Chapter 142: New Progress

Chenzhou is situated at the southeasternmost tip of the Central Plains, close to the coastal waters.

In the lore of "Dynasties," Chenzhou is a place steeped in profound historical heritage. Several millennia ago, the primordial ancestor of Chinese civilization, Taihao Fuxi, established his capital here. They instituted surnames, established marriage customs, wove fishing nets, promoted culinary arts, drew the Eight Trigrams, forged weapons of war, and cultivated martial virtues, unifying the realm under heaven and giving birth to Huaxia civilization. This marked the first great fusion of the Chinese nation and birthed the totem of the dragon, leading subsequent generations to proudly call themselves "Descendants of the Dragon."

The terrain of Chenzhou is complex and ever-changing. Not only is the prefecture vastly expansive, but it also encompasses mountain ranges, great rivers, lakes, and rolling hills. Heading north, one can follow the Grand Canal straight to the vital imperial capital; traveling south, one can take the official highway all the way to Qiongzhou; and setting out eastward, one can sail downstream into the open sea for distant voyages. Chenzhou is not only a hub of comprehensive transportation and economic prosperity, but also a paradise where talented scholars and romantic poets of the Southern Dynasties, along with heroes and gallants of all stripes, linger and forget to return.

The Fengling Ferry exhibits the distinct charm of a Jiangnan water town. Although it is merely a town, its scale rivals that of Fuling Commandery in Ezhou from days past.

Having struggled and toiled in the wilderness for so long, Zhang He was finally able to enter a city once again.

After parting ways with the young woman surnamed Lin, Zhang He had walked along the Southern River all the way to the Fengling Ferry, a journey that took over a week.

Of course, he was not doing this out of sheer idleness, but rather to combine his travel with cultivation along the way.

During this period, Zhang He truly endured a great deal of hardship. He spent the entire journey grinding levels, slaughtering either Mottled Scaled Serpents or Black Wild Boars. There was a reason why he avoided bosses; although he could handle a fierce-grade boss alone, the consumption of medicinal supplies was devastating. Given his limited provisions, he dared not squander medicines recklessly, and besides, fierce-grade bosses did not drop anything particularly valuable.

He could also fight savage-grade bosses, but apart from the heavy consumption of medicines, the crucial factor was the sheer risk. A momentary lapse in concentration would cost him his life. Zhang He was not afraid of death, but if he died now, he would respawn in the city of Fuling Commandery in the Ezhou region. To travel from there back to Chenzhou would take roughly a week just by boat—a situation so miserable he wouldn't even be able to cry.

As for terrifying-grade bosses, they were simply beyond the capabilities of a lone wanderer. Encountering such bosses along the road meant he could only watch from afar and do nothing else. As for devastating-grade or mythological-grade bosses, young Master Zhang never even entertained such thoughts.

Thus, grinding low-level monsters along the way for slow advancement, though time-consuming, allowed him to roast and eat snakes anytime and anywhere.

Well?

While others couldn't be bothered to roast and eat snakes, our young Master Zhang was so industrious that roasted snakes were all he could eat.

Just like his trip to Golden Buddha Mountain, though this lifestyle was arduous, the hardship was not entirely without reward.

In the span of a week or so, Zhang He had gained a full 13 levels, bringing his current status to the 2nd Transition, Level 53. His complete attributes were currently as follows:

Level: 53, Sect: None, Title: None,
Constitution: 658 points, Bone Structure: 78 points, Strength attribute: (Nascent Realm 55 points) + (Nurturing Realm 85 points) + 0 points, Internal Qi: (Nascent Realm 48 points) + (Nurturing Realm 80 points) + 0 points, Movement Agility: (Nascent Realm 149 points) + 0 points;
Mind Technique: 8 points, Courage: 26 points, Karmic Luck: 0 points, Defense: 147 points, Chivalry Value: 24 points, Evil Value: 50 points.

A closer look would reveal that his attributes seemed largely unchanged since his time at the Renowned Sword Manor, because this fellow had poured all his stat points gained from leveling up entirely into Constitution. With a full 658 points in Constitution, among those who had undergone the 2nd Transition, young Master Zhang had already become a veritable little blood tank.

Now, let alone taking a blow, he wasn't even afraid of taking two or three consecutive strikes.

