Chapter 141: Military Class

"This is a bit of a rip-off. A realm that others can reach with just one pill, yet I couldn't achieve it even after taking over twenty, what the hell?"

The more Lin Fan pondered, the stranger it felt. After that guard consumed the Body Tempering Fruit, it seemed to have only tempered the final region around the guard's heart at the ninth stage of Body Tempering, and the remaining energy helped the guard break through to the next realm.

In his case, however, the fruit tempered his five internal organs. At the same time, it felt as though his entire body underwent a marrow-washing cleansing, getting tempered and becoming vastly more formidable.

In other words, in terms of physical foundation, he was vastly stronger than that guard. But herein lay the problem: while his whole body was enhanced to an absurd degree, his realm remained stuck at the ninth stage of Body Tempering, whereas the guard had broken through into the Qi Guidance realm.

This was a gap in realms. Even though he possessed a brute strength of ten thousand catties, that guard also possessed ten thousand catties of strength after the breakthrough, and that was without factoring in the element of primordial qi.

That is to say, if one stripped away his reincarnation background, leaving behind no such rich combat experience and countless battle techniques—if he were simply someone at the ninth stage of Body Tempering with ten thousand catties of strength—fighting that guard would undoubtedly result in him being beaten to a pulp...!

"Forget it. Having a solid foundation is more important than anything else. Perhaps this is why the system is called the Ascension System; it's meant to evolve me in every aspect rather than merely breaking through realms. It leaves me with no weaknesses, making it easier for me to reach the peak compared to other cultivators, all the way until ascension."

After thinking it through calmly, Lin Fan felt relieved. Blindly breaking through realms wasn't necessarily a good thing. He could rapidly break through one realm, then two, but as the realms grew higher, the harder it would be to breakthrough. By then, everything would depend on whether the foundation of each past realm was solid.

With his foundation laid so firmly now, his future cultivation progress would be much faster than others, and breakthroughs would come more easily!

It was just like building a skyscraper; one had to lay a solid foundation first. A building with a weak foundation could never be built very tall, or it risked collapsing at any moment. Only a building with a solid foundation could be built ever higher!

Suddenly, a thought struck Lin Fan. He summoned the Ascension System once more, entering the interface in his mind, and gazed at the floating icon of the Body Tempering Fruit.

"Thinking about it this way, the Body Tempering Fruit wasn't useless to me; it was simply that the accumulated energy was too little. Perhaps once it accumulates to a certain amount, a breakthrough will happen!"

Lin Fan clenched his fist, a wicked smile playing at the corners of his mouth. "I can't say much about other things, but farming negative emotion points is exceptionally easy...!"

The next day.

The sun was bright and warm. Lin Fan stroked the money pouch in his pocket, a wave of deep satisfaction washing over him. This was given to him by his father, Lin Xiong, that morning as funds from the family to pay for those few Body Tempering Fruits.

Initially, he hadn't wanted to accept it. After all, those fruits were merely things he could acquire effortlessly with negative emotion points, and besides, giving them to his father also increased the strength of the Lin Family.

However, on second thought, he intended to forge a saber of his own today. Given his specifications, the price certainly wouldn't be low, and since he didn't have much money of his own, he didn't decline and accepted it after all!

In this world, ten taels of silver were enough for an ordinary family of three to live comfortably for a month. Yet the pouch his father gave him contained ten silver notes, each worth a thousand taels, adding up to a full ten thousand taels of silver.

Even within the Lin Family, one of the four great clans of Xiaobei City, ten thousand taels represented the entire net profit of all their shops for a month. It was by no means a small sum!

Lin Fan headed straight for the finest restaurant in Xiaobei City, the Four Seas Restaurant. Originally, he had planned to go directly to commission a saber, but after visiting the best blacksmith shop in Xiaobei City, he had returned deeply disappointed.

That blacksmith was adequate for forging ordinary blades, but when it came to forging his saber, he fell hopelessly short.

What he needed was someone capable of forging a Precious Armament—something that could imbue his saber with a spiritual connection!

In this world, weapons were also graded. From lowest to highest, they were: Ordinary, Sharp, Precious, Spirit, and Sovereign.

Ordinary weapons were standard blades; Sharp weapons were exceptionally keen and could cut through iron like mud; Precious weapons were built upon the foundation of Sharp weapons but possessed a wisp of spirituality. Though faint, they felt like an extension of one's own limbs when wielded, moving with supreme flexibility.

Spirit weapons had already given birth to a true sentience; the stronger the spirit weapon, the stronger its sentience. Currently, there was only one Sovereign weapon in the entire Snow Kingdom—the Kingdom's Imperial Seal. Nourished by the kingdom's fortune, its power was rumored to be world-destroying.

