Chapter 68: Adding Points

"These bastards!" The burly man saw the situation clearly, cursed inwardly, and stopped insisting. He directly took out a one-hundred-tael Silver Note and completely admitted defeat.

This was a bit shameful; he was a Second Grade Middle Stage Martial Artist, and in Luolong County, he was considered a person of status and standing. Usually, he really couldn't afford to lose face like this.

However, the few men in black this time were all temporarily assembled at the Heishi, and they didn't know each other's identities. If it was shameful, so be it; anyway, no one knew who he was.

The other four men in black also dared not fight Meng Yifan anymore. They successively put down a one-hundred-tael Silver Note, then looked at Meng Yifan with lowered heads and submissive expressions; where was the arrogance they had when they first blocked the road to rob him?

Meng Yifan really wanted to finish all of them off. They were currently in a hostile state, all similar to monsters in a game; killing them meant getting Experience Value. However, his True Qi was almost exhausted, and he had already used his "three axes" (three main moves). If he kept fighting, it was uncertain who would finish whom.

Fighting monsters to level up also required acting according to one's ability. Meng Yifan snorted coldly, "Get lost!"

The five men in black felt as if they had received a pardon and ran toward the distance. Fearing that the men in black might have tampered with the Silver Notes, Meng Yifan carefully picked them up with a tree branch, wrapped them in cloth, and planned to check them after returning.

Next, Meng Yifan searched the corpses of the two Second Grade Middle Stage Martial Artists and found another four hundred taels in Silver Notes, some loose silver, and a small bottle of Condensing Qi Pill containing five pills.

Meng Yifan put away all these spoils of war. This battle used a small packet of poison worth five hundred taels of silver, but he earned over nine hundred taels of silver, plus these five Condensing Qi Pills. Counting each at fifty taels of silver, that was another two hundred and fifty taels of silver in income.

Calculating the total, Meng Yifan made a small profit from this battle and also gained four hundred points of Experience Value.

"How should I use these four hundred points of Experience Value?" Meng Yifan pondered. A great battle could arrive at any time, and he urgently needed to quickly increase his combat power. Adding experience could increase combat power, but where should he add it? This was a problem.

Through the skirmish just now, Meng Yifan discovered that his True Qi was still insufficient. Going full throttle and charging twice had nearly exhausted his True Qi; his endurance was too poor. If he had to fight a large number of enemies in the future, having insufficient True Qi would clearly not work.

To increase the total amount of True Qi, the best method was to increase the proficiency of Hunyuan Strength. After adding it, Meng Yifan estimated he could go full throttle and charge three times.

However, in this battle, Meng Yifan had already exposed that his Lingbo Microsteps only knew two steps that went straight back and forth. The flaw was too great, and it was easy for enemies to target him with attacks.

This time he was almost hit by the enemy's flying knife. If he faced more flying knives in the future, how would he dodge? Therefore, he had to learn the subsequent steps of Lingbo Microsteps, and that required adding experience.

Additionally, Meng Yifan really wanted to add his speed attribute points to 200. In this way, relying solely on his physical fitness, his theoretical limit speed could reach two hundred meters per second, or 720 kilometers per hour, which was about the same speed as using Lightness Skill.

Moreover, fighting with physical fitness had a very obvious advantage over fighting with True Qi: the endurance was much longer. This was something Meng Yifan was very eager to do and was also the most economical and practical way to add points. However, wanting to max out the speed attribute points would require nearly another one thousand points of Experience Value.

Every place needed Experience Value, but the Experience Value was really not enough. Therefore, Meng Yifan felt very reluctant to let those four men in black go just now; he really wanted to finish all four of them off and turn them into his own Experience Value.

Furthermore, Meng Yifan really wanted to improve his aptitude. He was still at 0.2 aptitude, which was simply trash.

Aptitude was related to comprehension. People with high aptitude found it very easy to comprehend martial arts techniques, and their speed of practicing cultivation arts could be accelerated, much faster than others. Therefore, many famous sects valued whether an applicant's aptitude was good when recruiting disciples.

With excellent aptitude, combined with diligent practice, one had the potential to become a powerhouse. If the aptitude was not good, like Meng Yifan whose aptitude was only 0.2, even if he was willing to endure hardship, it was useless; he was destined to find it difficult to become a powerhouse in his lifetime.

Adding aptitude attribute points was the most consuming of Experience Value; it took 100 points of Experience Value to increase aptitude by 0.1.

Meng Yifan pondered for a moment and finally decided to add to the proficiency of Lingbo Microsteps to first make up for his most obvious shortcoming. As for the other aspects, he could only wait until he had more Experience Value to add them.

"Add points, add points." Meng Yifan no longer hesitated and added all four hundred points of Experience Value to the proficiency of Lingbo Microsteps. A lot of knowledge appeared in his mind again, as if he had been enlightened, and he instantly understood how to perform the third and fourth steps of Lingbo Microsteps.

The first step of Lingbo Microsteps was to take a step forward, circulate True Qi, and move a long distance in a straight line. Depending on the amount of True Qi used, the distance moved also varied.

The second step was to tip-toe and retreat at high speed; the third step was to dodge left, and the fourth step was to dodge right. Having mastered these four steps, Meng Yifan no longer had to move straight back and forth and had some ability to dodge when facing enemy attacks.

Before leaving, Meng Yifan's gaze was like a sharp knife as he glanced at the forest behind him, then led Meng Dayong and their goods toward the city wall.

After Meng Yifan had gone far away, a few people walked out of the forest. They were another wave of bandits who wanted to slaughter a fat sheep, and they even wanted to try the tactic of the mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.

However, this cicada that was treated as prey was too ferocious; even the mantis couldn't swallow it, and the oriole hiding in the dark dared not show its head.

After the great battle, Meng Yifan intimidated the bandits hiding in the darkness, and no one dared to come and block him again.

Meng Yifan and Meng Dayong brought the purchased supplies and approached the city wall silently, then took advantage of the gap in the patrols of the yamen runners on the city wall to climb over it.

Along the way, they avoided the yamen runners patrolling the city at night and transported the supplies back home without any danger.

Everyone in Qinghe Village, regardless of gender or age, had a Bird Gun each, and the Elm Cannon had also been loaded and could be fired at any time. The overall combat power was greatly improved; in terms of weapons and equipment, it was no worse than the equipment of the yamen runners.

However, there were more than three hundred yamen runners in Luolong County, nearly ten times more than the villagers of Qinghe Village. Moreover, there were many experts among the yamen runners, including not only Zhang Butou of the Third Grade Lower Tier but also several yamen runner squad leaders who were Second Grade Martial Artists. The overall strength was definitely much stronger than Meng Yifan's side.

Therefore, it was best not to fight if they didn't have to. But if County Magistrate Lu really investigated Meng Yifan and wanted to behead him for his crimes, it was impossible for him to just surrender; if he had to rebel, then so be it.

Meng Yifan checked the traps set by County Magistrate Lu in the courtyard once more, arranged for people to take turns keeping watch, and then returned to his room with Meng Dayong.