The Fourth Calamity: People in High Martial Arts, Gods in Games

Chapter 112 The First Stage of Breathing Technique Perfection (Combined Chapter)

Red Moon Mountain, the sun blazing overhead.

A group of new players stepped off the medium-sized transport vehicle, each one curiously observing everything around Crimson Moon Mountain, filled with curiosity about everything.

"Why are there only a few of you guarding the gate?"

Fang Zhen got out of the car and looked at the six junior apprentices guarding the mountain gate with great surprise in his eyes.

These six new junior apprentices were the ones they brought from the martial arts school to Chiyue Mountain last night. Normally, these newcomers wouldn't be qualified to guard the gate, since the vagrants who come to Chiyue Mountain to trade are generally quite strong, including many junior and intermediate apprentices.

If these nomadic people in the wild cause any trouble, even a novice apprentice would have a hard time suppressing them.

Luo Wushang, Yi Ye Fuyun, and the others who had just gotten off the bus also looked at the six new apprentices with some curiosity. The rewards given by the master for guarding the gate were not small, and it could even be said to be a lucrative position.

After all, the AFK task that allows you to get 300 points and 50 contribution points for free in half a day without having to do anything is something that veteran players who come to Chiyue Mountain would be scrambling to do, so how could they possibly let newcomers do this task?

While AFK at the main gate, players can freely practice the Shocking Breathing Technique, which can help relax their tired mind and body and also improve their level. The only problem is that if you accidentally practice it incorrectly, you may be seriously injured or die, and you will have to spend a lot of time rushing back from the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall.

"We were unlucky and didn't get selected in the lottery, so we had to come here to watch the gate," the group said with a wry smile.

"Bad luck and you're here to see the gate?" Fang Zhen was even more surprised. "What's the situation at Crimson Moon Mountain now? Even bad luck can get you here to see the gate?"

"The martial arts master announced a new secret realm a few hours ago. It only requires 200 points and 20 contribution points each time. Each person can enter the secret realm for a limited time each day. The stronger you are, the longer you can stay in the secret realm."

"Beginner apprentices can stay for eight hours, intermediate apprentices for ten hours, advanced apprentices for twelve hours, and top apprentices for fourteen hours. As for what they can gain, it all depends on themselves."

"However, Red Moon Mountain must maintain a minimum level of defense, and we are the first group to stay behind."

The six apprentices, seeing Fang Zhen and the others' disbelief, slowly explained Lin Qi's latest announcement from Chiyue Mountain.

"A martial arts secret realm?" Even Yi Ye Fuyun was astonished. "I only had to wait for my resurrection cooldown, and now I have a whole new way to play?"

The martial arts secret realm sounds incredibly powerful, and as a veteran player from the second batch, he had finally managed to accumulate a huge debt and become a top-tier expert. However, due to the resurrection issue, he missed the first wave of opportunities to explore the secret realm, which was a huge loss.

"Let's go now. We've only been resurrected for a little over three hours. It shouldn't be too late to head to the martial arts hall's secret realm now." Fang Zhen was quite relaxed about it and wasn't as impatient as Yi Ye Fu Yun.

The previous robbery and raid missions had made their team quite a bit of money. Now, each member had an A6-level weapon, making them the best-equipped team among the three. Even if there were any secret realms, he didn't think other players could catch up to such a large gap in a short time.

"By the way, Crimson Moon Mountain has also opened a resurrection point. You just need to go to the resurrection point, spend two thousand points to bind it, and you can resurrect directly at the Crimson Moon Mountain resurrection point in the future." A new apprentice guarding the area reminded the group as they prepared to head to the secret realm.

"Resurrection point? What's going on? We just wanted to resurrect, how much have we missed?" Yi Ye Fu Yun was completely dumbfounded after hearing the apprentice's reminder.

Even the cloud that was present, including Luo Wushang and Fang Zhen, stopped in their tracks and looked at the new apprentice who had spoken. Their eyes were filled with shock, and they could hardly believe what the new apprentice had said.

While the new map, Crimson Moon Mountain, is excellent in every aspect and is practically a paradise for veteran players, it has always had one major flaw.

That is, resurrection is very troublesome.

For these elderly people who are already advanced apprentices, it normally takes more than half an hour to revive, not to mention that they have to rush all the way from the martial arts school. This makes them not dare to improve their martial arts skills and training methods much in Red Moon Mountain. They mostly just accumulate enough points and then die back to train, frantically improving their skills at the martial arts school.

Too much time was wasted in the process.

If Red Moon Mountain really has a respawn point, then this new map will be flawless. Not only can players break through with more confidence, but they can also earn a lot of points.

"This resurrection point was opened along with the secret realm. It's a temporary rest area set up inside the mine. You just need to register with the innkeeper," the new apprentice explained.

