Rare Metal and Origin Lightning

Lüyu High-Speed Rail Station. Beep. Student card.

Teaching Assistant Lin submitted the leave request to the academic affairs system that evening, and it was approved first thing the next morning.

Normally, a student at the Ninth Layer of Qi Refinement had considerable freedom to travel under the academic affairs system, but Lüyu managed students who cultivated special Dao lineages very strictly.

Although Jiang Wangxuan had not been assigned one of the legendary "Dao-protecting elders" as standard equipment when he went out, Teaching Assistant Lin had long ago provided him with a "Cavern Spring Talismanic Words Bracelet" in Luyu University's name.

The bracelet looked like an antiqued, blue-green open bangle about a finger's width across. Faint water patterns were engraved on the outside, while the seal-script characters for "talismanic words" were carved on the inside near the opening.

It was a Law Artifact that only a Foundation Establishment cultivator could fully control. A Clear Water flood dragon spirit dwelled within it, and by activating the spirit, one could use Clear Water Law Techniques.

Jiang Wangxuan did not cultivate Clear Water, but Grand Yin naturally encompassed the two water virtues of Lu and He, so he could use the true essence of his Grand Yin cultivation to activate the Law Artifact instead.

But to bring out the bracelet's full power, Jiang Wangxuan would have to wait until he broke through to Foundation Establishment. The bracelet also had another function called concealment.

Jiang Wangxuan had now reached Qi Refinement Perfection, and his Grand Yin Qi was concentrated around him. Going down into the cities of the mortal world would surely cause some trouble, so this "Cavern Spring Talismanic Words Bracelet," with its concealment function, was just what he needed.

What was more, he could use that "concealment" function to outwardly display Clear Water Qi instead. It truly had many wonderful uses.

Jiang Wangxuan had refined the bracelet for years and could activate it quite handily. It also contained several cubic meters of storage space, so it could double as a Storage Bag.

Of course, Jiang Wangxuan could not possibly afford a Foundation Establishment Law Artifact at present. It still belonged to Luyu University; he merely had the right to use it twenty-four hours a day.

I'm grateful every day for Luyu University's generosity!

Perhaps because he had arrived early, there were not many passengers in the high-speed train's business class. Jiang Wangxuan used his student card's advanced privileges to book a seat on the spot.

The entire business-class carriage was made from a special alloy and inscribed with corresponding defensive formations, enough to withstand a Foundation Establishment cultivator's full-strength strike head-on.

If the train were to derail high in the sky and fall from midair, the business-class carriage was strong enough to keep its passengers safe when it landed, and it also had a shock-absorption function.

Alloy-making was the exclusive specialty of the [Rare Metal] Dao lineage. By blending various metals into one, its cultivators could make formations, artifacts, and war colossi. Alloys were also central to cultivating the Dharma body.

Compared with the profound and aloof [Grand Yin] Dao lineage, the [Rare Metal] Dao lineage was more popular with parents. Its cultivators were the cornerstone of Qinghuan's current system of warfare, yet they did not have to be stationed on the battlefield.

If anyone dared push a Rare Metal cultivator onto the front lines, the Gold Federal Reserve could bankrupt the commander who gave the order on the spot. Most importantly, the [Rare Metal] path had such a golden future that even Rare Metal cultivators in the Qi Refining Stage were snapped up by countless companies after graduation, with compensation equal to that of Foundation Establishment cultivators.

When Jiang Jinyi had first reached Embryonic Breathing, she had complained about why she did not belong to the [Rare Metal] Dao lineage. Then she could have lain at home counting money. How wonderful that would have been.

One could only say that, over the years, the [Rare Metal] Dao lineage had gradually been mythologized, and speculators had swarmed in to switch Cultivation Methods.

But as Jiang Wangxuan recalled, the students of the [Rare Metal] and [Dui Metal] Dao lineages were the rarest in Lüyu's Metal Virtue departments.

Every year, the [Rare Metal] Dao lineage was the Metal Virtue department's worst-hit area for delayed graduations. Its financial prospects might be bright, but many students could not even meet the graduation requirements. Moreover, cultivating Rare Metal also consumed a great deal of Tongbao, and ordinary commoners' children simply could not afford it.

