36: Chapter 36 The First Academy Resource

The cold light of the Star Map Library still lingered in his eyes as Lu Jin turned and descended the grey stairs.

The night wind in the Black Well Outer Ring was harsh, cutting against his face like fine blades.

The weekly ranking light screen at the wellhead had already been replaced by a real-time contribution board, with Black Well Team 1 hanging at the very top, the string of numbers behind it glaringly bright.

Shi Jiukui was sitting by the well, bandaging his hands; seeing him return, he grinned first.

"Did you get the catalog?"

"I did."

Lu Jin snapped the token back onto his wrist without saying anything more.

Duan Chenzhou stood nearby with the dragging snail on his back, staring at the black silver token in Lu Jin's palm for a moment before withdrawing his gaze.

Zhu Qinghe was crouching at the entrance of the connection room feeding the fungus children, while Zhong Xiaoqi held the box of Copper Needle Bees in her arms; the buzzing inside the box was much quieter, clearly, they were also exhausted.

Instructor Wu Heng had appeared by the well at some point.

"For the first weekly ranking, the academy is issuing half of the quota first."

"The remaining half will be released after the battle damage is verified."

He raised his hand and swiped, and a long, thin light screen immediately descended above the Black Well.

[ Lu Jin ] [ Current Contribution: 117 ] [ Weekly Ranking Reward Received ] [ Black Well Class Extra Priority Exchange Time Limit: One Quarter-Hour ]

Only a quarter-hour.

The wolves in the Outer Ring resource corridor would swarm the moment they smelled this.

Lu Jin turned and left immediately.

The exchange corridor was even more crowded tonight than during the day.

Freshmen from every class packed the three-story corridor, while rows of price tags lit up in the windows in turn—Spirit Liquid, Stability Bricks, Workshop Fire, Troop Diagrams, and Injury Repair Kits, all carrying the heat of the just-concluded weekly ranking.

Someone grabbed a vial of Stability Liquid, only to be intercepted by three people trying to drive up the price; someone else had just opened the instructor auxiliary material window, and someone behind them was already reaching out to bid.

Zhuixing Academy provides resources, but also teaches people how to fight for them.

As soon as Lu Jin walked into the innermost layer, a gold-patterned screen on the right suddenly lit up.

[ Stability Liquid: 30 Contribution ] [ Star Pattern Brick: 6 Contribution/piece ] [ Breeding Nest Warming Trough: 28 Contribution ] [ Furnace Cave Wall Diagram - Outer Wall Style: 40 Contribution ] [ Workshop Fire Rental: 8 Contribution/hour ] [ Battle Damage Repair Paste: 12 Contribution ]

The numbers weren't high, but combined, they could hollow a person out.

117 contribution points were enough to buy, but not enough to buy recklessly.

The grey-robed steward behind the window looked up at him, recognizing him.

"Black Well's Lu Jin?"

"Yes."

"Let's be clear: there's only one basic Outer Wall Style for the Furnace Cave wall diagram, and there are no refunds once purchased. There are only two Breeding Nest Warming Troughs left tonight. You can still get two vials of Stability Liquid, but any later and they'll be wiped out by Class A."

Lu Jin didn't report his order immediately.

The most critical spots in the Dead Ash Mine flashed before his eyes.

The Return Fire Well was stable, but the black stone ring was still missing the final locking edge.

The White-Bellied Mother Rat lay beside the crystal core, the white light beneath her abdomen growing brighter, yet the Breeding Cave temperature still wasn't suppressed enough. If it dropped again tonight and the crystal core pulse became chaotic, the partial diagram they had snatched back and the White-Bellied Mother Rat would both go berserk.

The left wheels of both Black Shield Bone Carriages were cracked, and the front-line battle group had just finished fighting in the scrap warehouse; fire oil, rat teeth, and towing ropes all needed replenishment.

The outer wall was more urgent.

The Dead Ash Mine was currently just a settlement pieced together from old wells, old nests, and old caves; it could hide, delay, and bite back, but once the front was seen through by opponents in the academy ranking battles, the surface layer would be ripped open.

