Chapter 1015 Weapon Rank
It was dangerous to deal with these snake vines. Mu Zi had been trapped by these snake vines several times and managed to break free from these living vines only after destroying a large cl.u.s.ter of them.
Furthermore, after he cut down a large cl.u.s.ter of vines, the deathly aura and spiritual pressure that oppressed him suddenly disappeared. It was as if h.e.l.l Island had acknowledged that Mu Zi"s existence was acceptable after a long test.
Without the spiritual pressure, Mu Zi"s cultivation unknowingly slowed down. Now, Mu Zi planned to go out and pick up some items before coming back. He would at least obtain a few sets of clothes before returning here. Furthermore, he also wanted to test whether he could rear chickens and eat their eggs. It had been one month since he had tasted meat. Although the small flowers could provide the energy that he needed, they were completely tasteless in his mouth. Mu Zi felt that if this went on, he would quickly forget how to use his tongue.
In the past, although he was used to being alone, he had never betrayed his mouth and tongue.
Mu Zi used the trees and vines on the island to make a small boat. It was rather simple and crude, but would not be corroded by the Netherworld River just like the Life and Death Coffin. At the same time, he collected a few strange-faced flowers. These flowers had rather good results, and he believed that there would be someone outside who knew what these were. After he made a detailed list of items, Mu Zi realized that he had many items to exchange outside.
Mu Zi stepped on the small boat but did not plan to return to his old Faction. He rather missed Aiolos and w.a.n.g Zhong, and the place did not suit him. The penetrating and discriminatory glances, as well as the coldness there, were much worse than on Earth. Compared to that, he was more willing to stay on h.e.l.l Island alone. Even if he had to eat flowers for the rest of his days, it was better than dealing with the cold and discriminatory glances.
Even being a wanderer in the Netherworld River did not seem to be a bad idea.
When Mu Zi thought about this, he patted the edge of his boat. When he could obtain some key items, he would find a way to make this small boat less simple and crude. If he made a canopy or a cabin, the results would definitely be very good.
He believed that w.a.n.g Zhong, Aiolos, or the others would definitely come to look for him.
The two sides of the Netherworld River were lined with countless factions. Battles in the underground world were typically so cruel that they would get out of hand. Some experts who had been exiled would also compete for a place here. However, unlike the order in the world above, the Star Alliance pretty much turned a blind eye to what happened underground. As long as they did not provoke any important figures, no one cared.
The Star Alliance had principles of control that were thoroughly understood and flexible. Meanwhile, the underground world was a gray area where various civilizations and powers exerted their pressure.
The hate between the Netherworld Insect Faction and the Ghost Spirit Religion could be traced back to many trivial matters that happened several hundred years ago. As a result, they had slaughtered each other for several hundred years. They continuously weighed their hate against each other.
A large majority of the Netherworld Insect Faction members came from a branch of the insect race. They were elites among the level-5 civilizations. Meanwhile, the Ghost Spirit Religion that was at odds with them was a group of level-5 soul creatures.
For today"s battle, both sides had deployed several hundred pupils. This battle would determine the owners.h.i.+p of the Netherworld River for the next year. Both sides fought to their hearts" content in this large-scale battle that involved thousands of people. Meanwhile, two leaders occasionally gave commands and adjusted the distribution of the troops under them.
At this moment, fog suddenly moved over from one side of the Netherworld River. Very quickly, the fog filled the coast and engulfed the battlefield.
The two sides, who had been slaughtering each other, were shocked and retreated to their camp. They had lived in this area for several hundred years, but today, the Netherworld River became rather foreign. The two sides that had been slaughtering each other suddenly prepared themselves together like old friends.
Suddenly, a small boat floated out from the fog.
Everyone was stunned as they looked at the boat. After a brief moment of silence, both sides exploded in discussion.
"What is this?"
"There"s someone in the Netherworld River?"
Over the past 1,000 years, the people that were able to come into contact with the Netherworld River had all obtained the acknowledgment of the Netherworld River, and all these creatures had become almighty figures without exception. There were many legends about these experts that circulated in the underground world, but very few people had seen them with their own eyes, especially in the past 100 years when none of these experts had been seen.
All the lives in the underground world revolved around the Netherworld River to survive. In their eyes, the Netherworld River was of the same status as the Heavenly River above, and their feelings for the Netherworld River were even more sincere. Furthermore, the fact that someone had emerged from the depths of the Netherworld River completely shocked these people.
