Chapter 542 Ranger, Martial Arts Proficiency

Qi Suian killed the tiger. The news spread quickly among the refugees, and Qi Suian’s reputation grew continuously.

The title “Tiger-Slaying Hero” was bestowed upon him, and he officially became the most prestigious person among the refugees.

Because of his reputation, certain individuals took the opportunity to quickly organize the refugees and made him their leader.

The chaos was finally suppressed. Although they hadn’t reached a state of complete unity, at least the group would no longer descend into turmoil over trivial matters.

Qi Suian also used this opportunity to build his fame while perfecting the Second Realm: Ranger.

The Divine Technique he acquired was called “Peerless Martial Skill.” As long as he obtained the corresponding martial arts manual, he could master it in an extremely short time and even had the ability to innovate upon it.

This meant that by using the seven martial arts he already knew as a foundation, he could use this Divine Technique to deduce countless more.

However, they were just martial arts, lacking sufficient Extraordinary power.

In addition, it came with certain survival instincts, allowing Qi Suian to keenly identify medicinal herbs, poisons, weather patterns, and more in the wilderness.

This Divine Technique was useless to Qi Suian. The knowledge in his head was more effective and comprehensive.

However, it could be used as a cover, providing a plausible explanation for the optimized martial arts Qi Suian had granted his survivor avatar.

If all went as planned, the Third Realm should allow his martial arts to become Extraordinary, possessing an effect similar to the Martial Dao.

This was assuming his path didn’t go astray. After all, Qi Suian was improvising based on real-time data.

If a more suitable option appeared, he would naturally choose the better one.

Moreover, he discovered that fame itself seemed to be a form of cultivation.

After he became the Tiger-Slaying Hero, a unique power began to cling to him.

This power was similar to the Scholarly Qi of the Confucian Family. The difference was that Scholarly Qi was accumulated through reading and writing, while he obtained his through fame.

Qi Suian temporarily named it “Renown.” If he could use this Renown to enhance his martial arts, he could gain an augmentation similar to that of inner strength or True Qi.

The martial arts themselves were ordinary, with nothing Extraordinary about them, but Renown could grant them special effects.

After experimenting, he found that expended Renown would replenish on its own, but only as long as he still possessed his prestige and fame.

If his prestige and fame were to fall, his maximum Renown would decrease as well.

‘This is the perfect ability for a rebellion,’ Qi Suian couldn’t help but remark inwardly.

This was precisely why he had chosen to build up his fame in the first place.

The factor of Renown also made Qi Suian hesitate about whether to transform his martial arts into the Martial Dao in the Third Realm, or to delve deeper into the energy system of Renown.

Theoretically, sticking to the original plan was correct; he had always pursued the path of individual power.

But Qi Suian was thinking of forging a new path, using individual power to achieve collective power.

And Renown was the foundation.

The fastest way to increase and accumulate Renown, then, was undoubtedly to rebel.

But not yet. He couldn’t be the first to raise the banner of rebellion; it would be too conspicuous, and he would definitely be targeted.

His role was not to be the instigator, but to be a responder.

Therefore, before that could happen, he had to complete the necessary preparations in Liu Xing City. At the very least, he needed to break through to the Third Realm and grasp an Extraordinary power with real killing potential.

“Boss Qi, the crowd has settled down. No need to worry about any trouble,” a somewhat thin man walked over and said. “At our pace, we should reach Liu Xing City in three days at most.”

The man’s name was Jiang Peng. He was a former shop assistant who had been lucky enough to survive the struggle for the Daoist Lineage in Guiyun City.

After Qi Suian killed the tiger, he was the first to step up and manage the situation, even helping to spread Qi Suian’s fame.

He was a clever man, but also incredibly ambitious.

Don’t be fooled by Jiang Peng helping him; he was actually just thinking of using Qi Suian’s reputation to build up his own strength.

The world was already descending into unstoppable chaos. Even as a mere shop assistant, he could see the changes happening in society.

All that was missing now was someone to raise the flag of rebellion.

Jiang Peng hoped that person would be Qi Suian, so he could then ride his coattails to power.

It was a good idea, but difficult to execute. So, he wasn’t in a hurry. For now, he would just act as Qi Suian’s underling.

If worst came to worst, just getting a meal out of it would be fine too.

That’s right, the gap between Jiang Peng’s ambitions and his bottom line was just that vast.

His ceiling was to vie for supremacy over the world, while his floor was just to have a full stomach.

“I’ll leave it to you, then.” Qi Suian understood the man’s intentions but didn’t expose them. In the Daoist World, such petty schemes were meaningless. Strength was what mattered.

“We are refugees. There’s a good chance we won’t even be able to enter Liu Xing City.”

“Even if we get inside, we’ll be powerless and without connections—like rootless duckweed. We’ll definitely be bullied.”

“We’re all from Guiyun City. If you go back eight or ten generations, we’re practically family. So I was thinking, could we establish a mutual aid society?”

“That way, we won’t be helpless when people try to bully us in the future.”

“If no one will back us up, we’ll back ourselves up,” Qi Suian said, briefly explaining his idea to Jiang Peng.

