Chapter 74

Seeing Lin Ling truly intended to give him this ghostly house, Fang Yue quickly grabbed his hand.

"Brother, Brother Lin! Have mercy!"

"What? Don't want it now? Too late!"

As Lin Ling tried to wrench free, Fang Yue shuddered and clung to his arm with all his strength, shouting.

"Brother Lin, I'm sorry! I had no choice before, but now I just want a normal house!"

"Fine! Go reapply to Lord Han and see if he'll give you two houses."

"So you're forcing me to live in the netherworld house?"

"Sorry, the Village Seal has already been stamped."

Fang Yue looked—Lin Ling had pressed the Village Seal onto the map with his other hand, meaning the house now belonged to Fang Yue.

Too fast!

Fang Yue pleaded again and again.

Fortunately, the village wasn't actually that strict.

Unable to endure Fang Yue's nagging, Lin Ling finally changed one of the larger houses near the village center to Fang Yue's name.

Fang Yue beamed.

With a house and an official position, I'm basically the village's rich, tall, and handsome.

Just that my daytime strength is a bit weak.

Fang Yue's eyes darted and he said, "By the way, Captain Lin, do you have any crude Martial Arts? Teach me a couple moves?"

Trying to get something for nothing?

You call him "Brother Lin" when you need something, but "Captain Lin" when you don't?

Hmph—tui—

Lin Ling glanced at Fang Yue: "Of course I do, but why should I teach you? I'm not Chen Mu."

"What nonsense! We're brothers who shared life and death together—we fought a 【Force-Driving Apparition】 together!"

Lin Ling raised his voice: "What joke is this? If fighting an Apparition makes you my brother, then I, Lin Ling, have brothers all over the world?"

Fang Yue:??!!

You're not right!

Second bloom? Applying knowledge flexibly?

Fang Yue whispered weakly: "Then… shouldn't the Deputy Captain have some Martial Arts? I saw even Niu Niu, a Reserve Member, gets taught Martial Arts."

"You can go learn too—if you don't mind the shame."

Of course I don't mind!

But Fang Yue still thought the Deputy Captain wouldn't learn the same stuff as a Reserve Member.

Apparently fed up with Fang Yue's pestering, Lin Ling snapped.

"Reserve Members of the Guard Team train under the Instructor, focusing on basic physical conditioning—not any Martial Arts."

"Once you become an Official Member, you're taught one Spear Technique for free: the 【Basic Spear Technique】. Because length is strength—when facing Apparitions, getting close without solid strength means certain death. Since everyone learns the same spear technique, squad coordination is easier, so the village has preserved this rule."

"Next, if you become a squad leader, you can use your Life Order's Yang Lifespan to exchange for Martial Arts manuals in the Guard Station's Library Room—but the selection is tiny, limited to just a few texts."

"Most choose the advanced Mortal Martial Art derived from the Basic Spear Technique: the 【Flowing Spear Technique】."

"Finally, at the Deputy Captain level, you gain access to more manuals in the Library Room, with no restrictions."

"But all the Martial Arts manuals in the Library Room, except one—【Basic Origin Mental Method】—are Mortal Martial Arts."

"You, who received Chen Mu's inheritance and already learned the Martial Dao Blade Technique—why would you learn other Martial Arts?"

"As long as you master the 【Starfire Blade Technique】 and your Internal Skill, in the entire Gu Yue Cun, only I and Hua Wuye can surpass you."

Basic Origin Mental Method?

Fang Yue asked about its effects, and Lin Ling replied irritably.

"The 【Basic Origin Mental Method】 is the lowest-tier Martial Dao technique—nothing compared to your 【Starfire Heart Method】."

"Only those with no other way to obtain a Martial Dao technique choose the 【Basic Origin Mental Method】 to force a breakthrough."

"Even then, the 【Basic Origin Mental Method】 requires massive Yang Lifespan, huge merit, accumulated Apparition kills, the rank of Deputy Captain, and unanimous approval from three Captains—conditions are extremely harsh."

"But at least it gives Guard Team members hope—so they won't train their whole lives without ever stepping into Martial Dao."

Without entering Martial Dao, you have no Internal Power.

Without Internal Power, you can't break through—stuck forever at 100 HP, never advancing!

In other words, in the entire Gu Yue Cun, apart from inheriting from a Captain or obtaining the 【Basic Origin Mental Method】, there's truly no other path to a Martial Dao technique?

Fang Yue voiced his doubt, and Lin Ling didn't hide anything:

"Not true. Martial Dao techniques are rare, but not this limited."

"Take our Gu Yue Cun—we periodically hold 【Inter-Village Activities】 with neighboring villages: competitions in combat, skills, or Apparition extermination. Winners receive generous rewards—elixirs, weapons… sometimes even Martial Dao techniques."

"Chen Mu's 【Starfire Heart Method】 and 【Starfire Blade Technique】 were won by our village after slaying a major Apparition during a joint operation."

As he spoke, Lin Ling's tone turned sour—he'd clearly been on that team and missed out on the reward.

Pausing, Lin Ling continued: "By my count, the next 【Inter-Village Activity】 is coming soon. After last night's disaster, we need to buy many resources from neighboring villages—we'll definitely participate. This requires coordinating with other villages—I'll probably have to go myself… sigh…"

"Besides the 【Inter-Village Activity】, occasional traveling merchant caravans come to the village. Their goods are genuine—they even sell Martial Dao techniques—but prices are outrageous, shamelessly greedy."

"Also, if you go to our superior county, Qingsi County, large shops openly sell Martial Dao techniques—but in such big places, they don't accept money—only 【Black Ember】 as currency."

Black Ember?

Fang Yue had only seen Silver and Black Ember—what was Black Stone?

"One hundred grams of Black Ember, when brought together, attract and fuse into a single complete Black Stone."

Fang Yue:!!

Doesn't that mean... Silver Stone is...

Fang Yue's face changed, and in an instant he understood the value of Silver Stone, and the terror of 【Edge-less Gu】!

And Lord Han, who had instantly killed 【Edge-less Gu】, was terror among terrors!

Next, Lin Ling mentioned several ways to obtain Martial Dao-level techniques.

For example, using Black Stone to go to the neighboring village to apprentice under a master, or searching for treasures in the wild and stumbling upon a fortuitous encounter.

Because the wilderness was too dangerous, strong cultivators often died out there. If one truly had the luck to pick up a secret manual in some perilous place, that would be perfectly reasonable — the only catch was a rather high mortality rate.

The most reliable method of all was to formally enter a sect!

That's right — this game actually had all sorts of sects!

But sect disciples only came to Gu Yue Cun once a year, and only because they were visiting Lord Han and took the opportunity to stop by and take on apprentices.

When these sects recruited disciples, not only were the quotas limited, their standards for accepting disciples were absurdly high.

So far, not a single person in Gu Yue Cun had been chosen by any of these sect recruiters, and Lin Ling gave him a thorough round of cold, mocking ridicule over it.

He wondered whether Lin Ling had once shamelessly begged to be taken in as a disciple and been rejected.

1. Thanks to the author of *Mystery Revival*, Buddha, for the leave-of-absence recommendation (manual doge).

2. My throat hurt yesterday, and today I've caught a cold. My brain was foggy all day while I was writing; I went to get medicine in the evening before it got a little better.

3. Three updates today, probably won't be until the wee hours.

(End of chapter)