hhnovel Chapter 69 : Chapter 69
Chapter 69 : Chapter 69
Chapter 69: We Were About to Go House-Hunting, and the Moment We Stepped Out, We Ran into Bad Luck
The moment Li Mu said that, everyone in the room stopped breathing.
Not one person so much as took a breath.
After a long while, Minister Song finally asked, “You have a different insight into it?”
“I wouldn’t dare say I have that much insight.”
“It’s just that the current paper-format cultivation art feels very awkward to me. It doesn’t match my understanding.”
“So I can’t really make changes on top of this foundation.”
“Could I write my own version of Falling Leaf Saber Art?”
Li Mu did not overstate anything. He only said that he had a different understanding.
“Yes! Of course you can!”
Minister Song was overjoyed.
The others were even more intensely curious!
A genius really did think differently from them.
He had only just comprehended it, and he already had a different understanding of it.
And it was not hard to see how much Li Mu disliked the current paper-format cultivation art!
He even wanted to overturn the entire current version.
That meant he definitely had something more brilliant in mind.
As for just how much higher it was, that would have to wait until Li Mu finished writing it.
After the meeting ended, Li Mu was first formally entered into the department’s staff rolls.
He was directly appointed as a Consultant in the Major Categories Cultivation Art Research Department.
That put him slightly above the level of those section heads.
His monthly salary was 100,000, and with the stipend from his two medals added on, it came to 70,000 per month—50,000 for his Second-Class Merit Medal and 20,000 for his Third-Class Merit Medal.
His rank as Junior Wolf Guard was not lower than that of many section heads, and with the influence he now carried in the Cultivation Art Research Department, his position had to be placed one level higher. Otherwise, even Wang Longcheng would not have agreed.
After completing the entry procedures, Li Mu returned to the forge.
He found a saber and began practicing Falling Leaf Saber Art.
Three days passed in the blink of an eye.
Of course, during those three days, Li Mu did not spend all his time only comprehending Falling Leaf Saber Art and writing the cultivation art.
He also used the three days to fully adapt to the strength of Third Grade.
He increased the limit weight of Divine Weapon Art to 1,455 jin.
Adding the original weight of the Thornflower Cudgel itself, his weapon now weighed 1,505 jin.
As for the remaining 2,700 Triumph Points, Li Mu first spent some on Alchemy Art.
He unlocked two pills: [High-Grade Body-Tempering Pill] and [Low-Grade Sea-Filling Pill].
The High-Grade Body-Tempering Pill was the advanced version of the Body-Fortifying Pill.
Its effects were extremely strong, but the medicinal ingredients it required were not only enormously expensive— the key problem was that two of the required ingredients simply could not be bought on the market at all. Li Mu could only buy their herb seeds.
So in the Blessed Field Art, he planted a total of three kinds of medicinal herbs.
As for the Low-Grade Sea-Filling Pill, it was meant to help expand the Dantian Sea and increase the amount of True Qi.
These two formulas alone cost him 700 points.
After that, Li Mu unlocked a new Divine Ability.
【Bronze Head and Iron Arms】
Price: 200 points.
【Bronze Head and Iron Arms: The body instantly becomes as hard as metal and stone, increasing defense fiftyfold for 1 second.】
Li Mu then spent another 800 points and lit up three skill tree nodes in succession.
【Duration increased by 1 second】
【Defense increased one hundredfold】
【When attacked by an enemy, reflects 30% of the force of that attack back at them】
As for the abilities further down the tree, he had no need for them for now, and the Triumph Point cost to unlock them was too high.
So Li Mu poured the final 1,000 points into Listen Close.
【1000 Triumph Points consumed. ‘Listen Close’ enhancement successful】
【Listen Close: Stores the Divine Weapon in the Sumeru space within the ear canal, allowing unceasing comprehension and cultivation at all times, at a speed equal to 46% of normal cultivation speed.】
Forty-six percent. That was already equivalent to spending nearly half of every day cultivating.
Li Mu could clearly feel how powerful the cultivation speed was.
Every day, he could sense obvious improvement.
It was like never doing your homework after school at all, yet the next morning the teacher still praised you for doing such an excellent job.
This feeling of growing stronger while doing nothing
made Li Mu feel a very definite sense of guilt.
But it also felt pretty great...
Early on the morning of the third day, Li Mu pushed open the courtyard gate and stretched lazily.
In the courtyard, Chen Jinshi was working on his billets.
Yang Suying and Yang Yourong were busy getting breakfast ready.
Chen Jiaqi and Chen Jiafeng, both still looking half asleep, were sparring in the yard to wake themselves up.
Each of them held a battered saber blank. Their blades clanged against each other as they fought, and the more they fought, the more awake they became.