"Damn it! If I had known, I shouldn't have resurrected so quickly." Yi Ye Fuyun regretted it after hearing this. Although changing the resurrection point would cost a lot of points, if he had waited a little longer, he wouldn't have had to travel such a long distance. Thinking of his older sister Ye Qinglu, who was seriously injured but still went to the mine to cultivate, he couldn't help but sigh, "My older sister is indeed the chosen one. I must follow her from now on."

Ye Qinglu has always had a smooth life, which has always made Yi Ye Fuyun envious. He thought that being the first to discover the arrival of Gao Wu was a step ahead of Ye Qinglu, and he could even take Ye Qinglu on missions, something he never dared to dream of before.

But now it seems that the chosen one is indeed the chosen one; any choice he makes can easily close the gap between the two.

After registering their new resurrection point with Lin Qi, the resurrected group followed him into a cave containing a small energy mine. They were all awestruck by this martial arts secret realm.

The cave was filled with energy minerals, and the energy was two or three times higher than that of a mine. A simple breath was like eating a mouthful of blood essence rice, and the energy quickly flowed throughout the body.

"This free energy is incredibly concentrated!" The gunslinger from beyond the Great Wall exclaimed, sensing the overwhelming energy in the air. "I feel like if I just casually circulate my breathing technique, I should be able to break through to the Limit Apprentice level very quickly!"

"This place is indeed very suitable for cultivation." Luo Wushang nodded, but quickly added, "However, it's only suitable before becoming a martial artist. You can break through freely, but to successfully advance to become a martial artist, you must cultivate the Shocking Breathing Technique to 100% proficiency. Only then will your future advancement path be easier."

As Luo Wushang spoke, the experts present, including Fang Zhen, also deeply agreed.

The martial arts secret realm is indeed a sacred place for cultivation, which can greatly accelerate the leveling speed. However, as experts, they also know very well that if they really want to stand at the top in a virtual game, the basics are the most important.

Especially after witnessing Lin Qi's terrifying strength, everyone understood the importance of the basics. Even simple apprentice-level martial arts skills now felt necessary to be mastered to perfection, not to mention the most important training methods.

"You discovered it so quickly?" Lin Qi was quite surprised to see that Luo Wushang and the others were not confused by the dense energy.

The worldview of a normal player is completely different from his, who lives in a high-level martial arts world. For a player, this is just a game, and the faster the level increases, the better. Normally, they would never think about building a solid foundation.

He originally planned to explain that, just like other players who came for the first time, there was no problem in quickly leveling up in the small energy mine, but only before becoming a martial artist. If you break through before you have mastered the Shocking Breathing Technique to 100%, you will have to bear the consequences yourself.

Now that Luo Wushang and the others understand the true function of small energy veins, he was spared the trouble of explaining it to them.

"Within this martial arts secret realm, there is also a secret technique passed down." Lin Qi looked at the group preparing to cultivate and said, "This secret technique is in a hidden metal cave over there. Everyone who enters the secret realm can learn it at will. However, this secret technique is extremely difficult to learn and may not be suitable for everyone. You should proceed according to your own abilities."

"Are there any secret techniques I can learn?" Yi Ye Fuyun's eyes lit up immediately.

Previously, he wasn't very interested in the martial arts school's spiritual techniques, feeling that improving his martial arts skills was far more important. However, after the fierce battle with the White Feather Gang, Yi Ye Fuyun realized the power of spiritual techniques, so he immediately went to Lin Qi to learn them.

After learning the spiritual secrets, his mastery of force improved significantly, which allowed him to create a new Spiral Demon Spear Kill. Now, combined with his B2-grade halberd, he is undoubtedly the number one in terms of offensive combat.

Now that there are secret techniques to learn, one naturally cannot let them pass by.

Immediately, Yi Ye Fuyun ran to the inheritance room to learn the new secret technique, while the others looked at each other and then curiously went over to see what the new secret technique was.

Even after everyone had finished learning, many people present had furrowed their brows.

"This secret technique is incredibly powerful, but it's just too difficult to learn." The gunslinger from beyond the Great Wall said with a headache after trying it out. "I clearly remember how to mobilize external energy, but using that energy to modify cells according to the instructions in the inheritance is a hundred times harder than threading a needle. Even the slightest mistake will cause the modified cells to immediately disintegrate. Is this really a secret technique that a human can learn?"

Many players who had inherited the skills in the cave nodded in agreement with the Frontier Gunner's idea, feeling that the Body Strengthening Secret Technique was not something a human could practice.

The difficulty of learning the body-strengthening secret technique is more than ten times that of learning the spirit-strengthening secret technique, and one dies very quickly while learning it, making the learning cost exceptionally high.

"This level of difficulty probably indicates that it's some kind of hidden tank class," said Ragnarok, who was learning a body-strengthening technique. "That's exactly what we want—only a very few people can learn it. Otherwise, wouldn't this hidden tank class be everywhere? This will be the most sought-after class for dungeons and boss fights in the future. Whether you guys practice it or not, I'm definitely going to learn it."

