Chapter 355: Attributes Soar

Niche martial arts

also needed to be trained.

Wangchuan had an idea.

He used what was at hand and broke off a tree branch.

And to his surprise,

when he used 《Snake-Driving Staff Art》 against the serpent tide, the speed of its striking-after-the-enemy-moves-yet-arriving-first, along with its practical value, was pushed to the absolute limit at this moment.

He bent low and darted forward, the shadow of the branch moving rapidly through the air.

Each venomous snake had only just shot forward before its head was struck and smashed down.

Fast!

His control over his strength was astonishingly precise!

The branch kept shifting position rapidly between one venomous snake and the next.

More than a dozen venomous snakes,

yet not a single one managed to get close.

At that moment, Wangchuan truly felt as though a Beggar Sect expert had possessed him, madly striking snake heads one after another.

The feedback coming from the end of the branch was incredibly clear.

Bones shattered.

It was as if the venomous snakes’ spirit had been sucked out of them. Their bodies went limp at once, and each instantly became nothing more than a dead snake.

Experience Value continued climbing, +1 +1 +1.

Wangchuan knew

that the reason he could bring 《Snake-Driving Staff Art》 to such an exquisite degree was because his Agility had already reached a towering 83 points. That was already the Agility threshold for breaking through to fourth-rank martial artist. Naturally, using it now was far superior to what an ordinary 《Snake-Driving Staff Art》 at Practice Makes Perfect could achieve.

Very soon, he heard the system prompt:

“Ding!”

“《Snake-Driving Staff Art》 has advanced from ‘Practice Makes Perfect’ to ‘Entry-Level Mastery.’ Reward: +3 Agility.”

Agility: 86.

That made five martial arts that had already broken through.

With such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity before him, Wangchuan had no intention of wasting a single bit of it. He tossed aside the branch in his hand and switched to 《Blazing Leg》...

In an instant, fists, palms, and leg shadows crashed into one venomous snake after another.

“Hall Master, be careful!”

Seeing the Hall Master abandon his weapon and throw himself into the middle of the snake swarm, Captain Zhao and the others were so frightened that their souls nearly left their bodies.

Wangchuan remained calm and steady.

With 《Dragon-Elephant Body-Protection Technique》 protecting him, and with 《Xuanwu Art》 greatly sharpening his five senses, he simply closed his eyes and relied on sound to determine positions, striking the venomous snakes attacking from every direction.

Even without a weapon, his heavy legs were like blades, his fists and palms like spears.

His body rolled and moved fluidly within the swarm!

It was not that he had no weapon. Rather, it was as though he possessed four weapons at once, taking turns launching a frenzied assault. Snake after snake was smashed apart before it even had time to bite.

Snake corpses and snake blood covered his body from head to toe.

Although more and more venomous snakes bit him as time passed, the Dragon-Elephant Golden Body of 《Dragon-Elephant Body-Protection Technique》 was no joke.

What remained of the snakes was crushed under Wangchuan in the wildest possible fashion, slaughtered until the ground was littered with mangled corpses.

Ye Baiyi was dumbstruck!

The group of elite Caobang men led by Zhao Heiniu were filled with awe.

At last, the swarm was completely wiped out!

《Blazing Leg》 advanced to Entry-Level Mastery, rewarding +3 Agility.

Wangchuan was a little tired as well.

This kind of high-intensity training had pushed both his mind and body to the limit. It was time to rest for a while.

“I’ll leave the rest to you. I’m going to rest for a bit.”

Wangchuan gave Zhao Heiniu an instruction, then found a clean spot and sat down cross-legged to circulate his Qi.

Looking at the snake corpses, blood, and bits of flesh still hanging from the Hall Master’s body, Ye Baiyi’s eyes were full of admiration.

About half an hour passed.

Wangchuan’s spirit returned to its peak condition. He glanced at his Status Panel:

His Agility had crossed the threshold of a fourth-rank martial artist and reached 89. Stamina was 75, Strength was 68. He still lacked 5 points of Stamina and 12 points of Strength to break through to fourth-rank martial artist.

