LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 3 The Five Elements Sword Armor
One day remained before the fleet was scheduled to set sail, and Lu Qingshan didn't just wait around, he began to tour Bibo City with the King of Western Rats.
Before leaving Zhenjiang Prefecture, Dantai Qingrun and Lu Zhou each gave him a storage bag.
Lu Zhou was very straightforward and simple; aside from Spirit Stones, there was nothing else in the storage bag, though the quantity was indeed sizable.
As for Dantai Qingrun, he was quite particular, having stored two Jade Slips in the given storage bag.
One of the Jade Slips was for the "Five Elements Sword Armor" Dharma.
Men's armor and women's clothing.
The Five Elements Sword Armor and the Golden Sword Apparel that Dantai Qingrun cultivated were actually top-notch defense techniques inherited from the same lineage.
Unlike the Golden Sword Apparel, the Five Elements Sword Armor encompassed the five elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, making it more complete and more powerful, but also more difficult to successfully cultivate.
Because the Five Elements Sword Armor should actually be considered as five separate Techniques.
The Sword Garment also involved five elements, but the materials required for cultivating the Sword Garment were so expensive, the energy consumed so immense, and the Contribution Value needed to exchange for a complete Five Elements Sword Garment Dharma so high, that Dantai Qingrun could only choose to first cultivate the Golden Sword Apparel, the most widely applicable Technique of the Five Elements Sword Garment.
Lu Qingshan had made significant contributions during the Corpse Puppet Chaos, allowing the Knowledge Defense Tower to directly bestow upon him the complete Five Elements Sword Armor Dharma, something even Golden Core Cultivators found hard to possess.
For such a top-notch defense technique, there was no reason for Lu Qingshan not to cultivate it.
However, unlike ordinary Techniques, its cultivation also required the additional help of Spirit Materials.
After leaving Zhenjiang Prefecture, Lu Qingshan traveled far and wide, first passing through various prefectures in Qing State, and then using a Teleportation Array to cross over Jian State, finally reaching Bibo City.
Along the way, he entered every new city to search for and purchase the Spirit Materials needed for the Five Elements Sword Armor.
He had spent nearly all the Spirit Stones given by Lu Zhou, but in the end, he still hadn't managed to gather any of the Spirit Materials required for any Attribute of Sword Armor.
As a coastal city, Bibo City naturally had a far superior Water Element affinity compared to other attributes, and accordingly, the variety, quality, and price of Water Attribute Spirit Materials also surpassed those of the inland areas.
Lu Qingshan was hoping to gather all the Spirit Materials required for the Water Walking Sword Armor in such a place.
Even just to initially form the Water Walking Sword Armor, it required a total of eighteen kinds of Third Grade Water Element Spirit Materials and one Fourth Grade Water Element Spirit Material.
Of the eighteen Third Grade Spirit Materials, Lu Qingshan had already collected sixteen. He now lacked only the remaining two Third Grade and that single Fourth Grade Spirit Material.
Usually, Fourth Grade Spirit Materials are the main materials used by Nascent Soul Cultivators in refining Magical Artifacts.
Considering the cultivation cost, the Five Elements Sword Armor should indeed be a Technique suitable for Golden Core Sword Cultivators to learn.
Fortunately, Lu Qingshan was quite wealthy, even more so than ordinary Golden Core Cultivators, which allowed him to start cultivating the Five Elements Sword Armor during the Foundation Establishment Stage.
...
The Great Xia Commercial Firm in Bibo City, when compared to other Commercial Firms in prefectural cities, could only be described as extraordinarily lavish; the high-rise building was tens of meters tall and grandly decorated.
Lu Qingshan casually walked into the grand entrance of the Great Xia Commercial Firm and was immediately greeted by a beautiful blue-robed maid with a smile.
"I need a standard lot of Third Grade Water Element Spirit Material Xuan Water Jade, over three taels of Cang Wave Root, and more than one tael of Fourth Grade Water Element Spirit Material Sea Blue Marrow," Lu Qingshan stated straightforwardly.
