Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Half an hour later.
Gu Xiong and the others came over, looking exhausted.
“We counted. There are 214 evil sect martial artists in total—140 Rank-1 martial artists, 65 at Rank-2, and 9 at Rank-3.”
Compared to the team deployed by the universities, the difference in ability was huge.
There were about 300 students, all of them at least Rank-2 martial artists.
However, the difference in ability in large-scale combat like this meant that the students were the ones who suffered heavy losses instead.
Gu Xiong sighed, “Six from our side have died in battle, and all the Rank-3 martial artists are injured!”
These were not light injuries either; Yu Xianghua, Zhao Lei, and the others were quite severely wounded.
Zhao Lei was pale as a sheet but managed to summon up a faint smile. “Thanks to Fang Ping, we won.”
If Fang Ping had not kept the enemy Peak Rank-3 martial artist occupied, many of their own Rank-3 martial artists would have died.
Fang Ping just lay on the ground in silence.
A quick check of his stats revealed that he only had 12 million Wealth points left.
Before the battle and after he had received the 10 Rank-3 Vitality pills from everyone, he had 25 million!
He had spent 13 million plus a Lifeline Pill just to kill this Peak Rank-3 martial artist.
Since he had borrowed the pill, no Wealth was added to his total number of points.
His fengzuidao was dented, his boots were ripped, he had multiple injuries on his body, but his internal organs were fine. They had begun healing after he had used the Lifeline Pill.
Fang Ping all but ignored everyone. Seeing Chen Yunxi coming towards him however, he told her between pants, “I’ll pay you back later.”
“You don’t need to...”
“I’ll pay you back! I don’t rely on women!”
Fang Ping snorted, dissatisfaction evident on his face. He suddenly said, “I’ll sell you some Rank-3 Vitality pills. 10 of them would cost 11 million. You only have to pay me 5 million.”
Everyone looked confounded. In this state, the fellow was still thinking about selling pills?
Chen Yunxi froze as well. Fang Ping wrinkled his brow at that. “What? 10 Rank-3 Vitality pills are equivalent to 400 credits. Your Lifeline Pill costs 200 credits. 5 million isn’t that expensive a price, is it?”
“It’s not that, it’s just that you...”
“Everything’s settled, then.”
After saying this, Fang Ping slowly clambered to his feet, tossed a bottle of pills to Chen Yunxi, and said, “You can transfer 5 million to me later.”
Chen Yunxi was still at a loss for words. She held the bottle, not knowing how to reply.
Fang Ping had already marched away by then.
Fu Changding caught up with Fang Ping and said with a grin, “You were so badass! You practically killed a Peak Rank-3 martial artist all by yourself.”
“Haha, do you think I wanted to?’
Fang Ping felt like dying. He had sustained more than 20 million in losses just to kill the Grand Missionary!
Fu Changding stopped talking. Everyone had seen how many lethal moves Fang Ping needed to make just to kill his foe.
Fang Ping did not seem to have taken any pills either. No one knew what was up with that.
It might be that he had taken them earlier, or there might be other reasons entirely. Regardless, now was not a good time to enquire further.
Fu Changding continued quietly, “Aren’t you the best at taking advantage of someone else?
“Chen Yunxi didn’t want any payment in return, so why did you pay her back?”
“F*ck off, have I ever taken advantage of you? I just don’t like being in debt to anyone. I prefer to have an equal exchange...”
Fu Changding sighed softly. “I see now. You treat everything like a transaction. This isn’t necessarily a good thing. Chen Yunxi lent you a pill, but you paid her immediately after as if it were currency. There’s no camaraderie in that; it’s just hurtful.”
“Honestly if I were you, I wouldn’t pay her back this round. You can just wait till she’s in danger to repay the favor.
” After what you’ve just done though, everything has been reduced to money and transactions...”
Fang Ping furrowed his brow, “Isn’t that a good thing?”
“You might think it is, but to us, it’s like negating any friendship whatsoever...”
“I think it’s quite ideal. Martial artists might die any time,” Fang Ping said blandly, “My instructor says there’s no need for martial artists to build overly close relationships among themselves.
“I thought her cold-blooded in the past, but now I think it’s quite a good thing.
“Six people died on this random mission. How sad will their friends be?
“Being this way now is better than being sad in the future. It’s fine.
“Everyone won’t feel so bad when someone eventually dies.”
“Is there really a need for that?” Fu Changding shook his head but did not say anything more.
Fang Ping let him be. He did not take part in the search but found a place to bandage his wounds.
...
Two hours later, the search came to an end.
“We found a total of 192 pills. Most of them are Normal Vitality Pills; their aggregate value is less than 30 million.”
The students had conducted a clean sweep of a settlement inhabited by hundreds of martial artists, but the pills they had found were worth less than 30 million in total. This mission was a complete bust of the highest order.
