novelraw Chapter 15 : Chapter 15
Chapter 15 : Chapter 15
Chapter 15: Blackwater High School Cannot Keep You
Iron-Cleaving Form.
It truly deserved to be called a High-Grade Cultivation Art.
Strictly speaking, it was not an offensive move.
Rather, it was more like a passive method of applying True Qi.
Through a special technique, it could pour a massive amount of True Qi into a weapon and unleash tremendous damage.
The reason it could be ranked as High Grade
was that it could directly strengthen the intensity of True Qi through compression.
It was similar to a charged heavy strike, except it could compress and enhance True Qi without wasting any of it.
Iron-Cleaving Form had only one weakness.
After charging, the attack speed slowed down, and the user also could not attack during the charging process.
It was genuinely powerful.
And it was genuinely slow.
That made it hard to land.
Iron-Cleaving Form was generally cultivated more often by sword and saber users, while spear users almost never chose it.
Because their attacks were not especially fast to begin with. If they became any slower, they would simply be inviting a beating.
But Li Mu was not afraid of that.
In the future, he would have the divine ability Immobilization Art.
At worst, he could just freeze his opponent first and then strike.
Of course, Immobilization Art required 200 Triumph Points to unlock.
Li Mu only had 70 at the moment.
And under the enhancement of the Unranked Heavenly Immortal Art, Li Mu had developed a new understanding of Iron-Cleaving Form.
He could pour in even more True Qi, and he could preserve it for longer, which meant he could store up power in advance.
And then deliver a devastating opening blow!
After comprehending Iron-Cleaving Form, Li Mu suddenly felt the energy inside his body begin to surge.
His eyelid twitched violently.
The Unranked Heavenly Immortal Art had actually begun revolving on its own.
It was as if consecutively comprehending two High-Grade Cultivation Arts had provided the Unranked Heavenly Immortal Art with tremendous nourishment.
Along Li Mu’s Yellow Rank life meridian,
a terrifying surge of energy crashed straight into the bottleneck between Yellow Rank First Grade and Yellow Rank Second Grade.
Boom!
It was as though thunder had exploded inside Li Mu’s body, and the node of Yellow Rank Second Grade suddenly lit up along his life meridian.
He had broken through!!
Li Mu was overjoyed.
Immediately afterward, his Dantian Sea underwent a startling transformation, growing broader still, while his Meridians became even tougher.
The continuously surging energy madly reforged his body!
When Martial Artists cultivated, their internal cultivation method determined their direction.
Some internal cultivation methods leaned toward strengthening the body, some toward strengthening cultivation arts and weapons, some toward attributes, and some toward defense. Each had its own focus.
Li Mu discovered that the Heavenly Immortal Art strengthened the body more than a basic internal cultivation method did.
But only by a limited amount.
Aside from deepening his understanding of cultivation arts, making his Dantian Sea more vast and dense, and making his Meridians broader and tougher,
the effect was really rather ordinary...
It seemed he still needed to raise its grade as quickly as possible. Only when it reached the Great Heavenly Immortal Art would it barely be satisfactory.
After breaking through, Li Mu’s mood improved greatly.
He glanced at the divine abilities in the system.
The ones he could unlock now were Fiery Eyes and Golden Gaze, Water-Avoidance Art, and Fire-Avoidance Art.
Fiery Eyes and Golden Gaze cost 50 points, while Water-Avoidance Art and Fire-Avoidance Art each astonishingly required 5000 points.
So Li Mu immediately bought Fiery Eyes and Golden Gaze.
The moment it unlocked, his expression darkened.
【Fiery Eyes and Golden Gaze: When activated, it sees through the movement of True Qi within the Meridians. It consumes a great deal of True Qi.】
Li Mu: ???
This was Golden Gaze?
Was this the one burned out of the alchemy furnace by Samadhi True Fire?
Was this not just the Hyuga Clan’s “Byakugan” all over again?
What a bargain-bin, low-spec imitation Great Sage!
Gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin.
It might as well be called Fiery Eyes and Tin Gaze!
Clearly, however, Fiery Eyes and Golden Gaze also needed Triumph Points to upgrade.
Below it were branching paths, much like a skill tree.
Divine Weapon Art and Mountain-Bearing Art did not have this kind of tree.
Those two could be quantified directly.
Divine Weapon Art increased jin by jin.
Mountain-Bearing Art increased ox by ox.
But because the description for Fiery Eyes and Golden Gaze did not include a quantifiable measure, a skill tree appeared instead.
Li Mu casually looked over a few branches he could unlock.
They were:
【Slightly reduce the amount of True Qi consumed】
【Vaguely perceive weaknesses in an opponent’s defense】
【Slightly increase resistance to visual illusions】
【Enhance night vision somewhat】
...