The fog dispersed, and everyone saw a living creature surrounded by dead vines. The two leaders from the Netherworld Insect Faction and the Ghost Spirit Religion gulped. In their eyes, they had definitely encountered an almighty being.
The two of them charged towards Mu Zi. They knelt and bowed to him three times before fighting to introduce themselves.
"Senior, I am the Suzerain of the Netherworld Insect Faction. I am at your command."
"Senior, I am the Leader of the Ghost Spirit Religion. Please let me know if you need anything!"
Mu Zi waved his hand, and two strange-faced flowers immediately flew towards these two leaders. The moment they saw the strange-faced flowers, there was disbelief and surprise on their faces. This was the legendary red spider lily, a top-quality material for pills!
It had been over 100 years since the red spider lily had appeared. This was a divine object that could only be found in the depths of the Netherworld River!
The two leaders" att.i.tudes were even more respectful. After all, this expert had casually taken out two red spider lilies, and their luck was off the charts. Then, a coffin flew out. The two of them were dumbfounded and immediately reacted. They immediately placed anything that was valuable on their bodies on the coffin.
Mu Zi furrowed his eyebrows. He was not very interested in these items, but it did not matter. The coffin went back to him, and the small boat returned to the Netherworld River with the fog before floating into the depths of the Netherworld River.
"I will come back next month. Prepare something good to eat."
The two Suzerains were dumbstruck. Something good to eat?
The two of them looked at each other and flashed horrifying smiles. They were flouris.h.i.+ng!
However, they simply could not hide this piece of news. When an almighty wanderer in the Netherworld River appeared, it was very likely that they had not appeared in a very long time, but this was not important. Most importantly, the fact that an almighty being used red spider lilies to make transactions quickly attracted the great Factions near the Netherworld River, and this shocked even a few peak Factions.
...
It was time for Weapon Refinery Cla.s.ses.
The Three Great Halls all had exclusive teaching areas. The teaching area of the Pill Refinery Hall was at Furnace Mountain. It was said that the entire mountain was an ancient and almighty furnace. However, it had been too long ago, and no one was able to make use of it. However, there was an undying furnace flame in the mountain that gave birth to everything. Thus, moss and stones gradually grew, forming the Furnace Mountain of today after a very long time. The stone furnace that Elder Yimo had sat on yesterday was no more than an ordinary sculpture from the Furnace Mountain. However, after being nurtured by the Furnace Mountain and the furnace flames underground, the stone furnace had become a furnace that was almost divine. It was extremely mysterious.
Meanwhile, the Weapon Refinery Hall was on the other side of the Furnace Mountain. It was also a sacred place where weapons were born, but unlike the clarity and natural scenery of the Furnace Mountain, this place was filled with marks of civilization. Even the entire mountain looked like a three-dimensional object hovering in the air above a vast empty land and did not look like it was natural. It seemed more like someone had deliberately refined the mountain.
This was the inside of the Heavenly Gates. The spiritual pressure and gravity here were extremely great, and it was difficult to fly here just using spiritual power. Lao w.a.n.g stood at the foot of the mountain and looked at the building that was hovering 1,000 meters in the sky. He could not quite understand. Tap tap tap tap! Then, many crystal stones naturally appeared in the sky, as if the ma.s.sive floating building had sensed Lao w.a.n.g"s desire to walk up and naturally laid out a pathway to the top.
He stepped on the crystal stones. Without having to walk, he felt the crystal stones rapidly advance calmly and steadily. There was no noise, and even the sound of the wind while he rapidly advanced seemed to have automatically been blocked off. He had crossed a distance of 1,000 meters in the blink of an eye and was sent into the interior of the three-dimensional object. Even w.a.n.g Zhong, who had seen many large scenes, could only describe this as a work of G.o.d.
He saw an enormous hall in front of him. Two eye-catching words were engraved above the hall: "Creation Hall".
There were evidently much fewer people compared to yesterday"s lesson at the Pill Refinery Hall.
Weapon refinery was not very significant to pill refiners, and they even looked down upon it. Furthermore, to combat cultivators, there was almost no need to study this either. Meanwhile, in the Weapon Refinery Hall, a majority of those who had been allocated here had inherited weapon refinery lore. For example, Jhonas was from a famous weapon refinery race in the divine territory.
At that moment, there were only 100 to 200 audit students in addition to the pupils of the Weapon Refinery Hall waiting for cla.s.ses to start in the Creation Hall. Furthermore, a majority of them had probably come with the att.i.tude to just take a look. The next lesson, 80% to 90% of them would no longer come.
