Chapter 65: Breaking the Limits, Innate Martial Arts!

Chapter 65: Breaking the Limit, Innate Martial Art!

Hearing the consecutive notifications from the Reincarnation Tower and the system, Zhang Fang felt as though his entire being was falling apart.

Damn it, not again!

Wasn’t it bad enough that it screwed him over once during the great battle in the forest? Why was it pulling the same stunt a second time now?

Will this ever end?!

Originally, Zhang Fang had calculated his experience points meticulously. His level 8 "Dragon Subduing Palms: Regretful Dragon" only needed to complete the main quest of competing for the Beggars' Sect leader position to directly upgrade to the perfection level of level 10. Even if there were a slight waste of experience, it would only be the minor proficiency accumulated from using it in combat a few times after entering the reincarnation world for the second time, which was basically negligible.

However, during the previous battle in the dense forest, after defeating Gongye Gan, Bao Different, and Feng Boduan, the Reincarnation Tower had forcefully dumped a massive amount of martial arts proficiency into this palm technique, raising it directly from level 8 to level 9.

That had already wasted an amount of martial arts proficiency equivalent to 10,000 reward points!

And this time, the moment Zhang Fang saw Murong Bo appear, he instantly realized this was a golden opportunity to milk the Reincarnation Tower. So he threw caution to the wind and charged forward recklessly, not only losing a precious fine steel round shield, but even exposing his ultimate trump card, the "Vibranium Round Shield," just to barely fracture two of the opponent's ribs.

And yet, you bloody bastards decided to pull the exact same trick on me again?!

Isn't this going a bit too far in ripping players off?

And calling it a random upgrade of two martial arts levels—that was simply playing hide-and-seek under the guise of cheating people.

He currently only possessed three martial arts in total: the "Thirty-Six Heavenly Gang Shield Technique" was maxed out, the "Longevity Holy Qi Sun" had its level locked, and besides "Dragon Subduing Palms: Regretful Dragon" having one level left of room for improvement, was there any possibility of it randomizing anywhere else?

Zhang Fang made a quick mental calculation. His "Dragon Subduing Palms: Regretful Dragon" was currently at level 9. The two-level increase from this quest reward alone meant he would lose the points corresponding to one of those levels. And once he officially completed the succession ceremony for the Beggars' Sect leader, that would be another two levels of shameful waste!

A perfectly good main quest was essentially going to be played for nothing?!

This was simply too outrageous!

Just as Zhang Fang was filled with depression in his heart and venting his frustration without restraint, the subsequent notification from the Reincarnation Tower echoed in his mind once again:

[Random judgment completed. Your combat-type martial art "Dragon Subduing Palms: Regretful Dragon" level +2!]

[The level of your combat-type martial art "Dragon Subduing Palms: Regretful Dragon" has increased. Current level is level 11!]

[Your combat-type martial art "Dragon Subduing Palms: Regretful Dragon" has broken through the martial arts level restriction, transcending the original limit of this palm technique and successfully transforming into an Innate Martial Art.]

***

Holy crap! The level of this "Dragon Subduing Palms: Regretful Dragon" really did go up to level 11!

After listening to all the notifications from the Reincarnation Tower, Zhang Fang was stunned for a moment, then without hesitation stopped complaining about the sacred Reincarnation Tower and his lovely system.

If the level of martial arts could break through the level 10 upper limit, then the rewards he obtained from these two missions were not a scam at all; instead, they were powerful to an almost exaggerated degree!

Just as Zhang Fang, amidst his joy, was about to pull up his attribute panel to check the stats of the level-cap-breaking "Dragon Subduing Palms: Regretful Dragon," Azǐ quietly sidled up to him once again, looking at the Vibranium Round Shield in his hand with a face full of shock, and then lowered her voice to say:

"Brother You, this shield in your hand looks so familiar!"

"No matter how I look at it, it looks especially like that Vibranium shield worth 50,000 points that I saw in the consignment house before, and even the attribute you just showed of reflecting attacks is just like it!"

Zhang Fang calmly glared at the latter, signaling her to shut up.

He thought to himself: What do you mean it looks like it? This is that exact shield!

It was just that after this shield came into Zhang Fang's hands, he felt its design was too flashy, especially the red-and-blue pseudo-stars-and-stripes pattern, which not only clashed violently with the art style of the martial arts background dungeon world, but also severely contradicted his own values.

So he spent a small amount of points to wash away all the paint on it, restoring it to the blank appearance it had when it first spawned.

