"Elder Du! Elder Du! There's an emergency, the..."

"Enough enough! I am already aware of that! Do you really think I would not notice such a thing!" angrily shouted Elder Du. He was the only elder of the Li family that stayed at Algate City while the rest went to other smaller towns. Compared to the other members of the family, Elder Du did not need to go to fight monsters every day. He simply stayed at the training center to practice his techniques or at the inn to manage the family's affairs.

His lifestyle had been very relaxed. He could work at his own pace. He was taking a nap in his office when he suddenly received a message. He first completely ignored the beeping sound, thinking that it was just one of those ordinary intelligence reports coming in. He simply cut off the sound and went back to sleep, but it did not even last for a minute as a plethora of beeps woke him up again.

It was extremely frustrating, but he eventually opened his interface to look at the messages while grumbling. It was only then that he learned about what happened and naturally, he became extremely furious. Someone had actually succeeded in obtaining the technique they put up for display; it was supposed to be impossible and yet, someone did it. More importantly, it looked like only his family's technique was taken down which lead him to think that the Li family was being targeted.

It was the precise moment Li Feng and Li Mu chose to storm into his office while loudly shouting:

"What happened Elder Du? Didn't all the families sign a contract to prevent us from buying others' technique? You checked and signed the contract. How did the Cai family succeed in obtaining ours?" exclaimed Li Feng.

Elder Du was already in an extremely bad mood and now, he had to deal with the two youngsters in front of him. Since he was the only elder left in the city, he was naturally the one who represented the Li family for signing the contract. But now, it looked like Li Feng was blaming him for not noticing a possible loophole.

He really wanted to beat the crap out of the youngster in front of him but Elder Du held his contempt inside and politely answered. After all, Li Feng was the son of the current patriarch of the Li family; if he harmed or humiliated Li Feng in any way, then Elder Du would have no way to escape the punishment of the patriarch.

"I looked carefully at the contract and even sent a copy to your father before signing it. He even agreed to it. There are no possible loopholes! It can only mean that the person who acquired our technique genuinely obtained the necessary contribution points to buy it. There is nothing we can do about it! If we were to punish that player, then what would the other recruits say?" said Elder Du.

"Then how do you explain the fact that he obtained the necessary contribution points from the Cai Family just before exchanging them for our technique? Wasn't it written in the contract?"

"Naturally, but what was written in the contract is clear: we shall not give our contribution points to outer members of our family with the intent of having them obtain other families' techniques. That can only mean that the final goal of the Cai family was not to allow that player to obtain our technique. They had another purpose in mind. However, the player himself wanted to obtain the technique. The contract does not protect us from that since the Cai Family did not technically want to obtain our technique in the first place! As long as they have even the slightest intention of allowing one of their outer members obtain our technique, then the contract would have come into effect and prevented the trade of contribution points. So it was just a normal trade between them but what they traded just happened to have a high value."

"What kind of bullshit is that? How can we be the only family whose technique was taken! Who will be responsible for that? How could you sign the contract when you knew about this possible loophole!" shouted Li Mu on the side. He was Li Feng's cousin and the two were very often seen together. While he was angry that the family's technique was leaked out, he was more concerned about who to blame. It was clear that this incident would have some repercussions on the family and someone needed to shoulder the responsibilities and the clear candidate in his mind for that was naturally Elder Du.

"Wait a second, I just thought of something! Does that mean I can give my contribution points to someone to have them purchase the technique they put on display right now? It should work, right?" angrily asked Li Feng.

"If you only aim at taking revenge on the Cai Family, technically yes but that will not happen. If you did not check the trade point yet, all the other families already removed their techniques on display. They all naturally noticed that ours disappeared and quickly removed theirs before someone succeeds in obtaining them. We are the only one that made a loss..."

"This is unacceptable! How could this happen... The prices were clearly way above what people could afford!"

Elder Du was feeling more and more frustrated. The two youngsters in front of him clearly did not come here to discuss the incident but more to blame him. He was helpless in this matter since even the patriarch agreed to the contract. But suddenly, a thought crossed his mind and he quickly said:

"You should calm down young master. Please listen to me for a moment! While it's true that someone obtained our technique, it is also an opportunity to recruit him. You should have already looked at his profile and he is indeed someone that can be recruited. We only put the first two parts of the technique for display. We can naturally attract him with the remaining parts of the technique. Once he completes the first two parts, there is no way he would not be interested in the remaining ones. As long as we play our cards right, then this can be considered as an investment..."

...

In another part of the city, Bright Sun just went back to her room and was about to take a shower when she heard a jingle indicating that she received a message. She was currently in a great mood; she just submitted the improved training pattern that she received earlier from Li Wei to elder Mo, the elder left behind to look after the younger generation of the Cai Family.

The latter was naturally very pleased to receive the technique. He did not really care about what the youngsters were doing but improving a technique was definitely something important in his eyes. While it did not look like the most significant contribution, it was the cumulation of such improvements that would lead to a rise in status of the Cai Family.

Since Bright Sun was the one that submitted the technique, elder Mo naturally decided to side with her and protect her from the arranged marriage of the family. In his mind, someone that could improve a technique could not be used as an exchange pawn. He already knew the circumstances of how the family wanted to arrange a marriage in the incoming month to boost the morale of the members and show their wealth. They especially wanted to show that they considered all their members as family and there was no better way than marrying outstanding recruits to some of their family members. It just so happened that King of Champions noticed Bright Sun. While he did not know much about her, he was entranced by her beauty and mature charm at first sight.

