Three sets of zither techniques.

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Inside Woyou Valley.

As Yang Tang covered his ears and attempted to flee, the realization dawned that he had successfully captured the second of the four perfect voices—the most affectionate singing voice of the Flower Addict!

Indeed.

Yang Tang clutched his face, feeling somewhat speechless, yet he still sought out the Flower Addict and, as usual, learned the floral arts from her for the day.

Turning away, Yang Tang headed to the residence of Immortal Music and proceeded to learn the art of the zither.

On the road back from Woyou Valley to Xiaoyao Valley, Yang Tang encountered a venomous snake. He had not intended to kill it, but the beast attacked him unprovoked. Yang Tang’s evasion attribute activated, and after dodging, he was unexpectedly dragged into a formal combat scenario.

"Good, very good! I didn't expect it to be just as I estimated!"

In truth, Yang Tang had long been wondering if he could engage in random encounters with wild beasts—like bears or large snakes—while wandering. After all, similar events occurred in the plot lines involving the courtship of various maidens, but he had never found the opportunity to test it. He hadn't expected to bump into one today, and it turned out he really could enter combat mode. This way, as long as Yang Tang maintained a daily battle with a wild beast, there was no way his health, internal energy, attack, and defense stats wouldn't skyrocket.

While Yang Tang was excited, the venomous snake began spitting toxins. Upon smelling them, he felt nauseous and dizzy.

Secretly marveling at the snake's lethality, Yang Tang utilized Immortal Music’s "Purification" at the cost of zero strategy points, and his entire being immediately cleared. After dodging another bite from the snake, he seized the opportunity to counterattack. After grinding for three or four turns, he beat the snake to death.

Victory in battle: Health +9, Internal Energy +5, Attack +2, Defense +3!

"Are you kidding me? The reward is even higher than when I beat the senior brother!"

It was worth noting that Yang Tang would occasionally spar with his two senior brothers, Gu Yuexuan and Jing Ji, within Xiaoyao Valley, but the rewards for winning those spars were never as high as what he had just received from one venomous snake. It was enough to make it impossible to even get angry.

However, this also confirmed one thing from a different perspective: combat rewards were completely random and almost entirely unaffected by human intervention.

Most importantly, the maximum reward for a single battle was Health +9, Internal Energy +5, Attack +4, and Defense +4, though reaching that theoretical limit was impossible. Over ten battles, the average reward per fight was basically Health +5, Internal Energy +3, Attack +2, and Defense +1.5. If he fought one battle a day, that would be thirty battles a month, and the accumulated stats over time would be quite considerable.

Calculating it out, in one month, his health would increase by 150, internal energy by 90, attack by 60, and defense by 45. In half a year, that would be 900. And this was a conservative estimate; if his luck were slightly better, gaining a thousand health in half a year would not be strange at all.

Thus, Yang Tang adopted a two-day cycle: on the first day, he would practice basic skills or techniques and write a letter to someone he had met; on the second day, he would go out to fight a wild beast and then visit Woyou Valley. Repeating this pattern, he managed fifteen extra battles in a month and also finished learning the Flower Addict’s floral arts.

One day, while wandering by the lake, Yang Tang accidentally bumped into the Flower Addict, who was crying with flowers in her eyes. Upon asking, he learned that she had lost her "Yao Huang Fairy" peony!

Later, when visiting Woyou Valley again, the Flower Addict told Yang Tang that Ren Qingxuan would be attending the Luoyang Flower Festival. As long as he cultivated a good peony to enter the competition, he would be able to meet her in person.

Returning to Xiaoyao Valley, Yang Tang encountered Wuxiazi. The master asked him to demonstrate a few moves, stroked his beard, and said, "Hmm, not bad, not bad. Tang'er, your five basic skills—Lightness, Hardness, Softness, Hearing, and Vision—are all cultivated quite well. Today, I shall impart the Small Wuxiang Technique to you!"

The Small Wuxiang Technique had three effects: "Wuxiang" (imitate enemy techniques to counterattack, limited to the same type of martial arts), "Infinite Counterattack" (a progressive 60% chance to counterattack), and "Wunian" (restore 10% internal energy after a counterattack).

To Yang Tang, the Small Wuxiang Technique was only "not bad." After all, the Shaolin Nine Yang Technique’s effects were also stellar: protection and damage reduction by 5%, damage reflection by 25%, and restoring 5% health per turn with pure-yang energy. Between the two, one was a counter-attack type and the other a defensive type; it was truly hard to choose!

Adding in the somewhat mediocre Xiaoyao Heart Sutra and the Golden Goose Technique, these were all the internal arts Yang Tang currently possessed.

By the end of May, Yang Tang’s health and internal energy had both exceeded four thousand, so he converted one thousand of each. While wandering in Xiaoyao Valley, he stumbled upon the Zhenlong Chess Formation. After solving it, his comprehension increased by ten, bringing it to eighty, recovering from the drop to seventy he suffered after drinking with the Drunken Immortal.

"Songs of Sun, Moon, Stars, and Planets"
"Songs of Wind, Rain, Thunder, and Lightning"
"Songs of Wind, Flowers, Snow, and Moon"
"Songs of Joy, Anger, Sorrow, and Happiness"

Another month passed, and Yang Tang finally passed Immortal Music’s zither examination. From her, he learned three sets of zither techniques: "Sorrow, Joy, Parting, and Reunion," "Wind, Flowers, Snow, and Moon," and "The Four Great Beauties."

Back in his small hut in Xiaoyao Valley, Yang Tang lay on his bed and asked himself: Can these zither techniques be solidified into "Black Evil"?

