93: Chapter 93 Secret Realm

"Qingluan? A Divine Beast bloodline?"

Ling Yichen was also slightly surprised.

He couldn't help but take another look at the girl named Qingyi.

With a striking personality, a powerful background, and extraordinary strength, it was truly difficult not to pay attention to her.

"As expected of the Genius Student Class, it's full of talent!" he praised sincerely.

Here, he truly felt the pressure of cultivation; these were all teenagers under twenty, basically the same age as him, yet the strongest had already reached B-rank.

Strong, very strong!

This also stirred a bit of competitiveness in him.

"I need to head back and step up my cultivation too!"

Just as he was thinking this, a cold voice suddenly came from behind him.

"What are you all gathered here for? Didn't you hear the school bell ring?"

Hearing this voice, Ling Yichen felt it was strangely familiar. He turned around and, boy, wasn't this his homeroom teacher, Yuan Qing? No wonder the voice sounded so familiar.

Seeing Yuan Qing again, Ling Yichen actually felt a bit awkward.

Ever since their last meeting, he had intentionally avoided this female teacher.

It wasn't that he was afraid of her, he just felt uneasy. As a student in her class, he had only shown his face once, lied about needing the restroom to slip away, and then never returned to class.

Meeting her here so unexpectedly, how could he not be embarrassed?

Yuan Qing obviously saw Ling Yichen as well. A flash of surprise crossed her fairly attractive face, but it immediately returned to calm, and she only gave him a faint glance.

"What are you doing here?"

As she spoke, she suddenly noticed Ling Yichen and Ye Qingzhu's interlaced fingers and seemed to understand something.

"It's class time now. If you don't want to study, don't hold others back!"

Saying this, she walked straight toward Ling Yichen and Ye Qingzhu, aiming right between the two of them.

Helplessly, Ling Yichen could only let go of Ye Qingzhu and clear the path.

As Yuan Qing walked past them toward the podium, Ling Yichen looked at Ye Qingzhu and said, "Alright then, you go to class first. Let's meet outside the school after class!"

Ye Qingzhu nodded obediently.

Immediately, she led Ye Qingzhu toward two empty seats not far away.

Ling Yichen then led Tian Yingying out of the classroom.

Before they could leave, Yuan Qing's voice rang out again.

"Today is the day the academy opens the High-Level Cultivation Array. Everyone get ready; I'll take you to the Cultivation Tower in a moment."

Ling Yichen's eyes lit up, filled with envy.

The two of them left the Genius Student Class teaching building and arrived at the Research Institute.

Just as they arrived, Long Daoyi rushed over excitedly and said, "Junior Brother, today is the day the academy opens the High-Level Cultivation Array. Master told me to take you there to cultivate. Cultivating there is much faster than in the underground base."

Hearing this, Ling Yichen was suddenly surprised and delighted.

"I can go to the High-Level Cultivation Array?"

Long Daoyi nodded. "Of course. Master is an honorary elder after all; his disciple naturally has the qualification to enter. However, only one person can go at a time. It used to be me, but going there doesn't really do much for me anymore. Now that we have you, of course we're letting you go."

Ling Yichen was extremely happy.

He had been thinking about this on the way here. He hadn't expected someone to hand him a pillow just as he was getting sleepy; it was wonderful.

"Hurry up and get ready. Try to stay inside as long as possible and condense your first star as soon as you can."

Long Daoyi urged him.

Ling Yichen immediately asked, "Then what do I need to prepare?"

"Things to restore Mental Energy. In the Cultivation Tower, the speed of condensing stars is about twice as fast as outside. Naturally, the consumption of Mental Energy will also be faster. You need to prepare more restorative items, or you might not last until the Tower closes and be forced to come out."

Hearing this, Ling Yichen immediately felt at ease.

Items to restore Mental Energy? Wasn't that exactly what the seven-leaf lotus heart was for?

He had plenty; he had dozens of boxes stored in his Storage Ring.

"Here are some five-leaf lotus hearts, use them for now!"

Long Daoyi suddenly handed over four jade boxes.

Ling Yichen was stunned for a moment.

five-leaf lotus hearts weren't cheap either; they cost 1,000 points per box.

These four boxes were 4,000 points.

"Senior Brother, where did you get these? This must have cost a lot of points!"

Long Daoyi gave a simple smile and replied, "I went out early this morning and sold some herbs I had stockpiled to exchange for some points, then got these boxes of five-leaf lotus hearts for you."

Ling Yichen felt incredibly warm inside.

4,000 points must have absolutely emptied Long Daoyi's savings.

Looking at this slightly honest middle-aged man, Ling Yichen was truly moved.

He didn't want to take them at first, but he was afraid of hurting his senior brother's feelings. He immediately took the five-leaf lotus hearts and said softly, "Thank you, Senior Brother!"

There was no need to say anything else; the future was long, and he would definitely not mistreat this senior brother.

"Alright, do you have anything else to prepare? If not, we can leave right now!"

Ling Yichen nodded and replied, "I have nothing else to prepare. Let's go now!"

Long Daoyi immediately led him toward the depths of the academy.