Jhonas greeted Lao w.a.n.g before finding his place in front. Meanwhile, Lao w.a.n.g waited behind with a group of audit students while observing the arrangement of the Creation Hall. He felt that the spiritual influence contained in this hall was extremely rich but did not feel as pure and natural. It was as if someone had intentionally split up and guided the spiritual influence here.
Pill refinery was particular about following one"s path and complete naturalness. If 10,000 people refined the same pill, there might be 10,000 different methods of refinery and 10,000 different sets of steps. What was most important was an individual"s knowledge about pills and their control of pills, not a process that was blindly memorized.
However, refining weapons was different. Under most circ.u.mstances, weapon refinery was formalistic and required every step to have a clear objective. Many results could be controlled by a weapon refinery master. Furthermore, they had to achieve 100% perfection with what they had expected… There was a fundamental difference between pill refinery and weapon refinery.
There was a noisy buzzing in the surroundings as people guessed who would teach today. In the past, supervisors typically taught in the Weapon Refinery Hall. Thus, a majority of people thought that a high-ranking supervisor would teach today. An elder would probably not appear, unlike yesterday. However, they never expected that before this mystery was solved, a celebrity had appeared, making everyone present turn to look at her.
She was Celeste, the daughter of the Heavenly Sh.e.l.l Crown Prince.
She was one of the four top prodigies in the Heavenly Gates that everyone paid most attention to. She had natural endowments that people could only sigh at. Yesterday, she had even appeared with Overall Supervisor Erza. She was one step ahead and seemed to be faintly oppressing the other three prodigies. She was destined to be the most dazzling new star among the Heavenly Gates pupils, but she had come to the Creation Hall to listen to weapon refinery lessons?
When they saw her arrive, countless people widened their eyes. They could not understand and were curious about why a pill refinery pupil had come to attend a weapon refinery cla.s.s. To be honest, among all the audit students there, Celeste was the only one from the pill refinery cla.s.s.
A pupil from the Weapon Refinery Hall tried to curry favor with her and wanted to invite Celeste to sit in front but was politely rejected. There was a short silence in the Creation Hall. Then, buzzing noises could be heard all around, filled with excitement and curiosity. They did not understand why a heavenly favored girl would spend time and come to this kind of place.
"Truly powerful members of the Sh.e.l.l race do not only know how to cultivate pills. Their natural sh.e.l.ls are extremely powerful barriers. If they can refine them further, they can become divine weapons."
"But she doesn"t have to come to the Creation Hall and attend lessons with ordinary pupils, right? With her ident.i.ty and just one word with the supervisor, they would invite a weapon refinery master to teach her individually, right?"
"Maybe she just wants to experience the atmosphere of lessons in the Creation Hall and have some life. She definitely will not come next lesson. Who knows?"
Noisy discussions started everywhere, and the hall was filled with buzzing. However, it was as if Celeste completely did not care about what these people were saying. Instead, she found a corner among the audit students and sat down alone. She seemed extremely aloof. At this moment, the teaching supervisor of the Weapon Refinery Hall arrived.
Just as everyone had guessed, the teacher of the Weapon Refinery Hall was simply a high-ranking supervisor. Although they had expected this, this still caused several expectant pupils of the Weapon Refinery Hall to feel dejected. After all, the Heavenly Gates elders and supervisors were on completely different levels. Listening to a Gold Core almighty figure teach was the greatest enjoyment in their life.
However, to be evaluated as a high-ranking supervisor, one definitely needed to have strength.
This was a high-ranking supervisor from the Natural race. This old man seemed rather amiable. His aura was not as powerful as Elder Yimo"s yesterday, and his voice was not as pleasant to the ears. But when he taught, he mentioned many cla.s.sics and provoked thought. Thus, everyone quickly ignored the low-key daughter of the Heavenly Sh.e.l.l Crown Prince sitting at the corner and concentrated on learning. w.a.n.g Zhong also wanted to listen as he might have to refine a set of weapons for himself in the future. No matter what, knowledge was the most important.
Needless to say, the Natural race was the most peaceful race among the level-8 civilizations and were in a prominent position. They were respected, and many races had received help from them. For example, back then, the reason why Sh.e.l.l race was able to miraculously climb from a level-5 civilization to a level-8 civilization, increase the overall strength of the entire race, and uncover their natural endowments for pills was closely a.s.sociated with the help from the Natural race, as well as the few super experts of the Sh.e.l.l race who had emerged and shocked an entire generation. Thus, the position of the Natural race was rather stable.
