Chapter 73 : Chapter 73

Chapter 73: The Secret Mission Involving Living Crystals

After leaving the Military Residential District, Li Mu headed for the Abyss to hand over the Falling Leaf Saber Art to the Cultivation Arts Faculty.

Meanwhile, Yang Suying and the others went home to start packing.

They were preparing to complete the full move tomorrow.

Li Mu returned to the Abyss and handed the completed Falling Leaf Saber Art he had written over to the Cultivation Arts Faculty.

If he had really hurried, one day would have been enough.

After all, the original Falling Leaf Saber Art had more than thirty thousand words.

What Li Mu wrote was only a little over ten thousand.

But since there was no rush anyway, there was no need for Li Mu to do anything so shocking that it exhausted him.

Inside the Cultivation Arts Faculty, Minister Song and the others stared at the completed Falling Leaf Saber Art Li Mu had written.

Every one of them was so astonished that they could not speak.

“This... this really is the Falling Leaf Saber Art?”

Although Minister Song already knew Li Mu’s comprehension was extraordinarily high,

this was still simply too outrageous.

Not only had he reduced it to just over ten thousand words, he had also made it concise and to the point, striking straight at the essence.

It even seemed to surpass the previous version of the Falling Leaf Saber Art.

Compared with the cultivation art Li Mu had written, the old version of the Falling Leaf Saber Art now actually seemed...

long-winded.

The Falling Leaf Saber Art had existed for twenty or thirty years by now, and its paper-format optimization had been carried out for well over a decade.

This was the result of more than ten years of research by countless cultivation art scholars.

Yet in Li Mu’s hands, it seemed like dross.

“This... how is this only a five percent improvement?”

“As long as a Martial Artist has decent comprehension, they could probably grasp at least fifty or sixty percent of it, right!?”

Even Professor Xu’s old eyes had grown somewhat misty.

The hand holding the book trembled slightly.

In his eyes, everyone in the Abyss-Suppressing Army was just a child.

If he could make those children a little stronger, then stronger still, enough to preserve their lives, that was the ultimate pursuit of his entire life.

Based on their estimates, the Paper-Format Cultivation Art Li Mu had produced was at minimum fifty percent stronger than the previous version.

As for the exact result, that would depend on how things played out in practice.

Both they and the Military Cultivation Art Research Bureau would select a group of Blade-Type Martial Artists and have them study the paper-format version.

Then they would compare them against another group of Blade-Type Martial Artists using the Cultivation Art Stone version as a control group.

Only then could they reach a concrete conclusion.

If Li Mu really could optimize the paper-format version to sixty percent strength, then it would practically be equivalent to giving every blade-type Martial Artist a free extra cultivation art.

That would absolutely count as a great merit.

“Quick! Immediately find ten Blade-Type Martial Artists who have never practiced the Falling Leaf Saber Art and begin control-group testing.”

Minister Song immediately began making arrangements.

Professor Xu, meanwhile, grabbed Li Mu’s hand.

“If there’s any cultivation art you want to study in the future, just tell me directly.

Even High-Grade Cultivation Arts are fine!”

Professor Xu’s aged hand gripped Li Mu tightly, his eyes full of admiration.

The reason he made Li Mu that promise was to make it easier for him to continue improving cultivation arts.

Although Li Mu was a genius and now belonged to the Cultivation Arts Faculty, they still could not force him to improve cultivation arts.

Because once they provoked Li Mu’s resentment, all he had to say was that he could not improve them, and there would be nothing they could do.

So with Li Mu, they could only use soft methods, never hard ones.

This matter depended entirely on Li Mu’s own willingness.

Promising him free access even to High-Grade Cultivation Arts was also a way of stimulating his personal initiative.

Li Mu truly took it to heart.

Because he still lacked two High-Grade Internal Cultivation Methods.

He was instantly overjoyed.

“Really?”

“Really!”

“But you have to work hard at optimizing Mortal Grade cultivation arts first,” Professor Xu said with a smile.

“All right, all right. I just happen to be short two high-grade cultivation arts. Let’s go.”

As soon as Li Mu finished speaking, he dragged Professor Xu toward the cultivation art storage room.

Professor Xu burst into laughter.

So in the end, he had been dragged off as a hostage.

Li Mu was afraid the people in the cultivation art room would not believe him if he went by himself.

Professor Xu was extremely generous.

He allowed Li Mu to choose one High-Grade Cultivation Art and one Premium Cultivation Art.

As for Mortal Grade cultivation arts, he let Li Mu choose as many as he liked.

Li Mu selected one Premium Internal Cultivation Method and one High-Grade Internal Cultivation Method.

He also took twelve Mortal Grade cultivation arts, ten of them spear-and-staff arts, one saber art, and one sword art.

Li Mu had actually wanted to take more.

But he noticed that Professor Xu was paying out of his own pocket to sponsor these cultivation arts for him.

The army had its own rules.

Li Mu had rendered great merit, and the military would naturally reward him according to merit.

But Professor Xu could not use the entire Cultivation Arts Faculty’s cultivation arts to reward Li Mu alone.

If things were done that way, everything would descend into chaos.

And besides, when it came to cultivation arts, trying to learn too many was always worse than mastering too few.

Taking this many all at once was already something Professor Xu could not understand.

But Li Mu had his own plans.

Even Mortal Grade cultivation arts, with the support of the Inferior Heavenly Immortal Art, were no worse than High-Grade offensive cultivation arts.

Once any cultivation art reached Li Mu’s hands and was strengthened by a hundred years of insight, it became an entirely different cultivation art, one that struck directly at the essence.

