Chapter 029

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‘ ‘ for thoughts.

“ “ for speech.

<> for non-verbal communication like telepathy

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Warning: May contain mature content (18+) of an adult nature. Read at your own risk.

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Note:

Although the full name mentioned here are Chinese style, (example: Fang Hao, surname Fang first then given name Hao), the names clubbed with descriptions are description and then given name instead of description and surname (example Fatty Hao and not Fatty Fang).

Btw, I read all your comments, but may not reply to each and every one separately.

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After his last match with Zhen Ji, in his chainmail armor, it had been around 11 months. His master still hadn’t returned and he continued to receive the embezzled spirit wine/liquor from the senior managing the outer disciple assignment hall, even if a quarter of it was regularly embezzled. He fought in the nonlethal arena regularly and quickly racked up xp and reputation. The reputation was more along the lines of shameless, despicable, thick skinned and a fatty without scruples.

In most 1vs1 fights, opponents who knew about him would give up seeing the armored meatball standing opposite to them with a huge sledgehammer. Those who didn’t would usually be knocked unconscious with a few broken teeth and perhaps a few broken bones too. His strategy of knocking the wind out of his opponents and sitting on them while slapping them unconscious with an armored hand was both shameless and efficient.

Sometimes, he wouldn’t even require sitting on them and slapping! His weapon of choice these days was a sledgehammer and a well-placed whack could smash bones and cause extremely quick victory! Quite a few times, the presiding judge would stop him from fighting and declare him the winner as he used to more often than not manage to break ribs that punctured his opponent’s viscera.

A few people tried imitating his style of being decently armored with blunt hammers and maces. These attempts at mockery were a mixed bag. Although initially they won a few matches, they simply lacked Lord Lard’s superior physique to pull it off for successive fights. These copycats over-drafted their stamina and couldn’t last long, so soon the strategy to combat them was to dodge and run till the opponent got tired. Also, these copycats were miserly saving their fasting pills unlike Fang Hao and couldn’t afford top tier protection, or even a complete suite of chainmail in most cases.

Fang Hao wasn’t the undefeated champion of the late Qi Gathering Disciples, however. His bane was skilled polearm users. The most infuriating of them was Yu Li. The swarthy turtle, as Fang Hao liked to call him, had a cultivation speed that was faster than his own, and had immeasurable skill in spears. He had improved to such a point that he could time his jabs in a rhythm that forced Fang Hao to be conservative or risk losing his balance.

He had difficulty getting in reach to make effective use of his sledgehammer and would choose to give up after a few dozen exchanges. He had confidence that he could beat the swarthy turtle if he got reckless and went all out…but it wasn’t worth it. His physical feats in armor were already far better than most of his peers and being too outstanding had its own hidden dangers. Instead he had formed a sort of friendship/rivalry with the swarthy turtle. They both knew they were hiding cards from each other, but still respected and were comfortable with each other.

Yu Li was the outer disciple with whom he had best relationship after the clique of his fatties. Of course, Fang Hao never shared his wine with any of them. It was a gift from his absentee master and a part of it was already embezzled. He had realized that the way he was drinking earlier, using up multiple jugs for minor boosts in Spirit and Key was extremely wasteful. If he used the Qi from the spirit liquors for cultivating the Divine Vajra Body Scripture, he could progress with twice the result for half the effort.

A total of almost three years had passed since he joined the Jade Pagoda Sect. With the regular bonus xp from the arena, he had rapidly progressed his Qi Cultivation, rivaling the top silver ranked outer disciples who had joined with him. Publically, he gave the credit of his cultivation speed to his master’s regular supply of spirit wine. And the use of spirit wine for his body cultivation had allowed his body cultivation speed to catch up with his Qi cultivation speed. It had been over a month since Fang Hao had reached the 10th layer of the Qi gathering.

He had reached the peak of Qi gathering realm within three years, and was 17 years old in this life, which was enviable speed for outer sect disciples with scarcely any resources. He had heard that Senior Qin Lee, who was the street urchin who had green jade-ranked talent, was already half a step into the Foundation Building Realm! He was showered with the best cultivation resources and learnt the best spells and scriptures.

Now Fang Hao was pacing a bit restlessly in his courtyard, fully equipped in his. For almost half a year, he had made a habit to wear his armor at almost all times, even to is meals at the dining hall. Although it was a pain unequipping his armor in part or full when he wanted to eat, bath or shit; h kept at it. His body had a constant pressure of the encumbering weighing armor and he felt that it helped a bit in cultivating the Divine Vajra Body Scripture. Fang Hao sighed audibly and sat square-legged on the grass as he checked his status screen.

STATUS SCREENName:Fang HaoRace:HumanGender:MaleAge:17 yearsTitles:Lord LardClass:CultivatorUnused Skill Points:20Realm:Qi Gathering RealmLevel:10Current Experience:27653Level Up at Experience:39562Active Effects:StatsPhysique:6.8Finesse:5.6Spirit:7.7Qi22.3/22.3TraitsCalmLuckyPrimal Instinct?? Immortal Monk's Prospective Disciple ??Manuals and ScripturesSublime Qi Manual

(1st Realm, 10th Layer)Divine Vajra Body Scripture

(0 seals, 9 moves)

‘My journey on cultivation was smooth till now and I face my first major hurdles now. As a peak Qi Condensation Disciple, I can no longer take part in the non-lethal arena so my rate of xp has slowed down to a measly 50xp per week from chicken slaughter for the past month. The lethal arena is very dangerous; but with my armor and buying a few real weapons with all the fasting pills I have remaining, I have reasonable confidence to avoid sneaky hidden weapon and slaughter my foes unless they a very powerful crossbow. But participating is not an option, as disobeying one’s master is a severe taboo here and now. It is especially so since I already declared publically that my Master forbade me from lethal matches till Qi Condensation.’