The mayor moved efficiently. Before long, news about the closure of the spring started spreading in the city. Everyone was informed that as long as one registered, one could potentially win a profound weapon. Or to be precise, a peak profound weapon.

Even a low-tier profound weapon could fetch an incredible price. A low-tier profound cultural weapon was worth at least a thousand merit points. And at the peak profound grade, the weapon could easily surpass ten thousand merit points in price. Even regular Mountainseas would find such a weapon unaffordable.

The person lucky enough to win the weapon could sell it for a large sum of money even if they couldn't use it themselves. If it was a cultural weapon, it would be slightly inferior to custom-made cultural weapons. But a cultural weapon was still a cultural weapon. It was still incredibly valuable.

And if it was a martial weapon, even warriors would be able to use it. Of course, in that situation, its value would be lower than a cultural weapon. Nevertheless, having a profound weapon was still better than not having a profound weapon.

Thus, everyone could look forward to this with excitement. And as expected, nobody was angry that the spring was going to be closed for a few days. Instead, everyone started waiting in excitement.

***

The next day arrived. It was the 12th of June.

Accompanied by several local weaponsmiths, Su Yu was personally brought to the Heart Calming Spring by the mayor himself. He was being treated with a high level of importance. After exchanging some polite words with the others, Su Yu entered the spring alone.

The process of entering was the same as any other grotto. He only had to step through a portal to enter an independent pocket world. A massive pond could be seen in front of him. And fresh spring water constantly sprayed out from the underground.

Su Yu exhaled before smiling. The identity of a weaponsmith was indeed useful. He wouldn't have been able to enjoy this place all by himself otherwise.

He said nothing and jumped straight into the pond. Instantly, he felt a unique power cleansing his body. Initially, the water in the pond was crystal clear. But as the cleansing began, it actually turned red. That was the color of blood!

Su Yu had consumed way too much blood before. Even with the blood character, he still had a lot of leftover blood within him. Not even the Pure Source Art could cleanse him of the blood he had consumed.

The blood he had consumed had seeped into his very bones. The massive pond had actually turned red right after he jumped in it. Anyone else would be greatly alarmed by the sight of this.

Just how many people must one kill and how much blood must one consume to be tainted with so much blood? While cleansing his body, Su Yu started forging a weapon. He had to make something if he didn't want to incur suspicion.

As for the color of the water, it didn't matter. The spring was capable of self-purification. It had only turned red because Su Yu was polluting it faster than it could purify itself. Before long, the water would return to its previous color.

The water here was precious, but unfortunately, it would lose its properties after leaving this grotto.

While forging a weapon and cleansing his body, Su Yu also worked on extracting more heavenly source qi from blood essence. He could use this chance to rid himself of the stench he would get from working on so much blood essence. He had a large amount of blood essence in his possession so this was a good opportunity to convert most some into heavenly source qi. After all, Xia Huyou had purchased his heavenly source qi with blood essence instead of money.

As time passed, the color of blood in the pond became thicker and thicker. Even the blood character had been tossed into the pond to cleanse itself. It had absorbed too much blood so it also had a large amount of impurities.

After spending some time in the pond, the blood character actually started looking sparkling and shiny. And thanks to the cleansing, it even started showing signs of entering the fourth tier.

The blood character was the first to reach the second and third tiers. And it could very well continue its streak and become the first to reach the fourth tier as well. At that time, it would become a true Mountainsea character.

The Heart Calming Spring was actually working well in calming his mind. He could feel the anger in his heart calming significantly after spending some time in the pond.

Time passed slowly.

Eventually, the water in the pond started reverting to its previous color as the red in the water started growing thin. After a day passed, Su Yu completed his first martial weapon. It had sixty-seven golden stripes.

He spent the second day weaponsmithing as well. He did not leave. On the night of the second day, he completed a cultural weapon with sixty-six golden stripes without any special properties.

At that point, the water of the pond had returned to its original color. About half of his blood essence supply had been converted to heavenly source qi. He left the rest alone.

After the cleansing, his entire body felt light and relaxed. His willpower also felt much more lively than before. It was also starting to show signs of advancement into the Cloudbreach Realm.

"I'm on the cusp of Cloudbreach."

Su Yu could sense his coming advancement very clearly. In fact, he could already feel it after the forging session with Zhao Li. But he had tempered his sea of willpower more with his hammer and suppressed the breakthrough.

Today, his willpower was showing signs of breakthrough yet again. The spring wasn't magical enough that it could trigger a breakthrough, but it had greatly relaxed Su Yu's mind. And the moment he relaxed his taut mind, he felt like he could no longer stop the momentum of the breakthrough.

"Am I going to complete my advancement here?"

If he allowed this advancement, only his willpower would reach the Cloudbreach Realm, not his body. In truth, his apertures and characters had reached a sufficient level for a breakthrough into the Cloudbreach Realm. Only his willpower was holding him back, and it wouldn't even be hard for him to push his willpower to a sufficient level as well. For him, pushing his body to the Cloudbreach Realm was much harder.

