Chapter 33: The Way to Level Up!

“If we kill Master, won’t the restriction on us disappear?”

The pavilion was truly cold now.

After Fan Li’s words fell, there was a long silence.

And that silence itself revealed something terrifying—something that made all six people present feel ashamed and guilty.

Because not a single person had immediately stood up to denounce Fan Li’s outrageous treason.

Not a single person had quickly snapped, *Your thinking is very dangerous!*

Silence meant everyone was thinking.

Thinking meant everyone was hesitating.

And hesitation meant everyone... was tempted.

They really were weighing the pros and cons in their hearts. They really were considering whether doing this might work.

Once nobody had spoken up at the beginning, the tiny dark thoughts in everyone’s hearts had already been exposed.

If someone now tried to swear loyalty or draw a clear line between themselves and Fan Li who exactly were they fooling?

Especially since everyone here, even if they had not originally come from the same comic, had now lived together in this world for half a year.

Who among them did not know what the others were like?

But someone had to break the silence.

Otherwise, a crack would form in the entire group.

And the one who spoke was not the Blind Man Bei.

Nor was it Feng Siniang.

It was Liang Cheng.

“I once led soldiers and fought wars.

“Leaving everything else aside, I’ve done plenty of things similar to what the Marquis of Zhenbei’s household did this time—using the lives of several thousand civilian laborers as bait.

“I’ve done things even worse than that.

“But no matter what, when it came to my own subordinates, my own soldiers—even when I ordered them to cover a retreat, even when I sent them to die—I always told them plainly what I was asking them to do.

“A general can deceive his enemies.

“He can even deceive the ruler of his own state.

“But if he deceives his own subordinates and comrades-in-arms, then he has lost the very meaning of his existence.”

Liang Cheng picked up the wine cup in front of him and slowly raised it.

“None of us are good men or faithful women.

“By the standards of ordinary society, every one of us is probably an unforgivable demon.

“We’ve seen through many things.

“We can live more freely.

“We can live with fewer restraints.

“We can pursue whatever feeling we desire with even greater abandon.

“Blood.

“Life.

“Cruelty.

“Violence.

“We can take pleasure in all of it.

“We can live without chains.

“But in the end, we are still ourselves.

“We remain ourselves because we have personalities, edges, quirks, and things we pursue.

“We are not machines that exist solely to maximize profit.

“If we were, then why would any of us need names?

“We might as well all rename ourselves.

“Like bubbles.

“They appear only so they can float upward, reach the surface, and burst.

“Really, when you think about it, it’s almost laughable.

“Back when we were nothing more than ordinary people, we made him a promise.

“We told him he could choose for himself whether he wanted to live an ordinary but wealthy life, or pursue something more exciting.

“At that time, we were willing to protect him and let him spend his whole life as a rich household patriarch.

“But now—we’ve recovered part of our strength.

“Very little of it, yes.

“And already we’ve started craving more.

“I’m ashamed of myself.

“Truly.

“I know I’m in no position to say any of this. I’m not clean either.

“So let’s all drink this cup.

“And after that, let’s forget what Fan Li just said.

“Forget the thoughts that moved inside all our hearts just now.

“Forget all of it.”

A’Ming raised his cup.

Xue San raised his.

Feng Siniang raised hers.

Fan Li raised his.

The Blind Man Bei raised his as well.

Then everyone drained their cups.

The temperature in the pavilion seemed to rise a little.

The Blind Man Bei pursed his lips and spoke again.

“Actually, there’s one simple point everyone ought to understand.

“If a player deletes his account, do the mounts under that account—

“No.

“Do the pets under that account still continue to exist?

“If things were truly that simple, then why didn’t Sun Wukong simply chop off Tang Sanzang’s head, pickle it, carry it to the Great Thunderclap Monastery, and hand it in to complete the pilgrimage?

“So this matter ends here.

“Now.

“Let’s return to serious business.

“Based on my hypothesis, what we need to do next falls into two broad categories.

