Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
January 19th, the twelfth Lunar month’s twenty-fourth day.
Scenic Lakeview Gardens.
Fang Ping was embarrassed and said, “Sorry for troubling you and making you go out of your way.”
“No worries. It just so happened that there has not been much to do recently.”
Liu Ruoqi smiled before looking at the somewhat-excited Fang Yuan and saying, “You should properly appreciate this opportunity. Back then, to increase our Vitalities, we...”
Liu Ruoqi could not continue. It was hard for a normal family’s kid to raise their Vitality.
She had been reluctant to buy even a single Blood and Qi-replenishing Pill!
Fang Yuan, on the other hand, had eaten an unknown amount of Blood and Qi-replenishing Pills, as well as some Normal Vitality Pills.
In stark contrasts to this, the current Liu Ruoqi did not eat Normal Vitality Pills as she pleased.
When she entered Tiannan Martial Arts University, the school gave her 30 credits. However, the exchange rate for medicinal pills and elixirs in Tiannan’s schools was higher, as 5 credits were needed for one Normal Vitality Pills.
If you crunched the numbers, the school had only provided them 6 free Normal Vitality Pills after getting into the martial arts university.
These provisions were not even as much as Fang Yuan had used.
Moreover, what the school had provided this year was considered a lot by their standards. In past years, they had handed out even fewer.
Fang Yuan hastily nodded her head and followed the two people to the second floor.
“Remember the location of your meridians. The opening cultivations of the Method of Honing aren’t difficult...”
As Fang Ping spoke, two Normal Vitality Pills appeared in his hand. He handed them to Liu Ruoqi and said, “If her Vitality isn’t enough, look after her and give her the medicine if needed.”
“Alright.”
Liu Ruoqi agreed and once again lamented Fang Ping’s wealth, as he had been able to casually produce two Vitality Pills.
...
After Fang Yuan and Liu Ruoqi entered the house together, Fang Ping stood guard outside the doors.
His thoughts, however, were on how Fang Yuan would officially be entering the realm of martial sciences once she finishes cultivating the Methods of Honing.
Still, Fang Ping did not mind this as much anymore.
Prior to this, he had been thinking that Fang Yuan being a regular person was not necessarily a bad thing.
However, if the state of the Catacombs worsened, how could a regular person possibly survive longer than a martial artist?
As such, the stronger she was, the better.
As he was thinking of this, Fang Ping’s phone vibrated.
Fang Ping glanced at the caller ID and headed for the stairs. He answered and said, “Why have you suddenly remembered to call me?”
“Ha ha ha, Fang Ping, I’ve broken through Rank-2!
“Am I the first of MCMAU’s new students to break through Rank-2?
“After thinking about it, I felt I should share the good news with you. I’ve managed to enter Rank-2 in just one semester!”
Fu Changding was clearly overjoyed.
Previously, his bone-honing’s progress was no match for Zhao Lei’s, and was also surpassed by Fang Ping’s later on.
By the time the championship came around, everybody stopped at Peak Rank-1.
He had gone home and recuperated for a couple of days before preparing for the breakthrough, which he completed just moments ago.
Now, as Yang Xiaoman and Zhao Xuemei were injured, they definitely could not enter Rank-2 anytime soon.
On the other hand, he was not very hurt, and had entered Rank-2 so quickly. Thus, he could breathe a sigh of relief and became much more relaxed.
“Oh, Rank-2 already.”
“That’s right. A Rank-2 martial artist!”
“I broke through right after the competition. I’ve honed two of my upper limbs’ bones already. How many have you honed?”
“Huh?”
The other end of the line went quiet for a moment before Fu Changding stammered, “You... Broke through already?”
“Uh-huh. Do you have any doubts?”
“None. I’m hanging up!”
Du du du...
Fu Changding ended the call at the speed of light and cursed loudly after hanging up!
Fang Ping had already finished honing two bones!
There were 62 bones in the lower limbs and 64 bones in the upper limbs. At this rate, would he not be Peak Rank-2 in 4 months?
Could this bastard possibly enter Rank-3 by the end of the freshman year?
The more he thought about it, the more woeful he felt. MCMAU had too many geniuses—Fu Changding could barely stand amongst them anymore.
...
Fang Ping shoved his phone into his pocket and pursed his lips. ‘You even wanted to brag to me, huh? Did water enter your brain?’
If not for the fact that he could not bear to spend the money, he could buy tens of Body-honing Pills to bathe in and enter Peak Rank-2 quickly.
“Maybe just this will do...”
Fang Ping said unconsciously. He did not want to take too long with bone-honing in the bottom three ranks.
However, if he did not want to take too long, he would have to spend a large sum of money.
In the condition he was in now, if he used a Body-honing Pill each day to bathe, he might be able to complete the bone-honing in one or two months.
