Lin Ye had not expected the system to hold grudges even more than he did.
It had just had its heart ripped out from behind by that mutated black panther, and the very next moment, it issued a mission demanding its death.
All this time, Lin Ye had been leveling up here with the core principles of steadiness and staying alive.
Because one misstep could mean dying in this ruined city.
Now that the system had issued this mission, even if it currently looked like he had almost no chance of winning, Lin Ye could only find a way to do it.
After advancing to the next template, the growth of his attributes would be completely different. It would definitely be a massive improvement.
As for the second requirement, defeating [Lone Wolf], that also gave Lin Ye a bit of a headache.
In their first clash, he had lost without even really understanding how.
Even after reviewing it afterward, the conclusion Lin Ye reached was that the current him still could not win.
Lin Ye did not fall into a dead loop of self-doubt. It was still early, so he gathered his thoughts and continued leveling.
However, after Lin Ye killed a LV5 mutated beast, his brows furrowed.
[+5 EXP!]
The experience had decreased.
It had been directly halved.
Previously, when Lin Ye killed monsters one level lower than himself, the experience he gained was always the full amount.
Why had the experience been cut in half now?
Lin Ye opened the system panel and checked the experience acquisition log. Very quickly, he discovered the problem.
[You killed a LV5 Mutated Black Crow.]
[Affected by Basic Body Tempering Method, experience multiplier determined to be 50%. Final experience gained: 5 points.]
[The cultivation method currently practiced by the host: Basic Body Tempering Method, has an effective level cap of LV5. The host’s current level exceeds this cap. All experience gained will be halved.]
[Basic Body Tempering Method has overly low energy conversion efficiency. It is recommended that the host replace it with a new cultivation method.]
Lin Ye was stunned.
So cultivation methods had effective level caps too.
But after thinking for a moment, Lin Ye felt relieved.
The system had merely digitized and quantified everything about him, displaying it before his eyes.
When others cultivated a method, what increased was their vitality. For Lin Ye, it was converted into experience points.
In essence, it was actually the same.
If the cultivation method was lacking, then naturally, his experience points would also be discounted.
Then...
Would supplements and the like be affected?
With his leveling efficiency greatly reduced, Lin Ye did not continue lingering in the ruined city.
He needed to verify his guess now.
Lin Ye first went home.
He took out three B-grade nutrient solutions. These were the rewards he had just collected from the school’s logistics department this afternoon.
Without the slightest hesitation, he twisted open the caps and drank them down in one go.
Three bottles, all emptied.
[Ding! External energy source detected!]
[Converting energy...]
[You have gained 80 experience points. Your attributes have slightly increased!]
[You have gained 80 experience points. Your attributes have slightly increased!]
[You have gained 80 experience points. Your attributes have slightly increased!]
Immediately afterward, Lin Ye opened the body-tempering medicinal packet, poured it into the bathtub, and began taking a medicinal bath.
One hour later.
Only when he felt that his skin could no longer absorb even the slightest bit of medicinal power did he step out of the bathtub.
[You have gained 50 experience points. Your attributes have slightly increased!]
After Lin Ye put on his clothes, he had tested out another advantage of the system.
That was ignoring drug resistance and side effects.
For ordinary people, whenever they took supplements, or supplemented too much of the same type of nutrition in a short period of time, their bodies would develop resistance or suffer from incomplete absorption.
B-grade nutrient solutions even clearly stated that taking too much in a short period of time could trigger the side effect of hypoglycemia.
But for Lin Ye, this problem did not exist.
With the system’s enhancement, his body was like a black hole: however much went in, however much was replenished.
Not a single trace of energy would be wasted!
As for side effects, Lin Ye did not feel any.
It was also very possible that the system had automatically filtered them out for him.
He needed more supplements.
More importantly, he needed a stronger cultivation method.
Lin Ye left home and headed straight for the school.
This time, he did not go to the comprehensive training hall.
Chen Meng’s office.
Knock, knock.
Lin Ye politely knocked on the door.
“Come in.”
Chen Meng’s somewhat weary voice came from inside the office.
Lin Ye pushed the door open and entered. At a glance, he saw Chen Meng standing by the window with his back facing him.
