Chapter 21

Hao Qi's system was a game he played on Earth before he was transported, called Jin Yong Qunxia Zhuan. However, it was not the original Jin Yong Qunxia Zhuan but a mod created by a group of game enthusiasts who analyzed the source code and made their own expansion pack. This game combined the most classic fourteen novels by Jin Yong, including "Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils," "The Smiling, Proud Wanderer," and "The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber." The external and internal martial arts in the game were all from these fourteen novels.

Since this game was a mod created by enthusiasts, the difficulty was definitely much higher than the original version. It could be said that if not for experienced veteran players, choosing the highest difficulty would make it almost impossible to progress in the game, and they would be stuck, not because they couldn't find the plot triggers, but because the difficulty was too high.

Hao Qi, for this reason, was almost driven to smash his computer by the game's difficulty. However, he loved such martial arts games so much that he asked a hacker friend to modify the game content. His character template could learn twenty martial arts, twice as many as the original ten. Additionally, all the martial arts manuals did not require completing any plot, and they were already in his inventory. This was why he could choose martial arts after being transported.

Even so, Hao Qi still found the difficulty incredibly high, so he asked his hacker friend to add one more function: whenever his game character was killed by an NPC in the scene, he could automatically resurrect, and his attributes would significantly increase after resurrection. He wanted to experience the game's plot, not be tortured by NPCs. This was his original idea, and so... he was transported...

At this moment...

Hao Qi was surrounded by darkness. He knew an arrow had pierced his heart because he could clearly feel it. With his internal energy, he sensed the arrow penetrating his heart. He didn't know what was happening now. Was this what it felt like after death? Wasn't it supposed to be nothingness? This kind of death was truly terrifying...

Suddenly, Hao Qi heard music. This music triggered his distant memories from ten years ago, before he was transported. It was the music from the game, played during the most dramatic moments, such as when the protagonist awakens, challenges the six gods, or participates in the martial arts conference, facing all the martial arts experts from the fourteen novels...

Hao Qi immediately immersed himself in the system's perspective. Instantly, the system's perspective appeared in his consciousness. The system looked the same as before, with no apparent differences. The character template was still at full health and internal energy, with no negative status. It looked the same as before... No, there was a difference!

Hao Qi keenly noticed that the attributes for attack, defense, and lightness, which were originally for the character template, now showed different words, and there was a minus sign next to the words.

"What do 'Life,' 'Quality,' and 'Potential' mean?"

Hao Qi found that the three attributes originally for attack, defense, and lightness were now 'Life,' 'Quality,' and 'Potential,' all with a value of one hundred. The strangest part was that the plus sign for increasing attributes had now become a minus sign. What... was this?

Hao Qi pondered for a while and finally tried to subtract one point from 'Life.' Just this one point made him feel his body, yes, from the previous state of nothingness and darkness, he felt the existence of his physical body. Strangely, his heart felt a bit painful and itchy...

"Right, resurrection..."

Hao Qi suddenly remembered the attribute he had the hacker friend modify ten years ago when he was editing the game save, which was character resurrection. However, this was too fantastical. If the system was real, like the internal and external martial arts requiring cultivation, resurrection would also have restrictions and requirements, such as the three attributes he saw...

"Life, probably related to lifespan... Quality, referring to the body's external performance and internal energy? As for Potential, does it refer to the height of future achievements? Or the ease of learning martial arts?"

Hao Qi pondered the three attributes, considering their importance and what they represented. Considering his physical condition, he roughly understood what this meant... He was using his three most important attributes to exchange for his 'resurrection,' which was the feature he had modified in the game before being transported. After resurrection, he couldn't use it as freely as in the game, but it came with a huge cost, likely corresponding to his lifespan, current strength, and the limits of his future training and ultimate strength...

"If I want to resurrect and defeat this Wang Diao, my current strength must not decrease. The future strength limit should also not decrease, as I rely on the system to burst with internal energy. Who knows how much my strength limit is? If I have already reached my limit, decreasing it would be the same as weakening my strength, which is not acceptable. So... lifespan?"

Hao Qi looked at the 'Life' option and smiled to himself, with no hesitation, he directly subtracted thirty points from 'Life,' leaving seventy points. This was a thirty percent deduction of his lifespan. According to the average lifespan of 150 to 200 years in this world, he had just reduced his lifespan by fifty to sixty years, almost half a lifetime!

"I am already very lucky. What more could I want? To be able to resurrect once, no, from the looks of it, I can probably resurrect several times. This is my second life, and I can pursue my dreams. Even if I lose a few decades, what does it matter?"

Hao Qi laughed heartily, and this laughter echoed not only in his consciousness but also in reality, where his "corpse" slowly showed a smile.

Wang Diao was carefully checking Hao Qi's clothes and everything he had, even examining every coin. Suddenly, he saw the smile on Hao Qi's "corpse," which made him feel a chill down his spine. However, he only paused for a moment and continued his search. He was convinced that the internal energy martial arts manual must be on Hao Qi, as such a valuable item would not be hidden elsewhere. Moreover, the internal energy martial arts were vast and profound, and Hao Qi, being only at the internal energy stage, could not have memorized and destroyed it.