"The match rate between the three sets of zither techniques and the skill solidification item is 95%. Do you wish to solidify them?"

"Why is it 95%? Shouldn't it be 100%?" Yang Tang asked in surprise.

"The five-string ancient zither does not perfectly match the six-string guitar!"

Yang Tang was almost furious at this answer. He knew that guitars could have five strings, or even eight or twelve. Had he known that five strings were the best match, he certainly would have changed the strings on Black Evil before entering the dreamscape, but it was too late now.

An even bigger problem was that in the world of *Heroes*, a technique set usually consisted of two moves, sometimes three. The three sets of zither techniques he learned each had three moves. Black Evil was an intermediate skill solidification item, and it seemed to only have three solidification slots, right?

"Can all three sets of zither techniques be solidified? Or can I only choose one?"

"All three sets can be solidified!"

"Huh?! Aren't there only three skill solidification slots?"

"There are three sets of skill solidification slots."

Yang Tang: "..."

"Do you wish to solidify?"

"Solidify! Solidify all of them!"

"Very well, solidifying all. Three sets, nine moves in total. Solidifying individual moves will consume 177.1 points of virtue or sin. All three sets will consume a total of 1,593.9 points of virtue or sin. Shall I deduct virtue or sin?!"

Thinking of his sin score, which had already exceeded ten thousand—and knowing that if he didn't use it, it would only accumulate further—Yang Tang frowned slightly. "Deduct the sin!"

"Very well, 1,593.9 points of sin have been deducted. Solidifying the three sets: 'Sorrow, Joy, Parting, and Reunion,' 'Wind, Flowers, Snow, and Moon,' and 'The Four Great Beauties.' Solidification time: 12 days in the dreamscape!"

"Current balance: 1,788.7 points of virtue, 8,429.6 points of sin!"

"Remaining skill solidification slots for Black Evil: 0."

With this, Yang Tang understood that all that remained was to wait.

The next day, Yang Tang was summoned before Wuxiazi and sparred with his senior and second senior brothers twice each. He won all of them, and finally, Wuxiazi imparted the advanced techniques: "Wuji Blade Technique," "Taiwang Four Divine Swords," and "Tianshan Six Solar Palms."

In the following months, with the absence of zither lessons, Yang Tang spent more time blacksmithing, still following his two-day cycle, continuously stacking his stats, keeping in touch with the martial artists he met at Jiang Tianxiong’s birthday banquet, visiting Woyou Valley to learn from the Seven Sages, and pairing it all with a wild beast battle. In this sporadic fashion, time reached October, when Wuxiazi’s traitorous junior brother, Xuanmingzi, appeared. The three disciples fought together against Xuanmingzi and barely managed to pass the trial.

In reality, however, Yang Tang, having cultivated the Golden Goose Technique to the tenth level paired with the tenth-level Dugu Nine Swords, already had the ability to slay Xuanmingzi; he was simply hiding his true strength.

In November, Yang Tang planned to accompany Danqing and the Scholar from the Seven Sages of Woyou to Hangzhou. Before departing, he privately took out fifty thousand coins and found Gu Yuexuan. "Senior Brother, I have a favor to ask!" As he spoke, he piled the fifty thousand coins in front of Gu Yuexuan.

"Junior Brother, this is..."

"I want you to help me buy something."

"Buy something?" Gu Yuexuan asked in surprise. "That doesn't require this much money, does it?"

"It does, it does! Because what I want to buy is a rare item that will arrive at our valley's shop in the next two days: the Ten-Thousand-Year Fleeceflower Root! That thing is worth at least twenty thousand, maybe even more, so please accept this fifty thousand and help me buy it when it arrives."

Gu Yuexuan hesitated for a moment, then nodded heavily. "No problem, Junior Brother, I agree."

Yang Tang breathed a sigh of relief. "With you handling it, Senior Brother, I can rest easy! But what about the Second Senior Brother..."

"Tang, I understand what you mean. I won't tell Jing Ji until I have handed the item to you."

"Thank you, Senior Brother!"

Half a day later, Yang Tang arrived in Yangzhou with Danqing and the Scholar. At the city gate, the three decided to go their separate ways, agreeing to meet at the Yichun Brothel at the hour of the Dog (7-9 PM) to seek an audience with the famous courtesan, Xiang'er.

Yang Tang parted ways with the others. He reached the tavern at the hour of the Monkey (3-5 PM), learned the rules from the waiter, bought all the liquor, delivered the Daqu to the local blacksmith, the Wu liquor to the Old Fisherman, and after running errands for the Huiquan liquor, Yang Tang received the reward for the delivery activity: "Hundred-Year Golden Ancient Peerless Wine."

After drinking the Golden Ancient Peerless Wine, Yang Tang’s internal energy increased by two hundred points—truly excellent. Next, he asked passersby for directions and found the location of Tang Bohu’s residence.

Of course, Yang Tang did not intend to break into the Tang residence to steal; rather, there was a treasure chest on the riverbank directly facing the entrance. He pried it open and found the "Mother-and-Son Swords" he had dreamed of.

Mother-and-Son Swords (Dual Weapons), Attack +70, Special Effect: "Combo."

With this, Yang Tang had obtained two out of the four items he desired: the Mother-and-Son Swords, Fuxi Armor, Turtle Statue, and the "Remnant Flower Treasure Tome"!

Golden Goose Technique (Level 10, v1.029): "Golden Goose Across the Sky" (permanently increases evasion by 20%), "Dusk Goose Flight" (movement range +1, action level +1), "Mid-Air Counterattack" (after dodging, increases attack by 30% and hit rate by 100%).

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