Chapter 35 : Chapter 35
Chapter 35: The Champion’s Mentor, Zhai Long
Li Mu returned to his room.
Chen Jiafeng and Chen Jiaqi quickly brought over the bruise medicine their father had given them.
Li Mu accepted it, then used the excuse of needing to rest to send the two of them back out.
He was naturally not so weak that he had actually sprained himself.
But it was true that when he used the Third Shake of Flowing Clouds, he had felt the strain.
It seemed that 388 pounds was a weight he still had trouble controlling.
And it was not just his body that could not bear it.
The Mountain-Bearing Art also seemed to have already reached its limit.
With the strength of one tiger and three oxen, lifting four hundred pounds was simple enough, but once he tried to use a martial technique, it started becoming difficult.
Opening the system, Li Mu began to take stock of his spells.
[No-Grade Heavenly Immortal Art: Deepens one’s understanding of the cultivated techniques by fifty years, broadens the dantian sea, toughens the meridians, and allows one to wield any technique with greater ease.]
[Listening at the Ear: Hides the divine weapon in the mustard-space of the ear canal, allowing constant insight and cultivation at all times at a speed equal to 1% of normal cultivation speed.]
[Divine Weapon Art: Grants weight to a weapon. Current weight: 328 pounds.]
[Mountain-Bearing Art: Increases one’s strength by one tiger and three oxen.]
[Immobilization Art: Shout “Freeze” to pin a target enemy in place for 0.5 seconds, consuming 10% of one’s true qi. Cooldown time: 1 minute.]
[Fiery Eyes and Golden Pupils: When activated, sees through the flow of true qi within the meridians. Consumes a great deal of true qi.]
Naturally, spells like Immobilization Art and Fiery Eyes and Golden Pupils would become extremely powerful once raised to a higher level.
But at the early stage, having a little of them was already enough.
What Li Mu urgently needed to improve right now was his own cultivation and physique!
At the moment, there were only two methods.
Body-tempering techniques, and body-tempering pills!
So Li Mu fixed his gaze on Alchemy Art.
Li Mu did not remember the Great Sage having any skill in pill refinement.
Eating pills, though, he definitely had a system for. Back in the day, he had not consumed a small number from the Supreme Lord Lao’s accounts.
Could it be that years of swallowing pills had turned him into a doctor of medicine, letting him identify the ingredients through taste?...
Still, aside from Alchemy Art, there were many things in this system that he had never even heard of.
For example, spells like Blessed Field Art, Borrowing Might from Wine, and Divine Weapon Falling from the Heavens.
Alchemy Art, valued at 100 victory points.
Not expensive. Bought!
[Alchemy Art: Search for the ingredients according to the pill formula. Once the ingredients are in place, the immortal pill is formed.]
[Note: System pill formulas can only be refined through the system. They are useless in the hands of ordinary people.]
Li Mu opened Alchemy Art, and beneath it was a skill tree as well.
Each node was a pill formula.
It was divided into three major categories.
Qi, Art, and Body.
Qi helped raise cultivation, Art improved spells, and Body naturally focused on body tempering.
At this moment, only one formula in the Body section was lit.
Inferior Bone-Tempering Pill.
Li Mu was clearly dissatisfied, so he directly spent another 50 victory points and unlocked the formula below it.
[Low-Grade Body-Stabilizing Pill]
[Third-Grade demon blood, Steel Lotus, Cranecry Grass.]
“Hiss!~~”
Third-Grade demon blood was actually the cheaper part, with a small bottle costing around two to three thousand.
The other two herbs were expensive.
Both were hybrid plants cultivated from surface plants and Abyss plants.
Their yield was low, and they also matured late.
If he was lucky, he could find a small portion for twenty thousand.
If he was unlucky, there might not even be any stock at thirty thousand per portion.
One pill would cost around fifty thousand, and two pills would require one hundred thousand.
The Low-Grade Body-Stabilizing Pill was enough for him now. The only thing missing was money.
There was no way he could ask Yang Suying for it.
The two of them were still staying at his little aunt’s house. There was no way they could come up with that kind of money.
Li Mu looked at his victory points.
400 minus 150 left him with 250 points.
Li Mu then gave another 100 points to the Mountain-Bearing Art.
[Consumed 100 victory points. Enhancement of ‘Mountain-Bearing Art’ successful.]
[Mountain-Bearing Art: Increases one’s strength by two tigers and three oxen.]
It directly added the strength of one tiger!
Then Li Mu estimated that even if Divine Weapon Art increased the weight to five hundred pounds now, Mountain-Bearing Art would still let him wield it with ease.
Now the only thing left was his weak body...
At that thought, Li Mu put the Thornflower Staff back into his ear.
The automatic cultivation effect of Listening at the Ear immediately began to activate.
At 1% of normal cultivation speed, the effect was simply too faint.
Li Mu could hardly feel it at all.
Only when things were extremely quiet could he sense just a faint trickle of spiritual energy continuously entering his body.
“I really did overlook the effect of Listening at the Ear.”
“All in! Put the remaining 150 points into Listening at the Ear!”
[Consumed 150 victory points. Enhancement of ‘Listening at the Ear’ successful.]
