Waiting and Preparation
At midnight, Fu Chen and Qin Yumo temporarily teleported back to Sword Immortal City. Before setting up their stall beside the teleportation array, they once again posted their purchase notice on the world channel.
Meanwhile, Chongtong, Purely for Entertainment, and Beloved were doing the same on the other side nearby. As for Zero Point of Yumao, he teleported in Ji Yu City, and the Fairy Yu Meiren appeared in Wan Hua City.
Aside from Fu Chen and the others, several formidable figures from previous lives—such as Xue Linchengxia, Big-Breasted You Rong, Laughing City Slayer, and Enchantress—also began buying materials beside the teleport arrays of their respective home cities.
The first round of purchasing did not go smoothly, as most people were busy leveling up by completing quests. The actual number of sellers bringing mineral materials was quite small. Moreover, it was only the first day, and those engaged in quests had found only a few materials along the way. This first purchase event was more form than substance, with little real effect.
Fu Chen was not in the least surprised by this outcome, having never expected to acquire enough materials on the very first night.
At that moment, Chongtong once again appeared on the world channel, announcing that purchases would continue the next day with increased prices.
[Chongtong]: “Tomorrow, same time and place, continuing to purchase all kinds of production materials, prices raised by ten percent.”
[Half-Love Red Dust]: “Purchasing continues tomorrow, price increased by fifty percent!”
[Wasteland]: “Starting tomorrow, all purchase prices will be tripled!”
[Yu Meiren]: “Everyone is raising prices, so I’ll increase mine a bit too—3.2 times the usual price. Hope you’ll sell to me!”
Following Chongtong’s lead, Fu Chen, Qin Yumo, Zero Point, and Yu Meiren all slightly raised their purchase prices.
Several strong figures from Fu Chen’s previous life, like Xue Linchengxia, also joined in, unwilling to be outdone, and started raising their prices.
Within just half an hour, the purchase prices for materials surged to 3.5 times the original price.
Of course, these were just the preliminary prices set for the next purchasing event.
The main goal was to motivate more people to actively mine and gather materials while undertaking quests in the wild.
How effective this would be would depend entirely on the actual situation tomorrow, and further plans would be made accordingly.
After the purchasing event ended, Chongtong and the others resumed their quests and monster hunts, aiming to reach level 19 as soon as possible.
Fu Chen, meanwhile, continued leading Qin Yumo around the various scenic spots of the Perfect Continent.
There were jungles, deserts, plains, grasslands, as well as gobi deserts and swamps.
The two had no fixed goals or plans; purely driven by interest or wherever their conversations led, they would visit corresponding places.
However, limited by their low levels and inability to fly, most places were too dangerous for them. They could only stay within safe zones to get a rough look at the terrain and environment.
Even so, upon arriving at each town or village, they would spend at least forty minutes understanding the layout and the distribution of the indigenous peoples.
By the time Qin Yumo needed to return to Blue Star for work in the morning, they had only explored about half of the Perfect Continent.
Qin Yumo was in high spirits and, before leaving, smiled and said, “Rare to have such a carefree time. Let’s continue tomorrow—I have to go to work now!”
“No problem, as long as you don’t find it boring,” Fu Chen agreed with a smile.
That night, upon reentering the Perfect Continent, Qin Yumo immediately pulled Fu Chen into her team again.
They continued their leisurely tour across the Perfect Continent, setting aside quests and monster hunting for the moment.
When the agreed time to buy materials came, Fu Chen and Qin Yumo once more returned to Sword Immortal City.
The number of people selling materials had increased somewhat but still fell far short of Fu Chen’s expectations.
The collected basic materials, especially herbs, were diverse but incomplete and insufficient in quantity.
Materials were inadequate for forging equipment, and herbs insufficient for concocting elixirs.
After reviewing the gathered materials, Fu Chen estimated:
“If tomorrow there are as many people as today, or even more, it should be just enough to raise the production skills to level 3.”
Qin Yumo sighed lightly: “Didn’t expect it would take three days just to collect materials. I wonder what it’ll be like to upgrade production skills through equipment crafting.”
“It shouldn’t be harder than leveling through monster hunting, right? Otherwise, people would be driven insane,” Chongtong teased with a laugh.
Qin Yumo turned to look at him, frowning. “You guys are leveling a bit slowly—how come you’re only level 16 now?”
Purely for Entertainment gave a helpless smile and explained, “We’ve been working hard hunting monsters and doing quests. Monsters hit harder at higher levels, so we need breaks in between.”
Qin Yumo frowned further. “At this rate, even after the production skill upgrade, you won’t reach level 19. Won’t you just have to wait longer?”
Hearing this, Fu Chen suggested, “How about tonight the two of us help a few of them level up?”
Zero Point immediately cheered; he’d been eagerly awaiting this day for a long time.
Yao Siqingmeng was also very happy, as this meant she could be with Fu Chen.
Others showed varying degrees of happiness and anticipation; after all, being led to ‘take off’ was always an exhilarating experience.
Only one person felt reluctant but could not voice opposition, silently swallowing their displeasure and keeping all thoughts to themselves—this was Beloved.
Thus, following Fu Chen’s suggestion, everyone set out from their respective cities and finally gathered west of Zulong City.
Fu Chen led the group out of Zulong City’s west gate, heading to the city outskirts to hunt monsters and level up.
There were many level 21 monsters here: Malicious Zombies and Evil Bark.
The former was a metal-type physical monster—physical monsters could be easily defeated in close combat without much trouble.
The latter was a wood-type magic attacker, capable of releasing wooden toxin gas that inflicted continuous wood-type poison damage.
Fu Chen and Qin Yumo each led a team to fight these monsters.
Every half hour, they would swap team members and continue leveling.
This approach aimed to prevent Fu Chen’s team from leveling too quickly and creating a gap between team members.
At the same time, it strengthened Qin Yumo’s combat training, helping her rapidly improve her battle experience and skill levels.
Especially important was the level 19 skill newly learned by Qin Yumo called “Soaring Wind,” which she needed to become familiar with and master.
[Soaring Wind: Level 1
Leaps into the air and slams down with great force on the opponent, delivering a basic physical attack with an additional 55% of equipment attack and 282 physical damage. Has a 23% chance to stun the enemy for 3 seconds.
Skill type: Active attack
Range: Melee
Energy cost: 32
Preparation time: 0.6 seconds
Casting time: 1.8 seconds
Cooldown: 6 seconds
Weapon requirement: Melee weapon]
This skill was the first control skill for martial artists, capable of stunning enemies for 3 seconds—a very important ability.
Fu Chen himself, after using the skill several times, unsurprisingly advanced to [Frenzy Soaring Wind].
[Frenzy Soaring Wind
Leaps into the air and slams down with great force on the opponent, delivering a basic physical attack with an additional 120% of equipment attack and 2,280 physical damage. Has a 50% chance to stun the enemy for 3 seconds. Cooldown reduced by 1 second.
Skill type: Active attack
Range: Melee
Energy cost: 150
Preparation time: 0.6 seconds
Casting time: 1.8 seconds
Cooldown: 5 seconds
Weapon requirement: Melee weapon]
Fu Chen fought monsters almost nonstop, leading his teammates to level up and instructing Qin Yumo on how to quickly grasp the skill.
However, words alone could never fully convey the experience from his past life. The effect was there but limited; the main progress depended on Qin Yumo’s own understanding and insight.