Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Meng Chao thought about it.

In his previous life, his physical const.i.tution had not been good, but he had walked the path of the gun fighting style for a period of time.

That was why his gun technique was pretty good.

However, it was because of this that he understood the weaknesses of the gun fighting style.

Demon Yan did not lie to him. Meng Chao remembered that during the later stage of the Monster War in his previous life, Dragon City had upgraded its heavy industry, and bullets were no longer a problem for them.

But this did not mean that they had an infinite carrying capacity.

The greatest restriction was not their resources, but the number of bullets a single soldier could carry.

Normal bullets did not have enough power to fight against monsters. If they wanted to kill them in one shot, they had to use sniping bullets, machine gun bullets, and anti-material bullets. Those bullets were more than 5.0 in diameter, had special metals infused in them, runic symbols carved into them, and crystals embedded in them. A single bullet was practically as thick as a drumstick.

And if people wanted to fire bullets with such huge diameter and other materials added into them at high speed, they had to install all sorts of strengthening parts into their guns.

The result was that the weight of the guns and bullets constantly kept increasing. A single soldier might end up carrying a load weighing hundreds of kilograms, and that weight was just their weapons and ammunition.

If they added MREs, medicine, and all sorts of outdoor survival tools, even superhumans were not able to handle marching deep into the fog for a long time.

When they fought, they also had to face problems such as their gun barrels overheating and having to change cartridges, which cut off the smoothness of their attack.

Many of the monsters were tough and very fast. And some of them could even deliver mind attacks that interfered with the sniper's eyesight. All this could reduce the power of guns.

Hence, the gun fighting style became mainly for defense rather than offense.

They defended cities and waited for weary comrades to come back. They also used bullets to take down monster h.o.a.rds. That was the battlefield most suited for the gun fighting style.

When squads ventured into the fog, they had to travel hundreds of miles to complete their mission, and once the gun aces used up their bullets, they found themselves in an awkward position.

'The future Dragon City will certainly face a lot of threats. I might end up having to venture deep into the lands of the Other World. I might even have to follow sneakily behind the supernatural beings of the Other World.

'If I choose the gun fighting style or machine armor style, wherever I go, I have to bring a lot of supplies. How can I possibly sneak around like that?

'That's why these fighting styles are not the best choice. Only the Ultimate Style symbolizes the future!'

Meng Chao thanked Demon Yan for his suggestions and told him that he had to think about this carefully.

He shut down the chat and thought about it, then turned the keywords in the forums into branch meridians, cultivation, and fighting to continue his search.

Just as he expected, a large number of results popped up.

Using branch meridians to fight was not a very surprising idea.

Many of the powerful martial artists, spirit energy academicians, and life scientists had investigated it before.

However, the branch meridians were just too thin and fragile. It was very difficult for them to contain the rampaging spirit magnetic field rotation energy.

If cultivated forcefully, they easily burst open.

This was just how the fine capillaries burst when someone b.u.mped into a corner of a table and a bruise formed under the skin.

Hence, all the results of his search just verified the “general knowledge” that “branch meridians could not be used to fight”.

Suddenly, Meng Chao's gaze stopped on another article.

[Initial exploration into the working principles of the spirit meridian system under a gravity-free condition.]

The article was written by two authors.

The first one was Zong Ye, which Meng Chao did not know.

But the second author, Gu Jianbo, made him think.

He found the name a little familiar.

He searched for him online and found out that Gu Jianbo was a young lecturer in Dragon City University's martial arts course. He had just begun his career and was not very famous.

Meng Chao should not have heard his name before.

“Then, does it mean that this person existed in the memories of my previous life?”

If that were really the case, he must definitely be someone who would shock Dragon City in the future.

Meng Chao became excited. He searched Gu Jianbo and found quite a few articles related to cultivating using the branch meridians.

By the looks of it, he had begun researching them more than ten years ago.

The thought processes in the articles were things that Meng Chao could somewhat remember. They followed the same train of thought as the Ultimate Style.

However, the first author for most of the articles was Zong Ye. Li Yingzi took up that position a few times as well. Gu Jianbo seldom published his own articles.

Then, some eight years ago, Zong Ye and Li Yingzi suddenly vanished.

Gu Jianbo became the only person who published articles related to using branch meridians to cultivate, but he didn't have the earlier spirit. His articles were only stacks of simple laboratory data.

It was as if he had lost his path after he lost Zong Ye and Li Yingzi's guidance.

From time to time, he found some breakthrough points that caught people's interest, but most of the articles were boring. The experimental data was like a headless fly that b.u.mped into a gla.s.s window and was unable to find a way to progress forward.

The last couple of years, the articles were few and far between.

It seemed like he had given up on this research direction.

Meng Chao felt a light s.h.i.+ne in his head.

'It's him! He's the creator of the Ultimate Style, Gu Jianbo, the Blade Dancer!

'Even though he's currently not famous, in the future, he'll be a master who makes his own sect. When he will use the Ultimate Style to fight against the monsters, he will look like he's dancing on blades.

'Even though he was at the peak only for a year, during his short period of glory, he managed to stem the tide and kill more than ten thousand monsters, including the strongest Apocalyptic Beasts. He used his life as fuel and tore through the clouds in the sky, allowing light to s.h.i.+ne on Dragon City at long last.

