Forbidden Zone of the Human Race

Chapter 16 Raffle

Xiang Ning read from a reliable website that Mental Power allowed better control over scientific inventions. He recalled that the article mentioned these people who cultivated Mental Power were called Spiritual Cultivators. They were people who armed themselves with scientific inventions so, despite their weaker physical bodies, the destruction they unleashed was more formidable than martial artists of the same rank. However, accessories were expensive these days, therefore ordinary people usually don’t become spiritual cultivators. Additionally, a martial artist’s true strength still exceeded a spiritual cultivator beyond stage seven. 

Take Xiang Ning for an example. Being a tier one martial artist, if he met a tier one spiritual cultivator, he would be brutally defeated. One spirit cultivator tier was equivalent to one martial artist tier, though tiers were broken down into sub-tiers measured in stars. 

Xiang Ning thought about it, then looked at his interface again. Perhaps he hadn’t gained enough Mental Power to become a spiritual cultivator, because the article mentioned ordinary people usually didn’t exceed ten Mental Power. Although Mental Power would increase as a cultivator advanced to become a martial artist, it wasn’t recommended to put effort into cultivating Mental Power at that point. That was because cultivating martial skills was already enough, and putting more effort into cultivating Mental Power might produce insignificant results. 

Xiang Ning arrived at a relatively deep point in the cave. Due to an immense increase in both his physical and mental strength, digging was nothing to him. Mining through rock felt like cutting tofu; plus, he was using quality tools. After a while, the rocks gave way. 

“Eh? A hole?” The hole was as wide as a man and looked deep. It might look like it had been dug by another person, but based on the features of the wall, it didn’t seem like that was the case. He wanted to check it out, but the sun was setting. After some thought, he blocked the hole, intending to return on Saturday. 

It was time for him to go home for the day. He jogged to Uncle Zhao’s workshop late in the evening. Seeing Uncle Zhao inside, they made some small talk, then he produced the spirit stones he had harvested today. Uncle Zhao’s face lit up with a kind smile. “Two thousand and three hundred dollars. This is a lot of stones, kid, you skip school today?” 

Uncle Zhao had been there for years. Although there were miners who brought in large harvests, Xiang Ning had never gotten this much. 

“Heh, I got lucky.” Xiang Ning didn’t elaborate. Uncle Zhao wouldn’t believe him if he told the truth anyway. What was he going to say, that he saw numbers floating on the stones? Uncle Zhao would call him a madman.

“Alright, kid. It’s late out, you’d better get home soon,” Uncle Zhao chuckled. 

“Okay!” Xiang Ning kept his money and reached home in ten minutes. 

The sun had already set. 

“Look what I got?” Xiang Ning held up a bag with a grin. He had stopped by a small hawker stall for two chicken drumsticks along the way. 

“Fried chicken!” Xiang Xiaoyu’s eyes sparkled and she pounced on them. 

At dinner, Xiang Ning reported the day’s earnings, which made the adorable girl display a look of disbelief. When he fished out the money, Xiang Xiaoyu’s first reaction was neither joy nor excitement, but sulking, as if she was about to burst into tears any moment. 

Xiang Ning panicked, though after some coaxing, he didn’t know whether to cry or laugh. His heart warmed when he learned the reason for her behavior. Xiang Xiaoyu thought Ning had to work extremely hard for this amount of money, and her heart bled for him. 

“Xiaoyu, don’t worry about it. Your brother’s fine! I have more good news for you,” said Xiang Ning, wiping the corners of her wet eyes. “I’m a martial artist now,” he chuckled. His initial plan had been to become a martial artist in three years, but he’d achieved his goal in just a few days. 

If he had told his class of this plan, they probably would have laughed their socks off. Usually,  it was the students from the top classes who became martial artists. In the past three years, many even hit tier two and were recruited by famous martial universities. In the past twenty years, only one student had managed to hit tier three across the entire city. That person was now a Sect Master. 

Xiang Xiaoyu’s little mouth widened in shock. She had already begun learning about cultivation and was now in Physical Tempering stage one. 

“Is that true?!” gasped Xiang Xiaoyu. Her schoolmates would often brag about how their elder siblings were martial artists; she couldn’t believe her own brother was one now, too. 

After a jolly chat with his sister, he cleaned the kitchen, took a shower, then sat with her before the television. Very soon, it was nine o’clock and he shooed her upstairs. 

As usual, he read a book before beginning his cultivation practice. Although utilizing the Advanced Breathing Technique was now two or three times more effective than before, with his current cultivation, the copious amounts of spiritual qi absorbed didn’t produce a significant effect. His muscles merely absorbed it the moment the spiritual qi entered. 

Three hours later, Xiang Ning’s eyes sprung open. He checked his stats. 

Level: Tier 1 Martial Artist (21/1000) 

Xiang Ning didn’t know how to react. That was barely a ten-point increase after an hour of cultivation! Now, agreeing to join Wang Zhe at the dojo seemed like the right move. The best thing for him would be true combat experience. He would then be able to train his body and level up at the same time! 

Before he slept, he read through the raffle and barter system. They were easy to understand. 

The raffle required a certain number of Fury Points for a draw. Seeing as the minimum was a hundred Fury Points, Xiang Ning checked his points and decided to tap once. 

Soon, something the size of a mung bean appeared. 

A pill. 

Yep, it was a pill. An incredible one, too, for it could replenish ten percent of the user’s health upon consumption. 

Xiang Ning was stunned by its supposed effects. He had never heard of any known medicine to have such awesome effects. It was an immediate recovery! Think about it—in battle, if both sides were equal in strength and equally injured, one could just swallow this pill to recover ten percent of his health. Imagine how hopeless his opponent would feel! Naturally, there were other pills with more powerful effects in the world, but they all needed time to take effect. 

“That’s awesome! This is impressive,” muttered Xiang Ning. The system did not disappoint! After fiddling with it for a while, he fell asleep.