But a single Body-honing Pill costs 1 million!
It was much cheaper at the school—30 credits for one pill, to which Fang Ping still had 420 had credits at the moment. Moreover, he had also been awarded 100 credits for breaking through Rank-2, which meant that he had 520 credits in total.
If he exchanged them all, he could get 17 Body-honing Pills.
“If I use Body-honing Pills to hone my outer body and use Wealth points to hone my inner bones, that speed would definitely be shockingly fast...”
Fang Ping muttered to himself. It was a pity he was so reluctant.
“I’ll think it over again when I reach school. I’ll see how many bones I can hone over these few days.”
...
As Fang Ping calculated this, half an hour soon passed.
The door to the fitness room opened, and Liu Ruoqi smiled. “Everything went smoothly. Her first cultivation of the Methods of Honing has succeeded.”
Behind her, Fang Yuan followed her out, her face filled with joy.
Fang Ping was also very pleased to know that her cultivation had gone smoothly. Nevertheless, he quickly snapped, “Fang Yuan, go take a shower. You stink!”
“Ah?”
Only then did Fang Yuan realize that her body was still full of polluted blood. The moment she heard this, she swiftly dashed to the bathroom.
After she left, Fang Ping smiled at Liu Ruoqi and said, “Thank you so much for this.”
“I already said it’s no problem. You’re welcome. Oh yeah, Fang Yuan had enough Vitality earlier, so the medicinal pills remain unused...”
“You can keep them.”
“Huh?”
Liu Ruoqi looked at Fang Ping in surprise.
“I’ve troubled you to make you go out of your way, and I’ve taken up so much of your time. Keep them for yourself. They’ll help you become a martial artist sooner.”
“This... This is too precious. It’s not appropriate!”
Liu Ruoqi hurriedly rejected the offer and put the medicinal pills aside before saying, “I’ll take my leave then. Call me if anything happens in the future.”
After saying this, Liu Ruoqi rushed down the stairs.
After thinking for a while, Fang Ping decided not to say anything either. Even so, the look on Liu Ruoqi’s face at the end made him confused as to whether to laugh or cry.
He truly had no other intentions toward her. It was just that Fang Ping could not find the right person to help out with Fang Yuan’s matters as all the female martial artists he knew were at MCMAU.
Since he had prepared those medicinal pills anyway, he thought she could take them as a sign of thanks for her efforts.
As a result, he was afraid that Liu Ruoqi had taken it the wrong way and fled.
While he was caught off guard, he also felt a little down. He mumbled, “Even if I was interested in you, you don’t have to be so scared, do you?”
Where else could you find such a genius martial artist — Liu Ruoqi had launched a personal attack!
Fang Yuan, who had just learned the Methods of Honing, was forbidden from leaving the house by Fang Ping over the next few days so that she could stabilize her meridians.
As for the Yuan Ping Club’s trivial matters... How could they be more important than cultivation?
As the siblings cultivated, Chinese New Year’s Eve soon crept up on them.
...
The twelfth Lunar month’s thirtieth day.
Fang Ping’s whole family got up very early.
Fang Yuan’s face lit up with happiness. This year’s New Year’s Eve was even better than the past year’s.
They had moved into a new house, Fang Ping had become a martial artist, Dad had entered the Department of Education, and she had started cultivating too... Moreover, she had become the Big Sister of junior high!
Most importantly, she had some personal savings that the others did not know about.
At the moment, her personal savings were already full.
Even so, after getting up early in the morning, Fang Yuan still grabbed ahold of Fang Ping with a wide smile on her face as she said, “Fang Ping, New Year money!”
“You’re asking for New Year money with this attitude?”
“Brother, New Year money!”
The girl changed her manner of speaking without an ounce of hesitation.
Fang Ping burst into laughter. He retrieved a large hundred-yuan note and gave it to Fang Yuan.
“A hundred?”
“What’s the matter? Too much?”
Fang Ping smiled widely. “If it’s too much, you can give me fifty in change.”
“Fang Ping!”
Fang Yuan was pouting. “You’re too stingy!”
“I’m being generous! I remember back in the day when I gave you five bucks, you were so happy that you would do anything. Making you do the laundry and dishes was no problem.
“Now I’m giving you a hundred, yet you’re calling me stingy?”
“But... But...”
“When your pole-standing enters the firm stance and your Vitality reaches 150cal, I’ll give you a big gift.
“Aren’t you forgetting about my saber?
“When that time comes, I’ll gift you one. Of course, it doesn’t have to be a saber. Whatever weapon you like, I’ll give to you.”
“Really?”
Fang Yuan was shocked. Fang Ping was so rich!
It was not enough that he had bought a weapon for himself, he was also going to gift her a weapon...
