Chương 979: Chapter 977: The Cost of Armament

Li Yu descended from the clear sky and landed softly on the lush grassy banks of the Five Star Lakes. The tranquil beauty of his private valley was exactly as he had left it. He did not head toward the central pagoda to rest or seek out a meal from Nadia just yet. His mind was entirely focused on the six weapons currently resting inside his spatial ring. He walked purposefully toward a reinforced clearing situated near the rocky edge of the valley.

Li Yu stepped into the center of the clearing and took a deep breath of the fresh mountain air as he waved his hand and the six custom forged weapons materialized on the ground before him. The large spiked ball, the four-sided disc and the heavy javelin sat alongside their smaller counterparts. They were ugly and brutal but they radiated an undeniable aura of toughness.

'It is time to see if this theory holds up under practical conditions,' Li Yu thought to himself as he stretched his arms and rolled his shoulders. Li Yu extended his divine sense outward and wrapped his powerful Qi around the bladed disc, the spiked ball and the javelin. With a forceful exertion of his will, the three weapons lifted from the grass. They hovered in the air for a brief second before Li Yu commanded them to move.

He did not send them flying off into the distance to strike a target but instead pulled them into a rapid orbit directly around his own body. The heavy weapons began to spin. They accelerated quickly and formed a terrifying perimeter of flying metal exactly away from his physical form and the sound was incredible. The blunted edges of the four sided disc tore through the air with a deep and rhythmic thrumming noise. The spiked ball let out a low and menacing whistle as it carved its path.

The wind generated by their velocity kicked up a localized dust storm within the clearing and flattened the surrounding grass. Li Yu stood perfectly still in the eye of the artificial hurricane and analyzed the internal feedback. A wide smile slowly spread across his face as a sense of satisfaction washed over him. The armory elder and Master Zhan Ku had been completely correct regarding the weapons and his own theory regarding the mental strain was holding up as well.

Because he was keeping the weapons circling around himself at a fixed rate and a fixed distance, the mental strain was practically nonexistent. It required only the absolute minimum amount of mental bandwidth to keep them going on their set circular path. It was like breathing or walking; it happened almost entirely in the background of his mind. However, as the weapons continued to blur into a solid ring of dark metal, he felt the true cost of the technique.

The Qi usage was exactly the same as if he were actively fighting with them but they were much heavier than his swords besides Silent Bastion. Maintaining the rapid momentum of such heavy and unyielding objects drained his reserves quite a bit. It was like leaving a massive faucet completely open and watching the water pour endlessly into the drain.

He could sustain the orbit for a decent amount of time thanks to his newly formed second node but in a prolonged war of attrition, this technique would eventually bleed him dry with these weapons. He slowed the weapons down and gently lowered them back to the grass to conserve his energy. As the dust settled, his mind naturally wandered back to the battle in the Primal Howl Realm. He remembered exactly how much more he had been able to do once he began siphoning energy from the Blight Maw Kraken.

Having that colossal external energy source had allowed him to cast his techniques with unrestrained ferocity. He felt a brief pang of regret that he had not figured out a way to bind the Kraken to him before the Zhan Clan Leader arrived to execute it. But he quickly shook his head and dismissed the thought. The beast was heavily mutated and corrupted by the toxic blight, so he did not want its polluted energy anywhere near his pristine internal ecosystem anyway.

However, the memory sparked a brilliant idea within his mind. He could actively use aquatic beasts that were higher than him in cultivation as living batteries for himself during major battles. Li Yu began to pace around the clearing as the pieces of the plan fell into place. He wanted to find specific aquatic beasts that were naturally tough and possessed immense durability, so he did not even need to worry about their safety while they were deployed in the middle of a chaotic battlefield.

If they could fight and defend themselves too, that would certainly be a good bonus but he did not need them to have offensive capabilities. In fact, seeking out beasts without offensive skills should significantly help his funds as they should be much cheaper. He could specifically hunt for aquatic beasts that other cultivators would normally pass up or ignore since they had no real combat value. He just needed them to have a ridiculously high defense and more important a massive pool of Qi to draw from.

His mind immediately went to creatures like giant armored clams, deep sea snails, abalones and other mostly immobile aquatic beings like the sunfish. They were basically just floating walls of blubber and shell that did nothing but absorb ambient energy.

'I could deploy them behind me or some place nearby and tether them to my Koi martial spirit while draining their Qi to fuel my orbiting weapons,' Li Yu thought excitedly.

'Once the battle is over, I would just send them back into the Koi Sanctuary to rest, recover their reserves and wait for the next deployment.' It was a sustainable and practical system but the only problem was acquiring them. He knew he needed a different kind of merchant for this specific endeavor. The Silver Fin Syndicate that had supplied his lakes was mostly focused on aquatic beings meant for eating or ornamental display.

He had not seen any high cultivation beasts with supreme defensive capabilities on their ledgers. He stopped pacing and let out a long sigh as the harsh reality of his current financial situation settled in. He had already spent a massive fortune commissioning his sixty custom weapons from the forge so he was not in as much of a rush to build his battery collection right now because he simply lacked the capital to make any large purchases. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent.

Report any appearances on Amazon. While his parents and his grandfather seemed incredibly rich and commanded vast troops, he did not want to bleed them dry for his own personal combat theories. He resolved that he would simply ask them if they had any such beasts or knew of any reputable merchants he could visit in the future. As he thought about giant clams, his mind naturally shifted to the Samsara Dream Clam currently residing within his Koi Sanctuary.

