31: Experience

A week passed in a flash.

During this time, the number of people fishing by the lake gradually decreased, returning to the previous state of five or six people.

The main reason was that White Carp were indeed difficult to catch, and they couldn't be caught directly. Many people, realizing the difficulty, were unwilling to waste their time on it.

During this period, apart from Lin Xiu, who consistently had a catch every day, only two or three others were lucky enough to catch one.

Some tried to ask Lin Xiu for some tips, but he refused them all.

He hadn't even told Xiao Ning about his fishing method, let alone anyone else.

After all, helping them would be creating enemies for himself.

This week, Lin Xiu used White Carp as a condition, having Xiao Ning spar with him by the lake during the day, and then finding Lin Dun at night.

Many Fighting Skills rapidly improved. Besides gaining a large number of attribute points and an increase in Strength, Lin Xiu also performed some Fighting Skill Fusions.

“Panel.”

With a thought, text appeared before Lin Xiu's eyes.

Name: Lin Xiu

Age: 17

Realm: Three-Star Dou Zhe (Fighter) (188/300)

Physique: 14

Spirit: 7

Aptitude: 10

Abilities:

Wind Lightning Skill (Profound Rank Mid-grade) lv8 (800/800)

Mountain Shatterer (Yellow Rank High-grade) lv5 (350/500)

Ben Lei Palm (Profound Rank Mid-grade) lv2 (50/200)

Gale Step (Yellow Rank Mid-grade) lv2 (60/200)

Blood Qi Enhancement (Yellow Rank Mid-grade) lv3 (10/300)

Flying Flower Piercing Leaf (Yellow Rank Mid-grade) lv1 (90/100)

...

Attribute Points: 24

Gale Step is a movement Fighting Skill, formed by the Fusion of Shadow Step and Chasing Wind, combining the flexibility of Shadow Step and the speed of Chasing Wind.

Blood Qi Enhancement, on the other hand, was synthesized from Strength and another Yellow Rank Low-grade defensive Fighting Skill. When activated, it can temporarily gather Blood Qi at one part of the body to enhance defense.

When he first obtained this Fighting Skill, Lin Xiu had a bold attempt. Fortunately, he stopped in time after realizing something was wrong, otherwise he might have had to say goodbye to his happiness for the rest of his life.

Flying Flower Piercing Leaf is an offensive Fighting Skill, leaning towards sword moves, and needs to be used with a sword.

Besides these, Lin Xiu still had a large number of low-Rank Fighting Skills, most of which had not yet reached max Rank and could not be Fused.

And in addition to the Fighting Skill gains, his Strength increased by one star, his Physique increased by 2 points, and his spirit increased by 1 point.

“Ben Lei Palm and Mountain Shatterer are very powerful. When sparring with Xiao Ning and Lin Dun, I don't even get a chance to use them.” Lin Xiu sometimes lamented that improving too quickly wasn't good, because he didn't have suitable sparring partners.

“I'll save the attribute points for a rainy day. I'm not lacking in Fighting Skills right now, and I don't even have the opportunity to use them. What I do lack is a handy weapon.”

In his ring, there were some Fighting Skills that required practice with weapons. Lin Xiu usually used wooden sticks as spears or longswords.

However, as the Fighting Skill Ranks increased and their power improved, wooden sticks often didn't last long.

The academy had weapons for sale, but not only were they expensive, most of them were made primarily of fine steel, which could serve as a temporary transition, but their offensive power in actual combat was not strong.

The weapon Lin Xiu wanted leaned more towards a Demonic Core weapon, meaning one crafted by embedding a Demonic Beast's Demonic Core. These weapons often possessed certain special characteristics.

“Even the lowest-grade Demonic Core weapons start at five or six thousand gold coins. I don't have enough money.”

Previously, when he wanted to buy a weapon, Lin Xiu specifically went to the market. There were many senior students learning blacksmithing who sold the weapons they forged.

Fishing by the lake until evening, Lin Xiu carried a White Carp and gave it to the Elder.

Then, he went straight back to his dormitory.

These days, the only thing Lin Xiu felt relieved about was that Xiao Mei and Xiao Yu finally stopped coming to find him.

