He looked inside the bag, and there were only a pitiful 29 taels of silver left.
Damn, this money just doesn’t last.
I still haven’t learned Qinggong and Riding Skill; not sure if what’s left is going to cover it.
Just in case, better learn Qinggong first.
Xiao Jie had been looking forward to the high-flying Qinggong for a long time.
The Qinggong instructor was a tall, thin man named "Cloud Sparrow" Li Fei.
"Master, I would like to learn a Qinggong Skill, if I may."
Li Fei glanced Xiao Jie up and down and chuckled, "Why not? Got money? If you have money, of course you can."
A list of learnable skills popped up before his eyes, offering five basic Qinggong skills.
[Sudden Increase: Requirement 10 taels of silver, entry-level Inner Strength.
Qinggong Description: Leap into the air, jump up to 3 meters high, an additional meter for every 10 points of Agility. Consumes 8 Inner Power Value.]
[Swallow Three Water Dipping: Requirement: 15 taels of silver, entry-level Inner Strength.
Qinggong Description: Leap into the air, jump forward up to 9 meters (Agility × 0.3), when falling, can use a physical surface (including water) to jump again and choose a new direction, can perform up to three consecutive turns, each leap consumes 6 Inner Power Value.]
[Eight Steps to Catch a Cicada: Requirement: 20 taels of silver, entry-level Inner Strength.
Qinggong Description: Increases your moving speed by 80%, lasts for 8 seconds. Consumes 4 Inner Power Value per second.]
[Grass Flying: Requirement: 20 taels of silver, entry-level Inner Strength.
Qinggong Description: Makes you as light as a feather, increases your moving speed by 30%, and allows you to run quickly on objects where you normally couldn’t leverage, like blades of grass or water surfaces, consumes 3 Inner Power Value per second.]
Xiao Jie stared at these four Qinggong skills, lost in thought.
These four Qinggong skills clearly fell into two categories: Sudden Increase and Swallow Three Water Dipping were more like long jumps for crossing terrain.
Eight Steps to Catch a Cicada was purely for speeding up either to chase or flee.
Grass Flying was somewhere in between, allowed speeding and crossing terrain but was slightly inferior to the other skills.
Each of the four Qinggong had its strengths, and logically, learning any of them would be valuable.
But with limited silver, better to learn just one for now.
After much deliberation, he finally chose—Grass Flying!
This Qinggong allowed crossing terrain and speeding up, so it was a truly versatile Qinggong.
Plus, he would soon learn the Galloping Skill, and with both skills activated, it would be no worse than Eight Steps to Catch a Cicada, and even more enduring.
As for climbing heights, that could be handled with the Mountain Climbing Skill, slow though it might be, at least it solved the issue of having or not having the ability.
And because of items like the Earth Binding Talisman, Eight Steps to Catch a Cicada wasn’t as powerful as it seemed.
Instead, Grass Flying’s terrain-crossing effect was very useful.
"Master, I’d like to learn Grass Flying."
Whoosh, another 20 taels of silver gone...
A few minutes later, Xiao Jie walked out of the martial arts hall.
In just under an hour, he had spent a total of 70 taels of silver.
Looking at the three new martial arts in his Skill Bar, Xiao Jie was thrilled inside, money well spent.
Round it off, he too was practically a martial arts master in the real world now.
No gaming tonight, he had to experiment a bit and find that masterly feeling.
Checking his bag, oh no, not enough money for learning the Riding Skill. That needed 10 taels of silver, but now he had only just over 9 taels left.
Looks like he needed to figure out a way to make some silver.
At that moment, I Want to Be Immortal also came out of the martial arts hall.
"Feng, I’ve finished learning the skills, haha, I’m a martial arts master now too! But I’m running a bit low on money, I’m planning to spend a bit more; do you need any help topping up"
"Do you still have money?" Xiao Jie asked, surprised.
"I still have several hundred thousand; I’m planning to leave a few tens of thousands for living expenses and spend the rest."
A moment of top-up, a moment of joy, always top-up, always joy.
Compared to those past pay-to-win online games, where several hundred thousand would only get some top-grade equipment or something like fashion mounts in-game, spending that much here in this game actually lets you learn real martial arts.
Now, that’s what you call value for money.
Xiao Jie shook his head, "Just take good care of yourself; I’ll find my own ways to make money. Don’t forget you still need to buy a horse, not even sure if several hundred thousand will be enough."
Several hundred thousand sounds like a lot, but it’s just a few tens of taels of silver, not even enough to buy a warhorse.
It dawned on I Want to Be Immortal then, "Then Feng, I’m going to buy some gold. By the way, do you know anyone who sells gold?"
"I actually do know someone." Xiao Jie immediately sent the contact of Jin Fugui to I Want to Be Immortal. This guy being a professional merchant should be able to get some gold.
As for Xiao Jie himself, he headed straight for the auction house.
Top-ups are convenient and quick, but after all, not a long-term solution, even for a small tycoon like I Want to Be Immortal, this spree would leave him broke, and he would have to fend for himself afterward.
If one intends to play this game long-term, a sustainable way to make money is essential.
The simplest is hunting monsters for equipment to sell, but the biggest problem with this method is the high cost of hunting—various potions, food, equipment repairs often barely break even with the copper coins dropped by the monsters.
Occasionally a top-grade item is valuable, like the Asura Ghost Mask, Divine Wood Talisman he had, but he needed to keep those to enhance his personal strength, so this route wasn’t reliable.
Secondly, gathering materials, mining, herb collecting, skinning, gathering meat—collected materials can always sell for some money.