Chapter 101: Personal Combat Strength Interface

Translator: CKtalon

On the evening of 5th October, in Yang Qingshuo’s personal space.

The six members of Team Pearwood were gathered here.

“Cheers.” Xu Jingming, Li Miaomiao, Wang Yi, Heng Fang, Liu Chongyuan, and Yang Qingshuo all had happy smiles on their faces as they raised their glasses and drank their beverages. As martial artists, they were used to not drinking alcohol, so their celebrations involved beverages.

“Shuo, I never expected you to reach Lv. 3 faster than me and Bear.” Heng Fang tapped Yang Qingshuo’s chest. “I’m so envious, jealous, and hateful! Why am I stuck at a bottleneck and unable to break through?”

“I’m with you.” Liu Chongyuan hugged Heng Fang.

“Get lost. I don’t need your company.” Heng Fang immediately dodged him. “What I need is to work hard.”

“Tch.” Liu Chongyuan curled his lips. “If your wife shouts for you, you’ll immediately run over to coax her. Look at our captain! He hasn’t helped Sister Cat for the past month.”

“Don’t stir up trouble,” Xu Jingming immediately said. “I haven’t teamed up with you guys either.”

“Brother Xu, you didn’t accompany us teammates, Sister-in-law, or even participate in any matches,” Yang Qingshuo said. “You were an influential figure in the first month of the virtual world’s launch, but you haven’t appeared at all in the past month! Do you know how famous Fang Yu is now? Many people think that Fang Yu is now China’s number two.”

“Yes, Fang Yu publicly defeated Senior Lei Yunfang a week ago.” Heng Fang nodded. “Master Liu Hai and Senior Lei Yunfang were fixed as first and second place previously. With Senior Lei Yunfang defeated… and Fang Yu being only 20 years old, many people in the country believe that Fang Yu is extremely talented. It’s even possible for him to surpass Liu Hai in the future.”

“I heard from Miaomiao.” Xu Jingming nodded and smiled. “Fang Yu is quite talented.”

He and his master, Liu Hai, received the highest level of grooming.

Fang Yu must’ve received grooming as well! His grooming was inferior to his, but he defeated Lei Yunfang. He was indeed talented.

“Brother Xu, you’ve long cleared Cosmos Tower. You must’ve become stronger in the past month,” Yang Qingshuo said indignantly. “You have to participate in Divine matches occasionally to let the outside world know that you’re stronger than Fang Yu.”

“Divine matches?” Xu Jingming shook his head. “The queuing will often match us to relatively weak opponents. Fighting is also a waste of time. I might as well cultivate by myself and head to the Cosmos Tower for practice.”

“A waste of time?” Wang Yi, Yang Qingshuo, Heng Fang, and Liu Chongyuan looked at each other.

“Hear that? He thinks Divine matches are a waste of time.” Heng Fang shook his head. “I even treat them as life-and-death battles every time.”

Xu Jingming smiled.

Yes.

In a Divine match, he might have to fight 100 matches before he could encounter an opponent that posed a threat. The efficiency was too low!

He had watched some Divine battle videos. In the entire country, only Fang Yu, Lei Yunfang, and Zhou Yi interested him, but they only posed a slight threat. It was rare to encounter one in a queue, so he might as well go to the Cosmos Tower and fight a few battles.

And the only person he cared about was… his master, Liu Hai! Ever since the Firestarter Cup, his master, Liu Hai, had never participated in a Divine battle like him.

Perhaps in Master’s eyes, a Divine match is also a waste of time. Xu Jingming could guess his master’s thoughts. Master has also received the same level of grooming as me; he must be working hard to study it.

…

Xu Jingming didn’t answer. Since he wasn’t interested in Divine matches, his teammates couldn’t do anything about it.

“I broke through to Lv. 3 during the Firestarter Cup, and I wasn’t far from Fang Yu,” Wang Yi said as she sat on the sofa. “But in a month, Fang Yu has far exceeded me. I even cleared Cosmos Tower, being 11th in China. I’m ranked 47th in the world.”

Li Miaomiao sat to the side and held Wang Yi’s hand as she comforted the latter. “The tigers in Cosmos Tower are very disadvantageous to sharpshooters. It took Zhou Yi a long time to clear them. Sister Yi, you are ultimately one of the top sharpshooters in China. Even in the world, you are ranked in the top five.”

“Cat, you sure know how to comfort people.” Wang Yi smiled. The two sisters had a good relationship.

Huh? The six people present received a virtual world announcement.

“World announcement?” Xu Jingming opened the announcement.

