Li Qingshan asked, “You can resist Qiu Haitang’s mesmerisation?”
“T- obviously not. Alright, I’ll do what you say. You’re the big brother in charge then, alright?”
“Then we’re brothers from here on out.” As Li Qingshan said that, he thought of what Chu Tian had said to him and could not help but burst out laughing. His tiny bit of depression from failing to refine the Cursive Sword Calligraphy vanished too.
“You have no respect for your seniors at all.” Liu Chuanfeng put on an angry face, but he laughed along too.
In Li Qingshan’s eyes, Liu Chuanfeng was riddled with flaws, but there was something good to him. He did not have any haughtiness about him. Perhaps he had grown accustomed to this due to all the abuse he had suffered, but he lacked an air of arrogance and self-importance that regular Qi Practitioners possessed.
Li Qingshan asked, “How many spiritual stones does the school of Novels receive every month right now?”
Liu Chuanfeng crouched down outside the formation. “If it’s right now, then I get around twenty each month. Oh right, you’re a primary disciple, so you can collect ten spiritual stones each month too. Combined with the amount for disciples who handle management, the school receives roughly forty spiritual stones.”
“That sure is pitiful.” Li Qingshan shook his head, but then he remembered he was collecting over twenty spiritual stones each month for doing nothing, all the while occupying this wonderful place for cultivation. It was no wonder the academy wanted to get rid of him.
Liu Chuanfeng refuted, “That’s just how much a Qi Practitioner school leader receives! The main reason is because there aren’t enough disciples!”
Li Qingshan asked, “How is it calculated exactly?”
Liu Chuanfeng said, “That’ll be complicated. The amount mainly depends on the quantity and cultivation of the disciples. It can also be increased through completing missions and triumphing in various competitions. On the other hand, if disciples break the rules, then it’ll be reduced.”
“Anyways, the more a school develops, the higher the salary the school leader will receive, and the more resources they will be able to allocate. Sigh, if we can reach the same level as the school of Buddhism, I’d give you a supreme grade spiritual artifact for free too.”
“I’m putting that on record. Let’s do everything we can together!” Li Qingshan gained a new understanding of the school of Novels’ predicament. It was a tough start, but it also represented vast future prospects. The pie was small, but there was no need for him to share it with so many fellow disciples, so the share he received might not necessarily be smaller than the disciples of the major schools.
However, all of this was built off the assumption that the pie could grow bigger. Li Qingshan was very confident about this too.
Liu Chuanfeng became worked up. “Don’t worry, I’ll break through to Foundation Establishment very soon. By then, just my salary as a school leader will increase by tenfold, and the true strength of novelists can only be unleashed at Foundation Establishment.”
Although novelists could turn fiction into reality, the ability was held back by two factors. One was the power of beliefs, while the other was the cultivator themselves. The former was like electricity, while the latter was like a motor. No matter how much electrical energy there was, if the motor was insufficient, then it still would not be able to convert it into electromotive force.
“Go write your novels!” Li Qingshan waved his hand with a smile. Since he had already become a disciple of the school of Novels, he had the responsibility to prop up the school of Novels as long as it did not get in the way of his cultivation.
After Liu Chuanfeng left, Li Qingshan stowed the Cursive Sword Calligraphy away with a slight feeling of pity. Afterwards, he took out another scroll of the Cursive Sword Calligraphy.
He possessed a total of three scrolls of the Cursive Sword Calligraphy right now. One was at the supreme grade, one was at the high grade, and one was at the mid grade.
The one he had taken out right now was the high grade Cursive Sword Calligraphy he had obtained from the masked man. He had already refined a high grade spiritual artifact before, the Clear Stream sword, so he was filled with confidence right now.
Fifteen minutes later, several dozen strands of sword qi shot into the night sky, and Li Qingshan failed once again. He began to find this rather difficult to accept, as he had clearly succeeded in the past before. However, with some thought, he understood the reason for his failure.
Although he had successfully refined the Clear Stream sword, that was because the sword was of the water element in the first place, and he practised Gui Water true qi. The Spirit Turtle’s Method of Sea Suppression had granted him extraordinary senses for the water element too, which was why he had managed to refine it so easily.
Without his various advantages, refining a high grade spiritual artifact as a sixth layer Qi Practitioner was not that easy. Normally, they all used mid grade spiritual artifacts.
However, Li Qingshan did not become dejected. In the next moment, he took out the weakest fragment of the Cursive Sword Calligraphy, which was originally known as the Sword Qi Calligraphy. He had purchased it in the auction hosted by the school of Miscellany. It was only a mid grade spiritual artifact.
Li Qingshan exhaled gently and calmed himself from his arrogance. Perhaps he should have started with the weakest Cursive Sword Calligraphy. He had been a little too eager for easy success.
As his true qi flowed in, the Cursive Sword Calligraphy lit up, but before he could even celebrate, the light suddenly began to tremble, approaching collapse once again. Although it was just a mid grade spiritual artifact, normal mid grade spiritual artifacts could not compare to it in terms of explosiveness.
But Li Qingshan stayed put, staring straight at the Cursive Sword Calligraphy. The flickering stabilised once more. Not only did it stop spreading outwards, but it even began to withdraw slowly.
Li Qingshan suddenly saw the twisted strokes begin to move.
No, the strokes were not moving. Instead, there were countless swords swinging about. These strokes were the trajectories the swords had left behind, like footprints left behind in a desert.
However, compared to the traveller itself, these deep footprints were so temporary and insignificant. Li Qingshan had no idea who the author was, but he felt admiration from the bottom of his heart. When the black ox had praised the author of the Cursive Sword Calligraphy, he was still unable to comprehend the implications. Just how impressive was he to earn the recognition of brother ox?
Now, he had begun to understand. Perhaps this sword style was not something that should have appeared in this world.
As he felt amazed, Li Qingshan finally completed the refinement of the Cursive Sword Calligraphy, but before he could even relax, something happened. Several dozen strands of sword qi abruptly swept backwards, rushing into his sea of qi along his meridians.
With the entry of the sword qi, the sea of qi immediately began to churn and ache.
“Spirit Turtle Suppresses the Seas!” Li Qingshan growled, and the spirit turtle’s daemon core appeared. The several dozen strands of sword qi were firmly suppressed, completely immobilised. However, they refused to shatter under such pressure. They were almost solid from how consolidated they were, drifting around in his sea of qi.
Still shaken, Li Qingshan felt a cold sweat break out on his back.
If his original form were not a huge, powerful daemon, his meridians would have been in pieces already. If he did not know the Spirit Turtle’s Method of Sea Suppression, he probably would not have been able to avoid the fate of death either.
He never thought there would actually be such a vicious trap within the Cursive Sword Calligraphy. Now, he felt extremely relieved that he had failed to refine the supreme grade Cursive Sword Calligraphy. Even he was reluctant to imagine the consequences of several dozen strands of raging sword qi with the power to destroy over a dozen bamboo structures erupting in his body.
He had basically witnessed the dangers of the path of cultivation once again. He could understand how his predecessors who had obtained the Cursive Sword Calligraphy before him all felt when they refined the spiritual artifact happily, only to be slain instantly.
Suddenly, he felt that something had appeared in his sea of consciousness.
