Chapter 53: Getting Rich

"Ding! Team killed an Unranked enemy, gained 0.3 Experience Value."

"Ding! Team killed an Unranked enemy, gained 0.3 Experience Value."

"Ding! Team killed an Unranked enemy, gained 0.3 Experience Value."

Following Meng Dayong's slaughter, Meng Yifan's Game Panel continuously received notification sounds of Experience Value being credited.

Lv Fugui sent people to kill Meng Yifan, so the Game Panel judged Lv Fugui to be an enemy, and his family, the guarding Martial Artists, and the servants were all in the same group as Lv Fugui; therefore, the Game Panel also judged these people as enemies who could be killed to gain Experience Value.

The battle ended, and the father and son of the Meng family quickly cleaned up the battlefield.

Meng Yifan searched Lv Fugui's body and found two one-hundred-tael Silver Notes, then found a locked steel box in the Lv family's bedroom; this box was dark and shiny, crafted entirely from refined steel, and very sturdy; trying to open it with brute force would be a very difficult task.

"Looking at the style, this box is somewhat like a safe from Earth. It must contain good things, but where is the key to open it?" Meng Yifan had just searched Lv Fugui's pockets and hadn't found the key.

"In a home safe, if the male master doesn't have the key on him, then the key must be with the female master."

Meng Yifan had a thought and went to search Lv Fugui's wives and concubines, and sure enough, he found an equally dark iron key.

Meng Yifan inserted the key into the lock of the iron box and gave it a gentle twist, and the iron box was opened.

"Damn, so much money." Meng Yifan was incredibly excited; inside the iron box lay a thick stack of one-hundred-tael Silver Notes, and Meng Yifan quickly counted them, totaling thirty-two notes, amounting to three thousand two hundred taels of silver.

One must know that the two-courtyard house Meng Dayong bought only cost four hundred taels; these three thousand two hundred taels of silver were enough to buy eight such houses.

Meng Yifan tucked these thirty-two Silver Notes into his bosom; there were also over thirty taels of loose silver in the iron box, so Meng Yifan found a backpack and casually loaded the loose silver into it.

Besides the Silver Notes and loose silver, there were also three books and two jade gourds inside the iron box.

Of those three books, one was the Yellow Grade High Rank technique "Hunyuan Strength", one was the Yellow Grade High Rank martial skill "Plum Blossom Sword Technique", and one was "Blood Battle Saber Technique", which was also a Yellow Grade High Rank martial skill.

At Wanxiang Tower, a Yellow Grade High Rank secret manual sold for five hundred taels of silver; these three manuals were worth one thousand five hundred taels of silver. Meng Yifan put these three manuals into his backpack to study how to cultivate them after returning.

Those two jade gourds were about the size of a fist. After Meng Yifan opened them, he discovered they were both filled with Pill. Not knowing much about Pill, he called out to Meng Dayong, who was searching elsewhere: "Dad, come take a look."

Meng Dayong walked over, picked up a jade gourd, poured out a bean-sized pill, and said with pleasant surprise: "Yifan, this is a Condensing Qi Pill, a Pill that can speed up a Martial Artist's rate of condensing True Qi."

"According to Wanxiang Tower's current selling price, one costs fifty taels of silver. This gourd should have forty of them; this gourd alone is worth two thousand taels of silver."

"Dad, take a look at what kind of Pill is in the other gourd," Meng Yifan asked.

Meng Dayong poured out a fava-bean-sized pill from the other gourd and said in surprise: "Yifan, this is a Qi Replenishing Pill."

"When we Martial Artists are in battle, True Qi is consumed very quickly and is often not enough, and this Qi Replenishing Pill is a type that, once consumed, can quickly replenish the consumed True Qi."

"The price of Qi Replenishing Pill is even more expensive than Condensing Qi Pill; the previous price was one hundred taels of silver each, and I don't know if the price has gone up again now."

