Bright Sun did not reply immediately. She stood there for a few seconds waiting for the system prompt to obtain the exact number. Eventually, she turned towards Li Wei and Cai Wenji and said: "66% Completion Rate"

"Really? And what is your usual Completion Rate?" asked Cai Wenji.

"75% on average..."

Upon hearing that, Li Wei immediately felt dejected. Instead of improving the technique, he had actually regressed it. But he did not understand, where was he wrong?

However, Bright Sun and Cai Wenji were the exact opposite, a bright smile could be seen on Bright Sun's face, she was visibly excited.

Silence filled the training room for a moment, but Li Wei quickly said, “Ah well, I am sorry, I thought it would improve the completion rate but it..."

"What? No no, this is great! The changes you've made are all very effective! Don't get the wrong idea!" said Bright Sun.

Cai Wenji remained silent, he was in deep thoughts but upon hearing his sister, he stepped up to explain: "Seven, 66% Completion Rate for a first time is excellent, you know? And that was including all the mistakes she made during the cycles. Even small deviations from the techniques would slowly decrease the completion rate. If I am not wrong, with the amount of time you had to correct her, it should have caused a decreased of about 10%"

"But that's not what's important! As I previously said, today my sister is not in the correct mind state. There is something weighing on her mind and that also affect the completion rate of her techniques earlier. This is why sometimes, we take about 30 minutes to calm ourselves down and meditate before we start our training cycles. If we take all that into consideration, then that means that her completion rate would have been around 84%" continued Cai Wenji.

"In other words, that's an increase of about 10%"

Li Wei was stunned when he heard the explanation, but he quickly recovered. To him, 84% was still mediocre but he knew that a 10% increase was definitely something useful. Gaining a few additional mastery points for each cycle would be beneficial in the long term.

But now came the important part, there were several reasons while Li Wei wanted to try to improve the technique. First of all, he wanted to challenge himself and test if his own hypothesis was correct when he first read the technique. Second, Bright Sun was his friend and he was a member of the Fleeting Clouds Sect but more importantly, he knew that if he was successful, there would be some rewards at the end.

"Eh Seven. May I ask something? I know that you are planning to submit this improved version to the sect for contribution points, right?" asked Bright Sun with a timid voice.

Li Wei quietly nodded. This was indeed what he wanted. Although he did not really know the value of this improvement, he knew that it was worth quite a lot.

"In that case, would you agree to exchange it with us instead? We shall naturally give you a satisfactory price," declared Cai Wenji.

"What do you mean? Why would I do that?" asked Li Wei.

Bright Sun flushed for a second and explained: "It's like that, we will give you the same value you would have obtained and so, for you, there won't be much difference. But then, I can submit the improvements to the sect instead."

"If I am not wrong, you noticed us outside the Colosseum earlier, right? And you remember when we said that the Cai Family recruited the pro-player, King of Champions? We did not know how they manage to snatch him away from the Gem Family but during the Time Attack, we were finally told how."

"This bastard agreed to join the family under only one condition! And that was to arrange a marriage with me. I don't even know why he chose me. I never saw him before, but he still picked me. As for the main family, I am just a pawn to them right now and they do not mind chipping me in to recruit a powerful figure," continued Bright Sun with a saddened expression.

"I worked so hard on Earth to get rid of my previous arranged marriage with the “Wang Lin” you’ve met at the Warrior Association! But now that we are in the game, these bastards completely forgot about all the contributions we made earlier and decided to use me again!"

"There is only one way for me to escape this marriage. And that is to make a significant contribution to the sect! Enough to outweigh King of Champions' value! At first, I did not know what to do but now, there might be a chance! Improving the technique has some weight and if I manage to improve to a Grade 1 Cook quickly, it should be enough to escape from this arrangement!"

Li Wei silently listened as he started to feel a headache. The life of people in these large families was too complicated for him. He felt blessed to have lived a normal life where he could make his own decisions.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"In that case, may I ask what you will exchange it for?" asked Li Wei.

Cai Wenji who was listening to the side stepped in, "Such an improvement should be worth about 8500 Contribution points if you exchanged it at the main branch but together, we only have 6000 Contribution points! However, we will add another technique in exchange. What do you think? This is the real price. Many people put in their own twist in their training technique. It is not very rare to find an increase in completion rate here and there but 10% is unheard of. It would have been more if the technique was also improved for men but since it's only for women, fewer people would benefit from that."

"6000 contribution points and a technique? Mmm I supposed that I can get another good technique with all these contribution points," murmured Li Wei.

The brother and sister seemed to hear Li Wei and quickly added," Actually, you should have a lot of contribution points right now. If you have at least 2000, you might be able to obtain some techniques reserved for Core members. Right now, some of these techniques are available for exchange but they are extremely expensive. The average player would now only have 2000 Contribution points if he saved up everything. The best would have about 3000 contribution points, but these technique's price starts at 8000. They decided to display some of these techniques as a form of encouragement and put them just out of reach of the players. But the different families will soon remove the techniques by making their own players purchase it."

"I don't know how much Contribution Points you will have if we exchange but keep that in mind," said Bright Sun. She was full of hope that Li Wei would agree to trade with them. Contribution points to her were not worth much in front of her own marriage.

"That does not make sense, right? In that case, why didn't your family rush to purchase all the other family's techniques?" asked Li Wei.