Lu Jin tapped the stone edge of the window with his fingertips.

"One vial of Stability Liquid."

"Six Star Pattern Bricks."

"One Breeding Nest Warming Trough."

"I'll take the Furnace Cave wall diagram."

Someone behind him immediately gasped.

He had ordered four items in one go, all of them hard goods that the Black Well Class usually couldn't bear to touch.

The grey-robed steward asked, "You don't want the repair paste?"

"No."

"Workshop Fire rental?"

"Half an hour."

The steward stared at him for half a breath, as if calculating whether he was crazy.

"Your order comes to exactly 114. You'll have only three contribution points left. Are you sure?"

Lu Jin raised his token.

"I'm sure."

With a black light scan, the contribution points dropped straight down.

Three black silver-sealed tubes, six fist-sized Star Pattern Bricks, a scroll of golden wall diagram pages engraved with old school patterns, and a palm-length silver-white warming trough were pushed out from behind the window one by one. The tag for the final half-hour of Workshop Fire rental also fell out.

The grey-robed steward couldn't help but take another look.

"You've cut your margin too thin."

"The Black Well's path is strange; if you don't keep some on hand, it's easy to break." Lu Jin packed the items quickly.

"Leaving them there would just let them rot in the account."

As soon as he turned around, a sponsored student nearby had already set his sights on the wall diagram scroll.

"Lu Jin, are you selling the Outer Wall Style? I'll offer fifty."

Lu Jin didn't stop walking.

"Not for sale."

"Sixty."

"You can buy your own."

The person's face darkened: "What kind of wall can the Black Well Class build? Can that nest of rats of yours even defend it?"

Lu Jin turned back and gave him a look, his voice very flat.

"I'll wait for you to come and test it."

The sponsored student was stunned by that look, the words stuck in his throat. The few people behind him wanted to laugh, but none of them could.

Lu Jin left the exchange corridor and went straight into the workshop.

The Black Well workshop was packed tonight; people fighting for spots in front of the fire vents, assembling materials, and repairing weapons made it as noisy as a boiling pot.

Just as Lu Jin slapped his fire rental tag onto the furnace counter, Instructor Wu Heng's black iron prosthetic finger reached over, knocking the side of the furnace opening down with a thud.

"This half-section is yours. Get lost when the half-hour is up."

Lu Jin nodded and laid out the six Star Pattern Bricks first.

Grey Pupil stood by his side, his grey eyes fixed on the furnace fire like a wolf holding back its fangs.

"Repair the carriage first?"

"Separate materials first."

Lu Jin raised his hand and smashed two of the Star Pattern Bricks, putting half into the furnace and sprinkling the other half into a black box. He then tossed in the silver cable wheels, spirit nail fragments, and the half-broken traction rope dragged back from the scrap warehouse.

The furnace fire coiled, and black smoke rose along the walls. The grey fire inside the wanji ember furnace swallowed them quickly; the moment the items entered the furnace, new patterns emerged on the walls.

[ Wind-Guiding Wheel Buckle ] [ Pressure-Bearing Cable Gear ] [ Split-Slot Slide Plate ]

Lu Jin took the first two items directly.

"Zhong Xiaoqi, weld the left wheel."

"Duan Chenzhou, pull the cable."

"Grey Pupil, hold down the carriage frame."

The Copper Needle Bees swarmed out, their tail needles trailing fire, flashing wildly around the left wheel of the Black Shield Bone Carriage.

Duan Chenzhou's largest dragging snail crawled onto the carriage belly, spitting out salt paste that looked like bone paste, sealing the wheel buckles and bone axles tightly.

Grey Pupil pressed his hands on the carriage frame, his shoulder and back muscles tensed, firmly holding the entire bone carriage so it didn't shake in the slightest.

Instructor Wu Heng stood nearby watching for a while, a faint glint of something unusual passing through his eyes.

"You are melting the academy's materials into your own path."

Lu Jin didn't look up.

"As long as it works."

