Chapter 5 - 5

Chapter 795: Heavenly Reward, Battle Of Three Hammers (1)

Boom!

Booming sounds continued revebrating everywhere.

Fifty-five golden stripes had formed on the hanging weapon in the sky. This speed was much slower than usual as this was an earth weapon, with higher requirements for the formation of each stripe.

The more golden stripes there were, the longer it took for the next stripe to appear. At the same time, the booming sounds also grew louder and louder.

Inside the grotto.

A large amount of source qi filled the area. Both Su Yu and Zhao Li were leaving their upper bodies bare. With a hammer in hand, both were sweating heavily. The booming sounds intensified as they struck the weapon repeatedly. Even with Su Yu's physical strength, he was near his limit.

The weapon they were forging were still in the profound grade. Even so, it was emanating a powerful pressure that felt very repressive for Su Yu. This weapon was much stronger than a regular profound weapon. The reforging process had greatly increased its prowess.

Fifty-six golden stripes, fifty-seven golden stripes...

Su Yu was on the verge of coughing blood. As for Zhao Li, he was inwardly alarmed. This was much harder than his previous attempt. It was much more difficult to reforge than to forge a new weapon from scratch.

He glanced at Su Yu and felt quite helpless. The success chance was low. He estimated a thirty percent chance of success. Yes. The possibility of failing was much higher.

Nevertheless, if the kid could assist him up to the seventy-second golden stripe, forging a peak profound weapon would be much easier for the kid in the future. This would be a very helpful experience. As for earth weapons, it would depend on luck.

As for the growth of Su Yu's physical strength, that was nothing for Zhao Li. As far as he was concerned, Su Yu should focus on learning and absorbing everything about weaponsmithing for now.

Boom!

The two hammers moved up and down repeatedly.

Seeing that Su Yu's willpower was greatly drained, Zhao Li said, "Switch to source qi. I will keep watch and stabilize the golden stripe while you're doing so."

Su Yu said nothing. As the golden stripe slowly took form, he hurriedly switched. During the switch, Zhao Li dissolved all the vibrations heading his way. After the switch, he continued hammering the weapon with his source qi that was incomparably pure.

In fact, his source qi was a lot purer than that of regular Skysoars. He was constantly using the Pure Source Art and the Source Soul Life Art to keep a low level of impurity in his body.

With all 360 of his acupoints active, his entire body was wrapped in a layer of heavenly source qi. Even Zhao Li and the weapon they were forging were also wrapped in a layer of heavenly source qi.

The heavenly source qi was being drained at a rapid rate. But that was the last thing on Su Yu's mind. In truth, if one was rich enough, one could buy an earth weapon for tens of thousands of merit points. But now, the materials and heavenly source qi they had used were far more valuable than a mere earth weapon. But neither of the two cared about that. They continued their work.

Sixtieth golden stripe, sixty-first golden stripe...

Time slowly passed. Eventually, the 29th of May arrived. Sixty-three golden stripes could be seen on the hanging hammer in the sky. It was on the verge of reaching the very peak of the profound grade. However, the aura around the hammer gave one the illusion that this was already an earth weapon.

Outside.

More Sunmoons had arrived. Different types of people gathered in different groups. There were groups of experts, groups of geniuses, groups of Invincible descendants, and so on.

Heart Cultivating Pavilion's area.

Inside a large building.

Yuan Qingdong was looking in the direction of the hanging hammer. A few people were grouped around him. They were of similar age and strength as him. They were all looking in Zhao Li's direction as well. After a while, a woman indifferently said, "Zhao Li sure has picked a great time to start his forging. The entire Great Xia is focusing on him. He's not even an earth weaponsmith yet even Invincibles can only wait and see as he forges an earth weapon. Who does he think he is?"

A youth with white eyebrows smiled and said, "He's trying to delay it, but there is no rush. We can wait."

Great Xia was trying to delay it. Zhao Li was trying to delay the trial. Even the three Invincibles were doing the same. Nobody knew what the Invincibles were thinking.

What were they delaying? Feng Ji's public trial! And they wouldn't be able to declare Chen Yong a criminal without a trial. At the moment, Chen Yong was still an elder. Nobody could legally arrest him.

The longer they waited, the further Chen Yong could run. Perhaps he had already sneaked into the Allheaven Battlefield.

The woman unhappily said, "After killing so many military officials, we can't let Chen Yong off. Otherwise, how are we supposed to face the soldiers of humanity? That might shake the morale in the military and result in chaos."

Yuan Qingdong nodded, "If Chen Yong is really the culprit, he naturally can't escape punishment. Not even Invincibles can go against this rule. Tens of millions of soldiers are still watching on the front line. Chen Yong has insulted the Human Realm by assassinating military officials and causing a disturbance in the military. If we spare him, the cult will try to do the same as well. And that will result in great chaos."

Army morale. With this as an excuse, nobody could shield Chen Yong from punishment.

The woman smiled, "Qingdong, you sure have turned a lot more cautious nowadays. Why are you using the word if? It is Chen Yong. There is no if. What is the confusion here?"

Yuan Qingdong said nothing. He ignored her. He had learned one thing after arriving in Great Xia. Before actual confirmation, one should be cautious when speaking.

Using the word "if" was fine since he was still speculating. Using the word "is" would show that they were already sure of the fact.

Without sufficient proof to declare Chen Yong a traitor, he would be blamed for slander. And he would also need to pay a price for that. For example, when he previously slandered Su Yu as a defector, he had paid a large price for his words.

Thus, he was a lot more careful with his words nowadays. These days, he had a lot of patience when dealing with people like Hong Tan and Zhao Li. Sure, they would still greatly anger him, but he was able to quickly calm down and stop himself from doing anything rash.

Ignoring his colleagues around him, he looked at the sky again and said, "There is a reason the Invincibles are placing so much importance on this. This is not an ordinary earth weapon Zhao Li is forging. It carries the hope of an entirely different path of weaponsmithing, a path of fusing the character and the weapon. The moment this succeeds, the earth weapon itself will become Zhao Li's main character. It can take the place of a simulated aperture, and with this weapon, his combat strength will surpass the Mountainsea Realm at the Mountainsea Realm." Nᴇw novel chapters are publɪshed on novel·fire·net

The others nodded when they heard that. But the woman shook her head and said, "The success rate is too low. Also, the more golden stripes there are, the bigger the backlash will be when he fails. It has reached sixty-three golden stripes now. If Zhao Li fails now, he won't die. But at seventy-two or more golden stripes, the backlash will destroy his sea of willpower."

The others also nodded. True. The stronger the weapon was, the stronger Zhao Li's main character would become. And thus, the backlash of its destruction would also become much stronger.

"Zhao Tianbing went straight to the prefect's residence. He's probably there to beg the Invincibles for their help. But at failure, even Invincibles will have a hard time stripping his character from the weapon. Thus, Zhao Li will either die or become a cripple upon failing."

As Sunmoons, these people had keen eyes.

With a smile, Yuan Qingdong changed the topic, "That Cui Lang is quite interesting. Clearly, Zhao Li is teaching that kid like a student. The kid will probably get to learn the Soul Expanding Art. That will increase the number of Soul Expanding Art users to three. And this Soul Expanding Art is a very powerful art."

The others nodded in agreement. Zhao Li's father was the one who had laid the foundations for the Soul Expanding Art. He was a peak Sunmoon. Subsequently, Zhao Li had worked on the foundations and improved the art. The fifth principal had also helped with this.

Su Yu's arts might be powerful, but they were also foundational. The Soul Expanding Art, on the other hand, was a powerful offensive soul technique.

The youth with white eyebrows said, "Qingdong, what are you trying to say?"

"We can try to rope him in. If Zhao Li fails, we can forget about roping Su Yu in. That fellow is extremely troublesome. Cui Lang is a far better candidate. He hails from a small family so roping him in won't be as hard. He will benefit a lot from this and he might be fine even upon failure. He still has the potential to become an earth weaponsmith in the future. And he might already know the Soul Expanding Art."

The others sank into thought. True.

Cui Lang!

As for Niu Baidao and Cheng Mo, one was an unofficial teacher while the other one was honestly a stranger to Cui Lang. As for the matter between his granddaughter and Cui Lang, that was a matter of the younger generation.

They stopped talking. Why? Because the sixty-fourth golden stripe had just appeared on the hanging weapon in the sky. The instant that stripe appeared, source qi undulated in all directions.

Yuan Qingdong exclaimed in surprise, "This...is a prelude to a heavenly phenomenon. A phenomenon should only appear for heaven weapons, not earth weapons, right?"

"If a weapon is powerful enough, it can generate a phenomenon regardless of grade."