Originally, the saber he wanted should have been at least at the Spirit weapon level. But how many Spirit weapons existed in the entire Snow Kingdom? Leaving aside whether anyone could even forge one, if one were forged, he couldn't afford it anyway.

As for why he compromised, it was because he knew a cultivation technique capable of nurturing the nascent spirituality within a Precious Armament, allowing it to grow rapidly and evolve on its own until it gained sentience!

Naturally, even a Precious Armament was something he might fall slightly short of affording. The saying "scholarship requires poverty, but martial arts require wealth" was an eternal truth applicable in every world.

Normal Precious weapons ranged anywhere from twenty thousand to two or three hundred thousand taels of silver. The only reason he dared to venture out to purchase one was because he still had the Body Tempering Fruits!

Alas, despite his preparations, the finest blacksmith in Xiaobei City couldn't forge a Precious Armament, leaving him with no choice but to try his luck at the Four Seas Restaurant. After all, information flowed most freely in establishments like restaurants and taverns.

"Welcome, esteemed guest!"

Lost in his thoughts, Lin Fan had already arrived at the Four Seas Restaurant. The waiter stationed outside immediately stepped forward and ushered Lin Fan inside.

"Find me a window seat on the second floor, bring me a few of your signature dishes, and a pot of your finest Green Rain wine!" Lin Fan casually tossed a few bits of loose silver to the waiter and said with a smile.

"Right away, sir! Please, right this way!"

Seeing the silver fragments in his palm, the waiter's eyes crinkled into a wide smile; this was equivalent to two months of his wages. He guided Lin Fan to a prime window seat on the second floor, then hurried off to place the order. Before long, several exquisitely prepared dishes accompanied by a pot of fine wine were served at Lin Fan's table.

"Have you heard? The Four Great Sects are starting to recruit disciples again!" Just as Lin Fan poured himself a cup of wine, before he even had a chance to take a sip, the voice of a burly man drifted over from a nearby table, causing him to look up.

Right in front of him sat three men drinking at a table, and the one speaking was a bald, burly man.

Hearing the bald man finish, another skinny man at the same table sneered disdainfully, "Pfft, that's old news. The Snow Kingdom's premier academy, Heavenly Book Academy, has also started admissions. Word is that the requirements have been raised this year—you can't even register for the entrance exams unless you're at the Qi Guidance realm!"

Pausing for a moment, he continued, "Heavenly Book Academy truly lives up to its name as the strongest faction in the Snow Kingdom. In past years, anyone under eighteen at the ninth stage of Body Tempering could enter, and if they failed to break through within a year, they would be expelled. But now? Only those under eighteen at the Qi Guidance realm are even eligible to take the exams. In other words, even if you reach the Qi Guidance realm before eighteen, you only get a chance to take the test; whether you actually get accepted into the academy remains unknown!"

"Hiss—!"

Hearing the skinny man's words, the bald man and a middle-aged scholar seated at the same table both drew sharp breaths, shock etched across their faces.

"There must be something unusual about this. In past years, the Four Great Sects recruited disciples once every three years. They just finished recruiting last year, so why are they recruiting immediately this year? And Heavenly Book Academy isn't acting normally either—why would they raise the cultivation requirement for applicants?"

The middle-aged scholar was clean-shaven. After the shock subsided, he began to murmur and analyze the situation to himself.

"Could it be—?"

Before he could finish his sentence, as if he had thought of something, a look of pleasant surprise appeared on his face. He raised his head to look at his two companions and laughed heartily, "Two brothers, my chance has come!"

"Are you saying our country is going to launch a war against the Hulan Kingdom?"

The eyes of the bald man and the skinny man lit up instantly, directly exposing the middle-aged scholar's guess.

The bald man slammed his fist into his palm, a ferocious grin spreading across his face. "Brilliant! The Hulan Kingdom has repeatedly violated our borders. More than twenty years ago, they even took advantage of when our country had just pacified the Feiyu Kingdom and our national strength was waning, ruthlessly massacring the populations of three cities in our northwest—Northwest City, Mobei City, and Wanghou City—slaughtering millions. Aren't people like us just waiting for this very day?"

"Indeed. The three of us were mere children back then, fleeing as refugees from Mobei City all the way to this day, all to avenge this sea of blood and deep grudge. That being said, scholar, you intend to join the army?" The skinny man also spoke, fixing his gaze on the pale-faced scholar.

Listening to the two of them, the middle-aged scholar, who had been pleasantly surprised moments ago, saw his expression sink into gravity. "That's right. Hulan has frequently been mobilizing troops at the border recently, and small-scale skirmishes keep happening. The Four Great Sects and Heavenly Book Academy acting so abruptly—they are definitely preparing to wage war."

"Judging by this trend, within two years, our country will inevitably march on Hulan. Why else would the Four Great Sects and Heavenly Book Academy act like this? They are using this one or two-year window to forge a new batch of young generals for our nation!"