Chapter 3: The Alchemy of Scarcity and the Glass Altar
The central plaza of the Celestial Sage Academy was no longer a place of judgment; it had become a theater of the impossible. The shattered glass of the Clock of Crimson Sand lay scattered around the unconscious, broken form of Teacher Wang, reflecting the harsh midday sun like jagged diamonds.
Vice-Principal Mu stood frozen. His silver-threaded robes, usually a symbol of absolute authority, felt suddenly heavy, like a leaden shroud. He looked at Tian Mo, who remained as calm as a mountain lake, and then at the nine "Trash" students who stood behind him—no longer cowering, but radiating a Qi so pure it made the surrounding air hum.
"The keys, Vice-Principal," Tian Mo repeated. His voice wasn't loud, but it carried a resonance that seemed to vibrate within Mu's own Dantian. "My students have reached the threshold. They cannot consolidate their foundations on the 'scrap' energy you provide to Grade E."
Mu swallowed hard. As a 2-Star Master Teacher, his pride urged him to retaliate, to suppress this upstart assistant who had dared to break the Academy's most sacred clock. But the logic was undeniable. Lu Feng—a boy who had been a cripple an hour ago—was now a Level 7 Qi Sensing prodigy. If word got out that a Grade E teacher had achieved this in thirty minutes while the Grade A faculty had failed for years, the Academy's reputation would collapse.
"The Refining Hall is reserved for 1-Star Apothecaries and official Senior Teachers," Mu said, his voice raspy. "But... given the 'exceptional' circumstances of your students' breakthroughs, I will grant you a one-hour pass. However, Tian Mo, do not think this is over. The Supreme Teacher Pavilion will hear of your... unorthodox methods."
Tian Mo didn't even blink. "They will hear of my results. The methods are irrelevant to those who cannot understand them."
Mu reached into his sleeve and pulled out a heavy, iron-cast key engraved with the symbol of a flickering flame. He tossed it toward Tian Mo.
Tian Mo caught it mid-air without looking, his fingers closing around the cold metal with a precision that made Mu's eyes twitch.
"Follow me," Tian Mo commanded his students.
As they walked away from the stunned crowd, Lu Feng leaned in, his voice hushed with awe. "Teacher... the Refining Hall is where they keep the Spirit Stones. But the Grade E allowance is only ten 'Low-Grade' stones per month. Even if we go there, they won't give us more."
Tian Mo glanced at him, a faint, enigmatic glint in his abyssal eyes. "A master does not ask for more, Lu Feng. A master makes what he has better."
The Hall of Smoldering Embers
The Refining Hall was a massive, circular structure built over a natural volcanic vent. The air inside was thick with the scent of sulfur and the metallic tang of melting ore. Huge bronze cauldrons sat atop stone pedestals, heated by the earth's fire.
The students gasped as they entered. For them, this was a forbidden palace. For Tian Mo, it was a laboratory of flaws.
[Ding! Scanning Environment...]
[Detection: 1,402 inefficient heat-seals.]
[Detection: Low-Grade Spirit Stone Vault contains 12,000 stones with 45% impurity.]
A middle-aged man with singed eyebrows and soot-stained robes—Manager Geng—approached them, his face twisted in a scowl. "Grade E? What is this? This hall is for elite refinement, not for a field trip for the dregs."
Tian Mo didn't waste words. He held up Vice-Principal Mu's iron key.
Geng's scowl deepened, but he stepped aside. "One hour. And don't touch the High-Grade cauldrons. You'll blow yourselves up."
Tian Mo led his students to a corner where crates of "Low-Grade Spirit Stones" were kept. These stones were cloudy, jagged, and flickered with a weak, unstable light. To a normal cultivator, ten of these might provide enough energy for a day of practice. To Tian Mo, whose body required 10x the energy due to the Divine Library's presence, these were practically pebbles.
"Teacher, what are we doing?" Qin Yue asked, looking at the dull stones. "These are barely better than common rocks."
"Sit in a circle," Tian Mo instructed. "Place three stones in front of each of you."
He then walked to the center of the circle. He didn't pick up a tool. He didn't light a fire. He simply closed his eyes.
[Initializing: Deep Scan of Spirit Stone Matrix.]
[Analyzing Impurity Nodes...]
[Logic Path Established: Resonance Vibration.]
"Watch closely," Tian Mo said. "Everything in this world, from the stars to the dirt, has a frequency. If you find the flaw in the frequency, you can shake the impurities out of existence."