The youth with silver eyebrows said, "This is the same as cultivation. An earth weapon is equivalent to the Mountainsea Realm and a heaven weapon is equivalent to the Sunmoon Realm. Most people won't generate a phenomenon when advancing to the Mountainsea Realm. But geniuses and freaks will generate a phenomenon during breakthrough."

For example, someone like Xia Longwu. In fact, an earth weapon could be viewed as a Mountainsea. Then again, earth weapons were less spiritual in nature than heaven weapons. Take Great Ming's Hundred Dao Pagoda. It was a very spiritual weapon, capable of activating and working by itself. And it had the strength of a Sunmoon.

Of course, that was partly also due to how high the Hundred Dao Pagoda's level was even among heaven weapons. But even regular heaven weapons, including those that had barely entered the grade, would be as strong as a weak Sunmoon. In terms of combat potential alone, these weapons weren't that much weaker than the Hundred Dao Pagoda since the pagoda was mainly a supportive weapon instead of an offensive weapon.

"If the phenomenon appears for real, then the success chance will be much higher. This weapon might really become an offensive heaven weapon."

They stared at the hanging hammer silently. At this time, the woman's voice broke the silence, "This is a cultural weapon, not a martial weapon. An offensive heaven-grade cultural weapon is comparable to a Sunmoon in power. Should we try to get someone to forge some heaven weapons for us as well?"

"Who? Who is capable of this? Or perhaps you want to make the attempt yourself? Are you tired of living? Are you even capable of that?"

Yuan Qingdong said, "Forget about Zhao Li. You should get ready for the trial and pay more attention to Feng Ji. Zhao Li is a weaponsmith. Not everyone can be a weaponsmith. He walks an entirely different path from us. How much do you even know about weaponsmithing?"

It was pointless to set their eyes on Zhao Li. That was someone walking an entirely different path. Even if a Sunmoon was provided with a manual and the materials to forge a weapon, could they actually complete the forging?

Apart from the Soul Expanding Art, Zhao Li didn't have anything that was worth coveting. Even if he was able to complete this weapon, it was a cultural weapon, a weapon tailor-made for him. Nobody apart from him could utilize that weapon.

The conversation ended there.

Chapter 796: Heavenly Reward, Battle Of Three Hammers (2)

At the same time.

Inside the Source Qi Secret Grotto, Su Yu switched back to his willpower and continued hammering the weapon. His body constantly trembled and tears were starting to appear on his skin.

The recoil was getting stronger and stronger. As the weapon reached the peak profound grade, its recoil had surpassed the level of what Su Yu's body could handle. But he pressed on.

Slowly, a new character took form in his sea of willpower: vibrate.

The moment the new character appeared, the vibrations spreading all over his body weakened slightly.

"..."

Zhao Li's hand shook slightly in shock as he cursed inwardly. Screw this kid! Wasn't he forging a weapon? Wasn't he forging his body? What the fuck was this? Why had he formed a natural character after experiencing some vibrations?

"Kid!"

"Hmm?"

Su Yu raised his head and looked at Zhao Li blankly even as his hands continued working hard. Why was his teacher calling him out of nowhere?

"Didn't you notice that character?"

"Oh."

Su Yu nodded. Yeah. He noticed that character. What about it? He had experienced the vibrations from the weapon nearly ten thousand times. His understanding of the concept of vibration had increased slightly than before. Was it so surprising for him to form a natural character after that?

Zhao Li was left completely speechless. He started madly hammering the weapon. He decided that he should stop comparing himself against the kid for the sake of his mental health.

But this time, Su Yu was no longer feeling as bad. With his new vibrate character, he was able to weaken the vibrations coming from the weapon. Additionally, doing this was a form of cultivation for that character. Slowly, Su Yu found the vibrations enjoyable.

It felt more and more comfortable. The vibrate character sure was great. He reckoned that with this character, he could apply vibrations to his hammer strikes and increase its might by at least thirty percent.

Of course, this character was still too weak at the first tier. At the third tier, a stacked hammer strike of his could probably kill even Cloudbreach cultural researcher. The forging session had yet to end, but Su Yu felt like he had grown much stronger than before.

He had finished his ninth body forging, learned the technique of stacking his hammer strikes, and formed the vibrate character. So one could actually gain so much benefit from weapon forging!

Meanwhile, Zhao Li was silently sulking to himself. He had been a weaponsmith for so many years, but he had yet to form even a single natural character. What the fuck was wrong with this kid?

Meanwhile, Su Yu was completely unaware of what Old Zhao was thinking. He was too busy enjoying the process.

He focused on sensing the rhythm of the vibrations and the changes as he weakened them. At the same time, his fire of inheritance remained active. Thanks to that, Zhao Li had actually comprehended a lot of new concepts as well. The fire of inheritance had also benefited him greatly.

In fact, his rate of exhaustion was much lower than his initial estimate. The fire of inheritance was the main reason for that. The two started hammering the weapon in silence. With his new character, the vibrations no longer troubled Su Yu as much, allowing him to last much longer.

The second day was slowly coming to an end. Zhao Li had been hammering this weapon for nearly five consecutively days without a break in between. Even a regular Mountainsea would be fully drained at this point. One could see that Zhao Li wasn't bluffing when he spoke about his endurance.

All the cultivators outside the grotto were watching with admiration. The booming sounds had persisted for five consecutive days. Was something like that even possible?

"Is Master Zhao really a Cloudbreach?" Someone asked doubtfully. Could a Cloudbreach last five days of continuous weapon forging?

Most of the people here didn't know how much energy one required exactly for weapon forging, but they only needed to imagine releasing their source qi and willpower for five days in a row. For most people, that was impossible.

Thus, a lot of people were overwhelmed with shock and admiration toward Zhao Li. Meanwhile, some of the earth weaponsmiths present were more impressed about Cui Lang instead of Zhao Li.

"Has Cui Lang...learned the Soul Expanding Art?"

"He might have entered the Cloudbreach Realm."

"Old Zhao sure has stumbled upon a piece of treasure. Cui Lang has been forging for an entire day, but he is still able to keep going."

"Is it possible that he is sustaining himself with some precious herbs?"

The earth weaponsmiths started discussing among themselves. It wasn't too surprising that Zhao Li had such a high level of endurance. Back then, his father had fought an enemy in the Allheaven Battlefield for three days in a row. As for Zhao Li, his endurance level was higher thanks to his Soul Expanding Art.

But it was very surprising that Cui Lang could follow Zhao Li's rhythm and last for an entire day. Some speculated that he might have advanced into the Cloudbreach and learned the Soul Expanding Art. Additionally, he must have consumed some precious herbs as well. That was how he had lasted so long.

Among the crowd, Hu Qi indifferently said, "It's not too surprising that Cui Lang is able to last this long. He might not know the Soul Expanding Art before this, but he has learned the Heavenly Forge Art, a special art of weaponsmithing. Our Heavenly Forge Art is no weaker than any other weaponsmithing arts."

The others nodded when they heard that. One of them said, "If the kid has learned the Heavenly Forge Art from Senior Hu, then this won't be that surprising anymore. This Cui Lang sure is a lucky kid. After receiving your teachings, he has also received the teachings of Old Zhao. I reckon the earth grade is really possible for him."

"Yeah. The earth grade won't be that far away for him."

"How enviable."

Even the earth weaponsmiths were envious of Cui Lang's good luck. It wasn't easy to learn the secrets of these two lineages. Sure, the foundation teachings of the two lines could be learned easily, but their secret teachings would only be taught to direct students. Tʜe source of this ᴄontent ɪs novel·fıre·net

Hu Qi said, "Cui Lang is a talented weaponsmith, so that's not too surprising. What a pity that Senior Heavenly Forge has been away for so long. If he's here, he might accept Cui Lang as his student as well."

"Heavenly Forge King...sigh. Only Great Ming has received a tiny bit of his teachings. None of us is lucky enough to receive any teachings from him."

Hu Qi's line, or to be precise, Great Ming's line, had produced a large number of earth weaponsmiths. That was due to the Hundred Dao Pagoda. And the weaponsmithing teachings in the Hundred Dao Pagoda had originated from Heavenly Forge King. Thus, one could say that Great Ming's weaponsmithing teachings were the teachings of Heavenly Forge King.

Of course, as far as Zhao Li was concerned, those teachings were only useful for mass-manufacturing weapons. He looked down on them. It was worth noting that he only looked down on the teachings but not Heavenly Forge King himself. That was the founder of those teachings. For Zhao Li, apart from the founder, the others were all produced from the same mold. These people lacked creativity and ingenuity in their creations.

While these people were speaking, the sixty-eighth golden stripe appeared.

At this point, the vibrations were once again bothering Su Yu.

His skin started tearing apart again.