Qi Replenishing Pill is much larger than Condensing Qi Pill; this gourd contained ten Qi Replenishing Pill, and even calculating by the previous price, the value of ten Qi Replenishing Pill is one thousand taels of silver.

Three thousand four hundred taels in Silver Notes, three Yellow Grade High Rank secret manuals, and two bottles of Pill—these items added together were worth as much as seven thousand nine hundred taels of silver. Meng Yifan hadn't expected the Lv Fugui family's assets to be so substantial; this haul was worth it.

With these Pill, Meng Dayong's strength could advance by leaps and bounds, and with this silver, Meng Yifan could purchase many supplies and begin implementing his war-preparedness plan.

The Meng father and son searched the others again, finding three more one-hundred-tael Silver Notes on Lv Fuqiang, and there was some loose silver on the other guarding Martial Artists. After confirming no good items were missed, Meng Yifan and Meng Dayong both shouldered a backpack, climbed over the wall, and hurried toward home.

Returning home, Meng Yifan kept his word and gave Shouhou a quick death, gaining another 50 points of Experience Value.

Meng Yifan looked at the Game Panel, and the attribute values on it had changed to:

Name: Meng Yifan

Race: Human

Profession: Second Grade Lower Tier Martial Artist

Technique: Bull Strength Level 2 (3/900)

Skill 1: Shooting Technique Level 2 (200/1000)

Skill 2: Lingbo Microsteps (Fragment), Lightness Skill, Mysterious Grade Middle Quality Lightness Skill, Experience Value (261/).

Strength: 61/200 (The physical strength limit for a Second Grade Martial Artist is 200)

Defense: 60/200 (The physical defense limit for a Second Grade Martial Artist is 200)

Speed: 98/200 (The physical speed limit for a Second Grade Martial Artist is 200)

Aptitude: 0.2/100

Experience Value: 340.4 points

"How should these Experience Value be used?" Meng Yifan fell into deep thought. If he added these Experience Value to the proficiency of Bull Strength, it would be enough for him to upgrade to a Second Grade Middle Stage Martial Artist. However, if he upgraded, the Experience Value gained from killing low-level enemies again would decrease, which was obviously very cost-ineffective.

"If I don't upgrade, my True Qi is always not enough," Meng Yifan was somewhat distressed. Using the Ghost Head Blade to perform Ghost Crying Wolf Howling had great power, but it also consumed a lot of True Qi. With Meng Yifan's current True Qi reserves, he needed to provide half of his True Qi to perform that move.

If he wanted to perform Lingbo Microsteps, the True Qi combined with the footwork would cause his speed to soar, which also consumed a massive amount of True Qi. This time, when Meng Yifan ambushed Lv Fugui, he used both Ghost Crying Wolf Howling and Lingbo Microsteps, and the effect was excellent, killing the Second Grade Middle Stage Lv Fugui in one go.

But this kind of tactic was only suitable for ambushing a single enemy; if it were a head-on confrontation, his True Qi would clearly not be enough.

Just like this battle with Lv Fuqiang, once his True Qi was exhausted, his strength was greatly reduced, and dealing with it was very strenuous.

"Taking Qi Replenishing Pill is one method, but that is an external object after all; it can only be used for emergencies and cannot solve the fundamental problem."

"If I don't want to upgrade but want to increase the total amount of True Qi in my body, it seems I really need to change to a different technique."

The technique Meng Yifan was currently cultivating was "Bull Strength", which was only a Yellow-grade Lower-tier Technique.

The advantage of "Bull Strength" was that it was very easy to cultivate, making it very suitable for low-level Martial Artists to cultivate.

Cultivating this technique allowed one's realm to improve quickly, which is why it was widely spread in the army; almost the vast majority of low-level soldiers cultivated this technique.

And the disadvantage of "Bull Strength" was that the True Qi condensed from cultivating it was not enough, and it was a Yellow-grade Lower-tier Technique, so one could only cultivate it up to a Second-grade High-tier Martial Artist at most; if one wanted to continue breaking through to higher realms, one would have to change to a higher-level technique.