“Brother Xiu, the mentor wants you to go see him.” Seeing Lin Xiu enter, Lin Dun handed him dinner.

Both of them were Huo Lan's Disciples.

“Did he say what it was about?” Lin Xiu didn't rush off, sitting on the bed to eat.

Lin Dun shook his head, “The mentor didn't say.”

Nodding, Lin Xiu quickly finished his dinner and, after leaving the dormitory, walked towards Huo Lan's residence.

At this moment, there were three other people at Huo Lan's house, two males and one female, all wearing student uniforms.

They were Du Chaoping, Han Pu, and Qin Zhi. Among them, Du Chaoping was a student from the generation before last. His Aptitude was average, and he had not yet achieved a Breakthrough to Dou Master in the past two years.

The other two were students from the previous generation, both Eight-Star Dou Zhe (Fighters).

“Du Chaoping, you've always handled matters in a way that puts me at ease. I've called you all here today because I have something to entrust to you.” Huo Lan first looked at the man in the middle.

“Teacher, please feel free to instruct us.” Du Chaoping agreed cleanly and decisively.

“I recently accepted another Disciple from the new students, but from the start of school until now, he has been obsessed with fishing. Aren't you just taking on a mission? I want you to take him with you.” The person Huo Lan was referring to was Lin Xiu.

He thought highly of Lin Xiu, which was why he was willing to proactively give him high-Rank Cultivation Techniques, even though Lin Xiu ultimately chose a Profound Rank Low-grade one.

However, after enrollment, Huo Lan learned that Lin Xiu went fishing whenever he had time during the day, which inevitably gave him a headache.

Entering the academy, the most important thing was naturally to Cultivate, especially since he also hoped Lin Xiu would secure a top-five spot in the Inner Academy assessment two years later, making time even more precious.

“Teacher, there's no problem taking a junior Disciple.” Du Chaoping often did this kind of thing and was already familiar with it. “However, our mission objective this time is the Water Tiger Beast.”

The Water Tiger Beast is a second-Rank Demonic Beast, considered one of the weaker ones among second-Rank Demonic Beasts, but even for the three of them, dealing with it would be very stressful.

If they brought along a newly enrolled junior Disciple, and an unexpected situation arose, they might not be able to guarantee the junior Disciple's safety.

“Why did you take on this mission?” Huo Lan frowned, feeling it was a bit troublesome.

Because he often assigned Du Chaoping to bring new people, he thought of him this time, precisely because he trusted Du Chaoping's reliability.

“Teacher, I asked Senior Du to take it. My weapon is broken.” Qin Zhi replied.

This mission was to obtain the Water Tiger Beast's Demonic Core, and upon completion, they would receive a weapon.

The three of them working together, plus the Water Tiger Beast not being particularly formidable, was why they chose to accept the mission.

As the room grew somewhat quiet, a knock on the door sounded, followed by Lin Xiu's voice coming in, “Teacher, I'm Lin Xiu, I'm here.”

Huo Lan let Lin Xiu in first.

After pushing the door open, Lin Xiu saw the other three people and a slight smile appeared on his face. The three also smiled and nodded in response to Lin Xiu.

“Teacher, what did you need me for?” Lin Xiu went straight to the point, not wanting to waste too much of their time.

“It's like this, you've been at the academy for some time now. I want you to go out and gain some experience with these three for a while. Staying in the academy all the time is not the most correct way to grow, after all.”

Huo Lan finished speaking in a consultative tone, watching Lin Xiu with a hint of expectation in his eyes.

He felt that Lin Xiu would refuse him, and this opportunity wasn't suitable anyway. Once Lin Xiu refused, he would just send him back.

The Water Tiger Beast was a bit too much pressure for Du Chaoping and the others, and Huo Lan felt it was better not to let Lin Xiu take the risk yet, and they could wait for the next time.

“Experience? Yes, when do we leave?” Lin Xiu's somewhat excited reaction caused a look of surprise to appear on Huo Lan's face.

During this time, many of Lin Xiu's Fighting Skills hadn't had the chance to unleash their full power, and his experience growth had slowed down.

If he could go out and fight Demonic Beasts, his experience would definitely soar!