Chương 17: A Fishy Experiment

For the next three days, Ren Qingquan is busy planning the most effective route to collect points, while I occasionally give him advice based on the data I've collected. By interviewing the guards and collecting data directly, we finally identified the market's peak hours. To follow the peak hours, Ren Qingquan also switched his visitation time accordingly. On the first and second days, Ren Qingquan usually arrived at 8 am. But the fish market actually opened at 5 am and became busy right off the bat.

By arriving earlier, he will gain three extra hours to collect points from. Furthermore, those 3 additional hours are the peak hours when many fish die. After summarizing the information, we, or mostly I, finally created the most suitable point-gathering route. In the morning, Ren Qingquan will mainly focus on the fish market and collecting souls from the stalls. Around 10 am, the number of fish killed at the fish market begins to decline, and his main income comes from the processing area.

According to the data I collected, the fish-killing rate in the processing area peaks around noon and then declines after 1 pm. Finally, at 2 pm, the main source of income will arrive. At that time, several expert chefs will gather at a specific point in the processing area. There, those chefs will quickly kill and process special fish. Unlike normal fish, the fish these chefs process have at least the Martial Apprentice level of the martial art realm.

Occasionally, there are even some Martial Master and Martial Grandmaster level fish being killed and processed. Every fish with martial arts level granted at least 0. 2 points once devoured. After splitting it 50/50 between Ren Qingquan and me, both of us will gain 0. 1 points for every fish. Those chefs will continue killing and processing fish until approximately 4 to 5 pm, just on time for Ren Qingquan to get off work. By following that route, it's possible to collect close to 4 points a day (Tax included).

Time quickly passes, and thirty-two days have gone by since Ren Qingquan worked at the fish market. In the afternoon, he finally completed the point gathering mission while using [Devour] in the processing area. [Mission: collect 100 points within 30 days! Detail: 100/100 points collected. Only the latest 30 days are counted. Deadline: None. Reward: 1 point. Punishment: None.] [Congratulations, you've completed the 'collect 100 points within 30 days' mission! You have been rewarded with 1 point.] After I sent a congratulatory message, Ren Qingquan immediately checked his status screen. [Name: Ren Qingquan Point: 101 Realm: First Stage Martial Master Martial arts method: Body Tempering Method. Martial arts technique: Iron Palm (Beginner). System function: Devour, Scan, Calculate, Map, Mission, Skill Learning, Selective Devour.] Once Ren Qingquan closed his status panel, I sent him another mission. [Mission: collect 1. 000 points within 30 days! Only the latest 30 days are counted. Detail: 0/1. 000 points collected. Deadline: None. Reward: 10 points. Punishment: None.] Ren Qingquan saw the mission and internally screamed, 'I'm barely able to scrape 100 points in a month! For now, it's absolutely impossible to gather 1. 000 points in a month.'

'Also, don't you think the reward is a bit too little? Shouldn't you give me 100 points for that insane mission to gather 1000 points in a month? You darned, stingy, defective system.' I wanted to counter his words, but I kinda feel generous today, so I chose to let it slide. It's definitely not because I can't deny his word. When Ren Qingquan felt I had been ignoring him, he finally said, 'Whatever. Anyway, it's time for the main course. Quickly upgrade that selective devour function with 99 points!'

I followed his command and spent 99 points to strengthen [Devour]'s ability to devour part of the soul selectively. [You've spent 99 points to upgrade selective devour.] Ren Qingquan's points, which had reached 101 after a month of work, once again fell to 2. Meanwhile, I can feel [Devour] has become much more flexible after the upgrade. It's like removing the cast on your hand when your broken bone has healed. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

I quickly told Ren Qingquan to start experimenting. [System will start experimenting with the newly upgraded selective devour functions. Please touch a soul and prepare to use the Soul Swallowing Technique when System told you.] Ren Qingquan followed my word and touched a nearby soul. I activated [Devour] and had it take only the soul's middle layer. Through [Scan], I can sense the soul has become slightly hollow. Suppose the soul is likened to an egg.

Then, this soul has lost most of its white parts, with mostly the shell and yolk remaining. Of course, since my control over [Devour] isn't perfect yet, the yolk and shell have also been damaged from my devouring and won't be able to maintain their shape much longer. At the same time, some of the egg's white part also remained. With only this many points invested, it seems I couldn't remove all of the soul's middle part yet. Otherwise, I might accidentally devour the whole soul.

That's why I quickly ordered Ren Qingquan to make a move. [Now! Use the Soul Swallowing Technique!] Ren Qingquan has already circulated his energy for a long time. When he heard my cue, he immediately finished the circulation and activated the Soul Swallowing Technique. After Ren Qingquan swallowed the fish's soul, I scanned his body and found his energy had increased slightly. [Host, let's continue to swallow more soul and test the limit of this means.]'Okay.' Ren Qingquan agreed and touched another soul.

