90: Chapter 87: Promotion 90: Chapter 87: Promotion PS: Regarding Zhou Hezhou, many people thought I made a mistake about Kai Huang in the , but there was no mistake.
It was mentioned in Chapter 75 that Zhou Liangchen actually had the surname Zhou and changed his name to fight in the Life and Death Arena.
After entering the Library, Chu Xisheng spent a full three days on the first six levels.
This time his task was quite heavy; not only did he have to memorize the visualization picture and secret medicine of the Fourth Level of Nourishing Essence Skill, but he also had to study the True Intent of the Chasing Wind Saber, Chasing Lightning Finger, and Light Cloud Jump, mastering the cultivation methods of the first four levels.
Chu Xisheng spent two whole days memorizing all of them.
Then, he sat in front of the Vengeance Map on the sixth floor for an entire day.
Chu Xisheng was worried that his memory of this Vengeance Map was incomplete, so he specially came over for a refresher course.
Indeed, he discovered some details in this map that he had not noticed before.
After three days, all the Inner Sect Disciples in the Library, under the urging of the Martial Arts Instructors, reluctantly left the building.
However, Chu Xisheng alone ascended the stairs to the seventh floor.
Each Three-leaf Disciple of the Inner Sect has the privilege of entering the seventh floor for two days each month.
But this costs money, staying for one day there costs one hundred taels of Demon Silver.
When Chu Xisheng arrived at the entrance to the seventh floor, he frowned deeply.
This level was indeed extraordinary.
Although it was not as terrifying as Ye Zhiqiu described, filled with all kinds of God Demon abnormal powers, it was still fraught with danger.
The power of each Martial Arts True Intent and visualization picture overflowed, crisscrossing each other.
While Chu Xisheng was searching for the True Intent, he carelessly stepped in front of a Sixth Layer ‘Yang Flame Shura Sword’ True Intent map.
At that moment, he felt the evil Shura ghost in the picture, who was engulfed in flames, come to life and strike a sword into his mind.
His whole body started to heat up as well, as if it was about to burst into flames.
If it were not for Chu Xisheng’s ‘Pure Yang’ body and his ‘Five Senses Spiritual Communication’ talent, which made his Spiritual Consciousness much stronger than a normal person’s, his spirit would have been damaged by this Sword Intent map by now.
Eventually, Chu Xisheng found the second ‘Vengeance Map’ from Zhengyang Martial Arts Hall in the corner of the south side of the seventh floor.
This map had changed locations, moving from the east side to the south side, different from Chu Yunyun’s memory, which made it quite a search for Chu Xisheng.
Next, he still resorted to rote memorization.
His comprehension was far from that of Lu Luanti and Chu Yunyun; he could only use this method to activate the True Intent of this map.
However, perhaps due to the Five Senses Spiritual Communication, although the map before Chu Xisheng was more complicated, he managed to memorize ninety percent of the map’s details in just an hour and a half.
At that moment, Chu Xisheng experienced a vision.
It was the same scenario as before, a middle-aged man in a green robe standing alone on a glacier, facing off against thousands of one-eyed giants with a saber in hand.
However, the vision this time was much clearer, showing even more of the subtle details to Chu Xisheng.
Chu Xisheng’s research there lasted for two days.
After two days, just like before, Chu Xisheng, feeling unfulfilled, left the Library under the instructor’s urging.
He was interrupted midway while the Illusion Realm was still ongoing.
But there was no helping it, those were the rules of the Library, and he could only wait until next month to continue.
The instructor on the seventh floor had already made a concession for him, allowing him to stay for over an hour longer.
After stepping out, Chu Xisheng glanced at his character panel again.
The column for Martial Intent still read ‘Vengeful Residual Intent (Second Layer)’, with no changes.
However, Chu Xisheng clearly knew that his grasp of Vengeful Blade Intent was now much more complete than before.
Furthermore, the Martial Arts Points needed to enhance Sword Intent had significantly decreased; now, he only needed 3 points to raise his Sword Intent to the Third Layer.
At that moment, his Martial Arts Points had risen to 59.
During his five days in the Library, he had accumulated another 4 Martial Arts Points.
Chu Xisheng, after a moment of thought, resolutely chose to enhance his Vengeful Residual Intent and spent 3 Martial Arts Points.
The battle in the Fire Bone Cave made him deeply realize the advantages of the ‘Vengeance’ Sword Intent.
It could increase the power of his sword skill manifold, and also help him in group battles.
The more enemies there were, the stronger his Sword Intent became, making it infinitely potent.
Therefore, the higher the grade of Vengeful Blade Intent, the better.
He stood quietly at the top of the stairs, sensing the changes in his Sword Intent as it enhanced, then, satisfied, he smiled and walked towards the cafeteria.
During his five days in the Library, he had been subsisting on steamed buns and meat sandwiches every day, even neglecting to eat while perceiving Sword Intent.
Now feeling ravenously hungry, he longed for a hearty meal.
Since it was now lunchtime, Chu Xisheng got two large bowls of braised pork in the cafeteria, along with some chicken, duck, and fish, and began to eat in a corner.
Just as he had finished a bowl of meat, Lu Luanti and Chu Yunyun came over together.
Lu Luanti placed a stack of silver notes in front of Chu Xisheng, “Two weapons of the seventh rank or lower, seven Blood Refining Light Steel Blades of the eighth rank or below, plus three magic artifacts of the eighth rank.
The total sale was two thousand one hundred taels of Demon Silver.
The weapons all have hidden flaws, and the magic artifacts are somewhat old.
The key issue is that these items came from the third-in-command of the Blood Wind Thieves and White Cloud Village, and those bastards only agreed to buy them at a third of the price.”
She was referring to the plunder Chu Xisheng had brought out from the Fire Bone Cave five days ago.
