A World Worth Protecting

Wang Baole’s life after becoming the only Head Prefect of the Dharmic Armament faculty had become very different. The most obvious difference was that every time he went outside, all the students he encountered, whether they were seniors or freshmen, would treat him extremely respectfully.

The attitudes of the Head Prefects of the other faculties had also greatly changed. They no longer simply sent greetings but took the initiative to visit him, attempting to get closer to Wang Baole.

Wang Baole was very happy to oblige. He knew the value of networking and understood that courtesy demanded reciprocation. So, over the following days, he started to get familiar with all the Head Prefects of the various faculties.

At the same time, after Wang Baole, when it was almost the holidays of their first year, other Head Prefects emerged from Wang Baole’s batch of new students. The second to become Head Prefect was Zhao Yameng!

Other than the fact that she had been a hot topic on the Spirit Intranet at the beginning of the term, this girl had kept a low-profile. Now, the moment she made her move, she immediately took one of the Head Prefect positions in the Array Runes faculty.

Following that, the third to become Head Prefect was Zhuo Yifan. After competing with Lu Zihao and Chen Ziheng for a year, he had pulled ahead in the competition and become one of the Head Prefects of the Combat faculty.

If it had been any other time, the fact that the both of them became Head Prefects would have caused a commotion. However, Wang Baole had been too heaven-defying, and his halo was so intense that Zhao Yameng and Zhuo Yifan’s achievements did not have the expected effect.

However, all the faculty’s teachers, deans, and even the Chancellor had noticed the excellence of Wang Baole and his peers. Especially Wang Baole. He was known even on the Upper Academy Island. Even the Chancellor had received many inquiries from his colleagues when Wang Baole became Dharmic Armament faculty’s sole Head Prefect.

Needless to say, Goatee had received even more inquiries. Each time, he would be extremely smug in telling the other party that he was the one who had specially recruited Wang Baole.

“You guys don’t know this, but when I saw Wang Baole, I immediately could tell that he had an alarming talent, like a bright pearl. So, without hesitation, while the other faculties were still deliberating, I used my authority to specially recruit him!

“With my pair of eyes, I have never judged a person incorrectly. This Wang Baole is proof of my ability to judge people’s abilities!”

These days, Goatee was very smug and felt extremely satisfied, seeing the envious gazes of his colleagues.

This made him think of his previous thoughts on gifting Wang Baole a Dharma artifact. After thinking about it, he put aside the first grade Dharma artifact that he had planned to send out and personally refined a second grade Dharma artifact for Wang Baole!

Some days later, upon looking at the Dharma artifact that he had refined himself, Goatee felt that Wang Baole was indeed lucky.

This rascal is definitely worthy of being specially recruited. How lucky!

After thinking about it, Goatee decided that it must have been fate and sent for Wang Baole.

Although Wang Baole was the sole Head Prefect, upon receiving Goatee’s call, he remembered that Goatee had been the only teacher to stand up for him when the Vice Chancellor wanted to expel him.

Wang Baole had never forgotten this, so when he received the voice transmission, he immediately straightened his clothing and arrived at the Dean’s hall at the mountain peak. When he entered and saw the smiling Goatee, Wang Baole immediately cupped his fists.

“Your humble student at your service, Dean!”

Goatee laughed and stepped forward to pull Wang Baole to his feet. He looked at Wang Baole, and his expression became emotional.

“Not bad, boy, very well done!” As he spoke, Goatee patted Wang Baole’s shoulder, his attitude extremely kind and warm. Wang Baole blinked. He had a good impression of Goatee, so he engaged in conversation with him.

After asking about Wang Baole’s studies and chatting with him, Goatee was very satisfied with Wang Baole’s humble attitude in front of him. It had to be said that for the previous Head Prefects, although he maintained a harmonious appearance, he secretly disliked them.

But Wang Baole was different. This was someone he had handpicked, and he was so satisfied that he flipped his right hand and revealed a flying sword!

The entirety of this flying sword was purple, and the inside had flowing marks. When it appeared, it exuded a strong wave of hot air, causing one to feel as though one was standing on fiery ground.

Gradually, one could see that the area around the flying sword seemed warped, and it was clear that this was no ordinary sword!

Not only that, this sword had a water chestnut shaped hole. This hole was not constructed after, but was integral to the blade; clearly, it had naturally formed during the refinement process.

Although Wang Baole only glanced at the sword, with his Dharmic Armament attainment, he could feel that the sword was extraordinary, and he was visibly moved.

Goatee smiled and looked at Wang Baole. “What do you see?”

“You used seven Rainbow Spirit Stones, with at least 40,000 Dao Inscriptions embedded. Furthermore, it is astonishing in the aspects of speed and fiery arts. As for the materials… I am not familiar with forging materials, so it’s hard for me to be sure, but I can see that it is made of extraordinary materials.

“As for this hole…”

Wang Baole hesitated for a moment. He did not recognize the hole.

Goatee laughed loudly when he heard Wang Baole’s analysis.

“You have already described it quite fully. It’s normal that you don’t understand this hole. This is knowledge that you will only learn as the last step when shaping your refined object. This is called… Heaven’s Hole, meaning that it is naturally occurring when refining Dharma artifacts. Its appearance depends entirely on chance and cannot be controlled by man.

