Chapter 42

It was not just Linzhou City—every part of the country was starting to move.

On the fourth of September, all regions held a press conference at virtually the same time, and announced the matter of martial arts academies. The news spread rapidly, leaving countless shocked.

Reports and theories revolving around the martial arts academies appeared everywhere all at once. Moreover, with paranormal incidents caused by the Revival of Qi occurring in quick succession, many had soon put two and two together, just as all social opinions blew up instantly.

***

Meanwhile, at Jinyintan Village, work was starting on Jiang He’s mansion.

The collapsed houses had been demolished yesterday afternoon, while the construction materials were brought in and the building foundation was established by nightfall. Jiang He had spoken—the construction must be finished as soon as possible with quality assurance!

As the workers would be working in three continuous shifts, their wages were tripled too. Jiang He even forked out another twenty thousand dollars to treat them, filling his Raptor pickup truck with cigarettes, beverages, and chicken.

“Big Onion Bro, please pass these smokes and drinks to the workers. And when it’s time to eat, distribute the chicken so that each pair can share one. I’ll call for some delivery if there’s not enough.”

Jiang He proceed to lay down on his backseat and take a nap. He had to give it to the Ford Raptor’s vast interior space—it was comfortable even lying down.

As he swiped through his phone to read through the news online, he found that over a single day, various posts had popped up like mushrooms after the rain. The government had also eased their prohibition considerably, and only banned certain unrealistic rumors or reports.

“Martial arts academy…”

“It seems that the country is going strong with their efforts to popularize martial arts. If my hunch is right, the thirty-six academies were only experimental. Still, after a few years of development, martial arts might become a nine-year mandatory educational program, and the era where every citizen is trained in martial arts will dawn upon the whole world.”

“When the time comes, the country will abandon remote cities and villages, gathering the population whilst building bases and citadels, and hence progress the age of conflict against Ferals!”

Yup.

That was how it was written in most novels, and it was inevitable.

As the Ferals continued to evolve and breed, they would only increase in numbers and strength. That was why a centralized population was necessary to maintain the spark of humanity. If the population was still sparse like it was now, would help ever come in time if towns and villages were attacked by Ferals?

How would they withstand waves of attacking Ferals?

“Forget it. Why am I thinking so much about it? I’m just an average newbie in martial arts who wants nothing more than to peacefully cultivate my eight-hundred and eighty-eight squared meters farm…”

Still, Jiang He was quite troubled when he remembered his farm. It was time to level it up. The sooner he could improve it to level 3, the sooner he could gather his EXP.

He glanced at his System panel.

[Name: Jiang He]

[Cultivation: Rank Five Intermediate]

[Ability: None]

[Martial Arts Cultivation: Indestructible Diamond (Initiate +), Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms(+), Strengthened Nine Yang Technique (First Tier +), Blind Princess’ Eight Practices (First Practice +)]

[Owned Land: 888m²]

[Farm Level: 2 (EXP 500/500)]

[System Backpack: 6 boxes]

[System Shop: Unlocked]

[Farm Points: 1,163]

The EXP in his farm level was full, but he did not meet the level-up conditions.

“Fifty kilograms of rank-seven Feral flesh. Two portions of rank-six Feral flesh, each a hundred kilograms, along with ten liters of rank-six Feral blood…”

Jiang He stared at the System panel for half a day, and tried but failed to improve his Indestructible Diamond technique. Improving it to Beginner required 2,000 farm points, and he simply did not have enough.

‘I have eleven hundred farm points now, so I can learn two more moves from the Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms. Still, that won’t improve my ability by much… it’ll be better if I stick to popping pills,’ thought Jiang He even as he ate his qi pellets.

Its effect of improving his cultivation was clearly weaker after he reached rank-five.

It took him a day of popping pills to reach rank-five intermediate, and it would at take him until at least tonight to finally reach rank-five advanced… Of course, Jiang He had set aside time to have carrots and cucumbers as well. Otherwise, rank-five advanced would have to wait until tomorrow afternoon.

Since carrots strengthened his vision like a hawk’s and made darkness as clear as day, it was not an ability that could be left out. As for the cucumbers… Jiang He recently noticed that he was becoming spirited with each cucumber he ate, as if the energy in his head was about to overflow.

It was perhaps a sign of Awakening.

Therefore, even though he was about to puke from having cucumbers, Jiang He forced himself to finish two sticks every day.

“I am still too weak! I only managed to make Cheng Dongfeng vomit blood after he held back his cultivation to rank-five. It’ll be challenging to fight a rank-six Feral, but after I’ve cultivated up to rank-five advanced, I can hunt them to get some flesh and blood…”

“As for rank-seven… the difference between rank six and seven is like a grandmaster versus a rank-six martial artist. Hmm… come to think of it, how powerful is a rank-seven grandmaster? Should I test myself against Duan Tianhe?”

“Forget it, it would be impolite to spar against him. It’ll be better to just ask him how to kill a grandmaster or a rank-seven Feral!”

After musing to himself for half a day, Jiang He eventually decided to dial Duan Tianhe’s number. Duan Tianhe was slow to answer. The call was only connected after the dial tone rang for over twenty seconds.

However, Jiang He stuttered when the call was connected. Embarrassed to speak out, he talked about nothing important until Duan Tianhe finally asked on his own, “Is there something you want to ask me, Jiang He?”

“Yes, there is,” said Jiang He. “Chief Duan, I heard that your Martial Arts Department has an intelligence branch… so can I ask if there are any rank-six Ferals near Linzhou City?”

“Rank-six Ferals? There aren’t any near Linzhou City for now, but there’ll probably be some if you head a few dozen miles eastward from the Changliushui scenic route.”

“Eastward from Changliushui?” Jiang He frowned. “Isn’t that the Ningdong Mines?”

“That’s right,” replied Duan Tianhe. “The mines are closed at the moment after a Feral attack a month ago. The Ferals retreated into the mountains after the military intervened… By the way, why are you asking about it?

“Haha! It’s nothing, I’m just asking… By the way, Chief Duan, since you are a grandmaster and a senior in martial arts, there is a general knowledge question about martial arts I wanted to ask you.”

“Oh?” Over at the chief’s office in the Martial Arts Department, Duan Tianhe suddenly became interested and smiled faintly. “Just ask. As long as I know the answer, I will tell you everything I know.”

“Hmmm… isn’t that a little bad?” said Jiang He.

“There’s nothing bad about it. This isn’t an age of feudal warlords, and things must be shared for the martial arts world to develop rapidly. So tell me, what did you want to ask?”

Even so, Jiang He was a little embarrassed. But since Duan Tianhe had put it that way, he promptly asked, “So, the question I wanted to ask is, how can a rank-five martial artist kill a martial arts grandmaster? Of course, it doesn’t matter if I can’t kill them, but I need to carve out some flesh at least.”

“Hello? Hello…? Can you hear me, Chief Duan?”

Beep-beep-beep-beep!!!

Jiang He was a little speechless. Why did Duan Tianhe hang up when the conversation was just getting good? And he was the one who said that he would tell Jiang He everything he knew.

To think that I really believed that you were sentimental and righteous!