"Spirit Materials above Third Grade are on the third floor, please follow me," the maid led Lu Qingshan to the third floor.
As he stepped onto the third floor, Lu Qingshan immediately sensed waves of inexplicable Spiritual Power fluctuations in the air.
This place was littered with various formations, and once someone dared to act wildly here, the formations would immediately activate with the force of thunder, killing the offender on the spot.
The maid walked over to an old man on the third floor and whispered a few words to him.
The elderly man nodded, rose, and said to Lu Qingshan, "Young master, please wait a moment."
Lu Qingshan gestured his understanding.
The elderly man walked deeper into the third floor, and soon returned with three jade boxes, which he handed to Lu Qingshan, explaining, "Xuan Water Jade and Canglang Root are not rare in Bibo City and are even a tenth cheaper than in other places.
However, this Sea Blue Marrow is different; it has always been an excellent spirit material for refining Water Element Magical Artifacts.
Even here, it is perpetually out of stock. You are in luck, young master, as our firm just recently acquired a batch of Sea Blue Marrow; otherwise, we really wouldn't have been able to satisfy your needs.
However, as such a sought-after spirit material, I'm afraid we cannot offer any discount on the Sea Blue Marrow."
Lu Qingshan opened the jade box, and a rich Water Element spiritual essence burst forth, making one feel as though they were amidst the ocean waves. The translucent, liquid-like, magnificent crystals caught his eye.
This was the Sea Blue Marrow.
A thought crossed Lu Qingshan's mind.
He hadn't expected things to go so smoothly; he had visited the Great Xia Commercial Firm and managed to gather the last three spirit materials needed for the Water Walking Sword Armor.
This meant he could begin the refining ritual for the Water Walking Sword Armor.
Lu Qingshan joyfully said, "It should indeed be so. The price is not an issue; I'll take all three spirit materials."
After nearly depleting his remaining savings and paying an amount of Spirit Stones that even a Golden Core Cultivator would find painful, Lu Qingshan left the Great Xia Commercial Firm, satisfied with the three spirit materials.
...
The fleet Lu Qingshan boarded set sail the next morning. Composed of nine large ten-thousand-material ships, these merchant ships had very deep drafts because most of their cargo was food, with only a small portion being tea, lacquerware, spices, and other rare items.
Due to his generous spending, Lu Qingshan was allotted the most luxurious cabin, which was not only spacious and bright but also came with meticulous service.
The wind direction on the sea often changed. There were favourable winds, but headwinds were not uncommon, yet for wooden sailboats still reliant on wind power, the fear wasn't a headwind but rather no wind at all.
During headwinds, by steering the ship in a zigzag pattern, the headwind could be turned into a sidewind, and the stronger the wind, the faster they would travel.
According to the seasoned captain's years of sailing experience, it would take more than a month to reach Poseidon Archipelago from the day they set sail.
This length of time was not long for Lu Qingshan, especially since he had tasks to attend to.
Refining the Water Walking Sword Armor.
The Five Elements Sword Armor was quite special, being both a magical artifact and a technique. Lu Qingshan could not simply master this technique by consuming Experience Points; he had to earnestly devote himself to the slow and arduous refining process.
It is worth mentioning that in the course of over three months of travel, mostly by using the Sword Control Technique, this high-frequency usage had naturally enhanced his originally level 1 Sword Control Technique to level 5.
The speed of this skill level upgrade might seem exaggerated, but it wasn't because the Sword Control Technique was too simplistic; rather, it was due to the innate Sword Dao talent bestowed upon Lu Qingshan by the Innate Swordseed, far surpassing ordinary people.
For a regular Sword Cultivator to elevate their Sword Control from level 1 to level 5 normally required seven to eight years of continuous effort.
With the enhancement from the Innate Swordseed, Lu Qingshan's mastery speed of sword techniques had reached an extremely exaggerated level.
In the realm of the Sword Dao, the importance of innate talent far outweighs diligent effort.