Chapter 652
Chapter 652 - 632: Entering the Door
1,391 words
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7 min read
Lu Ping’an’s schedule was quite full.
His primary daily work was the training and tempering of his nascent breathing technique.
Now, he was consuming Zhi Xi every day... he had no choice, it was the best fit. The pressure from the silver weapon was too great, the potent death erosion left him uncertain whether his daily progress was positive or negative.
But the boost in spiritual power that Zhi Xi brought was the most essential foundation for a professional, no matter what, it wouldn’t be a loss.
Lu Ping’an speculated that such a single-targeted enhancement should have its limit, but from the current perspective, being able to steadily increase spiritual power was a priceless and unfair path.
Right now, Lu Ping’an’s spiritual power was at Middle Brass. Honestly, for his age, it wasn’t considered low, even reaching the upper-middle standard for a 30-year-old professional. But if you examine his power, for a third-tier Gardener whose main attribute was spiritual power, this Middle Brass already imposed a limit on his progress.
Lu Ping’an tried magic potions as well, but they weren’t cost-effective at all. The panel increases were all "minor boosts", "tiny increments", and the results were so low that they were barely noticeable.
This was the norm, even for self-cursing "magic potions". They still belonged to the special power category that forcibly remodeled the body and spirit. If he could truly manipulate a professional’s body and soul at will, he was not far from a complete mutation.
There were also magic potions that had extremely strong effects, even to the point of completely transforming your body. Such potions indeed existed, they would help you transform completely, even change your race... However, these race changing magic potions that are considered safe, typically require extremely valuable materials and master potion makers, and often come with numerous side effects.
Professionals would develop step by step, those with money or a good mix progress faster, those without money or a bad mix progress slower and if they can’t keep up, they exit the game early.
𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶
For outsiders, Lu Ping’an was valued mainly because he was young... He had enough time to linger at the decree-level threshold, enough time to painstakingly climb the ladder of fourth to the sixth tier. If he was lucky, he had three or four decades to make a stab at the legendary unreachable rule-level.
The reason for bringing up "spiritual power" now was due to his current important task...
"Before departing, I must secure a reliable flame controller profession. The elemental professions are too demanding in terms of spiritual power."
In some sense, the professionals on Earth are much luckier than other world’s extraordinaries, they have the "universal template" of professions and can part-time anytime to acquire a decent basic ability and profession system.
Even so, compared to typical battle-professions, element manipulators are still too elusive.
"The best options available are the branches of the scholar series, such as chess players, painters...right?"
There are very few, if not none, low-level paths for element manipulators, because controlling elements requires high spiritual power. This is equivalent to projecting their own spirit to control those intangible things.
What they need is not only the hard attribute of spiritual power, but also a series of prerequisites such as spirit outflow, spirit vision, specific element perception/affinity, special physique, etc.
Maybe some people think that lighting a fireball is quite simple, but in the world of professionals, being able to casually manipulate elements in mid-air probably requires several years, even decades of accumulation, and is often already above the third tier.
Most professional element manipulators often jump over from other paths, and they are usually middle-aged when they start.
Of course, there are also shortcuts...
"Forgive me for being blunt, but if you don’t plan to specialize in the field of ’art’, part-timing as a chess player or a painter will most likely end up as a low-end profession."
Hua Xueyi spoke without reservation, she had seen many "talents" who had taken this path, wasted a lot of time and energy to muster a fireball with firepower less than a pistol, and then was easily defeated by ordinary battle-professions of the same level.
The two were on the same bus... The bus that leads to the university city was cheap and plentiful, the speed wasn’t too fast, and the pair who were in no hurry saw no need to specially find a driver from the team.
Both of them had errands to run at Ancient City University. Lu Ping’an was going to investigate things related to element manipulators, and Hua Xueyi was there to take care of her club, so they left together.
Looking at these two people, one in front of the other, occasionally turning around to chat, they really looked like university students returning to school... Eh, although they are indeed going to university.
"I’m kind of interested in painting, but I don’t really have the time... Are there any element professions that don’t require too much hard work but can achieve results in one step?"
"Yes, be a Dream Master. You can have anything in your dreams."
However, what the two of them were discussing probably had nothing to do with normal university students.
Element manipulators need a bunch of specialties from the beginning, the so-called shortcuts are actually using the "projection" ability of the "art" branch of the scholar series.
Lu Ping’an had experienced his high school examination trials with professions like chess players and painters. They seem quite intimidating at first glance, but they aren’t very powerful in actuality. Although elemental power has a strong attack in a low-level environment, if it doesn’t hit the target, it is tantamount to zero, its power is quite puzzling... But this doesn’t mean that the artistic series is weak. On the contrary, its power is quite good, it’s considered a strong mid-to-high-level profession.
Art-based professions usually start at 2-tier, often an advancement from the 1-tier scholar. Their core is also based on the "Reading and Writing" of scholars, that is, using their own ideation to "express" something.
Divisions like chess players, painters, etc., focus on the "writing" part, the re-output of corruption, but their professional skills are probably "painting", "chess playing", etc.
Because they are exceptionally skilled in turning "dreams", "illusions" into "reality", it is natural for them to create destructive power by projecting flames and other elements into reality.
The majority of element manipulators belong to this category. To be honest, these practitioners with impure motivations generally have rather subtle strengths... If they were originally high achieving students in the artistic series, dabbling in element manipulation might reveal impressive results, but if the aim is for just the elemental ability and to part-time in art, then they will probably remain at 2-tier.
High-level artists can use their abilities to directly transform the environment. They don’t rely solely on the convenient destructive power of elemental power... but they also don’t need to discard the useful and relatively low-consumption elemental force. Elemental power itself can also be integrated with the "dream", "illusionary world" of the art series.
In some way, Lu Ping’an’s Handheld Courtyard series, the "scenery" of his Sumi Bubble Shadow, and the tripled size of the hand-held mini-universe, all have a typical "artistic" flavor.
Lu Ping’an’s painting skills haven’t been used since he started his profession.
This is the source of Hua Xueyi’s advice to Lu Ping’an, "if you don’t plan on specializing, don’t take this path".
The fire-controlling ability provided by a 2-tier painter is already beyond Lu Ping’an’s reach. But their advantage is still the creation and storage of elements, which Lu Ping’an lacks... He always uses external fire producers, which can only be used directly.
The "elemental chess pieces" of a "chess player", and the "landscape paintings" of a painter, both of which Lu Ping’an has handled before. Although they weren’t hard to deal with, their ability to store elements stably is something that Lu Ping’an currently lacks.
"Forget it, let’s ask the teacher first, see if there are any reliable fire controllers in the third tier."
— End of Chapter 652 —