“54 weapons. 30 F-grade ones, 18 E-grade ones, and 6 D-grade ones. The F-grade ones aren’t worth much, so the weapons can only be valued at about 20 million in total.”
The total value of their loot was only about 50 million, as per everyone’s calculations.
Close to 300 people had participated in the mission. If they split the spoils evenly, each of them would only get about one hundred thousand yuan.
Or so it seemed.
“You took 10 Rank-3 Vitality Pills, which cost 12 million. We’ll deduct them from the total first.”
“Also, we’ve decided to compensate the families of the deceased students with 3 million yuan each. Fang Ping, do you have any opinion on that?”
Zhao Yang and the others looked toward Fang Ping. He had killed the Grand Missionary in battle despite being inferior in skill to a Peak Rank-3 martial artist. His achievement was a testament to his prowess.
This was why they had asked for Fang Ping’s opinion.
“No.” Fang Ping did not object.
“What’s left will only have a value of about 20 million. We think that splitting it evenly doesn’t really mean much since each of us will only get a bit more than ten thousand yuan.
“Many people have been injured in this fight, so we’re going to use part of the money to help them recover from their injuries.
“You can take 1 million out of the remaining portion, and those who contributed the most will split the rest.”
The leftover portion was valued at little more than ten million. Fang Ping’s 1 million was quite a big part of it, almost one-tenth.
Fang Ping was rather gloomy when he heard that, though. He knew from early on that he would lose money, but not that much!
“Fine, do whatever you wish. What do we do now?”
“We wait for the school authorities to evaluate the battle.”
Nobody said anything more after that. They sat down, legs crossed, and sank into a profound silence.
After a while, Yu Xianghua sighed, “I thought we were elites among elites. Every one of us has taken part in quite a few missions and completed them perfectly. Now though, I realize we’re severely lacking in a great many areas.
“We made repeated mistakes and underestimated our opponents frequently.
“If not for Fang Ping’s one-man stand against that Peak Rank-3 martial artist, we would’ve lost more than 20 people.”
Everyone sighed. At that moment, someone suddenly said dryly, “Good to see you’re aware of your shortcomings!”
Tang Feng and a team of instructors came toward them from somewhere close by.
Tang Feng did not look at the nearby village, he merely said, “Get up, all of you. I want to show you something.”
Just as everyone got to their feet, a fleet of military-issued cars rolled up and came to a halt beside them.
“Hop on!” Tang Feng ordered, and everyone obeyed.
...
Less than half an hour later, the cars stopped at the entrance of another village.
A battle was underway there as well.
On one side were uniformed soldiers, while on the other side were evil sect martial artists.
“Spears!”
As Fang Ping and the others arrived, a group of soldiers at the back hurled bamboo Chinese spears at their foes!
The stronger of the evil sect martial artists managed to parry, but the weaker ones were impaled.
“Advance!”
Following the order, the soldiers in the front row marched forward in unison and jabbed their long spears forward!
Although there were quite a lot of enemy powerhouses, they kept retreating, leaving the weaker ones to be killed.
“Javelins!”
Orders were issued repeatedly. The soldiers at the rear kept up a rotation of javelin throwing, continuously reducing the number of evil sect martial artists.
Some evil sect powerhouses attempted to break the soldiers’ formation but were quickly foiled and isolated.
The other troops kept on killing those who were weaker.
Some ten minutes later, the weak martial artists were all killed. The military powerhouses withdrew from battle while the rest continued with the javelin attacks.
“Aren’t they depleting their Vitality?” someone asked.
Tang Feng replied blandly, “These are also novice soldiers who have never been in battle. They have one excellent trait though—they listen to orders.
“The martial artists they’re surrounding here are not that different from the ones you encountered in terms of skill.
“The army here hasn’t very many powerhouses—less than 50 people.
“These 50 people are responsible for keeping the strongest of the enemy powerhouses occupied so they can’t disrupt the troops’ formation.
“After all the Rank-1 and Rank-2 martial artists are killed off, those Rank-3 enemy martial artists will eventually die when they’re up against so many people and their Vitality is exhausted.”
Fang Ping wrinkled his brow. “We’re not soldiers though. We aren’t used to moving in a coordinated unit like they are. We’re also not able to go into ordered formations—we’re all free martial artists...”
Tang Feng scolded, “Idiot! I’m not asking you to emulate this!
“I’m asking you to learn how to utilize all the resources you have at your disposal!
“How did you utilize a team of two hundred over Rank-2 martial artists?
“All of them ended up hovering at the periphery, doing nothing!
“At the time you should have let those Rank-2 martial artists wield ranged weapons, divided them into twenty squads of ten people each, and have them surround the Peak Rank-3 martial artist in turns.
“If you block a Rank-3 martial artist from running, he has no choice but to hold his own.