He madly absorbed heavenly source qi, but not even that was enough to keep up with the damage. Zhao Li solemnly said, "Withdraw when we reach the seventy-second golden stripe. The recoil will grow even stronger. Your new character is good and your body is strong, but you're still lacking."

"I-I understand..."

No. He wouldn't withdraw so easily. He still had some other trump cards. He could crush his Sunmoon characters and absorb the character intent to upgrade his vibrate character. Upon advancement, he would be able to further weaken the vibrations. If he could also complete his tenth body forging, his body would also grow stronger.

He would not give up! What was this? He would never shirk from this challenge! His willpower and sea of willpower were vibrating. Wasn't this the same as the sensation he felt when he was killed in his dreams? In fact, being killed in his dreams felt even worse than this. It had been quite a while since he last experienced this sensation, so he was not used to suddenly feeling it again. He had actually been missing that feeling.

Su Yu told himself that this wasn't a bad thing. It could let him walk down the memory lane. He would rarely dream nowadays. It would only happen around once per month. And perhaps due to the growth of his willpower, he would no longer feel that much pain after being killed in his dreams nowadays. Thus, these vibrations greatly reminded him of the sensation when he was still weak.

Old Zhao said nothing else. He knew Su Yu could keep going. Back when the kid was still very weak, he was already capable of resisting so many hammer strikes. Now that the kid had grown much stronger, he should be able to last until the seventy-second golden stripe. A regular profound weaponsmith would have reached their limit at this point.

Zhao Li could feel that his weapon was already as strong as a regular earth weapon. It had also grown stronger. At sixty-eight golden stripes, it was comparable to its previous strength at seventy-two and a half stripes.

If he stopped now, he was confident he could perfectly complete the forging and use it as an earth weapon. That was actually a pretty good option. It had the strength of an earth weapon yet it would only drain as much energy as a profound weapon. It would be similar to the weapon he gave Su Yu previously, a weapon with reduced usage requirements.

This normally only existed for yellow and profound cultural weapons. It had never appeared before for earth weapons. But now, something like that had appeared. But this was not Zhao Li's goal. He was pursuing an advancement.

If he could advance successfully into the Mountainsea Realm and push his cultural weapon to the earth grade, he would be able to become a middle earth weaponsmith. His bottleneck would also be nonexistent, allowing him to rapidly reach the level of a peak earth weaponsmith like this senior brother.

For him, it didn't matter if he could complete this weapon safely at a lower grade if he couldn't meet his ultimate goal.

His words would have no weight as a pseudo earth weaponsmith at the Cloudbreach Realm? Was he supposed to keep relying on the reputation of his dead father and departed senior brother? Zhao Li continued hammering the weapon as he thought about all that.

Sixty-ninth golden stripe.

And after half an hour, the seventieth golden stripe appeared.

At that point, Su Yu was already looking very miserable. He nearly made a mistake when slamming his hammer down. Fortunately, he was able to correct himself before the hammer strike landed.

It was bad enough that he was being less and less helpful. He couldn't allow himself to further drag Zhao Li down. And at the seventy-first golden stripe, he finally reached his limit.

When he saw that even Zhao Li was turning slightly pale, he gnashed his teeth and said, "T-teacher, l-let's recover!"

Zhao Li rolled his eyes. Recover his mother. The kid was better off withdrawing. Zhao Li himself was a Cloudbreach with a willpower capacity surpassing that of a Mountainsea, but even someone like him was already greatly exhausted. How was he supposed to recover?

If a treasure that could help him in this situation really existed, he would have gathered it long ago. That thought had barely crossed his mind when Su Yu took out a character wrapped in a barrier of energy out of his storage ring.

With a trembling voice, Su Yu said, "C-crush this c-character...T-the people o-outside c-can't s-sense anything, r-right?"

"..."

Zhao Li stared blankly at the hovering character. He wanted to scold someone. But he could no longer find the word to appropriately describe what he was feeling. Was this a Sunmoon character? That was the break character of the devil race.

"You're planning to recover by crushing this character?"

"Y-yes!"

"..."

Chapter 797: Heavenly Reward, Battle Of Three Hammers (3)

Zhao Li continued hammering the weapon silently. A Sunmoon character was much more valuable than an earth weapon. He started wondering if he was forging a weapon or burning money for fun here. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ novelFɪre.net

"T-teacher, c-can they s-sense th-this?"

Su Yu was afraid of the trouble that would arise after the people outside sensed this. After all, a Sunmoon character was very rare. Exposing this character could very well end up exposing his actual identity as well.

"It's fine. I can seal the grotto. But think carefully if you want to do this..."

"It's not worth much." Su Yu said, "I already c-crushed o-one to cultivate m-my ch-change character previously."

"@#&#%$!"

Zhao Li cursed under his breath in the language of a minor race. Su Yu didn't know that language, but from the tone, he could feel that Zhao Li was scolding him. Zhao Li was probably calling him something like a wastrel, a fool, or something similar. Su Yu did not mind. He merely grinned.

Since Old Zhao said that it would be fine, he would proceed with the plan. But suddenly, the little furball shot out of his head and flew straight toward the character. That was a masterless character, so the furball was able to bite it without any resistance. Before anyone knew it, the character cracked.

The little furball was about to start absorbing the willpower and character intent leaking out when he was chided by Su Yu. He gazed at Su Yu pitifully, but he didn't dare to continue. This smelled so good, but Yummy was not allowing him to eat. He felt greatly wronged. This was an abuse!

Meanwhile, Zhao Li sighed. He could no longer say anything. Perhaps he could bring more benefits to this kid than the character if he could succeed, but the price of failure had also increased significantly.

The willpower and character intent of the Sunmoon character was kept within the tiny grotto. Zhao Li started recovering while hammering the weapon. His recovery speed increased significantly.

Su Yu also started devouring the willpower in the air at a speed that was far faster than Zhao Li's absorption speed.

After consuming about a third of the willpower and character intent in the grotto, the vibrate character broke through to the second tier. He returned to work and found that the vibrations felt much weaker than before. His willpower was also rapidly recovering.

Both Zhao Li and Su Yu benefited considerably from the destruction of the Sunmoon character. Even though they couldn't recover fully, they were able to recover to about seventy percent of their peak capacity. One ought to note that prior to this, Zhao Li was on the verge of emptying his willpower.

Boom!

The booming sounds became much clearer than before. Zhao Li smiled. This one Sunmoon character had boosted their success rate from thirty percent to fifty percent. After recovering a large portion of his strength, he could continue much longer.

Prior to this, he had never considered recovering with a Sunmoon character. That was too wasteful. Something like that had never crossed his mind. After all, that was a Sunmoon character. Destroying something like that was the same as destroying a grotto.

Outside.

As a storm of source qi converged around the grotto, someone exclaimed in alarm, "Are they near completion?" There were already seventy-two golden stripes on the hanging hammer. It would reach the earth grade at seventy-three stripes.

Furthermore, from how the environment was changing, everyone felt like a phenomenon was on the verge of forming. Were they going to succeed? It was already the night of the 29th. The 30th was going to arrive soon.

The earth weaponsmiths stood up with serious expressions. One of them said, "This cultural weapon can already be considered an earth weapon. Or to be precise, this cultural weapon is a freak among profound weapons capable of punching above its class to challenge earth weapons. It is now up to Zhao Li. If he is willing to stop at seventy-three stripes, it is very likely that he will succeed. But if he stays stubborn and insists on forging an embryonic heaven weapon, the success rate will still be as low."

According to this weaponsmith, Zhao Li would be able to easily complete the weapon if he was willing to stop at the earth grade. But making it an embryonic heaven weapon would require dozens of incomplete golden stripes. That would greatly increase the difficulty.

Someone said in shock, "Is Master Zhao too ambitious? Is he not satisfied with a powerful earth weapon?"

Why must he insist on forging an embryonic heaven weapon?

Hu Qi was also standing. She softly said, "His character has become one with the weapon. The moment he completes the embryonic heaven weapon, he might obtain the combat strength of a Sunmoon. A regular earth weapon will only help him reach the Mountainsea Realm. He is aiming for the skies."

The others looked at each other blankly. Was that possible? Prior to this, they weren't aware that this was an option. Not long after, lightning flashed and thunder rumbled in the sky above them. More and more source qi converged in the area. The seventy-third golden stripe was slowly taking form.

"Teacher!"

Su Yu was greatly shocked. Was a heavenly phenomenon appearing? He didn't even know it was possible to create a phenomenon through weaponsmithing.

Zhao Li also looked up. The grotto was supposed to be preventing them from looking outside, but at this moment, he was able to look right at the sky outside the grotto.

