"Teacher Lin, I am not very familiar with weapons. Could you tell me the price difference between a Tier Three and a Tier Four weapon these days?"
"For a Tier Three, it's straightforward. The market price is about fifteen thousand Spirit Stones. Teacher Su, you could probably get one for around ten thousand Spirit Stones because the instructors at our Forging Academy can forge them themselves."
"As for Tier Four weapons, only the dean and Elder Wang can forge them at the moment. The dean is currently not at the academy, and Elder Wang seldom forges. Teacher Su, you can apply through the school to commission one under the school's name. That way, you can get a discount."
"As far as I know, a Tier Four weapon starts at thirty thousand Spirit Stones."
Su Mu was taken aback upon hearing this. The price of weapons was truly exorbitant, measured in tens of thousands.
At the moment, he had about thirty-eight thousand Spirit Stones on hand. The gifts from Sun Jianren and others amounted to around eighteen thousand Spirit Stones, with Sun Jianren alone giving ten thousand Spirit Stones.
Tier Four or Tier Three?
According to Teacher Lin, Su Mu's funds could get him a Tier Four, but starting at thirty thousand Spirit Stones doesn't guarantee a satisfactory weapon.
Moreover, he planned to save some Spirit Stones to extract superpowers, and he also had to consider his wife and children, as he wasn't alone.
After some thought, Su Mu decided to commission a Tier Three weapon. Rather than blindly pursuing higher tiers, he chose practicality.
Under Teacher Lin's guidance, Su Mu began selecting weapon designs.
Among the types of weapons, Su Mu chose a sword.
The sword, the courage of a hundred weapons, is the king of arms.
The sword can exploit Su Mu's advantage in power talent, and the essence of a sword lies in courage. Without moves or techniques, courage comes first. The brave win, the timid lose; this is the inviolable technique of swordsmanship.
This means that mastering a sword is much easier than mastering weapons like guns or spears. As long as you can slash, you can harness most of its power.
Faced with the blacksmith's meticulously designed weapon blueprints, Su Mu, being an outsider, decided not to suggest modifications. He immediately took a liking to a sword resembling a Tang horizontal sword among the many available.
"This one."
"Teacher Su, since you're part of our Forging Academy, we'll prioritize forging it for you. It should take about a month."
"Great, thank you for the trouble."
Su Mu readily paid ten thousand Spirit Stones on the spot.
After commissioning the weapon, Su Mu clearly felt an oppressive sense of calm before a storm.
"What I need to do now is to enhance my strength as much as possible!"
"I strive to advance to a Fourth Level Martial Artist before entering the Alien Race Battlefield."
As for his wife and children, Su Mu wasn't too worried. Linjiang Base was a small place, inland, and there were no Alien Race Battlefields nearby, so this upheaval wouldn't affect Linjiang Base.
"I won't mention the assessment to Miaomiao for now, to avoid worrying her and Xiaoyue."
Outside the dormitory, Old Zhao arrived again today, bringing a lot of things with him.
"Teacher Su, I am really grateful to you. Today, my granddaughter said she received a special recruitment message from the school."
"It's nothing."
"Teacher Su, these are some specialties sent from my hometown. I brought them for you to try, please don't mind."
"Alright, I'll accept them then." Su Mu smiled.
"By the way, Teacher Su, I heard the Alien Race Battlefield isn't peaceful recently. Do you want to get a batch of Qi Blood Pills in advance?"
Su Mu was taken aback. He had already gotten half a year's supply in advance to strive for the Third Level. Can he still get them now?
"Teacher Su, I've smoothed out your previous half-year direct allowance, so it doesn't count anymore. Now that you're an advisor, the monthly allowance isn't ordinary supplements, it's entry-level Qi Blood Pills." Old Zhao whispered.
Entry-level Qi Blood Pills!
Su Mu's eyes brightened. The treatment of a university teacher is indeed good. Before, he couldn't bear to use the entry-level elixirs, only using ordinary Qi Blood supplements.