"That's right, it's rare for the Master to be so generous, allowing us to directly change to a hidden class for free. You're all just taking advantage of the Master's generosity, and you don't even know how to appreciate it." One Leaf Floating Cloud nodded, rolled his eyes at those who gave up, and agreed with Ragnarok's idea.

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Previously, he hadn't practiced the secret technique immediately, which allowed his older sister to close the gap considerably. Now that this god-level secret technique, specifically designed for close combat, was right in front of him, he had to learn it no matter how difficult it was.

Just thinking about learning this body-strengthening secret technique is amazing.

High attack power and extremely tanky, this is practically the perfect class.

The words of Yi Ye Fuyun immediately made all the experts present realize that what Yi Ye Fuyun said was absolutely right.

Lin Qi didn't charge them tens of thousands of points for these hidden professions, which was a huge bargain. If they didn't learn them now, when these hidden professions showed their incredible power during the closed beta, Lin Qi, the master of the academy, would definitely charge them exorbitant fees.

While the inherited memories are still clear, we must master them as soon as possible, otherwise it will cost a lot of points to learn them later.

Lin Qi was taken aback by the sudden surge in interest from everyone in learning body-strengthening techniques, completely baffled by what was going on with these players.

After learning that the body-strengthening secret method was difficult to learn, most people gave up and were instead focusing on improving their mind-shaking breathing technique.

As a result, they are now all enthusiastically learning the body-strengthening secrets again, and they are actively discussing and researching how to learn them, as if they will not give up until they learn them.

"Forget it, let's ignore them. It would be best if they could learn it. That way, I wouldn't have wasted so many energy crystals. I'll make a resurrection device in Crimson Moon Mountain." Lin Qi was very pleased to see everyone discussing the body-strengthening secret technique.

He spent a full two energy crystals to create the player resurrection device.

Energy crystals are extremely rare; there are probably only a few in the entire miniature energy mine. The two he has are all the players have mined in the past few days. He doesn't even know if he can get any more in the miniature energy mine.

Time passed, and Lin Qi watched the players frantically cultivating in the small energy mine. Ten hours had passed without him realizing it, and the sky outside was already completely dark.

"It's about time." Lin Qi glanced at the time on his smartwatch. There was less than half an hour left until midnight. He then found a secluded cave, opened the system menu, and selected the target to extract. "I hope they can help me break through to 100% proficiency in the Divine Breathing Technique this time."

Previously, his "Surprising Breathing Technique" had remained at 90% proficiency. This was not because he deliberately did not improve it, but because he found that he could not improve it, or rather, the "Surprising Breathing Technique" had no effect on players with proficiency below 60%. So he could only leave it as it was and wait for the players to improve.

Now that skilled players have a resurrection point in Crimson Moon Mountain, they are all going all out to improve their Divine Breathing Technique. With the added benefit of small energy veins, their improvement speed is incredibly fast.

Over the past half-day, a total of ten players have reached a proficiency level of over 60% in the Divine Breathing Technique. Among them, Luo Wushang and Li Ranxing are the most powerful, having reached 71% and 70% proficiency respectively. The two have already reached the level of quasi-martial artists, and their speed of improvement is terrifying.

Next up were Zhang Qingwei, Fang Zhen, Zhao Hu, Yi Ye Fuyun, Ye Qinglu, Xiao Wan Ye Kuang Feng, Sai Wai Qiang Ke, Yi Qiang Ba Jue, and others, all of whom reached over 60% and became true ultimate apprentices.

Now that there are so many players with over 60% proficiency, Lin Qi also plans to aim for 100% proficiency. Perhaps this will allow him to break through and become a martial artist, giving him a better chance of dealing with the Great Ape Gang later.

System: Congratulations, host, on mastering the Divine Breathing Technique (Level 1 Proficiency 93%).

System: Congratulations, host, on mastering the Divine Breathing Technique (Level 1 Proficiency 95%).

System: Congratulations, host, on mastering the Divine Breathing Technique (Level 1 Proficiency 96%).

……

Lin Qi's five consecutive extractions brought the first level of the Shocking Breathing Technique to 99% proficiency, an improvement that exceeded his expectations.

The mastery of the Mind-Awakening Breathing Technique increased from 90% to 99%. Although his physical constitution did not improve, his blood energy increased by a full 30% compared to before. His brain felt more flexible and clear than ever before, and his sensory nerve reactions were even comparable to those when wearing A6-level armor.

"Good, just one more step, we must succeed!" Lin Qi couldn't help but choose to extract Luo Wushang, whose skill level was the highest.

drop!

System: Congratulations, host, on reaching the first level of the Divine Breathing Technique (Perfected).

The moment the system notification sounded, Lin Qi felt an unprecedented sense of comfort, as if his entire body had been reborn.

His own rich blood energy was faintly visible on his body surface, surrounded by a light mist, and this mist was accompanied by waves of heat.

"So I've become a martial artist?"

Lin Qi opened his attribute panel and was immediately stunned.

(End of this chapter)