He reached out and tapped the air.
Clang.
The sound was like a tuning fork striking a crystal.
Tian Mo's fingers began to move—not in a blur of speed, but with a rhythmic, hypnotic grace. He was tapping the Low-Grade stones. Each tap was directed at a specific "Flaw Node" identified by the Library.
Ttap. Ttap. Ttap-tap.
Manager Geng, watching from a distance, started to laugh. "Is he trying to play music on the stones? Idiot! You need a High-Grade furnace and three days of steady flame to refine a Spirit Stone!"
But the laughter died in his throat.
Under Tian Mo's rhythmic tapping, the cloudy Low-Grade stones began to shudder. Small, black flakes of soot-like dust began to shed from their surfaces. The dull grey color started to fade, replaced by a brilliant, translucent azure.
"What... what is happening?" Lu Feng whispered.
The stones were shrinking. But as they shrank, the light they emitted grew so bright it illuminated the entire hall.
[Ding! Refining Successful.]
[Quality: 99% Pure 'Refined' Spirit Stone.]
[Efficiency Increase: 15x.]
Ten "Low-Grade" stones had been compressed into three "Refined" stones. But these three held more usable energy than a hundred of the originals.
"Consume them," Tian Mo commanded. "Do not swallow the energy. Let it wash over your meridians like a tide. I will guide the flow."
As the nine students began to absorb the hyper-pure energy, Tian Mo stood in the center, his own body acting as a lightning rod. Because his energy requirement was so massive, the "overflow" from the students' refinement began to pour into him.
The 10x Hunger
Deep inside Tian Mo's Dantian, the Divine Library began to roar. It wasn't a physical sound, but a spiritual vacuum. The 10x energy requirement wasn't a burden; it was an evolutionary gate.
[Current Energy Levels: 2%... 5%... 12%...]
[Host Body Strengthening: Initiated.]
Tian Mo felt his muscles fiber-by-fiber becoming denser. His bones, already reinforced by the transmigration, began to take on a faint, metallic sheen. In this world, most cultivators were like wooden buckets—they could only hold so much water before they leaked. Tian Mo was being forged into a steel tank.
"More," Tian Mo whispered to himself.
He turned toward the crates of Low-Grade stones that Manager Geng had deemed "Trash." With a wave of his hand, twenty stones flew into the air, suspended by his invisible Qi.
He didn't tap them this time. He simply spoke.
"Collapse."
Using the Priceless Advice logic, he spoke a single syllable that resonated with the stones' internal flaws.
CRACK-SHATTER!
All twenty stones imploded simultaneously. The impurities were vaporized instantly by the friction of their own collapse. What remained were five "Perfect-Grade" Spirit Stones, glowing with a light so intense it looked like trapped stars.
Manager Geng tripped over a coal bucket, his jaw hitting the floor. "Impossible... No furnace? No flame? He just... he just told them to refine themselves?"
Tian Mo grabbed the five Perfect stones and crushed them in his bare palm.
A vertical pillar of azure light erupted from his hand, entering his chest.
[Energy Level: 40%...]
[Cultivation Rank: Qi Sensing Level 9 (Peak).]
[Warning: Host requires 'Foundation Establishment' Pill to break the next barrier.]
Tian Mo exhaled a cloud of white mist. His skin was glowing, his aura so sharp it felt like a blade was pressed against the throats of everyone in the room. He had reached the peak of the first realm in less than two hours.
The Physician's Crisis
While Tian Mo was refining stones, a different kind of storm was brewing in the Academy's Medical Wing.
Master Physician Hong, a 1-Star professional with a reputation for being the "Death-Cheater" of the Hung Kingdom, was sweating. On the bed before him lay the Academy's top genius, Gong Jue (Grade A).
Gong Jue had been practicing a Forbidden Lightning Technique, and his meridians were currently vibrating with a chaotic electrical charge that was tearing him apart from the inside.
"I can't stop the resonance!" Hong shouted to his assistants. "The silver needles are melting the moment they touch his skin! If we don't ground his Qi in ten minutes, his Dantian will explode, taking half the wing with it!"
Just then, the doors burst open. It was Teacher Wang, his arm in a crude sling, his face pale and distorted.
"Master Hong! You have to help me!" Wang cried out. "That assistant teacher... Tian Mo... he did something to my Qi! It's stagnant! I can't speak—well, I can speak now, but I can't circulate my power!"
