Chapter 145: The Lockbreaker Society
A standard formcast model could reshape a cultivator’s body three times and help one ascend to the Melder realm. The students of the Great Yu Empire were usually only able to obtain three-stage formcast models, with some luckier ones finding a rare formcast model that was able to conduct four reshapings, which allowed one to become a Limiteer. As for the five-stage formcast models that could assure one of reaching the Explorer realm, those were extremely rare and couldn’t be bought with any amount of money, as they were only produced by HUnters after much effort.
There were also six-stage formcast models whose final stage was that of the Hunter realm. These formcast models only existed in legends, as only terrifying powerhouses were able to make them by spending a huge amount of energy. Even the Emperor of the Great Yu Empire, Undying Yushan, was only at the Hunter realm.
Most cultivators would obtain a three-stage formcast model, go through three reshapings, and then train slowly from there on out. Some of the more outstanding cultivators could reach the Explorer realm through reshaping, but that was the absolute limit. Nobody had ever gone through six reshapings except those in the legends, and certainly no one from the Astral Combat Academy had ever accomplished this. This was because only those who were at least as strong a Cruiser could go through six body reshapings, and they would immediately become a Hunter once they broke through.
There was a huge difference between cultivators within the same realm when it came to those who had gone through reshaping and those who had not. Each reshaping completely reconstructed one’s body and gave one a chance to perceive some of the strength of the powerhouse who had created that formcast model. This was an extremely valuable experience, and also the main reason why many powerhouses were unwilling to create formcast models. Apart from taking up a huge amount of energy, there was also a chance that the person using it would be able to learn their skills.
The formcast model that Lu Yin had was a four-stage one, which meant that he could go through four reshapings and become a Limiteer. If he upgraded it, then would he get a five stage formcast model? What would that even look like? He would definitely surpass his peers as it was rare for someone to become an Explorer with five reshapings even in the Astral Combat Academy. There was a huge difference between that and becoming an Explorer through cultivation; the difference was as large as that between cultivators and normal soldiers.
Lu Yin truly admired the person who had created the first formcast model, as it had revolutionized the path of cultivation. Before this, cultivators had to spend a long time arduously training even if they had great talent. But now, after the birth of formcast models, many talented young people had managed to surpass the powerhouses of the older generation. The appearance of the Ten Arbiters was the strongest proof of this phenomena—the ten of them had managed to shift the balance of power to the younger generation’s side, creating unimaginable side effects that still hadn’t been fully understood.
Lu Yin cleared his mind and took a deep breath. He looked at the two horizontal screens of light in front of him and slowly placed the formcast model on the upper layer. Once the formcast model completely fell through and landed on the second layer, the upgrade would be complete.
Lu Yin stared at it excitedly, but the formcast model didn’t move at all. He suddenly realized something. “Does this require star energy too?”
He felt like vomiting blood, but he still took out a hundred star crystals to try his luck with. He threw them onto the top layer, where the crystals were absorbed by the light screen. Although the formcast model moved slightly downwards, the movement was so minute that Lu Yin could barely tell the difference.
Lu Yin clapped his hand to his forehead; he was right. This ability required more star crystals to activate as well. He was struck speechless. His innate gift was powerful, but as greedy as a black hole. Fortunately, he hadn’t been so dumb as to try to slowly accumulate money. If not for his money collecting schemes and plots, he definitely wouldn’t be able to keep up with his innate gift’s appetite.
“Hopefully it won’t need too many...” Lu Yin muttered as he took out tens of thousands of star crystals and threw them onto the top layer one by one. After absorbing it all, the formcast model finally descended a little bit more. But only a little bit.
Lu Yin made a rough measurement with his hand and estimated that it would take around three hundred thousand star crystals to upgrade the formcast model to reach the next layer. He sighed and looked at the sky vacantly. He only had two hundred and sixty thousand star crystals on him; that still wouldn’t be enough to upgrade his formcast model.
