NOVEL WEB Chapter 34: Swordsmanship and Archery
Kent prepared to take his leave.
Elder Jia extended his hand to stop him, smiling as he spoke: "Mr. Eight God, since you've already become a guest elder in our black market and demonstrated remarkable abilities as a Beast Master, may I ask you something?"
Kent paused for a moment, then replied, "Please go ahead."
"I see that Mr. Eight God is young and talented, but I'm curious about your plans for the future. Have you ever considered joining our black market?"
"Sorry, I have my own things to take care of, so I don't have such plans for now," Kent replied.
"Oh~ no problem, everyone has their own ambitions. However, Mr. Eight God, don't think we're just a simple black market," Elder Jia lowered his voice, "Behind us, our influence is quite substantial. I can assure you, if you officially join us, your future will be limitless—wealth, beauty, power, everything will come to you at your call."
Kent felt a bit tempted. That sounds so good. After all, he was in his prime years now.
However, he shook his head. It sounded too enticing, but there's no such thing as a free lunch. He was alone, with no one to rely on. Even if he joined a powerful faction, he would inevitably face internal power struggles and deceit. He could easily become a pawn in the game of power.
"I appreciate your kindness, Elder Jia, but I don't want to be bound by anyone. I prefer to live freely," Kent declined once again.
"Well... alright, but remember to come often to the black market. There are plenty of tasks here waiting for you," Elder Jia chuckled.
Kent's lips twitched slightly. The sensation of losing vitality wasn't pleasant, and he still felt a bit dizzy. He thought to himself, he'd come back once he ran out of money.
However, right now, he had a fortune on hand. The question was, when would it run out? That was still unknown.
After bidding farewell to Elder Jia, Kent looked at Xiao Wei, unsure of how to begin.
"Xiao Wei, do you need money?" Kent asked a bit nervously.
"Mr. Eight God, why are you asking about that?" Xiao Wei sighed softly.
"Nothing, just thought, since we've met, if you ever need money, don't hesitate to come to me. I'm quite wealthy now," Kent smiled.
"Alright, if I run into any difficulties, I will definitely ask Mr. Eight God for help. But I'm doing fine right now, so I don't need it," Xiao Wei smiled sweetly.
Kent nodded and exchanged contact details with her before leaving the black market. Garfield, with his sharp feline instincts, helped him spot someone tailing him. Immediately, he activated Garfield's superb camouflage ability, slightly altered his face, and removed his mask to blend into the crowd on the street.
After a few twists and turns, Kent successfully shook off the pair of eyes following him. If he wasn't mistaken, it was probably the White Tiger-masked man sent by the person surnamed Dongfang.
Back home, Kent felt that something was off. He realized he had acted a bit carelessly. To be safe, he decided to take some precautions.
He quickly hailed a car to a brand-name store and spent nearly a million credits to buy a spatial bag. It was quite large, about five meters in length, height, and width.
Next, he went home and stored some essential items in the spatial bag, while Garfield and Wukong each had a Beast Master bracelet with them.
The spatial bag was for storing things, while the Beast Master bracelet was used to carry beasts. Each bracelet could only hold one beast.
After packing everything up, Kent rented a nearby apartment for three days at a cost of 3,000 credits. It was pretty expensive, but with his current wealth, he didn't mind the small expense.
He took out Wukong and fed him a high-grade nutrition liquid.
Ding!
System message: Your Beast Wukong has absorbed a bottle of high-grade nutrition liquid, gaining 3,000 experience points.
Immediately, Kent leveled Wukong up to level 3, with some energy to spare.
Taking a deep breath, he then fed him a high-grade evolution liquid, adding 30,000 experience points. Wukong's level soared up rapidly, reaching level 10. The energy was fully absorbed, but it couldn't be used for further growth at the moment.
Kent had seen this before with Garfield. There was always a limit to level-ups. It wasn't possible to break through endlessly. This rapid increase was possible because of the system. Without it, a normal beast would only break through by two or three levels at most, with the excess energy being gradually digested over time.
Next, he gave Garfield a bottle of high-grade evolution liquid, which added over 20,000 experience points. Garfield's body shone with golden light, dazzling and radiant, easily reaching level 22.
After checking the attributes, Kent noticed there wasn't much of a change except for a significant boost in combat power, though its abilities hadn't increased.
The next day, Kent visited a luxury club in Microglow City—Yitian Club.
This club occupied an entire 100-meter-tall building with thirty-three floors. It was said that except for the first and top floors, the rest were all training halls and cultivation rooms.
Floors 2-10 were for middle-class students to train, the more general route.
Floors 11-20 were for the children of wealthy families to train.
Floors 21-32 were all specialized cultivation rooms with various types to meet almost any environment requirement.
Kent directly obtained a super membership card for 100,000 credits and headed to the 15th-floor sword training hall, where he saw over ten swordsmanship instructors.
The attendant explained that in the 5th-floor sword training hall, only basic sword techniques could be learned, with no one-on-one guidance. It was mainly just demonstrations and explanations by the instructors.
However, on the 15th floor, there were several swordsmanship instructors, each a master with deep expertise and a unique personal style—some were gentle, some were ferocious, some were deadly, and others were swift.
Wealthy students could choose the instructor that best suited their preference for high-quality training.
Kent nodded and looked at the information under each instructor's profile, becoming quite interested.
Instructor Li Jinyuan: Expert in third-grade sword techniques, the Eight Slash Six Paths Blade and the Hongmen Assassination Blade, with a fierce and bold style. Available for training from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., with 21 students already enrolled. Monthly fee: 20,000 credits.
Instructor Chen Ziran: Expert in fourth-grade sword techniques, the Dragon Breath Blade, which is as fast as thunder and unstoppable. Available for training from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m., with 3 students already enrolled. Monthly fee: 50,000 credits.
...
After reviewing the options, Kent made his decision. "I'd like to sign up for Instructor Chen Ziran's swordsmanship class."
The attendant immediately helped him complete the registration process, handing him an identity card to use for attending classes.
Kent then went to the 19th-floor archery training hall. Archery wasn't as widely used as sword techniques, so there were only five or six instructors. Kent chose one named Bai Yunxuan, intending to learn his legendary Spiral Arrow technique.
As for the 20th-floor firearms training, Kent had some thoughts. After all, firearms could be useful for dealing with smaller monsters. However, against those beasts weighing tens of tons, a small bullet wouldn't do much. Since firearms overlapped somewhat with archery in usage, Kent ultimately decided to forgo it.