Universe Infinite Canteen-Chapter 426: Establishing a Sect

Ma Lu and Gu Qingyi divided the two thousand taels of gold, and according to the agreement, Ma Lu took fourteen hundred taels, while Gu Qingyi received six hundred taels.

Afterwards, he took out seven hundred taels of gold to purchase a batch of 1-star and 2-star secret medicines from the Hundred Herbs Sect, filling the Collection Bag to the brim.

As for the remaining money, Ma Lu decided to deposit it in the bank first, so that even if he couldn’t make any money next time, he wouldn’t leave empty-handed.

Having finished gathering ingredients, the two went to visit Chu Qianyuan, relaying the news they had learned from Cai Die to the elder brother of the sect.

Chu Qianyuan took this matter very seriously. Although he was known for his hot temper, in actuality he was kind-hearted, and he understood that if the Beggars’ Sect and the Heavenly Dragon Sect were to engage in all-out war, even if they won, the losses would certainly not be insignificant.

By then, who knows how many of his drinking and boasting friends would be left, and there were quite a few in the Beggars’ Sect who shared his sentiments. Even if Ma Lu and Gu Qingyi hadn’t come to him, Chu Qianyuan had already planned to join forces with several of the sect’s Elders and the Helmsman to prevent Tianming’s attack on the Heavenly Dragon Sect.

However, Ma Lu was not optimistic about their chances of success. With those forces manipulating things from behind the scenes, they certainly would not sit by and watch the conflict between the two factions simply die down.

But given Chu Qianyuan’s prestige in the Beggars’ Sect, it should be no problem to delay things for a while; as for whether they could delay until his next visit, that was another matter.

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In any case, Ma Lu had done what he could. If the two sides still ended up fighting this week, then he could only shed tears and steal a few extra touches.

Chu Qianyuan originally wanted to see how Ma Lu’s Dragon Capture Skill had progressed, and if there were any uncertainties or difficulties, he was ready to offer his assistance.

Unfortunately, Ma Lu evaded further engagement by claiming he needed to visit Elder Han’s grave and quickly whisked Gu Qingyi away.

Fortunately for him, Elder Han had just been buried that morning, which saved Ma Lu the trouble of having to rack his brains for an excuse to visit his house and touch the body.

Now, he only needed to stop at Elder Han’s gravestone to briefly pay his respects with the Black Hole before leaving.

Unfortunately, he still hadn’t managed to acquire an Internal Cultivation Method, only gaining a new martial skill called Shadowless Ghost Hand. With the Innate Pure Yang Palm already in his repertoire, Ma Lu was not in much need of attack-oriented martial studies.

After all, in all of martial arts, only brute force is unbreakable.

Just like previously, when Cai Die performed all sorts of fancy maneuvers, using Even Force and relying on ignoring parries to rapidly accumulate Profound Yin Energy, in the end, none did as much damage as his single Aggressive Like Fire move.

But after dismantling the Shadowless Ghost Hand card pack, Ma Lu couldn’t help but let out a light yelp of surprise because this new pack of cards turned out to be quite interesting.

So, after some thought, Ma Lu chose two cards to add to his current deck.

Initially, he wanted to learn like the normal people in the martial arts circles here, using Heart Method Cards, Lightfoot Cards, Body Protection Cards, and Attack Cards to form fixed routines, each enhancing the others through their combined effects.

However, he was different from the natives here; the martial studies he had were a hodgepodge, making it difficult to execute a complete combo.

Given this, Ma Lu simply abandoned the idea of forming a fixed routine, deciding to stuff whatever moves were useful into his deck.

He aimed for an approach where even he wouldn’t know what the next card he’d draw would be. In theory, this certainly wasn’t as powerful as a fixed routine, and in card games like Yu-Gi-Oh! or Magic: The Gathering, it would be deemed a rookie move.

