Chapter 472: The Modern Cultivator's Skills Store

Loopy Toad had already made backups of all the data which Little Silver had sent to it. A lot of cultivation arts and spirit techniques were now no longer recorded in the form of jade cylinders or scrolls. While jade cylinders and scrolls were indeed worth a lot as collector's items, modern cultivators naturally found it more convenient to transfer data on cultivation arts and spirit techniques electronically.

This included Huaxiu nation's largest depository, the Magnificent Immortal's Depository of Buddhist Texts. The collection of scrolls here had been backed up digitally. However, ordinary people didn't have access to this data since they were classified as state secrets.

There were a number of online stores that sold cultivation arts and spirit techniques. Once you selected a skill you wanted to buy and then paid directly online, the merchant would transfer it to you via a file-sharing software called "Skill Cloud."

However, the file could only be received and opened by the buyer himself, and couldn't be shared a second time with another person. If you wanted to share it, you had to buy it again and present it as a gift before you could do so.

Everything was about copyright now, and cultivation arts and spirit techniques were no exception. These so-called arts and spirit techniques had all been created by cultivators (except the Great Spells), so those online stores selling cultivation arts and spirit techniques would contact the creators to purchase the copyrights to these skills or sign a sharing agreement.

If they bought the copyright for a skill, then it meant paying a once-off large sum of money, and any subsequent profits from the sale of this skill would fully belong to the copyright holder. Of course, the purchase of a skill copyright didn't last forever, and was usually for ten years.

The other way was a sharing agreement, which was a unilateral pact with the creator of the cultivation art or spirit technique. Both parties shared the copyright and the profits were split equally, which was a win-win situation for everyone.

Most cultivators would choose the second option.

Of course, if it was some famous and great master, not only could they directly sell the copyright to their skill, they could still even enjoy subsequent shares in the benefits.

To put it bluntly, this had a lot to do with the reputation of the creator of the cultivation art or spirit technique.

Of course, there were some arts and spirit techniques whose owners couldn't be found, and the copyrights for these skills were all owned by the state. Besides, the copyrights for the skills of these famous and great masters were stored in the Magnificent Immortal's Depository of Buddhist Texts and wouldn't be put up for public sale.

...

It was July 13th on Thursday in the twelfth week of the semester.

Since Father Wang's computer in the study happened to be free, Loopy Toad used it to surf the Internet.

After backing up the data which Little Silver had transferred to him, Loopy Toad started to browse skills stores in particular. It wanted to check if there was anything on sale that was related to "Basic Dog Skills," but the general search box showed: zero... there was nothing.

This was to be expected, and precisely proved how old these Basic Dog Skills were. After all, they came from Dog Saint's era, when the holy beasts hadn't yet suffered such devastating setbacks and when Little Silver had still been very young.

The history of this collection of "Basic Dog Skills" might be as old as the Ten Founding Generals, or even much older...

Loopy Toad skimmed through the data on the "Basic Dog Skills" on the computer; it had only taken a cursory glance at it on its phone before. There were seven forms in total for these Dog Skills. The first and second forms were level four, and Loopy Toad thought that it could use its own ability to try and learn these.

It felt that relying on Little Master Ling for each and every thing would be pretty spineless behavior...

After carefully looking through the explanations in the data, Loopy Toad tried to follow the directions and pushed spirit energy through its meridians; in the end, it concluded that it could definitely learn the first form of the Basic Dog Skills... But starting from the second form, the Dog Skills became a lot more difficult; even if it was a level four spirit technique, Loopy Toad still had to think carefully about it.

It cupped its chin as it pondered... actually, the best would be if someone could give it some advice at this time.

While it was thinking this, Loopy Toad saw an ad window pop up on the website of the online skills store it was browsing.

Loopy Toad stretched out its hand to close the pop-up window, but then noticed what it said: Still bewildered when it comes to learning cultivation arts and spirit techniques? Famous masters, an online community, personal guidance... We guarantee you'll be able to learn any spirit technique with us.

This was the "spellmaster" that Loopy Toad had mentioned before; it was an up-and-coming profession which made money by specializing in teaching others cultivation arts and spirit techniques in a short period of time.

Loopy Toad had in fact heard of it before, but had never personally encountered it. When it saw this popup ad window now, it was instantly a little curious.

Clicking on the ad link sent it directly to the homepage of an online store.

System prompt: Welcome to "Salted Fish Skills Store." Customer Service Small Change Staff Number 018 will serve you...

Loopy Toad waited for a while before the customer service little sister Staff Number 018 sent a smiley. "Hello, may I ask how I should address you?"

Loopy Toad: "My last name is Two."

Staff Number 018: "...May I ask if it's sir or madam?"

Loopy Toad: "I'm a dog, the domestic kind."

Staff Number 018: "..."

Trying her best to stay calm, this Staff Number 018 customer service employee specially checked the credit records for Loopy Toad's username and discovered that this person's personal credit rating was "excellent" and the account had achieved three crowns status. She instantly heaved a sigh of relief.

From the credit rating, this shouldn't be a spoof...

Customer service little sister 018 realized that at this moment, the person sitting on the other side of the computer screen might really be a dog.

Besides, this actually wasn't something to be amazed about; domestic soul pets nowadays had spiritual intelligence... though there were actually very few that knew how to operate a computer.

Actually, the truth was that Loopy Toad's credit rating wasn't that high; it was because the computer belonged to Father Wang. It was only after the customer service little sister had sent him the first message that Loopy Toad realized that it had forgotten to switch accounts!

But that didn't matter; it was only looking for advice anyway, and didn't plan to buy anything.

On the other side, the customer service little sister had collected her thoughts, and she smiled as she replied, "Mr Dog Two, what do you need?"

When it saw this name, it was Loopy Toad's turn to take a deep breath. "...I would like to ask if your spellmasters can teach skills to spirit beasts?"

The customer service little sister nodded. "Of course! Our spellmasters are all-rounders, and several of them have experience as spirit beast trainers. However, their quotes are based on how difficult the skill is. As long as Mr Dog Two accepts the quoted price, they will definitely be able to teach it to you."

Loopy Toad: "I see!" Actually, it already suspected this store of false advertising... Because there was no spell in this world that could be one hundred percent taught!

Still amused, Loopy Toad replied, "Then are there any spellmasters that you can recommend? Can I chat with them?"

Staff Number 018: "Yes, Mr Dog Two, wait one moment, I'll transfer you to a chat window with the spellmaster."

After about a minute...

A system prompt appeared again: Technician Staff Number 003 will serve you...

Loopy Toad: "..." What damn technician!The literal translation of 二狗子, which is in fact a name used in the countryside, where the older generation believes that children with ugly names are easier to feed.This is a literal translation of 小改改 'xiao gaigai' which in dialect means 'little sister.'