113: Chapter 113 Advancement to the Fourth Tier, Source Crystal Quality

The Yan Xinqi incident quickly spread across the campus.

After learning the whole story, the students gradually split into two camps.

Surprisingly, with the chat records as evidence, the side supporting Shen Xingchen actually had more people.

The university administration had not yet given a clear result.

But everyone knew.

This matter would not have any outcome.

...

Early morning.

Shen Xingchen sat up from his bed, stood up, and drew back the curtains.

Looking through the floor-to-ceiling window...

The spiritual energy glow coiled like a flood dragon, and Mirror Lake instantly became filled with flowing light and vibrant colors.

'Is this the spiritual energy sea convergence Senior Brother Xiaopang mentioned? It really is a rare and beautiful sight,' Shen Xingchen murmured.

He vaulted onto the roof, facing Mirror Lake.

He opened the system panel.

{Balance: Martial Dao Points × 4000}

Another seven days had passed, and he had accumulated 3,500 Comprehension Points. Adding the remaining 500 points from before, it was exactly 4,000 points.

'Allocate points to cultivation level!'

Shen Xingchen called out.

{All 4,000 Comprehension Points will be used to cultivate your realm.}

{Within the system space, you cultivated for another 10 years, successfully rising to Tier Three, Level Eight.}

{Another ten years passed, Tier Three, Level Nine!}

{This time, a very, very long time passed without any change.}

{In the 40th year within the system space, you finally felt a trace of enlightenment.}

{You quickly caught this flash of inspiration and began to advance...}

{At the end of the 40th year, you barely managed to enter Tier Four, Level One!}

Boom—

This cultivation session was different from any other time before.

The moment Shen Xingchen finished his system cultivation, he felt his body turn burning hot.

'Advancing to Tier Four... Is there something different about it?'

'If I had known, I would have asked Old Man Xue first!'

Steam rose from Shen Xingchen's body, and his skin turned a deep crimson.

'System, what's going on?!'

{Host's confusion detected.}

{The host is breaking through to Tier Four. The current challenge is condensing a source crystal, which requires sufficient spiritual energy as support.}

{Generally speaking, the deeper a martial artist's foundation, the higher the quality of their source crystal. From lowest to highest: white, cyan, purple, red, gold.}

'I need to absorb enough spiritual energy?'

Shen Xingchen pondered for a moment.

A majestic suction force began to frantically absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.

At the center of his brow, a spiritual world was actually being carved out.

That seemed to be the legendary sea of consciousness!

Within the spiritual space, on the surface of the vast ocean, a white spiritual energy crystal was forming.

'Is this the source crystal?'

Shen Xingchen opened up his body again, absorbing the surrounding spiritual energy with all his might.

In just a brief moment,

a vacuum zone of spiritual energy actually formed within a three-zhang radius around the villa's roof.

Within his sea of consciousness, the source crystal gradually turned cyan.

'Not enough!'

Shen Xingchen took out the last two thunder origin fruits and all his thunder crystals from his gilded bracelet.

This was the purest spiritual energy.

Shen Xingchen greedily absorbed all the available spiritual energy.

Finally, at a certain moment,

the source crystal directly advanced to red.

'A red source crystal... It feels so pure.'

Shen Xingchen was certain that the source crystals of Yan Xinqi and the others definitely couldn't reach red; at most, they would be purple.

However, Shen Xingchen still felt it wasn't perfect enough.

According to the system, the quality of a martial artist's source crystal should be backed by their own foundation.

Yet, he still had the capacity to absorb more.

'More!!'

As if sensing Shen Xingchen's shout,

the spiritual energy flood dragon that was originally frolicking in Mirror Lake seemed to receive a summons.

The multicolored spiritual energy flood dragon flew toward the roof of the villa.

Bang—

A muffled sound rang out.

Shen Xingchen felt endless spiritual energy coursing through his meridians.

He felt incredibly comfortable.

It was like someone in the desert who had finally found a source of water.

This spiritual energy from the Dragon Transformation Pool was indeed pure.

