From June 5th onward, Fang Ping started his Combat Technique cultivation.
Zhang Dingnan had taught him an improved version of Manic Explosion, so Fang Ping had to figure everything out again and cultivate it from the top.
The old version of Manic Explosion looked very impressive but in reality, it was just average among middle-rank Combat Techniques.
Using it as a big move was still just seven consecutive slashes used in a cycle, and these seven consecutive slashes were all under an average outburst.
To put it simply, what the old Manic Explosion pursued was an equal outburst. In seven consecutive slashes, the strength of all seven blows was the same. It was only considered a big move if all seven blows were executed as one.
After revision, Manic Explosion was different now.
It utilized overlaying outbursts!
After Zhang Dingnan had achieved the level of Grandmaster, his mind was broadened, and he began to delve deeper into the martial sciences.
Manic Explosion was still an outburst of seven blows, but each blow’s Vitality outburst increased. The first slash was 30cal, the second was 40cal, and the outburst would continue to grow stronger all the way until the seventh blow.
With seven blows, each stronger than the one before, seven consecutive slashes would increase in power incrementally, making the overall outburst stronger than one’s usual limit.
If he used it as a single move, Fang Ping might only have a Vitality outburst of 100cal, but if he cultivated according to Manic Explosion, by the seventh blow, he might be able to achieve a Vitality outburst of 150cal.
...
Combat Techniques cultivation was quite demanding.
Combat Techniques were not theoretical cultivation methods; they needed to be put into practice.
No matter how well one studied the theory, if one could not land a single blow, could that even be called Combat Technique?
Every time Fang Ping cultivated his Combat Techniques, his Vitality would be greatly depleted.
At this stage, the Vitality he generated on his own also replenished very quickly, unlike when he was in Rank-1 and Rank-2 when using up his Vitality meant a slow process of replenishment.
Since he reached Upper-stage Rank-3 however, when Fang Ping used up 100cal of Vitality, he could perhaps generate 10cal of Vitality on his own to make up for it in the next moment.
Even so, Fang Ping still used up a great many of his Wealth points.
Of the 4.5 million Wealth points Lu Fengrou gave him, Fang Ping was depleting them at an average speed of 500 thousand a day!
It sounded like a lot, but it was actually only enough to replenish 500cal of Vitality. However, even with 500cal in Vitality replenished plus what he generated on his own, the time Fang Ping spent in cultivation every day was not short either.
When he cultivated, he did not have to use a Vitality outburst every move. Fang Ping only used his Vitality to train when he encountered things he did not quite understand.
Aside from Manic Explosion, Fang Ping also put a lot of effort into the cultivation of Cloud Step.
He was not afraid of losing to someone, but he must be able to run away!
Almost all Upper-stage Rank-3 martial artists had achieved the elevated stance in pole-standing. Fang Ping did not have that much advantage in terms of speed right now.
Even though he could step into the air, others could too.
Therefore, only by cultivating Stepping Skills on a deeper level could he run faster than others.
Aside from these two Combat Techniques, Lu Fengrou also recommended that Fang Ping learn a middle-rank Combat Technique—the Blood Arrow Method.
...
Beside Safe Haven.
Lu Fengrou said softly, “This is a Combat Technique I created myself. I have not let anyone else learn it.”
Fang Ping looked at the Combat Technique’s introduction for a while. This was a truly risky Combat Technique!
“Condense your Vitality and spit out an arrow of blood. Instructor, this is so familiar...” Fang Ping muttered. This method was really very familiar!
Lu Fengrou did not take exception to this, and said, “As long as it works, it’s a good technique to use. When they’re hurt, many martial artists like to use the blood in their mouths to spit at enemies and mess up their vision. Xuemei has done this before in the championship.
“However, if you’re on the alert, that sort of blood arrow is rendered fairly useless.
“This Blood Arrow Method is different. It’s a specialized use of Vitality which can only be cultivated by martial artists Upper-stage Rank-3 and above.
