Chapter 352: Just Ask For It! (2)

"Kid..." For a moment, Zhao Li was speechless. He said, "You must have learned about something. I'll be frank, my father was the fourth principal. I have been ignoring that Divine Character he left behind. Why? Because he had grown thanks to the support of the academy. He represented the Great Xia Cultural Research Academy.

"Of course, strictly speaking, that grotto should be mine. If I refuse to acknowledge that, some Invincible families would probably have some issues with me for being the one to renounce the benefits brought by my seniors. For these people, what is the point of being the descendents of an expert if they can't enjoy the benefits brought by their seniors?

"You only need to pay 100 merit points per entry. That is actually very cheap. You need to know that the academy needs to spend money maintaining the grotto as well. The academy is earning some money from running the grotto, but in truth, the profit is negligible."

Su Yu nodded, "Teacher, it doesn't matter if I can't enter for free. I only wish to gain the right of entry for a few of my close friends. We can pay for their visits, but they don't have enough total earned merit. You know this. It is too hard for someone to earn total earned merit before reaching the Skysoar Realm."

"Looking at you, it doesn't seem difficult at all." Zhao Li joked. "Sure. The payment is for the sake of ensuring the operation of the grotto. As long as they are willing to pay the entrance fee, I don't mind giving you a special treatment when it comes to the required total earned merit."

He then searched a shabby couch in the room. After a while, he fished out a black token and said, "With this, you can send the people you want inside. Little Huang and Little Nie who are in charge of guarding the grotto will know what to do after seeing this token."

Little Huang...and Little Nie. Su Yu felt incredibly awkward hearing how Zhao Li was addressing the two seniors. Little Nie was still somewhat acceptable, but Little Huang reminded him of the dog of a grandpa next door back at Nanyuan.

"Thank you, Teacher."

Su Yu hurriedly accepted the token with a joyous expression. This was a great gift! With this token, he would be able to send his friends into the grotto. They would still need to pay, but this token would still save them a lot of trouble.

People like Hu Zongji and Lin Yao would probably take a very long time to gather enough total earned merit. After all, these were the people who couldn't get top 10 in the monthly examinations, couldn't get into the Top 100 Ranking, and were unqualified to even accept the regular missions of the academy.

The token felt somewhat cold to touch. The surface of the token only had a single hammer and the character "Zhao" on it.

Su Yu thanked happily, "Sorry for troubling you, Teacher. By the way, I found that my willpower has grown greatly after being hammered by you previously. When I tested my willpower, I found that it has reached the peak of the first tier."

"Peak first-tier?" Zhao Li nodded, "Not bad. But my hammer isn't that magical. It's thanks to yourself. Your willpower was already well-tempered before that. I only further solidified your willpower."

"Teacher, was that the effect of the Soul Expanding Art?"

"Yeah."

Zhao Li wasn't surprised that Su Yu would know about this. He would be a fool to still be clueness after all this time.

He smiled, "Do you regret your option? If you had decided to major in the weaponsmithing faction, I would have taught you the Soul Expanding Art. You will be enjoying the benefits of being hammered at all times. You need to know that after cultivating the Soul Expanding Art, your sea of willpower will be able to form a hammer by itself. You can use the hammer to temper your sea of willpower every single day."

Su Yu looked at Zhao Li with an odd gaze. Did this mean that...Teacher Zhao spent every single day hammering himself?

Zhao Li was somewhat speechless when he saw Su Yu's gaze. He said, "What are you looking at? Only a sea of willpower that has gone through countless temperings can be considered a true sea of willpower. Not even those at the Mountainsea Realm can hope to destroy my sea of willpower. This is the benefit of cultivating the Soul Expanding Art.

"Willpower can be split into tiers. Those at the Mental Tempering Stage have first-tier willpower, those at the Skysoar Realm have second-tier willpower, those at the Cloudbreach Realm have third-tier willpower, those at the Mountainsea Realm have fourth-tier willpower, and those at the Sunmoon have fifth-tier willpower. Currently, the highest tier a human can reach is the peak of the fifth tier. I might be a Cloudbreach cultivator, but my willpower has long reached the fourth-tier."

Su Yu asked in astonishment, "Why are you not in the Mountainsea Realm already?"

"Mountainsea..." Zhao Li shook his head and sighed, "It has been a while since you entered the academy so you should be aware of some things. To advance into the Mountainsea Realm, one's willpower, Divine Characters, and apertures need to reach a certain level. Back then, I had failed to forge an earth-grade weapon. Because of that, my main Divine Character was stuck at peak third-tier. Back then, in order to step into the Mountainsea Realm in one fell swoop, I had even fused my main Divine Character into that weapon. Since I had failed the forging of that weapon...I am probably stuck below the Mountainsea Realm for life."

In truth, there was still hope for him to advance, but the hope was too small. But he was no longer too bothered about it. A few years ago, he would still feel sad whenever he thought of this. But now, he was happy with letting everything happen naturally.

Perhaps one day, that weapon would suddenly finish its advancement. He would then be able to borrow that momentum to push his main Divine Character into the next tier and step into the Mountainsea Realm.