A Tier One Qi Blood Pill costs at least ten times more than ordinary Qi Blood supplements.
He immediately went with Old Zhao to the Logistics Department to fetch three months' supply of Qi Blood Pills in advance, ten pills per month, totaling thirty. Additionally, Old Zhao used his position to extract a batch of soon-to-expire Qi Blood Elixirs from the warehouse.
This added up to fifteen more.
In the underground Cultivation Room, Su Mu poured out a smooth, thumb-sized, shimmering white elixir from a small porcelain bottle, with a refreshing aroma pervading the air.
The elixir melted immediately upon entry, transforming into a refreshing coolness.
"You get what you pay for. The effects of this entry-level elixir indeed surpass Qi Blood supplements."
Su Mu was very satisfied and immediately focused, entering a cultivation state.
Two days later.
Su Mu shivered; inside, his Qi and blood roiled for a while before settling. He once again felt the bottleneck, but this time Su Mu wasn't at all frustrated.
The bottleneck indicated that his Qi and blood had reached the limit of what a Third Level Martial Artist could achieve. This bottleneck now was for a Fourth Level Martial Artist.
That night, during a club meditation activity, it was a double celebration.
Su Mu completed the fusion of the ninth movement in his Breathing Technique, just one step away from achieving minor success in it.
"Teacher Su, are you going to the Alien Race Battlefield soon? If so, please be careful," Zhao Meng suddenly said.
"I will be careful, thank you for your concern."
"Teacher Su, if you're busy, you can actually skip the club activities for now." Zhao Meng gathered her courage to continue; recently, many club members had not been attending meditation sessions.
"No, it's fine. Meditation actually helps a lot with my cultivation."
Su Mu was telling the truth, but to Zhao Meng, it meant something else entirely.
This scene was witnessed by Li Xue, who sneered internally, "Just wait, Zhao Meng, you won't be smug for long. Wasting time every night on these meaningless club activities, your Teacher Su is definitely going to fail the mentor assessment."
Time flew by; in the blink of an eye, it was the end of June.
In the Cultivation Room, Su Mu's forehead was beaded with sweat the size of soybeans. At this moment, inside his body, his entire Qi and blood power was consolidating into two solid blood lines, and he was entirely focused on guiding the blood lines to gently rotate.
With each breath in and out.
The state of resonance continued, and Su Mu's heart raced. He had attempted countless times this month, but they all ended in failure.
Adjusting his breathing to be as smooth as possible, Su Mu slowly channeled the newborn Qi and blood power cultivated with the Breathing Technique into the double helix.
As the newborn Qi and blood continuously joined in, the double helix structure gradually took shape.
Su Mu's complexion grew paler—a sign of Qi and blood power depletion—but a look of ecstasy appeared on his face.
"Finally... it worked!"
A small segment of an abrupt double helix path to the heart appeared within him. Upon careful observation, one could find this small double helix segment was in the process of self-destructing.
Su Mu didn't dare to delay, immediately swallowing another previously prepared Qi Blood Pill, and after absorbing the medicinal power, mobilized his Qi and blood to nurture this hard-won bridge prototype.
Once the bridge prototype was stabilized, Su Mu slowly exhaled, unable to conceal his excitement.
The beginning of all things is difficult; now that the bridge to the heart had a prototype, the next step was to continuously extend, expand, and nurture this bridge with Qi and blood power.
Once this bridge was fully built, advancing to a Fourth Level Martial Artist would naturally follow.
"No wonder Fourth Level Martial Artists need more efficient Breathing Techniques. The unfinished Qi Blood Bridges continually self-destruct, requiring Martial Artists to constantly nurture and solidify them with Qi and blood or else all efforts would be in vain."
"Luckily, I saved a few Qi Blood Pills as a backup."
"And Elder Wang's Breathing Technique also proved invaluable, or else I wouldn't have been able to construct the bridge prototype now!"
Su Mu's eyes brightened with clarity and insight.