But this world was different. After all, this was the Martial Arts World, where decks weren’t bought but acquired through cultivation, and a person’s energy is limited; most people could only master five or six martial arts in their lifetime, at most.

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Basically, it was a world where "one move used extensively conquers all," and if you were countered, there was no option to change cards; you just had to fight through.

As such, a deck that wasn’t so specialized but could handle various situations, while not easy to counter, might sacrifice some potential, but its reliability was greatly enhanced.

Of course, that’s the ideal scenario, because aside from Ma Lu, no one else could go around picking up everyone else’s martial arts and put together a combination to play with.

Even Ma Lu himself was feeling his way across the river by groping the stones, but if he could come up with a strong deck on his own, that would be like founding a new school.

It’s like how Yang Guo learned a bunch of moves from the masters and finally created the Sad Palms of Heartbreak.

Unfortunately, even if Ma Lu could create a Divine Technique, he didn’t have a method for training; this school was destined to be his alone, without a way to pass it on.

But that wasn’t a big problem; as long as he was happy, that was all that mattered.

Afterwards, Ma Lu, carrying a bag of ingredients, returned to the sofa in the living room. He flipped through the cookbook, glanced at the ingredients in his hand, and decided to make Gastrodia Elata Stewed with Wolf Camel this week.

The Deliciousness Index of this dish is 4 and a half stars, and with Old Wang’s cooking skills, he could fill in the remaining half star, turning it into a 5-star dish.

However, that wasn’t the point; the effect of this dish was that it could keep one calm in changing situations, maintain a clear head at all times, and also relieve stress and lower blood pressure.

Ever since the encounter with Yu Yitong at the ski resort, Ma Lu felt that his blood pressure had noticeably increased, although sliding from the foot of the mountain to the peak and then back down again did make him feel a lot better.

But after returning, he still felt a bit under the weather.

Fortunately, Ma Lu now had many more ways to relieve stress. He immediately went online and ordered a whole set of gaming kingdom’s motherboard, power supply, case, monitor, and a 4090 graphics card for himself.

He then bought memory, solid-state drives, and cooling systems; the whole set cost him eighty thousand yuan, and Ma Lu instantly felt relaxed again.

Once everything arrived, he spent an evening assembling the computer, and then he started happily posting on forums with his new computer and 4K monitor, discussing the world online with netizens. He also contacted several real estate agents, planning to look at houses this week.

He couldn’t help it; the more things he bought, the more packed his rented place became, leaving hardly any space to step foot in. It was time to move to a bigger and more spacious residence.

The ideal would be a villa with a yard, giving Old Wang a place to hang his cured meats and hams to dry.

Although Ma Lu’s money wasn’t enough to buy a villa in City B yet, that day wasn’t too far away, especially since An Qigang had just sponsored him with 5 million yuan, and Ma Lu’s bank account balance had exceeded ten million for the first time.

He planned to find a villa to rent for 5 years. After five years, he would be eligible to buy property. By then, he would buy a villa to live in with Old Wang, and even set up a row of exclusive charging stations for him.

To let him charge to his heart’s content.

While thinking about it, Ma Lu finished a bowl of Gastrodia Elata Stewed with Wolf Camel. He felt like all his meridians from head to toe had been opened, as a warm current spread from his stomach and penetrated his limbs and bones.

The incident at the ski resort had been pushed out of his mind. Even the spider plant on the table seemed extraordinarily cute today, its swaying leaves seemingly nodding gently in greeting.

Ma Lu put down his chopsticks, took a deep breath, and said to Old Wang, "Let’s go work!"

"There are still two hours till opening time," Old Wang reminded him.

"It doesn’t matter, let’s head over anyway. We’re not doing anything right now. Let’s open early today. Tonight, I still have to go house hunting. By the way, do you want to come along?"

Old Wang shook his head, "I just downloaded ’I Love My Home.’ If you have nothing else for me to do, I’ll go back and watch the series."

"All right then, I’ll go by myself," Ma Lu said.