Star Gate

Chapter 473: The Merit Exchange Manual (II)

Li Hao carefully perused the page and paged through the manual before saying, “There aren’t many sword methods, but there’s a Mind Sword Fusion Method. It’s probably related to the sword, but you need five hundred merits to trade for it.”

Hong Yitang fell silent, whereas He Yong took over. “How about boxing methods?”

Ancient boxing methods were great points of reference, some could be outright cultivated. Of course, martial masters walked their own paths. If they laid hands on one, it would be mostly used as a source of information instead of a guide.

“There are indeed boxing methods.” Li Hao quickly flipped the pages. “The Fists of the Bloody Lion King. Eight hundred points!”

“......” Both men fell silent. Damn, that’s expensive!

But expensive meant that it was good. Otherwise, a promotion to troop leader was just one thousand points. These secret arts required several hundred or a thousand at a drop. It was mind-boggling!

While there were secret arts listed in the exchange manual, there weren’t that many. It would seem that the military was a more centralized body, to prevent obstacles in concerted action if everyone wielded different methods. It was mostly resources listed as available for exchange. Li Hao’s eyes fell on a certain treasure that wasn’t expensive.

“The Mind Fruit nurtures mental strength and costs ten points per fruit.”

Mental strength was what the ancients called mind intent. There were certain differences between the two, but they were very similar. A treasure that nurtured mind intent only cost ten points! Li Hao was quite tempted when he took a look. I wonder if there’s any left!

“There are energy stones on here, I wonder if it’s mysterious power stones. Energy stones for cultivation cost ten points per portion. I wonder how much a portion is?”

“Are there others?” Hong Yitang asked after some thought. “Methods to nurture the five organs, perhaps?”

“I can’t tell.” Li Hao scratched his head. “There are more secret methods, but they all have... pretty crazy names. Look at this one called Divine Annihilator. If it wasn’t for the words ‘blade method’ associated with it, I would have no idea what it’s used for.”

There were many secret arts listed in the manual, but each of them bore ludicrous names. It was difficult to tell from a glance what their purpose was. The key thing was, all of them cost a lot of merits.

“Forget it, let’s go ask the commissioner of Military Supplies...” Hong Yitang breathed out.

Li Hao nodded and walked toward Zhang Liang. “Deputy Commissioner Zhang, there are some parts of the manual that I don’t understand. Are there any methods that teach one how to nurture the five organs?”

“Nurture the five organs?” Zhang Liang was rather surprised. “Why do you need that? I can see that you’ve manifested your mental strength and have long surpassed the stage of training the five organs...”

Li Hao blinked. What did the soldier mean?

“The manifestation of mental strength, and at a strong level at that, means that the five organs should already be pretty strong. What do you want something like that for?”

“Ah...” Li Hao found the response strange. “So Deputy Commissioner Zhang means to say that the ancients train the organs first, then mind intent—mental strength, is that so?”

“Is that not the case in your era?”

“No!”

Alright then, Zhang Liang wasn’t too surprised. “The cultivation systems of each time period may differ—yours should have differences from ours. Regular methods for training the organs may not work in your situation, but there isn’t a complete void of similarity when it comes to martial dao!”

The deputy commissioner seemed to be recalling something. “Strengthening the five organs may not be of any use to you. My memory is damaged, so I cannot determine your exact condition. There is a method that will be useful, however. It’s not that effective when it comes to strengthening the organs, but it can connect them as one. Strengthening one organ is to strengthen all five.”

Li Hao’s heart stirred with desire. Strengthening one organ equals strengthening all five? That was great!

“Commissioner Zhang...”

“Deputy Commissioner!”

“Ah, yes. Deputy Commissioner Zhang, can we trade for this method?”

“I think so, I can’t remember. Look for the Building Five Bridges method. It breaks the bulwark between the five organs and creates five bridges to share energy. In this regard, a circulation cycle between the five results in strengthening all five when one is strengthened!”

Hong Yitang and He Yong stepped forward with agitation. They’d never heard of the Building Five Bridges method before—so the five organs could be connected to each other?? They were deeply nervous and deathly afraid that they didn’t possess enough merits.

Li Hao quickly paged through the manual, finding the secret art’s name and discovering that... it wasn’t expensive!