Elder Mo could not completely stop the marriage but still, in accordance with Bright Sun's wishes, he would definitely bring this up to the main branch's meeting. He was after all, an elder from the main branch and his opinions had some influence on the family's decision. But if she really succeeded in becoming the first grade 1 Cook of the sect, then there was no doubt the balance would tilt in her favor.

Cai Wenjian: "Cai Die. Are you free right now? I've heard about what happened in the city."

Bright Sun smiled upon seeing the message, it came from her father who was currently staying in a different town. She was already naked but quickly got out of the bathroom and lay down on her bed. It was one of the rare occasions she would get to talk to her father. While they still exchanged a few words daily, it could not even be called a conversation. Since they were using the system, they could only exchange message like texting, but it was still better than nothing.

Bright Sun: "News travels really quickly. What did you hear?"

Cai Wenjian: "Elder Mo told me that you found a way to get rid of your arranged marriage again. That is great news!"

Bright Sun: "Yes dad. I still cannot believe that they completely disregarded all we did when we were still on the surface! Don't worry. I know that they took advantage that you are busy to arrange this. You don't need to interfere with this. I will deal with it by myself."

Cai Wenjian sighed. He felt guilty that he was not able to have a say in the family's decision. In fact, he did not even learn that his daughter was going to be engaged to someone before this morning. And when he tried to discuss with the main branch's patriarch, he was naturally rejected. It was a tough situation for him. He had always been taught to put the overall family above everything else but as a father he could not forget about his daughter.

Cai Wenjian: "That is good. Do as you see fit but what about the Li family's technique? I've heard something about that. Can you explain to me what happened?"

Bright Sun: "About that. You know about the improved Gliding Steps, right? It was actually derived by Seven and I traded with him. In the end, he obtained enough contribution points and succeeded in buying the technique. I think the reason the trade was successful was because I did not care much if he obtained another family's technique. All I myself wanted was the rights to the improved version which I why the contract allowed the trade."

Cai Wenjian: "This is possible, I myself don't know the details of the contract. Only the main branch knows about it in detail. But what did you say? He really improved the technique?"

Bright Sun: "Indeed, he succeeded. Although it is common to see minor improvements, his is of at least 10%. He was not lying when he said that the actual technique was more suited for men."

Cai Wenjian: "If what you said is true, then maybe we should look at all our techniques. We always kept modern things away from our traditional techniques since it was decreed by the last patriarch. But maybe it is time for us to review all our techniques properly. I will talk to the main branch's patriarch about it"

Bright Sun: "You should not worry about us here dad. Focus on your mission. We'll handle things there!"

Cai Wenjian: "That's good, I am sorry for not being there, but your mom should be coming tomorrow. She finally decided to leave the Beginner's village after failing her quest..."

...

At the training center, Li Wei was unaware of what was happening. He was deeply in trance, practicing the Myriad Sword Dance for more than one hour. As soon as he read the description of the manual, he immediately understood how powerful it was. Compared to other techniques that could only be used once per day, this one could be trained as much as one wanted. However, the downside was that it was more complex and therefore, one would usually obtain fewer mastery points from it.

He immediately used the manual and learned the different stances and moves of the training technique. It did not take very long, and he immediately eagerly started to train. Unfortunately, the Myriad Sword Dance was practiced with only one sword. The other hand was usually free and used to help balance the body and help with the flow of movements. It was different from what he was used to but, in his mind, he did not find that too much of a problem. "I can simply find a way to adapt the movements for two handed swordsmanship later after I get familiar with the movements."

And so, he started to follow the movements. He was clumsy for the first few minutes and often deviated from the movements, but he quickly got used to the rhythm. He found the movements rather familiar, it was as if his body naturally knew what to do next. He did not realize how long he trained. His mind slowly drifted as his body swiftly danced with his sword. The blade would slowly dance around, occasionally leaving behind a faint trail of light.

It was only when he received the system prompt that his mind jolted awake and he immediately stopped:

[System prompt: Warning! You have acquired a critical amount of fatigue. We advise you to take a rest.]

Li Wei did not know how long has passed. He immediately looked at his interface and was shocked. His fatigue level had reached 99% and all his stats had ‘-3’ next to them. 1% more and his body would have collapsed. High fatigue levels lead to penalties in stats which acted as a warning but if one ignored them, then they would simply lose consciousness upon reaching 100% and it was only after 24 hours that they would wake up.

He was naturally aware of that and was relieved to see that a system was put in place to warn the players before they reach that point. Losing a whole day's worth of hunting would be disastrous to Li Wei. He let out a faint smile when a few seconds later, another system prompt came in:

[System prompt: You have trained into the Myriad Sword Dance for 1 hour and 48 minutes. Average completion rate: 92%]

More than 90%. He obtained such a completion rate on just his first try. While he did not know much about the difficulty of the technique, Li Wei already understood the importance of completion rate. As he looked at his details, he found that his Myriad Sword Dance already cumulated 24 mastery points.

"Such a pity... The fatigue system can really be a pain sometimes... Better go back and take some rest for tomorrow. I need to start working on those Goblin's Blood."