Chapter 028: The Rogue and the Fat Man

“Hmm! But that still depends on your abilities!” Xin Lang added.

Hearing this, Qian Baidu sighed, “Sigh! You’re already a level nine martial apprentice! I only managed to break through to level five today. Trying to catch up to you is almost impossible!”

“Hey, are you a man or not? At least show some fighting spirit! Look at Fatty Gu. Ever since you gave him a beating, he’s been training hard every day just to get his revenge on you. Now he’s a level five martial apprentice too!” Xin Lang said.

“What? That fatso is already a level five martial apprentice? How is that possible!” Qian Baidu cried out in disbelief.

“Hmph! If you put in the effort, nothing’s impossible! If you don’t work hard now, you won’t be bullying others in the future—instead, you’ll end up being bullied like you were today!” Xin Lang continued to prod him.

“No way, I can’t let that fatso surpass me! I have to work hard, I want to bully others! I want to rob the rich to help the poor!” Qian Baidu howled at the sky.

“Uh… rob the rich to help the poor again…” Xin Lang was speechless.

Xin Lang walked Qian Baidu back to his dormitory and tossed him a bottle of “Red Blossom Blue Silver Dew,” saying, “This is medicine for bruises and injuries. With it, you should be fully recovered by tomorrow! Feel free to come rob me again tomorrow if you want to help the poor!”

“Tomorrow? Forget it, I’ll wait a few more days and do some more training before I come to rob you again!” Qian Baidu replied, knowing his own limits.

Xin Lang thought for a moment, and as he was leaving Qian Baidu’s dorm, he muttered as if to himself, though loud enough for Qian Baidu to hear, “I heard Fatty Gu came into a windfall recently—seems he got a few hundred gold coins!”

“A few hundred gold coins?” At the mention of gold coins, Qian Baidu’s swollen eyes, barely open, suddenly gleamed with light.

...

Xin Lang returned to his own dorm to look over today’s gains.

Not only had he leveled up to become a level nine martial apprentice, he’d also mastered the intermediate mortal-level technique “Autumn Wind Falling Leaves Finger” and the advanced mortal-level “Wild Wind Falling Leaves Finger,” earning himself an extra twenty experience points.

Adding the one remaining point from before, he now had a total of twenty-one experience points. After some thought, Xin Lang decided to level himself up to a level ten martial apprentice.

Once he reached level ten, he tried pressing the upgrade button beneath his character’s profile in the upgrade device. A prompt popped up: “To advance to Martial Artist, level one, you need one hundred experience points and an earth-level martial art!”

“Damn, I need a hundred experience points and an earth-level technique to become a martial artist? No wonder they say there’s an insurmountable gap between martial apprentices and martial artists. Even with this upgrade device, it won’t be easy to break through to the secret strength stage!”

Xin Lang understood the difficulty of transforming overt force into covert force, just from watching Shi Lang struggle for years at level ten. It required not only hard work, but immense talent.

The process of turning overt power into covert strength was indescribable in words. That’s why so many martial apprentices stayed stuck at level ten, unable to become true martial artists.

Xin Lang didn’t know how he would transform his own overt power into covert strength, but he wasn’t afraid. As long as he had the upgrade device, he was confident he could become a real martial artist.

That night, Xin Lang slept only three hours.

Because he’d leveled up twice in the afternoon, from level eight to level ten, his daily tasks had to be recalculated. That meant he had to complete ten thousand task actions in one night.

By the time he finished the tasks and earned another experience point, it was already the middle of the night!

At dawn the next morning, as soon as Xin Lang opened his eyes, he heard the sounds of fighting outside his room.

“Who is it now? I haven’t even started my daily tasks and they’re already making a racket!”

Xin Lang got out of bed, dressed, and opened the door to find Qian Baidu and Fatty Gu Ge, both shirtless and wrestling each other.

“Take this! My level five fist force!” Qian Baidu punched Fatty Gu square in his flabby belly.

“Ha! Level five fist force is nothing. Let me show you what peak level five feels like!” Fatty Gu’s strength had clearly grown again.

After a bit of grappling, Qian Baidu realized his strength still couldn’t match Fatty Gu’s. He had no choice but to use a martial technique. “Mortal-level low-tier martial art—Piercing Heart Dragon Claw!”

Fatty Gu was not to be outdone. “Hmph, a mortal-level martial art? I know one too! Mortal-level low-tier martial art—One Hundred and Eight Dragon Subduing Palms!”

Fatty Gu may have been at the peak of level five, but Qian Baidu was very familiar with the “One Hundred and Eight Dragon Subduing Palms.” After a clash, the two ended up evenly matched.

“Mortal-level mid-tier technique—Heart-Splitting Dragon Claw!”

“Mortal-level mid-tier technique—One Thousand and Eight Dragon Subduing Palms!”

Their low-tier skills unable to gain the upper hand, both switched to mid-tier techniques.

Xin Lang watched their fierce battle and shook his head. “At this rate, Qian Baidu isn’t strong enough to qualify as my daily task. I’ll have to let Fatty Gu push him harder! Looks like I’ll have to teach both of them ‘Heart-Shattering Dragon Claw’ and ‘Ten Thousand and Eight Dragon Subduing Palms’ when I have the chance.”

“Xin Lang, did those two wake you up too?” Meng Chuchu, Xin Lang’s neighbor, opened her door and spotted him.

Xin Lang was deep in thought and didn’t answer.

Seeing he didn’t reply, Meng Chuchu tried again, “Xin Lang, what martial art did you use when you beat Luo Shan and the others the other day? It was so powerful, way stronger than the ‘One Hundred and Eight Dragon Subduing Palms.’ Can you teach me?”

This time, Xin Lang heard her. “You want to learn?”

Meng Chuchu’s eyes sparkled like stars, full of hope. “Yes, I really want to!”

“Oh, then just go find Fatty Gu. He knows it too!” Xin Lang said, turning to head back into his room.

With his morning training blocked, Xin Lang had to complete his daily tasks indoors. With the increased number required, even though he performed the movements faster and faster, it still took him the whole morning to finish.

By the time he was done, Fatty Gu and Qian Baidu’s epic wrestling match had finally ended.

Covered in wounds, the pair limped into Xin Lang’s room.

“Boss!”

“Classmate of the year!”

Both looked at Xin Lang with hopeful eyes, waiting for his charity.

“You two? What do you want?” Xin Lang asked, confused.

“Hehe…” Qian Baidu and Fatty Gu both grinned obsequiously. “Do you have any more of that ‘Red Blossom Blue Silver Dew’ you used for treating injuries? We’d each like a bottle.”

Xin Lang glanced at their battered bodies, a smile unconsciously curling at his lips. He took a bottle out of his upgrade device’s inventory and tossed it their way. “You two can share it. Don’t start fighting again!”

Though Fatty Gu was fat, he was agile. He leapt up to snatch the bottle out of the air.

“That’s mine, you fatso!” Qian Baidu, despite being second to react, managed to grab the bottle at the same time as Fatty Gu.

“Stupid fool, the boss gave it to me!”

Neither willing to back down, the two started wrestling for the bottle all over again.

Xin Lang opened his door and kicked the rolling duo out, yelling, “Get lost! Go die outside if you want to fight!”

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