When he saw the lighting in the sky, he smiled, "It's fine. When a freak among earth weapons tries to break through, it might generate a heavenly phenomenon. This is a good thing. Even the heavens are supporting me. If the phenomenon ends up rewarding us with source qi or willpower, it will allow us to last longer. Hahaha! This attempt has a much higher chance of succeeding than my attempt all those years ago!"

He was overjoyed. If the phenomenon came with a reward, he might be able to last longer. And that would naturally increase the chance of success.

Su Yu was very happy as well. Heavenly phenomenon and its reward! He was very familiar with this! The little furball had generated one before. He had generated one before as well. But he didn't know if it would be a willpower reward. For what they were currently doing, a heavenly source qi reward would be less useful.

That thought had barely crossed his mind when he felt a powerful recoil. Then, the seventy-third golden stripe took form. A clump of cloud appeared out of thin air and entered the grotto directly.

Su Yu and Zhao Li were overjoyed to see that. But immediately after, Zhao Li cursed, "Fuck! Are the heavens trying to kill me?"

"..."

Even Su Yu turned pale with fright. The cloud was filled with incomparably powerful willpower. But instead of dropping toward Su Yu or Zhao Li, it entered the weapon they were forging directly.

This was a reward for the weapon. They had forgotten that the weapon was the one breaking through here, not them. Or to be precise, they did not have the experience to take note of this.

They had been so excited, but the reward wasn't for them. The newly advanced earth weapon suddenly erupted with strength and formed three natural stripes. Instantly, the total number of golden stripes reached seventy-six.

The recoil from the weapon became incomparably powerful.

Su Yu spat a mouthful of blood out as his skin cracked. The skin between Zhao Li's fingers was also torn as he raised his head and cursed at the heavens. This was infuriating. He did not want an earth weapon with seventy-six stripes. He did not want that. He wanted the reward to help him recover, not boost the strength of the weapon out of nowhere.

Holy shit!

He was going mad. He had thought that the reward was meant for him. But it was actually for the damn weapon! Sure, that would benefit him as well since the weapon could now be considered his main character. But this wasn't part of the plan!

Su Yu also felt like crying. This was too crazy. What the fuck was wrong with the heavenly laws? Why was the weapon rewarded instead of them? They weren't even given the chance to intercept the cloud before it entered the weapon.

And the weapon did not stop at forming three natural stripes. The fourth stripe was also showing signs of appearing.

In his anger, Zhao Li thought of something. He gnashed his teeth and said, "Give me some heavenly source qi. I need to advance into the Mountainsea Realm. My main character has recovered. Hurry up, I need to enter the Mountainsea Realm before I can continue with this forging! Damn the heavens! I thought the reward was for me! I thought I could enter the Mountainsea Realm with it!"

Damn it!

This was such a big blunder. Why was he so stupid? He should have thought of that. Su Yu hurriedly took out a large amount of heavenly source qi. With a roar, Zhao Li started dragging the earth weapon into his sea of willpower. The moment it entered, it would serve as his main character. He could then start his advancement.

Previously, he had counted on his existing strength to easily take the earth weapon into his sea of willpower after forging seventy-three stripes. After all, he had grown significantly since his previous attempt. But the weapon had suddenly formed additional stripes, surpassing his ability to take it in. And the seventy-seventh stripe was in the midst of forming. Damn it! This was driving him crazy. The heavens must be toying with him!

Outside the grotto.

The sky changed drastically.

Thunder rumbled and lightning flashed in the sky as everyone saw a cloud entering the grotto. Almost immediately after, the seventy-sixth golden stripe appeared on the hanging hammer.

Inside the prefect's residence, Zhao Tianbing stood up in alarm and kicked the table beside him in fury, "Damn it! Damn it! How could the heavens reward the weapon instead of the weaponsmith?"

Not even he had seen this coming. Why? Because this wasn't something he had experienced before.

"Lords, I hope you can help later!"

Zhao Tianbing was losing his calm. He was very happy when he saw the weapon successfully reaching the earth grade. This had happened way faster and much easier than he had expected. But he had not imagined that a phenomenon would suddenly appear to create trouble.

At any normal time, a phenomenon would be welcomed with open arms. But this weapon contained Zhao Li's main character. After the reward, it would grow beyond Zhao Li's ability to control. How was he supposed to enter the Mountainsea Realm?

It might even cause his sea of willpower to burst apart. Suddenly, yet another golden stripe appeared on the hammer. Despair covered Zhao Tianbing's face. This heavenly reward had turned into poison. His junior brother was too pitiful.

At that time, Zhao Li was roaring madly. Just how many stripes was this weapon going to form? Was it trying to kill him? He tried to forcefully drag the weapon into his sea of willpower, but he kept coughing blood. His entire sea of willpower was trembling violently.

Yes, it was very stable after being tempered by him so many times, but this weapon was a lot more stubborn than he had imagined. After the sudden advancement, the difficulty in absorbing the weapon had increased by more than thirty percent.

While Zhao Li was roaring, Su Yu clenched his teeth and took out another character. That was his last Sunmoon character. He crushed it unhesitatingly.

"Teacher, start absorbing!"

After saying that, he took out a large portion of the heavenly source qi he had and wrapped Zhao Li in it. What should they do? The earth weapon was too strong, to the point where it was beyond Zhao Li's ability to control. But thanks to the second Sunmoon character, Zhao Li's condition improved somewhat. The weapon continued struggling intensely.

Su Yu suddenly thought of something and furiously said, "Teacher, my Soul Expanding Hammer originated from you. Take it back and fuse it into your hammer. Beat this damn weapon up and make it obedient!"

That reminded Zhao Li. He yelled, "Help me! Hurry up! Send your hammer into my sea of willpower!"

"Teacher, you can just take it yourself..."

"Cut the crap!" Zhao Li said, "With your participation, it will be stronger. Hurry up!"

Su Yu nodded and said nothing else. He was aware that he could participate as well, but he had to intrude upon Zhao Li's sea of willpower to do so. Zhao Li would remain completely defenseless against him. And that was extremely dangerous.

This would rarely happen between cultural researchers even if it was a pair of father and son. Even Su Yu himself wouldn't dare to rashly allow anyone into his sea of willpower.

At that moment, he thought of something else. He yelled, "Little Furball, come with me. Teacher, I'll take this fellow with me. He won't leak your secrets..."

"Get moving!"

Zhao Li could no longer afford to worry about anything else. He had to first suppress this earth weapon. A hammer appeared in front of Su Yu. This was the Soul Expanding Hammer that had fused with his character technique. Powered by twenty-two characters, it was extremely powerful. The little furball also hopped onto the hammer and entered Zhao Li's sea of willpower together.

Su Yu attached his consciousness to the hammer. His eyes blurred as he instantly entered a massive world with raging waves. Rather than a world, he had arrived in a sea of willpower. The willpower inside the sea was roiling about violently like the waves of a stormy sea.

One character after another appeared in Zhao Li's sea of willpower. With one look, Su Yu noticed the earth weapon that was being surrounded and attacked by the characters and a Soul Expanding Hammer.

They were unable to suppress it. The sea of willpower continued trembling violently. Su Yu wasted no time and sent his hammer flying over. And thus, a battle between three hammers erupted inside Zhao Li's sea of willpower. They had to beat this earth weapon to submission or it wouldn't stop until Zhao Li's sea of willpower was destroyed.

Everything had happened noiselessly. Of the three combatants, Su Yu was the weakest while the earth weapon was the strongest. But since it was two against one, the two parties were somewhat evenly matched.

As this happened, Zhao Li's sea of willpower started transforming. It expanded and strengthened. In the empty space above the sea, the shiny apertures started fusing. The advancement had begun.

Zhao Li shouted, "I'll be able to suppress it after becoming a Mountainsea. Keep it busy for me, kid."

"Alright."

The giant hammer continued resisting. This was Zhao Li's main character. Unfortunately, it was currently out of control. But that did not matter. So long as it was within the sea of willpower, Zhao Li would be able to attempt an advancement. And upon a successful advance, he would be able to suppress it.

Outside, many people saw the hanging hammer trembling violently.

They were confused as to what was happening. Only a small number of people knew what was happening. They all had solemn expressions, wondering if Zhao Li could succeed. The price of failure was the destruction of his sea of willpower.

Elder Chen helplessly said, "The heavenly reward has actually turned into poison. Sigh...I guess this can serve as a reminder for the future generation. The heavenly reward from such a situation is meant for the weapon itself, not the weaponsmith."

The others looked terrified when they heard that, but Hu Qi's calm voice rang out, "Don't worry. People like us will never be able to forge a weapon that can generate a heavenly phenomenon. Why are you worrying over nothing? How ridiculous."

"..."

Those were hurtful but true words. The surrounding earth weaponsmiths lowered their heads helplessly. Yes. That was the cruel truth. They would never be able to forge something like this. Why bother worrying?