Su Yu finally understood why Zhao Li was still below the Mountainsea Realm. What a courageous option. Zhao Li had actually decided to fuse his main Divine Character into his cultural weapon. No wonder. It was no wonder that at the age of 120-cough, cough. It was no wonder that he was still stuck.

"But why aren't you at the ninth-stage Cloudbreach Realm, Teacher?"

Zhao Li replied, "It's because of the Soul Expanding Art. I was already at the ninth-stage, but after my failed advancement, I can't keep enlarging my sea of willpower. However, my Soul Expanding Art has been continuously tempering my sea of willpower and compressing it. Eventually, my cultivation dropped to the seventh-stage due to the compression of my willpower."

Su Yu finally understood.

So this person was actually a ninth-stage Cloudbreach cultivator previously. But after his failed breakthrough, he had been compressing his willpower so much that his cultivation dropped to the seventh-stage Cloudbreach Realm.

"Will...you keep lowering your cultivation?"

𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

"Nope." Zhao Li smiled, "There is a limit to everything. If I keep compressing my willpower, it will probably turn completely solid. This is probably my limit."

Su Yu was curiously, "After compressing your willpower so much, wouldn't you be a super expert among those in the Mountainsea Realm right after entering that realm?"

"That is unlikely..." Zhao Li laughed, "But in terms of willpower strength alone, not even a regular third-stage Mountainsea cultivator will be my match after I enter the Mountainsea Realm. As for the middle-stage Mountainsea Realm, that is an entirely different level."

"Teacher, what happened to your weapon? Why did the forging fail?"

Seeing that Zhao Li was quite talkative today, Su Yu took the chance to ask more questions.

Zhao Li sank into contemplation. After a while, he said, "Back then, I ran out of energy during the forging process. Supposedly, an earth-grade weapon requires 73 golden veins. I was capable of forging a weapon with 73 golden veins. But I was too ambitious and greedy. I believed that I could forge a weapon with more golden veins."

Zhao Li shook his head and sighed, "I was too arrogant. I used the best materials I could find to build the foundation for my weapon's future advancement into the heaven-grade. Because of that, the difficulty of forging increased. And after I fused my main Divine Character into the weapon, I further increased the difficulty of the forging. At the 72nd golden vein, I ran out of steam. I failed to produce the 73rd vein and my weapon failed to break through. And because the materials used were too strong, my main Divine Character ended up stuck in the weapon after that..."

Zhao Li exhaled deeply, "The only way to get my main Divine Character back is by destroying the weapon, but destroying the weapon will also heavily damage my character. I am also unwilling to do so to this weapon, so I have been nourishing the weapon all these years. Perhaps I would get lucky one day and the weapon would complete the advancement by itself."

"..."

Su Yu scratched his head and asked, "Teacher, can't you reforge your weapon?"

"Of course I can." Zhao Li glanced at Su Yu and said, "But I am even weaker than I used to be. You have witnessed the process of reforging golden veins previously. You know how hard it is. I can only do so if I receive help. In Great Xia, there is that one fellow with the ability to help me..."

"The sole earth-grade weaponsmith in Great Xia?"

Zhao Li curled his lips, "Yes. But I can't be bothered to waste my time talking to him. That fellow has been coveting my main Divine Character and Soul Expanding Art. I would rather be stuck in this realm forever than to seek his help."

Zhao Li looked at Su Yu regretfully, "Kid, you have a powerful willpower. If you cultivate the Soul Expanding Art, you might be strong enough to help me after reaching the Cloudbreach Realm. Why don't you join us after your multiple character faction is destroyed?"

"..."

Su Yu smiled awkwardly. That was...really straightforward. Destroyed? How destroyed would the faction need to be?

Su Yu scratched his head and said, "Teacher, why don't you teach me the Soul Expanding Art? I promise that I will help you reforge your weapon after reaching the Cloudbreach Realm. I can cultivate very fast. I will be at the Cloudbreach Realm in no time!"

Zhao Li looked at Su Yu stupefaction. Holy shit! This kid...was truly shameless.

Su Yu gave a hollow laugh, "Don't look at me like this, Teacher. I'm being serious. I can cultivate really fast!"

"Fuck off." Zhao Li said, "You're not even my direct student. What am I supposed to teach my final student if I teach you my secret technique?"

Su Yu smiled, "Teacher, I don't see you accepting a new student anytime soon. You might as well consider me as a temporary final student. Officially, the multiple character faction no longer exists. Technically, I am already majoring in the weaponsmithing faction. Are you not aware of this?"

"..."

Zhao Li was completely dumbfounded. Was that the case? So this kid was now a member of the weaponsmithing faction? That...seemed to make sense? After all, the multiple character faction no longer existed. In the academy records, Su Yu was actually registered as a member of the weaponsmithing faction even though he was still a student of the Character Faculty.

Zhao Li grabbed his white hair in confusion. Did this count? Was the kid already a member of the weaponsmithing faction instead of the multiple character faction? But why did that logic feel so off?