High-Martial World: System Arrives 30 Years Late-Chapter 57: Reforging the Cold Moon, Awakening Sword Momentum
"Looks like you haven’t been idle this summer vacation."
Wang Shuheng squinted slightly, and with his strong spiritual power, he instantly sensed that the qi and blood aura emanating from Su Mu was much stronger than two months ago.
"I’ve made some progress during this time. Teacher, this bag is some fruits and vegetables from my hometown, please have a taste, as well as these three spirit fruits."
Wang Shuheng’s gaze fell on the three spirit fruits, which were shaped like water droplets and covered with snake scale-like patterns on the surface.
The Scale Blood Fruit, a rather special existence among Third Level spirit fruits, has its greatest effect in replenishing depleted qi and blood. It’s useless for young martial artists with vigorous qi and blood, but for older martial artists, its effects are comparable to Fourth or Fifth Level spirit fruits.
"You’re thoughtful, kid."
Wang Shuheng nodded slightly, accepting them. As for the big bag of fruits and vegetables, he put it into his space ring without even looking at it, feeling the sentiment behind it.
"Let me ask you, what are the standards for qi and blood increase for weapons of different levels?"
"A First Level weapon increases qi and blood by more than twenty percent, a Second Level by fifty percent, Third Level by ninety percent, Fourth Level by 1.5 times, Fifth Level by three times, Sixth Level by five times, Seventh Level by seven times, Eighth Level by eight times, and Ninth Level by nine times or more but less than ten times."
"What’s the main role of materials like secret iron?"
"First, the strength of ordinary materials can’t bear the inscriptions after activation; second, materials like secret iron have excellent conductivity for inscriptions and qi and blood."
Elder Wang nodded, checking more than a dozen other questions, all of which Su Mu could answer. Finally, Elder Wang switched his focus, "How is your breathing technique cultivation going recently?"
Breathing technique?
Su Mu guessed the teacher was testing to see if he had discovered any secret techniques.
"Teacher, following your insights, I recently managed to incorporate an additional movement."
Hearing this, Elder Wang was satisfied yet slightly shocked. This kid’s talent was indeed peculiar, having made considerable progress in less than three months.
After the quiz, Su Mu brought out Cold Moon, "Teacher, I recently want to reforge this blade."
Elder Wang took Cold Moon and, after assessing it as a usual Third Level weapon, lost interest, then looked at Su Mu, waiting for more.
"Teacher, I also coincidentally got a piece of material recently and would like to ask for your help to reforge this blade."
Elder Wang raised an eyebrow, unsurprised but curious about what material this kid could produce; if it didn’t meet expectations...
He would certainly scold the kid a bit.
The next second, a fist-sized piece of copper essence emerged.
Wang Shuheng’s eyes widened slightly, "Copper Essence? And it’s high purity!"
The teacher waved his hand, an invisible force lifted the copper essence, causing it to float away from Su Mu’s hand toward him.
"Controlling objects out of thin air... If ambushing or striking first, it indeed has the upper hand, worthy of being a powerful ability Sixth Level martial artists generally only begin to grasp!"
It was the first time Su Mu had felt spiritual power up close, and he couldn’t help but remark.
Minutes later, Elder Wang placed the copper essence on a nearby table, with a look of disdain at Su Mu, "This copper essence is almost without impurities, and it should weigh about 110 pounds, worth nearly two million low-grade spirit stones in the market now."
However, Wang Shuheng didn’t continue asking. While this was expensive, it wasn’t particularly rare.
Two million low-grade spirit stones?!
Su Mu was slightly shocked, as he had underestimated the copper essence from the magic box, initially estimating it at 750,000 low-grade spirit stones, but its actual value was nearly three times that.
"Planning to blend this into your broken knife?"
"If you fully integrate this into the broken knife, it’s not only wasteful but also the reforged knife wouldn’t be something you could actually wield."
"My suggestion is to cut off three to five pounds to carry Fifth Level inscriptions; although it would still be wasteful, it’s the most suitable for you currently. You have a power talent, so the main blade body could be made of thousand-forged iron... if you like this blade, you can also melt it down to forge a scabbard."
Su Mu’s eyes lit up, as Cold Moon, his first weapon, had helped him slay a Fifth Level Alien Race, and he had some affection for it.
Melting it into a scabbard, in a sense, would be a continuation.
"You kid, come help me tomorrow, don’t think of slacking off. Keep the remaining copper essence for yourself when the time comes."
"Thank you, teacher!"
Su Mu was delighted; the teacher had agreed to help.
At this point, Su Mu brought out two spatial rings from Alien Races, intending to process the weapons in them, but Elder Wang realized where the copper essence came from, guessing it was from that Fifth Level Alien Race Su Mu dealt with.
"You really have good luck, but these two rings are not clean, there are still spiritual imprints left by the Alien Race."
Su Mu thought that was the case; during the summer, he intended to save one for Miaomiao but was worried about this issue.
He saw the eyes of Teacher Wang Shuheng flash with silver radiance, and his silver hair, streaked with black, floated without wind, while Su Mu felt a solid and powerful, invisible force surround him.
Moments later, Wang Shuheng retracted his spiritual power, "What do you plan to do with the weapons in your rings?"
Su Mu shared his plan.
"Alright, I’ll accept it on behalf of the Forging Academy."
The two rings contained a total of 59 weapons; Su Mu kept nine sabers, while Elder Wang wrote a purchase order from the Forging Academy for one million low-grade spirit stones for the other fifty weapons.
Finally, Su Mu thought for a moment and asked, "Teacher, do you know about the Blue Star Genius Alliance Competition?"
