According to the book, out of thirteen cities in Magic City Catacombs, six of them were Monster Plant clan’s forts while seven were strongholds of Monster Life clan.
Other than that, there were also hundreds and thousands of towns and cities!
Almost every fort had a tutelary plant or monster.
“Almost” because the book did not introduce every city’s tutelary plant and monster. Fang Ping did not know whether or not there was a full record of the list.
The book in Qin Fengqing’s hands not only introduced the forts but also described some rather renowned danger areas in Seven Southern Territory.
The Forbidden Sea was one of them!
Fang Ping guessed it right. The sea to the south was indeed The Forbidden Sea!
It was also the most infamous danger area!
“Anyone who went to sea... never made it back alive!”
This was quoted from the book. For many years, there were powerhouses who went to sea. However, none of them made it back alive. The book did not provide many details on The Forbidden Sea. There were only repeated warnings urging people not to go there.
Other places mentioned in the book included the Ten Thousand Ants Desert, Defense Seamount, and Hundred Beasts Forest. All of them were restricted and danger areas.
As for Jiao Forest... there was no entry of it in the book. Perhaps the Jiao was too weak to be significant. After all, it was only a Rank-7 beast not too long ago. Maybe that was why the place was not a restricted area.
Fang Ping read for a moment and frowned slightly. “It seems like the regions that we were involved in are only the tip of the iceberg. I don’t think we’ve been to any of these other places.”
Qin Fengqing sneered. Of course Fang Ping had not been there!
How many times have you been to Magic City Catacombs?
Twice!
Curling up his lips slightly, Qin Fengqing looked indifferent. He said offhandedly, “I’m alright. This Hundred Beasts Forest mentioned in the book, I think I’ve been there once...”
Tang Feng turned his head and stared at him. After a moment, he said slowly, “I know the Hundred Beasts Forest too, actually. There are countless beasts there. You’ve been there before?”
When Qin Fengqing realized that he was being doubted, he was suddenly indignant. “I’ve been there before, alright. I’ve even lured hundreds of beasts out. Forget it if you don’t believe it!”
He did indeed go there once. Of course, he had only loitered at the periphery.
The herbs were truly plentiful there. Qin Fengqing had been moving around casually when he noticed a bunch of them... However, he was just about to pick them when the beasts noticed him and chased him for an entire day. Qin Fengqing did not dig any holes that time. Instead, he hid on top of a huge tree for three days. He was nearly frightened to death.
After that fateful incident, he never returned to the Hundred Beasts Forest. It was too terrifying!
Tang Feng was slightly more convinced after hearing what Qin Fengqing said. He paused for a moment, seemingly thinking of ways to put his thoughts into words.
After a long time, Tang Feng forced out the words, “It’s really not easy for you... to not die in the Catacombs!”
What else could he say?
Since Hundred Beasts Forest was listed as a danger area, it clearly posed life-threatening hazards. Inside it, the number of high-ranked beasts and monster plants would be no less than two digits. There would certainly be Rank-9 ones. A place that could not threaten a Rank-9 would never have qualified as a danger area.
Although Qin Fengqing was only taking a leisurely stroll at the periphery, to be able to walk out alive showed that he was capable.
In the last two years, this kid had gone into the Catacombs more than 30 times. Even Tang Feng admired him for this.
A typical middle-ranked martial artist going into the Catacombs four to five times a year was already qualified as slightly frequent.
Qin Fengqing did not retort either. He was even slightly smug. No matter what happened, he would not die. Impressive, right?
Ignoring Tang Feng, Qin Fengqing said cheerfully, “Monster Sunflower City has sunflower seeds which amplify Mentality after eating; Monster Bamboo City has an ancient Ten Thousand Years Bamboo, weapons constructed with its main core are equivalent to Divine Weapons. You can eat its bamboo shoots too. Although I have no idea what specific effects it has, I’m sure it’ll be awesome!
“Monster Orchid City has an orchid flower that has turned into a goblin spirit. Known to be able to condense the essence of heaven and earth... I’m guessing it’s something valuable like the Life Essence that Fang Ping stole.
