Chapter 1075
Chapter 1075 - 161 Harsh Demands
1,569 words
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8 min read
In the gym of the courtyard, the round-robin battle continued unabated.
"...Let’s go again."
Exhausted, Lu Ping’an was still trying to carry on.
But after yet another bout of weakness, his cultivation reluctantly came to a halt.
"Don’t rush, a bit of inspiration is still needed... What exactly am I missing?"
Lu Ping’an was accelerating his breakthrough through combat and the "gym’s" rule building.
Although at this level, Lu Ping’an felt that the bottleneck impeding his upward progress had been opened, and he could complete his breakthrough through less orthodox methods.
Yet he didn’t hurry to take that step, even with some time left, he still wanted to experience more and hone his skills further.
After all, there’s no turning back after releasing the arrow. Once the threshold of Decree-level is crossed, to rethink it would be quite unrealistic.
"...Stop struggling, you’re about at your limit too. If you completely exhaust all your energy, using up even the deferred payment slots, how will you fight the next few matches? The remaining opponents won’t be easy to deal with."
"Don’t count on ’Extinguish Void’ punching through again. Not to mention Fei’er was so unlucky to be swallowed by a fissure directly, the others will definitely be on their guard. Domineering Three Faces will surely patch up the Secret Realm."
At this point, Big Cat was urging Lu Ping’an to stop.
Even by her standards, Lu Ping’an had done well enough.
"...Let’s use that one more time to finish the last round of training, then go to the Library to complete the breakthrough."
For others, breakthroughs were fraught with extreme difficulty, but for Lu Ping’an and the members of the Rebirth Club, as long as the conditions were met, advancing was just a matter of how many points it cost.
The existence of the Library meant that a standard fourth-tier could easily be mass-produced once the conditions were met, but the vision of the club members had been raised too high.
Previously, Lu Ping’an also disliked the generic Runner template for being weak, but now that the bottleneck was open and he had more "options"... he just needed to spend points to customize his own advancement.
However, at this juncture, he became all the more cautious.
After truly experiencing the power of high-order professionals, he began to value the simple "rules" and compatibility with talent even more... Fei’er, with just the concept of "balance," "yin and yang," "pros and cons," managed to achieve so much.
Lu Ping’an had no doubt that if Fei’er could use her other professional abilities outside of the Secret Realm, his chances of winning would be close to zero.
"Decree is the juvenile form of rules. Condensing one’s own Decree, the core of a fourth-tier profession, must be treated with caution. I’ll think it over some more....."
The core ability of Lu Ping’an’s fourth-tier profession, Life Investor, was undeniably his "investment," and Debt Collector was the "Life Coin." Both traits not only possessed limitless potential but also formed the operational system of his Life Bank.
What Lu Ping’an considered was never just the current combat power, but whether it could become part of the entire Life Courtyard system and whether there was potential to become Rule-level, which was most important to him.
"Alright, let’s go for another round....."
And the most effective training for him now was to use his Spiritualization ability to allow Big Cat to possess him, giving him direct experience with high-level combat power and practical training.
For Lu Ping’an, time might be limited, but he absolutely couldn’t accept blindly advancing just for the sake of the morrow’s fierce battle.
Real combat, arduous battle, fierce fighting, the team of the club and his own Magic Pet could all become good opponents for the trial.
In the midst of real combat, he also vaguely sensed the recent situation of his team members.
Within the fighters, Meow and Xue En were subtly overtaking others, becoming the fastest to improve on the front line.
And while Hua senior sister was originally in the lead in terms of strength, with part of her focus on management and pursuing the Beast Tamer’s Path, her combat abilities hadn’t advanced for a long time.
The others, meanwhile, were investing points and consuming resources, and had all more or less hit the standard of Decree-level; they could make that step at any moment if they were resolute.
Of course, the most surprising was Meow... Lu Ping’an found that this cat could probably be taken out to compete without losing face.
"In a way, she is my disciple and possessing her is easy and highly effective."