And not a single one of those branches was cheap. Even the least expensive required dozens of points.
The farther down the tree, the more expensive they became.
Li Mu only had 20 Triumph Points left.
So he simply poured them into Divine Weapon Art.
【Consumed 20 Triumph Points. “Divine Weapon Art” enhancement successful】
【Divine Weapon Art: Grants weight to weapons. Current weight: 70 jin.】
Li Mu nodded inwardly.
With his previous strength of one tiger and three oxen, wielding seventy jin had been more than manageable.
Now that he had reached the Second Grade Realm, his physique had improved as well.
With his physical strength combined with Mountain-Bearing Art, swinging two or three hundred jin was perfectly normal!
It was just a pity that he did not have enough Triumph Points.
If he could raise it to three hundred jin,
then even without using True Qi, if that thing slammed into someone,
they would at least end up bruised black and blue.
Letting out a long breath of turbid air, Li Mu opened his eyes.
Only then did he realize that every student in the carriage was staring at him in shock.
Just a few minutes earlier, the energy around Li Mu had suddenly burst outward, and a dazzling white radiance had nearly pierced through the entire carriage.
He had very obviously broken through.
He had broken through while sitting on the train?
And with only two days left before the Abyss First Battle, he had just broken through that casually?
“Good heavens, you really were born for examinations...”
The students all stared at one another for a moment before crowding around Li Mu again.
Li Mu rose to his feet and, grinning, dusted off his clothes.
“Please, sit down. There is no need to kneel and kowtow. A little gift from each of you will do.”
Although they had only spent one day together, Li Mu had already become quite close with everyone.
He was joking with them now.
“Brother, did your breakthrough really have to look this easy?”
“You are making me think I can do it too!” Xiao Lingtong complained.
“I was stuck there for a long time. I just happened to come across the right opportunity,” Li Mu lied casually.
“Then... you are in the Second Grade Realm now?”
a female student asked in astonishment.
When Li Mu nodded, strange expressions appeared on everyone’s faces again, as though they had all thought of the same thing.
“What is wrong with all of you?” Li Mu asked in confusion.
All the students wore faintly helpless looks as they glanced toward the carriage doors on both sides.
Among the onlookers in the neighboring carriages were not only students from Blackwater High School, but also students from at least three other schools.
The commotion from Li Mu’s breakthrough earlier had not been small. All of them had seen it.
Xiao Lingtong also let out a somewhat helpless sigh.
“Congratulations. When the other schools come to poach you, remember to demand a few more benefits for yourself.”
After Xiao Lingtong said that, the students all silently returned to their seats.
Only then did Li Mu understand what they meant.
With the Abyss First Battle fast approaching, a student who could step into the Second Grade Realm while still in the third year of high school was part of the core group competing for rankings.
One had to know that many of the so-called geniuses with A-rank or B-rank talents simply did not have enough natural ability.
Even with all kinds of resources and elixirs supporting them, they were still only at First Grade by the third year of high school.
And at a school like Blackwater, even students in late First Grade were pitifully rare.
Not to mention a student in the Second Grade Realm.
This was not something worth celebrating.
Because they simply could not keep him.
No matter which school came to recruit him away, they could offer Li Mu personal resources.
And the higher a school ranked, the greater its influence, and the better his chances of getting into a good university through the College Entrance Examination in the future.
So Li Mu was certain to be poached away within the next two days.
Li Mu did not bother explaining anything to them.
There was no need.
The carriage continued onward in that heavy, subdued atmosphere.
In the other two carriages, the news that Li Mu had broken through to the Second Grade Realm had already spread completely.
Before long, the train reached its stop.
Following the flow of students, Li Mu returned to Blackwater High School.
The moment he passed through the school gates, he could smell waves of food drifting through the air.
Across the broad school plaza stretched long rows of desks lined up like winding dragons.
On top of them were fruits, pastries, hot pot, stewed meat, soft drinks, and alcohol—everything one could ask for.
Quite a few second-year upperclassmen were helping arrange the venue.
Xiao Lingtong explained to Li Mu,
“This is the banquet our school is holding specially to reward us first-years after we return from military training.”
“The principal said we probably would not eat well in the Abyss, so when we came back at night, they wanted to give us something nourishing.”
“They are going to hold it for three days in a row.”
“Our school may be weaker in terms of resources, but the school spirit is actually quite good.”
In his words, Xiao Lingtong was also hoping that Li Mu would stay.
He simply did not say it outright. Li Mu had every right to pursue better resources, and some things only needed to be implied.
Still, after Xiao Lingtong finished speaking, he let out a helpless sigh.