Tan Yubing’s guess was correct; nobody challenged Lu Mingshu after her fight. She was injured under the eyes of every participant. Whoever dared to challenge her despite that would be seen as the epitome of shameless.
The games of the world indeed had their own rules and regulations, and the Qilin Festival was no exception. No matter how many dirty secrets were hidden below, they should at least remain magnificent on the surface. Otherwise, how could the New Generation Ranking mean anything?
The skies soon darkened, and the chaperones sent someone to check on Lu Mingshu, except for An Tongchen, who came down personally.
“You should work on your defense,” An Tongchen started. “It’s good to be an elite in one area, but it probably won’t get you to the top.”
“Thanks, Senior Uncle An.”
All sorts of feelings welled up in Lu Mingshu’s heart. In other people’s eyes, An Tongchen was someone cold and nasty, but to her and her master, it was a totally different story.
An Tongchen didn’t stay for long. “Rest early. There’s a high chance that someone will challenge you tomorrow.”
“Yes.”
An Tongchen waved his hand to indicate that she didn’t need to send him off, then left.
Lu Mingshu took a pouch that An Tongchen left behind. She opened it up to reveal a box of ointment and a thin disk
She took it out to have a better look. The disk was smaller than her palm, and it was dark green with a complex rune on it.
“Spiritual Tool…” she murmured.
Spiritual Tool – a tool that arose during the war between mankind and the barbarians when mankind’s development was at its apex. Back then, with a Spiritual Tool, one could demonstrate extraordinary skills without using much mystic force. Spiritual Tools were a heroic contribution to mankind winning war. As time passed, the rune-carving industry started to wane, so Spiritual Tools were hardly seen anymore.
This Spiritual Tool was definitely not newly made. Looking at its condition, it must have been at least a hundred years old.
Mystic force rushed forth from her palm, and gold rays of light surrounded the disk. This inconspicuous Spiritual Tool shone brightly on her palm. Lu Mingshu flicked it lightly, and as if it was alive, the disk jumped on her palm like a paper frog and blinked continuously.
Such a treasure! If I had this with me earlier, I wouldn’t have been injured.
“I owe him so much!” Lu Mingshu sighed and grabbed the disk in her hand.
If she was An Tongchen’s disciple, it would be a different story, but she wasn’t.
“Whatever. When there are too many debts, one stops worrying.” Lu Mingshu placed the disk back into the pouch.
As she was about to go into the Heavenly Wheel, someone came to her door.
When she opened the door, the servant girl who came over that day was standing outside. “Miss Lu, someone instructed this servant to pass you something.”
She passed a roll of silk to Lu Mingshu and left hurriedly after bowing.
Lu Mingshu closed the door and opened the silk.
It was filled with writings that had the same font as the one on the back of book she received a couple days ago. Each and every stroke was clearly and neatly written. One could tell that the owner of this text had great patience.
The things written on the silk got straight to the point. It was about the situation that Huo Jiang was in, and who he had met before and during the Qilin Festival.
Lu Mingshu blinked her eyes.
Should she consider herself lucky? Even though she had always been in desperate situations, there was always someone there for her. An Tongchen was helping her because of her master, while the other one was someone whom she wanted to avoid but couldn’t.
Whatever. It’s not like I’m forcing him to do this. He can do whatever he wants. She crushed the silk and went into the Heavenly Wheel.
“Xiao Sang.”
“Yes.”
“Do you know what this is?” Lu Mingshu took out the concealed weapons.
The concealed weapons were the ones that Huo Jiang injured her with earlier. To say that they were concealed weapons though… they were rough and looked cheap. They didn’t look like plum blossom darts nor money darts. They just looked unfinished.
“Golden Crystal Extract,” Xiao Sang replied in monotone. “Extremely good at conducting mystic force; the energy loss is almost zero. The material is extremely durable. It’s the best quality material.”
Lu Mingshu’s eyes widened. Xiao Sang had high standards; her comments took into account everything in the world. This was the first time that she had said that Lu Mingshu’s item was something more than a basic material.
“Xiao Sang, could I use it to craft a sword?”
“Yes, but you need to have at least a middle-class tool refining technique.”
According to Xiao Sang’s standard, “middle-class tool refining technique” refered to the grandmaster level of tool refining. Finding a tool refining grandmaster to craft a sword for her? Maybe even Fu Shangqin couldn’t get one to do it.
“And you don’t have enough of it. If you want to craft a sword, you need at least three of those things in your hand.”
Lu Mingshu bit her lips. “Xiao Sang, is this hard to get? How much points are needed to exchange for this in the Heavenly Wheel?”
“Best quality stuff is rare. You will need up to thirty million points to be able to exchange for it.”
“…” Lu Mingshu kept quiet. She had already spent more than six months trying to pay off her debt of one thousand. Thirty million was obviously impossible for her.
From this information, it was obvious that this Golden Crystal Extract was a high-class material, and only someone with a high cultivation would have access to it. Adding on what Xiao Sang said about the tool refining standard, if was successful, it would be the best quality weapon.
Lu Mingshu bit her lips. “Could I find someone to craft a sword through the Heavenly Wheel?”
“Yes,” Xiao Sang replied. “You could use your points and set it up on the forum as a task for someone to pick up, or you could wait for the Heavenly Wheel to come out with a new recipe for crafting a sword that can increase your percentage of succeeding. “
“How many points are needed?”
“The forum is a place for those who have access to the Heavenly Wheel to communicate with each other. One can do a deal with points or objects there. A crafting recipe will cost about a thousand to a million points.”
Way cheaper than I thought it would be.
She was definitely going to craft a sword. Her current weapon was still usable, but it couldn’t bring her very far. A weapon was a martial artist’s life. Anyone who aspired to break through the Spirit Realm would have a good weapon, regardless of whether it was the sect that gave them a precious tool or whether they collected the materials themselves like Kou Wei, who started immediately when he entered the Harmonization Realm.
After setting her goal, Lu Mingshu spent half a night in the Heavenly Wheel and went out to rest after she recovered.
The next morning, when she took off the bandage, the wound was gone, and not even a scar was left.
Tan Yubing came over early to help her clean her wound, but she was taken aback by what she saw.
“Wow…! What kind of medicine did you take? It’s so powerful.”
“Secret medicine of the Seventh Truth Platform.” Lu Mingshu smiled.
Tan Yubing bit her lips. Lu Mingshu changed and walked toward the door, ignoring Tan Yubing’s looks. “Senior Aunt Tan, let’s get going.”
“Oh, okay….”
On the second day of the challenges, the matches were still interesting. After a few rounds, Lin Zixin flipped open the name list that was just sent to him and looked at the clerk in shock. “Are you sure this is what was sent?”
The clerk nodded. “Sir, I’ve asked, and she said that it’s not against the rules…."