No surprise, the advancement was successful, and all three new professions are Tier Two professions.
How to choose?
The usual method, first consider the difficulty of acquiring experience, then consider the strength of the profession.
Between Martial Madman, Xingyi Master, and Mad Hero, which one has the advantage in acquiring experience?
It's Mad Hero!
On the surface, the Martial Madman should have the highest efficiency in acquiring experience, because as the advanced profession of a Martial Artist, he can gain a large amount of experience through martial combat. Theoretically, as long as he captures a group of experts and keeps them around, he can continuously harvest experience through contests, which gives him a significant advantage in this aspect.
But compared to Mad Hero, this advantage is still shorter because Mad Hero is a profession that can "spend money".
That's right, spend money!
The way Mad Hero acquires experience is by acting chivalrously, helping the weak and defeating the strong. Helping the weak is more clearly defined, and the most efficient way to help the weak is by spending money, spreading wealth, and performing charity.
There are many such examples in the real world, where one can rapidly advance their professional rank with ample financial resources. As long as one's financial strength is sufficient, the speed of advancement can be unparalleled, rarely reached by other professions.
The "Hero" profession Shen Hex abandoned before also had this characteristic, but back then his strength was insufficient, and he lacked capital, making it impossible to spend money, so he had no choice but to choose the path of a Martial Artist.
But times have changed, and now he has ample capital to spend lavishly, even if he exhausts it all, he can let the "Martial Madman" rob the rich to aid the poor.
Therefore, in terms of acquiring experience, Mad Hero is far ahead.
What, Xingyi Master?
This profession has no competitive advantage in acquiring experience. Its advantage lies in its profession strength, equivalent to Xingyi Specialization, which, combined with the talent of Refining Form and Transforming Intent, allows some organs of the body to be refined into beast forms, such as having skin grow dragon scales, fingers becoming tiger claws, heart and lungs capable of turtle breathing, etc., greatly enhancing combat prowess.
Unfortunately, the difficulty in acquiring experience forces Shen Hex to give it up. With his Martial Arts Talent, even with the addition of the Xingyi Master, it would take an exceedingly long time to cultivate Xingyi Fist to that realm.
Moreover, the profession strength of Mad Hero is not much inferior, as its Killing Life and Cutting Karma can sense the Karmic Force on a target, and can use "Righteous Qi" to suppress or even harm those bearing Karmic Force.
The advantage of the former is evident—a powerful radar capable of distinguishing good from evil and determining friend from foe, a sharp tool for preventing tricks and developing forces. After all, human hearts are hard to gauge; though Karmic Force cannot discern human hearts, at least it can differentiate between good and bad.
The latter's advantage is equally formidable. According to some materials Shen Hex consulted in the real world, every world, or rather every planet, has a very special power, which Buddhism calls Alaya Consciousness, and Daoism calls Celestial Dao—an independent yet interdependent existence formed by the subconscious combination of all lives and things in the world.
This Celestial Dao manifests in various aspects, like the Merit and Fortune in Daoist and Buddhist cultivation systems, and the Dragon Qi in the Emperor Dao System, possessing extremely powerful strength.
This Righteous Qi is also one of them. Having Righteous Qi not only resists various mysterious evil forces but is also greatly beneficial to cultivation, capable of warding off all sorts of disasters and tribulations—a coveted existence for high-tier professionals.
This Mad Hero can condense Righteous Qi, and this alone makes its profession strength superior to both Martial Madman and Xingyi Master.
So, there was nothing to hesitate about; Shen Hex directly chose to advance and change professions.
"Advancement successful!"
"Profession change complete!"
"New profession acquired: Mad Hero!"
"Original Professional Talent 'Static Posture' successfully retained!"
"Original Professional Skills 'Xingyi Fist' successfully retained and enhanced!"
Xingyi Fist (Profession)
Skill Profession: Mad Hero.
Skill Rank: Tier One Level Ten.
Skill Effect: Nourishing Form and Intent.
Skill Effect: Righteous and Majestic (With Righteous Qi in body, steadfast in great righteousness, evil demon retreats, sinister is terrified)
...
Not only was the advancement successful, but the talent skills were also retained, and Xingyi Fist received new professional enhancements, with the effect of Righteous Qi further improved.
Shen Hex looked again at his professional panel.
Martial Madman (Shen Hex)
Profession: Mad Hero.
Professional Rank: Tier Two Level One.
Professional Talent: Static Posture, Killing Life and Cutting Karma.
Professional Skills: Xingyi Fist (Nourishing Form and Intent, Righteous and Majestic)
Professional Items: None.
General Skills: Yuan-Devouring Skill, Herbal Scripture.
...
The panel information is sparse but exceedingly valuable.
Shen Hex closed the professional panel, walked to the window sill, and looked down at the Liangshan Marsh under the night sky, beginning to contemplate his next move.
The next step, he decided to remain dormant for a while, no longer so flagrantly attacking the Government Office and the Jianghu people, at most secretly recruiting disciples.
The reason for dormancy is twofold. First, Liangshan Marsh is just beginning, with many areas needing his attention, and he is utterly swamped with work. Second, the actions of the Martial Madman have reached their limit, and further pressure could lead to losing control of the overall situation.
This is evident from recent Jianghu rumors.
He is just one person, although with Xingyi Fist's control over his body and the disguise techniques learned online, he's gained the skill to change his appearance, but it's merely a change in appearance, not the ability to fly or transform, nor the power of One Qi Transforms into the Three Pristine Ones.
Thus, the recent Jianghu rumors are clearly abnormal. Many cases evidently weren't his doing, yet they're being pinned on him firmly. Some even fabricate groundless massacres, using events that never happened to tarnish his name.
Shen Hex sees through this clearly and understands the reason.
Some are fishing in troubled waters, some are manipulating from behind the scenes.
Fishing in troubled waters is simple enough; though they're impersonating him, the objective is straightforward—taking advantage of the chaos for a profit.
Those manipulating behind the scenes are not that simple. Their aim is to escalate the situation, dragging all forces into the fray, then using the combined strength to eliminate him.
The Beggar Gang is one such entity. As his main opponent, the Beggar Gang has suffered heavy losses during this time, with several branches uprooted and over thirty True Qi masters slain. The remaining losses are immeasurable.
Unable to catch him, and unwilling to endure such losses, the Beggar Gang can only manipulate from within, escalating the situation and drawing other forces, such as the Government Office, into the water, turning the problem of one person into a problem for everyone.
This way, the Beggar Gang can unite with various forces, especially the Court's Divine Capture Sect, to hunt him down, spreading the pressure and reducing the losses.
Thus, Shen Hex can't continue any longer.
These people are already cornered, any further pressure will surely make them desperate.
In fact, they are already acting desperately; otherwise, they wouldn't be committing crimes under his name, even going as far as murdering government officials, using such risky methods to drag the Divine Capture Sect into the fray.
If he continues to pursue this, the cornered enemies would likely flip the table and resort to burning jade and stone together.
Flip the table?
How?
Just those few tricks—implicating the innocent, escalating the situation, even disrupting the whole situation.
This is not what Shen Hex wants, so he decides to temporarily withdraw.
But this is only temporary.
He is just one person, struggling to manage everything; hence, he is cautious.
But what if he is not alone?