Chapter 798: You Reap What You Sow (1)

Restore scroll position

Rumble!

Inside the sea of willpower, three hammers were battling it out. The heaven and earth seemed to have turned upside down while the seas and rivers seemed to have overturned from the intensity of this battle. Follow current novᴇls on NoveI-Fire.ɴet

The sea in this context was the sea of willpower. The sky was the sky above the sea, with the apertures acting as the stars in the sky. Some of these stars were congregating together. This was the very first time Su Yu was able to witness an advancement into the Mountainsea Realm so closely.

Aperture fusion!

At the Mountainsea Realm, one needed to fuse at least seventy-two apertures. The moment one fused the first eight apertures, one would become a Mountainsea. What about the characters?

Since one could become a Mountainsea through fusing apertures, what was the role of characters in this matter? Why would one fail to fuse the apertures without first advancing one's characters?

That was the question Su Yu asked himself as he observed the process. But he was too busy to pay too much attention to that thought.

He had to focus on controlling the giant hammer before the first eight apertures became one. Otherwise, the advancement might fail and the sea of willpower itself might end up destroyed.

Suppress! And suppress!

The two hammers continued trying to suppress the giant hammer, attacking each other with vibrations. Su Yu's hammer was the weakest, forcing him to constantly try to dissolve the vibrations dealt toward him.

He was battling something with the power of a Mountainsea. Even with his willpower and character technique, he was still not as strong as a proper Mountainsea. Zhao Li had to multitask and focus on his advancement while handling the giant hammer. He was starting to feel exhausted. There were a few times where the giant hammer nearly broke through the encirclement and destroy the sea of willpower.

If it was a regular ninth-stage Cloudbreach in this position, the sea of willpower would have been destroyed long ago. Zhao Li was near his limits.

Seeing that Su Yu was still trying his best to fight the giant hammer, Zhao Li said, "You should leave. I'll suppress this hammer and allow you to retreat safely. You have learned all you need to know from me. This hammer is already an earth weapon even if we stop the forging here. It still has a small chance of becoming a heaven weapon in the future."

"After suppressing this hammer, I'll seal it. You can probably start using it at the Cloudbreach or the Mountainsea Realm. It has a high compatibility with you since you have taken part in the forging and know the Soul Expanding Art."

Zhao Li's voice reverbrated inside the sea of willpower.

He was near his limits. The giant hammer kept attacking his sea of willpower, interupting the fusion of his apertures. In fact, cracks were starting to appear on his sea of willpower. Since he was going to fail, he might as well leave his last words behind seal the hammer...

"I'm not interested in some garbage earth weapon."

"..."

Zhao Li's blanked out slightly upon hearing that. His next reaction was to curse. Screw that kid! How was this a garbage weapon?

Su Yu said, "Teacher, it's still too early for that. It's a mere early earth weapon. Are you going to lose to something like this? Just fight it out. We will keep fighting. It does not have an unending supply of power. And it is not under anyone's control. It is only a matter of time before it becomes obedient. My characters used to be rebellious as well. They all became obedient after a beating."

Those words seemed to have provoked the hammer as its resistance intensified.

Boom!

The entire sea of willpower shook repeatedly. Zhao Li's hammer hesitated slightly before it rejoined the battle. In that case, they shall fight it out!

Three hammers of large, medium, and small sizes continued their battle. Su Yu's hammer was the small hammer while Zhao Li's hammer was the medium hammer. The large hammer was at the Mountainsea Realm, the medium hammer was at the Cloudbreach Realm, and the small hammer was at the Skysoar Realm.

They fought endlessly. In a way, Su Yu was finally experiencing how it felt to fight a Mountainsea. Each attack by the hammer would cause his entire body to tremble for a very long time. If it wasn't for Zhao Li's presence, his vibrate character, and the fusion of his character technique with his hammer, he would have been defeated in ten moves.

Nevertheless, it was still a very astonishing feat for someone with his cultivation to put up a fight against a Mountainsea, even if it was only a willpower battle with a weapon. This signified that against a Mountainsea cultural researcher, he would be able to last at least a dozen moves.

With his physical strength, if the Mountainsea was someone with weaker physical cultivation, he would be able to last even longer. This was his very first time using all the strength of his character technique. The 180 apertures constantly supplied him with willpower, allowing him to keep fighting.

As the fight continued, he eventually started complaining, "Teacher, why is it that even the hammer you forged has such a high level of endurance? This is very different than the weapons forged by others."

Zhao Li was feeling very helpless as well. Why was this kid complaining in such an intense situation? How was he supposed to know why? He had thought that the hammer wouldn't last so long since it was fighting without a master.

"The heavenly reward has supplied it with some energy..." Zhao Li lose his calm and started cursing again, "Damn the heavenly reward!"

Not only had the reward skipped the weaponsmith, it had even provided excess energy to allow the weapon to fight longer. Because of that, the two of them had been suppressed by the hammer since the start of the fight.

Nobody would believe that this was possible. But they had no choice but to believe it. Previously, Zhao Li believed that the hardest part of this forging would be the incomplete stripes he was going to add after adding all the complete stripes. Thus, this entire crisis was completely unexpected for him.

Su Yu's Sunmoon characters had helped him a lot, so the entire process had felt much easier than before. It became so easy that Zhao Li even increased his odds to fifty percent. But the damn heavenly reward had ruined everything!

Right at that moment, the large hammer slammed down onto the sea off willpower, causing a loud boom. But at the exact same moment, a crack rang out. The large hammer hurriedly retreated, revealing the little furball who had hurriedly vanished right after biting a chunk of it.

Only then did Su Yu recall that the little furball was here as well. He was overjoyed and shouted, "Little Furball, kill it! No, wait, just suppressing it is enough! I'll feed you something yummy after this!"

"Yaya yiyi ya!"

The little furball's body started flickering in excitement at the mention of food. He moved about like a shadow and bit a chunk off the hammer every now and then, greatly reducing the pressure on Su Yu and Zhao Li.

Even Zhao Li was surprised to hear that. Was that little fellow so impressive? That little thing was actually able to fight inside his sea of willpower! Every bite of that little thing was able to cause the large hammer to shudder in pain.

In truth, Old Zhao would also suffer an intense pain from each bite, but he had been keeping silent about that. The hammer was basically his main character. It was merely being rebellious right now. He had to subdue it before he could use it. Thus, this was essentially a fight against himself. He merely found no need to make that clear.

Why? Because it was too embarassing. He had never heard of someone getting beaten to death by their own main character before. If this happened to him, it would turn him into the biggest joke in the history books. Perhaps Liu Wenyan and the others had experienced something similar, but they had an excuse since their characters were outsiders, not their own characters.

Meanwhile, his main character had been formed by himself. Thus, he couldn't accept this happening. The battle felt much easier after the little furball joined. They only needed to last long enough and the large hammer would run out of energy. But they had to make sure that it wasn't able to destroy Old Zhao's sea of willpower before then.

Unfortunately, his sea of willpower was already on the verge of breaking apart. Suddenly, Su Yu's eyes flickered as he recalled what he read from Liu Wenyan's notes. He looked up at the shining apertures in the sky.

Abruptly, he yelled, "Teacher, follow my lead! If you end up dying, I'll give you a grand funeral! But if you survive this, you will definitely grow even stronger than your initial expectation!"

"Shit! What are you doing?"

"Lure it to the sky!"

Right after saying that, Su Yu's hammer soared into the sky. Old Zhao's hammer did the same. The two hammers worked together to force the large hammer up into the sky with them.

There were around eighty stars in the sky. Initially, Zhao Li only had seventy-two apertures. He had subsequently opened more, but Su Yu couldn't help shaking his head at this pitiful speed. Apart from the area occupied by the stars, the rest of the sky was blanketed in darkness.

Su Yu started making his calculations. He then aimed at an empty space and madly hammered it.

Old Zhao cursed, "That's my sea of willpower!"

"Open more apertures!"

Zhao Li finally understood. He asked in despair, "Forcefully?"

"Yes. Give it a try. Maybe it'll work. This was how my Teacher Liu Wenyan opened some of his apertures in the past. He survived even as a mere Mental Tempering Stage cultivator. He's doing pretty good. Teacher, we can take advantage of this large hammer's power to smash the apertures open. This might help you open more apertures and increase your strength. You won't get the chance to do this any other time."

Zhao Li gave it a thought and decided to throw caution to the wind. What was there to hesitate? Would he die if even Liu Wenyan survived? Su Yu might be right. With more apertures, he would grow stronger, his sea of willpower would become more stable, and his willpower would be more abundant.

The three hammers resumed their battle in the sky. Su Yu constantly lured the large hammer to strike the empty space in the sky, attempting to help Zhao Li open more apertures this way.