Just like the pill lesson, he explained some basics and general principles of weapon refinery, which were not simpler than refining pills.
"Weapons" could be divided into two kinds.
The first kind was public weapons whose functions were prepared for the divine territory. They were used by the various great powers. Weapons, puppets, flags, roulettes, and even wards were considered weapons. They had many functions, and their controller was not fixed. Anyone could use them, which was why they were called public weapons.
For example, w.a.n.g Zhong"s Nebula Sword and Solomon"s Nine-Headed Snake Sword were public weapons that had been bestowed to their worlds. They were basic weapons in the divine territory, but when thrown to their worlds, they were divine weapons that could cause great chaos, rivalry, and compet.i.tion.
The other kind was personal weapons, which were in agreement with the souls of their users. They were intelligent and could only be used by a particular individual and could not transfer owners. One could craft a personal weapon for themselves or for others.
Weapons were also divided into grades. The so-called divine weapons and spiritual weapons were simply layman terms. The standard levels ranged from grade-9 to grade-1. Grade-1 divine weapons were not less valuable than grade-1 pills and provided a significant increase in strength. Experts who possessed grade-1 divine weapons could challenge two experts of the same cla.s.s by themselves. This was an important part of an expert"s strength and allowed them to be extremely impressive. Of course, the difficulty would be just as high. There was a saying that the entire divine territory was a divine weapon. Of course, this was a super divine weapon that was the essence of the Fifth Dimension.
All these only referred to weapons themselves. Furthermore, there were many other types of weapon refinery, soul cultivation, casting methods, and so on.
Furthermore, weapons were not completely external objects. A deeper understanding would allow one to realize that a weapon was a part of the body. It could even be said that any inadequacies in one"s body could be made up with by weapons. This was similar to how the Tyrants in the Holy City understood how to refine their bodies. Of course, the Weapon Refinery Hall was much more in-depth.
This high-ranking supervisor from the Natural race was extremely detailed in his explanations. Everyone who listened to him gained knowledge, but w.a.n.g Zhong felt that this was far too complex and that he should not bite off more than he could chew. Weapon refinery was not his main mission now. Pills were comparatively more important.
Although he had wasted a day, being able to achieve this result meant that he did not waste his time. However, Lao w.a.n.g was speechless to see that Flying Pig Jhonas, who was sitting in front, was sleeping once again.
He could forget about the pill lesson yesterday as that was not his main course. However, weapon refinery was his main cla.s.s, yet he could sleep? Furthermore, he was right in front of the high-ranking supervisor from the Natural race and drooled as he slept. Although the supervisor from the Natural race had a relatively good temper and did not blame Jhonas, Lao w.a.n.g was speechless. Just what was this fellow here for? Did he pay school fees of 1,000 Gold Star Stones just to sleep in the Heavenly Gates? If his seniors knew about this, would they simply beat him to death?
"How is that so? Boss, you really don"t understand me." Jhonas honestly explained to Lao w.a.n.g, "We are the illusion race. We are best at dreaming! Don"t look down at my sleeping. When I am asleep — heh heh heh — I am truly invincible!"
"Tomorrow is the combat cultivation cla.s.s. You can use your sleeping method and show your invincibility." Lao w.a.n.g started to poke fun at him.
"That is Boss"s territory. How could I do that?" Jhonas was becoming more immoral as time pa.s.sed. Over the past two or three days, he had also grown more familiar with Lao w.a.n.g"s temper. Frankly speaking, this was a Boss who could joke around. "Relax, Boss. I definitely believe you. I have some outlook. Although your spiritual quality is grade-4 and everyone thinks that you will be eliminated… When you fight, you will definitely be impressive. I will quietly watch how Boss puts on an act!"
"I am going to attend cla.s.ses. What do you mean by putting on an act?" Lao w.a.n.g did not know whether to laugh or to cry.
"To acc.u.mulate points!" Jhonas hurriedly said. "I heard that the Combat Cultivation Hall is different from the Pill Refinery Hall and is b.l.o.o.d.y every day. Boss, when you go to the Combat Cultivation Hall, you absolutely cannot lie low. What use will that be to you? Reveal your strength that you use to beat me and beat up anyone you find offensive. Then, when you are invincible in the Combat Cultivation Hall, you will receive the highest grades every day. After that, you will become the first from the Combat Cultivation Hall to join the Pill Refinery Hall…"