Chapter 20

Huxi Hu did not respond to Fang Yue, but sent him a secret message.

"Ye Ge, this old man is strict—I as an apprentice can't speak, only message you. By the way, how did you end up like this? Did those NPCs get you? I'll have my brothers avenge you!"

Come on, you shout big slogans, but if you're actually put to the test, you'll run off fast.

Fang Yue still remembered Xiao Hu saying he'd cultivate him with alchemy, but it was only slogans, no action—he hadn't reached out once since arriving in the village.

While Fang Yue and Xiao Hu were chatting privately, Hong Dafu had already examined Fang Yue's condition.

"Young Brother Ye, your meridians are in disorder—you've become a cripple. This is beyond my ability to cure. But the other heavy injuries? I can prescribe you medicine. Take it daily, rest well for ten to fifteen days, and you should recover."

Is heavy injury this hard to treat?

Fang Yue froze.

In his mind, heavy injury was something solved in a few breaths.

Yet Hong Dafu told him to lie down for ten days? He didn't even have that much yang life left.

At that moment, Xiao Hu also sent a shocked message: "WTF! Ye Ge, you're a cripple now? How did you sink so low? What happened?!"

Fang Yue simply couldn't bring himself to say he'd crippled himself through training.

After taking Hong Dafu's medicine and sending both of them away, Fang Yue lay on the bed and thought calmly.

The consequences of Qi Deviation were far worse than he'd imagined.

Now his only hope seemed to be… 【Night's Breath】.

Yes, that person-grade upper-tier talent.

If even 【Night's Breath】 can't cure 【Meridian Disorder】, then he really must consider starting over.

After drinking Hong Dafu's medicine, the damage indicator above Fang Yue's head finally eased significantly.

According to Hong Dafu, any young man with normal Qi and Blood could survive until finishing his prescription, fully recovering from Heavy Injury without dying from Qi and Blood depletion.

Of course, if someone was already on the brink with barely any blood left, Hong Dafu would switch to a stronger formula.

But such a formula was unnecessary for Fang Yue's case.

Fang Yue lay on the bed, feeling slightly better—but if he moved, his injury would worsen and he'd lose more health, so now he stayed as still as possible.

With nothing else to do, Fang Yue closed his eyes, pulled up the system menu, and logged out of the game.

……

In reality, Fang Yue opened his eyes.

The dim room still felt like it was in the dead of night.

He got up and pulled back the curtains; blinding sunlight flooded in.

He squinted to adjust…

Gurglegurglegurgle.

His stomach growled.

So hungry.

Last night, Fang Yue had eaten only instant noodles; he'd been starving since then.

Fortunately, the Game Watch provided excellent sleep quality during gameplay, so Fang Yue felt refreshed.

He opened his door, heading to the kitchen to boil a bowl of instant noodles for breakfast…

Hrrrrrmmmm.

A snoring sound came from the next room.

Fang Yue froze.

"Yuan Jie's back."

Yuan Jie was beautiful and had a great figure, but she had one flaw: she always snored loudly while sleeping.

It was just a minor issue; Fang Yue was used to it, and with the Game Watch's aid, it didn't affect his sleep.

Without further thought, Fang Yue poured cold water into the pot, lit the stove, opened the instant noodles, and portioned out the seasoning.

Fang Yue returned to his room, turned on the computer, and waited for the water to boil before adding the noodles.

He skillfully opened Longwan Platform and logged into his account.

Fang Yue's eyes widened in shock.

"Dear user, your virtual account 5203 has received 0.1 yuan. Current balance: 13,011.5 yuan!"

Thirteen thousand yuan?!

Where did this come from??

Fang Yue traced the notification and discovered the money came from the attribute analysis post he'd published.

He opened the post—it had a popularity score of 130,000, meaning 130,000 people had paid to view it.

He clicked into the post details and scrolled down.

Fang Yue's face went blank.

Because most replies weren't about the post's content—they were just here to trash him, the "celebrity."

You couldn't insult without paying, so their anger was pent-up.

"Trash guide! Does this even need explaining?"

"HP equals health points? My god, am I in kindergarten learning 1+1=2?"

"Insults my intelligence! The first kill? Pathetic!"

A man's name, a tree's shadow—even though Fang Yue had just posted normally to earn a little cash, he was still torn apart.

But many still keenly grasped the information in Fang Yue's post.

Miaofa Ziran: "No way, no way, no one here actually misses the value of this post? Oh… you're all blind? Then never mind."

Xiongba Tianxia: "So that's how you understand control and release of force? No wonder I never felt stronger—my force application and release were all wrong."

Deeply unforgettable: "Everyone upstairs is too impulsive, but the post content is still very helpful. Especially the explanation about force-dissipating properties—I and my teammates tested it in-game, and it's exactly as he said; the damage difference between dissipating and not dissipating force is enormous. This should be such an important piece of information—0.1 yuan is way too cheap."

That's true, but Fang Yue understood that this kind of information is only valuable in the early stages of the game. Once that phase passes, everyone knows it, and you can't sell it for anything.

If the price is set too high, others won't bother coming in—unless it's a high-level account, which carries credibility, making a high price acceptable.

Regardless, Fang Yue had earned a five-digit sum!

He withdrew the money—ten thousand yuan landed in his account—and Fang Yue chuckled to himself.

It had been less than a day since he entered the game, and he was already about to recover his costs. Choosing Blue Sea for gold-farming was truly the right decision!

He exited his post, boiled some instant noodles, brought them to the computer, and ate while continuing to browse the forum.

Fang Yue noticed that today's forum hot posts had only two topics.

The first was how to kill the Weird Ones.

The second was… how to increase one's Yang life.

Every player's initial Yang life was one day.

He entered the game at midnight last night; now it was nearly noon, twelve hours had passed.

Most players' in-game characters had only twelve hours of Yang life remaining.

All players were panicking.

But Longwan Platform was, after all, a hub for professional players.

Though anxious, they all analyzed rationally, seeking ways to increase Yang life or posted reward threads to ask for help.

Everyone used different methods, each displaying their own ingenuity.

And some information gradually spread across the forum.

Fang Yue paid to read through these posts and quickly gained some insights.

So far, only three methods of obtaining Yang life had been discovered.

Pills, Weird Ones, quests.

By "pills," they meant various rare pills, herbs, heavenly treasures, and earthly gems.

Someone on the forum had accidentally eaten a strange mushroom and gained several hours of Yang life, even posting about it boastfully.

Another had jumped off a cliff and lucked into a strange pill; after swallowing it, his Yang life increased. Others who received lucky packages had obtained grade-grade herbs and eaten them to boost Yang life.

Since there were slightly more samples, their authenticity was unquestionable.

But these methods were mostly a matter of chance—no one, except gamblers, truly placed hope in them.

(End of chapter)