breaking through Rank-2. Do you believe that even so, they are no match for us?”
Now it seemed that the breakthrough to Rank-2 was just a waste of time and entirely unnecessary.
Ensuring the smooth-flowing of mirror vessels was all time-consuming work. He had to ensure the minor vessels move unimpeded and remain nourished. Ten to fifteen days would go by in the blink of an eye.
It was more worth it to use that time to cultivate combat techniques.
Fang Ping nodded slightly to show that he agreed with this point. He thought for a moment and said, “This means that the championship focuses more on everyone’s ability to control Vitality, familiarity towards combat techniques, as well as practical experiences?”
“More or less. After all, we are still too young. The time we spend at Rank-1 was also too short.
“Unlike the martial artists who have stayed in Rank-1 for more than ten years, their Vitality had long reached the limit, their body had already reached the limit, and their combat techniques were nearly there as well...
“At that time, more of it was dependent on experiences and luck.
“We have not reached the limit, there are still lots of room for improvement.”
Fang Ping nodded his head once again. He thought in his heart, ‘If I can hone 27 hand bones in the next 20 days or more, then wouldn’t I secure the first place for sure?’
It was only mid-December now. Almost a month before the championship. It was not entirely impossible for Fang Ping.
The bones in hand bones were not large. If he was willing to throw in a large sum of money, there was still hope.
“However... I think that by remaining in Rank-1, I can continue to nourish Vitality and meridians of the body. I may not get another chance If I achieve Rank-2 now.”
Fang Ping was slightly hesitant. He thought for a while and figured it was unnecessary to seek fast results.
If he could cultivate Manic Explosion to the point that, with every move he made could achieve 50cal Vitality outburst, it would not be worse than honing hand bones.
Moreover, he had only 11 million Wealth left. If he was in a rush to hone his hand bones now, purchasing pills would drain out his Wealth.
Without Wealth, how would he achieve outburst?
“I would have massive Wealth to use if I win the championship and receive reward credit from the university. Rank-2 matters should be put aside for the time being.”
After further considerations, Fang Ping did not continue to ask. Like what Fu Changding said, even if he came face to face with martial artists who chose to breakthrough Rank-2, they were still no match for him.