Lu Yin reluctantly stored the formcast model away and watched the light screens disappear. He smiled bitterly and shook his head again, as he had no choice but to wait until he had enough star crystals before he tried to upgrade it again. Fortunately, the formcast model had been slightly modified, and if he rolled Enhance again, then he could simply continue on from where he had left off. He hadn’t actually lost anything.
It was extremely rare for anyone to obtain a five stage formcast model, and only cultivators related to the major forces would even have a chance of getting one. Lu Yin knew just how difficult it was to obtain one and that he was already very lucky to have a way to obtain one. Thus, he would find a way to upgrade it no matter how much money it cost. Of course, a five stage formcast wasn’t his final goal. His ultimate goal was to obtain a six stage one, but just how many six stage formcast models existed in the universe? While neither he nor anyone else knew exactly how many there were, it was sure to be an extremely small number. Even the entire Blaze Realm might not have a single one, or at least, that was what Lu Yin hoped.
“Is six stages the limit?” Lu Yin suddenly thought of an interesting question. His gaze quickly turned excited, but he immediately suppressed his desire. He would only consider this in the future. If he truly could obtain a seven stages formcast model, then that would be very interesting. He probably would shock the entire universe.
When he finally noticed that he had just spent tens of thousands of star crystals on nothing but an experiment, Lu Yin realized that his spending was growing more and more excessive.
Lu Yin continued rolling his die, but this time, he no longer hoped to roll Enhance. Now, he was hoping to get Time Stop so that he could steadily cultivate the eighth star of his Cosmic Art. Not only would that increase the speed at which he absorbed star energy, but it would also increase the power of his Cosmic Palm technique. According to his estimate, a Cosmic Palm with eight stars would be more powerful than a Nine Stacks Shockwave Palm, and that wasn’t even taking into the effects of battle force. He looked forward to finding out just how strong it would be.
He rolled the die again and it stopped on Pilfer. An exquisite ring fell with a loud clang. It was made out of a common material, but Lu Yin was astonished by the craftsmanship. The carvings on the clear metal seemed to have a life of its own; however, it was a shame that it didn’t have any intrinsic value. Still, it should be quite expensive due to how exquisite its craftsmanship was.
His third roll turned out to be Gift Copy. What a waste. He now realised that Possession and Enhance weren’t the most wasteful, and neither was it even Pilfer. Rather, it was actually Gift Copy. It was clearly a good skill as it allowed him to temporarily borrow someone’s innate gift, but it was always wasted since he was always rolling his die in a remote area. I have to pay attention next time. I can borrow someone’s innate gift with it, so I shouldn’t waste it.
Lu Yin had one more chance to roll, as he would faint after rolling it five times. Hence, four times was the ideal number.
He stared at the die until it stopped spinning and settled on a number—Four. Lu Yin knew that his luck today was quite good as he had gotten both Enhance and Timestop.
His surroundings disappeared before his eyes and he appeared in the familiar grey Time Stop Space. He increased the gravity by sixty times like he normally did, but that wasn’t enough this time. He took out more star crystals and continued increasing the gravity until he felt strained, which was at a hundred-fold. This was a hundred times the normal gravity! It was a pressure that, normally, only Limiteers could possibly withstand, which led Lu Yin to guess that his body had already surpassed most Limiteers’. And this still wasn’t his ultimate limit!
Lu Yin didn’t know why his body had become so terrifyingly tough and strong, but he could tell that it was still improving with each passing day. He stopped thinking about it and used over a thousand star crystals to increase the time that he had in the Time Stop Space to one month. He planned on staying in this space for a month to finish cultivating the eighth star of his Cosmic Art.
When Lu Yin entered the Time Stop Space, a spacecraft appeared at Astral-10’s space station. There was an interesting symbol carved on its helm that seemed to be from the Innerverse: two hands covering a planet.
Xia Luo’s eyes gleamed when he saw this symbol, as it was the Lockbreaker Society’s insignia!