If you saw a student in the Luyu University cafeteria wearing ragged clothes and eating plain noodles in broth to satisfy their appetite, that was definitely one of the Rare Metal majors.

A single exploded reaction vessel could bankrupt them with debt. If Yuanhuai Heaven had not stepped in and forced the banks to accept those bad debts through their tears, even Luyu University could not afford to support the money-devouring beast that was the [Rare Metal] major.

Here's a joke: we Rare Metal majors have a golden future!

With nothing else to do, Jiang Wangxuan browsed the school forum. As soon as he opened it, Rare Metal jokes flooded the screen, all followed by the same laughing-crying faces.

Not long after Jiang Wangxuan settled into his seat, the train departed on schedule, streaking through the clouds across the sky like a bolt of lightning. Its speed of 300 kilometers per hour was already comparable to a Foundation Establishment cultivator's movement technique, and it could maintain that speed for far longer.

In recent decades, the widespread promotion of high-speed rail had noticeably strengthened Qinghuan's control over the six realms. All of it was thanks to Qinghuan's fourth-generation True Lord, True Lord Miaoshu, attaining the Origin Lightning fruition rank.

"Electricity," a special form of energy that Qinghuan's Immortal Lords had predicted long ago, began to change this world of cultivation.

With the spread of power plants, the birth of the internet, and the widespread use of mobile phones, the modern society Jiang Wangxuan remembered from his previous life had "reappeared" in this world.

Jiang Wangxuan would not have believed anyone who said none of Qinghuan's former Immortal Lords had come from the same hometown as him. Unfortunately, he or they had transmigrated more than a thousand years earlier.

At that time, the concept of the Origin Lightning fruition rank had not yet existed. Two hundred years ago, True Lord Miaoshu had attained this fruition rank predicted by the Immortal Lords from nothing. His merit was truly immeasurable, and the history books were bound to devote extensive accounts to him.

What was worth pondering, however, was that the concept of artificial intelligence from his previous life seemed not to have caused so much as a ripple in the current society.

Jiang Wangxuan guessed that in an Attainment-Status Immortal Cultivation world, the concept of intelligence had appeared in cultivators' Law Artifacts long ago. The "Cavern Spring Talismanic Words Bracelet" on his wrist was quite intelligent.

He had tested it himself. If he were suddenly attacked by an external Law Technique and did nothing, the "Cavern Spring Talismanic Words Bracelet" would automatically generate the Water-Dividing Turbidity-Sinking Shield.

Of course, that kind of intelligence could not compare with the Big Fat Fish currently in his Rising Yang Mansion. The fish had switched games and started playing a base-building game.

My Supreme Dao Wisdom really loves playing games.

Still, if an expert nurtured and refined it for another hundred years, it might not be impossible for the "Cavern Spring Talismanic Words Bracelet" to become a Spirit Artifact in the hands of a Purple Mansion cultivator.

To return to the subject, with the spread of electromagnetism, the Origin Lightning Dao lineage had produced four Divine Core lords in just two hundred years. These Divine Core cultivators bound their lives to the Origin Lightning fruition rank, enjoying the same lifespan as Golden Core True Lords.

The drawback was that their cultivation would never advance again, remaining forever at the level it had reached when they attained Divine Core rank. Divine Core cultivators, however, could call upon the authority of the Origin Lightning fruition rank, serving as external incarnations of the Golden Core True Lord and the fruition rank.

On Luyu University's internal forum, people often discussed whether a Golden Core True Lord seated in a golden seat could kill a Divine Core lord in short order. On other forums, the answer was an inevitable yes, end of discussion.

How could a "false Golden Core" like a Divine Core, bound to a fruition rank or golden seat, possibly contend with a Golden Core True Lord? Anyone who could ask such a question knew absolutely nothing about the authority of a fruition rank.

They ought to be sent back to high school to study Three Hundred Questions on the Dao all over again.

But at Luyu University, the answer was not necessarily. Yuanhuai Heaven's last Weak Water Divine Core had ultimately dragged a Golden Core True Lord of Cloud Scripture Kunxu down to death with them.