“The moment Heaven’s Hole appears on the Dharma artifact, the power can be greatly increased by adding a Spirit Stone!

“Wang Baole, I’ll give you this sword!”

As Goatee spoke, he waved his right hand. The sword became a beam of purple light and flew toward Wang Baole.

Wang Baole’s breathing intensified as he received the sword. He looked at Goatee, looked at the flying sword in his hands, and cupped his fists emotionally to show his respect.

“Thank you very much, Dean!”

“No need to thank me. Whether it is your top grades in the hallucination realm test or becoming the triple Head Prefect, you have proven yourself to be the most excellent student in the history of the Dharmic Armament faculty!”

Goatee stroked his beard, his expression growing serious.

“Use this sword to protect yourself! Remember, don’t be arrogant and work even harder so that you can pass the competitive exam to enter the Upper Academy and become a cultivator!”

Wang Baole inhaled deeply and cupped his fists in assent. Finally, when Goatee raised his teacup, Wang Baole got the hint and left.

When he returned to his cave abode, Wang Baole took out the purple sword and examined it happily. Then he took out a Rainbow Spirit Stone to place within the Heaven’s Hole. As the Spirit Qi entered the blade, the tiny sword flashed an alarming purple, and it swelled rapidly, turning into a large sword. Wang Baole grabbed it and swung it at a rock behind him.

In that instant, a wave of heat exploded. It engulfed the area, reducing the rocks to half their original size, revealing a foot-long mark in the rock!

So sharp! Wang Baole drew in a deep breath. Although he had never seen an attacking Dharma artifact before, he felt that the power in this sword was already extremely shocking.

Speaking of Dharma artifacts, I also have some Spirit Kernels. Wang Baole carefully placed the sword into his storage bracelet before taking out some of the hundred Spirit Kernels that he had previously refined to practice creating Spirit Kernels.

These Spirit Kernels were created from the condensation of carved Inscriptions on superior-grade Spirit Stones. I can’t waste them.

Wang Baole scratched his head. As the ultimate Head Prefect of the Dharmic Armament faculty, he felt that it was shameful that he only owned two Dharma artifacts, which were not even made by himself but borrowed.

After some thought, Wang Baole decided that he would refine them into Dharma artifacts. On the one hand, he could have his own Dharma artifacts handy; on the other hand, he could practice the process of creating simple Dharma artifacts.

After making his decision, Wang Baole contacted Xie Haiyang to exchange for a large amount of materials for artifact refinement. Although these materials were common, the price was not cheap because he needed quite a number of them. However, he had plenty of Spirit Stones, and if he really could not afford it, he could use the Spirit Kernels to barter. After all, on some level, Spirit Kernels were worth more than Spirit Stones.

Very soon, after Xie Haiyang sent over all the materials, Wang Baole spent his following days in the Spirit Cauldron Cave, refining Dharma artifacts in seclusion.

The first item he refined was a large powerful megaphone. When Wang Baole refined the megaphone and used it, he was startled. He felt that even if he used it in a noisy location, the megaphone would sound like a clap of thunder.

He loved this megaphone so much that he could not bear to part with it. Soon, he began to refine other Dharma artifacts, among them was a rope that could trap people and many other flying swords, although they could not match up to the Purple Sword.

Then he felt that he was missing some defensive Dharma artifacts. So, he drew countless Inscriptions onto his own Head Prefect Daoist robe, filling it in with many Spirit Stones and other materials that could fuse with the clothing, creating—with some difficulty—a Dharma artifact out of the Daoist robe.

What he created the most of, however, were numerous seals. This was largely because Wang Baole was especially fond of seals when he started practicing refinement of Spirit Kernels. Although he could not refine high quality seals, the sheer number of them was advantageous.

As he saw his proficiency in refining these simple Dharma artifacts increase, Wang Baole thought of refining a defensive puppet for that mysterious owner of the helmet on Upper Academy Island.

That plaything seems very powerful. I should try to refine some so that I can use it for things such as being a bodyguard, a mount, or someone to serve tea. Wang Baole thought about it and felt that a puppet was very useful, so he started to spend all his time working on it.

Furthermore, as this was for his own personal use, Wang Baole bought numerous materials from Xie Haiyang to add to the puppet. This would cause the refined puppets to be better in every aspect than the one he gave away.

The puppets he refined were also of different varieties; there were fierce beast-like ones, and there were also ones that looked like maidservants.

Finally, he looked at the eight puppets that he had refined with satisfaction. In terms of battle power, these eight puppets had been enhanced with Rainbow Spirit Stones, so they could take more Inscriptions. With all their power stimulated, these puppets could produce strength at the perfected Blood Qi realm.

As for the matter of sturdiness, Wang Baole had added precious materials, so not even Pulse Enrichment experts wouldn’t be able to destroy them instantly.

It’s too bad that my knowledge of materials is lacking. Otherwise, if I had carved Inscriptions according to the materials, I might have been able to create puppets better than Pulse Enrichment! Wang Baole looked at the puppets in front of him, a little dissatisfied.

Just as he pondered over how to make improvements, Wang Baole heard Liu Daobin’s voice from his voice transmission ring.

“Head Prefect, tomorrow is the Dao College’s break. I’ve contacted Du Min, Zhou Xiaoya, Chen Ziheng, and many other old friends. As we’re all from Phoenix City, shall we go home together?”