Fang Ping smiled and said, “Of course – provided that you achieve this quickly. Otherwise, you can just keep staring at it with red eyes.
“An increase of 30cal in Vitality isn’t considered too difficult.
“I still have 10 Vitality Pills here. You finish them around the time you’ve cultivated enough, as long as you don’t sell them off!”
When he said this, Fang Ping’s expression darkened a little. “I’m warning you—if you dare to sell them, don’t even think about getting anything from me!”
He was extremely suspicious of this brat selling off the medicinal pills he had left for her.
Otherwise, when he came back last time around, she would have already had 110cal of Vitality.
Later on, he had given her more medicinal pills, including Normal Vitality Pills. Why did her Vitality only increase by such a small amount?
Fang Yuan was indignant. “I didn’t sell them. You’re falsely accusing me!”
“Either way, I’ll make Mom watch you. If you eat a pill, she’ll give you a pill. If you don’t eat it, she won’t give it.
“When you finish eating it, if your Vitality hasn’t reached 150cal... Hmph hmph!”
From start to finish, she had eaten more than ten Blood or Qi-replenishing Pills, and more than ten Normal Vitality Pills too.
According to the market rate, that was nearly 2 million.
If she still could not reach 150cal of Vitality, it meant that the girl’s conditions were really quite bad.
Fang Yuan pouted, still unhappy about Fang Ping falsely accusing her. She really had not sold them!
Furthermore, they were so expensive, so her classmates could not afford them, could they?
After the brother-sister duo argued for a while, Fang Yuan got the feeling that she would not get anything else from her brother and so hurriedly ran downstairs to ask her parents for red envelopes.
...
The whole family joyfully pasted New Year scrolls, hung lanterns and prepared the New Year’s Eve dinner...
Outside, the sound of firecrackers started early in the morning.
Phones rang from time to time too. Some of the calls were for Fang Mingrong and Fang Ping, but...
Most were for Fang Yuan!
Fang Ping also made a few calls to wish people a happy New Year.
Lu Fengrou’s phone could not be reached, so Fang Ping guessed that Lu Fengrou might have gone to the Catacombs.
The call to Wang Jinyang went through, but he was not coming back to Sun City for New Years this year. Instead, he was spending it at River City.
At first, Fang Ping did not notice anything, until a voice suddenly sounded through the phone, “Bro Jinyang, get ready for dinner!”
This voice sounded a little familiar to Fang Ping.
After he thought for a while, he remembered. Was this not Wang Jinyang’s teacher’s daughter?
Old Wang was spending New Year there... Tut tut!
Fang Ping lamented for a while. He was still a student, so was he really going to be a son-in-law?
However, that girl did not seem very old. In fact, she was a little younger than Fang Yuan.
Silently disapproving, Fang Ping did not chat with him much and quickly ended the call.
Next, Fang Ping called his aunt’s family.
After the two families wished each other well, the New Year’s Eve dinner officially started.
The television was airing an image of the leader of the Sino Nation comforting and expressing his concern for frontier fighters.
Fang Ping could faintly make out somebody injured among the fighters’ formations...
In the frontier zone, there were many entrances to the Catacombs.
...
At night, tens of thousands of houses were brightly lit, and the fireworks were dazzlingly bright.
Fang Ping accompanied Fang Yuan downstairs and lit fireworks for a while before going upstairs to continue with his cultivation. He was not as carefree as Fang Yuan.
After all, Fang Yuan was only 14. After New Year, she would only be 15 years old.
She did not share the same sense of urgency that Fang Ping had. In Fang Yuan’s eyes, as long as her big brother was terrific, that would be enough.
As for herself, her biggest wish was that she would be able to become a martial artist and enter MCMAU when it was time for the Gaokao. Despite having an interest in cultivation, this girl did not possess a very strong sense of urgency.
In the fitness room.
Fang Ping once again analyzed his stats.
Wealth points: 19200000
Vitality: 340cal (355cal)
Mentality: 305Hz (312Hz)
Bone-honing: 66 bones (90%), 10 bones (40%), 130 bones (30%)
He had already completed the honing of his lower limbs’ 62 bones. He had honed 4 out of 64 of his upper limbs’ bones and was 60 bones away from Peak Rank-2.
If he used the system to speed up the honing of all of them, it would take 35 million Wealth points!
‘If I use the system to speed up the honing, it will take 600 thousand Wealth points to hone one bone, and I will also have to buy Body-honing Pills.
‘If I rely on myself to hone, around 300 thousand Wealth points will be enough to hone each bone. However, it will also take at least two days or more, to hone each bone.
‘There’s still half a month before classes start. In this half a month, I should aim to complete the honing of the 10 bones that have already been honed to 40%.
