Chapter 7 Choice 

Just as Fang Xiangjian was wondering what the flames in front of him were, a ma.s.sive amount of information was transmitted to his brain from the flames.

It was neither words nor pictures, but more of a direct ‘understanding’, filling up his mind in a moment, making him understand what the purple flames before him were.

If you give up something, you will gain something in return. Make a wish, and if you can give up something of sufficient value, you can obtain everything you want in this world.

There were almost no redundant thoughts. Heavily injured all over his body, Fang Xingjian who had drowned in despair hollered his own wish straight at the flames.

“Power! Give me great power! A power strong enough to eradicate the whole of the Ona.s.sis Clan!”

In the next moment, an evil wholly encompa.s.sed Fang Xingjian. And then it was as if he could hear his own voice ringing out in his mind. Something was speaking in his voice.

“You can’t afford the price for this.”

Fang Xingjian frowned and he immediately recalled that he had almost nothing on him. How would he have items to exchange for power?

He asked, “Then what can I get? What can I afford? What can you give me? Something that can allow me to destroy the whole Ona.s.sis Clan!”

There was no reply, but an option appeared before Fang Xingjian, and it was the only option.

“Obtaining the topmost degree of sword arts talent in the world requires giving up 72 years of lifespan, which leaves you with only five more years of your life. At the same time, you will never be able to feel love, kins.h.i.+p, and friends.h.i.+p, and you’ll end up leading a lonely life until your death, unable to procreate, or to have any descendants.

From now onwards, everything related to happiness in the human world shall no longer be of your concern. Are you willing to accept this?” Fang Xingjian’s voice resounded in his own head.

“Hahahahaha!”

Without any hesitation, Fang Xingjian broke into a smile, “I couldn’t ask for anything better.”

In the next second, an inhumane pain fell upon him from the heavens, and Fang Xingjian could only feel how every single bone in his body and every inch of skin was being torn apart, pulverized and melted.

Fang Xingjian had completely lost consciousness as soon as it had begun, but the changes to his body did not stop. The purple flames soared into the skies, transforming his body, mind, and brain towards a unique direction.

…

Fang Xingjian’s brows trembled as he slowly regained consciousness. He immediately felt that his whole body was still cramping with waves of immense pain, his broken bones and injured organs rendering him immobile.

However, a medicinal smell came to his nose.

“Wuliwala, waliwula…” An old man turned over to look at Fang Xingjian, who was lying on a bed.

He spoke a lot, but Fang Xingjian could not understand any of it. However, he did not say much himself. He only stared towards the ceiling, as if he was no longer concerned with everything before him.

‘I’m not dead? Did I get picked up by someone?’

‘That flame, was it an illusion?’

‘But in this state, what can I do even if I survived?’

Despair, unresigned and emotions of fury kept surging in Fang Xingjian’s mind. But the next moment, disbelief flashed in his eyes.

The numbers listed in the brackets were Fang Xingjian’s attributes in his injured state, which now made him incomparable to an ordinary person. If not for the fact that the purple flames had retained the last bit of his life, he would have died through and through.

But this was not what he was surprised by. What felt different to him were his techniques.

There was no change to the level, but the experience required to raise the level of the Basic Sword Technique from level 3 to 4 had turned into 0/1.

The experience required to raise the Single-handed Sword Grab from level 2 to 3 was 0/1.

Similarly, the experience required to raise the level of the Cross-Slash was also 0/1.

‘How could this be? I only require 1 point of experience to increase my level? How could this have happened?’

Fang Xingjian stared at this sight, flabbergasted. But he soon recovered.

‘The topmost degree of sword arts talent in the world ? This is the topmost degree of sword arts talent in the world ?’

“Hahahahahahaha!” He started to laugh fanatically, to the extent that tears were pouring out from the corners of his eyes. The old man who was at the side stood up and came to his side, shouting out wuliwala as if he could not understand anything at all.

But Fang Xingjian did not care about this. All he could think of was practicing his sword techniques. He wanted to wave his sword, wanted to see if his sword techniques would level up.

…

Three days later, the bedridden Fang Xingjian struggled to sit up. He seemed to have no parts of his body which was not in pain, both inside and out, but he slowly raised his arms, putting his fingers together to form a sword.

Fang Xingjian felt a surge of power coming up from the lower half of his body. It was the explosion of power coming from the muscles, and pa.s.sing through each section of the muscles in his waist, spine, shoulders and elbows, swelling at the joints, and changing into a sharp piercing power as he released it from his fingers.

With a single thrust of his fingers as a sword, Fang Xingjian’s heart swelled with a feeling of everything having turned clear. His actions were as familiar to him as taking a breath, making him feel as if he had practiced this thrust for thousands or even tens of thousands of times.

But at the next moment, he screamed out in pain and fell to the ground by the bedside, the pain in his body instantly magnifying ten times. He had overexerted himself, and had torn his wounds open again.

The old man came in and immediately started gabbling away when he saw him.

But Fang Xingjian was full of smiles, all his concentration focused on the Techniques Column.

Basic Sword Technique level 4, experience required to level up was 0/2. With merely just a thrust of his fingers acting as a sword, he had managed to level up.

The days pa.s.sed by. While he was resting on the bed, Fang Xingjian did not waste his time. He tried to learn the language the old man spoke, and was soon able to achieve basic communication with him.

The old man seemed to be an ordinary fisherman, and was very poor. The medicine applied on Fang Xingjian was what he had mixed up together himself, made from medicinal herbs he had gathered, together with fish meat and blood.

Based on Fang Xingjian’s observation and inference, the injuries on his body had not been left behind by Caroline. Those wounds seemed to have been healed by the purple flames. Instead, his body seemed to have suffered from huge injuries when he had been given the talent in sword arts.

It might have been because Fang Xingjian originally had astonis.h.i.+ng physical attributes; or because he had a strong desire to live; or that the medicine was effective; or maybe because of something which the purple flames had done; but what was certain was that the injuries on his body were slowly recovering.

And after every few days, he would not be able to hold it in, and waved around with his hands and legs to practice his sword skills in an attempt to gain a general understanding of his current talent.

Even a normal wave of his hands and legs could increase the proficiency of his Basic Sword Technique. However, it was not the same for the Single-handed Sword Grab and the Cross-slash.

He had already attained level 10 for the Basic Sword Technique, with experience 3/20. Pa.s.sing through each level required only very little experience, which was obviously due to the effects of the attributes given by the purple flames.

This meant that he had a type of unique comprehension of the sword which allowed him to hasten the speed at which he gained experience. Even waving his limbs around allowed him to gain experience. The Basic Sword Technique, which usually required one to put in much effort and go through tough training, now seemed very simple. Only a pitiful amount of experience was required in order to level up his techniques.

Now that his Basic Sword Technique had reached level 10, he had additional gains. Other than the increase in the speed and accuracy of the thrusts, he had also gained 1 point in both his strength and agility attributes. This was an additional increment in attribute after attaining level 10 of the Basic Sword Technique, something which Fang Xingjian had known about long ago.

In fact, most techniques would have additional increments to his attributes after reaching level 10, which was also the maximum level for ordinary people.

And most Warriors who were trained in sword arts would be able to raise this technique to level 10, therefore obtaining the additional 1 point increase to their strength and agility.

Fang Xingjian now felt that he had advanced immensely in terms of both speed and accuracy of his sword thrusts. When going through the various sword moves, he felt that all the elements of his body were highly coordinated, as if his muscles had all joined into one.

This was a level which an ordinary person would only be able to attain after training for many years.