“This is because the key to it is Vitality leaving the body.
“Martial artists below Upper-stage Rank-3 can’t do this. Their Vitality is in a state of constraint.
“However, martial artists who are Upper-stage Rank-3 and above can forcibly expel Vitality out of their bodies.
“At this point, if you use a specialized Vitality-condensation method to expel Vitality from your body, you can truly use your Vitality as a weapon to injure people...”
Fang Ping looked distressed and commented, “This Combat Technique is a little sinister...”
It was too sinister!
Spitting blood in a lethal blood arrow—if this was treated as a normal blood-spitting ploy, would not one’s opponent surely be killed unawares?
How did his own instructor think of creating such a method?
Lu Fengrou said blandly, “Will you learn it or not?”
“I’ll learn it!” Fang Ping answered crisply. Who was he kidding? Such an incredible Combat Technique had to be learned!
When he engaged in combat with others by using his dadao to slash and hack, he would sometimes encounter wrestling situations and be unable to free up any of his limbs.
At this time, if he could suddenly spit out a mouthful of old blood to pierce straight through his opponent’s brain, that would be extremely useful!
Under normal circumstances, everybody protected their heads jealously because it was the weak point of all martial artists below the upper-ranks—the weakest point in fact.
However, when defending, they only defended against one’s arms and legs. Who would think to defend against one’s mouth?
Therefore in a brawl, it was very hard to land an attack on an opponent’s head as it would be heavily protected.
If something like that happened unexpectedly, things would be much easier if he could use a blood arrow to pierce his opponent’s skull.
Fang Ping felt this kind of Combat Technique was the salvation of mankind. He also felt that Lu Fengrou had created a Combat Technique like this specifically tailored to her own use.
Lu Fengrou smiled lightly, “Actually, there are plenty of people who have thought of Combat Techniques like this, but they’ve never been able to bring them to fruition. Do you know why?”
Over the years, it was not that people had not come up with these sorts of surprise attack methods before.
The main difficulty was that they had no way of getting the methods beyond the drawing board. Even if such a technique was created, its strength was limited.
Fang Ping shook his head.
“Because using Vitality to spew a shot out requires Vitality to pass through your internal organs and throat to accumulate. Anybody can cultivate their internal organs, but the throat...is not the usual direction of cultivation for most people.”
Fang Ping’s eyes lit up suddenly!
“The throat is actually the weak point of many martial artists. Aside from the cervical spine, there is no set bone at the front of the throat for people to hone.
“Even with the use of body-honing to aid in training up an indestructible body, the throat is not an area that can be as deeply trained as others.
“As it is, the key to my Blood Arrow Method is not the blood arrow, it’s the honing of the laryngeal cartilages!
“There are a total of 9 laryngeal cartilages, including the thyroid cartilage, the cricoid cartilage, the epiglottic cartilage...
“It’s not that nobody else has considered using Vitality to hone these cartilages, but when Vitality flows to the throat, the Vitality weakens, and the bones of the skull will not be honed.
“Why do Rank-8 martial artists say you’ve made it when your body is indestructible?
“Because when they hone all of their bones, including these cartilages, their bodies truly become unbreakable and indestructible.
“For Grandmasters, they can get by with or without this method, so they have no need to learn it.
“However, for martial artists of the middle and lower ranks, the Blood Arrow Method’s method of honing the laryngeal cartilages is also very unique in the realm of martial science theory...”
This was also Lu Fengrou’s exclusive secret method.
Powerhouses all had their own exclusive secret methods. Moves like Manic Explosion that were no longer very useful to everyone would be publicized and revealed to the public.
However, techniques like the Blood Arrow Method were very rarely revealed to the public and were instead passed along in secrecy.
That is, unless Lu Fengrou became a Grandmaster; perhaps she would share it with others then.
Otherwise, this was her signature lethal move.
