Note: henceforth, “Martial Quarters” will be changed to “Marshal’s Quarters.” We’d been using the former, but apparently it was a typo (since martial and marshal sound basically the same).
Chapter 66 – Martial House’s Resources
…
…
…
At this time, in front of Lin Ming, a bright flame burst into life. Mmm? Sound transmitting talisman?
“In a quarter hour, arrive at the Seven Profound Martial House’s martial stage! The Martial House shall be allocating resources to disciples based upon their ranking in the ranking war!”
The Martial House’s resources!
With his heart full of delight, Lin Ming strapped the long spear to his back and flew down the mountain as quickly as he could. Although he was moving at his fastest speed, he was still 30% slower than before because he was carrying such a heavy spear on his back. Before, he might have jumped his way through the tree branches with impressive force and agility, but at the present he could only run through the thick, knee-high grass, each step flattening the foliage underneath him, while he carried the spear on his back.
But this failed to cause distress to Lin Ming. In fact, he was even more excited! Carrying such a heavy spear was also a form of practice!
…
After a quarter of an hour, Lin Ming arrived at the martial stage at the Seven Profound Martial House. Instructor Hong Xi had already arrived there long before, and most of the 20 new students of the Earth Hall had also arrived. Seeing Lin Ming come, Hong Xi lifted a hand and tossed a jade slip to Lin Ming.
“Resource details are inside. Look yourself.”
“Yes, Instructor.” Lin Ming poured his soul force into the jade slip. Inside was a detailed map of the Seven Profound Martial House, and the sections of resource locations at the Martial House were outlined in detail.
Inside the illumination of the jade slip were killing arrays used by martial artists to cultivate. They were the Golden Soldier Hall, Wood Puppet Lane, Lava Cave, Boulder Slope, Icy Pond Waterfall, Violent Wind Tunnel, and Thunder Valley. These seven were known as the seven major element killing arrays of metal, wood, water, fire, earth, lightning, and wind.
These seven major killing arrays were constantly in operation all year round, and they consumed a massive amount of true essence stones.
Although the killing arrays were constantly in activation, they could only allow 12 people to cultivate at a time together. The Seven Profound Martial House had too many disciples; it was impossible to allow all of them to come as they pleased, so the only method to allocate time was for disciples to gain it for themselves by struggling their way up the Ranking Stone. Disciples that weren’t on the Ranking Stone were not eligible to enter, and disciples followed the rankings to be allotted time
According to Lin Ming’s ranking, every month he could practice at any killing array for three days.
In addition to this cultivation practice, Lin Ming was also qualified to enter the Seven Profound Martial House’s depository and select a low-grade human-step cultivation method and two low-grade human-step martial skill manuals. Lin Ming could not bring the cultivation method and martial skill jade slips outside of them Seven Profound Martial House, but he could bring them out of the depository and back to his own residence to study them in his own time.
“Martial skill and cultivation methods, and also arrays to cultivate at, these are the most valuable resources that the Seven Profound Martial House can provide. Martial skills can increase a martial artist’s combat prowess and versatility, the cultivation method is the fundamental of martial art, and being able to practice in a killing array can speed up a martial artist’s cultivation and enable them to achieve twice the results with half the effort. Many disciples come to the Seven Profound Martial House for these three resources. ”
“Out of these three resources, the most important is the cultivation method manual. But, I have the ‘Chaotic Virtues Combat Meridians’, so the cultivation methods they have here are of no significance for me. What I need most right now is a martial skill and a cultivation room. It’s a pity that I can only practice three days per months, it just isn’t enough time. I have to rise as fast as I can on the Ranking Stone.”
Lin Ming outlined everything he needed in his mind, then withdrew his soul force from the jade slip.
Hong Xi said, “Everyone has finally arrived. Now all of you follow me, we are going to the depository.”
…
The Seven Profound Martial House’s depository was a pavilion that was divided into the inner and outer rooms. Only core disciples could access the inner pavilion; the outer pavilion was for the rest of the disciples.
The inner pavilion contained top-secret cultivation methods and skill manuals that were left behind by masters and sages of the Seven Profound Valleys. These manuals and jade slips were not permitted to be handed to outsiders, under great penalty. Lin Ming was only able to enter the outer pavilion at the moment.
Although the outer pavilion’s cultivation method manuals were a grade lower than the inner pavilion, they had a much larger collection and higher level of variety then the inner pavilion did. Inside were several thousand jade slips that had been collected and accumulated by the Seven Profound Valleys over 600 years. Occasionally, a Seven Profound Valleys disciple would undergo a mission, and on the way, they would come into disputes with other martial artists and kill them. These martial artists often had cultivation method jade slips on them. Although these jade slips were useless to the disciples of the Seven Profound Valleys, they were able to sell them to the sect and this would increase the number of cultivation method jade slips that the Seven Profound Valleys had. However these cultivation methods were not the legitimate original methods of the Seven Profound Valleys, therefore they would distribute these to the regional Martial Houses so that the disciples there could study them.