They soon arrived at a plaza, in the center of which stood a giant vertical light screen.

Water-like ripples flowed across the light screen, as if magic power were surging within.

"This is..."

It was Ling Yichen's first time seeing such a thing, and he couldn't help but ask curiously.

Long Daoyi immediately explained, "This is the entrance to a Secret Realm, though this one is man-made. The Cultivation Tower is inside."

"Secret Realms within the Human Realm are almost all man-made. Natural Secret Realms only exist Outside the Borders, and those are places the various schools often visit."

"There are many treasures inside Secret Realms, such as cultivation secret techniques, divine ability secret techniques, and various natural treasures."

As he spoke, Long Daoyi stepped into the giant light screen.

Ling Yichen followed immediately. Stepping into the light screen, he suddenly felt time and space shifting and space folding, bringing a slight sense of dizziness.

However, a second later, he found himself in a beautiful garden filled with red flowers and green grass.

At the end of the garden was an ancient Tower, and in front of the Tower sat an old man as still as a stone statue.

Long Daoyi led Ling Yichen to the old man and bowed, saying, "Greetings, Tenth Martial Uncle!"

Ling Yichen didn't know who he was, so he just followed behind Long Daoyi and bowed slightly.

"Martial Uncle, this is my Master's new disciple. I've brought him to cultivate in the Tower today."

The old man never opened his eyes or spoke from beginning to end, but as Long Daoyi's words fell, the space in front of the Tower suddenly distorted, and a small light screen appeared.

Seeing this, Long Daoyi immediately turned to Ling Yichen and said, "Go on, that's the entrance to the Tower!"

Ling Yichen immediately stepped forward and entered the small light screen.

Before entering the light screen, Long Daoyi's voice rang in his ears: "The Tower has 10 floors in total, each being its own independent space. The acceleration on each floor is slightly different; the higher you go, the faster it is. Generally, the first and second floors have a twofold acceleration. You can choose for yourself."

As the words faded, Ling Yichen had already entered the Tower.

He found himself in a dense fog; he could barely see within five meters, and beyond that, he couldn't even distinguish man from beast.

However, he could see a slightly glowing light screen in the distance.

Clearly, that was the entrance to the second floor.

Without thinking, he walked straight toward the light screen.

He could truly feel the acceleration on the first floor; it wasn't strong, just slightly better than the acceleration in the underground base.

Since it was a rare opportunity to come here, he didn't want to waste time on the first floor.

He soon reached the light screen and, without a word, entered it directly.

In an instant, he reached the second floor. Like the first, it was a world of mist, but the acceleration effect was significantly stronger, already around twofold speed.

However, Ling Yichen did not stop to cultivate there but continued toward the next light screen.

He wanted to see how the acceleration effects were on the higher floors.

Soon, he passed the third and fourth floors. The acceleration was very good, but he didn't stop, heading instead for even higher levels.

In the blink of an eye, he reached the fifth floor.

The acceleration effect on the fifth floor was very obvious, already reaching the limit of twofold speed.

Any higher, and it might be threefold speed.

He could clearly feel that in this space, the rate of Mental Energy consumption was terrifying.

After thinking for a moment, he didn't continue upward but walked a distance away, sat down cross-legged, and began to cultivate.

He first took a box of seven-leaf lotus heart from his Storage Ring, threw two directly into his mouth, and began to refine them to restore Mental Energy while starting to cultivate the Star Origin Guiding Technique.

Inside his spiritual sea of consciousness.

As Ling Yichen channeled the power of his spiritual sea to absorb the stars of heaven and earth into his consciousness, a Star Vortex formed almost instantly and reached its limit.

Ling Yichen immediately began to condense it.

Fifteen minutes later, a star shimmering with brilliant light was condensed.

"It really is much faster. Under the twofold acceleration effect, it only takes 15 minutes to condense one star."

"At this rate, that's 4 stars in 1 hour, 40 stars in 10 hours. If I can stay for a full day, that's 96 stars!"

Thinking of this, Ling Yichen felt a bit excited.

Condensing 96 stars in one day—if the old man knew, he'd probably go crazy.

But...

He slowly stood up.

He had only wanted to feel the cultivation speed of the fifth floor and the degree of his own Mental Energy consumption.

Fortunately, the cultivation speed here was indeed good, but it still wasn't fast enough.

Mainly, his Mental Energy was strong enough to afford the consumption, so he decided to go to a higher floor to try it out.

Immediately, he went to the sixth floor.

Sure enough, the acceleration on the sixth floor directly surpassed twofold and entered threefold, and the rate of Mental Energy consumption also instantly intensified.

But Ling Yichen still didn't stop, continuing toward the seventh and eighth floors.

When he reached the eighth floor, the acceleration effect reached a staggering fourfold, and the Mental Energy consumption was also extremely shocking.

He could even see white mist rising from his spiritual sea, evaporating rapidly before his eyes.

However, once he swallowed two more seven-leaf lotus hearts, the evaporation rate of his spiritual sea immediately slowed down significantly.

This left him quite satisfied. Then, his gaze shifted as he once again headed toward a higher floor.

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