The entrance to the mine was surrounded by quite a few miners, making it look very lively.
"Everyone, please remain calm. I know you won't have money to eat if you don't mine, but who told you not to save up some copper coins?"
Steward Niu tucked his hands into his sleeves and said unhurriedly,
"There is a slight problem with the mine right now, so it needs to be sealed off for a period of time until the big shots of the Mountain River Sect come to make a decision. If you guys want to enter the Fire Crystal Mine at a time like this, aren't you just marching straight into the line of fire?"
The big shots of the Mountain River Sect?
The miners who were originally making a fuss instantly quieted down.
"Scatter now."
Steward Niu waved his hand.
The miners looked at each other and could only leave dejectedly.
"What should we do!? We already went hungry for a day yesterday. If we still can't mine today, won't we have to go hungry for another day?"
Lin Guoliang looked at Chen Xu, his face pale:
"I can endure hunger, but Mengmeng can't."
Wu Meng looked somewhat weak.
Chen Xu's expression was somewhat grave. He knew something must have gone wrong inside the mine.
He didn't know when the seal would be lifted.
"There's no other way, we can only..."
He caught sight of Yang Ling.
Chen Xu gritted his teeth and hurried forward:
"Brother Yang, can you lend us some more money? We haven't been able to go down the mine for the past few days, and we're at our wits' end..."
Lin Guoliang and Wu Meng's eyes lit up, and they immediately crowded forward.
"How many days have you been hungry?"
Yang Ling smiled and asked.
Chen Xu gave a wry smile: "We didn't eat at all yesterday."
"I do have some dry rations here. You guys can take them to tide yourselves over. I estimate it should be about ready in another two or three days."
Yang Ling divided six of his flatbreads and gave them to Chen Xu.
Chen Xu was overjoyed at once.
Wu Meng subconsciously said, "These flatbreads are hard and unyielding. I ate them once, and they weren't tasty at all."
"You're already starving, and you still care whether it tastes good or not?"
Yang Ling smiled and said, "It fills you up better than steamed buns."
With that, Yang Ling turned and left.
Since he couldn't go down the mine, he could only continue grinding the Proficiency of the Mountain-Crushing Fist.
At that moment, Chen Xu distributed the flatbreads to Lin Guoliang and Wu Meng. As he took a bite, he said,
"Brother Yang is a good person. Among so many miners, he's the only one who has stepped up to help us twice."
Lin Guoliang took large bites of the flatbread and said,
"No matter how good he is, he's still just an NPC. Here, we still have to rely on ourselves."
Chen Xu glanced at him sideways and suddenly asked casually,
"Have you guys noticed anything unusual with your bodies these past two days?"
"Unusual? My stomach hurts a bit from lack of food."
Lin Guoliang said instinctively.
Wu Meng: "The bedboards here are too hard. I miss my Simmons mattress."
"..."
Chen Xu subconsciously clenched his fists.
He discovered that the day before the mine was sealed, his strength had inexplicably increased a lot.
"A warm current had surged within my body at that time, and the increase in strength should be related to it."
"Does this count as leveling up from mining? Lin Guoliang and Wu Meng have been slacking off and secretly loafing around lately, which is why they haven't leveled up yet?"
"Should I tell them about this..."
Chen Xu felt somewhat hesitant in his heart.
"Chen Xu, we don't know how long the mine will be sealed. You should catch up and borrow some more copper coins from that NPC. Wu Meng and I haven't had a good meal in a long time. I want to have a good meal with her tonight."
Lin Guoliang said.
Forget it, I won't say anything.
Chen Xu turned around and left:
"If you want to borrow money, go borrow it yourself."
"Tch, what are you putting on airs for."
Lin Guoliang furrowed his brow slightly.
...
Outside the Miner Village, there was a very eye-catching courtyard.
That was Supervisor Wu's residence.
Seeing Zhang Wei walk out from inside looking ecstatic, Yang Ling knew that this fellow had bought a formal identity.
The other party was no longer a vagrant.
"Zhang Wei's Zhang Family Leg Technique is also only at Entry. I wonder what his Proficiency is, and how many points he lacks from reaching Initial Mastery?"
Yang Ling's thoughts stirred slightly.