Neither of them had awakened a talent yet, so they both chose weapons based purely on personal preference.
Previously, they had used spears, but after idolizing Li Mu, both of them had switched to cudgels.
However, Li Mu had finished writing Falling Leaf Saber Art yesterday, and then had them practice it for an entire day and night.
The two of them were quite obedient and willingly served as Li Mu’s guinea pigs.
They practiced at school, and they practiced at home too.
And now, early in the morning, they had actually gotten up and started sparring diligently again.
Li Mu stepped forward and watched for a while, then could not help nodding to himself.
Although the two of them still had no talent, their comprehension really was quite good.
They were already using Falling Leaf Saber Art in a fairly convincing way.
“Stop for a moment!”
Li Mu called them to a halt.
“What is it, Cousin?” the two of them asked.
“Jiafeng, come here.”
Li Mu called Chen Jiafeng over.
Then he whispered in his ear for about a minute.
Chen Jiafeng’s eyes grew brighter and brighter.
Chen Jiaqi was so curious she could hardly bear it, but she could not hear what the two were saying.
“All right, continue!”
After saying that, Li Mu told them to resume sparring.
This time, although both of them were still using Falling Leaf Saber Art, Chen Jiafeng, who had just been at a slight disadvantage, suddenly reversed the situation.
He actually began pressing Chen Jiaqi back!
Chen Jiaqi immediately puffed out her cheeks in protest and complained, “Cousin, you’re biased! You taught him the secret and not me!”
Li Mu burst out laughing.
He had only wanted to test whether spoken guidance could supplement a written cultivation art.
It was obvious now that it worked.
At the very least, it could directly make up for a Martial Artist’s lack of understanding of the cultivation art, and the results came very quickly.
So Li Mu hurried over and pointed out a few things to Chen Jiaqi as well.
Yang Suying smiled and said, “All right, enough fighting. Hurry up and eat.”
“Coming!”
Li Mu answered cheerfully, and the other two followed him to the table.
At breakfast, Li Mu said, “Uncle by Marriage, close up the shop later too. Come with us to the Military Residential District to look at houses.”
Yesterday, Li Mu had already arranged to take his mother and aunt to the Military Residential District today to look at a home.
Chen Jinshi scratched his head awkwardly.
“Actually, I was planning to bring this up with you today too.”
“It’s enough if just you and your mother move into the Military Residential District.”
“If our whole family goes in too, won’t we just be causing you trouble?”
Deep down, of course they wanted to move into the Military Residential District.
This was not because he was vain.
It was because the moment they lived there, their social standing would become different.
He had struggled and clawed his way along the bottom rung for many years, and no one understood the warmth and coldness of the world better than he did.
As long as they moved into the Military Residential District, his forge would never again be bullied by any department, and no one would dare look down on his children anymore.
They would no longer have to endure unfair treatment of any kind.
It was only that they feared Li Mu might make some mistake in trying to get them into the Military Residential District.
Chen Jiaqi and Chen Jiafeng looked at Li Mu with open hope.
They very much wanted to move into the Military Residential District. Naturally, they could not think at their father’s level.
All they knew was that once they moved there, no one at school would dare bully them again, and the teachers certainly would not dare treat them unfairly anymore.
Li Mu smiled faintly, his tone firm.
“Don’t worry. I know what I’m doing.”
“I am a soldier of the Abyss-Suppressing Army. I risk my life for the people of Huaxia.”
“If even my own family cannot have the most basic guarantee of safety, then I won’t be able to fight with peace of mind.”
When Li Mu said “my family,” he said it so clearly and naturally that even a rugged man like Chen Jinshi could not help feeling warmth spread through his heart.
If he refused again, he would only be chilling Li Mu’s heart.
So in the end, he could only nod heavily.
Yang Yourong and Yang Suying exchanged a look and smiled knowingly.
Chen Jiaqi and Chen Jiafeng, meanwhile, just grinned foolishly and set their minds at ease, shoveling down their food with renewed enthusiasm!
The whole family happily finished breakfast.
Then they packed up and prepared to head out.
The moment they heard they were going house-hunting, Chen Jiafeng and Chen Jiaqi both took leave from school so they could come along too.
In any case, their academic burden was not that heavy right now.
At a High-Martial high school, the academic subjects accounted for forty percent, while martial subjects accounted for sixty percent.
As long as your strength was not too poor, getting leave was very easy.
The family locked up the shop door and had only just started to leave
when several figures hurried over.
They were none other than members of the Li family.
At the front was an extremely haggard Old Madam Ma. Behind her followed Li Mu’s Eldest Aunt, First Aunt, Second Aunt, Li Xiaohong, and Li Lan.
Without exception, they were all women.