“Just thirty points?” the young man identified with surprise. He’d thought that it would require hundreds or a thousand! No wonder he hadn’t seen it earlier. It was placed in the back since it wasn’t expensive.

“It’s not expensive to begin with!” Zhang Liang explained. “It’s just a regular cultivation method that some of the academies made available for free back in the day. Not everyone in the army attends the academies, so we charge a small amount for it out of respect for the academies’ copyright. Anyone who serves for three years can obtain it for free. You guys can also have it for free after three years!”

“......” Silence answered him. Forget it, we don’t want to come back in three years.

“Is it hard to practice?” Li Hao quickly asked.

“I don’t know. It wasn’t hard in our times, but our cultivation system is different from yours. You three should have strong organs because your mental strength is already on display, but yours are somehow weak. It even looks like they are not in balance for you. I don’t understand your system.” There was indeed a disconnect here as, although everyone practiced the ancient methods, there were certain revisions made. Some ancient methods weren’t meant for modern use—problems would arise if they were employed as is.

Based on Zhang Liang’s words, the trio should be very strong after the manifestation of mental strength. They shouldn’t have to worry about their organs, but that was the greatest worry of modern martial masters!

“The Building Five Bridges method is a neutral and mild cultivation method that does not require exact steps. It might be very suited for you guys. Having to focus on only one organ might save a lot of time.”

The trio bobbed their heads rapidly. Indeed! That was right!

Li Hao was quite excited. If he could give this to his teacher, then his teacher might be able to create a new method very quickly! Building Five Bridges seemed to be great reference material.

“Ah... can we teach this method to others?”

“......” Zhang Liang seemed to be regarding Li Hao with an assessing look. “It could not be taught privately before and there was no need to. All of the martial universities possessed it, as did the military. We charge a fee out of respect for the creator! They need some encouragement after creating the method—some inspiration and respect. But the times no longer belong to us. You can teach it to others on a small scale so long as that isn’t done haphazardly.”

“Then the three of us...”

“The three of you cannot teach each other!”

“......” The trio paused.

“You are of the military and cannot teach each other in private. All three of you must trade for the method, and if the people you teach later join the army, they need to pay the fee as well. There is no problem if they do not join.”

What, so this means we need to pay extra? All three of us have to make individual exchanges? And it’s teaching outsiders that’s no problem since the army’s hand doesn’t stretch that far? But it stretches to us!

“Will this method break the supernatural locks?” Hong Yitang asked urgently.

“What?”

“The supernatural locks!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Zhang Liang replied. “The times are different, perhaps there are differences even in the physical body. I am not familiar with some of your terms. But like I’ve said, the Building Five Bridges method is a neutral and placid method. You can give it a try or use it as reference. You should not trade for the other methods because they might be completely useless!”

The soldier was unaware of supernatural locks! Li Hao was surprised—were there no such things in the ancients?

The trio put the method down for exchange on all of their lists. “The energy stones for cultivation that cost ten points—how many are in a portion?” asked the young man.

“The ten that you received before is a portion!”

Li Hao blinked and was then overcome with joy! Are you kidding me? Such a pure mysterious power stone is only worth one point? Hot damn! That’s so cheap! Granted, it wasn’t that cheap since killing a Solar rendered only one point. But compared to the prices earlier, it was cheap.

“This type!” Li Hao quickly took out a stone. “One stone is worth one point. One of these is worth ten of ours!”

He Yong’s eyes darted to it. He looked at Li Hao, then at Zhang Liang as he furiously ran calculations through his mind. One point for ten stones. He had 120 points, minus the thirty needed for the Building Five Bridges method... that meant he could trade for nine hundred stones. Nine hundred was what these stones mapped to in their terms. He had an outstanding debt of three thousand!

Zhang Liang looked at He Yong. “Does this one not wish to save trade for a higher position? The authorization for a black armor soldier is very low. You’ll have some more benefits if you become a company leader. It only takes one hundred points!”

“One hundred points for company leader?” He Yong grimaced. “I...” only have 120 points and I want to trade for that method! I won’t have anything left if I go for a promotion!

“What’s so good about being a company leader? I don’t see the point...”

It only seemed to come with a stronger suit of armor. In that case, he really didn’t care about that.