Based on this judgment, Wang Diao ambushed and attacked Hao Qi and was not in a hurry to leave. He was determined to obtain the internal energy martial arts as soon as possible.

However, just as he was carefully checking Hao Qi's wallet, Hao Qi's eyes suddenly opened. With one hand, he wrapped Wang Diao's hand that was touching his body and then applied force, causing Wang Diao to let out a muffled groan as his hand twisted and broke.

Wang Diao was shocked and immediately struck Hao Qi's lying body with his other hand. However, Hao Qi's other hand seemed to know the attack and met it head-on. With a loud thud, Wang Diao was thrown back several meters, while Hao Qi remained lying on the ground.

"What... Tai Chi to the extreme, Empty Brightness Fist to the extreme... and how did the Yi Jin Jing become level ten..."

Hao Qi opened his eyes and could clearly feel his wounds healing at an incredible speed. The black poison was being expelled from his body, and even the small amount remaining was being decomposed. The large hole in his heart was closing and healing, and his bones were regenerating. His injuries were completely healed within seconds, an effect that was terrifyingly exaggerated.

Not only that, Hao Qi was shocked to find that his character panel had two new martial arts skills: Tai Chi and Empty Brightness Fist, both at the extreme level, the highest possible. So when Hao Qi subconsciously attacked Wang Diao, his body naturally used the Tai Chi wrapping technique, which disabled Wang Diao's hand with just one strike. This was all done instinctively by Hao Qi.

Not only these changes, but the most astonishing was the continuous flow of powerful internal energy in Hao Qi's body. This internal energy was surging, as if it would inflate Hao Qi's body like a balloon. His Yi Jin Jing level had reached ten, and when the internal energy expanded, it felt as if it would burst his body. He felt his flesh and bones begin to move strangely, making him involuntarily stretch, lean back, and stretch his limbs. Strangely, when he made these movements, the surging internal energy began to circulate in his body, and with each cycle, the amount of internal energy decreased, but its quality became more condensed...

Finally, Hao Qi noticed a countdown on his character panel for the three martial arts: level ten Yi Jin Jing, extreme Tai Chi, and extreme Empty Brightness Fist. The countdown was ticking down, with over a hundred seconds remaining.

(Should I say the system, no, reality is fair? The lifespan I deducted must have been more than enough, not only to heal my injuries but also to convert the excess into temporary strength. I wonder, if there was excess, why not return the lifespan to me? Or convert it into permanent strength?)

Hao Qi complained with a sense of happiness. This was truly an unexpected joy. Although he had consumed thirty percent of his lifespan, and this would likely reduce his future lifespan by thirty percent, even if he achieved the internal energy stage and his lifespan increased significantly, it would still be thirty percent less than a normal internal energy practitioner. However, this was already enough to be surprising.

Firstly, he had a second chance at life, and life is priceless. Without life, all dreams are just illusions. He didn't want to die; he wanted to see the world. Before achieving this goal, he didn't want to die. So, even with a thirty percent reduction in lifespan, being able to live again was already a great thing.

On the other hand, he would face many challenges and dangers in his travels. Most importantly, he had a proud and chivalrous spirit, like when he faced Wang Diao, which would put him in more dangerous situations. This system's option to use life, quality, and potential to enhance strength, even if only temporarily, could help him survive certain deadly crises. As long as he was alive, life had infinite possibilities. Although life, quality, and potential were fixed and could not be increased after use, having this option was already very valuable...

"Do you know the weight of life?" Hao Qi stopped stretching and looked at the old, seemingly dying Wang Diao.

Wang Diao was in a mix of shock, suspicion, anger, and fear. He frowned and stared at Hao Qi but said nothing.

Hao Qi didn't expect an answer and continued, "The weight of life is not about living a few more decades, fifty years, or even a hundred years. If you live like you do, only thinking about how to survive another day, or building a family of waste, blaming your descendants for not being good, and killing them all, what is the point of such a life? Even if you live for a thousand years, it would be like a living dead. Your life... has no weight at all!"

Wang Diao sneered, "How laughable. You boast about your hundred-year lifespan. Not to mention that, I never expected you to have a technique to stimulate life potential, a treasure even more precious than internal energy martial arts... It seems I have no choice but to kill you. Blame your many good things. And let me give you a piece of advice: when you use a technique to stimulate potential, you should run away immediately. Otherwise, in just a few seconds, you will be exhausted. Ha ha ha... Die!"

As he spoke, Wang Diao pounced. He had only one good hand, which he formed into a palm and struck down at Hao Qi. It felt like a wall of stone, though only the size of a palm, the momentum and the downward pressure were overwhelming. Hao Qi might not know, but this was Wang Diao's famous Rock Palm, as solid as a rock, unbreakable. Despite his crazy behavior, he had spent over a hundred years perfecting this palm, making it beyond the peak of mastery. A simple palm strike seemed ordinary but was a formidable attack, even for a