Within his sea of consciousness,

the red source crystal also seemed to sense this gift, leaping and cheering.

The spiritual energy flood dragon coursed through his meridians, and the incomparably pure spiritual energy was directly absorbed by the source crystal.

The red source crystal began to transform.

The very bottom of it began to turn into a dazzling gold!

Thirty percent gold.

Fifty percent gold.

...

Gold!

The moment the last trace of red faded away, Shen Xingchen's sea of consciousness trembled.

The golden source crystal hung high like a great sun, illuminating the entire conscious space.

'A golden source crystal!'

Shen Xingchen let out a long breath.

He had a faint intuition that his current spiritual energy foundation far surpassed those of the same tier.

This was the power brought by the golden source crystal.

Having done all this, Shen Xingchen pushed off with one leg and jumped down from the roof.

'Brother Shen, what are you doing?'

With sleep crust still in the corners of his eyes and looking half-asleep, Li Jinhao stared at Shen Xingchen with a puzzled face.

He had been having a sweet dream when he suddenly felt the house shaking. He had thought it was an earthquake!

Shen Xingchen replied, 'It's nothing, just daily cultivation. It's already over.'

Li Jinhao made a face that said, 'Do you really think I'd believe you?'

Shen Xingchen smiled awkwardly. 'Let's chat later. I'm going to drop by Teacher's place.'

...

Shen Xingchen arrived at the hilltop villa.

Du Xiaoyue had already cooked breakfast porridge and set it on the stone table in the courtyard.

Then, he pulled out his phone to text everyone one by one to come eat.

Shen Xingchen said with admiration, 'Senior Brother, your culinary skills have really improved rapidly!'

Compared to the very beginning back in Junmin Lane, Du Xiaoyue's cooking was practically like it was done by a completely different person.

Du Xiaoyue glanced at Shen Xingchen. 'Practice makes perfect, that's all.'

Speaking of which, it was a tale of bitter tears.

Ever since they took a trip to Junmin Lane in Qiunan City,

upon their return, Old Man Xue dumped the task of cooking entirely on him.

Claiming that cooking was also a form of cultivation that could train his control over fire.

It just so happened that Du Xiaoyue possessed all five elements—metal, wood, water, fire, and earth—so he fell right into the trap...

'Junior Brother, when are you heading to Shanghai Shenwu?' Du Xiaoyue asked.

The news of Shen Xingchen's upcoming participation in the University Martial Dao Exchange Tournament had already spread throughout the disciples' group chat.

'Tomorrow.'

'Oh, then take good care of yourself on your own,' Du Xiaoyue said.

Shanghai Shenwu wasn't Shangjing University; there wouldn't be so many people looking out for their little junior brother there.

Shen Xingchen let out an 'eh'. 'Senior Brother, you actually have times when you're this thoughtful?'

'I'm a bit surprised too!' Their beautiful senior sister walked up from the path on the side of the mountain, looking at Du Xiaoyue with a smile.

Du Xiaoyue's face flushed red. 'I'm still a senior brother, after all!'

'You've made progress.'

Bai Wanqing looked beautiful even when yawning, sitting calmly to the side.

Then she turned to look at Shen Xingchen. 'Little Junior Brother, you're already at Tier Three, Level Seven, right? Before Teacher went into secluded cultivation, he asked me to explain the Tier Four advancement to you...'

'Generally speaking, martial artists need to prepare pure spiritual energy sources in advance, like your thunder origin fruits and the like.'

'Then, during the breakthrough, you must absorb as much of the spiritual energy source as possible to condense your source crystal...'

Although the system had already briefly explained this, to prevent any oversights,

Shen Xingchen listened very attentively.

Bai Wanqing was very satisfied and continued, 'The quality of a source crystal is divided into four grades: white, cyan, purple, and red.'

Shen Xingchen was startled.

Why was there no mention of the golden source crystal the system had prompted?

Bai Wanqing pointed to herself. 'Like the three of us, your senior brothers and sister, we all have red source crystals, which indicates a solid foundation. Well, with your combat power being so strong, Little Junior Brother, you will definitely have a red source crystal too.'