Chapter 130: Intermediate Flower-Picking Leaf-Plucking

Late at night, Li Nianlong successfully completed scenario 22.8 and earned 19,000 experience points, bringing him closer to obtaining the third piece of his set.

In the alchemy room, Li Nianlong stayed for a full ten hours, securing one hundred attribute pills. At this point, he had 908 remaining points, and his true qi had reached 800 points. After some thought, Li Nianlong allocated all 900 points to his true qi, bringing it to 1700 points, leaving the remaining 8 points unused for future needs.

Currently, Li Nianlong had reached level 42, with both his strength and speed at 336 points. Due to his acupoint master skills, his intelligence had reached 346 points, making him much stronger than when he assassinated Long Zongheng. However, he still wasn't confident in defeating Long Jingtian. The old man's internal power was too deep, and his external qi attack, the Dragon Transformation Technique, was unbelievably powerful. Every time Li Nianlong thought of that deep pit, he shuddered; its power was like a cannonball.

Uncle Guan had once mentioned that true martial arts masters were like human tanks with incredible destructive power. Without overwhelming firepower to suppress them, these martial arts masters could dominate the world. This explained why governments during the cold weapon era didn't interfere with martial artists—not because they didn't want to, but because they didn't dare. If they angered a master, they could sneak into the imperial city on a dark, windy night, and the emperor could only wait for death with closed eyes.

No wonder dynasties always emphasized literature over martial arts; the existence of martial artists posed a threat to the rulers' sense of security.

Fortunately, with the advent of firearms, even the most skilled martial artists couldn't withstand bullets, let alone bombs. Gradually, martial arts masters stopped being so arrogant. Though still strong among the people, they no longer disregarded the government. The Long family, a prominent martial arts family with their Dragon Transformation Technique being one of the best in China, commanded respect from other martial arts families, especially the Xiang family. This situation contributed to the century-long prosperity of China.

Li Nianlong had never tested his maximum attack power. Today, without having to go to the Liu residence, he had breakfast and then, accompanied by Nalan Ruyue, ventured into the deep mountains, finding a rocky riverbank. Satisfied, he took out a flying knife. "Ruyue, stand back," he said.

Nalan Ruyue nodded and stood about five meters behind him, watching curiously.

Li Nianlong infused the flying knife with true qi, causing its blade to emit a faint white glow. With a swift motion, he threw the knife, which embedded itself up to the hilt in a rock.

At the same time, a soft ding sounded in his mind, indicating that his Flower-Picking Leaf-Plucking technique had upgraded.

Flower-Picking Leaf-Plucking (Intermediate 0%): With abundant true qi, flowers and leaves can be used as weapons. Effective range: 100 meters. Attack power increased by 200%. Attack speed increased by 200%. No cooldown time. Each use consumes 200 true qi.

So powerful!

Li Nianlong was astonished. Both the attack range and speed, as well as attack power, had doubled. However, the true qi consumption had also doubled. If intermediate level consumed 200 true qi, what about advanced? Master level? Perfect level? Looking at his newly increased 1700 true qi, Li Nianlong wiped his brow, realizing it still wasn't enough.

Currently, he could regenerate 10 points of true qi per second, but a few hundred points per use was too much. In high-level combat, even 0.01 seconds could determine life and death, let alone several seconds.

Nalan Ruyue walked lightly to the rock, grabbed the knife handle, and pulled it out, leaving a deep crack in the rock without any surrounding damage. This proved the flying knife's strong penetration without dispersal.

"Brother, such a powerful flying knife," Nalan Ruyue signed.

Taking the flying knife from her, Li Nianlong shook his head. "Unfortunately, it lacks destructive power and can't attack widely."

Nalan Ruyue smiled and signed: "Not necessarily! Brother can use both hands to throw eight knives at once, which would be like a shower of knives."

"Hmm? That makes sense," Li Nianlong realized. Throwing one knife couldn't spread the attack, but what about eight at once? The effect would be incomparable. However, there was a catch...

Why does each additional knife consume extra true qi?

Currently, intermediate Flower-Picking Leaf-Plucking consumed 200 true qi per use. Throwing eight knives at once would consume 1600 true qi. Looking at his 1700 true qi, Li Nianlong felt conflicted.

Why? Why does the system give me such a big 'surprise' just after increasing my true qi?

Fortunately, I still have Arrow God.

Master-level Arrow God: 100% critical hit within 200 meters, 100% accuracy within 300 meters, 80% hit rate within 500 meters.

Most importantly, using arrows didn't consume true qi, which was much better than Flower-Picking Leaf-Plucking. Of course, the advantage of Flower-Picking Leaf-Plucking was that any object in hand could be used as a weapon with strong destructive power. In contrast, Arrow God required a bow and arrows; without them, the profession was useless.