“The first is development in wealth and influence.

“That includes the authorized establishment of three hundred cavalry, their training, their equipment, and how Master—despite holding the rather hollow office of Lieutenant Commander of Merchant Protection—can fight for a greater voice and more influence in this little patch of Tiger Head City.

“The second—is finding a way, at any cost, to increase Master’s strength!”

This second category was the true priority.

Because only by raising the strength of all seven of them could they hold genuine power in their own hands.

Then their future development would no longer depend so heavily on schemes, alliances, and borrowed leverage.

If your fist was hard enough, you simply punched the enemy apart.

That was the most straightforward road.

“This world has magic.

“It has battle qi.

“It has cultivators.

“It has Martial Artists.

“There are far too many systems to count.

“And all of them are uniformly divided into nine grades.

“What we need to do is help Master raise his grade step by step!”

“So what path should we choose for Master?” Feng Siniang muttered. “The zombie says Master is fairly strong.”

“How about battle qi?”

Xue San suggested.

“A Martial Artist is probably better,” A’Ming said. “Battle qi leans too far toward the Western side of things. It would be difficult for us to find someone to teach it.”

“Agreed. We need to adapt to local conditions,” the Blind Man Bei said.

“With our current resources, it would be very difficult to gain deep access to Western power systems.

“I hear the State of Yan does have mages and battle-qi practitioners, but there are very few.

“Most are exchange students at academies in the Yan capital, or serve as military attachés in places similar to embassies.

“At present, we don’t have the ability to go all the way to the capital of the Great Yan Dynasty and kidnap a teacher.”

“Kidnap a teacher?”

Feng Siniang drew in a breath.

As though she had finally understood something, she said, “Blind Man, is that why you called us here tonight?

“To kidnap...

“No.

“To *invite* a teacher for Master?”

The Blind Man Bei gave a soft “mm.”

“So you’d already decided?”

A’Ming suddenly felt speechless.

This damn blind bastard.

Why had he been putting on airs?

He had let that iron idiot Fan Li blurt out that sentence and made everyone sit through this entire awkward late-night scene.

The Blind Man Bei shrugged.

He seemed to know everyone was resenting him now.

But he could not really help it.

Even he had not expected someone to say something like that.

“Yes.

“That is the real reason I called everyone together tonight.

“Given the conditions available to us and Master’s current situation, I think finding him a genuine Martial Artist as a teacher is necessary.”

Then the Blind Man Bei continued his analysis.

“Liang Cheng is extremely capable in close combat, but most of what he does relies on the bloodline of his zombie body.

“A’Ming is the same.

“Unless the two of you can perfectly transplant your own bloodlines into Master, he simply cannot walk the same road you do.

“Your paths do not suit him.

“Xue San’s movement techniques and abilities depend more on experience and understanding how to use strength.

“The Fourth Lady’s abilities and mine likewise rely on certain opportunities and conditions that are difficult to explain.

“They are not especially reproducible.

“As for the Demon Pill, there’s even less to discuss.

“Master designed that thing like Sun Wukong—he debuted already at his peak.

“How exactly are we supposed to replicate that?”

Every one of them was too unusual.

And precisely because they were too unusual, they were poor templates for Zheng Fan, who was essentially a blank sheet of paper.

Their existences were, to a great degree, born from accidents.

How did you imitate an accident?

Wouldn’t it be better to have one of their own teach Master?

Keep the fertile water inside one’s own field.

And there was no question that everyone would teach him with everything they had, holding nothing back.

But would it work?

“Mm.”

Feng Siniang nodded.

“Yes.

“If Master tries to imitate our roads, he’ll only make his own road narrower.”

“So, since this world has such a huge population and so many mature cultivation systems, that means each mature system has already been successfully validated by many, many people.

“That alone means those paths are far more reproducible.”

“So we grab a Martial Artist?” Xue San asked impatiently. “You have a target?”

“If we’re going to find one, we can’t settle for some half-baked fraud.