'As his cultivation notes and fighting videos were made public, more superhumans accepted his ideals, and the Ultimate Style was further developed.

'Unfortunately, it only happened after countless powerful fighters had already died.

'Even Gu Jianbo himself drained his body dry to research the Ultimate Style. He burned through his life and died like a shooting star.

'If he could find the right research direction earlier and bring the Ultimate Style into the light five years earlier, he might not end up dying, and many of our powerful fighters wouldn't die as well!'

Meng Chao was excited. He searched for Agricultural University's official website and logged into it.

It was the time for national college examination examinees to fill in their application forms.

The martial arts course was also a popular field, so the official website's introduction for it was very detailed.

The lecturers for the martial arts course were all built and had swelling muscles. With a shout, ferocious beast souls surged out of their pores.

Gu Jianbo stood among those half-beasts and looked incredibly handsome.

Meng Chao imagined him dressed in ancient clothes and with white hair flowing behind his back. 'Yup, there's no running from it. He's a master!'

[Gu Jianbo, a four-star superhuman. His research direction is the rapid recovery of damaged branch meridians. He teaches one city-level topic and three academy-level topics. He has obtained a second-grade academy-level lecturing reward and is known as an excellent young teacher in the 54th year of the New Era in Dragon City.]

His credentials were sorely lacking compared to the other distinguished ace teachers.

Meng Chao's gaze became intense.

'I've decided. I'm going to Agricultural University's martial arts course. I have to ride Gu Jianbo's coattails!

'He's the legendary Blade Dancer! The pioneer! I read many magazine articles in my previous life that if he had not died so early, there was a high possibility that he would have been able to reach Deity Realm!

'There are only a handful of Deity Realm elites in Dragon City, and all of them are people who can command the weather at will. If I can help Gu Jianbo reach Deity Realm, he will definitely be able to stand at an even higher level and control the political direction of Dragon City.

'Besides, if I manage to ride his coattails, even if I don't use the Old Fire Relayer, I can still do whatever I want in Dragon City.

'Besides, Agricultural University has made a lot of medicine from monsters and etherealized plants. They have better resources than Dragon City University. I can also use contribution points to get skills and increase my Skillfulness. Getting good resources is the most important thing for me right now.

'Also, with my relations.h.i.+p with Elder Ning, I can choose to take a few resource courses and refine my harvesting skills as well. It'll be beneficial for me to get resources on the spot when I enter the fog to fight.'

Meng Chao a.n.a.lyzed the pros and cons very carefully.

Even though his marks were enough for him to choose any ace course in Dragon City University, he still chose Agricultural University without hesitation. It was ranked at the second place in the city, and it was also known as the Monster University.

He logged into the webpage for examinees to fill in their application forms. Then, he keyed in his student ID and verified his ident.i.ty through a video.

A large row of universities and courses appeared in front of his eyes.

A lot of universities had sent him emails through the official website. They had detailed introductions of their courses and all sorts of excellent benefits he could get if he registered for their course.

He was among the top one hundred in the city, so even if he had damaged his main meridians, he was still very popular.

A number of universities which were not very famous even promised him that if he was willing to get enrolled in their university, he could get a lot of cultivation resources. He could also choose whichever lecturer he wanted as his designated lecturer, and the lecturer would tailor his cla.s.ses for him.

Meng Chao ignored these introductions and invitations and chose Agricultural University's martial arts course. Once he clicked confirm, he handed in his application.

Gold light flashed before his eyes at that moment. The strange flames flowed about, and a new notification popped up.

[Will you activate the chain quest: Fight for the Ultimate Style?

[Quest Notification: The new war will require a brand new fighting concept. Replace the Overkill Style with the Ultimate Style, and dance between the fangs of the monsters and blades of the warriors!

[First Segment: Help Blade Dancer Gu Jianbo perfect the Ultimate Style's fighting style.

[Completion Standards: Have either the Fire Relayer or Gu Jianbo refine the 1,024 branch meridians so that the instantaneous damage output from the branch meridians reach one-tenth of the main meridians.

[Reward for the First Segment: 8,000 contribution points and 10 main meridians will be repaired]

“This is…”

Meng Chao was shocked and delighted.

Eight thousand contribution points was nothing.

Right now, he had more than ten thousand contribution points, and since he was rich, he could afford to be a sn.o.b. He did not pay any attention to the eight thousand contribution points.

But repairing ten main meridians was a major thing.

Earlier, he had spent 9,999 contribution points to repair just one main meridian.

Didn't that mean that the first reward for the chain quest was worth tens of thousands of contribution points?

If he completed the whole Fight for the Ultimate Style quest, he might actually be able to repair more than one hundred main meridians.

At that time, he would not just be able to use the Ultimate Style. He would also be able to use the Overkill Style and change between them seamlessly.

The main meridians and branch meridians, chain attacks and killing moves were not contradicting existences.

It was only when both worked together that humans could bring out their greatest power!

'That's great.' Meng Chao could not help but smile. 'I'm going to work hard and fight to crush all of the “general knowledge” and “reasoning” of this era!'