At present, what he lacked most was Strength.

But among the various martial arts, the ones that increased Stamina were fist arts and internal cultivation methods;

the ones that increased Agility were lightness skills, saber arts, and sword arts;

as for the martial arts he personally knew that could increase Strength, there were actually not many.

At the moment, only 《Hundred Paces Piercing the Poplar》 and the axe arts still offered some hope.

After thinking it over repeatedly,

Wangchuan decided to have Ye Baiyi continue summoning the snake swarm and try raising his fourth-rank Poison Sand Palm and all of his spear arts to Integration...

Ye Baiyi followed the order.

When the snakes were summoned for the second time...

the number that emerged was noticeably smaller.

Even so, Wangchuan still managed to raise Poison Sand Palm.

“Ding!”

“Poison Sand Palm has advanced from ‘Practice Makes Perfect’ to ‘Entry-Level Mastery.’ Reward: +3 Stamina.”

Taking advantage of the fact that dawn had not yet broken, the group changed locations and went to another Snake Den...

This time, Wangchuan fought to his heart’s content!

Wielding his long spear, he first raised the second-rank martial art 《Green Bamboo Staff Art》 to Integration, gaining 4 Strength, then switched to 《Po Jun Twelve Spear》 and raised that to Integration as well, gaining another 4 Strength.

His Strength rose to 76; his Stamina rose to 78.

With his free attribute points, he could step into fourth-rank martial artist at any moment!

Wangchuan held himself back.

The temptation of stepping into fourth rank was certainly enormous.

But as his understanding of 《spirit realm》 deepened, he saw more and more clearly that the Spirit attribute was actually very important.

The Spirit attribute corresponded to a martial artist’s Internal Energy value.

The higher the Internal Energy value, the longer one could maintain peak combat condition when activating an internal cultivation method and boosting one’s strength with internal energy.

This would inevitably become a crucial factor in future battles between martial artists!

But there were very few ways to obtain Spirit attribute points, and the requirements were extremely harsh.

Aside from internal cultivation methods increasing Spirit, the only other source was certain balanced-attribute martial arts, which had to be raised all the way to Integration before they would grant Spirit.

After clearly realizing this, Wangchuan had already decided that in the future, all of his free attribute points would be added to Spirit, extending the duration of his internal energy bursts.

After all, he still had other martial arts, as well as a large number of niche cultivation methods, that could be used to stack his three-dimensional physical attributes.

This time, he almost completely emptied the second Snake Den of venomous snakes!

Daybreak arrived!

After finishing his seated meditation and rest, Wangchuan immediately hurried off to the third Snake Den without pause.

Resources had never waited for anyone.

He was worried that if he left now, the place might be occupied again by the Five Poisons Sect in the future, or some other unforeseen trouble might arise. That would be far too much of a pity.

So he simply pressed on in one effort and cleared out all three Snake Dens!

The final Snake Den helped Wangchuan raise one niche martial art and also train Wudang Sanshou to Integration.

Wangchuan: Male (Hunger 59/100)

(Life Profession: Blacksmith)

(Combat Profession: Third-Rank Martial Artist)

Strength 76; Attack 25–26;

Agility 93; Defense 18.6; Speed +93;

Stamina 82; HP 820/820;

Spirit 27: Internal Energy 270/270.

Free Attributes: 8 (Unassigned)

By this night, Wangchuan had already lost count of how many of his martial arts had broken through.

But when he descended the mountain after emptying the Snake Dens, he was very satisfied with his attributes.

He was now only 4 points of Strength away from becoming a fourth-rank martial artist.

Originally, he had a chance to raise the niche martial arts 《Heavy Sword Technique》 and Meteor Hammer and break through straight into fourth rank...

But.

After thinking it over again and again, he decided to suppress that urge for now.

Rise too quickly, shine too sharply...

and one breaks easily.