Even so, all these cultivation methods were extremely precious within the Sky Fortune Kingdom. Out of the 20 new Earth Hall disciples, many of them had never practiced a cultivation method, so once they came into this outer pavilion and saw such a vast collection of options to choose from, many people grew breathless and colored with excitement.
After Lin Ming arrived at the depository, he handed his jade slip in his hands to the warden elder who guarded the outer pavilion. Not only did this jade slip contain the distribution information on resources, but it also served as a record of Lin Ming’s data and results.
The warden elder examined the jade slip with his soul force, and then said to Lin Ming, “You may proceed. You may choose a cultivation method and two martial skills. You may bring the three jade slips out of the depository but they cannot leave the Seven Profound Martial House. Also… if there are too many people wanting a jade slip, you will need to reserve an appointment, and the length of time you can study it is based upon your rank on the Ranking Stone.”
It was too difficult and troublesome to duplicate a cultivation method’s jade slip; therefore each copy was rare and unique. Some cultivation methods were much more popular and coveted than others, and if many other disciples chose to study that specific one, then there would be a conflict in time and resources. To arrange the reservation time, that would depend on one’s own ranking. Therefore the low ranking disciples often didn’t choose a well-known or prominent cultivation method; otherwise they would not have many opportunities to study it.
“The Seven Profound Martial House really is where strength reigns supreme. Here, ranking is all that matters.” Lin Ming sighed with feeling, and then walked into the depository.
At this time, there were many disciples gathered in the depository, but none of them were making even the slightest sound. If one carefully listened, they could hear that these disciples were even holding their breath for the space of half an incense stick of time, as they were single mindedly studying the cultivation methods in the jade slips.
“So many masters…” Lin Ming lightly breathed. The Seven Profound Martial House was really a den of crouching tigers and hidden dragons. Zhu Yan was a top-tier talent who ranked among the best in Green Mulberry City, but here at the Seven Profound Martial House he was only able to be in the top 30.
Hong Xi said, “Start to choose. Don’t be anxious, there is plenty of time. Make your choice wisely. Jade slips that don’t have a mark are the most basic of skills and cultivation methods. Those with marks on them have a grade. Red marks are low-grade of the human-step, and purple marks are medium grade of the human-step. Near each jade slip is a record that shows how many people have chosen that one. If your ranking is too low, I suggest you to not choose one that is too favored, otherwise, since time is assigned according to your ranking, you may not have much of an opportunity to study it.”
According to the regulations of the Martial House, between ranks 100 to 200, they could only chose a low-grade human-step cultivation method manual. Lin Ming’s ranking was relatively high, so he could chose a popular cultivation method.
However not even mentioning low-grade human-step cultivation methods, even if it was a high-grade human-step cultivation method, Lin Ming would be completely uninterested in it. But, he still had to appear as if he wanted one.
So he began to browse around all the shelves. Near each cultivation method was a label that was made of symbol paper which had the names of the disciples who had chosen that cultivation method. The popular cultivation methods often had 4 or 5 names, but the less popular ones often didn’t have any names at all.
The gap between various low-grade human-step cultivation methods was just too great, thus the disciples who were over rank 100 learned cultivation methods far superior to those below them.
Lin Ming looked for a while, and suddenly moved as he saw Zhang Cang’s name.
“Shadowless Art! I guess this is the cultivation method that Zhang Cang cultivates.”
As soon as Lin Ming looked at the label, he was stunned to see seven names written on it. This cultivation method was truly welcomed by all!
Lin Ming sank his soul force into the jade slip and saw the overview of these cultivation method pop into his mind.
‘The ‘Shadowless Art’. Heavy offense, light defense. The cultivator’s true essence density and purity would be extremely high; they could even compare with a martial artist a whole stage above. This is truly one of the best and most outstanding low-grade human-step cultivation methods among its peers; it is not too far from being a middle-grade human-step cultivation method. However this cultivation method is not easy to practice, and those that reach the Large Success stage are too few, thus please be prudent in your choice.’
Seeing this overview, and reading that it was too difficult so one had to practice it with caution, Lin Ming only smiled and laughed. All of those in Earth Hall over rank 100 were talents, the more difficult it said it was to cultivate, the more those brave and arrogant geniuses would desire it. This cultivation method was also one of the best ones within its rank, how could they not want it?
But certainly, in this cultivation method, Lin Ming had no interest.
He continued to look around, and was preparing to casually choose one, but then his footsteps paused as he wandered near a bookshelf in a corner.
“Spear arts?”