In truth, this was forced upon him by circumstances. As everyone knows, wilderness survival is grueling. High Constitution means a heavy load-bearing capacity, great stamina, fast health regeneration, slow hunger accumulation, and fewer wasted precious medicines.

By now, Zhang He had gradually figured out some gaming experiences suited to himself. For instance, he tried to carry as few medicines as possible when venturing out to reduce his load, and the same applied when killing monsters. In reality, the opportunities to heal oneself during a fight are very slim. When facing an opponent of matched strength, how many chances do you get to use medicine over the course of a battle? And when facing a formidable expert, would they ever give you the chance to heal?

In terms of martial arts, several of Zhang He's disciplines had finally reached perfection:

"Attack and Slaughter Sword Technique" (Supreme Grade, increases attack output by 40%)
"Flying Rock Sword Technique" (Supreme Grade, Attack +30%, critical strike chance +20%)
"Gold Coin Dart" (Supreme Grade, can simultaneously release 5 copper coins, damage = Internal Qi * 2.5 + Strength)
"Flying Rock Palm" (Supreme Grade, unarmed damage = (Strength + Internal Qi) * 2.5, palm wind damage = Internal Qi * 2.5)
"Crag-Shattering Kick" (Supreme Grade, melee damage = (Strength + Internal Qi) * 2.0, area-of-effect damage = (Strength + Internal Qi) * 1.0)
"Transforming Withered into Flourishing" (Supreme Grade, extends normal internal qi usage duration + 180 seconds)
"Aura Pervading All Directions" (Supreme Grade, Courage * 2.5)
"Breeze Formula" (Supreme Grade, restores 50% fatigue, 20% stamina value, increases weight capacity by 20%)
"Returning Wind Formula" (Supreme Grade, recovers 1 point of normal internal qi attribute per second)
"Song-Treading Stride" (Supreme Grade)
"Lingbo Crossing" (Supreme Grade)

However, these martial arts were all lower-tier techniques. On one hand, their levels were easy to grind up; on the other hand, any martial art, once brought to the supreme grade, cannot be underestimated.

Therefore, looking broadly at Zhang He's martial arts, it is not difficult to deduce that his current phase focused primarily on absolute high attack, high damage, and high courage. His offensive power was exceptionally formidable, but his defense was practically nonexistent.

Currently, when Zhang He wielded the Golden Snake Sword in conjunction with the "Attack and Slaughter Sword Technique," the "Flying Rock Sword Technique," and "Aura Pervading All Directions," channeling his internal qi and strength at the second-tier realm to thrust forward with all his might, his theoretical maximum attack output was: 732 points, accompanied by a bleeding damage of 10 points per second lasting for 5 seconds, with a critical strike probability of around 50%.

Thus, the double yellow critical damage of a critical strike would be: "1464 points."

Meanwhile, the triple green weakness-targeting damage of a perfect strike would be: "2196 points."

Such attack output posed an absolute, fatal threat to anyone below the 6th Transition. One could say young Master Zhang was now a complete god of slaughter.

Of course, this was built upon the foundation of naked damage, ignoring the opponent's equipment and martial arts—it was purely theoretical damage. In actual combat, achieving such damage had a probability infinitely close to zero. If he wanted to increase this probability, there were truly no shortcuts whatsoever, save for continuous cultivation, strenuous self-improvement, and the simultaneous learning of more advanced martial arts.

Consequently, through this recent cultivation, several new martial arts had also been improved. Being intermediate martial arts, their level progression was not as rapid as the lower-tier ones:
"Swallow's Return Whirl" (Mastery Grade, damage = Internal Qi * 2.0 + Strength * 1.6)
"Grand Stele-Shattering Palm" (Mastery Grade, (Strength + Internal Qi) * 1.0)
"Azure Wind Flourish" (Mastery Grade, extends post-depletion internal qi usage duration + 120 seconds)
"Ruyi Finger" (Mastery Grade, damage: Strength * 0.6)
"Butterfly Steps" (Mastery Grade)

Among these martial arts, the hardest one to train was undoubtedly the "Swallow's Return Whirl." Because during combat against others, such a bizarre hidden weapon technique was rarely used to begin with, making its progression all the slower.

The levels of martial arts in "Dynasties" were not represented by numerical data. For instance, "Swallow's Return Whirl" had a current level indicated as 27/100; it did not work by simply executing the move 100 times to level up.