The half-hour of Workshop Fire burned extremely fast. After the first Black Shield Bone Carriage was repaired, four Wind-Guiding Wheel Buckles were added to the outer edge of the left wheel, and a section of Pressure-Bearing Cable Gear was added under the carriage belly. When pushed, the sound of the bone wheels against the ground was softer, and they gripped the slopes tighter than before.

The second bone carriage wasn't fully repaired; only the axles were reinforced, not the outer shell.

Lu Jin saved the last of the furnace fire for the silver-white warming trough.

The warming trough was originally only palm-sized; he knocked open the casing, stuffed in two crushed Star Pattern Bricks, and had Zhu Qinghe's fungus children spit a thin membrane inside. As soon as the greyish-white membrane touched the wall of the trough, a slowly flowing warm pattern lit up at the bottom.

Zhong Xiaoqi was so engrossed she forgot to recall the bees.

"You turned a Stability Trough into a Breeding Cave Warming Trough?"

"Yes."

"You can change that too?"

"It was always possible; others are just too lazy to waste the fire on it."

The moment the workshop tag went dark, he had already led his people back to the connection room.

As his divine sense sank, the entire Dead Ash Mine pressed in upon him.

Under the night, the Dead Ash Mine looked more like a wounded beast curled up in the darkness than it had before entering the academy.

The newly built black stone ring by the Return Fire Well was only lit halfway; the shallow pool in the fire room was soaking the injured rats, with scorched fur floating on the fungus paste. The two Black Shield Bone Carriages were parked at the back warehouse entrance, one with new wheels, one with a cracked shell. Deep in the Breeding Cave, the White-Bellied Mother Rat lay on the incubation crystal core, her abdomen rising and falling with a faint white radiance. Further away, the surviving Red-Eyed Rats lay by the well, their eyes even redder than two days ago.

Their faith was deeper, and their restlessness grew faster.

Grey Pupil knelt first, his voice as hard as ever.

"The Return Fire Well can be suppressed."

"The fire room can save them."

"The Breeding Cave is too cold."

"There's no outer wall; the front layer is too empty."

Lu Jin stood by the well and raised his hand, placing the items down one by one.

The Stability Liquid fell into the Return Fire Well first. As soon as the silvery-white liquid entered the well, the restless fire inside sank, and the black stone ring lit up circle by circle. The two Cart-pulling Rats soaking in the fire room clearly breathed more steadily, and the Fire Oil Thrower with burnt-through front claws slowly raised its head.

The second item was the warming trough. Lu Jin personally buried it in the deepest layer of the Breeding Cave, pressing it right over the crack between the White-Bellied Mother Rat and the crystal core. As soon as the warm pattern activated, the chill in the strata was immediately pushed out. The White-Bellied Mother Rat's previously tensed abdomen slowly relaxed, and the flickering pulse within the crystal core finally stabilized into a heartbeat.

Thump. Thump. The sound was faint, but it struck into the entire Breeding Cave with every beat.

Grey Pupil looked up, a clear sense of alarm flashing in his grey eyes for the first time.

"It is growing."

Lu Jin looked at the crystal core without answering.

Of course, it was growing. The partial incubation pool diagram, the White-Bellied Mother Rat, and the stability warming trough were all pressed together now. He needed speed, but the risks were greater. If the Breeding Cave temperature surged again, what was born might not be a soldier, but a disaster.

He raised his hand and buried two more Star Pattern Bricks into the edge of the Breeding Cave.

"Seal the heat first."

"The heat veins must not run wild."

Grey Pupil nodded and turned to organize the rats. It was no longer just a rat that only knew how to fight.

Ten Tunneling Rats were ordered to the outer layer of the Breeding Cave, allowed only to dig heat-conducting gaps and forbidden from touching the inner walls; six Cart-pulling Rats went to move Star Pattern Bricks to repair the outer ring of the Return Fire Well; four Fire Oil Throwers guarded the entrance of the fire room, burning the feet of anyone who grew restless; the remaining Red-Eyed Rats divided into three columns—battle, work, and guard—lying down by the well one by one.

Lu Jin watched it organize the layers, his eyes darkening slightly.

