71: Chapter 71 Huge Upgrade

Rubbing his bleary eyes, he sat up.

Although he was awakened by the System, the first thing he did upon getting up was look around the room.

"This is... my room!"

'Click!'

The sound of a door opening rang out, and Leng Jing walked in.

She was wearing a white home-style long dress with her hair tied in a low ponytail. There was a faint worry on her beautiful oval face, which added a touch of charm to her peerless, makeup-free features.

Seeing Su Mu sitting on the bed, she couldn't hide the joy on her face.

"Xiao Mu, you're awake!"

This morning, Mu Feng had gone to the flower shop to inform her that something had happened to Su Mu, and she immediately dropped everything to return to the villa.

At the same time, Yang Wendao had also sent Su Mu back to the villa.

It was only after Yang Wendao repeatedly guaranteed—guaranteed multiple times—that Su Mu was just exhausted from special training and had fallen asleep...

...that Leng Jing finally set her mind at ease, though she still checked on Su Mu every hour.

"Sister Leng Jing!"

"You've slept for a whole day, you must be hungry. I'll go make some noodles for you."

Saying that, she walked downstairs with a 'tap-tap-tap' sound.

Wiggling his nose, he noticed the lingering fragrance of tulips in the room.

Although it was already July and the tulip season had long passed, Leng Jing's ability was B-Rank Accelerated Growth.

As long as she kept the seeds, it was flowering season all year round.

Since Leng Jing loved tulips, there would often be a few bouquets of budding tulips in the house.

After two and a half minutes, Su Mu's head had completely cleared.

"System, open the panel."

[Name]: Su Mu

[Rank]: Tier 2 Advanced

[Source Power Cultivation Method]: Final Thunder Art (proficient)

[Source Power]: 1503

[Divine Soul]: 872

[Ability]: S+ Rank Thunder-Dark Domain

[Combat Technique]: Thunder Cloud Spear (mastery), Rapid Lightning Chidori (proficient), Eye of Prediction (proficient), Thunder Armor (entry), Thousand Shadows (entry)

[Weapon]: Spear Technique (mastery)

[conversion points]: 1326.2

The first thing Su Mu noticed was the conversion points—over a thousand. If killing a single Black Rat only yielded 0.1 or 0.2 points like before, Su Mu would have had to kill over ten thousand Black Rats to get this much.

But when his gaze swept over the Divine Soul stat...

"Damn!"

"How did my Divine Soul drop to 872? I remember it was 1200 before."

Although they say Divine Soul isn't important before the seventh stage, who could stand losing over 400 points at once?

"Fuck! System, why is my Divine Soul so much lower?"

"Host! The System update phase continuously consumes Divine Soul, and the Host's Divine Soul was overextended. To ensure the Host's physical safety, this System consumed the Host's Divine Soul limit."

"You really do look out for me, don't you? Thank you so much."

Su Mu was completely speechless. Who would have thought the price of reaping over 1000 conversion points was a permanent loss of 400 Divine Soul points?

He felt like life was no longer worth living.

"Warm reminder: The Gift Pack has been placed in the System Space!"

The System's mechanical voice sounded again.

The listless Su Mu was instantly filled with vitality and immediately clicked open the System Space.

In the System Space, there was a gift box with a red border.

"Red!"

In Su Mu's memory, the rewards given by the System ranged from low to high: White, Green, Blue, Purple, and Yellow, corresponding to D, C, B, A, and S respectively.

He had never seen red before.

Excitement!

At this moment, those were the only words in Su Mu's heart.

He immediately clicked the gift pack and chose to open it.

"Ding! Obtained SS-Rank cultivation resource: nine-colored flower."

"Ding! Obtained Intermediate Rank EXP Card ×1."

"Ding! Obtained Combat Technique Proficiency Upgrade Card ×5."

Three rewards rang out in Su Mu's head in succession.

Among them were two SS-Rank rewards.

