Chapter 235: How Much? (1)
When Su Yu woke up, the sky was already dark.
His previous pain was all gone. He felt completely refreshed. He was no longer in the hall. Rather, he found himself in the living area. When he looked at his bed, he saw that it was a shabby couch. He smiled and looked around, but Zhao Li was nowhere to be found.
Su Yu was in no rush to leave. He tried sensing his cultural weapon. Next, a black saber appeared in front of him. It looked almost the same as before, but it felt much more solid and reliable than before.
"You're awake?" Zhao Li walked in and said, "Try using your Divine Characters with it."
He quickly added, "Use your characters one by one."
Su Yu gave it some thought and attached the lightning character to the weapon. The process felt much easier than before. Next, the character activated.
Rumble!
A loud rumble sounded and a bright flash erupted within the living area. Zhao Li remained calm. He indifferently sent his willpower over and erased the lightning in the room.
"How does it feel?"
Su Yu was in complete shock. He could feel that his lightning attack had increased considerably. And it also felt much easier to use.
"Teacher..." Su Yu opened his eyes wide and hurriedly said, "Are cultural weapons so powerful? I feel like my destructive power has increased from a rating of 10 to at least 12."
"That's normal." Zhao Li nonchalantly said, "Why would all cultural researchers want cultural weapons otherwise? A low-tier profound-grade cultural weapon is worth thousands of merit points. If it isn't worth the price, who would buy it?"
Su Yu regretfully said, "I think I only managed to last 29 strikes..."
Zhao Li's face darkened. He decided to ignore Su Yu.
Su Yu said, "Teacher, you added quite a lot of materials to the weapon. How many merit points are they worth?"
He eagerly said, "Teacher, let me pay for the materials. As for the forging fee, I really can't afford to hire you yet, Teacher. Can you not charge me the forging fee?"
Zhao Li felt like laughing when he looked at Su Yu. The kid was right. He still couldn't afford Zhao Li yet. With the measly 180 merit points the kid had, it was impossible to hire an earth-grade weaponsmith.
Seeing that the kid was speaking bluntly, Zhao Li gave it some thought and said, "Sure. I won't be charging you for the service. For your four Divine Characters, I added four different materials into the weapon. Additionally, I added a few other stabilization materials. I'll only charge you the cost of these materials, 120 merit points."
"120 points..."
Su Yu hated parting with money, but he didn't say anything and swiped 120 merit points over to Zhao Li.
Zhao Li smiled and said, "Your weapon is already near the profound-grade. However, it is still not a true profound weapon. Otherwise, you won't be able to control it. You can consider it a pseudo profound weapon."
The so-called pseudo profound weapon was basically a weapon with the prowess of a profound-grade weapon yet usable by those in the Mental Tempering Stage. A weapon like this was much more valuable than a proper low-tier profound-grade weapon. It was basically a level 30 weapon that could be used by a level 20 individual. Its practical value far surpassed that of a low-tier profound-grade weapon.
Naturally, Zhao Li couldn't be bothered to say all that. This weapon mold was already a top-tier yellow-grade weapon before this.
"In the future when you form new Divine Characters, you can slowly strengthen the weapon. And when you complete your character technique, you can fuse the weapon with your character technique, creating a unique cultural weapon that belongs to you alone. At that time, you will be able to fully maximize your strength."
Su Yu nodded.
Zhao Li then looked outside and said, "It's getting late. Go back. Come and learn more about weaponsmithing when you have the time. It is never a bad thing to learn more about the properties of some materials. That way, you won't be completely oblivious when you encounter a treasure outside."
"Alright. I'll be taking my leave, Teacher. Thank you again."
"Go."
Zhao Li waved his hand and looked on as Su Yu walked away.
After Su Yu left, Zhao Li exhaled deeply. He couldn't think about it. The more he thought about the kid, the more regretful he felt. What a good seedling.
Each time he thought of that, he had the urge to beat Bai Feng to death. Seated on the couch, he took a sip at his tea as a hammer appeared in front of him. With a pulse of his willpower, the large hammer started striking his sea of willpower.
Willpower expansion.
He was 120 years old, the son of the fourth principal, and a seventh-stage Cloudbreach. His cultivation speed was very slow. But there was a reason for it. If the willpower of others was the size of a bowl, then his willpower was the size of a barrel.
Zhao Li did not mind his speed. For him, things like cultivation realms weren't too important. For a weaponsmith, endurance was more important. Without endurance, so what if he could reach the Mountainsea Realm?
Sure, his willpower would be stronger, but it would only last for three to five minutes. How was he supposed to keep forging weapons then? The hammer continued striking his sea of willpower, but he had an indifferent expression. He continued sipping on tea while thinking.
A character technique with over 20 initial Divine Characters. Could that kid withstand the pressure of so many characters?
"Soul Expanding Art..."
Zhao Li muttered. Should he teach this method to the kid? He was somewhat unable to convince himself to do it. He was indignant.
Strictly speaking, the Soul Expanding Art might not necessarily be a good thing. With a larger sea of willpower, one would gain a stronger foundation. But that would also slow down the speed of one's advancement.
Zhao Li himself was the perfect example. He was still a seventh-stage Cloudbreach after living for so long.