‘By then, only 50 bones will be left. In that case, 30 million Wealth points will be enough to finish all that honing.’
Fang Ping calculated this in his head. He considered whether he should pay the price after classes started to speedily enter Peak Rank-2 and move toward Rank-3.
It was very dangerous in the Catacombs without the strength of a Rank-3.
Moreover, the Manic Explosion he was cultivating now could only have the greatest Vitality outburst after he completed the honing of his upper limbs.
Otherwise, 100cal was his limit. If he wanted more, it would have to come from his body.
“A normal Rank-2 martial artist has a Vitality of between 250cal to 400cal.
“When I reach Peak, I might be able to reach around 500cal. Thrice-honing is slowly increasing the gap between me and normal martial artists.
“Still, I lack money and Wealth points...”
Fang Ping muttered to himself. If he had the money and the Wealth points, he might have been able to achieve Peak Rank-2 within a month.
Being poor had once again limited his improvement.
“Ah, I hope in the coming years, the society will be peaceful. Otherwise, it won’t be good for business!”
Fang Ping prayed toward the open window before quickly entering cultivation mode and continuing with his pole-standing and bone-honing.
...
At the same time.
Magic City’s Catacombs entrance.
Lu Fengrou furrowed her brows and said, “If situation continues, in three years, we may not be able to hold on anymore!
“The 2012 end of the world...”
Huang Jing scolded. “Even you believe this sort of nonsense. No wonder those evil sects can live on!”
Lu Fengrou replied in displeasure, “Did I say I believe it? However, the fact that the evil sects can rope in a portion of the martial artists does indeed have something to do with this. This situation will only worsen in three years!
“What I’m saying is can’t you Grandmasters think of something?
“The Catacombs’ organisms are all around the entrances. Low-ranked martial artists are basically unable to enter.”
Huang Jing exhaled some tainted air and said as he walked, “The government is thinking of something. They’ve even started to organize and see if they can unite all martial artists Rank-7 and above to enter the Catacombs together in order to carry out a large-scale extermination.”
“Are you guys crazy?”
Lu Fengrou was shocked to the core. “This kind of large-scale invasion will definitely lead to the retaliation of those scary beings from the deeper parts of the Catacombs!”
A few Grandmasters were nothing much, but if hundreds of Grandmasters went into the Catacombs to clean up, the beings residing in the deeper parts of the Catacombs would not just sit by and watch.
When that time came, the situation might become even more dangerous.
“We’ll see then. This is just the last resort. If not, we can only rely on the middle- and low-ranked martial artists, as well as regular people to carry out the cleaning.
“It’s a pity... The development of the energy mine weapons hasn’t come through. Otherwise, we could give the normal military this equipment and lessen the pressure on us.”
Lu Fengrou knitted her brows. “Still no progress?”
“There are too few energy mines. It’s not enough.”
Huang Jing shook his head and thought for a while before saying, “There are some changes here in the Education Ministry. After New Year, there might be a few changes in strategy to allow Rank-2 martial artists from martial arts universities to enter the Catacombs too!”
“Rank-2... this... Isn’t this too dangerous?”
Lu Fengrou was slightly worried. Rank-2 martial artists entering the Catacombs was really very dangerous.
Huang Jing pressed his lips together with a determined expression. “Martial arts university students are people, but soldiers are people too! There are so many normal military members stationed in the Catacombs...”
“It’s not the same! Military units are organizationally structured...”
“It’s the same. Martial artists can be organizationally structured too!”
After he finished speaking, Huang Jin waved a hand and said, “Let’s talk about it some other time. This matter has not been confirmed yet as of now. If it is, I won’t let MCMAU off the hook either. There won’t be any martial arts university students who will be able to avoid fighting!”
That said, Huang Jing suddenly added on, “You go back first, your family’s Old Wu is still waiting too...”
“We’re divorced. He’s living his own life, and I’m living mine. Stop bringing this up.”
“Heh heh!”
Huang Jing’s laugh carried a slightly mocking tone.
‘Divorced?
‘You two have been divorced for more than ten years!
‘But whenever something happens, why do you go Old Wu this and Old Wu that?’
As he was too lazy to deal with her, Huang Jing had exited the Catacombs at that moment. Outside, lights from Magic City not too far away.
“It’s a prosperous time. A prosperous time that also happens to be the 5000th year since the opening of the Sino Nation...”
Huang Jing mumbled. More than a billion Sinonese people ate well and dressed warmly. None of them were freezing and starving. Had there even been a time as prosperous as this?
When dealing with hardships, could the people really come together and rally the country?
On what basis?
It took so much effort to start living a good life, so why did they still have to experience hardships!
“The Catacombs...”
With a sigh, Huang Jing’s shadow dissapeared.