Chapter 799: You Reap What You Sow (2)

Restore scroll position

At the same time.

Allheaven Battlefield.

Liu Wenyan was in the middle of a chat with his uncle. When they spoke of the past, Liu Wenyan sighed and said, "Back then, Teacher's character overwhelmed my sea of willpower, forcing me to open some apertures early..."

"How did your sea of willpower survive that?"

Uncle Liu choked with emotions when he thought of the suffering his nephew had gone through.

"It nearly burst apart. Fortunately, Great Xia King was nearby during the time. He helped me stabilize the sea of willpower."

Naturally, he had not mentioned that Great Xia King had saved him in the notes he left Su Yu. That would be embarrassing. As for the risk that Su Yu would go down the wrong path in his cultivation, well, there was no need to worry since he had not told that kid to attempt this method.

Furthermore, the kid wouldn't need such a method anyway. It was pointless to say more to the kid. He was reminiscing on the past since life had been pretty boring after Bai Feng left. He wondered if Su Yu had stirred up any trouble recently.

***

Inside the sea of willpower.

The battle was still ongoing. With a rumble, an aperture was forced open. Right at that moment, the entire sea of willpower shook.

Zhao Li blanked out momentarily before he started cursing, "Opening it forcefully has accelerated the collapse of the sea of willpower! Brat, are you trying to kill me so that you can inherit my weapon?"

What an unreliable bastard! Why was his sea of willpower shaking so violently? The collapse seemed to have accelerated! Su Yu also blanked out in stupefaction. This wasn't right. Back then, this was how Teacher Liu survived after absorbing his teacher's character. What was wrong?

Even that large hammer seemed surprised as it stopped attacking momentarily. Was this a suicide attempt? No matter what, this hammer was Zhao Li's main character. Thus, it carried some of Zhao Li's willpower on it. Was its master going to commit suicide? The hammer started contemplating with the tiny bit of intelligence it had.

Zhao Li was left somewhat speechless. After a short thought, he said, "It's not going to collapse yet. It's only one aperture. But brat, your method doesn't work. If we open a few more apertures, the sea of willpower will definitely collapse. Are you sure this was what Liu Wenyan did?"

"That was what he told me."

"Bullshit. How do you know that Great Xia King wasn't there to help stabilize his sea of willpower?"

Zhao Li cursed. That was only a guess of his. Perhaps Liu Wenyan was simply that talented. But Zhao Li knew that it would be over for him if he used this method to open a few more apertures.

What was going on today? Why was he hurting himself over and over again? First, his main character gave him a beating. Next, he joined his main character and gave his sea of willpower a beating. If this continued, he would ruin himself.

Su Yu also hurriedly made a judgment of his own. At this moment, that large hammer started going crazy again.

When Su Yu saw that, he clenched his teeth and said, "Teacher, why don't we try this? The distribution of your Myriad Text Sutra's seventy-two characters is uneven. Try to open more apertures to reach a balance. Open the apertures from two of my Five Elemental Arts. Perhaps that will be sufficient to stabilize your sea of willpower."

Zhao Li knew four of the elemental arts. After thinking about it, he roared, "Including the overlap apertures, I need to open at least eleven new apertures to achieve that. Are you sure I won't die?"

"We have no choice but to try it."

Su Yu sounded very helpless as he said that. This was their only option. If they did nothing, the large hammer would eventually smash the sea of willpower apart.

Zhao Li had eighty-one apertures for now. But only sixty-one of them overlapped with the seventy-two apertures of the two arts. He still lacked eleven of them if he wanted to link the two arts together.

But if he could link those apertures together, he would be able to form a net around the sea of willpower and stabilize it. This was the best idea Su Yu could think of right now.

Zhao Li was aware of that as well. There was no other option. He clenched his teeth and said, "Fine. Let's see if the apertures from the two arts can cover the entire sea of willpower and repair the damage."

"Alright."

Su Yu hurriedly descended before looking up at the boundless sky above. The stars were spread unevenly over the sky. Perhaps if the stars could be distributed more evenly, the sea of willpower would increase in stability.

In fact, the part of the sky covered by the seventy-two apertures of the Myriad Text Sutra was actually a lot more stable than the other parts. After all, the formation of apertures also had the added benefit of increased stability. Su Yu said nothing and activated his fire of inheritance to hasten his thinking process.

After a short contemplation, he said, "Teacher, try to hang on for a bit. I'll form a healing character, preferably something that can heal seas of willpower. That way, I can help you stabilize your sea of willpower."

"What?"

Zhao Li couldn't even react to his shock before Su Yu left. Yes. He left the sea of willpower. Back in his body, Su Yu took out an Invincible note and started reading it rapidly with the fire of inheritance active. He went through the note again and again in silence.

He also activated his calm character to maintain a calm state of mind. Thanks to that, he was able to ignore the suffering Zhao Li and focus fully on reading. He kept telling himself that he had to form a suitable character to help stabilize his teacher's sea of willpower. Only then could he confidently help his teacher force open more apertures. After all, he didn't want to risk accidentally killing his teacher.

Meanwhile, Zhao Li, who was fighting alone in his sea of willpower, was losing his mind. Holy shit! They were in the middle of a fight when the kid suddenly said that he was leaving to form a character before returning? What the fuck?

Su Yu continued reading in silence. As he tried his best to comprehend what he was reading, his fire of inheritance shone brighter and brighter. This was no big deal. He was only forming a character.

Previously, he had been neglecting this as he was uninterested in some of the characters he could already form. But now, his brain was operating at full capacity. He had to form a character capable of either suppressing or healing. Something that could provide stability would work as well.

After about three to four minutes, a character slowly took form in Su Yu's sea of willpower.

"Meld!"

Strictly speaking, an Invincible note wasn't a willpower text. Thus, it could be used inside a grotto. At the exact moment Su Yu formed that character, someone sensed it. The source of thɪs content is novｅlfire.net

***

Inside the prefect's residence.

Great Song King blanked out slightly. His eyes shone as time started rewinding and suns and moons revolved in them. Did someone just comprehend something belonging to him? Who?

That person seemed somewhat related to him, but also not too closely related. There also seemed to be some degree of separation between them. He even tried prying through fate, but he was unable to see anything. But he was sure that someone had comprehended a character related to him.

Beside him, Silk Destroying King asked, "Old Song, what's up?"

"Nothing." Great Song King smiled as he waved his folding fan around. It was no big deal. He was merely curious as he had sensed that the person who had comprehended something related to him was actually nearby.

Was that someone from Great Song? Was that someone who had read one of his notes? Over the years, he had given out a decent amount of his personal notes as rewards to his subordinates. Was one of them here? But why hadn't he noticed them?

Soon, he tossed the matter out of his mind. It wasn't too important. He said, "If Zhao Li ends up failing and harming his sea of willpower, I can try to help stabilize his sea of willpower."

"Thank you, Great Song King!" Zhao Tianbing hurriedly voiced his gratitude. Great Song King nodded indifferently.

***

At this moment, Su Yu had returned to Zhao Li's sea of willpower. When he saw the miserable medium hammer, he said, "Teacher, I'm back!"

The second-tier meld character flew out and started working immediately. The willpower in the area was gathered as it started working to stabilize the sea of willpower. While that was happening, Su Yu said, "It isn't a healing character, but I guess we can put it to use in here. It's only a second-tier character. Teacher, should I try to get a different character? Can you still keep going?"

"..."

Zhao Li's medium hammer trembled in shock. Holy shit! The brat had actually formed a new character? And it was second-tier character? Was he the grandfather of characters? Why was he capable of forming a character any time he wanted?

Was that damn brat kidding? The brat must be messing with him, right? This wasn't funny!

Zhao Li was greatly shocked. He knew that Su Yu was a monstrous genius, but the damn kid had only left for a few minutes before returning to tell him that a new second-tier character had been formed? A second-tier character?

Everyone else had to slowly form a character one stroke at a time. How were they supposed to face Su Yu? More importantly, Zhao Li was also one of those people. And the damn kid wanted to keep trying because he was unsatisfied with this character?

Screw that kid!

"No! Let's start now!"

Old Zhao roared madly. He was worried that he would be shocked to death by the kid before his hammer could kill him.

"Fine, let's start..."

Su Yu wasn't too serious when he asked that question. After all, he couldn't be sure what character he could get next.

"Teacher, I still have other trump cards. You don't need to be scared!"

Zhao Li was already numb. More trump cards? Sure, sure, whatever. Nothing could shock him anymore. That thought had barely crossed his mind when Su Yu's character technique transformed from a hammer into a pot.

Even the nodes within the character technique had been switched around. Zhao Li was completely dumbstruck. And what the fuck was this?