A glint flashed in Jiang Peng’s eyes. He had long had this idea, but the conditions hadn’t been right to implement it.

If they tried to do it now, many people would resist, even with Qi Suian being the Tiger-Slaying Hero.

It would be more appropriate to form the group after they were bullied and shared that common experience.

But since Qi Suian had brought it up now, he didn’t refuse.

“Boss Qi, that idea is brilliant!” Of course, Jiang Peng wasn’t going to say he’d already thought of it. Instead, he acted as if such a solution had never even crossed his mind.

Then, he added with a troubled expression, “But to establish a mutual aid society, I’m afraid we’ll need your help, Boss Qi.”

“I’m just a nobody. I can run errands for you, Boss Qi, but if you really want me to do it, how could I possibly compare to you?”

This was just him trying to pass the buck, thinking of how to use Qi Suian’s reputation on a deeper level to expand his own influence.

The man wanted to borrow the hen to lay his own eggs; Qi Suian saw it clearly.

So, he very decisively… agreed to let the man borrow his reputation.

He was just staring at the eggs. Qi Suian was different. Afterward, he would make the man pay for the feed, take back both the hen and the eggs, and leave him saddled with a huge debt.

Qi Suian wanted fame. The other man wanted to borrow his fame. This meant that if the man wanted his own plans to succeed, he would have to expand Qi Suian’s fame.

And wouldn’t that directly increase Qi Suian’s strength?

Once the man had served his purpose, Qi Suian would reassign him. The kid was sharp; he could handle many different positions.

After squeezing every last drop of value out of him, it wouldn’t be too late to dispose of him.

With Qi Suian’s permission, the joy on Jiang Peng’s face was about to overflow.

The man was too young, his emotional control lacking. Fortunately, he realized his mistake and quickly offered a cover-up explanation.

He claimed he was just happy for Qi Suian.

After saying this, he hurried away to avoid any more slip-ups.

‘This kid… I wonder if he can get things done.’ Qi Suian wanted to increase his Renown, so of course, he couldn’t do it himself. He planned to use methods like propaganda and advertising—marketing.

Combined with his own hard power, it wouldn’t be a case of “image is for reference only”—it would be the real deal.

‘Looks like I need to scout a few more ambitious and capable people to be my underlings.’

Qi Suian’s thinking was simple. One ambitious and capable person could create an imbalance and usurp his authority.

But if it was a group of them, things would be simple. Just let them compete with each other.

Besides, as long as they were smart, they would know to keep the competition constructive. They would continuously strengthen themselves to enhance their own power base.

Jiang Peng was one such person, but he was still a bit green and needed some polishing before he could meet Qi Suian’s standards.

Besides him, Qi Suian had to keep looking. The more of these talented people, the better. The more ambitious they were, the more Qi Suian liked it.

After all, if you’re ambitious, how could you be content with just a corner of the world?

‘For something like this, it has to be a deus ex machina.’

How could a mere survivor avatar have such foresight? Only the real Qi Suian did.

However, doing so could also lead to extremely severe consequences. One misstep, and he would draw fire upon himself.

That’s why Qi Suian needed sufficient strength; otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to keep them in check.

As for relying on special abilities? That was an option, but it was too troublesome. Direct, hard power was the fundamental solution.

Then, he turned his attention back to his Second Realm Divine Technique, Peerless Martial Skill.

‘I need to integrate a set of useful martial arts, something that can let me stand against a hundred men in the Second Realm, at least.’

As Qi Suian pondered, he mobilized his Renown, which performed real-time calculations to deduce the most suitable set of martial arts.

After incorporating the Martial Dao concepts of Ancient Martial Techniques, the Renown flowed and continuously formed an ox-like stream of energy with a single eye, a white head, and a snake’s tail.

It had no actual physical form but possessed special effects.

The humble appearance of plain cloth somehow concealed its Extraordinary power.

“I’ll temporarily name it ‘Fei Martial Arts’ for now.” As Qi Suian spoke, he threw a punch. The Renown transformed into a fist strike, casually leaving a fist print on the stone in front of him.

At the same time, a spiderweb of cracks spread out from around the fist print.

‘The power boost from Renown is… just average, I guess.’

‘I’ll see how it enhances martial arts in the Third Realm.’

‘I need to set aside some energy to study this. I have a feeling this Renown is something special.’

‘It might be related to the very source of the Daoist Lineages.’

Qi Suian was actually thinking that Scholarly Qi, incense offerings, and the Renown he had acquired might all be related to the fundamental nature of the Daoist Lineages.

Because most of his energy was focused on digesting the world, studying how to be a world, and other such matters, his attention on the survivor avatar’s situation was limited.

Otherwise, how could he be unaware of so many things? With his power, he was fully capable of thought-tampering, cognitive modification, and so on; he just didn’t feel it was worth the effort.

The survivor avatar was more like a remote-controlled car. It was great if it was useful, but if not, it was just a large toy. It couldn’t really affect Qi Suian’s grand scheme.

It was only because he encountered information of value related to the Daoist World this time that Qi Suian was willing to expend extra energy to help this survivor avatar.

As for the deus ex machina and outside interference, how much could that really cost?