“Monster Wood City, though, which is the one we know as Sky Gate City, is pure trash!
“Their Sky Gate Tree doesn’t seem useful at all...”
Fang Ping laughed. “You can’t say that. Any Rank-9 monster or plant is valuable! I think that these plants turning into goblin spirits are much more valuable than animals turning into goblin spirits. Take the Gigantic Willow Tree in Gigantic Willow City as an example. Though it may not seem like much, it is full of treasure from top to bottom!”
As he said that, Fang Ping added, “Last time, they said that Sky Gate City may move its city to merge with Monster Sunflower City. Instructor Tang, do you think this is feasible?”
Tang Feng nodded, saying, “There are signs of that happening. Of course, it’s not going to happen any time soon, and not going to be easy. After all, it is no easy feat for a big city with millions of people to migrate. The power distribution involved isn’t so simple either.
“Sky Gate City’s city lord is still alive; Sky Gate Tree isn’t dead. Even if the migration has been confirmed, it might not happen in the next eight to ten years or so.”
Fang Ping tapped on the coffee table and said, “Today, Sky Gate City only has a Rank-9 city lord, a Rank-9 tutelary monster plant, a Rank-8 commander-in-chief, and five Rank-7 chieftains. This is not very powerful though...”
In the last battle, Sky Gate City suffered tremendous losses. More than half of their Rank-7 and 8 were dead or wounded. There were countless middle-ranked casualties too.
“The Sky Gate City today is really not too strong.
“Of course, saying that is only relatively speaking. After all, they still have two Rank-9s.
“After eliminating both Rank-9s, the remaining high-ranked ability may not compare to MCMAU.
Fang Ping raised his brows, muttering softly, “Perhaps... we can really destroy Sky Gate City! Instructor Tang, when you have also broken through Grandmaster, if you can call on Guardian Wu and Leader Zhao together, plus Magic City Catacombs’ Elder Fan... say...”
Tang Feng frowned suddenly, saying, “Right now, Sky Gate City and Monster Sunflower City have joined hands. If we launch an ambush on Sky Gate City, the other city will definitely lend a hand.”
Fang Ping chuckled. “Well, it’s not that we must annihilate Sky Gate City. Actually, I think I’ve figured it out. In the Catacombs... Rank-9 is the king. Anyone under Rank-9 can only qualify as thugs. Killing a Rank-9 would cause a storm! But, killing Rank-7 and 8 though, honestly, if they die, they die.
“Find an opportunity to destroy the six remaining high ranks in Sky Cate City... We can also consider that as avenging the old vice-chancellor!”
At this moment, Fang Ping had set his sights on Sky Gate City.
It was really near to Hope City!
Of course, the main point was still the benefits. If they successfully destroyed Sky Gate City, other things aside, they would become filthy rich after snatching the underground mine vein!
Seeing that Fang Ping was constantly talking about Sky Gate City, Qin Fengqing spoke up in a grudging tone, “Fang Ping, I think it’s better if we go to Monster Sunflower City. The sunflower seeds amplify Mentality!”
Fang Ping shot him a look. He was in no mood to entertain him.
He continued flipping the pages and reading other books. Among them, Fang Ping also noticed a diary-like book.
This might be the records of the powerhouse at Wolf Head Mountain!
Fang Ping flipped a few pages casually. Suddenly, his eyes paused for a moment at one of the pages.
“Yesterday, Wood King gave me a Divine Wood order... After much hesitation, I gave it to my son. Although the Restricted Area is dangerous, it’s also a place of limitless opportunities. When my son comes back, perhaps... he could earn the title as king?”
Fang Ping paused for a moment. Then, he continued flipping and reading for a bit. After a while, he said, “Wood King is Sky Gate City’s city lord, right? These city lords can enter the Restricted Area. Moreover, they also have the authority to send someone into the Restricted Area...”
Fang Ping lowered his voice and said, “These city lords call themselves kings... No, perhaps the Restricted Area bestowed them the title as kings? Is the Restricted Area what we refer to as the central district?”
After pondering for a moment, Tang Feng answered, “I think so. Earlier, I’ve mentioned to all of you that the Catacombs has genius martial artists too. Prodigy martial artists do exist.