Just like before, I activated [Devour] before notifying Ren Qingquan, who immediately started swallowing said soul. Both of us continued to devour and swallow souls respectively, while I also split some of my attention to Ren Qingquan's physical change. This continued until I sensed a subtle change in Ren Qingquan's breathing. I felt the side effect had finally started. So I stopped him after he had swallowed approximately 200 fish souls. [Host, let's stop for now. The side effect from the Soul Swallowing Technique seems to have taken effect. Furthermore, you have just broken through to the Second Stage Martial Master realm.] After he swallowed more than 180 souls, Ren Qingquan's realm advanced to the Second Stage Martial Master Realm. Furthermore, his refined spirit qi has risen quite considerably. But I lack enough data to see his specific progress in cultivation.

According to the data I gathered from several books over the past few days, the early cultivation realms include Body Tempering, Qi Refining, Foundation Building, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, and other familiar realms commonly found in xianxia novels. Body Tempering, as the first cultivation realm, is used to temper a cultivator's body so they can absorb and collect spirit qi into their body.

Once their body can hold spirit qi, a cultivator needs to start sensing it and absorbing it into their body using the qi-absorbing method described in every cultivation manual. When they have absorbed spirit qi into their body and successfully refined a certain amount of spirit qi, the cultivator will advance to the qi refining realm. Based on the description, I concluded that the cultivator's Body Tempering Realm is equal to the martial artist's Martial Apprentice Realm up to the Martial Grandmaster Realm.

While Qi Refining should be equal to the Martial Saint Realm. Which is pretty weird, as Ren Qingquan can actually gather spirit qi into his body even at the Martial Master Realm. I suspect he absorbs spirit qi in his body at the Martial Master Realm thanks to the Body Tempering Method. The reason is that, after comparing the Body Tempering Method's description with other techniques, I found it allows practitioners to convert vital energy into refined spirit qi rather than normal spirit qi.

This difference might be why Ren Qingquan can store spirit qi in his body. In gaming terms, if absorbed spirit qi is MP, then refined spirit qi is EXP. As for vital energy, should it be counted as EXP from other professions? Anyway, turning vital energy into refined spirit qi is much gentler for the practitioner's body compared to absorbing wild spirit qi into the body before refining it. This theorically should allows one to begin refining spirit qi at the Martial Master realm.

Anyway, this also made me realize why the photocopy spell used by that old man in the Ren Family's library has extremely bad cost-effectiveness. It's because he has been spending EXP to cast a spell instead of spending MP. As everyone who has played a game before knows, it's always harder to collect EXP than MP. Anyway, it seems I am getting sidetracked. While I was thinking, Ren Qingquan had already finished testing his strength.

Because he merely advanced by a minor realm, the strength increase isn't too exaggerated. After Ren Qingquan got used to his newfound strength, it was already around 2 pm, and the chefs in charge of processing fish with martial arts power had arrived. Ren Qingquan stared at them, 'System, let's compare the difference when using the Soul Swallowing Technique on normal fish and on fish with martial art power.' I thought about it and agreed with Ren Qingquan's proposal.

[Using the Soul Swallowing Technique on a few more souls should be alright. But don't swallow too much. Otherwise, the side effect will worsen.] Ren Qingquan subtly nodded while walking toward the area where the specialized chefs are processing fish with martial power. Once he arrived, I helped Ren Qingquan see the souls floating around the area and activated [Devour] on one of the souls from a Martial Apprentice level fish. After I devoured most of the soul's middle part, I notified Ren Qingquan.

He had already prepared his Soul Swallowing Technique and immediately took action. Meanwhile, I focus on Ren Qingquan's body and collect some data. Once Ren Qingquan finished swallowing the soul, I asked him to swallow a few more fish souls. [Host, please use the Soul Swallowing Technique on a few more Martial Apprentice fish. Currently, the data is insufficient to be analyzed.] Ren Qingquan agreed, and both of us repeatedly activated [Devour] and the Soul Swallowing Technique.

Once Ren Qingquan has swallowed ten Martial Apprentice fish souls, I have collected enough data. Compared to swallowing a normal fish soul, a Martial Apprentice fish soul gives much more energy. But it also increases the side effect Ren Qingquan felt. The vital energy and refined spirit qi gained from swallowing a Martial Apprentice fish is ten times higher than when Ren Qingquan used the Soul Swallowing Technique on a normal fish.

As for the side effect, it's actually only six times worse than swallowing a normal fish. In conclusion, swallowing a fish with martial art realm has a much better side effect to energy gain ratio than a normal fish. Then, I asked Ren Qingquan to ignore other fish and only target the soul of a fish with the Martial Master realm as the target for his Soul Swallowing Technique. Although not a lot. Sometimes the chef also processed fish with Martial Master realm.

So, it didn't take long before Ren Qingquan collected five Martial Master fish souls. At the same time, the side effects of the Soul Swallowing Technique have greatly worsened to the point where Ren Qingquan has trouble breathing. Based on the last time the side effect afflicted him, Ren Qingquan would need to stop swallowing souls for around thirty days before his soul would recover.

But it's definitely worth it because Ren Qingquan has actually advanced to the third stage of the Martial Master realm after swallowing those Martial Apprentice and Martial Master realm fishes. Furthermore, I've also concluded that using the Soul Swallowing Technique on a higher-ranking creature is much more effective in terms of side effects to energy gain ratio. Based on data I've collected, one Martial Master realm fish soul is equal to twenty normal fish, while the side effect is only ten times worse!

That'll basically double Ren Qingquan's leveling speed compared to if he only swallowed the soul from a normal fish!