Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

”For example, in order to refine the well-known, heavy-class crystal armor of the cultivation world, the ’Tai Hao Battle Suit’, ’Tai Hao Stone’, which is extremely rare and precious, is required. This Tai Hao Stone is a meteorite from outer space and is so rare that it only falls once every five centuries in the Heaven Origin Sector. In other words, it is only possible to refine one Tai Hao Battlesuit. If one wants to refine another one, it is absolutely impossible!”[1]

”These two points together are the reason that a vast majority of crystal suits are unable to be mass-produced. Crystal suits are scarce in number, and in the battlefield, only the commanders and commandos can wear it.”

”If the price of crystal suits was a little cheaper and its design was a little simpler, thereby reducing the difficulty of refining them by a bit as well as allowing them to be mass-produced and available to every cultivator, the crystal suit army of the Star Sea Imperium Era would once again reappear. Not to mention leveling the Demon Beast Wasteland, even the Blood Demon Sector could be steamrolled all the way. Any demon general or demon king would be swallowed by the mankind’s waves of steel one after another.”

Yuan Manqiu smile became more and more mysterious.

”Very good, Student Li Yao. You have completely pointed out the two major problems of refining crystal suits. Anyone who could resolve these two problems—that is to say, a low-priced crystal suit that could be mass-produced—will set off a storm in the industry and even change the face of the entire cultivation world’s battling style!”

After thinking for a moment, Li Yao suddenly came to understood what Yuan Manqiu was trying to say. He suddenly jumped up:

”Is our Grand Desolate War Institution’s Refining Department amidst the process of refining a new crystal suit? One that is low-priced and can be mass-produced?”

Once these words were out, all the freshmen were in an uproar.

Anyone who could be admitted to the Nine Elite Universities was definitely not a fool. Everyone, very soon, realized that once the Grand Desolate War Institution’s Refining Department was successful in refining ”crystal suits that could be mass-produced”, big waves would set off.

Forget the others, just the army would order 3,000-5,000 in one breath. No, no, no, just 2,000 was enough to produce an astronomical profit, which would be enough to elevate the Grand Desolate War Institution’s Refining Department into one of the strongest Refining Departments in the federation.

”Is it true, Professor Yuan? Even for Deep Sea University’s Refining Department, it is very difficult to refine a crystal suit that could be mass-produced. Can we actually do it?”

”Low-price? How low is it? Can it cost less 300 million?”

”Are you not going to use heaven and earth treasures? But many of the key components of crystal suits are very sophisticated. They have special requirements for the tensile strength and spiritual energy conductivity, which only a few heaven and earth treasures could fulfill. Wouldn’t ordinary material simply be unable to bear the load? Wouldn’t they just disintegrate once the load is slightly above their limit?”

A lively discussion burst forth amongst the freshmen. Their faces beamed with delight, and their morale, all of a sudden, pushed through the limit; the lifeless look which was hung on their faces had now completely disappeared.

Striking while the iron was hot, Yuan Manqiu, wearing a smile on her face, said:

”It’s true! As early as twenty years ago, when Old Mo and I were exploring a vestige in the Wasteland, we inadvertently found a fragment of a jade chip. After a decade or so of analysis, we were finally able to analyze some precious information stored within it and discovered a refining technique to refine a low-level crystal suit from the Star Sea Imperium Era. However, it was incomplete and was missing many of the most crucial steps and procedures.”

”Wow!”

The eyes of all the freshmen, including Li Yao’s, lit up.

At the dawn of the Great Dark Age, the greatest and strongest cultivator of mankind, the ”Emperor”, was born and later founded the Star Sea Imperium across the universe.

That period was the peak of mankind’s cultivation technologies. There were endless formidable cultivators and tyrannical magical equipment.

Unfortunately, during the ”Armageddon Rebellion”, the Emperor’s strongest clone, ”Blood God”, after having been corrupted by the Extraterrestrial Devils, fell to the devil’s path. The Emperor’s clone became the strongest devil cultivator known as ”Mad Armageddon”, and the cultivation world was razed by the flames of the second civil war.

Razed by the flames of war for a successive 1,000 years, the Star Sea Imperium was eventually destroyed, as a result of which various cultivation technologies suffered a disastrous decline. The level of the cultivation civilization regressed by at least a thousand years.

As far as the current Heaven Origin Sector was concerned, even a jade chip fragment from the Star Sea Imperium Era was downright a priceless treasure.

Yuan Manqiu was completely satisfied by the freshmen’s reaction. She continued:

”About a decade ago, Old Mo and I established a research team which struggled day and night to overcome the difficulties and hoped to apply the technology from the jade chip fragment into modern crystal suits so that we could produce a low-priced, ordinary-level crystal suit that could be mass-produced.”

”Five years ago, we finally had a breakthrough, so we assembled all the professors and students of the Refining Department to form a team of refiners and poured all our funds into it.”

”At present, we have already refined a fair share of the key components, and the overall structure is also almost built. The most difficult part of the entire project has already been resolved, reaching a completion rate of over 90%. As long as we put in our efforts, we will soon succeed!”

”Today was the day when we were going to test the most crucial ‘Super Compressed Crystal Reactor’, and as such, all the students and professors of the Refining Department were gathered in the Refining Workshop. That’s why we neglected you all.”

”However, as long as the Crystal Reactor is operating perfectly, we will be able to charge the crystal suits with spiritual energy in a steady stream, thereby making the entire project 99% complete!”

”As Old Mo is the leader of the entire project and the one who had first found the jade chip fragment, and also because he and I poured all our funds into the project, we decided to use the ’Xuan’ character from his name for the project and called this project ”Project Mystic Skeleton’, while the crystal suit that is going to be mass-produced will be called ’Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit’.”

