Anti-MC Thug Force
[Bazing Sun Scripture requires 23 Profound Points to reach the Advanced level]
'Sigh… Confirm'
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[Blazing Sun Scripture (Mortal)]
Power: Very Weak
Comprehension: Advanced (0/72)
Stage: Qi Condensation (0/13)
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[Profound Points: 0]
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* * *
After coming back from the gathering, Han De decided to go all in. He needed to take advantage of every single resource in his possession. Starting from the most obvious.
'It seems increasing comprehension to advanced is more helpful to higher realm cultivators. Still, there are some tips I can write down for Ning Bi to increase her cultivation speed. It would be fine if a day or two can be shaved off with this.'
Slowly but surely Han De recorded these new insights into a scroll. This time he wasn't going to wait until it dried off naturally. Han De expertly executed his magnificent basic Qi spell and instantly dried the ink off. However, he thought something was missing.
'Maybe I should add a 'flick of a sleeve' movement to my repertoire. These sleeves are pretty long, they could be flicked, right?'
Immediately trying out a few moves, Han De was reminded of some Xianxia TV series he saw. He couldn't watch them for long as he didn't understand Chinese, but he did remember some fighting scenes with ridiculously long sleeves.
'There is some potential, it can be used for emphasis in the right circumstances. I could use it to bluff or intimidate others.'
Han De filed this move under 'work in progress' and headed for the Ning Bi's room. Seeing her in cultivation, Han De didn't disturb her.
'I'll just leave this scroll in her line of sight without her knowing. When she takes a break from cultivation and finds the scroll, my Profound Teacher impression will definitely go up a notch.'
Deciding against entering her room physically, Han De used a Qi control technique to put the scroll in place, then left.
* * *
Han De was about to do an inventory check to see which tokens could be useful but he remembered the thing he made a mental note about.
From a small age, Han De always had lackeys around him. They were the servants that were assigned to him by the Han family. Although they were also Starfall Mountain Sect members, their loyalty was first to their young master and the Han family.
Cultivation idiot simply used them as thugs. Granted, these people really enjoyed beating others up. A lot. But they were also real experts. Handing anything from beating people (by far their favorite), to information gathering, or even assassinations of lesser targets were possible for them.
If their numbers weren't enough, or if they lacked a certain type of expertise, they would just get more people from the Han family. Han De was the most important member of the Han family and had priority on any family resources as their young master. He could mobilize tens of thousands if he wanted, no questions asked. This permission came directly from the family head. No one in the Han family was crazy enough to risk angering her, especially over Han De.
Han De had many memories of the cultivation freak's lackeys. This was the first time he was going to use and order them since coming to this world.
<Peng.>
<Yes, Elder De.>
<Find out the whereabouts of the Celestial River Sect genius, the one that I crippled that year.>
<As you order, we will take care of him.>
Han De felt something wasn't right, he clarified.
<Just find his whereabouts, don't touch him.>
<.. Isn't he just a cripple? Elder De doesn't need to dirty his hands with a washed-up genius like him!!>
A frown starting to appear in his face, Han De asked.
<Are you planning to send the guys with the lowest cultivation levels? In groups of 2 or 3?>
<Y-yes, Elder De. I was about to send the young Li brothers. They are a bit inexperienced but they are eager.>
Eager for beating people up. Han De could see where this was going.
<Are you out of your mind?! You are going to send free XP his way? Do you want to level up the MC that much?>
Han De realized his slip up. However, he was also very concerned about sending free XP towards that genius. When Had De left, he had hit rock bottom, it should be about time for him to climb over his past obstacles. Sending thugs after him now would only serve to reignite his fire.
Peng was stunned. He didn't dare ask what was an XP or an MC.
<I didn't say beat him up did I? Just find out information. Don't touch him. I just need to know his whereabouts and his current condition. Find some info about the girl as well, his step-sister or something.>
<Also, from now on, you will send people in groups of 10. Everyone in a group of 10 will attack at the same time, no exceptions! If I find out they attacked one by one I'll cripple them myself. If those 10 can't beat the target, you will quintuple the numbers and increase their cultivation base. I don't care if you have to attack an initial Foundation Establishment nobody with a Core Formation expert, just do it. If something happens to those 50, you'll send 250 next and kill everyone involved. You'll quintuple it every time! Got it?>
<Y-yes! Elder De!>
<Good>
Old Peng broke into a cold sweat. 'Someone must have pissed off our young master big time.' he thought. He had served Han De for the past 20 years, this was the first time he had received such a tyrannical order.
<One more thing, you'll always send an entire group for each person. If the target is a group of 5 people, send 5 groups.>
Old Peng felt compelled to light a candle to whoever pissed off the young master.
Han De was still worried, but he thought this was fine for now. In the first place, he didn't want to send thugs after people, or kill them. This was just a contingency. What he wanted most was intelligence about potential MCs that the cultivation moron had already pissed off.