At that moment, Zhang Wei also saw Yang Ling looking at him motionlessly, and his heart immediately felt a bit guilty.
But the moment he thought of his identity as a law-abiding citizen, he immediately puffed out his chest, walked up to Yang Ling, and smiled:
"Yang Ling, I am no longer a vagrant; I've been registered into the household registry of Green Mountain City. Tomorrow, I'll be leaving to find work in Green Mountain City."
"Oh, then congratulations. But shouldn't you give me an explanation?"
Yang Ling said indifferently.
"What explanation?"
Zhang Wei feigned ignorance.
"The cultivation threshold for the Mountain-Crushing Fist requires 8 points of Strength and 3 points of Spirit."
"At that time, you only mentioned the threshold for Strength and didn't say a single word about Spirit."
Yang Ling said.
"Is that so? That's probably because I forgot."
Zhang Wei smiled and said, "Rest assured, once your Mental Strength improves in the future, you'll be able to cultivation the Mountain-Crushing Fist."
"My Mental Strength happens to be 3 points, so I've already learned the Mountain-Crushing Fist."
Yang Ling said.
Zhang Wei froze for a moment, then looked at Yang Ling in disbelief:
"Why is your Mental Strength 3 points? How come I only..."
He immediately shut his mouth and didn't continue speaking.
Yang Ling smiled and said, "I should even thank you for enabling me to become a Martial Artist."
"Damn it, why is this fellow's Mental Strength so high? By what right does he have 2 more points than me?"
Zhang Wei cursed inwardly, and then he said indifferently:
"Since that's the case, what else are you looking for me for?"
"It's about the matter of Proficiency."
Yang Ling scanned his surroundings vigilantly:
"Right now, there are only you and me as the two players in the mine. You previously said you had information to share—could it be that it doesn't count anymore?"
"Proficiency? As long as you slowly cultivation this, it will increase."
Zhang Wei's expression stirred:
"When you cultivation the Mountain-Crushing Fist, how long does it take for 1 point of Proficiency to increase?"
"About... ten hours."
"Ten hours? The same as me?"
Zhang Wei said thoughtfully:
"Initial Mastery requires 100 points of Proficiency, right?"
"Right."
Yang Ling nodded, but in his heart, he cared very much about what Zhang Wei had just said.
The other party only gained 1 point of Proficiency every ten hours?
"I am ten times his rate. Wait... is it a problem with Mental Strength?"
Yang Ling suddenly realized.
At first, he didn't know what Mental Strength was useful for.
Later, he discovered it was related to the threshold for cultivating martial arts.
Now it seemed... perhaps the growth speed of Proficiency and Experience Points for Martial Techniques and cultivation techniques might all be related to Mental Strength?
"In other words... as long as I add points to my Mental Strength, whether it's the Proficiency of Martial Techniques or the Experience Points of martial arts Mental Methods, they can all be vastly improved in the future..."
Thinking of this, Yang Ling felt somewhat impatient.
Once the mine opened, he wanted to test whether his conjecture was right or wrong!
"That's right. If I only sleep two or three hours a day, I can barely increase 2 points of Proficiency. In just 50 days, I can reach the level of Initial Mastery, and by then Martial Techniques can amplify our strength."
Zhang Wei said: "However, it's impossible for a person to only sleep two or three hours, so practicing martial arts for 10 hours a day is more reasonable."
"That means in about a hundred days, one can cultivation a Martial Technique to the level of Initial Mastery."
Speaking of this, he glanced at Yang Ling and smiled:
"Considering that you saved me back then, I'll share another piece of information I just recently obtained with you."
"Oh? What information?"
Yang Ling was somewhat curious.
Zhang Wei smiled: "I just gave a Mine Guard a small benefit and inquired about matters concerning Martial Techniques."
"With ordinary Aptitude, cultivating a low-level Martial Technique to Initial Mastery takes at least a year."
"So we are actually Geniuses."
"Genius..."
Yang Ling said thoughtfully.
That being said, the existence of Proficiency could indeed allow players to master Martial Techniques much faster.
Even if Zhang Wei only had 1 point of Mental Strength, he was still much more formidable than ordinary people.
It only took him four or five days to cultivation the Mountain-Crushing Fist to Initial Mastery.
If one really had to talk about a genius, perhaps he was the true genius.