I Can See Your Combat Power

“Really? So impressive!” Although Fang Xiong was still confused, this didn’t stop him from praising his older brother.

Fang Yuan knew all too well about his naive younger brother’s inexplicable trust and admiration for him, so he continued to say, “Most of the ones with three-digit codes are assigned to the east hump to Master Ou, which is the destination of most martial artists. This place has the lowest standard of food among the three alternatives. It seems these people either do physical labor or learn some simple craft with five elements. I heard Tang Tianjiao plans to build a city on Red Cloud Mountain, these martial artists will probably serve such purposes.”

“I see.” Fang Xiong finally understood. “That’s not bad either, at least we could learn a craft from Master Ou.”

To have martial artists learn crafts, you come up with the weirdest ideas!” Fang Yuan gave his cheerful brother a sidelong glance, then continued: “Until now, all those with four-digit codes, even some with four-digit codes with internal word-forms, none of them are assigned to the east hump. The worst off are assigned to the Righteous Gang, under Gong Zheng’s leadership.” “Oh, oh, oh.” Fang Xiong echoed in agreement, then curiously asked, “So what’s our code number?”

“Of course we have a four-digit code!” Fang Yuan really wanted to see what’s inside his younger brother’s head, anyone could figure out that Tang Luo would never assign two Mortal Realm martial artists to be laborers.”

“So that’s how it is!” Fang Xiong stuffed another bun into his mouth: “That’s not bad either, at least we can eat our fill every day. I heard there is meat every few days. We haven’t managed to catch any fish for many days…”

Just thinking of being able to eat meat again made Fang Xiong’s mouth water. Even though they used to be able to pick out a few fish from the rushing floodwaters thanks to their quick hands and sharp eyes, it had become increasingly difficult to do so since the Xue Family set up a fishing team. The fish swimming around Red Cloud Mountain had all been caught by their fishing team, leaving none for the two brothers. It had been many days since they had last eaten meat.

Fang Yuan shook his head looking at his younger brother’s longing expression, then said: “We can’t get chosen by the Righteous Gang or the Marshal Star Pavilion, if we go to either of those places, we are done for!”

“Why?” Fang Xiong didn’t understand: “Can’t we run away after having our fill?” “As if the meat given by these noble families is that good!” Fang Yuan said coldly: “Of the three places, the Marshal Star Pavilion is under the charge of Hero Du, a strong Fierce Realm fighter. As for the Righteous Gang, you saw it yourself, even some young Mortal Realm fighters are capable of such measures. The Gang Leader earned the alias of ‘Tiger in the Clouds’ long ago, and after he pledged his loyalty to Tang Luo, he was rewarded with unique arts. I’ve heard that he killed a Mortal Realm team of the Mi Family, and even held his ground against ‘The Hundred Sword Strongman’ Yan Ling Realm. If we were under their watch, do you think we would have a chance to escape?!” Although Fang Xiong was not inclined to ponder things too deeply, he was willing to figure out ways to ensure his brother’s safety in situations concerning their well-being: “Since it’s so dangerous, why don’t we use the Retractive Breath Technique to hide our cultivation?”

The standard for martial artists to judge spiritual power was nothing more than the level of activeness, the more spiritual energy accumulated, the more active the mobilization of spiritual power would be. Even when not mobilizing, spiritual power would be freely circulating inside the body, so there would always be some spiritual power fluctuations leaking out. Although it would be vague when not making a move, this was still the main means for ordinary martial artists to distinguish between the strong and the weak.

Of course, martial artists who had practiced the Retractive Breath Technique could make their spiritual power stable even in normal times. If there was a most crude form of Retractive Breath Technique in the world, that would be the Retractive Breath Technique. This technique does more than merely stabilizing physical strength, after extensive training even the breath and blood flow could be stopped. It was a method that undoubtedly harmed the body.

And it was quite obvious that the two brothers, Fang Yuan and Fang Xiong, were very familiar with this technique, otherwise they wouldn’t have thought of using the Retractive Breath Technique to cover their tracks.

“Idiot. Think a little deeper about everything. You can think of it, can’t Tang Tianjiao?” Fang Yuan’s eyes flashed with a wise light: “Martial artists can’t hide their cultivation for a while after training because the spiritual power will unconsciously wander around the body’s meridians. This Tang Tianjiao must have practiced some secret method to sense spiritual power fluctuations, this is how he selects martial artists!”

“I see.” Fang Xiong finally understood: “So what should we do?”

“When soldiers come, we block, when water comes, we build up soil!” Fang Yuan looked at Fang Xiong, and said seriously: “We’ll pretend to cultivate and concentrate our spiritual power fluctuations. That way Tang Luo won’t be able to sense our spiritual power!”

Pretend to cultivate?” Fang Xiong was dumbfounded: “Can you even pretend to cultivate?”

Ay…” Fang Yuan had surrendered to his younger brother’s lack of understanding: “It’s just sitting cross-legged among the crowd. When others are operating their techniques, we operate the Retractive Breath Technique. I ve heard clearly that Tang Tianjiao is cautious. Everyone is sensed twice, once before and once after the practice. We control our spiritual power well with the Retractive Breath Technique for the first time, and then we let go a little in the second time. And this way, he’ll think we’re Mortal Realm martial artists and there’s a high chance he’ll send us to Master Ou in the eastern peak. It’s not far from our secret cave. After we’ve saved up some food for several days, we can set sail on a raft, return to our mother’s hometown, and then even if the sky is high, birds can fly, the sea is wide, fish can leap, we will have true freedom!” While the two brothers were talking, Tang Luo had already examined more than 19,000 people from the east. Excitingly, among these 19,000 people, there was one with a talent of 1.3, thirteen with talents reaching 1.2, and more than a hundred with talents reaching 1.1. Even though more than 99 percent of those who remained were ordinary martial artists, and there were no martial artists with talents above 1.3, he was still very satisfied with this.

In fact, Tang Luo had his own unique standards for selecting talents. For example, among these talented martial artists, those who were too old were all excluded. For instance, he just saw a 30-year-old Mortal Realm challenger with a talent of 1.1, Tang Luo directly assigned him to the east hump.

Even though this person’s talent was stronger than many others, the issue of age was already determinate of his future achievements. This person would need at least 3 to 4 years to complete his accumulation of spiritual power. Judging by his pace of breaking through to the Mortal Realm at the age of 34, even with relentless training, he could expect no more than a 700 point increase in spiritual power growth in a year. In other words, it is conceivable that he could reach the peak of the Mortal Realm at the ripe old age of 44, yet, what’s the significance of that?

Only hoping that such a person could break through the Fierce Realm, Tang Luo himself found it cruel. The phrase “You have to practice martial arts at an early age” makes complete sense because once you miss the best age to make an effort, it will be difficult to make up for it later, no matter how hard you try. There was once a saying: There are two best times for practicing martial arts, one is ten years ago, and the other is now.

Although this saying makes a lot of sense, Tang Luo would still sadly say, even if you start over now and work hard, you will probably still find it hard to catch up with the person who started practicing martial arts ten years ago.

Unless your talent is against the heavens or the others stop progressing, the brutality of the martial path is nothing more than this..

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