Only, Chen Meng’s condition at this moment looked very wrong.
He was bare-chested, revealing a body of powerful muscles that looked as if they had been carved from marble. His right hand was pressed tightly against his lower back, and he was holding a hot towel in it.
There, Lin Ye saw a huge, hideous, dark-red scar.
And on his back, there were countless other scars of all sizes.
“Teacher, are you all right?”
When Chen Meng heard Lin Ye’s voice, he turned around. Seeing the concern in his eyes, he waved his hand.
“I’m fine. An old problem.”
“Hidden injuries left behind in the early years. They flare up whenever it’s cloudy. Nothing serious.”
He forced himself to sit back down in his office chair, draped his coat over himself, and looked at Lin Ye with burning eyes.
“Go on. Coming to see me this early—have you hit a bottleneck in cultivation?”
Lin Ye nodded heavily.
He asked bluntly, “Teacher, I want to know, how can I obtain a better cultivation method?”
Chen Meng revealed an expression as if he had expected this long ago, then said,
“The Basic Body Tempering Method uniformly distributed by the Alliance can only be considered an introductory method for tempering the muscles and bones and refining vitality. It can make your body stronger, but it cannot allow you to truly absorb source energy.”
Source energy!
Although Lin Ye had heard of this concept in textbooks, his understanding had been extremely superficial. Now that Chen Meng mentioned it, he realized that this might be the true key to a martial artist becoming stronger.
“Source energy is a kind of free energy that began permeating the entire world after the Tianyuan descended. It is everywhere.”
“And for a martial artist to advance from a ranked martial artist to a formal martial artist, the most crucial step is whether he can successfully draw source energy into his body and complete the first enhancement of his own level of life.”
“To accomplish this, one must rely on cultivation methods that can sense source energy and absorb it.”
“Normally speaking, the most convenient way to obtain a cultivation method...”
“Is to become a formal martial artist, then choose to join the military or the Martial Hall. By completing missions, you accumulate military merits or points and exchange them internally.”
Lin Ye frowned.
To become a formal martial artist, one needed a cultivation method capable of absorbing source energy.
But if one did not become a formal martial artist, there was no way to join the Martial Hall or the military and exchange for a cultivation method.
How was this any different from needing to graduate from Karazhan before you could run Karazhan?
It seemed cultivation resources and methods had long since been distributed and monopolized by the major forces and organizations.
Sure enough, no matter what world it was, for those at the bottom to leap to a higher class was absurdly difficult.
“Aside from that route, the only remaining option is to buy one.”
“However, the cultivation methods you can buy on the market are basically defective goods. They can sense source energy, but their absorption efficiency is extremely poor, and they might even cause irreversible damage to the body.”
“Moreover, these cultivation methods are not cheap. Their market price generally starts at over five hundred thousand Federation coins.”
Lin Ye’s heart sank.
The one hundred thousand scholarship he had just received was laughably insignificant in the face of true cultivation resources.
Just as Lin Ye felt as though he had truly fallen into a desperate situation...
Chen Meng suddenly pulled open the bottom drawer of his desk and took out a thread-bound book wrapped in oiled paper. It looked exceedingly old, and even the corners had already become damaged.
On it, five characters were written indistinctly—Five Qi Guiding Art.
He placed the book on the desk and pushed it in front of Lin Ye.
“As it happens, I do have a cultivation method here.”
“It was issued in the army, with my own understanding added to it. It can’t be considered top-tier, but it is definitely far stronger than the trash sold on the market. It can be considered a fairly standard cultivation method.”
Lin Ye’s gaze turned fervent.
But Chen Meng raised his hand and interrupted him.
“But I can’t give it to you for free.”
He looked at Lin Ye and stated his requirement.
“In one month, the school’s top students will have their practical combat tournament.”
“This tournament is also an opportunity for you. The school encourages internal competition among you top students. The higher your ranking in the tournament, the more resources you’ll receive. You can even seize other people’s resources.”
“Within one month, if you can take first place in the entire school in the vitality test, the life index test, and practical combat...”
“I’ll give you the cultivation method.”