When news of that feat reached Qinghuan, it captured the world's attention. Even though Yuanhuai Heaven did not have a single Divine Core at the time, cultivators from Yuanhuai Heaven could still swagger through Qinghuan.

They grew so overbearing that they threw the central palace into chaos, yet Qinghuan's True Lords at the time showed them considerable tolerance. After all, the [Weak Water] Dao lineage's foundations were simply too deep.

And True Lord Chengyue, who now occupied the [Clear Water] fruition rank and held authority over Yuanhuai Heaven, was a direct descendant of that Divine Core lord. True Lord Chengyue had attained the Dao nearly three hundred years before True Lord Miaoshu, yet had cultivated only one Clear Water Divine Core to date.

The Origin Lightning Dao lineage, meanwhile, already had four Divine Cores who could take True Lord Miaoshu's place in controlling the Origin Lightning fruition rank for short periods. That alone showed how prosperous the lineage was today.

It was also because of the Origin Lightning Dao lineage's importance to modern society that the illustrious Thunder Palace had been stripped of control over it.

The important figures of the Thunder Palace ground their teeth whenever they spoke of it. After all, [Origin Lightning] was in no way inferior to the other three lightnings in combat, and in certain areas it even held the other lightning lineages down.

Origin Lightning cultivators were precisely the talent the Thunder Palace desperately needed. Unfortunately, at the Mysterious Heaven Joint Consultative Conference back then, the Thunder Palace's lords had been collectively suppressed by the other lords and had failed to make any headway at all.

Thus, another official institution that served as Qinghuan's ballast, the "Qinghuan Power Grid," stepped onto the historical stage. Finally, to compensate the Thunder Palace for nurturing the [Origin Lightning] Dao lineage over the previous thousand years, the palace was given the lion's share of the Qinghuan Power Grid's stock.

Origin Lightning cultivators could not be left to the Thunder Palace to use as cannon fodder. There were not even enough of them to lay the power grid, but there was plenty of Great Qian Circulating Treasure to go around. The Qinghuan Power Grid was the Thunder Palace's most reliable backing.

Xue Renya had revealed these little stories behind the Thunder Palace to Jiang Wangxuan during breaks from sword practice. Every battle maniac who aspired to join the Thunder Palace regarded the removal of [Origin Lightning] from the palace as a disgrace.

Jiang Wangxuan had read Xue Renya's Thunder Palace training camp handbook. Its very first sentence declared it their duty to reclaim [Origin Lightning]. Jiang Wangxuan had cracked up on the spot and later asked him privately, "Is that really necessary?"

Xue Renya, however, had held his sword and declared with great spirit, "If you don't even dare to imagine it, then you've failed completely."

Jiahao had also said that, if the adults in his family had not forced him back then, he would certainly have joined the Thunder Palace's Origin Lightning crash course. Instead, he had been kicked straight into [Zhen Lightning].

Thinking of this, Jiang Wangxuan could not help missing the loud and excitable Xue Renya a little. He had finally found time away from the Thunder Palace training camp to attend the freshman opening ceremony, only to do it to deliver a bottle of Supreme White Gold Essence Pills, and he had not even dared give it to her in person.

Yet if one said he cared so much about his junior, Suqiu, he had run off on the high-speed train immediately after giving his speech at the ceremony. Those two had really gone around in a huge circle!

"Ding-dong."

Just as Jiang Wangxuan's mind was wandering through the heavens and his thoughts were running wild, "Wancheng Station. We have arrived. Passengers needing to transfer, please get off at this station..."

Wancheng Station was the first station whose world was connected to Luyu Port's, and his hometown of Luzhou naturally did not qualify to be on this main line.

He got off and transferred. In the station's transfer area, Jiang Wangxuan felt a little dazed. Whenever he returned from a grotto-heaven and blessed land to the solid earth beneath his feet, he always felt an unreal, dreamlike sensation.

Dressed in Lüyu clothing, he looked utterly out of place among the people passing around him. A trace of the mortal world's presence slipped into Jiang Wangxuan's throat, only to be expelled from his body again.

The Luminous White Moonlight condensed within him upon reaching Qi Refinement perfection turned uneasily. Jiang Wangxuan finally realized with sorrow that a pitifully thick barrier separated him from this mundane world.