[Listening at the Ear: Hides the divine weapon in the mustard-space of the ear canal, allowing constant insight and cultivation at all times at a speed equal to 6% of normal cultivation speed.]
“Oh ho??”
Li Mu’s eyes lit up.
Because the moment the enhancement succeeded, Li Mu could clearly feel streams of pure spiritual energy gathering toward him.
His body refined that spiritual energy as naturally as breathing.
Martial artists cultivated by using their internal arts to draw spiritual energy into the body.
They tempered their dantian sea, sea of consciousness, and physical body.
The process was similar to an athlete’s physical conditioning and specialized training.
Tedious, boring, even painful.
The reason so many people resisted cultivation was that the process itself was not pleasant.
Precisely because of that, many powerhouses chose to enter the Abyss and fight monsters in battles of life and death.
Not only was cultivation faster that way, they also achieved moments of enlightenment more often.
But now, without moving, without stirring, Li Mu could cultivate automatically every moment.
Refreshing!
Looking at his now completely empty victory points, Li Mu almost wished he could head into the Abyss again right away and kill a few more monsters.
Not enough!
Nowhere near enough!
That night, the whole family ate dinner happily together.
Li Mu had also been busy all day, and he fell asleep early.
The next morning, Blackwater High School’s entrance was already packed with reporters.
Most of them were journalists from small media outlets.
The moment Li Mu arrived near the school gate, those reporters surrounded him completely.
They wanted nothing more than some gossip interview from Li Mu.
For example, now that Li Mu had been kicked out by the Li family and then won the championship, what did he have to say to the Li family?
Li Xiaohao swapped away your S-rank talent but only placed thirty-first. What do you think of that?
It was not that Li Mu did not want to use the media to strike at the Li family.
But Li Mu knew very well that the moment he opened his mouth, these media outlets would only take things out of context and rack their brains to find the most sensational angle.
Most likely, things would not go the way Li Mu wanted.
So, under the escort of Blackwater High School’s leadership, Li Mu entered the school grounds.
However, there were also two official media outlets authorized by the Ministry of Education.
Li Mu could not avoid their champion’s interview.
Naturally, the champion’s interview did not ask those gossip questions either.
It mainly asked Li Mu about his experience, his feelings, and the people he wanted to thank.
Its purpose was to encourage other students.
At the same time, in a small restaurant on one corner of the city, Zhai Long was seated at a table eating fried rice.
From time to time, he lifted a bottle of baijiu and took several swigs.
There were already two empty bottles of baijiu on the table.
At this moment, the divine light in Zhai Long’s eyes had dimmed, and he looked somewhat aged.
The television hanging on the wall of the little restaurant was broadcasting Li Mu’s champion interview.
Zhai Long let out a soft sigh, picked up the bottle he had just set down, and drank from it again.
There were hidden injuries in his body that no one knew about.
Because of that, he could no longer fight.
Though he possessed Fifth-Grade cultivation, he could only work as a teacher.
And yet he happened to be extremely well suited to teaching, because he was very good at it.
At Tenglong High School, he had been the fastest teacher in the school’s history to rise to the position of homeroom teacher.
Unfortunately, what happened on the second floor of the multimedia hall during the Abyss First Battle
had shown every school how he had stabbed his school leadership in the back.
Although he himself had done nothing wrong, what school would dare hire a teacher like that?
Other people did not know his teaching ability.
But everyone knew about his backstabbing ability.
And the most crucial part was that he had helped Li Mu.
Yet Li Mu did not know any of that.
This was what it meant to labor without reward.
After thinking it over again and again, he realized he could no longer stay in Tieshou City.
He could only consider leaving this city.
Only in a new city would he still be able to work in this profession.
Only the salary of a teaching job could barely keep up with his medical expenses.
At that thought, he once again turned his gaze toward the television.
At that moment, the reporter on the screen was asking Li Mu a question.
“Student Li Mu, as everyone knows, you transferred to Blackwater High School the day before military training began.”
“The internet has already circulated the reason you were expelled by Tenglong.”
“Everyone knows it wasn’t your fault.”
“But do you still feel gratitude toward Tenglong High School?”
Li Mu answered without the slightest hesitation.
“No!”
“It is a fact that Tenglong High School withheld student resources, tolerated bullying, and had chaotic school discipline.”
“As a former student of Tenglong, I should be the one to say this even more.”
“If there is anyone I should thank,” “then there is only one person from Tenglong High School I feel grateful to.”
“That person is my former homeroom teacher of Senior Year Class Nine, Teacher Zhai Long.”
Hearing that, Zhai Long’s hand holding the spoon froze instantly.
His eyes were filled with disbelief as he stared fixedly at Li Mu on the screen.
“Teacher Zhai Long is the finest instructor I have ever encountered.”
“He not only benefited me tremendously in both technique comprehension and practical combat drills,” “but also fought for resources on behalf of many students who had suffered injustice.”
“He even took out his own money to reward his outstanding students.”
“I broke through to Second Grade two days before the Abyss First Battle.”
“That was entirely thanks to the solid foundation Teacher Zhai Long built for me over the past two years.”
“Without him, there would be no Li Mu’s practical combat achievements.”