Chapter 102 - 91: Return to Lanz

Chapter 102: Chapter 91: Return to Lanz

After hearing Zhang Ji’s words, some light reignited in Tran’s cloudy eyes. At the same time, his withered Spirit stirred, causing the seawater to churn and send waves dozens of meters high crashing out, one after another.

Immediately, Tran thanked Zhang Ji and turned to leave.

He was already preparing to travel through the night to Dean City.

...

Upon waking up the next morning, the first thing Zhang Ji did was go to the Ruins Realm to check on the situation.

After entering, he found that the corn kernels he had scattered inside the [Ark of Hope] had all grown into tall, green plants. They had even tasseled.

If the air currents pollinated them well, he estimated he could harvest them by evening.

He had to admit, this was truly the best Ruins Realm for farming in the early stages.

By his calculation, one day inside was equivalent to several months of farming in the outside world.

Of course, he had no intention of farming corn. This was just an experiment.

Later, he would chop it all down and plant some "Yan Fruits and Blue Bamboo Shoots," throw in a few of those earth dragons, and while he was at it, raise some Bees to ensure pollination. That should be enough to perfect the entire planting system.

...

After having breakfast at Erin’s place, Zhang Ji had Bai Xiaoxiao buy plane tickets. They would set off that afternoon to return to the Roman Country.

Erin planned to stay home for a couple more days. It was a rare trip back, so it was only natural for her to be a little homesick.

Before leaving, Zhang Ji decided to teach Erin the Little Five Elements Fist to give her a foundation.

He had promised Erin he would make her a special-grade member and teach her the Little Five Elements Fist, and he naturally wouldn’t go back on his word.

On the rooftop of Erin’s house, Zhang Ji demonstrated the Fist Skill while having Erin follow along and learn bit by bit. In the distance, Erin’s younger brother, Zor, was also mimicking the movements.

Zhang Ji didn’t mind. Teaching one or two more people was a trivial matter to him.

He wouldn’t even be too concerned if the Sect’s fighting techniques were leaked to the public.

The techniques were never the most important thing; talent was the key.

Even the best techniques were useless without a talented person to learn them.

"Your power generation is all wrong. Forget it, just practice with the video yourself."

After teaching her a few times, Zhang Ji completely lost his patience and just tossed the instructional video he’d recorded earlier to Erin, letting her learn on her own.

’I just don’t get it. Why can’t she learn something this simple, even after I’ve personally taught her five times?’

’Not getting it after one or two tries, I can understand. But by the third time, you should have basically mastered it, and by the fourth, you should at least be generating force correctly more than fifty percent of the time, right?’

Zhang Ji taught Erin five times, but her force generation was still a complete mess, as if she were still taming her own limbs.

’The threshold for the Little Five Elements Fist may be low, but it seems it’s not *that* low. She’ll still need to practice some basic fighting techniques to build a foundation,’ Zhang Ji mused.

Then, his attention was drawn to Zor, who was also practicing the Little Five Elements Fist next to Erin.

His stances were precise, his movements were on point, and his power generation was basically flawless. At least eighty percent of it was correct.

’Well now, looks like we’ve got a little genius on our hands.’

’The world isn’t lacking talented people, just the eyes to discover them.’

Zhang Ji felt that Zor’s talent was probably at the level of a direct disciple.

His only drawback was that he was a bit old, making it difficult to train him to B-rank. However, with the Five Elements Sect’s resources, becoming a C-rank Grandmaster before the age of thirty should be a piece of cake.

’I should extend an invitation. But at first, he can only be trained as an Inner Sect Disciple. I’ll gradually increase his resource allocation based on his performance later. I can’t give him the best treatment right from the start, or he might lose his drive.’

Around noon, Zhang Ji casually brought it up.

Knowing that Zhang Ji had an extraordinary background and was a wealthy boss, and now hearing he intended to train their son, Erin’s parents were naturally overjoyed.

Even living in a country with excellent social welfare, they still hoped for their children to be successful.

Now that their son had a special talent in this area, they would certainly support him.

Erin’s parents even asked Zhang Ji about things like club membership fees.

"There’s no membership fee. After signing the contract, we will cover all of his living and training expenses. However, until he’s thirty-five, all commercial income will need to be split with the club. The club takes a seventy-percent cut. After thirty-five, he can choose to renew his contract or leave the club," Zhang Ji said.

This was the new training model the Five Elements Sect had adopted.

It was no longer like the old days, with cruel rules like crippling a disciple’s martial arts if they chose to leave.

If you wanted to leave partway through, you just had to pay the penalty for breach of contract.

After all, the Sect couldn’t be expected to train you for nothing.

Of course, a contract like Zor’s, signing directly until the age of thirty-five, was still quite rare.

Other people couldn’t get a contract that long even if they wanted one!

It was only because Zor’s talent was truly excellent and worth nurturing that Zhang Ji was willing to give him such an opportunity.

"Seventy percent?"

Zor’s parents hesitated.