Su Yu felt like a breakthrough without 360 apertures wasn't perfect, but he wasn't too bothered about it. He believed that his advancement into the Cloudbreach Realm would not generate a phenomenon.

Previously, a phenomenon had only appeared due to the Five Elemental Arts. The other phenomenon had appeared due to his physical cultivation.

"Since an advancement is coming...I will let nature take its course."

He stopped suppressing his willpower. If it wanted to advance, so be it. At the Cloudbreach Realm, his disguise would be even better. Invincibles might still be able to see through him, but with his fourth-tier willpower and Niu Baidao's talisman, he should be able to hide perfectly from even Sunmoons, right?

He inhaled deeply and started forging yet another weapon. He had a feeling that if he could complete this cultural weapon, it would be much stronger than any weapons he had forged before. And the completion of the weapon would also push him to the next realm, making him a proper Cloudbreach cultural researcher.

At this point, two days and two nights had passed.

***

At the same time.

A lot of the people outside were starting to get anxious. Why was Cui Lang still not out yet?

Even the mayor was getting nervous. He asked, "Senior Chen, is Cui Lang not done yet? Does a profound weapon take such a long time to forge?"

Closing the spring for too long wasn't a good idea. A day or two was fine, but any longer would be troublesome. And two whole days had passed.

Senior Chen was also feeling quite gloomy. He had no choice but to say something, "He might have comprehended something. Don't worry. It won't take much longer..."

"Should we send someone in to take a look?"

"That won't do. Each weaponsmith has a unique weaponsmithing style. No outsider can pry on the process. This will result in a feud..."

Right at that moment, someone appeared in front of them. The newcomer coldly said, "Can I enter, then? I said that nobody from Great Xia is allowed to enter the spring. Mayor Liu, are you looking down on me?"

The mayor frowned and said, "Greetings, General Zhang. Cui Lang is from Great Ming. He is unrelated to Great Xia..."

"Hmph. He was in Nanyuan when my son went missing. No, to be precise, my son was killed!"

The newcomer looked at the Heart Calming Spring frostily and said, "Through my investigation, I found that the murderer is no longer in Great Xia. Instead, the murderer has traveled north. This Cui Lang is one of the suspects. Why did he pick such a time to visit the Heart Calming Spring instead of any other time?"

"General Zhang!"

Master Chen frowned and said, "For many weapponsmiths, a random fortuitous opportunity is what one needs. And this is one such fortuitous opportunity for Cui Lang..."

The general did not even wait for him to finish before flying toward the Heart Calming Spring.

Master Chen roared, "You dare? No weaponsmith can tolerate having their secrets pried upon when they are working on a weapon. You might be a Sunmoon, but even someone like you needs to consider the consequences of offending a weaponsmith!"

The general ignored the warning. He had to see for himself if Cui Lang was here to cleanse the stench of blood on him. The general suspected that Cui Lang was related to the death of his son.

This was too big of a coincidence. But he had barely opened the entrance of the grotto when a furious roar rang out, "Scram! Damn it! Do you think you're hot shit just because you're an expert?"

At that exact moment, numerous people saw through the opened portal that a hammer with seventy golden stripes was hovering above the pond. At the same time, intense bursts of willpower were rippling out of Cui Lang's body.

These were the signs of a breakthrough!

Su Yu knew who the newcomer was, but he did not care. He furiously howled, "Piss off! If I fail this advancement, a blood feud will form between us!"

Boom!

A massive willpower explosion erupted.

Su Yu madly hammered the cultural weapon while roaring at the general, "Fuck you and everyone dear to you! I am on the verge of completing an earth weapon! Damn you!"

The expressions of Master Chen and the other weaponsmiths changed massively when they saw that.

Seventy stripes!

And the seventy-first stripe was on the verge of taking form.

Master Chen roared furiously, "Zhang He, get out of there! Do you want to start a blood feud with all weaponsmiths of humanity?"

Even General Zhang's expression changed. A breakthrough! A cultural weapon with more than seventy golden stripes!

He took a quick look at the water in the pond before hurriedly saying, "My apologies, this is a misunderstanding..."

He then withdrew from the grotto. Meanwhile, a massive uproar had erupted outside the grotto.

Seventy golden stripes!

"Is...he really going to forge an earth weapon here?"

Someone softly said, "Shit. If he fails...the weaponsmithing faction is not weak. Every single earth weaponsmith is an incredibly important individual. Even if you're a Sunmoon...General Zhang is in trouble."

General Zhang's expression turned extremely unsightly. Cui Lang was really forging weapons in there.

This was actually a breakthrough attempt. This could pose him great trouble. He had thought that weaponsmithing was merely an excuse. But he was really in trouble. He could only pray that the advancement would not fail. Otherwise, the weaponsmithing faction of humanity might end up placing a ban on him or even Great Jin as a whole.