Su Mu estimated that using the Intermediate Rank EXP Card could directly raise his Rank to Tier 3 Intermediate or even Advanced.

As for the nine-colored flower, he had never even heard of it.

"System, what is the use of the nine-colored flower?"

Actually, he could have asked the AI, but the System's explanations were generally more accurate and detailed.

"Host! The nine-colored flower is a flower with nine colors, an SS-Rank cultivation resource. It has the effect of increasing the level of Wood-attribute abilities and can upgrade an S+ Rank Wood-attribute ability to SS-Rank."

Su Mu looked up slightly, a thought forming in his mind.

"Can it be used by a B-Rank ability user?"

But the System did not explain further.

"System! Can the SS-Rank nine-colored flower be used by a B-Rank ability user?"

Still no reply.

Su Mu furrowed his brows in thought, then tried another question.

"System! What is the use of the Combat Technique Proficiency Upgrade Card?"

"Host! The Combat Technique Proficiency Upgrade Card can increase the proficiency level of a Combat Technique you have already learned by one tier."

His furrowed brows slowly relaxed. It was now certain that the System would only answer things closely related to the System itself.

All other questions would be ignored.

"Xiao You! Can the nine-colored flower be used by a B-Rank ability user?"

"Master! A B-Rank ability user can use the nine-colored flower; they just need to consume the nine petals over nine days."

"Xiao You is still the reliable one!"

Su Mu muttered to himself.

"Thank you for the praise, Master. Xiao You will continue to work hard."

Su Mu smiled slightly, thinking that the AI was indeed useful.

Su Mu had two plans for this nine-colored flower:

The first was to give it to Sister Leng Jing. After consuming an SS-Rank cultivation resource, her B-Rank ability could be upgraded to S-Rank.

This way, Sister Leng could step onto the path of cultivation again and have the power to protect herself in the future.

The second was to give it to Principal Lin He. She was the one who saved him this time, and giving her an SS-Rank cultivation resource would be both repaying her kindness and building a favor. It would also make it easier to ask for her help in the future.

Both options were very good, and Su Mu couldn't decide for a moment, mainly because he still knew too little about Principal Lin He.

Therefore, Su Mu planned to visit Yang Wendao later to ask for the old man's opinion.

While the use of the nine-colored flower was pending, Su Mu also didn't plan on using the Intermediate Rank EXP Card yet.

Su Mu looked at the last reward: five Combat Technique Proficiency Upgrade Cards.

This was what Su Mu lacked most at the moment. Although he knew many Combat Techniques, none of them were truly refined.

Su Mu prepared to perform a major upgrade of his Combat Techniques.

Rapid Lightning Chidori (proficient → mastery)

Eye of Prediction (proficient → mastery)

Thunder Armor (entry → proficient)

Thunder Armor (proficient → mastery)

Su Mu directly used four Combat Technique Proficiency Upgrade Cards, raising all three Combat Techniques to the mastery-level.

Having used these cards so many times, Su Mu had completely figured out their mechanism; it felt a bit like a 'mechanic exploit'.

The difficulty of going from entry to proficient was definitely worlds apart from going from proficient to mastery, but before the System, both only consumed one Combat Technique Proficiency Upgrade Card.

So Su Mu kept one unused. Thousand Shadows hadn't reached the proficient level yet, so using it now would be too wasteful.

Although he had overextended his Divine Soul before, he had indeed used Thousand Shadows many times. Su Mu could feel that Thousand Shadows was close to breaking through to the proficient level.

He would focus on practicing Thousand Shadows for the next two days to reach the proficient level with this S-Rank Combat Technique, then use the final Combat Technique Proficiency Upgrade Card.

That way, all his Combat Techniques would reach mastery.

These weren't B-Rank or C-Rank Combat Techniques; these were A-Rank and S-Rank Combat Techniques.

The minimum requirement to achieve this step was usually a Tier 5 powerhouse.

Awesome!