“But have any of you encountered one before?
“The same-rank Catacombs martial artists that we encounter seem to be slightly weaker than human geniuses. Are the Catacombs really so weak?
“Earlier, we hypothesized that these guys have gone to other forts in the Catacombs to gain experience... Now, it seems like they might have all gone into the Restricted Area.”
“Restricted Area...”
Fang Ping mumbled. Honestly, up until now, he had not encountered any same-rank martial artists in the Catacombs who were a match for him.
However, there were countless Catacombs powerhouses and numerous martial artists. How could all of them be so weak?
With so many martial artists around, there will most certainly be the existence of a few powerful same-rank powerhouses. Even so, Fang Ping had never encountered any.
Now, he thought he might have a clue why that was. They might not be here.
Whether it was Seven Southern Territory or Nine Southern Territory, they might just be remote lands.
The Rank-9 paragon powerhouses might also be stationed in the Restricted Area too.
Fang Ping blew out a mouthful of air and chuckled, “It’s better this way. One day, I’ll go to the Restricted Area to take a look. I’m really interested to see how powerful the Catacombs prodigies really are!”
...
After reading the books for a while and chatting for a moment.
Finally, Fang Ping turned to look at Tang Feng, asking, “Instructor Tang, roughly how long will you take to break through Grandmaster?”
Tang Feng pondered for a moment and said, “It depends whether it will go smoothly or not. If everything goes well, then it’ll be about a year. If it doesn’t, and if my Mentality is stuck at the corporealization stage, then it’ll be hard to tell.”
Mentality could corporealize at the 1000Hz mark.
However, there were those who were stuck at the 900s. Mentality corporealization was a hurdle for many Rank-6 martial artists.
Today in MCMAU, Old Man Li, Lu Fengrou, and Tang Feng’s Vitality were already perfected a long time ago. They were all lacking in Mentality.
Among them, Lu Fengrou’s Mentality was the strongest so far, hitting more than 900Hz. Tang Feng came in second, at six to seven hundred Hz. Even the increment speed was very fast. Old Man Li’s was the worst. Until now, he had not hit the 500Hz threshold required to expel Mentality.
“Mentality...”
Fang Ping mumbled. As expected, Mentality was the greatest challenge to achieve Grandmaster.
Perhaps he really did need to bring some Monster Sunflower City’s sunflower seeds back.
Fang Ping said no more. Tang Feng had things to do as well, and left very quickly.
Once he left, Qin Fengqing could not help but heave a sigh of relief. He began swearing, “Big Lion is turning into a fool from all your deception...”
“Instructor Tang, do you need anything else?”
Fang Ping ignored him, standing up once more.
Qin Fengqing’s body was completely frozen. He twisted his neck and was smiling gingerly. “Instructor Tang, that’s not what I mean...”
Before he could finish his sentence, he took a second look at the door... It was empty. No one was there!
Qin Fengqing was so pissed that his face was turning purple!
Fang Ping had already sat down at this moment, putting on a deadpan look, as if he did not even say anything earlier.
When he saw Qin Fengqing glaring at him, Fang Ping let out a faint smile, saying, “Alright. Calm down. Let’s continue our previous discussion. Have you considered the mine-digging matter?”
“I won’t do it!”
“Pay my money back then. It’s time that you return me my one hundred million or so.”
Qin Fengqing’s expression was frighteningly dark. What did you mean by one hundred million or so? Who owed you more than one hundred million?
Could a gambling matter even be taken so seriously?
Seeing that he did not utter a word, Fang Ping continued, “I won’t collect the money from you now. I’ll wait until you break through Peak Rank-4 first. At that time, I should be at Middle-stage Rank-5 already. Perhaps even Upper-stage or Peak. You just need to lead the way. Lead the way once and I’ll clear your debts. More than one hundred million just for this simple task. Are you sure you want to reject such a lucrative transaction?”
Qin Fengqing was mentally and emotionally tired. Just like that, he had been declared to have carelessly owed more than one hundred million. Why did he not feel anything at all!