Grey Pupil had begun to organize the skeleton of civilization for him. This was a good thing. But once a High Priest knew too much, it also meant that the fire of the entire divine domain would gather more and more on it.

The firelight in the Return Fire Well surged gently, and dozens of Red-Eyed Rats bowed to the ground in unison. Lines of faith pierced into Lu Jin's Sea of Consciousness one by one, heavier and hotter than during the Unified Exam. They were getting stronger. And turning redder.

Lu Jin didn't pause anymore and raised his hand to unfold the Furnace Cave wall diagram. As the golden pages spread out, the entire strata of the mine trembled.

Old school patterns emerged one by one, extending outward from the outer ring of the cave settlement. The wall didn't rise as a single piece but grew first from the places where people were most likely to die. A low wall stood up in front of the back warehouse. A second sloped wall rose outside the fire room. On the left side of the Return Fire Well, the slope most easily overlooked from high ground was braced by three Star Pattern Bricks and fragments of an old altar, becoming an outer corner wall embedded with grey patterns.

Lu Jin didn't pave it all. He only chose the three most critical spots, using the single roll of wall diagram in three parts. For every section of the golden wall diagram pages that vanished, the wall gained more substance. By the time the final school pattern was pressed into the ground, the outermost ring of the Dead Ash Mine was no longer a scattered collection of holes, caves, wells, and warehouses, but had its first clear outline. It was like a city that hadn't yet grown to full size.

Grey Pupil stood before the new wall, slowly raising his hand to press it against the grey-patterned surface.

The hundreds of Gray-tailed Burrowing Rats, Red-Eyed Rats, Cart-pulling Rats, and Fire Oil Throwers by the well all fell silent. They looked at the wall, at the well, and at the speck of white light deep in the Breeding Cave, and the lines of faith suddenly sank in unison.

With this sinking, the black fire in Lu Jin's Sea of Consciousness flickered slightly. It wasn't fear; it was submission. They had begun to treat this place as the one they truly needed to defend.

"Remember." Lu Jin's voice fell into the entire mine.

"Behind the wall is the fire room."

"Behind the wall is the Breeding Cave."

"Behind the wall are the things you brought back."

"Whoever reaches their hand in, drag them into the fire."

Low squeaks spread in circles from the well. The Fire Oil Throwers lowered their heads first, the Cart-pulling Rats followed by bowing to the ground, and finally, even the group of Red-Eyed Rats with the reddest eyes slowly lowered their heads. Grey Pupil stood before the wall, his shoulders and back straight, like a flag bone newly driven into the strata.

The wall stood. The well was stable. The Breeding Cave had warmed up. But the trouble hadn't decreased; instead, it had become more specific.

Lu Jin walked into the fire room, looked at the repaired battle damage, and then looked at the empty ground outside the new wall. This was just the outer outline. The true Furnace Cave Fortress was still a long way off.

Just as he was about to continue deploying troops, a dull sound suddenly came from deep within the Breeding Cave. Thump. Heavier than before.

The White-Bellied Mother Rat's entire back arched, and the white pattern beneath her abdomen flashed, actually lighting up along with that half-sheet of the incubation pool partial diagram. The old serial numbers on the partial diagram looked as if they had been seared by fire, crawling in circles along the surface of the crystal core, finally condensing in the very center into a faint white egg pattern.

Grey Pupil's face turned cold instantly. "It is urging."

Lu Jin stared at the egg pattern, his fingertips slowly tightening. The warming trough had just stabilized, and the partial diagram was already demanding more things. Resources were bottoming out, yet the Breeding Cave had opened its mouth.

Before he could make another decision, a very light knock suddenly came from the Black Well connection room outside. Three times. As steady as the back of a knife tapping against an iron surface.

Lu Jin withdrew his divine sense and opened his eyes. Ning Yanqiu was standing outside the door. She was dressed in black, with two Frost Crows perched on her shoulders; the night wind blew in from behind her, pressing the loose strands of hair on her forehead cold. She looked at Lu Jin, offering no pleasantries and not beating around the bush.

"Your resource order clashes with mine."