Physician Hong didn't even look up. "Get out, Wang! I'm trying to save a life!"
"But Master!" Wang persisted, desperate for revenge. "He claimed your 'Blue-Wave' teaching was flawed! He mocked the Physician's Guild!"
Hong paused, his needle hovering over a volatile acupuncture point. "He mocked the Guild? An assistant teacher from Grade E?"
"Yes! He said... he said 'Physicians are just blind men feeling an elephant'!" (Wang was lying, but it worked).
Hong's eyes flared with anger. "After I save Gong Jue, I will personally strip that brat of his tongue. But right now—"
BOOM!
A surge of lightning Qi erupted from Gong Jue's chest, throwing Physician Hong across the room. The genius student let out a blood-curdling scream as his skin began to crack, glowing with a terrifying purple light.
"It's over," Hong whispered, clutching his bruised ribs. "The 'Lightning Overload' has reached his heart. No one in the Hung Kingdom can solve this. Not even a 2-Star Physician."
The Arrival of the Sovereign
"Actually," a calm, cold voice drifted through the medical wing's open window, "the solution is quite simple. You're just looking at the wrong organ."
Everyone turned.
Standing on the balcony, framed by the setting sun, was Tian Mo. Behind him stood his nine students, their auras so stable and powerful they looked like a phalanx of veteran warriors.
Tian Mo stepped into the room. The chaotic lightning Qi in the air seemed to bow out of his way, parting like the Red Sea.
"Tian Mo!" Wang yelled, hiding behind a cabinet. "You dare come here? You've already caused enough trouble!"
Physician Hong stood up, his face red with fury. "You! You are the one who mocked the Guild? Do you have any idea what you're looking at? This is a 'Heart-Seared Lightning' surge! Even a 1-Star Physician can't touch him!"
Tian Mo walked toward the bed, his eyes scanning Gong Jue.
[Scanning Subject: Gong Jue.]
[Condition: Lightning Resonance.]
[Total Flaws in Current Treatment: 12.]
[Solution: The 'Ear-Lobe Drainage' Technique.]
Tian Mo looked at Hong. "You've been trying to drain the lightning through his Dantian. That's like trying to put out a fire by pouring oil on it. The lightning entered through his ears when he heard the 'Thunder Clap' of the technique. The resonance is trapped in his auditory canals, not his heart."
"Nonsense!" Hong laughed hysterically. "Lightning in the ears? I've studied medicine for forty years!"
Tian Mo didn't respond. He simply reached out.
"Don't touch him!" Hong screamed. "The feedback will kill you!"
Tian Mo's hand didn't tremble. He reached out and pinched Gong Jue's left earlobe with two fingers.
Zzzzt.
A tiny spark jumped from the ear to Tian Mo's fingers. Tian Mo didn't flinch. His 10x strengthened body absorbed the shock as if it were a static spark from a carpet.
Then, he twisted the earlobe exactly 15 degrees to the left.
POP.
A plume of purple smoke erupted from Gong Jue's ear. The genius student's body instantly went limp. The glowing cracks on his skin faded. The chaotic vibration in the room stopped.
Gong Jue took a deep, shivering breath and fell into a peaceful sleep.
The room was so quiet you could hear a needle drop.
Tian Mo wiped his fingers on a silk handkerchief he had taken from the bedside table.
"Forty years of study," Tian Mo said, looking at Physician Hong, "and you couldn't see a simple 'Auditory Blockage'. Perhaps it's time you went back to being a student."
Hong's face went from red to ghostly white. He looked at Gong Jue—whose vitals were now perfect—and then at Tian Mo. The logic was undeniable. The result was absolute.
"Who... what are you?" Hong stammered.
Tian Mo turned to leave. "I am a teacher. And since I've just saved your 'top genius', I believe I am entitled to the 1-Star Physician's Badge without the formal three-day waiting period."
He stopped at the door and looked back at the trembling Teacher Wang.
"And Wang? Next time you lie about what I said, make sure I'm not within earshot. My hearing is... quite sensitive to flaws."
As Tian Mo walked out, the nine students followed, their heads held high. They were no longer the "Trash Class." They were the disciples of a man who could command lightning with a pinch of an earlobe.
[Ding! 1-Star Physician Knowledge Integrated.]
[Supreme Teacher Points: 50 (Accumulating...)]
[New Objective: The 1-Star Supreme Teacher Exam (Out-of-Turn Trial).]