Chapter 244: Lone Walker

【Beginning matchmaker for opponent】

【Victory.】

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In the following time, Chu Danqing steadily rose, averaging five ranks per ascent.

As difficulty increased, each battle took roughly ten to thirty minutes to conclude.

From the early days when Da Bao had to fight desperately, to later requiring Jin Gang Lishi to surround the enemy.

Thus, he could only manage about five battles per day.

【Competition Points: 7274, Competition Count: 653, Competition Win Rate: 100%】

【Competition Rank: 197】

After thirty days, he barely squeezed into the top two hundred.

“The winning streak hasn’t broken—wonder if it’s even useful,” Chu Danqing glanced at his rank.

If he kept fighting, both the streak and win rate might eventually break.

“Assuming no surprises, everyone ahead of me should be preparing for assessment missions.”

“Difficulty just skyrocketed,” Chu Danqing muttered.

Theoretically, as long as he maintained his position, his rank would rise automatically.

But reality differed from theory—automatic rank advancement required those behind him to stop climbing.

Otherwise, newcomers would continuously fill the ranks ahead.

With a base of tens of billions, there was no shortage of people.

Even one in ten thousand meant millions in the 1st-tier zone.

He’d originally thought reaching number one would be effortless.

Now he saw it wouldn’t be easy without spending.

Pure Yang Heavenly Generals and Yin Yin Mystic Maidens with 60 base attributes in 2nd-tier gear occasionally faced opponents who could last two rounds.

Chu Danqing’s various encounters and completion of high-difficulty missions didn’t mean other Apostles couldn’t do the same.

With such a massive base and a platform offering opportunities, talent naturally emerged in droves.

And this was merely the current state of one zone Chu Danqing had encountered.

Once a street vendor selling fried noodles, now possibly an undefeated warrior.

Most people lacked not ability, but a platform offering opportunity.

Liu Bang was still a township officer at forty-eight, yet became emperor at fifty-four—who wouldn’t be stunned by that ascent?

“Time to rest—I’m entering another mission,” Chu Danqing checked his remaining rest time: five hours.

Unless absolutely necessary, avoid high-intensity combat—Chu Danqing didn’t grow through battle-fueled progression.

Even Da Bao was the same: after over 150 battles, his skill level hadn’t skyrocketed to 100 as expected.

It had stalled at level 25.

Damage increased to 25 points; consumption also rose to 25 points.

Further upgrades were impossible.

The gains were limited—this would be fine if it were percentage-based, but it was fixed-value only.

Frankly, the improvement was minimal; if not for Da Bao’s growth, these two skills were already outdated.

As for what to do next, Chu Danqing had a plan: upgrade the bloodline.

Based on Da Bao’s condition, these two skills had entered a bottleneck, nearing max level—their potential seemed exhausted.

But Chu Danqing had no money to upgrade Da Bao’s bloodline, so he could only set it aside for now.

He’d deal with it after entering the next trial world.

After returning, Chu Danqing opened the communication channel; a summoning Apostle he’d previously added pulled him into a summoning group chat.

The group contained many summoning Apostles of various schools, all sharing insights on summoning.

But content couldn’t be downloaded or viewed freely—it required equivalent contributions to access.

Contributions came from uploading your own knowledge and insights.

Don’t even think of uploading false or deliberately misleading information—no one knew who created this group, but they’d integrated the Paradise’s verification system.

The drawback was obvious: this channel only worked within the 1st-tier zone of Paradise; entering a trial world or any other tier automatically banned access.

Of course, content you’d already viewed or downloaded remained accessible offline.

In his spare time, Chu Danqing uploaded some insights to earn contributions, then downloaded and studied many others’.

By absorbing strengths and compensating weaknesses, he resolved part of the confusion in his mastered skills.

“So many people—wonder if there’s a similar summoning group in the 2nd-tier zone,” Chu Danqing watched the chat feed scroll endlessly.

The content wasn’t idle chatter or boasting—it centered on exchange and discussion.

Though schools were numerous, all were rooted in summoning—ten thousand variations still stemmed from one origin, so similarities inevitably existed.

But since the content lacked Paradise’s verification, truth or falsehood depended entirely on personal judgment.

Not everyone was kind enough to give honest answers; some deliberately misled.

Others didn’t even understand the question and offered guesses with no verification of feasibility.

Chu Danqing quickly shifted his gaze from the chat window.

He had little interest in these discussions—he opened the remaining unread insights instead.

Da Bao, Da Bai, and Da Gu were quietly resting, watching cartoons.

