Chapter 699: 564~565: Heavenly Human 3rd Realm, what of Heaven? I must contend for it! (Guaranteed minimum for monthly ticket)
There's a saying that a day in the mountains is like a year in the world.
Staying on an even more secluded island for a few days, the initial novelty slowly fades, a sense of boredom naturally surges forth, wishing even more to depart and return to the bustling Martial World.
That was exactly how Jiang Dali felt at this moment.
After remaining on the island for three days and witnessing Little Zhang Wuji astonishingly demonstrate his talent by cultivating the Nine Yang Divine Skill to the 3rd Realm and also making some headway in practicing the Holy Fire Order Divine Skill,
he was reassured and prepared to officially take the now sun-darkened Wang Yu Yan and leave.
During these three days, Zhang Wuji would often follow Jiang Dali's side to practice his skills.
Thus, Jiang Dali also often imbued his expectations of a disciple into Zhang Wuji,
advising Zhang Wuji that when he grew up, he didn't necessarily have to become a great hero, but he absolutely had to be a decisive and valiant man who could stand tall and unafraid.
In some respects, Jiang Dali also shared an extremely high understanding with Zhang Wuji's mother, Yin Susu.
Yin Susu warned Zhang Wuji that "the prettier the woman, the more deceitful she might be."
Jiang Dali then told Zhang Wuji that "with no women in the heart, one's practice naturally becomes divine."
This made Yin Susu, a shrewd woman, seem as if she had finally found a soulmate, beginning to trust more and more and slowly acknowledging the legitimacy of his teacher, Wuji.
However, Jiang Dali didn't care much for such dispensable recognition.
Seeing that all matters were settled,
and that Yu Cheng'an and the people from the Fire King Ancestor Gold Hall had begun the process of forging blades, he instructed the Ghost King Yin Skill to guard the plotting rich widows among a group of players who had started establishing the Wuxiang Sect overseas. Then, he bid farewell to the reluctantly parting Zhang Wuji and the relieved Zhang Cui Shan and others, taking Wang Yu Yan with him on Demon Hawk, flying straight from the Beihai to the South Sea.
...
"Travelers speak of Ying Province, where the misty waves are vast and messages hard to send!"
Above the azure Heavenly Vault,
Demon Hawk carried Jiang Dali and Wang Yu Yan, who had enwrapped herself entirely in blankets, as they leisurely glided.
What a vision of the sky's boundlessness and the sea's vast expanse, so vast and empty!
Jiang Dali fixed his gaze on his panel, which currently showed an impressive accumulation of over two hundred thousand Cultivation Points and more than three hundred thousand Potential Points.
After so many days of development, although the number of players in Black Wind Village hadn't skyrocketed, it had nonetheless steadily increased by over five thousand.
The player count within Black Wind Village was now nearing twenty-five thousand, and the total number of power members had surpassed seventy thousand.
A large number of players almost daily would improve their Martial Arts in the Hall of Transmitting Skills within their respective power sub-villages, and new players joined in learning Martial Arts.
This led to a continuous accumulation and surge in Jiang Dali's Cultivation and Potential Points.
Since the last time at Hulong Manor he had spent seventy to eighty thousand Cultivation and Potential Points to integrate the Vajra Invulnerability Divine Skill and the Golden Bell Shield, roughly seven days had passed.
During these seven days, the Cultivation Points had increased by over forty thousand, and the Potential Points had grown by over ninety thousand, as always outpacing the Cultivation Points.
Yet this growth rate still left Jiang Dali rather dissatisfied; using them always felt restrictive, which was far from suiting his temperament.
"Mixed Martial Arts has developed to this point, and this huge cake of players has basically been divided up by over ten thousand Martial Arts Sects, gangs, and the government troops of various vassal states.
Even after all my hard work grabbing land everywhere, I've managed to seize only a little—Hui Prefecture, Cangzhou, and part of the mid-sized Jiangzhou's player resources.
Now, many old-timers in the Mountain Village are savvy; they know it's better to focus on quality rather than quantity, and thus only study a few selected Martial Arts.
The higher the Martial Arts reach deep realms, the more Cultivation and Potential Points they require.
When players find it difficult to advance their Martial Arts Realm, they tend to save their Cultivation and Potential Points without using them or else use them to directly enhance their Realm.
This is also the reason behind the recent overall improvement in players' Power Realms.
However, this makes it hard on me..."
Jiang Dali looked at the panel with a sense of emotion.
He felt much like an old farmer who had worked tirelessly on the farm, only to find the crop yield unsatisfactory.
He had anticipated this situation.
Old-timers in the Mountain Village wouldn't often spread their Cultivation and Potential Points thin by learning more Martial Arts.
They would usually focus on two or three, or simply specialize in one.
And among the Mountain Village Martial Arts, only Earthly Rank Martial Arts start requiring a significant expenditure of Cultivation Points during practice.
Human Rank Martial Arts only need Cultivation Points when breaking through from the 4th to the 5th Realm.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of players, even elite players, at most have only one or two Human Rank Martial Arts, with few qualified to learn the Earthly Rank Martial Arts.
This has led to Jiang Dali's current slow growth of Cultivation Points, with the growth rate of Potential Points consistently outpacing Cultivation Points.
There are only two ways to solve this predicament.
One is to proactively lower the learning requirements for high-end Earthly Rank Martial Arts within the Mountain Village, to stimulate more players to actively learn Earthly Rank and higher Martial Arts, squeezing out their potential, and extracting more Cultivation and Potential Points.
But this approach is a short-term solution that doesn't address the root cause and could render the standard and rules previously established in the Mountain Village worthless, losing their value and authority.
The second is to continue plundering more territory, seizing the cake from other forces' bowls, annexing, and contending for dominance to gather more new members.
And once new members join, naturally, there will be a large number of people learning the Martial Arts of the Mountain Village, giving Jiang Dali more Cultivation and Potential Points.
"For the time being, my Black Wind Village within the territory of Song Country, without thoroughly resolving the relationship with the government, will find it difficult to make further progress.