“Yes, Teacher,” Lan Xuanyu replied respectfully.
Three years had passed, and Lan Xuanyu had grown up.
Having already been taller than his peers three years ago, the almost 11-year-old was now one of the tallest in his class, standing at a height of 1.5 meters.
His brows had extended slightly while the adorable eyes that he had when young had lessened and instead become even more elegant. His soft hair rustled on his forehead as sweat trickled downwards around his bright, sparkling eyes. He focused on Ji Hongbin’s words earnestly.
“En, alright. We’ll call it a day here. Go home and polish up on practice.”
“Yes,” Lan Xuanyu replied courteously.
After hesitating for a moment, Ji Hongbin continued. “Also… you need to strive harder in meditation and try to achieve deep meditation. Your Soul Power…”
At this point, he frowned.
Lan Xuanyu’s Soul Power had quickly become his secret worry. The child was good at everything: not only was his innate talent great, but he was also witty, extremely studious, and obedient. There were no problems with any of these aspects.
His body’s inner quality continued to rise and was absolutely the strongest in the entire class. Over the past few years, he maintained his position of first place in the class’ composite strength test and suppressed Lu Qianxun steadily. He was even more widely known to be the strongest in terms of fighting strength, primarily because no one was able to win against his self created Martial Soul Fusion technique.
The most terrifying aspect was his Spirit Sea Realm. A year earlier, his Spiritual Power had broken through 500 points as he smoothly transitioned into the Spirit Sea Realm. According to the school records, his current Spiritual Power had exceeded 800 before 12 years of age. This record of his had completely overwhelmed peers his age in the Heaven Luo Institute.
Qian Lei, who was well known for his Spiritual Power, had only just broken through 600 points.
But despite Lan Xuanyu’s excellent performance in all aspects, his Soul Power was the only problem.
In three years, the entire Elite Junior Class had gone through multiple eliminations with the rapid growth of the students, leaving only 21 students in the class. The dwindling number of students caused the cancellation of the elimination system, and no further eliminations ensued.
Amongst the 21 students, the other 20 had long broken through the two rings threshold. Lu Qianxun had even broken through to the realm of three soul rings; he was undoubtedly the strongest in terms of Soul Power.
The majority of students with Soul Power above rank 27 were estimated to break through to at least rank 30 in the next year or so.
As for Lan Xuanyu, what was his Soul Power currently?
Rank 19! Correct: three years, after three full years, he had not broken through to rank 20.
In the ordinary classes, breaking through rank 20 was already the threshold for the 12-year-olds.
But Lan Xuanyu was from the Elite Junior Class! More importantly, Lan Xuanyu had eaten countless rare ingredient meals for the past three years. The meals not only provided strengthening in the physical aspect but assisted in Soul Power cultivation as well. Somehow, whatever food went into his stomach would disappear without a trace with no hopes of returning…
To Soul Masters, Soul Power was the foundation for everything regardless of how excellent the Soul Master is in other aspects. Without the support of Soul Power, the Soul Master had no way of becoming stronger!
The perfect example would be Lan Xuanyu. Lan Xuanyu had attained an exquisite level of control over his Martial Soul. Even Ji Hongbin was unable to find any problems with him. But in a one on one situation, Lan Xuanyu was only able to defeat Lu Qianxun with the help of his marvelous Martial Soul Fusion technique. That was because the Soul Power difference between the two was by two significant steps. But if Lu Qianxun gained his third soul skill against Lan Xuanyu’s single skill, what fight would there be?
That was why Ji Hongbin was so anxious! He looked at the almost 12-year-old Lan Xuanyu in front of him. This age was especially important for the kid. If he was unable to reach rank 20 before the age of 12, he would not have the qualifications to go anywhere.
“Teacher Ji, I…” Lan Xuanyu looked at Ji Hongbin pitifully.
“What is it? A man must speak his words out, what are you acting all shy about?” Ji Hongbin fumed. He was definitely a strict teacher, and despite his fondness for Lan Xuanyu, he was extremely harsh with his words.
“Teacher Ji, can I apply for vacation since exams are over and school holidays are approaching? I wish to apply for a month and go on a trip with my parents.”
“No…” Ji Hongbin said after almost blurting out the words ‘no way.’
In fact, Lan Xuanyu never had any vacations in the past three years and stayed in the institute to learn from him and Yin Tianfan every day. Seeing his pitiful look and after considering how hard he had worked for the past few years, Ji Hongbin sighed in his heart. After all, he was still a kid!
“A month is too long, take 20 days.” Ji Hongbin frowned after announcing his decision and turned.
Upon hearing the unexpected agreement, Lan Xuanyu immediately felt his nose sour and tears about to flow out. He had agreed! Seriously, it had been so difficult!
Teacher Ji! he thought, do you know, it isn’t that I don’t want to reach rank 20, but you aren’t willing to give me the vacation for me to increase my rank!
At that time, Nana had specifically told Lan Xiao and Nan Cheng that Lan Xuanyu must visit her prior to his reaching rank 20 in order to be promoted under her. She had predicted a high chance of life-threatening danger if otherwise.
Lan Xiao and Nan Cheng naturally remembered this point and warned Lan Xuanyu countless times.
Lan Xuanyu frequently contacted Nana through Qian Lei’s summon and understood that although the gold and silver energy within his body had shown signs of fusion by relying on his self created Martial Soul Fusion technique, it was not stable enough. When raising to rank 20, his blood and the energy within his body would be stimulated by another level, and even Nana was unsure of what the situation would escalate to. Therefore, she knew that he would only be able to accomplish it under her protection.
Lan Xuanyu cultivated extremely hard, and it would have been strange that he was unable to reach rank 20. However, no matter how slow he was in cultivating, there were actually signs of him breaking through half a year ago.
He had tried to ask for a vacation from Ji Hongbin but ended up with a scolding. How could he think of rest when his Soul Power had not reached rank 20? He faced rejection then and there.
To prevent himself from breaking through, Lan Xuanyu had no choice but to utilize his self created Martial Soul Fusion technique and drop his rank. Following the drop of rank, recultivating was extremely faster than his usual cultivation, and in the past year, he had repeated the procedure three times.
Ji Hongbin was anxious, but Lan Xuanyu was even more anxious! In the blink of an eye, everyone began sprinting after rank 30, but Lan Xuanyu’s slow cultivation had not even reached rank 20. The disparity was growing larger and larger!
So despite knowing of the possibility of getting scolded, he had to ask for the vacation. Who would have thought that Ji Hongbin would agree to it? He could finally look for Teacher Nana.
Upon knowing that he was able to see her again, his mood instantly turned for the better. He could finally break through!
But he truly had no choice in using his self created Martial Soul Fusion technique over the past few years. During every test, his Soul Power would erupt every time he thought of winning. Add to it the fact that he was forced to recultivate, and the umpteen times of using his self created Martial Soul Fusion technique.
The gold and silver vortex within him had grown larger. Although it was still the size of a grain, he was able to see it clearly.
Ji Hongbin walked out of the training grounds with a heavy frown on his head. He sighed and shook his head gently as he muttered to himself. “Are we going to waste three years of hard work just like that? Who would have thought that such a good seedling would actually get stuck at a problem that should not even exist? It truly is…”
At this time, he suddenly felt something and turned his head to look upwards.
But the spot that he had glanced at had nothing—It was as empty as it could be.
Ji Hongbin was bewildered; it was his intuition that got him to look. Was my intuition wrong?
He shook his head once more and turned to head back to the teaching block.