”Our target is to decrease the refining cost of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit to be under... 100 million!”

”Everyone, I invite you all to take part in the ’Project Mystic Skelton’ and set off a massive storm in the cultivation world, one which will sweep the world!”

Yuan Manqiu, with her head held high, said proudly.

”Wow...”

Once she finished speaking, all the freshmen were finally moved. One after another, it was as if everyone was had been injected with energy and were beaming with joy; they were all in high spirits!

What was 100 million?

The price of some of the top-grade armed flying shuttles, such as the higher versions of the Mystic Bird Battle Shuttles and the Crimson Flame Battle Shuttles, were close to 100 million. In addition to its speed being faster, the battle force of such flying shuttles was absolutely higher than that of a crystal suit.

Prior to the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, the cheapest crystal suit was worth over 500 million and that was just a training model. It wasn’t equipped with any notable offensive magical equipment.

Before, spending an amount of 500 million could only arm a single cultivator, but now, it could arm at least five cultivators!

Even if the performance of the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit was worse than other crystal suits, the numerical advantage of five or maybe even ten could make up for the large difference in its performance.

Needless to say, some of the slightly higher grade crystal suits could cost a couple hundred million, a few billion, or maybe even more than ten billion.

If the same amount was spent on the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, an entire battalion could be armed with ease!

Yuan Manqiu was absolutely right. If Project Mystic Skeleton was truly successful, then as certain as the sun rising in the east, it was a revolutionary crystal suit which would set off an earth-shattering and heaven-encompassing storm in the cultivation world—it could even change the face of the currently existing battle style of cultivators!

By then, every low-level cultivator would not hesitate to buy a Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, and the army, even more so, would send a large order at once!

The Grand Desolate War Institution’s Refining Department did not even need to truly manufacture the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuits. They would just have to provide authorization to the army or other cultivation sects for them to refine it, and just from the ”licensing fee”, they would be able to earn massive profits.

”Now, do you understand that applying for the Grand Desolate War Institution’s Refining Department was the correct choice!? As long as we are truly successful in refining the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, the Grand Desolate War Institution’s Refining Department would absolutely jump into one of the top Refining Department in the federation!”

Li Yao’s face revealed a look of delight as he secretly pondered.

The other freshmen too were all grinning ear to ear; they were extremely excited.

Whereas the whirring and snoring sounds of the older students could still be heard without end.

However, in the eyes of the freshmen, even if oil was smeared all over their clothes, they started to look cuter—after all, everyone was working hard for ”Project Mystic skeleton”!

Completing the project a day earlier would relieve them from their misery a day earlier!

Very soon, after crossing half of Wild Waves City, passing through the imposing Iron Fist Club and Chaos Edge Hall, and crossing a group of ginormous floating mountains, the flying shuttle arrived at a somewhat dilapidated and gloomy region.

This was like an old district of Wild Waves City; the buildings on the ground were dilapidated and the paint on the walls was peeling off, revealing the rugged surface of the bricks.

Seven to eight floating mountains were floating all alone in the sky. The size of these mountains was a lap shorter than the mountains at the center of the city.

One of the floating mountains seemed to have some problem with its Anti-Gravity Array Glyphs and was losing a lot of spiritual energy, which was leaking in the form of heat energy.

And in order to stop the heat radiating, a cooling pond was installed next to the Anti-Gravity Array Glyphs, resulting in a large amount of steam gushing out, filling the entire sky, and making the atmosphere look rather bad.

”Look! That’s our school building. Don’t be fooled by its inconspicuous appearance. Inside, it is instead a very advanced lab, refining workshop, and a small smelting room, all of which could fulfill the most basic requirements of refining. Like the saying goes, even though a sparrow is small, it still has all its organs!”

Yuan Manqiu, pointing at a round floating mountain, said.

This floating mountain simply had no style at all; it was as if classical, modern, and futuristic styles had been casually blended together. Purely from a practical point of view, it was like they only cared about the function and did not consider the artistic view. It simply gave off the misconception that a big lump of waste was floating in the sky.

If Yuan Manqiu had not given them that speech a while ago, presumably, almost half of these freshmen would have thought of transferring departments after looking at the school building.

However, at this moment, everyone was extremely excited. After they were immersed in the completion of Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, they were imagining the flourishing and glorious Grand Desolate War Institution’s Refining Department.

”Even this floating mountain was built after Old Mo and I used hard and soft tactics on the Dean for several years. Only then was the funding provided. Because the funds were insufficient, that’s why it looks a little ugly... but it does not matter! As long as we succeed in refining the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, we will surely build a super-huge floating mountain, one that is bigger than even the main school building of the Combat Department!”

Yuan Manqiu ruthlessly waved her fists as she said in an impassioned manner.

Li Yao’s fingers started to itch after he was touched by her enthusiasm. He could not wait to fly to this ”Junk Mountain” and start working on refining the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit together with Professor Mo Xuan!

”As long as we succeed in refining the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, astronomical funding and overwhelming resources will be poured into the Refining Department. In just a few years, Grand Desolate War Institution’s Refining Department will be a major department just like the Combat Department, and within ten years, we will certainly have the opportunity to run shoulder to shoulder with the Deep Sea University’s Refining Department. By then...”

”BOOM!”

While Li Yao and the others were immersed in the happy fantasy, an earth-shattering explosion suddenly rang in their ears.

A fiery brilliance shot to the sky as a mushroom cloud, which was like the arms of an octopus, spread in all direction, wrapping the entire floating mountain

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TLN:

[1] Tai Hao Emperor is one of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, the mythological rulers of Ancient China. More could be found here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Sovereigns_and_Five_Emperors