Martial arts levels lacked a traditional experience bar. They relied entirely on the player's own learning, exploration, comprehension, repetitive application, and practice before they could finally upgrade.

Taking the "Crag-Shattering Kick" as an example: once conditions such as your movement posture, output damage, and the artistic conception of the technique reached a certain threshold, it would automatically upgrade. This was closely tied to the player's talent and comprehension ability, and numerically had a tremendous correlation with the Bone Structure and Karmic Luck attributes—especially Bone Structure, where a high Bone Structure attribute yielded twice the result with half the effort.

Otherwise, without grasping the methodology and secrets, stubbornly and mechanically practicing it one hundred and eighty thousand times still wouldn't result in a level-up.

The "Crag-Shattering Kick" was merely a lower-tier martial art, which players could easily understand and comprehend, allowing it to level up quickly. Conversely, for advanced martial arts, superior techniques, or supreme divine arts, the required conditions were numerous.

Particularly for supreme divine arts, the demands were extremely strict, encompassing not just movement postures and attack damage, but even mind techniques, formations, incantations, the current environment, frequency of use, and the triggered auxiliary effects.

In short, everyone could learn supreme martial arts, but whether one could use them well was not something everyone could achieve.

If you possessed great martial arts yet neglected research and practice, even if you memorized the "Nine Yin Manual," you could still end up beaten black and blue by someone else's "Grand Patriarch's Long Fist."

However, these were limitations imposed upon righteous players; those belonging to the underworld and the Demic sects were exempt from such restrictions. The brain system's requirements for underworld players to level up their martial arts were not nearly as stringent. Moreover, the higher their evil value, the easier it was to cultivate poisonous and demonic arts, progressing at a terrifying speed. Of course, the price to pay was that the Six Doors constables and righteous pugilists would constantly come looking for trouble. As long as you could withstand it, you were free to be your mountain lord or grand demon king to your heart's content.

While diligently cultivating these martial arts, Zhang He also figured out quite a few patterns and experiences.

Take the newly learned "Grand Stele-Shattering Palm," for example. The offensive power of this martial art was now approaching that of the "Sword of Dynasties." Although the attack output seemed comparable, in reality, the side effects of the "Grand Stele-Shattering Palm" were much greater. Zhang He noticed that after using this martial art, one was temporarily unable to employ the "Swallow's Return Whirl."

Why?

It was simply because the stylistic routes of these two martial arts were diametrically opposed, and both required Nurturing Realm internal qi and Nascent Realm strength. Zhang He's current level of cultivation simply could not sustain the simultaneous execution of both martial arts. Therefore, he had to pin his hopes on the 3rd Transition. Once he underwent the 3rd Transition and further advanced his internal qi, through diligent practice, he would be able to strike with his left palm while simultaneously unleashing hidden weapons with his right hand.

Meanwhile, the three skills "Attack and Slaughter Sword Technique," "Flying Rock Sword Technique," and "Aura Pervading All Directions" belonged to lower-tier martial arts; Nurturing Realm internal qi could easily sustain the simultaneous operation of all three. The principle was much like driving a Changan minibus onto a highway: if you stubbornly forced it to reach speeds of one hundred and fifty or one hundred and sixty miles per hour, the vehicle would surely begin to flutter and fall apart, ultimately resulting in a fiery crash. But fine cars like BMWs and Mercedes-Benzes were entirely different—hitting speeds of one hundred and fifty or one hundred and sixty was an effortless and pleasant affair.

Of course, many players could think of this logic, but figuring out a method to turn trash into treasure was something only a select few could accomplish.

Zhang He's approach was that the moment the "Grand Stele-Shattering Palm" was spent, he would instantly deploy the "Song-Treading Stride" lightness skill to flash away, then spin back to unleash the "Swallow's Return Whirl" for a ferocious strike against the enemy. In this way, he not only bypassed the lag time between skill transitions but also successfully evaded enemy attacks. To put it bluntly, he cleverly substituted lightness skills to offset the side effects.

Zhang He had researched quite a few such clever tricks this time around, giving him even greater confidence to complete his mission upon arriving in Chenzhou. However, having spent so long without entering a city, he certainly needed to replenish his stamina and improve his meals.

He raised his head to look at the foremost tavern by the Qing River, upon which hung a sign reading "Flavor Pavilion." Without overthinking it, Zhang He immediately stepped inside.