"Teacher, I'll restrict its movement with my pot! You only need to help me identify the suitable locations. We will fight near the apertures we plan to open. We don't want the fight to affect the other parts of the sea of willpower, right?"

"Y-you-I-I-y-you-your character technique can assume a different form?"

"Yeah."

"..."

Zhao Li was on the verge of losing his mind. He was really going to lose his mind. Why was the damn kid's character technique capable of switching forms?

Su Yu was too busy to care about Zhao Li's feelings. The large hammer was resisting his pot intensely. As a response, he transformed his pot into a rope and tied it up before dragging it toward a specific location. The large hammer struggled violently while Zhao Li helped with a blank mind. He had countless questions to ask, but he couldn't find a single word to say.

Was Su Yu still a human? No. This was a monster. Zhao Li had the urge to stab himself blind. At least he wouldn't need to look at this monstrous brat anymore with his eyes blind.

Meanwhile, Su Yu was busy dealing with the large hammer with everything he had. Before long, the large hammer was brought near an aperture they wanted to open. There, the hammer continued its violent struggle. As for Zhao Li, he only had a simple task: fight the large hammer alongside the little furball before forcing the aperture to open.

As for Su Yu, his job was to keep the large hammer under control, preventing it from running somewhere else.

Rumble!

Yet another aperture was blasted open. The sea of willpower started shaking, but Su Yu's meld character showcased its power and reduced the shaking slightly. Su Yu wasted no time and dragged the large hammer to a different aperture.

Zhao Li followed behind him in a dazed manner. Even after living for more than a hundred years, he had never seen someone like Su Yu. The things he had seen today were the things he wouldn't be able to forget for the rest of his life.

Su Yu could instantly form natural characters. He was able to ignore that. He only needed to read for a few minutes to form a new character. He was still able to stay calm. His character technique was capable of countless transformations in not only shape but its abilities as well. These were true transformations as each form came with a unique ability. For example, the rope was capable of keeping the large hammer occupied with its special ability.

If it was only a transformation of shape, even when Su Yu transformed his saber into a rope, it would still be an offensive character technique incapable of keeping the large hammer occupied. Thus, the very essence of his character technique would change with each transformation.

Suddenly, Su Yu recalled something. He yelled, "Teacher, you should try to form a character technique as well. Since you're not a Mountainsea yet, you can still give it a try! I know the structure of a character technique in the form of a hammer. Are you interested, Teacher?

"You don't have the template, but you can still draw the basic form of the technique in your sea of willpower. After that, you can take your time and slowly improve it. With enough time, you can improve it into a true character technique. We have yet to come out with a way to make the disassembly method work for Mountainseas so you can only do it now."

Zhao Li was still a Cloudbreach, so that was feasible. He already had a large number of characters. In fact, he already had enough to form the character technique. Of course, without a proper inherited template, he would need to slowly improve his version of character technique to perfection.

A character technique was not something one could form randomly. Fortunately, Su Yu knew how it worked, so he could put together a working version.

Zhao Li asked blankly, "Will this work?"

"I can't see why not."

"..."

"So...try it?"

Zhao Li was still in a daze. Should he try it? He had nearly forgotten that he was in the middle of a life and death crisis. Su Yu had shocked him so much that he had forgotten the danger he was in.

Su Yu did not waste any time. When Zhao Li and the little furball engaged the large hammer again, he transformed his character technique into a hammer with eighteen characters. He said, "Teacher, how many characters do you have?"

"Twelve..."

He didn't have a crazily high number of characters, but he still had twelve.

"Twelve..."

That was actually a respectable number. After thinking about it, Su Yu decided to produce a version with twelve characters. If Old Zhao needed more in the future, they could think of a way then.

A short while later, a small hammer with twelve characters appeared as he said, "Teacher, look at this. Remember it. This is the structure. It will stay stable."

Zhao Li hurriedly brought eleven of his characters together before saying with a troubled expression, "My final character is that hammer..."

He only had eleven usable characters for now.

But Su Yu actually grew excited as he said, "Teacher, trap that thing with your character technique. That way, you can both boost your character technique and keep it suppressed. We will be able to have it hit whatever spot we want!"

"..."

Zhao Li no longer felt like saying anything. He did as told, arranging and linking his characters in the exact manner Su Yu told him. This was supposed to be a crisis of life and death, but it had transformed into a "capture the hammer and smash apertures open" operation.

Chapter 800: You Reap What You Sow (3)

Restore scroll position

The people outside the grotto waited for a long time but nothing seemed to have changed. In fact, the hanging hammer in the sky seemed a lot more lively than before. It kept shaking, but the golden stripes on it had remained at the same number. What was going on?

It had been a few hours. Why was everything still the same? Was it a success or was it a failure? Everyone was confused.

Even the booming sounds had stopped. They didn't know what was happening. In fact, even the weaponsmiths and the Invincibles were confused. Just what was happening?

Was Zhao Li breaking through into the Mountainsea Realm? That hammer looked very powerful, but Zhao Li's sea of willpower had yet to be destroyed. Was his sea of willpower so strong that not even the hammer could harm him? Or perhaps this hammer only looked impressive but was actually very weak?

In short, nobody outside knew what was happening.

Inside the sea of willpower, Su Yu was greatly exhausted. With great difficulty, Zhao Li had managed to form a hammer character technique. But since this was his first attempt, it was rather unstable. It nearly fell apart several times.

That was mainly due to the struggles of the large hammer that was also the main character. But at this point, Zhao Li was once again feeling that he might really succeed. He had a feeling that the large hammer was running out of energy. Even its struggles were no longer as intense as before.

And finally, the ninety-second aperture was opened. Zhao Li had finally completed the two arts. He hurriedly linked them all together before activating both arts at the same time.

Half his sea of willpower was covered by the Myriad Text Sutra while the other half was covered by the two elemental arts. A shiny net slowly spread all over the trembling sea of willpower.

After a short moment, the entire sea of willpower stabilized. Zhao Li was stunned. He could no longer remember how many times this had happened today. Did it succeed? The crisis was over? Just like that?

The hammer surrounded by eleven of his characters felt completely exhausted. After such a long fight, the hammer had failed to defeat them. They seemed to have succeeded! His fusion of eight apertures was also near completion. The speed of aperture fusion would increase in the midst of battle.

"Kid, I think I'm going to complete my breakthrough soon. This hammer is no longer capable of fighting back."

Su Yu nodded. That seemed to be the case. Finally, he was able to relax himself. They had survived the crisis.

After blanking out for a short moment, Zhao Li exclaimed in ecstasy, "I think it's really going to succeed! But the forging is not over yet. Give me a moment. We will resume after I complete my breakthrough!"

Right at that moment, his eight apertures finally completed their fusion.

Boom!

His sea of willpower boiled as a large amount of willpower seeped into his sea of willpower from the void. Su Yu only absorbed a tiny portion of the willpower to recover slightly before withdrawing. Right before he left, he gave the fused aperture a glance.

Fusion of eight into one.

It was quite fast, but Old Zhao had also been preparing for this for a very long time. Thus, there weren't much resistance between each aperture. Normally, this process would take a much longer time.

The exhausted Su Yu was finally out of the sea of willpower. But with the return of his willpower, he was able to exhale in relief. Despite his exhaustion, he was still smiling. The quality of his willpower seemed to have improved after the excessive exhaustion. A tiny transformation had happened as his willpower started roiling while his sea of willpower started expanding. The source of this content ɪs novel·fiɾe·net

After a short moment, Su Yu opened his eyes again. His willpower had finally reached the peak second tier. He was now a true peak ninth-stage Skysoar.

The large hammer was also a Soul Expanding Hammer. Thus, he had benefited from the battle. That has always been the nature of the Soul Expanding Hammer. As long as one could survive a beating from the hammer, one would benefit from it.

The little furball also withdrew at the next moment. The little fellow looked very energetic. It seemed like he had benefited considerably from the battle with the large hammer.

Boom!

A large amount of the source qi in the grotto was absorbed by Zhao Li. His aura started rising. And then, it broke through the critical point.

Rumble!

A burst of aura erupted from his body, forcing Su Yu to take several steps backward. After a while, Zhao Li opened his eyes and howled with laughter, "I'm now a Mountainsea!" He succeeded!

"Let's continue, kid. I'm now a Mountainsea. And I'm stronger than regular Mountainseas. I have ninety-two apertures and a basic character technique. I have also restored a weak connection with my main character. Let's continue working on our embryonic heaven weapon! If we succeed in this, you won't be far from the earth grade. Even if you quit fighting in the future, you can live a wealthy and good life just from forging weapons."

Su Yu smiled, "Congratulations, Teacher."

"It's not fully complete yet, so it's still too early for that. But we're eighty percent complete. Hurry up. I'm full of energy right now so I can even teach you something while working on the weapon."