Some people must really be blessed by the heavens with a meal. The kitten met the big cat, the most suitable teacher for her, and her "Decree" had no second possibility beyond "Spiritualization."
Without any diversions, given enough resources, and armed with a bunch of cheat methods, Meow’s progress was incredibly rapid.
However, there were still some things that troubled her.
"Meow, martial techniques... Professional Skills, they’re not coming along fast meow! I’m stuck meow."
The core of the career system is Professional Abilities and Professional Skills, and the foundation of battle-professions has always been Professional Skills.
As for Lu Ping’an, the advantages he had in this area were no issue due to his investments. On the contrary, this was actually the most troublesome part for him now.
It wasn’t that his accumulation was insufficient, but rather that he had trained to a certain level and had to make a choice at the divergence point, and this choice was also directly linked to his career system.
"20-level Fire-control, 20-level Long-handled (Active) Weapon Specialization, and 10-level Fighting... right, the most crucial is the 20-level Breathing Technique."
The moment Lu Ping’an unleashed Extinguish Void, his long dormant Long-handled Specialist finally advanced to the next stage. In truth, while employing Tentacles during combat, this mixed long-handled weapon specialization that included Active Weapon Specialization was also continuously growing.
Professional Skills at level 20, let alone fourth-tier, just polish them a bit more and they’ll be at a seventh-tier standard.
Meow’s case was what’s considered normal. Career advancement necessitates the long-term accumulation of Professional Skills, unlike Lu Ping’an’s current situation, where his Professional Skills are too strong and he needs to find an advanced profession that fits to make the most of their characteristics.
"... Take it as a core parameter and pass it on to the Taboo Library for design."
Achieving a complete self-breakthrough was incredibly difficult, especially one that meets the myriad demands of Lu Ping’an... he needed both short-term combat power and long-term compatibility and also wanted to maximize his resources—it was a completely unreasonable demand from the client.
However, his Courtyard, his Taboo Library, was like an absurd party B that could handle even the most life-demanding requests, as long as there were enough points.
What Lu Ping’an was doing, in essence, was to obtain more "demands" through actual combat, to push the about-to-overtime "party B."
"...One thousand seven hundred points? You’ve got to be joking. I only want two Decree-level fourth-tier professions, the price should be enough even for Rule-level quality.
But obviously, the silent Taboo Library did not respond.
Upon scrutinizing the list provided by the other party, his initial dissatisfaction morphed into...
"Ugh, irresistible—that was me being too impatient... Alright then, take the points."
Thus, at dawn the next day, on the Ninth’s battle arena for the death match, all audience members were shocked to discover an incomprehensible reality.
Decree-level, no doubt, our little guy completed his breakthrough overnight... if I remember correctly, he was just a first-tier Fighter when he arrived. This is indeed a miracle that our festival most likely created, although we’re grateful for the advertisement you’ve made for our festival, isn’t it a bit too unreasonable, a bit too preposterous..."
Even for an Eighth-stage Boss who had seen much and knew a lot, this was a reality they had honestly never encountered.
Advancing from 1-tier to 2-tier, even achieving rapid growth to third-tier, he had seen numerous cases. But a novice Fighter who had just two days ago not found his path, today stands as a fourth-tier Fighter, which is utterly preposterous... that level of advancement should take years to accumulate.
But what he found even more unbelievable was that the other didn’t appear to be just any ordinary fourth-tier Fighter.
The massive Life Force visible to the naked eye, along with the spatial fluctuations, seemed to reveal a compound Fighter profession mixed with Runner and Way of Life elements.
Such a profession, which requires accumulation, refinement, and inspiration, to be completed overnight?
"...You’re really treating past common sense like trash to be ground underfoot. Perhaps, you really might complete this festival. Maybe I can gain another reliable ally..."
𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞
But the huge change did not affect most people’s betting.
"My bets this time, not even half... Hah, as expected, after all, my opponent..."
Looking at the Hunter who was already warming up, Lu Ping’an smiled.
"...A genuine Sixth-Level Fighter, let’s see just how strong you are."
— End of Chapter 1075 —