"If you calculate the time, the selection competition will be right after the new year, you want to join, kid?"
"It’s up to you, it might be good to broaden your horizons."
Elder Wang didn’t think much of it, and after chatting with Su Mu about the alliance competition, he casually added, "If you can make it to the preliminary round, I’ll give you a small gift."
A small gift from the teacher?
...
In the forge, the flames were raging.
"A piece of material must be hammered thousands of times, folded and forged dozens of times, to remove impurities and fully integrate the Qi and blood into it, only then can it be used as a material for forging weapons, otherwise, it is just fragile waste."
Su Mu infused his Qi and blood into the forging hammer, lighting up all the special inscriptions. His strong arm swung the hammer, striking repeatedly on the red-hot iron.
"Pay attention to your breathing, control the rhythm, use your waist and abdomen to drive your limbs."
Sparks flew as the casting hammer struck heavily. At the moment of contact, the special inscriptions fully injected the Qi and blood that Su Mu had infused into the red-hot iron, producing a series of slight sizzling sounds.
Elder Wang listened to the sounds with a hint of surprise. Su Mu’s Qi and blood purity seemed quite high, at least higher than that of a typical Fourth Level Martial Artist.
During this time, he continually corrected Su Mu’s hammering mistakes.
Clang, clang, clang!
The sound of iron striking echoed throughout the Forging Room, unending.
In one morning, after thousands of hammer swings and Qi and blood outputs, Su Mu’s face turned pale, but his eyes grew brighter, and his superpower of diligence silently activated.
Every so often, a line of text appeared before his eyes.
[Repeated hammering ten times, your forging skill has slightly improved!]
[Repeated hammering a hundred times, your forging skill has slightly improved!]
[Repeated hammering a thousand times, your forging skill has slightly improved!]
"This kid picks up quickly, also has a power talent, a promising hammering candidate." Elder Wang nodded silently, thinking to call for this kid to hammer after he gets beaten in the Three Cities Training Camp.
After a whole day, Su Mu, exhausted, returned to his dormitory and used meditation to ease his muscle soreness.
With experience from refining his heart, Su Mu planned to follow the same method later, refining after gathering hundreds of drops of Condensed Blood.
"Perhaps refining the other four organs with Condensed Blood will bring some changes too?" Su Mu looked forward to it.
With the refining progress slowed, Su Mu knew that his realm wouldn’t break through in the short term, so he focused on the two Sword Techniques. The Sword Techniques could significantly enhance his strength in preparation for the upcoming assessment.
Between the two Sword Techniques, Su Mu’s Surging Waves Saber Technique showed noticeable progress, while he had yet to get started with the Sword Nurturing Technique. The Nurturing Blade Chapter had no Saber Forms, only profound Cultivating Blade Qi, but where did this Blade Qi come from?
The Sword Nurturing Technique didn’t mention a word.
This left Su Mu unable to use his superpower of diligence to practice the Sword Nurturing Technique, so he had to practice the Surging Waves Saber Technique.
Cold Moon was taken for reforging, so Su Mu casually took a knife from the Space Ring as a substitute. As soon as he held it, he immediately felt unaccustomed.
"Still, Cold Moon suits me."
After swinging a few strikes, Su Mu paused, realizing that a whole day of hammering had made him instinctively use hammering methods, and only after a few strikes did he realize he wasn’t using the Surging Waves Saber Technique.
[Repeated hammering ten times, your forging skill has slightly improved!]
Seeing this line of text, Su Mu paused again.
A few seconds later.
He took out a casting hammer, then repeated the Surging Waves Saber Technique ten times.
[Repeated Surging Waves Saber Technique ten times, your sword technique skill has slightly improved!]
Hmm?
The next day, Elder Wang noticed Su Mu’s hammering was a bit strange, but each strike’s strength was well controlled, and the way he exerted force was consistent, not like he was messing around, so Elder Wang let him be.
Three days later, a look of appreciation appeared in Elder Wang’s eyes. Even after consuming elixirs to restore Qi and blood, Su Mu persisted in hammering. This drive was truly commendable!
Hammering during the day, swinging the saber at night.
Ten days later.
[Repeated Surging Waves Saber Technique over 300,000 times, diligence has bridged inadequacy, after nine failed enlightenment attempts, you successfully triggered an enlightenment!]
Su Mu entered a marvelous state, and his forging robe, soaked countless times by sweat, fluttered without the wind, rustling.
After 300,000 saber swings, the slight improvements in his sword technique skill suddenly underwent a qualitative change!
At this moment, Su Mu saw a blade with unparalleled sharpness.
Then a fierce and domineering aura emanated from him, and at this moment, he seemed to truly become a blade.
This unique sharpness startled Elder Wang, who was studying the inscriptions, a look of amazement and shock on his face.
"This sharpness... No mistake, it’s Sword Momentum?!"
"Good lad, turning hammer into a blade, blazing a new trail, so all this time, you’ve been frantically practicing the saber!"
"Entering the city’s Training Camp by virtue of Sword Momentum won’t be hard, but it’s a pity for a Fourth Level Martial Artist to achieve something in this Genius Competition. The growth time left for this kid is too short." Elder Wang sighed, a feeling of regret in his heart.
...
That night, a terrified scream shattered the tranquility of Linjiang Base. A corpse was found, its eyes gouged out, its tongue cut off.
"Dead, someone’s dead!"
Panic spread through the streets, people flustered.
Shortly after, the deceased’s identity was confirmed, it was Chang Yuanqing, the Vice City Lord of Linjiang Base...
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