On hearing this, Fang Ping said in some astonishment, “Instructor, this...have my other seniors learned it?”
Lu Fengrou replied carelessly, “Their Vitaliy isn’t strong enough; they would be learning it for nothing. Your Vitality is strong. You can divide your attention to use it in two ways—you can attack from the front, and you can also maneuver your Vitality and put the Blood Arrow Method to good use. That’s why I’m teaching you.
“Remember, you’re not allowed to leak this!”
“Understood!”
“Then I’ll teach you how to hone the laryngeal cartilages now. Honing them isn’t hard, and it’s very quick too. When you complete the honing, you’ll have learned half of the Blood Arrow Method...”
...
In the next few days, Fang Ping only learned three major Combat Techniques.
Manic Explosion—a full-force frontal Saber Technique.
Blood Arrow Method—a secret technique for a surprise attack.
Cloud Step—a necessary fleeing...no, a necessary method for giving chase to the enemy.
The cultivation of three major middle-rank Combat Techniques made Fang Ping give up on his desire to resume delving into the Puncture Kick. As a low-rank Combat Technique, the Puncture Kick was already outdated, stopping at the stage of solely causing damage to the physical body.
Middle-ranked Combat Techniques had already started to involve the strength of his Vitality in many different ways.
One week and three major methods later, Fang Ping was starting to run out of Wealth points.
Fang Ping was so anxious, he was quite irritable. Without Wealth points, he could not restore his Vitality. He did not like to use pills for replenishing; it was not only slow, but he did not know if the pills were created from the bodies of Catacombs humans either. It was better if he took less of them.
...
Just as Fang Ping’s Wealth points ran out, news came from Li Chengze.
“Mr. Fang, the other party has agreed!”
Li Chengze was obviously quite excited. The other party had spent 30 million to purchase 30% of Distance Dining Platform’s equity. He had previously never imagined that this could happen.
This meant that Distance Dining Platform was worth a hundred million in the other party’s eyes!
How much had they really invested?
Recently, Li Chengze had made some cuts on the three items that Fang Ping mentioned and tidied up the financial situation. In the final tally, they had only invested 17 million into the platform, including publicity expenses.
It had not even been a year, yet they were assessed at one hundred million. This was something that had never occurred to him.
Fang Ping was also a little surprised. He asked, phone in hand, “What did the other party say?”
“They said that you have boundless prospects, Mr. Fang. By investing in Distance Ltd, they’re also investing in you.
“I conveyed your words, and the other party’s person-in-charge felt that your future could bring them even greater returns. What they’re investing in is the future, not the present.
“Anyway, what they meant was that they hope to have a good collaborative foundation with Distance Ltd.
“This includes MCMAU’s e-commerce platform. They said that actually, all the schools are observing now and are waiting for the feedback from the results.
“If the online service does well, perhaps very soon, all the big martial arts universities will try online services.
“As Distance Ltd is the first business to use an e-commerce model to promote businesses to martial arts universities, it’s also a demonstration of our strength and capability. If there’s a chance in the later stages, the other party hopes they can collaborate even more with us—in a martial artist e-commerce platform system for example...”
Fang Ping furrowed his brow and said, “We’ll revisit this later. This isn’t something I can decide by myself.”
MCMAU’s platform operation was not something Fang Ping could make decisions on by himself. At the very least, he would need MCMAU’s approval.
Moreover, other martial arts universities were actually observing their progress. This made Fang Ping’s head ache. They were not trying to steal his opportunities, were they?
He did not have much authority at the moment. He had to think of a way to promote the e-commerce platform in other schools...perhaps when he came back from the Catacombs, he could go and have a talk with Old Wang.
If Old Wang who controlled half of NMAU agreed to let Distance Ltd enter NMAU, that would be a lot easier to handle.
An independent platform was never as good as a common platform.
If 99 martial arts universities all used the same platform and Distance was the first one, the chances of obtaining this opportunity were not small provided Fang Ping had the authority to speak.