“He might manage for the first or second round, but how about the fiftieth round?
“If you station several Rank-3 martial artists at the periphery and deter him from escaping, he won’t be able to flee!”
Fang Ping ventured with some embarrassment, “That’s too slow though.”
“Hmph!”
Tang Feng exhaled noisily and asked with dissatisfaction, “Have you forgotten how you and Fu Changding were defeated before?”
“What?”
“When the two of you first entered MCMAU, remember how the others surrounded you and forced you to admit defeat? Which one of them is a match for you one-on-one?
“The strong ones confined you in a limited space, while the weaker ones attacked in turns.
“You thought of the idea then, so why not now?
“The biggest reason is that you think you’re now very strong and very powerful. Invincible, even. That’s why you chose to be stubborn and just charge in!
“Are you all really invincible, though?
“You’re only a group of novices. How strong did you think you were?
“Your group of Rank-3 martial artists completely disregarded the Rank-2 martial artists. You thought that they were extras who served no purpose, even regarded them as burdens. Am I right?
“Where did you get this confidence from, to think that you were very powerful?”
Everyone could find nothing to say in response. It was true that the Rank-3 martial artists often called the shots while everyone was discussing matters. Rank-2 martial artists, especially those lower than Peak Rank-2, had practically no right to voice an opinion.
After that short lecture, Tang Feng eyed the entire group and stated, “Your loss is the result of your hubris!
“You were confident that you were strong, that no one would launch a sneak attack at a group of three hundred martial artists.
“The evil sect martial artists didn’t really have an organized system for their attacks. If they did, more than half of you would be dead!
“In the Catacombs, the armies there are even more capable than ours!
“I do not wish for you to be killed by the weakest of them, rather than the strongest!”
Tang Feng had said that the students were overconfident. Everyone exchanged glances in silence.
They were definitely confident. All of them had fought with evil sect martial artists before.
They thought there was nothing more to it.
Their opponents definitely would not be a match for them if they were to fight face-to-face.
Everyone had had these thoughts in mind when they decided to corner everyone they encountered and kill them before anything else.
Of course, they had been correct in their assumptions.
However, it was precisely due to their assumptions that some on their side had ended up dead. If they had treated their enemies as formidable, everyone might have survived. Aside from the higher-stage Rank-3 martial artist and the Peak Rank-3 martial artist, everyone on the enemy side was much weaker than them.
“You must practice caution whenever you encounter enemies—not just enemies, anyone really. Strategically it’s normal to underestimate your opponent, but when it comes to tactics, you must respect your enemies.
“Also, did anyone think of investigating the base?
“Let’s not talk about your enemies first. We left 500 alloy javelins for you in the cellar of the base. Did anyone see them?”
Fang Ping and the rest stared at one another, totally bereft of speech.
Tang Feng massaged his temples and furrowed his brow. “We already demolished the center point of the mountains behind Boulder Village. If several people climb up there and shift them bit, the huge boulders on top of the mountain can be pushed down, which will cause the main body of the mountain to collapse. Has anyone even checked it out?
“If the mountains collapse, Boulder Village will be buried under the rocks. How long do you think your enemies can survive after that?”
Everyone remained silent, exchanging glances one with the other.
Tang Feng sighed. “You’re nothing but a bunch of hooligans who only rely on brute strength!”
In the past, Fang Ping had used Tang Feng’s words to criticize him.
Now that Tang Feng viewed him with disdain, Fang Ping had no way of refuting anything.
“If everyone behaved like you in the Catacombs, mankind would have been defeated long ago!
“Does the university normally teach you to rely solely on brute strength and not use your brains?
“Students from the School of Tactics and Strategy, you’re mere bystanders because your tactical skills are lacking.
“Students from the School of Production, did you not think of laying some traps which could lure your opponents into attacking?
“There are quite a lot of places along the way which are ideal for this purpose.
“Did no one think to at least try?
“Your opponents certainly thought of it. They dug some pits and used them to ambush you. Why didn’t you think of that?
“Apart from a frontal assault, what else could you have thought about?
“Who are the ones who should be really worried? You?
“No, your enemies are!
“Their main goal is to break free from being trapped, but you’re different. You have the option of either attacking or mounting a defensive campaign.
“At the end of it, they ended up exhausting your patience, not vice versa!
“If you had just walked away from things right then, who would be more anxious?
“You even went to such great pains to demolish buildings!
“You should take the initiative to choose your battleground, not let your opponents choose it for you!
“You think that you aren’t suited for waging war on a large scale. Fine, separate yourselves into small teams then! But first, you have to segregate your enemies. Did you try that?
“No, you just had to charge out together, several hundred of you! Anyone would stay in hiding and avoid battle after a sight like that!
“If a team of ten people or a few more had gone ahead, the evil sect martial artists would not have hesitated to swarm out, aiming to kill you!
