A few days had passed. Lin Songmei, Yan Mingqing, and Han Youhong’s journey had continued, though their progress had slowed to a crawl.

Compared to the previous ravine system, battles were now more commonplace. Bugs. Wolves. Birds. If it was an animal that lived in the area, it was now roaming, trying to find a new home after the terrain had been shifted.

Having made decent progress, Songmei and the others were now nearing the crater. The crater itself was massive, in certain regards, it was larger than what would be considered a “crater” but, being left from the impacts from a battle, this large barren area was considered such.

Had the rockslide not happened, they would’ve arrived by now, but... that was all just a what if.

Now though, after having gone through battle after battle, the three of them were now sitting in a loose circle, taking a mid-afternoon break to eat some snacks before setting off again.

Several things had changed though over the course of the past few days, everyone had made progress on cultivating and everyone had solidified or learnt new techniques.

Songmei, after spending these past few days fighting on only rough terrain, had brought her butterfly steps movement technique to a new level, being able to use it with just a thought. Moreover, she could use it in conjunction with her body enhancement technique, “Crystal’s Strengthening.”

Though Crystal’s Strengthening wasn’t top tier in terms of Qi efficiency, it had good synergistic effects with other techniques Songmei would learn down the road, as it converted part of her Qi to having a more Crystalline attribute.

Useful, useful stuff really.

Other than that, Songmei had also improved her shooting skills by a fair margin, nothing helped make Songmei get better at shooting than a wolf’s breath bearing down onto her neck. Also, remember the random technique she had used against the massive-ass LAND crab?

She had managed to improve it too!! It was called the “Arrow of Crystallization” and Songmei had cut down the time needed to charge it up from 5-7 seconds all the way down to 1-2 seconds. It still meant that Songmei wouldn’t be able to use it often in battle, but it was a good thing to open a battle with.

And the last thing, the development that had allowed her to improve at such a breakneck speed, was the fact that she had opened up her fourth main meridian!

Well... there also had been a sort of discomfort with her eyes, it was like something was behind or in her eyes, but that was something that Songmei could ignore.

For the others, they had also made several improvements. Starting with Mingqing, Songmei had managed to beat out Mingqing in opening her fourth meridian by a day or two, depending on how one wanted to count it.

On the other hand though, being their main vanguard, Mingqing had gotten a lot of action the past few days. She had managed to master the foundational swordsmanship of her Constellation Sword Art, then also mastered the first form of the art, the Ram.

Of course, that was “mastered” in the same way Songmei had mastered her arts, mastered them for now. When they cultivated to a higher level and had more Qi, they’d be able to take their techniques to another level.

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Other than mastering the 6 stars of the Ram, Mingqing had also begun to make strides in fighting while having her body enhancement technique active. Which was useful when fighting for obvious reasons: being stronger and faster.

Lastly, there was Youhong. Honestly, he didn’t share much about his techniques. The main thing that his techniques revolved around was the moon. However, Songmei didn’t know too much about the details.

Also, because he used chain blades, his techniques were... hard to decipher.

As of now though, Songmei had figured out, from asking and observing Youhong, that he had a couple of Qi-using moves right now. There was “Descent of the New Moon” and also “Glory of the Full Moon,” both moves that sounded fancy, but... well... Songmei never reallyyyy could identify them.

They did both make the enemies die pretty quickly though.

Youhong would use it and then “Oh no!” the enemy’s head would fall off. Truly assassin-like.

Other than his techniques though, Youhong had also shared that he was a half-step away from opening his fourth meridian. Or in other words, he was at the peak of the third main meridian, and was at the cusp of breaking through.

It was good to know!

The three of them had also worked on teamwork, something that was... pretty critical.

Songmei didn’t want to put an arrow in the back of Mingqing or Youhong’s head during battle after all. She also didn’t want to hear “Descent of the New Moon!” before having her head on the ground all of a sudden... Nor did she want to hear “6th star of the ram” and then have a sword appear through her chest.

All of these were... not ideal outcomes.

Sitting around in their little circle though, Songmei ate some snacks while listening to Mingqing and Youhong talk about... whatever.

Honestly, it was kinda the norm by now. Mingqing would lead the conversation, talking for the most part while Youhong commented here and there, contributing his bit. All the while, Songmei would kinda just be there listening along, and maybeeeee make a comment here or there.

Right now, Mingqing and Youhong were just talking about the bricklaying game, something that was completely alien to Songmei. She never played games and this just wasn’t something she was well-versed or interested in.

“So, as you know, the tier-8, max upgrades, triple prestige, mark IV excavator with a double speed boost and inventory expansion is the best idle material collector. However, I honestly don’t prefer it because of its high maintenance costs.” Mingqing explained to a nodding Youhong as he continued to inhale his lychee jelly. “Because of that, I decided instead to invest more of my points into the virtual technology branch to unlock advanced AI.”

Pointing to a small picture of the skill tree in the bricklaying game, Mingqing shrugged, pointing to a specific nodule. “Then, with the self-maintenance skill, the cost of my excavators is massively lower, far outweighing the fact that I have to use a tier-7, max upgrades, triple prestige mark III excavator.”

“I see...” Youhong nodded, a thoughtful look on his face as he inspected the pictures that Mingqing had saved of her profit-margins. “That is a much more efficient way moneywise. Then you can also expand your business faster, yeah? The only drawback is that you don’t get as much material.”

“Mhm, that is a pretty major drawback,” Mingqing shrugged, “it’s okay though, since I'm just expanding the scope of my operations for now. It helps with catching up to those much higher on the leaderboards. Then, I can also transition into the ideal setup later without much sacrifice.”

Hearing Youhong murmur “Interesting...” over and over during Mingqing’s explanation, Songmei, who knew pretty much nothing and could understand pretty much nothing, just... let them be.

They were having fun, so that was good! She’d be content just... hanging out. From what she had learned from Mingqing, the game was constantly being updated, and new strategies were always being discovered because of the intricacies with the game.

Whoever was making this game honestly, they were selfless!