hhnovel Chapter 68 : Chapter 68
Chapter 68 : Chapter 68
Chapter 68: This Crummy Cultivation Art—Can’t We Just Write a New One?
Assistant Liu immediately turned back and called Li Mu in.
Li Mu had originally only come to report for duty.
He had not wanted to interrupt their meeting.
When he ran into Assistant Liu, he had merely asked where Minister Song and the others were.
He had not expected Assistant Liu to bring him straight to the meeting room.
That was because Minister Song and Professor Xu had already said so.
As long as Li Mu came, no matter what they were doing, they had to be notified.
If they were not in a meeting, then there was no need to notify anyone at all.
The moment Li Mu entered the meeting room, he saw that it was packed with twenty to thirty major figures from the various departments of the Cultivation Art Research Department.
When they saw Li Mu, all of them smiled.
Minister Song even rose to greet him with a genial smile.
“Hahaha, to be honest, I was just thinking about you a moment ago, brat!”
That was not a lie.
And it was not just him.
A little earlier, someone had mentioned that if the higher-ups wanted improvements to Flowing Cloud Triple Shock, then they might be able to submit a perfect answer in paper-format optimization.
In fact, they were already working on its paper-format optimization.
And once Flowing Cloud Triple Shock was mentioned, it was impossible not to think of Li Mu.
The genius who had elevated Flowing Cloud Triple Shock to the height of Flowing Cloud Sixth Tremor.
“Then I suppose our feelings are mutual.”
“I came this time with a task too.”
“Uh... I didn’t interrupt your meeting, did I?”
Li Mu smiled, then asked everyone apologetically.
“Hahaha, this meeting has no need to avoid you! Sit down!”
Professor Xu smiled warmly and pulled the chair beside him a little closer,
signaling for Li Mu to sit next to him.
Assistant Liu could only marvel inwardly. It really had to be Li Mu.
He had never seen Professor Xu like anyone this much before.
Not just anyone was qualified to sit beside the old man.
After exchanging a few polite refusals, Li Mu sat down.
Minister Song smiled and asked, “You said you came with a task. What task is that?”
“Deputy Commanding Officer Wang told me to come report to the Cultivation Art Research Department as a consultant.”
“He told me to ask whether our department still needed people.”
Li Mu answered.
“Yes! Of course we do! We might not need anyone else, but I am very specifically short on you!”
Minister Song burst out laughing and slapped the table.
Professor Xu was also overjoyed.
Previously, they had taken Li Mu out for drinks and done their best to persuade him, but he still had not agreed.
Who would have thought Wang Longcheng had managed to convince him?
He was actually willing to take up a post in the Cultivation Art Research Department?
It was simply a heavenly blessing dropping from the sky!
Even the various department heads and senior figures present all lit up with delight and voiced their welcome one after another.
“Hahaha, forget the matter of taking up the post for now.”
“Let’s finish the meeting first!”
After expressing his delight, Minister Song immediately patted Li Mu on the shoulder.
Li Mu nodded and sat obediently to one side, listening.
“You came late, so let me fill you in on what the meeting has been about.”
Minister Song then explained the matter of the paper-format optimization task to Li Mu.
Afraid that Li Mu might not understand how serious it was, he even went into detail about the military district structure.
This time, the order had come from the North Mountain Border Military Cultivation Research Bureau.
At the North Mountain Border, there were three cities.
Together, they were also known as the Three Cities of the Northern Border.
The place they were currently in, Ironhand City.
The larger Linyuan City.
And the even larger Bloodpool City.
The Northern Border Military Cultivation Research Bureau was located in Bloodpool City.
It oversaw the Cultivation Art departments of all ten military districts across the three cities, as well as the major cultivation art institutions within the cities themselves.
The Pearl Military District, where Li Mu currently belonged, ranked last among the ten military districts.
That was why the Commander-in-Chief had put immense pressure on them this time.
He hoped to use this opportunity to win a decent commendation from the Northern Border Military Cultivation Research Bureau and raise the profile of the Pearl Military District a little.
Li Mu listened obediently to all of this, observed the expressions of the people around him, and then said, “Minister Song, leaders, I’m a newly arrived consultant.”
“I don’t understand how the Cultivation Art Research Department operates, nor do I know any of the confidential data.”
“So, could you allow me to ask one outsider’s question?”
Professor Xu smiled and said, “That’s fine. Say whatever comes to mind! If you don’t understand, then ask!”
The implication was clear: this old man was backing him, so he could do whatever he liked.
“I want to know, for this 5% optimization the higher-ups are demanding...”
“How difficult is that for our department?”
That was what puzzled Li Mu the most. He had only ever been a student before.
The difficulty of paper-format cultivation art optimization lay in a field he had never touched.