“We definitely don’t want the sort who only knows how to flash and sparkle a little.”

That was Feng Siniang’s evaluation.

Liang Cheng nodded.

“At minimum, we need someone who has truly entered the grades.

“A genuine Ninth Grade Martial Artist.”

“How strong is a Ninth Grade Martial Artist?” Feng Siniang asked the Blind Man Bei.

“The husband of that woman you’ve been sending talisman-water to for her swollen belly—isn’t he the Patrol Lieutenant Commander?

“He’s half-step Ninth Grade.

“How strong is that?”

Xue San chuckled from the side.

“Tch. The Blind Man works discreetly.

“I’m sure nobody ever caught him in bed with another man’s wife.”

“A half-step Ninth Grade isn’t difficult to deal with.

“But if we face a true Ninth Grade Martial Artist alone, the danger increases sharply.”

As Liang Cheng said this, he thought of the sword-bearing old man who had stood beside the female general from the Marquis of Zhenbei’s household on the battlefield.

“So first we identify a target.

“Once the target is confirmed, all six of us move together.

“We make absolutely certain we capture the target alive.”

The Blind Man Bei finally revealed the complete plan.

“Uh.”

Fan Li raised his hand.

A’Ming glanced at him and said irritably, “A’Li, if you’re about to say something stupid, then don’t.”

Fan Li seriously thought about it.

He genuinely seemed to be analyzing whether what he was about to say qualified as stupid.

“Go ahead, A’Li,” the Blind Man Bei said with a sigh.

“When I was with the merchant caravan, I heard the barbarians say that the Royal Court has sacrificial halls.

“Talented Barbarian Shamans can go there for further training and study.

“The State of Yan also has military academies and schools.

“Could Master enter an academy to study?

“Wouldn’t that work better?”

Xue San yawned.

Then his lips began firing like a Maxim gun.

“Yes.

“Master first goes through a selection tournament and, after great difficulty, defeats all the prodigies of Tiger Head City to earn an academy place.

“Then, as a useless loser, Master gets excluded, suppressed, looked down on, and bullied at the academy.

“No matter which stray cat or dog crawls out from whatever corner, they all deliberately run over to Master and show off so they can build some hatred.

“Don’t ask why.

“Master is Master.

“He is the most unique firework in the entire world.

“Then Master gets bullied at school while none of us are around.

“So he runs to the back mountain.

“Maybe he slips and falls into a cave where he finds a secret manual.

“Or he meets the Child Matriarch of Mount Heaven, who wants to pass on her cultivation.

“Or he picks up a ring with an old granny living inside it.

“And the old granny opens her mouth and asks:

“‘Please tell me your dream!’”

He truly was worthy of having spent half a year working as the inn’s “little storyteller.”

He rattled the entire speech off without pausing once, leaving Fan Li completely dizzy.

Xue San picked up the wine pot and drank several mouthfuls directly from the spout.

Then he put it down, wiped his mouth, and said, “I support the Blind Man’s plan.

“This plan is definitely much better than sending Master to some damned academy.

“First, the six of us capture a Ninth Grade Martial Artist.

“We can threaten his family or threaten his own life and force him to teach Master.

“Once Master reaches half-step Ninth Grade, we check whether our own strength has increased.

“If it has, good.

“Then the rest becomes simple and straightforward.

“When Master reaches Ninth Grade and our strength rises again, the seven of us—six of us.

“Fuck, when is that lazy bastard going to come out?

“Damn it.

“Forget him.

“Anyway, once Master reaches Ninth Grade and we get stronger, we go capture an Eighth Grade Martial Artist.

“Torture him.

“Make him teach Master.

“Once Master reaches Eighth Grade and we get stronger again, we capture a Seventh Grade.

“Then a Fifth Grade.

“Then a Fourth Grade...”

When he finished, Xue San slammed his palm onto the table with a bang and roared, “Is there any more satisfying way to level up in this whole damned world?”

(End of Chapter)