“To promote the improvement of the combat techniques of experts around the world, the virtual world will officially launch a Global Crossfire function at 9 p.m. on October 10, Beijing time. Divine experts are allowed to participate in Global Crossfire and compete with Divine experts from all over the world.”

Xu Jingming and the others saw China’s time; the experts from the other countries naturally saw the time in their respective time zones.

“Global Crossfire?” Xu Jingming and the others were surprised.

“As of today, there are exactly 50 people on the Cosmos Ranking,” Li Miaomiao said. “I originally guessed that something big would happen once 100 people entered the Cosmos Ranking, but they started at just 50 people… It looks like the Earth Alliance can’t hold back and is in a hurry to launch this function.”

“Fighting with experts all across the globe?” Wang Yi’s eyes were filled with anticipation. “This is interesting.”

“I’m looking forward to it too.” Xu Jingming believed that China had groomed him and his master the most. There were probably several people in the world who had received the same level of grooming. In addition, there were probably many who had received slightly weaker grooming.

For example, Tejano Xire, who was only 20 years old. He was ranked fourth globally a long time ago, even earlier than Lei Yunfang.

Now, how much had Tejano Xire improved? Could he defeat him?

Who knew what kind of genius would appear in the world’s seven billion people? For example, a genius stronger than Fang Yu?

“Let’s make the best use of time to cultivate,” Xu Jingming said as he got up.

“I’m leaving.” Heng Fang got up as well, his eyes glowing. “The competition between experts worldwide will definitely be much more intense than now. I can’t slack off anymore. I have to tell my wife that I need to enter seclusion as well.”

Wang Yi’s eyes were filled with anticipation. “I can fight the world’s experts.”

Everyone quickly dispersed, including Yang Qingshuo—who had just broken through. All of them were filled with fighting spirit.

…

The martial arts arena in Xu Jingming’s personal space was set to the edge of the stellar system. Of course, it only looked similar; there were many differences in other aspects. For example, the actual range of activity was only half a kilometer, and anything far away was just a visual.

For example, there was air, and the temperature was maintained at about 10 degrees. There was nothing Xu Jingming could do about it; he couldn’t survive in space.

At this moment, on a floating asteroid, Xu Jingming held a black spear and continued practicing his Beam Transformation Spear Technique.

Compared to his first practice, the frequency at which he practiced had decreased greatly. He would get into the zone every time before thrusting his spear forward.

His footwork changed as he stabbed out repeatedly! By channeling his strength, he could clearly unleash faster and faster attacks when using Beam Transformation.

This was also something he had figured out over the past month. The channeling of strength from Life-Nourishing could be combined with Beam Transformation.

Buzz!

The spear produced afterimages as the spear shaft spun, producing a buzzing sound.

Become light! Xu Jingming only had one thought in his mind.

After a month of Mental Cultivation, he could be free of distracting thoughts for a short period of time. For example, his mind was pure, and he only had one thought—become light! Make himself and the spear in his hand become light!

He practiced repeatedly.

Xu Jingming practiced Beam Transformation Spear Technique more than 10,000 times a day, just like how one could figure out something by reading a book a hundred times! Although the number of times he practiced Beam Transformation Spear Technique decreased over time, the efficiency increased.

From all his training to this very day… Xu Jingming finally broke through the ‘limit’ after a massive number of practices and a will that was far stronger than in the past. He could clearly sense deeper into his body.

He could sense every fascicle in his body at a deeper and finer level. For example, just like how ordinary people mobilized their main muscle groups, Xu Jingming could mobilize these fine muscle fibers with his mind, allowing the muscle fibers to work together and exert force with greater efficiency.

It wasn’t just the muscles; there were also the patagium, bursitis, tendon sheaths, and other tissues. There were also the joints of the bones, the operation of the organs… Everything went deeper.

His entire body was like an incomparably tight machine. Under Xu Jingming’s will, it instantly operated more efficiently, and the strength he unleashed was even more terrifying.

Boom!

Xu Jingming’s figure turned into a blur as a beam flashed, and he appeared ten meters away as if he had teleported. The sound of his spear resonating with the air was as ear-piercing as an explosion.

“Unknown Lv. 4 spearmanship discovered. Please name it.” A voice sounded in his ears.

Xu Jingming was stunned, and he immediately opened his personal combat strength interface.

Genetic Evolutionary Method: Heavenly Python Evolution (Advanced 95%) (583 days of practice. No room for improvement)

Physique: 251

Technique: Unknown Spearmanship (Lv. 4 3%), Spearmanship (Lv. 3 99%), Footwork (Lv. 3 93%), Shield Technique (Lv. 3 92%)

Basic Combat Strength: 15060

Combat Bonus: 55%

Combat Strength: 23343