“When do we sign the contract?”
“They said whenever, but they’re hoping you can sign it in person.”
“No problem!” Fang Ping agreed happily and immediately said, “Today is the 13th. I’ll officially sign on the 15th!”
“Alright then, I’ll let them know.”
Li Chengze was thrilled. Although Distance Dining’s high valuation was due to Fang Ping’s efforts, it still meant the platform was operating well.
This was an affirmation for him!
In this one short year, he had been worried because he had only seen outflow and no inflow. Now things had finally started bearing fruit.
...
“I sold 30% of the equity...”
Fang Ping sighed softly. This was the first time he had sold so much. It would not be good to sell more in the future.
“When I sign the contract, will there be an increase in my Wealth points? I’ve invested 17 million. According to the fixed prices I have now, I should have an increase of 83 million Wealth points, but can there really be an increase in Wealth points?”
This was the first time Fang Ping had encountered such a matter, and his heart was not entirely at peace.
If that did not work, there would be trouble.
“It should be able to work. There’s no reason for it not to. Don’t tell me my company’s net assets have to reach such a big amount? If that’s the case, what’s the point then, no matter how high our valuation among the public listed companies?”
Fang Ping was perturbed and could only try to console himself.
Although he had not put that many stakes into the company, he had always harbored extremely high expectations If he was not successful this time, Fang Ping would puke blood.
...
Even though he was mentally unsettled, Fang Ping still continued cultivating his Combat Techniques.
June 14th was Fang Ping’s tenth day of specializing in Combat Techniques.
Pfft!
As Fang Ping spewed out his blood arrow, a small hole appeared in the bluestone on the ground.
Lu Fengrou wrinkled her brows slightly. Fang Ping said helplessly, “Instructor, I’ve spat out so much blood, I’ll die!”
He felt he could possibly be anemic now, spewing blood every day like this.
Lu Fengrou scoffed coldly, “Stop talking nonsense. You still have too little strength. Even if the skull isn’t honed, it’s still extremely hard. At your current strength, you might be able to injure others, but you’ll have no way to penetrate your opponent’s skull.
“That is, unless you can accurately shoot your blood arrow into your opponent’s eyes every time. That is their weak point, but in battle, you might not get this chance.
“This is a Combat Technique, not just a secret surprise attack method. The Blood Arrow Method also has a Vitality outburst requirement.
“If you want to drill through a person’s skull, your outburst must at least be 30cal of Vitality and above...”
Fang Ping said bitterly, “But my throat is unable to withstand a Vitality outburst of such strength. I’d easily hurt myself.”
“At most, you’ll be a mute for a time. What’s there to be scared of?”
Fang Ping was exhausted. The Blood Arrow Method should just be renamed Seven Injuring Punches; it injured him as well as others. He did not want the day to come when he really died from spewing blood or became a mute.
Lu Fengrou did not have much energy all day. Was this related to spewing out too much blood?
Currently, Fang Ping very much suspected that was the case!
“Continue cultivating the Blood Arrow Method. You can’t neglect the other two Combat Techniques either. Right now your Manic Explosion is only able to increase until the fourth blow.
“If you erupt 50, 70, 90 and 110cal of Vitality, that’s still only 320cal Vitality in total. According to principle, it’s nearly at the level of an ultimate move.
“However, this kind of layering is slightly weaker than a single 320cal Vitality outburst, so it’s just about comparable to the strength of a lethal move.
“Of course, it also lowers the level of mastery you need for this Combat Technique.
“Right now, if you solely used a pure Vitality outburst, one move wouldn’t even reach 150cal, the bare minimum for mastering your body’s inherent power.
“Manic Explosion allows you to master a lethal move in advance. Zhang Dingnan, that old bastard—his improved Combat Technique isn’t bad at all.”
The Manic Explosion Zhang Dingnan had revised was similar to undergoing a clear separation between a lethal move and an ultimate move. This made it much easier than solely mastering one big move.
