Chapter 17 (1/2)
Chapter 17: The Mystery of the Ring of Earth
Yue Qiang left the place and arrived in front of the entrance of the village elder’s small house. He pushed open the door and entered, and was surprised to see the teacher Chen Zi Han inside.
As it turned out, Chen Zi Han was the village elder of Yue Village.
After acquiring the dialogue system Yue Qiang hadn’t had the chance to talk with Chen Zi Han. Now that he ran into him, Yue Qiang quickly tapped out the dialog box and gave a few polite informalities.
“So it was you, Mr. Chen! This kid has truly been disrespectful for not paying a visit during the past few days. I have gone out of the village today, and it was all thanks to your sliver of refined energy that I managed to complete the quest. This kid feels the utmost grat.i.tude and admiration towards Mr. Chen inside his heart.”
It took him a ridiculously long time to type in every compliment that he could think of before replying. Chen Zi Han stroked his beard with great satisfaction and a rather pleased look before he replied,
“And then? Is that it?”
Yue Qiang blanked out for a second, “I beg your pardon?”
“Is that all you’ve got to say?”
Yue Qiang was dumbstruck. So this old man hadn’t enjoyed enough of the compliments and wanted to hear more…
He quickly changed the subject and jumped straight to business, “Teacher is most wise. Anyway, today I have gone downhill and killed an enemy, and I have seized a piece of letter especially for your reading. May teacher lend me your wisdom?”
“May teacher lend me your wisdom’ was a sentence that Yue Qiang learned while playing games. It was a very complimentary and traditional way of speech that roughly meant, ‘What do you think, Yuan Fang?’ (T/N: A quote from the Chinese TV show, ‘Young Sherlock’ that evolved into a popular troll-like net term). Yue Qiang had thought that since the game was so realistic, he would say whatever that inflates the ego the best.
As expected Chen Zi Han was extremely satisfied upon hearing his words, and he received the letter before giving it a thorough read. Then, sighing pretentiously, a dialog box appeared beneath his avatar as he said,
“Do you know why the Zhao Army attacked our Yue Village?”
“This kid does not understand.”
“It is all for the ‘Ring of Earth’.” The teacher Chen Zi Han sighed again, “The Ring of Earth is a treasure under our protection for tens of years when it was pa.s.sed to me. However, the Zhao State’s national strength is so powerful now that I am afraid our village may not be able to protect it any longer.”
This was the first time Yue Qiang heard someone bring up the term ‘Ring of Earth’ after he read the letter. Therefore he asked, “This kid has learned late (T/N: A polite self-reference that means that he is lacking in knowledge). May I fearfully request to hear the wondrous purpose of this Ring of Earth?”
Chen Zi Han did not answer and asked instead, “Do you know why everyone in our village – except you that is – has such strong const.i.tution?”
Caught by surprise, Yue Qiang gave the thought a moment and realized that it was indeed the case. Be it the teacher Chen Zi Han, the blacksmith Tan Xiong, or the girl living in the giant crossbow log house Gongshu Shaoyang; they all had high strength and const.i.tution. At first he thought that the game’s stats were set to twice the value of the average stat in the real world, but he changed his mind when he saw the Zhao soldier.
All of the Zhao soldier’s stats were quite similar to his, and the reason he reached an average high of 15 stats was because of the buff provided by the military skill ‘Well Trained’.
When Yue Qiang arrived at this point of thought he suddenly came to a realization. Could it be that this treasure called the ‘Ring of Earth’ actually had the ability to increase a person’s stats permanently?
Seeing that Yue Qiang was deep in thought for a very long time, the village elder Chen Zi Han finally explained, “The Ring of Earth cannot directly increase a person’s ability around it. This is because everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses, and there is also a limit as to how strong a person’s body can become. In order to break through this limit, they must have a corresponding realm and cultivation, and the Ring of Earth is able to enhance a person on a ‘realm’ basis to a completely new level!”