"Training at the club is very expensive. For a formally trained fighter, training expenses alone cost at least a million a year. Zor will receive special training, so it will be more than three million. But once he becomes a professional fighter, he can earn some money through the club’s commercial operations. Later, if he can become a Transcendent Level fighter, an annual income of over a hundred million won’t be difficult. The club taking a seventy-percent cut really isn’t that much," Zhang Ji explained.

"An annual income of over a hundred million! Even after the seventy-percent cut, that’s still thirty million..."

Money is a powerful motivator.

Especially for ordinary people.

"Since that’s settled, Erin, when you return to the club, bring your brother with you," Zhang Ji said, finalizing the matter.

...

On the three o’clock flight that afternoon, Zhang Ji sat in a window seat, with a soundly sleeping Bai Xiaoxiao beside him.

He had been running wild for a day and a night, buying a huge pile of things to ship back. He said they were for his fellow disciples, and he also bought something for Zhang Ji. However, he didn’t tell Zhang Ji what it was, saying he wanted to surprise him later.

Zhang Ji extended his left hand. As his thoughts shifted, the pattern of a ship appeared on his palm.

Before he left, he had checked on the situation inside the [Ark of Hope].

The corn had already ripened.

The cobs were huge, about a third larger on average than the corn from the experimental plot. The stalks were also generally bigger and taller, like small trees, and the yield was greater, with each plant producing three to five large ears of corn.

It is the nature of plants and animals in the wild to evolve into larger and more complex forms when resources are abundant.

This allows them to occupy more resources, gain the ability to face more complex environments, and secure a more stable ecological niche.

The [Ark of Hope] Ruins Realm accelerated the evolutionary speed of the plants within it and even enhanced them. This caused most of the plants grown inside to commonly exhibit Gigantification.

However, corn is self-pollinating. Under normal circumstances, planting other types of plants in here would require a medium like insects to better complete the growth and fruiting cycle.

Zhang Ji was tempted to go inside and pick an ear of corn to check it out, but he was on an airplane right now. If he entered, the spatial anchor point wouldn’t change. When he came out, the plane would be gone, and he’d be left hanging in mid-air. He would be truly speechless then.

Besides the farming, the only other thing on Zhang Ji’s mind right now was that cross-shaped weapon.

He didn’t know much about the cross itself. Or rather, back when he played the game, he had never bothered to learn much about any of the weapons.

In Ultimate Fighting, weapon strength was set to be relatively average, and they came with many strict usage conditions.

For fighters of A-rank and above, most weapons and equipment were of little significance.

Only fighters from the [Rationalist School] of the Profound Heart Stream would use weapons and engage in large-scale Alchemy Transformations and the like.

But even though the peak combat power of the [Rationalist School] was second to none, it was still widely considered by players to be the most underwhelming school.

Because it was a real money sink.

It cost several times more than other schools and required absurd logistics to maintain the weapons. It also had many weaknesses; things like ammunition consumption during a fight demanded strong logistical support.

An ordinary player could run their home base factory at full capacity, grinding for three days and three nights, only to deplete all their ammunition and related resources in a three-minute match. The equipment also had durability and was a real pain to repair.

On top of that, there was the hassle of upgrading. One upgrade meant retooling the entire production line and re-speccing the whole tech tree.

In a way, this school was designed specifically for whales. They were people with no time to level up who just wanted to log on and have some fun. The solution was simple: just pump money into it.

The developers even had a series of custom weapons designed for them. After paying, a "void-rift home-base airdrop" would be arranged, getting them into the top 100 on the leaderboards in minutes.

’Want to climb even higher?’

’Not gonna happen. Besides spending money, you also have to grind!’

The [Rationalist School] had so many flaws that Zhang Ji couldn’t help but rant about it internally for a good while.

Bringing his thoughts back to the present, Zhang Ji decided it was best not to investigate the mysteries of the cross for now.

After all, it was the weapon of a former A-rank master. He might not be able to handle it right now.

If he mishandled it, he could end up like those players who messed with antimatter Annihilation Bombs—wiping the map and resetting their home base to zero.

As a player, you could respawn, so you could be bold and reckless. The worst that could happen was starting over.

But now he was in a real world. Zhang Ji couldn’t help but be extra cautious and maintain a healthy dose of respect and fear.

...

「The next morning」

Zhang Ji and the others arrived back in Lanz.

After returning to the club, the first thing Zhang Ji did was go into the [Ark of Hope] and cut down all the corn.

He was worried the stalks would fall over and a new batch would sprout up.

He was already regretting scattering so many kernels.

Now he had enough corn to feed the entire club.

Afterward, Zhang Ji found someone to help him clear out a warehouse in the suburbs. He then opened a spatial passage to the Ruins Realm and threw out all the harvested corn.

The corn was still on the stalk, so he’d have to let the club members shuck it themselves.

He made a phone call, and Shen Han came over.

"Whoa, where did you get this corn? It’s huge! Why is it still on the stalk?" Shen Han asked in surprise.

"I got it from a private seller. It’s a special variety, harvested whole and air-freighted to keep it fresh. It’s like Yan Fruits and those other things—good for your body. Have some disciples come shuck it, then cook it up as a bonus for everyone," Zhang Ji said.

"Alright, I’ll go arrange it right away," Shen Han said with a nod.