Bright Sun nodded, “True, we could have done that. But the higher-ups signed a contract to not allow any direct or indirect family members to purchase another family's technique and so, only outer members can purchase them. Also. Although we treasure our techniques we understand it is impossible to keep the techniques only within our families; that would be equivalent to banning marriage! As for the case where the other guilds send their spies to purchase these techniques, then it's even simpler since we can track who transferred their Contribution Points to who. And well, I don't know the exact clauses of the contract but so far, all the techniques are still available for exchange and no one tried to obtain another family's technique."

"I don't know. I would like to check out the different techniques available to trade first!" said Li Wei.

"Of course! Let's go to the headquarters right now!" said Bright Sun.

"Wait! Won't I get in trouble too?" asked Li Wei.

"You won't! It might actually be the exact opposite; the other family might even try to recruit you! That is something I can guarantee! " said Cai Wenji.

...

At the trading area of the headquarters, Li Wei was browsing through the different techniques accompanied by the two siblings.

"There are twenty-five Core Techniques from which you can choose; one from each family. They vary in cost and power depending on which family they come from. Can you tell us which kind of technique you are looking for? We might be able to help," said Bright Sun.

"Mmm something to do with swords if possible," absentmindedly answered Li Wei.

"Swords? Three core techniques are based on swords: the Meng family's Immortal Sword Spirit, the Li family's Myriad Sword Dance and the Nangong family's Heart of the blade," explained Cai Wenji.

Li Wei quickly searched the three techniques and looked at their information. Just from one look, it was clear that they were better than the other techniques he saw previously. But the price was also much more expensive, the Meng family's Immortal Sword Spirit was already out of the way since it cost 12000 Contribution points.

Right now, Li Wei had about 3000 Contribution Points and if he added the 6000 Contribution Points that the siblings were willing to transfer to him, then he would have 9000 Contribution Points.

The two remaining techniques both cost exactly 9000 contribution points. He carefully read the description of the techniques and had to admit that they were very enticing, but it did not take long for him to settle on the Myriad Sword Dance. The Heart of the blade was also powerful but was not in line with what Li Wei wanted. When trained, the latter allowed the user to imbue several special effects in their sword strikes like the freezing effect.

As for the Myriad Sword Dance, it was just like its name suggested. It allowed the user to wield his swords as if he was dancing but more importantly, it also provided special moves which were what Li Wei wanted. Unfortunately, he would not obtain the finishing move he wanted before mastering the second level of this technique.

Li Wei hesitated for a moment. 9000 Contribution Points was not a small amount but when he thought about getting two techniques at once, Li Wei felt that it was the right choice.

"Alright! I'll go for this one then," said Li Wei as he pointed at the Myriad Sword Dance, "Let's proceed with our trade first, shall we?"

Cai Wenji looked at Li Wei with surprise. He personally did not think that Li Wei had already acquired that many contribution points.

"Thank you Seven! All I need to do now is to cook diligently!" declared Bright Sun with determination.

"I did not know that being a cook was really that useful," said Li Wei.

"Of course! You have eaten at the Prosperity Hall, so you should know the effect provided by the food! These were cooked by a Grade 3 Cook but it shows how much potential the profession has. The family does not have any Grade 1 Cook right now. If I become the first, it will have a significant weight!" declared Bright Sun.

Li Wei nodded, "Maybe it is time to look for a good profession... I can't stay with fisherman forever..." said Li Wei to himself.

"Here! This is the technique we'll offer, and you should already have received our Contribution Points!" said Cai Wenji.

Li Wei nodded and grabbed the manual Cai Wenji was giving him. Following that, he quickly grabbed the Myriad Sword Dance. He smiled as the manual landed in his hands.

"I will treat you to a meal later, Seven! I will cook it myself!" happily said Bright Sun.

"We should leave sister! There is a lot to do if we want to get rid of this..."

...

A few minutes later, Li Wei was back into the private training. In front of him were two training manuals. He quickly opened the less flashy looking one which contained the technique given by Cai Wenji:

[Training technique: Ghost Blade]

Can be used once per day at the cost of 20% fatigue, effect :

Trains to control the mana flow in the blade. After 10 training sets, develop the skill [Ghost Blade]

[Ghost Blade]: allows the user's blade to pass through other blades.

"Not bad," said Li Wei. He was very satisfied to see that Cai Wenji gave him a technique related to swords.

He quickly opened the other manual and looked at it. "The Core techniques are really different from the others... Even Gliding Steps is no match for it," said Li Wei to himself.

[Training technique: Myriad Sword Dance]

Can be used anytime at the cost of fatigue level. The mastery points obtained will depend on the duration and completion rate of the cycles.

Performs a series of training movements with a sword. Gains some insight of sword dance. After obtaining 100 mastery points, obtain the skill: Sword Storm Dance

[Sword Storm Dance]: user attacks his opponent several times with his sword. Damage dealt depends on the number of strikes landing on the target.

...

At the same time, somewhere between Algate City and the dungeon, a group of players were returning to the city with their inventory full of loot.

They were chatting happily when suddenly, the leading player, Li Feng suddenly stopped. He has just received a private message from a member of the Li Family stationed at the Headquarters.

"F*** Who did it?" shouted Li Feng.

A player next to him tried to calm him down and asked: "Brother Feng. What is happening?"

"What is happening? Someone purchased the Myriad Sword Dance we put for display at the shop! Since he was able to perform the exchange then that means that it was not done by a spy of another guild! Another family must have used a loophole in the contract to get their hand on it!" angrily replied Li Feng.

"What? This is impossible, the elders examined the contract themselves... Could it be that a player really collected 9000 Contribution Point in less than a week? We should investigate before drawing conclusions. We should ask Elder Du! Let's hurry back!"