"What was the matter with you just now?"
On the way out of the cave, Xu Qing was a little curious.
"Tired."
Yang Ling said offhandedly.
"Fair enough — digging away all day, how could you not be tired?"
Xu Qing felt the ache in his arm muscles and thought he'd have to cultivate the Shanhe Heart Method tonight to ease it.
He said goodbye to Yang Ling and strolled openly out of the vein.
Steward Niu acted as if he hadn't seen him, and didn't ask him for any Fire Crystal Ore.
"Yang Ling, thirteen catties of Fire Crystal Ore? You're getting faster and faster."
Steward Niu took out some silver beans, weighed them to confirm one tael three, and handed them to Yang Ling.
"Practice makes perfect."
Yang Ling accepted the silver with a smile.
He'd spent five taels on the Mountain-Crushing Fist before, leaving him three-odd taels in hand.
With this one tael three, he'd again scraped together the money for an identity.
After Yang Ling left, Steward Niu felt a pang of feeling.
"That great personage's standing is even higher than Senior Brother Wang Jing's, yet he's on such familiar terms with Yang Ling. He really is a scion of the Yang family."
***
In the wooden hut, Yang Ling's mind was still on the Divine Realm ranking.
"The Warrior Monk that Huiwu changed into must be one of the classes built into Bitter Enlightenment Temple."
"But I'm not a sect disciple — what could I change into?"
"Ore Master? There's probably no such class."
"A class change must bring benefits — either an attribute boost, or some special abilities."
"Suppose I were Level 10 and met a Level 10 player who'd already changed class; the odds are he'd be a good deal stronger than me."
"So I have to change class. I'm only one level from 10..."
Yang Ling was a little troubled; he knew nothing about class changes.
At the same time, he worried that once he hit Level 10, he'd be exposed on the Divine Realm ranking.
"Yang Ling, you in?"
Zhang Wei's voice came from outside the door.
Yang Ling rose and opened it.
Zhang Wei slipped in at once, his expression somewhat grave:
"You've heard about the Divine Realm ranking, right?"
"I have."
Yang Ling nodded.
"It means there are no small number of players like us!"
Zhang Wei murmured: "Take that Huiwu — leveling so fast. It shows joining a sect is our ultimate destination."
At that, he suddenly looked up at Yang Ling:
"About the class change, do you have any guesses?"
"You must've played plenty of games before?"
Yang Ling asked in return.
Zhang Wei nodded thoughtfully:
"I have. Every game with class changes makes them extremely important. Most have a dozen-odd classes; some even have dozens. Each comes with its own class bonuses."
"We've already confirmed 「Divine Realm」 has a Warrior Monk class."
Yang Ling nodded: "But no one's changed into the other classes yet, so we can only guess. My bet is there'll be bandit, thief, Daoist, physician, apothecary — classes like that."
"..."
Zhang Wei's expression turned a little odd:
"What are you scheming?"
"What could I be scheming? Don't forget, I'm a miner now — a vagrant, at that."
Yang Ling rolled his eyes:
"Some players are just born lucky; we can't compare. All we can do is dig deep in the field we're good at. My field is mining, so I just mine and level up as much as I can."
"You mine so fast — what level are you really?"
Zhang Wei asked instinctively.
Yang Ling was silent a few breaths, then said mildly:
"Higher than you, for sure. I'm Level 6."
"Level 6? That's about right. I'll be Level 4 soon; him being two and a half levels above me makes sense."
Zhang Wei's face eased somewhat.
He didn't think Yang Ling would lie to him — if the man had claimed Level 8 or 9, he wouldn't have believed it.
After Zhang Wei left, Yang Ling went back to practicing the fist art.
A class change was out of the question for now, so he wouldn't dwell on it.
Working hard to raise his base attributes was the proper path.
As dawn neared, Yang Ling began cultivating the Vajra Wisdom King Art.
One session, and not only was his fatigue swept away, his experience rose 5 points too.
"45 now. Not far from 100."
"But this time my Spirit is 1 point higher than before, and yet the experience gain doesn't seem to have changed much..."
"No — there should be a change; it's just small, hard to notice!"
"When I practiced the fist art last night, the proficiency gain seemed a touch faster, though not obviously..."
To verify this, he decided to keep leveling up.
To add a few more points of Spirit.
If Spirit sped the gain of proficiency and experience, all the better.
If it didn't, no loss either.
It was surely a threshold for cultivating certain higher arts; raising it couldn't hurt.
At Cave No. 1.
As with the day before, Xu Qing followed him all the way.
The two chatted off and on.
Yang Ling noticed Xu Qing dug especially hard today too.
He watched a while, then went back to his own work.
After digging several shichen, Huineng and Wang Jing came by once midway.
Seeing Cave No. 1 covered in signs of digging, dozens of miners hard at work.
Huineng gave a slight nod:
"We've troubled the Shanhe Sect this time."
"It's nothing, nothing."
Wang Jing grinned.
After they left, Yang Ling went on digging with focus.
Once it was dark, he returned to his hut to practice his art and technique.
You could say that all twenty-four hours of the day, aside from eating, drinking, and relieving himself, he was grinding experience and proficiency.
A few days later.
Yang Ling slowly wound down his cultivation and glanced at the attribute panel — mainly the proficiency and experience.
「Vajra Wisdom King Art: 60/100」
「Mountain-Crushing Fist: 87/1000」
"Another eight days and the Vajra Wisdom King Art reaches First Glimpse."
"As for my level... I should hit Level 10 today too."
Yang Ling's heart burned a little.
Everything was steadily improving.
Compared with when he first entered 「Divine Realm」, his ability to protect himself had risen more than tenfold.
Once he mastered Layer One of the Vajra Wisdom King Art, he'd no longer fear the likes of Wu Que.
"Right."
Yang Ling's mind stirred; he opened the Divine Realm Level Ranking:
【Divine Realm Level Ranking】
【001: Huiwu of Bitter Enlightenment Temple — Level 10, Class: Warrior Monk】
【002: Luo Kai of the Star-Gazing Academy — Level 10, Class: Novice Scholar】
【003: Qi Kai of Dead Man's Valley — Level 10, Class: Medical Apprentice】
【004: ???】
"Two more reached Level 10 and changed class successfully?"
"Wait — could it be that this ranking only shows those who've successfully changed class?"
"If so... it means many players may already be Level 10, but can't get on the ranking because they haven't changed class?"
A guess rose in Yang Ling's mind.
At the same time, he committed two more classes to memory.
Novice Scholar, Medical Apprentice.
"The Novice Scholar is probably a scholarly path? The Medical Apprentice has to do with medicine..."
"They could change class because the places they're in have the conditions for it."
"By this reckoning, I can't change class anytime soon."
"Unless I find a chance to join a great sect too..."
"Level up first. If my level's high enough, a class-change opportunity will come naturally."
Yang Ling gripped the refined steel pick at his waist and left the hut.
But he'd barely reached the vein entrance when he found the mood today was different from yesterday.
"You're a little late today."
Zhang Wei stepped slowly up:
"It's over. That master has left, so I'll be leaving the vein today too, to find work in Qingshan City."
"Isn't mining and leveling up just fine?"
Yang Ling smiled faintly.
Zhang Wei sneered: "「Divine Realm」 is a jianghu. To survive here, mining alone isn't enough. What future is there in being a miner? I'll find work that gives more experience — and clearly, the big chances are all in Qingshan City."
With that, he waved a hand and made his carefree exit.