He did not answer Fang Ping’s question. Qin Fengqing did not even have the mood to stay around. Without even bidding farewell, he left at the speed of light.
...
In the blink of an eye, it was Year 2010 now.
On January 1st, MCMAU had taken new measures!
Starting from that day, the campus loan platform would be opened to every student. The total loan quota was a million credits. After converting that to cash, it would be a staggering 30 billion!
There were less than 7000 MCMAU students. After spreading the money out, everyone would obtain nearly 5 million loan quota on average.
As for the 30 billion fund supply, MCMAU had funded more than half of it. Fang Ping supplied nearly ten billion worth of energy stones under Distance Company’s name!
The news that Fang Ping had supplied so many energy stones shocked anyone who knew!
This fellow was truly loaded!
As for Fang Ping, other than keeping more than ten cultivation-aiding energy stones for himself, the basic energy stones were all tossed to MCMAU.
To put it bluntly, these basic energy stones, other than taking up space, were practically useless to Fang Ping right now.
Other than increasing the quota of the loan system, MCMAU had taken plenty of other measures too.
MCMAU had begun expanding the Energy Room. The expansion this time was done on a large scale. It was estimated that after the expansion was complete, the Energy Room that could originally only accommodate about 100 people would be able to accommodate 500 people to cultivate at the same time.
Of course, the money involved was substantial too. They paid a big price for the Energy Room construction.
Even though MCMAU already had its foundation with many fully-equipped facilities, building an Energy Room that was a few times bigger, still required over ten billion, at least!
Not only that, the campus pill and weapon production line expansion, equipment purchase, and manpower increase were all staggering expenses.
There was also the instructors’ bonus increment and the expansion of other infrastructure.
Today, on the 1st, just the few policy changes that were announced already forced MCMAU to supply at least 40 billion worth of funds.
Meanwhile, 40 billion was the financial appropriation allocated by the government to MCMAU starting in October.
If the calculations were done based on this, Fang Ping had just spent all of the financial appropriations in advance before it even came in.
The students were overjoyed while some of the higher-ups in the university were laden with anxieties.
MCMAU had also gained quite some attention from the outside world.
Recently, especially during this period of time, MCMAU had done a lot of things.
To put it harshly, it was like they were exhausting all their resources to build military power.
...
Fang Ping did not care what the outside world was talking about.
At this moment, he stopped bustling about all over the place. Instead, he began to focus on his own cultivation.
No matter what they said, ability still ruled over everything else.
Without ability, everything else would be empty.
Although it seemed like he was making all the decisions here at MCMAU, Fang Ping knew that at a crucial point, if Wu Kuishan and the others felt that his actions were not fitting for MCMAU’s benefits, all they needed to do was to step out to say a few words and Fang Ping would be thrown out.
One was a Rank-8, another was a Rank-5.
If Fang Ping had to choose between chasing away a Rank-8 golden body powerhouse or a Rank-5 middle-ranked martial artist, he would undoubtedly toss out the Rank-5.
Even if this Rank-5 was a genius, the truth would not change.
...
Southern area. Seaside.
The sea was tranquil and carried no waves. Even so, a series of roaring waves were heard on the shore.
However, after taking a close look, one would realize that it was not the sound of water waves but the powerful surges of Vitality Force.
On the shore, Fang Ping was completely enveloped by Vitality Force like a wrapped blood cocoon.
The Vitality Force outside his body was constantly rolling, interacting inside and outside repeatedly, all the while honing Fang Ping’s vital organs.
At this moment, Fang Ping was seemingly unconcerned about his Vitality consumption.
Plus, he had already stored massive amounts of life energy in his body from the start. If one could see through it all, one would realize that currently, Fang Ping’s internal organs’ honing speed had hit a limit.
His five viscera had already turned completely translucent.
Other internal organs had also shown signs of being less opaque. Even his flesh and blood portrayed certain changes. Like bloodied-jade, the flowing blood was filled with luster and a sense of beauty.
Vitality rolled on. After a long time, the surging and roaring Vitality Force gradually subsided.