“Extremely difficult!”
Minister Song answered very seriously.
Professor Xu patiently explained, “Paper-format cultivation arts are not the same as cultivation insights.”
“The Cultivation Art Stones each person produces are never exactly the same, but they can still allow a Martial Artist to directly receive the insight.”
“But paper-format cultivation arts are standardized.”
“They have already taken shape after being painstakingly refined by generations of people.”
“And cultivation arts are whole systems. Tug on one strand, and the whole body is affected.”
“In the process of optimizing and improving them, not only do you need a breakthrough, but you also cannot damage the integrity of the original whole.”
“Otherwise, the cultivation art will stop flowing properly and major problems will arise.”
“So when making any change to a cultivation art, it is already an achievement if you can avoid making it worse.”
“Only on that basis can it then be optimized and improved.”
After hearing that, Li Mu finally understood completely.
“Now that I’m a member of the Cultivation Art Research Department...”
“After the meeting, could I get one blade-type Cultivation Art Stone and its corresponding paper-format cultivation art?”
No sooner had Li Mu asked the question than Minister Song pulled out two items and set them directly on the table.
“Why wait until after the meeting? We have them right now.”
“If you don’t have anything urgent, you can comprehend it on the spot and read it on the spot.”
“We’ve got all the time in the world to keep you company anyway.”
He had been waiting for Li Mu to say exactly that.
Why did the entire Cultivation Art Research Department treat Li Mu like a genius?
Because after doing a bit of investigation later, they found out that Li Mu had only learned Flowing Cloud Triple Shock the day before military training began.
And the very next day, he had used Flowing Cloud Fifth Tremor to break an instructor’s leg.
What did that mean?
It meant that in the world of geniuses, time simply did not matter.
What mattered was the extraordinary level of understanding they had toward the cultivation art they comprehended!
For Li Mu, that kind of understanding meant that whether he had just finished comprehending it one second ago or had been comprehending it for a month made almost no difference.
In short, they did not understand the world of geniuses.
“That’s right, that’s right. We’re not in a hurry.”
“It just so happens we can protect you while you comprehend it!”
The others all chimed in as well, looking very much as though they would not let Li Mu leave unless he studied it.
Li Mu had no choice but to pick up the Cultivation Art Stone and the cultivation art book from the table.
The cultivation art manual was very thin.
All in all, it probably contained only a few tens of thousands of words.
It was accompanied by various diagrams showing the flow of True Qi and the body’s Meridians.
Li Mu nearly laughed when he saw it. It looked a bit like those martial arts secret manuals in wuxia dramas.
The cultivation art was called Falling Leaf Saber Art.
Mortal Grade.
Its whole principle was speed, using a high frequency of attacks to turn offense into defense.
It was one of the most widely used blade techniques among blade-type Martial Artists.
“Falling Leaf Saber Art currently has a highest comprehension rate of only around 25%.”
“That already puts it near the top among paper-format cultivation arts.”
Professor Xu explained.
A comprehension rate of 25%.
In other words, if a Martial Artist learned Falling Leaf Saber Art from the book, he would only be able to display 25% of the power of the Falling Leaf Saber Art comprehended from a Cultivation Art Stone.
And that was the highest comprehension rate.
If one looked at the average, it was only around ten-something percent.
Li Mu first focused intently and finished reading the cultivation art book.
Only then did he crush the Cultivation Art Stone on the spot and begin comprehending Falling Leaf Saber Art.
The Inferior Heavenly Immortal Art automatically granted him a hundred years of insight.
That meant that after Li Mu comprehended Falling Leaf Saber Art, he could strike directly at the essence of the cultivation art!
Even if he were only using words, Li Mu could still express something entirely different through the most condensed and refined language.
It could be put this way.
In Li Mu’s hands now, Falling Leaf Saber Art was completely a High-Grade Cultivation Art.
If Li Mu were to describe it in writing, a great deal of its essence would naturally still be lost.
But even then, it would only amount to turning a High-Grade Cultivation Art back into a Mortal Grade Cultivation Art.
More than ten minutes later, Li Mu opened his eyes.
He picked up the paper-format Falling Leaf Saber Art once more.
Minister Song and the others hardly dared speak.
Every single person stared at Li Mu, not daring to make a sound that might interrupt his thoughts.
Li Mu opened Falling Leaf Saber Art again and read for quite a while.
His brows furrowed tighter and tighter.
Then he raised his head and asked Minister Song, “Uh... when optimizing Falling Leaf Saber Art, do we absolutely have to optimize it on the basis of the current version?”
Minister Song and the others were a little confused.
“What do you mean...”
Li Mu curled his lip, flipped through two pages of the manual, and said, “What I mean is, can’t we just throw this bit of nonsense away and write a new one from scratch??”