Currently, if Fang Ping initiated an outburst, a single move might reach 150cal, but it definitely would not reach 200cal.
However, using Manic Explosion to do four consecutive slashes allowed him to have a layered Vitality outburst of 320cal. It was a little weaker than a single move, but it was definitely stronger than the moves that other Upper-stage Rank-3 martial artists used, all of which had a Vitality outburst of 250cal. Naturally, this also consumed a bit more Vitality.
“When you’ve mastered five consecutive slashes, you’ll have truly grasped a Rank-3 ultimate move!”
Lu Fengrou gave a rare smile. She laughed lightly and said, “Once you’ve grasped a Rank-3 ultimate move, you’ll be one of the best among the Rank-3 martial artists. I’m not talking about the Rank-3 ranking for the martial arts universities. I mean the national one, including the Military Department.
“Right now, you haven’t entered the national ranking yet. After you’ve mastered five consecutive slashes, your rank won’t be lower than Qin Fengqing’s.”
Currently, Qin Fengqing was sixth in the ranking for the martial arts universities Two days ago, the grand ranking that was only circulated in the inner circles had been updated, and Qin Fengqing was ranked 46th.
Xie Lei was 99th in the grand ranking, barely making it in.
If Fang Ping mastered five consecutive slashes, his rank would not be far from Qin Fengqing’s. Clearly, Xie Lei had yet to master a Rank-3 ultimate move.
The top fifty Rank-3 martial artists had probably mastered at least one already.
“Of course, this is considered a clever trick, and it also uses up more of your Vitality...however, like I said, for you, there’s not much difference.”
After all, Fang Ping could restore his Vitality.
Fang Ping smiled bitterly nonetheless. Lu Fengrou had overestimated him.
Without Wealth points, he was not much better than the rest; he did not have much more Vitality than anyone else.
In other words, without Wealth points, at most he was at Qin Fengqing’s level, but if he had Wealth points, a few more Qin Fengqings might not necessarily be able to defeat him.
Lu Fengrou continued, “You still aren’t spending enough time cultivating Combat Techniques. You’ve only just grasped the beginning stages. No matter how strong the Combat Technique is, it’s the use of it that counts. If it doesn’t land on its intended target, even a 1000cal outburst is useless.
“That’s why you need to cultivate more. When necessary, you can compare notes with other people.
“Another thing—you don’t have many advantages in Rank-3. If you really want to achieve being invincible among Rank-3 martial artists, at the very least, you’ll need to reach Peak Rank-3 and master an independent ultimate move. Ultimate moves can be strong or weak as well. All moves with an outburst of 300cal and above can be called Rank-3 ultimate moves.
“But what about a 500cal Vitality outburst?
“If one can concentrate the entire body’s Vitality in one move and have a Vitality outburst of 900cal, a Rank-3 powerhouse like this can kill Rank-4 or 5 martial artists!
“They don’t have to have too many moves. Being able to kill the enemy with just one move is the true definition of an ultimate move.”
When Fang Ping heard this, all he could think of was that these were models to look up to!
These sorts of martial artists needed to delve into Combat Techniques for at least ten years or more. Otherwise, it was very hard to achieve.
Fang Ping felt he wanted to achieve this...provided his Vitality could break through the 999cal limit. If his Vitality could reach 1500cal, he might be able to manage an ultimate move with an outburst of 800 or 900cal.
Without sufficient time, he could only resort to hacks.
Fang Ping felt he could consider something like this rather than killing his brain by delving into how to raise Vitality outbursts for his Combat Techniques.
When his cultivation ended on the 14th, Fang Ping was once more on the verge of needing to be rescued. He had forced his 4.5 million Wealth points to last until now, but if he did not get rich tomorrow, he had to quickly think of a way to gain some wealth.
Either that or...he could try getting some protection fees from Chen Yunxi and Zhao Xuemei!