'Peng and his guys like beating up people way too much, but they are still reliable. Probably.'
* * *
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[Inventory]
Spiritual Roots Upgrade Token x1
Martial Arts Method Upgrade Token x2
Cultivation Method Fragment x4
Martial Arts Method Fragment x200
Derive Cultivation Method Token x 5
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'I can use Spiritual Roots Upgrade Token on a disciple if I had 5 of them. That's not going to happen anytime soon, I need 2000PP for that. I'm not even sure if Ning Bi's roots can be upgraded anyway.'
'None of the other tokens can be used on disciples. Derive Cultivation Method Token is a dud, I have to master all the methods first and the result is an incomplete method. I only have 4 Cultivation Method Fragments left. I haven't even mastered the Blazing Sun Scripture.'
'Even If I can find an incomplete martial arts method for Ning Bi, I can't use the fragments since I don't have any Profound Points to learn them.'
Han De thought about using Martial Arts Method Upgrade Token, he already had mastered the Heaven Defying Tyrannical Sword to the maximum level, which was a requirement for the token. It was also his primary deterrence tool, he used this method to display his aura. However, there wasn't any immediate benefit from it. Ning Bi might not even choose to use a sword.
'Same with Spiritual Roots Upgrade Token. No immediate benefit for Ning Bi. These tokens are also rare (so far) and expensive. It doesn't make any sense to use them right now.'
'I guess I'll use them anyway...'
'Activate Spiritual Roots Upgrade Token'
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[Spiritual Roots Upgrade Process Invoked]
[Gathering statistics]
[Calculating upgrade time]
[Upgrade will take 142 hours and 23 minutes]
[Initiating final preparations]
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'Hmm, not bad, I thought it would upgrade instantly, but 6 days is reasonable I guess'
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[Preparations are complete]
[To prevent permanent soul damage, the host will be put in sleep mode]
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"Wait what? What?!"
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[Upgrade Started]
[Time Remaining: 142:22:59]
[...]
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* * *
Upon returning to her room, Ning Bi was fired up. She was determined to make her teacher proud in the upcoming duel. She immediately started cultivating.
'I must cultivate diligently. Even a second is valuable. I need to reach the 5th level.'
Qi Condensation practitioners usually wouldn't engage in closed-door seclusion. The reason was simple. Money. Before the Core Formation realm, all cultivators had to eat, drink, and sleep. To be able to cultivate non stop, they had to use absurd amounts of Qi pills so that their bodies could function without daily necessities. Even then, as newcomers to the cultivation world, most would find the experience hard to endure.
Ning Bi was a special case. In her first closed-door seclusion, she spent nearly a week cultivating. Her only breaks were to eat more pills. Cultivation freak would've been proud.
Ning Bi took another high-quality Qi pill and went back to cultivation. She didn't notice the exquisite scroll case that was eye catchingly placed under the windowsill.
* * *
"Alright. These orders come directly from the young master. Our duty is to follow them to the letter"
20 people that were waiting on the courtyard was just briefed by the old Peng. They were confused, but they didn't question it. Young master seemed to have been pissed off enough.
"Uuum, senior brother Peng, if we are not allowed to beat the boy, what are we going to do with the girl?"
Hearing the question all of the 2nd group nodded and looked at Peng.
"Sigh, why must you keep disappointing me like this? We are the young master's men! We've been serving him for years. You can't even understand young master's orders?!"
With this, the 2nd group hung their heads. It was true that most of them had served Han De for more than 10 years. One of them remembered about the duel that Han De did with the genius that year. The girl back then was the reason for the duel.
"Are we to bring the girl back?"
Old Peng released a deep sigh.
"Took you long enough. Yes, obviously you will bring the girl back. You will not touch her, but you will bring her back."
* * *
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[Time Remaining: 00:00:00]
[Upgrade Complete]
[Awakening host]
[Operation Successful]
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[Congratulations, your spiritual roots have been upgraded!]
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Slowly opening his eyes, Han De found himself sitting in the lotus position.
"Sigh. This feels familiar..."
Han De stood up. He was in the same room he was before. Nothing seems to have changed. Ning Bi was still cultivating. His Profound Points were still at 0. So she hadn't reached the 5th level yet.
'I guess 6 days is just a blink of an eye for a cultivator. I can't imagine cultivating for 6 days straight though. Damn, how can Ning Bi stomach it?'
Shaking his head, Han De looked at his full status.