Fang Ping opened his eyes. With rapt attention, he took a look at the system’s stats:
Wealth: 11.92billion (convert)
Vitality: 3455cal (3999cal)
Mentality: 590Hz (739Hz+)
Bones Honed: 177 bones (100%), 6 bones (90%), 23 bones (30%+)
Storage Space: 1 cubic meter (+)
Energy Shield: 10 thousand Wealth/minute
These few days, his Mentality showed signs of growing once more. Other changes were not too significant, though.
However, Fang Ping knew that he could not solely depend on these stats to determine whether his ability had been enhanced or not.
Internal organ-honing progressed very fast now. If he completed all internal organ-honing, he would achieve Middle-stage Rank-5. At that time, when he fought others, his internal organs would not suffer critical damage easily like it did now.
Bang!
Fang Ping smacked the ground. The ground surface shook. It did not create a pit or show any cracks. Though the place where Fang Ping struck earlier looked seemingly fine, the next second, it collapsed instantly.
The smack he employed earlier had crushed the mud and stone underneath from the tremors.
“I still have so much Wealth. It’s useless to just leave it lying around. If I have to use it, then I must.”
Watching the numbers carrying the “+” sign, Fang Ping was really tempted.
At this moment, what he could increase were Mentality, skull-honing speed, and storage space size.
“If I increase too much Mentality, I’m afraid it will take some time to adapt...”
Fang Ping was pretty familiar with the system now. After all the times he increased his stats, he knew very clearly what sort of abnormal response would happen after he increased them.
Even so, the adaptation was only for a short period of time.
Adding a 1Hz upper limit in Mentality required only 10 thousand Wealth. It was really cheap.
Fang Ping did not consider too much. Very soon, he began increasing his Mentality.
740Hz... 750Hz... all the way to 799Hz. It was only at this moment that the “+” sign had vanished.
Fang Ping shook his head gently and murmured, “I feel okay. Much better than the first time.”
The first time he increased it, he lost control for a few days.
But now, other than feeling like his brain was slightly swollen, he did not feel any strong discomfort.
Just like that, his Mentality had increased by 60Hz!
If this news went out, the Grandmasters would be green with envy. After the feeling of jealousy subsided, they might also want to smash his brain open and see what exactly was going on inside.
“Nearly 800Hz now. Corporealization doesn’t seem too far away now!”
Fang Ping’s eyes darted slowly. Would he attain Mentality corporealization before he even sealed off his Sanjiao Gate?
If that happened, what would people classify him as?
Grandmaster or Rank-6?
“If I hone the skull, will Mentality continue to increase?”
“If the 23 remaining skull bones have also honed up to 90%, then my bone-honing speed is actually higher than Old Man Li. For now, his entire body’s bones have only honed up to 90%. But, his physique is much stronger than mine. His flesh, blood, meridians have all been reconstructed. Even his Sanjiao Gate has been sealed off.”
“I don’t care anymore. I’ll just try it out. If I complete the honing of all the bones in my body, then I won’t have to be envious of Iron Head Li’s skull anymore.”
Speaking of skull-honing, last time, he honed the smallest ossicle. Honing an ossicle up to 90% had increased the degree of honing by 60%. The consumption was six million Wealth. This consumption was actually extremely low.
If 23 other bones were also of the same consumption, it would only be 138 million Wealth.
“I don’t care anymore. Even if it increases 10 times more, it will still be less than 1.4 billion.”
At this moment, Fang Ping was truly rich and overbearing. He did not even care for this bit of consumption.
Right now, his main concern was whether or not he could bear the skull-honing.
“I should be able to...” Fang Ping mumbled on. The “+” sign was still there. That meant that he had not reached the maximum limit.
If he had reached the maximum limit, then the “+” sign would vanish.
Even if there was a possibility of him losing control, it might not pose any risk to his life either.
“I want an iron head too!”
Fang Ping was really envious of Li Hansong’s iron head. The next moment, Fang Ping made up his mind. He gritted his teeth and began honing!
When he was at Rank-4, nothing happened to him when he honed his ossicles. He was a Rank-5 now. It should be fine to hone other parts. At this moment, his physique was so much stronger!