It was time to return to work. The complete golden stripes on the earth weapon had surpassed their initial expectation. There were seventy-seven golden stripes on it. After his advancement, Zhao Li had grown stronger and recovered from his injuries. Thus, the forging process felt much easier to him now.

Su Yu stopped talking and took out his hammer before soaring into the sky with Zhao Li. A short moment later, Zhao Li's main character reappeared. This time, it was a lot more obedient than before. It stayed still and allowed the two to hammer it.

Bang!

The pounding sounds returned. They were louder than before. The entirety of Great Xia seemed to have blanked out momentarily. Zhao Tianbing was also blanking out. They succeeded?

No, it wasn't a complete success yet. But since Zhao Li had the energy to continue, he must have reached the Mountainsea Realm. He had actually survived the breakthrough! On the hanging hammer in the sky, the seventy-eighth golden stripe formed partially. Then, Zhao Li stopped working on it and started forging the seventy-ninth stripe.

The pounding sounds continued on and on. From the sounds alone, it was obvious that Zhao Li had more than enough energy to spare. In fact, some could even sense a trace of joy and excitement from these hammer strikes.

At the same time.

Even Su Yu was enjoying himself. The vibrations no longer felt as strong. He took the chance to temper his body while hitting the earth weapon. Zhao Li did not mind that as he continued guiding the kid while working on the weapon. With a hearty laugh, he said, "It was not supposed to feel this easy, but this hammer is a lot more obedient after my character technique assimilated it. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"Yeah, I understand. Previously, it was a free-range animal who was refusing to return home. Now, it has finally been tamed and brought back home again."

"Hahaha, that's right!" Zhao Li laughed and said, "Keep hitting the weapon. This is my main character. The stronger we make it, the stronger I'll be. And the moment it becomes a proper heaven weapon, I'll automatically become a Sunmoon."

"Today, I'll forge a truly powerful weapon. I'll let the world know that I, Zhao Li, am better than my senior brother!"

Su Yu nodded with a smile. Yes, Old Zhao was great. But he had to first focus on reaching the peak earth grade before dreaming about his beautiful future.

Su Yu continued tempering his body with the recoil from hitting the weapon. This was actually a very fast rate of improvement.

Zhao Li had said that Su Yu's biggest benefit from this would be his weaponsmithing skills. But Su Yu had not cared too much about that. Even if he could become an earth weaponsmith, so what? Actual strength was the most reliable thing to have.

And he had indeed grown considerably in strength while working on this weapon. His willpower, characters, soul techniques, and body had all grown stronger. In fact, he was nearly done with his tenth body forging.

Time continued passing as the pounding sounds continued. Before anyone knew it, the 1st of June arrived. That day, a total of ninety-nine golden stripes had been forged on Zhao Li's weapon. Seventy-seven of them were complete stripes while the rest were incomplete.

The observing earth weaponsmiths were all gasping in amazement outside the grotto. What did that signify? Zhao Li's strength was not enough to forge a weapon like this alone, but his skills had reached the peak of the earth grade. Reaching a hundred golden stripes would fully showcase that Zhao Li had the weaponsmithing skills of a peak earth weaponsmith.

Of course, he had to first last that long without running out of energy and failing. This was why people were saying that his cultivation was limiting him. Nobody doubted his skills. He only lacked cultivation.

When night arrived, the pounding sounds that had persisted for the entire day suddenly slowed down. Abruptly, the sky itself trembled. The one-hundredth golden stripe had appeared.

"Peak earth grade!"

Hu Qi was gasping in shock while looking at the sky.

Elder Chen was also looking at the sky. He had a helpless smile on his face. Zhao Li had surpassed him. The only thing Zhao Li lacked was cultivation. Otherwise, he would have been able to forge a hundred complete golden stripes, becoming a proper peak earth weaponsmith.

One had to note that there were only three peak earth weaponsmiths among humanity. The best among them was Zhao Tianbing. As for the other two, one was Heavenly Forge King's first student and the other was the First Divine Sect master. Yes. The First Divine Sect master was one of them.

Without him, the cult wouldn't have been able to get their hands on so many cultural weapons. However, the First Divine Sect master's weaponsmithing skills had mostly been overshadowed by his cultivation as a ninth-stage Sunmoon.

These three were the only peak earth weaponsmiths humanity had to offer. And now, the fourth might appear soon. Zhao Li only needed some time to enter the Sunmoon Realm and reaching that level would probably be easy for him.

After all, he was only a Mountainsea at the moment. Perhaps he didn't even need to become a Sunmoon. Reaching the late-stage Mountainsea Realm might be enough for him.

"It's near completion."

"This is a blessing for all humanity."

"The weaponsmithing field is going to welcome yet another grandmaster."

"The fourth principal's legacy is truly terrifying. This feels even better than Heavenly Forge King's legacy. There are some earth weaponsmiths following Heavenly Forge King's teachings, but only one of them has managed to reach the peak. But the fourth principal's teachings have produced two such peak weaponsmiths."

"..."

Some of the weaponsmiths there could only gasp with admiration. As of this moment, Zhao Li's status had changed completely.

Inside the prefect's residence, Zhao Tianbing exhaled in relief. Great Han King said, "Looks like it's a success."

Zhao Tianbing nodded and said, "I only hope that he won't keep doing anything rash like pushing to the 109th golden stripe or something. As long as he stops here, he will definitely succeed. I can sense that he actually has some energy to spare. It's also quite surprising that Cui Lang is able to keep forging until now as well. He has probably benefited from this forging session as well."

He was quite surprised at Cui Lang's performance. That was incredible. That kid was an earth weaponsmith in the making.

Great Song King said, "This is worthy of celebration. Your junior brother will be the next peak earth weaponsmith of humanity in a few years. In fact, he seems to have the potential to become a heaven weaponsmith before you. Heavenly Forge will probably regret not coming here to witness this scene."

Zhao Tianbing smiled, "I hope so as well. At that time, my junior brother will be able to provide humanity with more heaven weapons. Our Invincibles and late-stage Sunmoons will have access to more weapons suitable for their cultivation."

The Invincibles smiled and nodded when they heard that. Nobody said anything. But that was naturally something they would welcome. Then again, there was a hidden meaning in Zhao Tianbing's words. He was hinting at these Invincibles to protect Zhao Li. Of course, there was no need to speak about that openly as it would be pointless.

And beside them, Marquis Xia was grinning so widely that he nearly strained his face. Zhao Tianbing gave Marquis Xia a glance and snorted coldly. The fuck was this fellow smiling for? Why was this damn bastard so happy?

Marquis Xia ignored the snort and continued smiling. What could Zhao Tianbing do about it?

Right at that moment, the 101st golden stripe appeared. At the same time, Su Yu completed his tenth body forging. He had actually managed to complete two body forgings while forging a weapon.

Of course, he had also sacrificed a lot for this. He had used nearly a hundred portions of heavenly source qi. Both he and Old Zhao had absorbed a lot of heavenly source qi. On top of that, he had also crushed two Sunmoon characters.

All in all, those resources were worth over two hundred thousand merit points. But in exchange, Zhao Li was able to complete his weapon, become a Mountainsea, recover from his old injuries, and increase his weaponsmithing rank. This was completely worth it.

Su Yu did not regret parting with all those resources. He only felt joy for Zhao Li.

As for Zhao Li, he continued striking the weapon while saying, "You can take a break. I can finish this myself. But after your rest, start forging a new weapon for yourself. I want to see you complete a peak profound or even an earth weapon. After that, both of us can exit seclusion together and show the world just how amazing we are."

He already had a plan in mind. They would exit the grotto with an embryonic heaven weapon and a peak profound or an earth weapon and dazzle the world with their brilliance. He wanted to prove that even weaponsmiths could shock the world with their actions.

Su Yu was only nineteen yet he was already a peak profound or even an earth weaponsmith...but unfortunately, he was now Cui Lang. A thirty-five years old weaponsmith. Damn it!

If Su Yu was able to reveal his actual identity here, Heavenly Forge King himself might rush over to take Su Yu as his student. Zhao Li had a complicated expression as he looked at Su Yu.

You reap what you sow. His success today was greatly related to Su Yu. And Su Yu had only helped him so much because of their relationship in the past.

A heroic mood rose from Zhao Li's heart as he said, "Continue! I will forge 109 golden stripes!"

"..."

Su Yu stared at Old Zhao blankly. This old man should stop messing around. Was he crazy?

Zhao Li laughed heartily and said, "That was a joke. But I will definitely produce a true heaven weapon within ten years!"

He was not that crazy. This was already the limit of what he could. If he really forced himself to forge 109 golden stripes, he could very well fail it and cry with regret.