It was an aquatic beast possessing a terrifyingly high durability. He closed his eyes and sent his divine sense into his inner world and he tried to gently command the clam to open up or at least summon it outside into the physical clearing. Just as before, he was met with an immovable wall of resistance. The ancient clam completely ignored his commands as it sat peacefully within the waters of his Koi Sanctuary and refused to budge even a single inch.

With that frustrating dead end confirmed once again, he could only give up on the idea for the time being. The thirty days yielded good results as the orbiting weapons felt like a natural extension of his own body and his transition between precise sword strikes and overwhelming area of destruction was seamless. When the month finally came to an end, Li Yu took to the sky and flew back to the main headquarters of the Zhan Clan.

He navigated the bustling stone paths and headed straight for the sweltering heat of the primary forge district as he walked past the blazing furnaces and arrived at the secluded workshop nestled against the rocky cliff face. Master Zhan Ku was sitting on a heavy wooden stool near his anvil and drinking from a large jug of wine. When he saw Li Yu approach, the master smith set the jug aside and gestured toward the back of the workshop.

"They are finished," Zhan Ku announced with a proud grin. Li Yu walked over and his eyes widened when he saw them all. Spread across a series of reinforced stone tables were the remaining fifty four weapons. The volume of dark metal was staggering and they looked terrifying even while resting completely still.

"The quality is exceptional, Master Ku," Li Yu praised sincerely as he ran his hand over the blunted edge of a large disc.

"I am incredibly happy with how they turned out. How much do I owe you for the entire batch?" Zhan Ku pulled a small slate from his apron pocket and looked at the tallied numbers. He listed the immense cost. Given the amount of premium material used, the final price was astronomical. Li Yu reached into his spatial ring and Koi Sanctuary with his divine sense to gather the necessary spirit stones.

He counted his reserves, including those in the golden box that he had been given and his heart suddenly dropped into his stomach. He counted them again, hoping he had missed a chest or a pouch hidden in the corner of his storage. It turned out he had not. The amount owed was significantly more than what Li Yu had on his person. After paying for the initial breeding stock from the Silver Fin Syndicate, his servants and other expenses, his funds were heavily depleted.

He was actually broke for the first time in what seemed like a very long time to him. A heavy and awkward silence fell over the workshop. Li Yu slowly pulled his hand away from his spatial ring and looked at the master smith. His cheeks burned with a deep embarrassment. He had always prided himself on being able to pay for things or at least having the means to pay his own way through his travels. To stand before a master craftsman and admit he could not pay for the custom goods he had ordered was mortifying.

"Master Ku," Li Yu began with his voice tight with shame.

"I... I miscalculated my current reserves. I do not have enough spirit stones on me to cover the full cost of this order today. I am incredibly embarrassed. I swear on my Dao that I will leave these weapons here and return with the full payment as soon as I can gather the funds." Zhan Ku looked at the flushed face of the young cultivator and then let out a booming and rumbling laugh that echoed over the sound of the nearby furnaces.

He took another long swing from his wine jug and waved a soot-stained hand dismissively at Li Yu.

"Do not worry about it, boy," Zhan Ku chuckled warmly.

"It is perfectly fine. As I told you a month ago, I know your family is good for it. You think I am worried about the grandson of Zhan Tian skipping town over some metal? Just take the weapons. Tell your mother or your grandfather to come down here and pay me once they are back from their respective duties. The Zhan Clan takes care of its own."

Li Yu wanted to refuse and insist on paying his own way but the master smith was already turning back to his furnace to begin another project, clearly considering the matter closed. Li Yu quickly swept his hand over the stone tables and stored the massive arsenal into his spatial ring. He bowed deeply to the master smith's back and muttered another string of sincere apologies and thanks and left the forge district in a hurry.

He flew back to the Five Star Lakes feeling a complicated mixture of shame, embarrassment and satisfaction. He was incredibly happy to finally have all sixty of his orbiting weapons safely secured but the sting of relying on his family's credit weighed heavily on his pride. As he landed near the central pagoda, he let out a long breath. He was thankful that he had not entertained the idea of going to a merchant to buy high cultivation aquatic beasts for batteries.

If he had tried to purchase one or take delivery of one today, the merchant would have laughed at him because he was completely broke in terms of spirit stones. He had deliberately kept a tiny, emergency stash of stones aside for basic traveling expenses and minor necessities but it was nowhere near enough to fund his ongoing cultivation projects.

'I need to find a way to make spirit stones and I need to do it quickly,' Li Yu thought to himself as he walked into the main hall of the pagoda.

'I cannot rely on my grandfather to pay off my blacksmith tabs like a spoiled young master.' He walked into his private study and made a firm decision. Over the years, from his journey through the Myriad Realms, he had killed many enemies and looted countless spatial rings. He had hoarded a massive amount of items that he simply never used because they were beneath his current cultivation level.

He decided he would first empty out a lot of the lower quality herbs, common metals, unrefined ores, standard weapons, armor and pills that he did not need to keep.

"Alden." Li Yu went to where the butler normally was and called to him. The older gentleman appeared in the doorway a moment later and offered a crisp, formal bow.

"Yes, Young Master?" Li Yu began pulling items from his spatial rings and dumping them onto the floor of the study.

"Please sort through all of these things and organize them to sell." Li Yu instructed as he continued to empty his excess inventory.

"I want you to take a transport ship to Tethered Stones City or find the appropriate merchants within the clan. Liquidate every single piece of this for spirit stones. We need to start building back up our reserves."

"Right away, Young Master," Alden replied smoothly as his eyes were already assessing the massive pile of loot with the sharp gaze of an experienced estate manager.

"I will ensure we get the best possible prices for the lot."