If they tried to sell these items themselves, they would bring endless trouble upon themselves.
Leaving it to Lu Luanti, however, posed no problem.
The saying goes: don’t trouble two masters for one matter.
Lu Luanti had already made enemies with the Blood Wind Thieves, so making enemies again didn’t matter.
Chu Xisheng felt a pang in his heart.
These unscrupulous merchants had pushed the prices down too harshly, practically to the point of breakage.
He sighed inwardly, deeply disappointed.
He had originally planned to procure a powerful magic artifact of the eighth rank upper tier for both himself and Chu Yunyun.
Now, he had to postpone that endeavor.
These days, he indeed made quite a bit of money.
He got over eight hundred taels from the three Life and Death Arenas with the Long Family, sold the Rune Eagle Sword for one thousand taels, took three hundred twenty taels from Long Family’s warehouse, won one thousand two hundred taels from the Life and Death Arena with Zhuang Hongfei, and Zuo Ya even gave him an envelope with two hundred taels.
Together with the two thousand one hundred taels of Demon Silver from this sale of the stolen goods and the silver collected from the horse bandits of White Cloud Village, the total was about six thousand taels.
But he also spent a lot.
He spent one thousand four hundred taels through Zuo Qingyun’s channels for the top-grade ‘Ice Worm Fire Cocoon’.
Later, when engraving the entire map of Chasing Wind Saber’s Secret Move, he was taken for one thousand one hundred Demon Silver by Wo Meiniang for information.
Staying in the Library for two full days cost another two hundred Demon Silver.
In the past few days, Chu Yunyun refining True Talismans in the Mage Institute and breaking the Spirit Seed to the ninth rank upper tier also cost two hundred taels.
Furthermore, there were commissions for the Hu Brothers, repaying debts to Ye Zhiqiu, and many other miscellaneous expenses totaling several hundred taels.
After calculations, he now only had two thousand eight hundred taels left.
Chu Xisheng couldn’t help but think of the mountain-like pile of gold and silver he had seen before the Fire Bone Cave.
Unfortunately, Chu Yunyun was too righteous and was convinced that illicit earnings were not to be taken.
These stolen goods were plundered from merchants and medicine gatherers by White Cloud Village horse bandits, fraught with great trouble, so they didn’t take a single penny.
Who would benefit from that gold and silver in the end?
Chu Xisheng didn’t bother to count the money.
He simply stuffed the silver notes into his robe, “Actually, there’s no need to give it specifically to me.
Giving it to Yunyun is the same.”
Lu Luanti breathed slightly choked upon hearing these words.
She also couldn’t understand why she refused to hand the money to Chu Yunyun.
Perhaps she thought that Chu Xisheng was truly the head of the Chu family?
“It’s the same whoever holds the money.” Chu Yunyun said indifferently as she placed the meal she had brought, “But brother, are you using money to buy a good name from the Hu brothers again?”
Chu Xisheng laughed sheepishly upon hearing this.
Indeed, the very day he returned from the Ancient Market, he really had given twenty taels of Demon Silver to Hu Kan and Hu Lai.
But the effect this time was not significant.
Chu Xisheng concluded that, firstly, many disciples in the Martial Arts Academy already believed he was the top person of the Inner Sect, with high skill and few rivals among the Ninth Grade.
Secondly, most of them had never encountered the black market’s Life and Death Arenas and had no clear concept of the strength of Zhuang Hongfei and Zhou Liangchen.
Being all Ninth Grade in rank, how strong could they get?
Losing to Chu Xisheng, the Inner Chief of the Martial Arts Academy, was nothing unusual, right?
Therefore, from the time he returned from the Ancient Market until the next day when he went to the Fire Bone Cave, he saw no increase in Martial Arts Points, which turned out to be a losing deal.
He wondered if those several dozen Martial Arts Points he saw before entering the Library had anything to do with this?
When it came to this matter, Lu Luanti couldn’t help but take delight in his misfortune, “You have been in the spotlight enough, and yet you’ve risen to three-leaf just five days ago.
You better be careful these next few days.
I’ve heard that those Three-leaf Disciples are banding together, aiming to take you down a peg.”
Chu Xisheng again glanced at the virtual screen in front of him, at the word ‘Vengeance’ in the status bar.
——The number of Ninth Grade martial cultivators harboring enemy intent towards you has surpassed one hundred; your Vengeful Blade Intent has increased to a faint strength!
Chu Xisheng couldn’t help but curl his lips up in a cold smirk, “Tsk.”
There was no need for Lu Luanti’s reminder for this matter.
The Martial Arts Academy’s Inner Sect that he joined consisted of roughly five hundred people.
However, there are only forty spots for True Disciples per year.
There are two True Inheritor Examinations in mid-year and at the end of the year, each selecting twenty people.
If they fail to advance to True Disciples before the age of eighteen, they lose the opportunity to participate in the inheritance exam.
True Disciples of the Martial Arts Academy not only receive fifty taels of financial aid from the county government each month but also have a much broader future.
They gain access to higher-level secret medicine formulas and visualization pictures—belonging to the Mystic Sect and capable of advancing to Second Grade, First Grade, and even Super-grade realms, not something comparable to the mixed streams circulating in the Jianghu.
They can also take on well-paying part-time jobs arranged by the Martial Arts Academy and enter the military after graduation.
Furthermore, through the channels of the Formless Divine Sect, they can purchase secret medicines.
Some with especially outstanding talent can even receive several generous doses of secret medicine assistance.
All in all, the benefits are many and varied.
Competition among these True Disciples was already fierce, but now Chu Xisheng had emerged suddenly, inserting himself into the fray, and almost locking in a True Disciple spot.
How could it not provoke widespread anger?