【Element Fertilizer No.1: Do you sell your Lingming Pill formula? Need the notarized original.】

Chu Danqing saw a private message pop up on the chat.

Previously, during exchanges, Chu Danqing had mentioned the importance of spiritual essence, noting it contained partial effects of the Lingming Pill.

Since he revealed no crafting process or ingredients, Element Fertilizer No.1 didn’t know how to make it—only that Chu Danqing possessed such a thing.

“What does he want the Lingming Pill formula for?” Chu Danqing didn’t understand: “Could he be asking on someone else’s behalf?”

Element Fertilizer No.1’s elemental army consisted of summoned skills; his spiritual essence could only be boosted via skills or talents—he couldn’t use such pills to enhance his summons.

【Silent Poem: Why suddenly want such an outdated pill formula?】

Chu Danqing naturally chose to sell it—he knew how to make it anyway; selling the formula didn’t erase his knowledge.

Since notarization allowed only one sale, even if he copied it and tried to sell again, he’d need Paradise’s notarization—otherwise, no one would accept knowledge of unknown origin.

Still, he asked—just in case he learned something.

【Element Fertilizer No.1: 5000 Paradise Points】

The other party didn’t reply—instead, offered a price.

Five thousand points—this surprised Chu Danqing.

He’d estimated at most three thousand.

Chu Danqing knew the market well; the direct offer of five thousand Paradise Points meant the buyer could profit far more from this formula.

【Silent Poem: Not Paradise Points—equivalent item】

Chu Danqing probed cautiously.

“Only major factions could profit from this,” Chu Danqing had learned—Element Fertilizer No.1 was a lone wanderer, just like himself.

He could guess how the formula would be used: distribute it to preparatory-level members.

Distribution might be difficult, but it could become a golden goose.

As long as pricing was reasonable, Paradise wouldn’t sanction it.

【Element Fertilizer No.1: Excellent-grade quality—are you sure you want an equivalent item?】

Put simply, at this value, five thousand points far surpassed Excellent-grade.

Paradise Points had appreciated, devaluing item quality—enough to trade for a fine-grade item with inferior stats.

Excellent-grade was pure loss.

Seeing this, Chu Danqing immediately realized the other was betting he didn’t know how the formula worked.

After all, during prior exchanges, Chu Danqing hadn’t seemed to value the Lingming Pill formula highly.

【Silent Poem: I heard the item to apply for forming a faction is only Common-grade, but there’s another item—Excellent-grade—that establishes a solo faction.】

Chu Danqing had indeed heard this—from the summoning group chat.

But output was low, and usage had strict requirements.

Element Fertilizer No.1 fell silent for a moment, then sent an item’s stats.

【Element Fertilizer No.1: Lone Walker’s Proof—is this it? If so, let’s trade.】

【Lone Walker’s Proof】

【Type: Item】

【Quality: Excellent-grade】

【Effect 1: Upon submission to the Dimension Paradise, establishes a solo adventuring team】

【Usage Requirement: Talent 2/1, Profession 0/1, Basic Skill 6/5】

Chu Danqing stared, silent—the requirements were steep, even requiring a profession.

Yet in the end, he chose to trade.

This also implied Element Fertilizer No.1 had joined a major faction—otherwise, Chu Danqing’s mention wouldn’t have yielded this item so quickly.

He used the Lingming Pill formula as a token of allegiance.

Chu Danqing understood its value, so he demanded something of equal worth.

After all, for major powers, the Solo Traveler’s Certificate holds only transactional value.

After the transaction was completed, the chat interface fell silent.

Chu Danqing naturally did not continue to pay attention until the Paradise notification arrived.

【First-Dimension Apostle will enter the Trial World to execute the trial mission in one hour; please prepare in advance.】

Seeing this, Chu Danqing immediately used the Obsession of the Tianchi Dragon.

【Item: Obsession of the Tianchi Dragon used successfully. The next Trial World has been reset and locked to: Anyong Dynasty; trial mission has changed.】

“Too hasty—I should have saved more Paradise Points,” Chu Danqing thought. Knowing the name of the Trial World in advance, he could have spent Paradise Points to obtain relevant intelligence.

If a world can produce resources, it means an Apostle has entered it before.

A second entry is unlikely, but if he sought out a broker, he could still acquire partial information about the world’s lore and historical trajectory.

The utility might not be great, but with the right identity, it could make the start smoother.

“Fortunately, I still have one identity upgrade left—it should give me a better advantage,” Chu Danqing said. This was his first time going through it, so he naturally lacked experience.

As for asking others? Without notarization, how could one guarantee truthfulness? And notarization meant paying for intelligence transactions.

(End of Chapter)