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[Name: Han De]
[Race: Human (100%)]
[Gender: Male]
[Age: 26]
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[Cultivation: Core Formation - Mid Level (3809/500000)]
[Constitution: None]
[Bloodline: None]
[Roots: Light (62%)] (UP +20%)
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[Fame: Cloudy Mountains: 503]
[Sect: Starfall Mountain Sect (21st Core Elder)]
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[Cultivation Methods]
[Starfall Scripture (Mortal)]
Power: Extremely Weak
Comprehension: Master
Stage: Core Formation (Mid-Stage)
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[Light Through a Single Thought]
Power: Extremely Weak
Comprehension: Master
Stage: Foundation Establishment (3/16)
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[Luminous Clouds]
Power: Extremely Weak
Comprehension: Intermediate (1/16)
Stage: Qi Condensation (8/13)
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[Blazing Sun Scripture (Mortal)]
Power: Very Weak
Comprehension: Advanced (0/72)
Stage: Qi Condensation (0/13)
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[Martial Arts Methods]
[Heaven Defying Tyrannical Sword (Self-Made)]
Power: Extremely Weak
Comprehension: Master
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[Skills]
None
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[Fate]
Calamity Attractor
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[Profound Points: 0]
[Privilege Level: 1]
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[Evaluation: Extremely weak, destruction of the soul is inevitable]
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[Inventory]
Martial Arts Method Upgrade Token x2
Cultivation Method Fragment x4
Martial Arts Method Fragment x200
Derive Cultivation Method Token x 5
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'20% improvement. In the acceptance ceremony, the best one had around 35%, the average ones had around 15-20%. Mine was 42%, now 62%. Not bad, I guess. I really hope this makes a dent on cultivation.'
Han De went over his mental checklist.
'Ning Bi needs to learn a martial art and choose a weapon. I don't think she'll end up as a caster type. She might still use spells, maybe a Magic Warrior archetype?'
[Congratulations]
[Host's disciple Ning Bi successfully reached Qi Condensation Level 5]
[Issuing 45 Profound Points as a reward.]
A content smile appeared on Han De's face.
'Finally. Those were excruciatingly long.. Aaah.. 4 hours? Since the duel declaration?'
'I was expecting her to take 8-9 days though. I guess the notes did shave off a couple of days.'
Han De headed for the nearest courtyard. He wanted to take some fresh air and think about how to let Ning Bi gain fighting experience quickly.
'She should be consolidating her realm, probably will be done in a few hours at most.'
* * *
Sitting in the courtyard, Han De was obviously not meditating, or cultivating.
'If Ning Bi had taken a few more hours, I could've made some more crepes. She could end her session at any time. Time for crepes is long gone. Sigh'
At first, Han De immediately was angry at the System. 6 days was still a long time in his eyes after all. While thinking about it though, his thoughts changed.
'If I could have some kind of auto cultivation mode, that would be amazing! I could just turn myself off for 100 years. It would be only a few seconds from my perspective! Hey System, is there an auto cultivate function? Or something similar?'
Naturally, there was no response. Han De also didn't think he would get one. It was just a fool's hope.
Thinking that it had already been 6 days, Han De decided to check up on Peng. Although the Celestial River Sect is far away, a cultivator can move very fast when they wanted to.
<Peng.>
<Yes, Elder De.>
<How goes the search for the thing I asked before.>
<We have found the exiled genius of the Celestial River Sect. It seems after the young master's duel, he was pursued by his family and went into hiding. For unknown reasons, the sect officially exiled him about a year later. It seems he also has lost the support of that elusive elder.>
<He reappeared under a new alias about a month ago as a spiritual beast hunter operating in the Ming Empire. We don't know how, but not only he has regained his cultivation base, but he also increased it. Right now he is in the middle stage of the Core Formation realm. We have not touched him as per your orders.>
Han De was cursing his luck, this guy was really an MC. The elusive elder was probably his ploy, orchestrated by an OP item.
'Shit, should I send a hundred core cultivators and kill him? Would that cause suspicion from my parents? Han De had never done something like this before. Not to mention there might be problems with the Ming Dynasty. They would never believe that the Han family would send that many for just a nobody.'
'This guy got crippled by the cultivation freak, but there were no interactions after that. He is also in the Ming Empire territory right now. Maybe there is no need to do anything for now. He might not even want to take revenge, especially if he does a quick bullshit powerup. Thankfully the cultivation idiot never touched his woman. If he had, this guy wouldn't stop until he came here.'
Knowing is half the battle. Now that Han De had some intelligence on him, he felt he had a lot more options.
<We also brought Fairy Xiao Lan. She is staying on the side building by the green lake.>
Han De was in his own world. He got caught off guard with the sudden statement from Peng.
<Who the hell is Xiao Lan?>
Peng had an ominous feeling all of a sudden. He couldn't figure out why, but he did not like it.
<F-Fairy Xiao Lan is the step-sister of the Xiao Ping.>
Han De was getting impatient. He felt like someone was trying to drip feed him the latest episode of jersey shore.
<And who is this Xiao Ping?>
After a pause, Peng answered.
<Xiao Ping is the exiled genius of the Celestial River Sect.>
"Shit."