“It’s easy to look for a suitable spot on the way to lure them into your midst and finish them off. These evil sect martial artists do not fear death. Their only desire is to maim and kill. If fewer people had charged in, they would certainly have given chase!
“If you had found a suitable place to corner them, you would have been able to kill a huge number of them on the spot using those 500 alloy javelins.
“You could then have charged in and finished the rest of them off! If you had followed this strategy, would anyone have ended up dead?”
Tang Feng’s mouth was dry from talking, but he continued furiously, “Almost 300 people and none of you thought to use your brains!
“Instead you listened to everything Fang Ping and the other brainless brutes suggested!”
Fang Ping cried out in indignation, “Instructor, I didn’t suggest that!”
Tang Feng glared at Fang Ping, exhaled and snapped, “The Military Department said that you martial arts university students are useless! You lot bring shame to your schools!
“Six people died in this simple mission!
“Also, about that final battle against the Peak Rank-3 martial artist...are all of you complete morons?
“You let Fang Ping face off against him alone. Did you think that was an arena battle?”
“But I killed him....”
Tang Feng said impatiently, “That’s because you cheated. You exhausted so much Vitality from slashing at your opponent hundreds of times!”
Right after that, Tang Feng asked suddenly, “Where did all that Vitality come from?”
“From my reserves.”
Tang Feng froze, dumbfounded. Fang Ping explained non-committally, “If I don’t digest the pills I’ve eaten, I can hoard Vitality in my body. Since I thought this mission might be dangerous, I swallowed a lot of pills in advance...”
“You’re courting death!” Tang Feng scolded him. He then furrowed his brow, “Go for a body check later. Your body didn’t burst after so many pills? What’s up with you?”
“I won’t go for a checkup!” Fang Ping shook his head. “This is my ultimate move. Your asking about it is inappropriate, Instructor.”
“You...”
Tang Feng was too tired to roast Fang Ping. Claiming that this was his ultimate move when everyone had seen it...did he think that everyone was blind?
He ignored Fang Ping’s comment but said, abruptly, “An endless Vitality supply won’t do you any good without adequate technique. Your grasp of technique is not solid, so you ended up killing the man only after a hundred moves or more. You almost ended up dead too.
“Don’t make Vitality your crutch. The Grand Missionary was average both in skill and combat techniques.
“If he had mastered a Rank-3 lethal move and killed you with a single blow, would you still have had the chance to kill him?”
The Grand Missionary was indeed average in terms of combat technique. His moves were not that explosive. If he had used 300cal in a move however, it would be comparable to one where Fang Ping had used 700 or 800cal.
One move and Fang Ping would have been dead.
It was only because of the Grand Missionary’s shortcomings that Fang Ping was able to drag the battle out and finish him off after wearing him down. If not, Fang Ping would have been killed by a single blow very early on in the battle.
Fang Ping was resigned. “I spent all my time on bone-honing—that’s why I could enter middle-stage Rank-3. I wanted to hone my combat techniques after I entered higher-stage...”
This time, Tang Feng did not criticize him. They were all young people; they were in a hurry to cultivate as much as they could in a limited amount of time.
At this age, shortcomings were inevitable.
“Let’s go. Take a good long time to reflect on this. We’re still calculating your marks. Those who fall short of the base 100 marks, your universities will increase the intensity of your training!
“When we send you into the Catacombs, our hope is that you’re able to use your abilities to some purpose. We don’t intend to send you to your deaths.
“On the university’s part, we can’t hold your hands through every single thing and walk you through it. Some of it you need to experience for yourselves. Don’t overestimate your abilities.
“War on this scale is normal in the Catacombs. We always encounter Catacomb villages comparable to what you’ve just seen today.
“Other people might be able to slaughter an entire village on their own. If you try in your present situation, you’ll just be going to your deaths!
“Someone like Fang Ping who can hoard his Vitality...it’s extremely normal for him to demolish a village by himself. But right now, if he goes in alone, he’ll die immediately!”
Fang Ping had been used as a bad example again, but there was nothing he could do about it. Big Lion held the advantage this time, and Fang Ping could not refute the facts, even if he wanted to.
At the moment, however, Fang Ping felt that he should keep a low profile about the fact that he could hoard Vitality.
From what Big Lion had said about wanting Fang Ping to get a body check, he seemed to think that this was not something normal.
Truth to tell, it was not.
‘If an instructor asks me to demonstrate by swallowing pills, I’m going to be so screwed...’
Fang Ping pondered this problem and tried to come up with a solution.
It was too late to swallow any pills now, and Fang Ping could not afford to; it was too much of a waste.
‘It’s fine, I’ll just make it up on the fly. If someone really makes me swallow a couple of dozen pulls, I think I really might burst...’
Fang Ping did not have that kind of ability. If he did truly swallow so many pills, he most certainly would die.