Li Mu also merged those two internal cultivation methods into the Inferior Heavenly Immortal Art.

【Inferior Heavenly Immortal Art has merged with ‘Killing Intent Replenishment’ and gained the ‘Replenishment’ trait】

【Replenishment: When attacking an enemy, it steals a small portion of True Qi and returns it to the user.】

【Inferior Heavenly Immortal Art has merged with ‘Bone-Piercing Hidden Force’ and gained the ‘Bone-Piercing’ trait】

【Bone-Piercing: Greatly enhances the penetrating power of attacks.】

Among them, Bone-Piercing Hidden Force was the Premium Internal Cultivation Method.

【Inferior Heavenly Immortal Art: Deepens the understanding of cultivated techniques with one hundred years of insight, greatly improves the Dantian Sea and Meridians, and can merge with internal cultivation methods, absorbing their traits into the Heavenly Immortal Art. Current traits: ‘Returnspring,’ ‘Replenishment,’ and ‘Bone-Piercing.’ The merged internal cultivation methods can be replaced.】

If you described those two new traits in gaming terms, one restored energy on hit, and the other granted armor penetration.

As for those other Mortal Grade cultivation arts, once Li Mu comprehended them through the Inferior Heavenly Immortal Art, he completely integrated them.

The current Li Mu

had already reached an entirely new level in his understanding of staff techniques such as sweeping, cleaving, thrusting, and chopping.

With every move and every stance, he could now perfectly display the martial techniques he had learned.

That was the terrifying strength of the Inferior Heavenly Immortal Art.

Once he reached a certain level, the offensive cultivation arts of this world were little more than icing on the cake for him.

The Great Sage divine abilities were practically a strike from a higher dimension in this world.

Now that he possessed a considerable number of Great Sage divine abilities, offensive cultivation arts were becoming less and less useful to Li Mu.

As for the one saber art and one sword art among those Mortal Grade cultivation arts, Li Mu had taken them purely to familiarize himself with such techniques in advance and prepare for optimizing paper-format cultivation arts in the future.

“The Falling Leaf Saber Art you improved this time has to undergo testing by our own people first.

A few days later, we’ll report it to the Military Cultivation Art Research Bureau. After they verify it, they’ll determine its exact strength.

Only then can your specific Military Merit be settled.

You’ll still need to wait patiently for a few days,” Professor Xu explained with a smile as he strolled along with his hands behind his back.

“That’s fine. I’m not in that much of a hurry.”

The two of them wandered out of the Cultivation Arts Faculty and looked up at the dome of the Abyss. Just as they were about to chat for a while longer, a squad of guards suddenly appeared in the distance ahead of them.

They seemed to be escorting several people quickly toward military headquarters.

“What happened?” Li Mu asked in puzzlement.

Professor Xu shook his head as well.

At the same time, inside the main conference room of military headquarters, a group of high-ranking officials was in the middle of a meeting.

Seated at the head was Liang Huajun, Commander-in-Chief of the Pearl Military District.

Deputy Commander-in-Chief Zhang Qing, Commanding Officer Liao Feng, and Deputy Commanding Officer Wang Longcheng were all present as well.

All four leaders of the military district had gathered together, and among those seated below them, the lowest-ranking officers were all Wolf Guards.

The atmosphere was solemn.

Liang Huajun spoke first.

“A Living Crystal Ore Vein is a rare energy metal resource and is extremely important in the forging of Premium-grade weapons and above.”

“The people from the research institute have already arrived. Their opinion is that we should conduct a preliminary survey first.”

“Let’s hear everyone’s thoughts as well.”

After speaking, he looked toward Zhang Qing.

After a moment of thought, Deputy Commander-in-Chief Zhang Qing spoke.

“I don’t think there is any need for a preliminary survey.

We should gather our forces and push straight in!

Then move fast and strike hard. At the very least, we can seize part of the resources.”

He spoke with great passion, but very few responded.

Wang Longcheng objected.

“That approach is too dangerous.

Many monsters feed on Living Crystals. If we send in a large force, we’ll expose ourselves far too quickly.

As long as there is even a single Upper Profound Rank monster there, the soldiers won’t even have a chance to retreat.

And once the ore vein is exposed, we’ll never get another chance to mine it.”

“My suggestion is also to conduct a preliminary survey.”

Zhang Qing gave Wang Longcheng a cool glance, anger faintly surfacing in his eyes.

But Wang Longcheng’s words received unanimous agreement.

At a moment like this, they were already short on manpower. If they concentrated their forces and ended up wiped out, it would be disastrous.

“Then we’ll conduct a preliminary survey first,” Liang Huajun said, making the final decision.

“The red line for the survey is Third Grade or below. There can be no more than four people in the entire area, and no more than two people per team.

The research institute has sent only one researcher, so there can only be one escort.”

“Does anyone have a recommendation?”

At that question, everyone present turned to look at Wang Longcheng.

Left with no choice, Wang Longcheng said, “My second daughter just happens to be a guaranteed-admission student in Abyss Surveying.

Her strength is at the peak of the Third Grade Realm, so she should be capable of handling this survey.”

Commanding Officer Liao Feng nodded.

“Deputy Commanding Officer Wang’s spirit of sacrifice is truly admirable.

If your daughter also participates in this operation, then the research institute definitely won’t be able to make any pointed remarks.

The significance of that would be immense.”

The others all nodded as well.

Wang Longcheng added, “However, I have one condition. The person escorting my daughter must be chosen by me!”