Lockbreakers enjoyed many privileges in the universe, and the Lockbreaker Society had been formed to oversee the Lockbreakers. Its main purpose was to gather Lockbreakers together in order to test the limits of their skill, but everyone knew that another reason for its existence was to control the Lockbreakers, as there would be disastrous consequences if a Lockbreaker went rogue.
Many sealed ancient items could cause disasters, if they were recklessly unsealed by a Lockbreaker, it could lead to a catastrophe striking the universe. This could not be allowed to happen, and so the Lockbreaker Society received great support from various major forces which guaranteed its status and legitimacy.
A few days ago, the Trialmaster had sent out an examination request to the Lockbreaker Society on behalf of Xia Luo. He wanted to have Xia Luo join the society as he was clearly capable of doing so.
Xia Luo moved forward as the hatch of the spacecraft opened.
The first to disembark were a troop of cultivators. They were soldiers of the Lockbreaker Society, and they were all at least Melders, and some were even Limiteers. Behind them, a middle aged man in a grey robe walked out with a solemn expression. He immediately noticed Xia Luo as he slowly descended from the spaceship.
A beautiful girl, about Lu Yin’s age, followed behind the middle aged man. Her nose was turned up to the sky, and she made no efforts to hide her arrogance.
Xia Luo walked forward with a smile. bowed towards the man in the grey robe, and introduced himself. “Greetings, Master Wusheng. I am Xia Luo from Astral-10.”
The middle aged man nodded as he studied Xia Luo for a moment. He then nodded his head in satisfaction. “You are the person that Elder Tan mentioned to me?”
Xia Luo answered, “Yes, I am.”
Wusheng continued to say, “Let’s go. I want to greet Elder Tan first.”
“Tutor, please follow me this way.” Xia Luo then motioned in the direction for them to go and politely nodded at the girl before turning around to lead the way for them.
The girl looked at Xia Luo curiously. Her name was Liu Ji and she had come on this trip to take Astral-6’s entrance exam. However, they had suddenly taken a detour here, apparently to scout a student from Astral-10 for the Lockbreaker assessment. Astral-10? Wasn’t that academy driven out of the Innervse? How could one of their students join the Lockbreaker Society? The situation didn’t make any sense to her.
Once she saw Xia Luo, Liu Ji felt an instinctive affinity toward him, but she still had no confidence in him passing the assessment. She was well aware of just how difficult the Lockbreaker assessment was, and even she, a natural genius who was born into the society, had to take the test multiple times before she finally passed. What gave this person the confidence to think that he would pass the exam?
The three of them appeared at the realm entrance via the teleportation equipment and coincidentally met someone who was about to leave, Hui Daynight.
Hui Daynight just glanced at the three of them before proceeding into the teleportation device without a word.
Wusheng was shocked. “Isn’t he from the Daynight clan? I didn’t expect someone from the Daynight clan to join Astral-10.”
Xia Luo smiled as he explained, “His name is Hui Daynight. And yes, he’s from the Daynight Clan. He’s a nice person.”
Liu Ji raised her brows questioningly. A nice person? Why would he say that? The student who had just left was obviously extremely arrogant, even more so than herself. He hadn’t even greeted Master Wusheng! Even a senior of the Daynight Clan wouldn’t dare to be so rude. It was truly an annoying clan.
But as far as Xia Luo was concerned, as long as someone wasn’t his enemy, then everyone was a nice person—or, at least, that was his personal view.
The Trialmaster was sitting in the same spot as always, with the appearance of a senile old man.
Wusheng’s expression changed once he saw the Trialmaster and he immediately went forward and said respectfully, “Elder Tan, your student, Wusheng, has come to greet you.”
Surprise flashed across Xia Luo’s eyes while Liu Ji's mouth actually fell wide open. Is this really Master Wusheng, acting this respectfully to that old man? He’s Master Wusheng, an Intermediate-rank Lockbreaker who’s nearly at the Senior level! Even the most powerful clans of the Innerverse would act deferentially to Master Wusheng, and yet here he was, acting respectfully to a mentor of Astral-10?