Zhang Fang naturally had no intention of explaining the origin of the shield to Azǐ, so he planned to casually make up an excuse to brush her off. But before he could speak, a loud shout suddenly came from near the eastern side of the battlefield: "Fellow brothers!"

Following the sound, he saw Elder Xu, escorted by the elders of the Sutra-Passing and Law-Enforcement departments, as well as the four guardian elders Song, Xi, Chen, and Wu, arriving at the center of the square. Stopping three meters away from Zhang Fang and Azǐ, he did not turn to look at them, but instead addressed all the members of the Beggars' Sect around them:

"Fellow brothers, a household cannot go for a day without a master, and the pugilistic world's sects are no exception. As for our Beggars' Sect, ever since the Apricot Forest Assembly two years ago, we have been lacking a leader to guide everyone in jointly resisting external enemies."

"You brothers have lived through days without a backbone like this for over two years! We cannot continue like this any longer!"

Saying this, Elder Xu abruptly pointed his hand at Zhang Fang: "And this Elder You, ever since joining our sect two years ago, has made countless contributions to it. In terms of background, he is the descendant of the You Family Heroes of Gathering Plummet Manor; there is no doubt about that. In terms of martial arts, his record of defeating Southern Murong head-on just now is enough to explain everything. In terms of ability, in the past two years, every operation he participated in has been met with unbroken success."

"Especially regarding the murder of Deputy Leader Ma, we investigated for two years without any progress, but once it fell into Elder You's hands, everything was quickly brought to light."

"Not only did it thwart Gusu Murong's wild ambition to annex the Beggars' Sect, but it also allowed the aggrieved soul of brother Ma Dayuan to rest in peace..."

Elder Xu rambled on for more than ten minutes, and the more he spoke, the more Zhang Fang felt a bad omen.

Sure enough, after a passionate and stirring speech, this most respected elder in the Beggars' Sect immediately announced publicly: "I propose that everyone join together to support You Tanzhi in becoming the seventh leader of our Beggars' Sect. What do you all think?"

"Good!" As soon as Elder Xu's voice fell, the leader of the Great Courage Branch immediately stood out to express his support and backing: "I agree to let You Tanzhi succeed as the seventh leader of the Beggars' Sect!"

***

The power of an example is infinite.

With Elder Xu taking the lead in making the proposal, with the elders of the main helm endorsing it, and now with the first applause leader stepping forward to show support, the others immediately chimed in:

"Let You Tanzhi be our leader!"

"We firmly support Leader You!"

"Leader You will lead our Beggars' Sect from victory to an even greater victory..."

...

Seeing that everyone's emotions had been stirred up, the corners of Zhang Fang's mouth twitched violently. He quickly stepped forward and said: "Since my seniors have shown me such high regard, You Tanzhi must respectfully obey. Then let us choose an auspicious day—"

The reason why the elders were in such a hurry to push Zhang Fang onto the position of leader was, of course, because they wanted to avoid any complications arising from prolonged delays.

How could Zhang Fang not know this?

It's just that he still had some resistance in his heart towards the succession ceremony of the Beggars' Sect leader, and he was ready to find any excuse to stall for a few days, waiting until he had made sufficient preparations before coming to succeed this leader.

However, ideas are plump, but reality is often very skinny.

As soon as Zhang Fang's proposal to pick an auspicious day left his mouth, Law-Enforcement Elder Bai Shijing stepped forward and laughed heartily: "What day is there to pick for something like this? As the saying goes, a favorable day is worse than hitting the moment; let's hold the succession ceremony for Leader You right today!"

As soon as these words were spoken, a round of cheers erupted from below once again, startling Zhang Fang's heart.

"Um..." After hesitating for a moment, Zhang Fang still felt he should try to save himself: "Actually, I'm still not quite prepared. How about..."

"What is there to prepare?" At this moment, Sutra-Passing Elder Lü Zhang also walked forward, holding a emerald green bamboo staff that was neither gold nor jade: "Elder You, you just need to take this Dog-Beating Staff, and you will be the seventh leader of our Beggars' Sect. No extra preparation is needed."

Now that things had reached this point, what else could Zhang Fang do?

He could only immediately call over the Beggars' Sect disciple who had originally held the shield for him, but was currently idle because the fine steel round shield had shattered, and lowered his voice to give him an order: "I'm giving you an arduous task: go prepare a large tub of bathwater for me. It's best if the water is a bit warm, but you must be fast! Go quickly!"

(End of this chapter)