However, both Arrow God and Flower-Picking Leaf-Plucking had strong penetration but lacked dispersal. It seemed the system intended him to follow a technical route. This made sense; skills with strong dispersal typically wasted true qi. Li Nianlong's skills focused on precision and penetration to avoid true qi wastage.

Many people believed that punching someone's head to pieces was a sign of strength. In reality, those who could cut the throat with a fingernail were truly powerful. Achieving the greatest result with the smallest effort was the essence of true strength.

Although Long Jingtian's Dragon Transformation Technique was powerful, Li Nianlong believed its internal power consumption was also high. His skills, focusing on precision and technique, would prevail in a life-and-death battle.

As for dispersal skills...

Didn't the Golden Sword naturally disperse sword qi? A 10x10 meter web of sword qi was extensive enough, right? But even that was pierced by the denser dragon qi. Hence, a large attack range was effective against weaker opponents but useless against strong ones.

With these thoughts, Li Nianlong's mind cleared, and he felt relieved. Turning to Nalan Ruyue, he saw her lifting her left hand, a sparrow perched on her finger, chirping softly.

Nalan Ruyue smiled, gently stroking the sparrow's head with her right index finger. The sparrow pecked at her finger affectionately, creating a beautiful scene in the natural surroundings.

Birds and animals have spirits; they can sense good and evil. Nalan Ruyue's purity attracted the sparrow. Harmony between humans and nature is the proper way for the world to exist.

For a moment, Li Nianlong seemed to understand something.

The system encourages me to punish evil and promote good. Could it be to make the world more harmonious? If so, wouldn't the system grant me the ability to see good and evil?

Eliminating evildoers to make the world better—is that the system's purpose? And my becoming stronger is just a byproduct of achieving this goal?

Thinking about this, Li Nianlong felt confused: Am I using the system, or is the system using me?

"Host, don't overthink it." Perhaps sensing Li Nianlong's confusion, Dragonfly appeared in time to soothe him. "It's just a mutually beneficial arrangement. Is making the world better wrong? No. Does the host wanting to become stronger make sense? Yes. Since that's the case, why trouble yourself? Just focus on becoming stronger and incidentally deal with bad people."

Dragonfly's timely guidance quickly cleared Li Nianlong's mind. Reflecting on Dragonfly's words, he exhaled deeply. "You're right. There's no conflict between becoming stronger and punishing evil. I was worrying needlessly."

"It's good that the host understands." With these words, Dragonfly disappeared from Li Nianlong's sight.

After several experiments, Li Nianlong determined the maximum penetration of his intermediate Flower-Picking Leaf-Plucking technique: it could completely penetrate a two-meter-thick hard rock with a single leaf. However, after penetration, the leaf would lose all its power and fall limply.

Plum blossom darts and flying knives had slightly stronger power, but due to their larger force area compared to a leaf, their penetration was similar. Li Nianlong was satisfied with this penetration power.

Penetrating a two-meter-thick rock demonstrated substantial penetration, surpassing dragon qi in absolute quality. If dragon qi clashed with a flying knife, the knife would penetrate the dragon qi, but the remaining dispersed dragon qi would still cause some damage, leading to mutual destruction.

Li Nianlong wasn't afraid of mutual destruction. With plenty of pills in the shop and his Condensed Spirit Returning Origin technique, he could recover immediately. In a battle with Long Jingtian, Li Nianlong would be unscathed while Long Jingtian would be heavily injured, predicting a clear outcome.

And this was just intermediate Flower-Picking Leaf-Plucking. What about advanced level? Master level? Perfect level? Crushing the opponent would be effortless!

With newfound confidence, Li Nianlong decided not to rashly head to Dragon City to assassinate Long Zongheng. After all, Dragon City was the Long family's stronghold, and the cost of assassinating Long Zongheng there would be too high. Instead, it was better to wait for an opportunity. If Long Zongheng was really determined to pursue marriage and came to Tianfu to propose in person, Li Nianlong would ensure his body remained in Tianfu forever.

It was now noon. After several trials of the Flower-Picking Leaf-Plucking technique, his proficiency had increased significantly. Seeing the technique's intermediate proficiency at 13%, Li Nianlong nodded with satisfaction. He turned to Nalan Ruyue, who had attracted a flock of sparrows, and said, "Ruyue, let's go home for lunch!"

His voice startled the sparrows, causing them to scatter in a flurry. Nalan Ruyue stood up, smiling slightly. "Brother, have you finished practicing?"

"Yes, I've finished," Li Nianlong smiled, extending his hand. "Let's go!"

Nalan Ruyue, with a faint blush on her face, took Li Nianlong's hand, and together they left the depths of the forest.