He had a very high seniority. In fact, his seniority was even higher than Wan Tiansheng's. But Wan Tiansheng was already in the Mountainsea Realm while he was stuck in the Cloudbreach Realm.
Even the strongest Cloudbreach was still a Cloudbreach. Wan Tiansheng could kill him in one slap. Furthermore, with a lower cultivation level, he would also have a shorter lifespan.
Most cultural researchers didn't care about the weakening of their body. But when they grew old, their sea of willpower would also start withering.
Theoretically, a Cloudbreach could live for 200 years. The limit of a Mountainsea would be pushed to 300 years. But in reality, how many people could live that long?
Of the Mountainsea that had emerged after year 50 of the Anping Calendar, how many were still alive? As for Skysoar cultivators, they probably couldn't live more than 150 years.
If Zhao Li did not advance into the Mountainsea Realm, his sea of willpower would also start withering after a few more years. Of course, with his deep foundation, he would still possess a powerful combat strength even with a withering sea of willpower. That was an unique advantage of his.
"I need to observe more..."
Zhao Li shut his eyes and stopped thinking about the matter. At times, the Soul Expanding Art might ruin someone. After all, it wasn't a good thing for a character master walking the path of offense like Su Yu to advance too slowly.
Those walking the path of offense required a lot of combat. They would constantly dance on the edge of death. These people needed to grow quickly. That was one of the reasons he had rejected Bai Feng back then.
Hong Tan only knew about the endurance of the Soul Expanding Art, but he wasn't aware that if Bai Feng had cultivated the Soul Expanding Art, he would probably still be stuck in the Mental Tempering Stage today. In this world, one couldn't gain strength for free. To gain something, one would need to lose something.
...
Wentan Research Center.
Fragment room.
Su Yu had an odd look in his eyes. He finally sensed that something was different about himself.
"My willpower percentage...dropped?"
He had been thinking about this for quite a while. Yes. His willpower percentage had dropped. Earlier, he had 55 percent willpower. But it had since dropped to the level of a fresh Mental Tempering Stage student.
He had a complicated expression. Naturally, he could sense that the actual strength of his willpower had not been weakened. So what did the drop of his willpower percentage meant? Did his limit...increase even more?
Su Yu was speechless. Just what had Old Zhao done to him? Had his limit been raised by those hammer strikes? It hadn't been easy for him to reach 55 percent willpower. But before he knew it, his willpower percentage had dropped back down.
"My limit has increased while my willpower percentage has dropped. But my strength remains."
That should be something good, right? After some thought, he concluded that it was probably a good thing. But he still felt somewhat gloomy. The Skysoar Realm felt even further away now.
"Fresh Mental Tempering Stage...this is acceptable. I can feign weakness and catch my opponents unaware. No, I'm not even pretending. My willpower percentage is really this low..."
Having reached that conclusion, he stopped contemplating and stepped into the second section of the fragment room. Wave after wave of willpower started assaulting him. His willpower erupted in resistance.
Ten minutes...thirty minutes...
He found that he could now last even longer in the fragment room. He couldn't even feel his limit coming, but he could feel that the willpower attack of the room was much less painful than before.
He stayed in the room until he couldn't anymore before leaving. And when his willpower recovered, he felt that his willpower percentage had increased. It was only a one percent increase, but this one percent felt much stronger than the previous one percent.
"My cultural weapon is stronger and my willpower is stronger as well..."
He turned his attention toward the blood character. Was that fellow going to advance or not? If it could reach the second tier, his strength would grow even more. Or at the very least, his illusions would be even more powerful.
He entered the filter room, allowing the blood character to absorb even more blood. At the same time, he also started cultivating with blood essence. After this cultivation session, he would no longer have any blood essence. And he only had 60 merit points remaining...
"I'm broke again."
Just like that, he had finished using around 1,000 merit points. He felt rather helpless. He stopped thinking about that and started focusing on his cultivation. While cultivating, he was also studying the Skybreak Technique's second move.
For the Skybreak Technique, each move required 16 acupoints. The second move was known as Life Reaper. It required 32 acupoints in total. With the first move, Wallbreaker, he could break through his opponent's defense. At that time, he could use the second move and reap the life of his opponent.
First, break the defense. Next, reap the opponent's life. The first move was more of a move with a specific usage. For example, he had destroyed Chen Qi's defenses with only one move during their match.
"For the second move, it mainly focuses on killing."
Through studying the second move, he was slowly starting to understand the usage of his kill character. As for the 32 required acupoints, he already had all the acupoints opened. He only needed to learn how to link those acupoints into a system to use the second move properly.
Without a willpower text, he could only slowly study by himself. A willpower text would help him save a lot of time.
"Open more acupoints, increase my willpower, strengthen my Divine Characters, and practice martial techniques..."
Su Yu was very busy. He was starting to wish that he could skip even sleep. Only when it was around three in the morning did he force himself to stop and go to sleep. He didn't want to overwork his body.
That night, he was assaulted by a nightmare again. These nightmares had been rather rare recently. As usual, he was killed in the dream. Usually, that would be enough to wake him up.
But this time, it didn't feel as painful. His body merely trembled slightly as he drifted back into sleep again. That night, he had a nice sleep.