After purchasing the books, Chen Mobai left the Nanxi market.

After he left, two cultivators emerged from the shadows of the street.

“Should we follow him?”

“He Qun said he’s at least at the sixth level of Qi Refining, possibly hiding his true cultivation level, he could be a late-stage Qi Refiner.”

“Then let’s not follow.”

“Let’s wait a bit longer. Judging by his attire, he might be from a major sect. We’ve finally settled down in this market, it’s not worth exposing ourselves for twenty Spirit Stones.”

…

Because he was carrying a large sum of money, Chen Mobai didn’t return to the city through the wilderness, but went back to his Water Mansion.

He sat on a cushion, looking at the twenty-two neatly cut, crystal-clear Spirit Stones in front of him, feeling unprecedentedly pleased.

If he took these back to Di Yuan Star and exchanged them at the bank, they would be worth 220,000 Good Deeds.

However, Chen Mobai would definitely not take these Spirit Stones to the national bank. That would be blatantly inviting the Immortal Gate to investigate his unexplained wealth.

He took two stones and put them in his backpack, leaving the rest in the Water Mansion.

Before going home, he didn’t forget to water the Qingtong sapling.

The leaves seemed a bit greener than before, probably due to the decent spiritual energy in the Water Mansion.

With that thought, Chen Mobai pressed the return key and, amidst a flash of silver light, returned to his room.

Good news kept coming.

The next day at school, he received a message from Qing Nv.

She said that all the medicinal herbs had been cold-extracted, and only the final step of blending was left.

Chen Mobai, who thought he would be nervous, found himself surprisingly calm. This was probably what they meant when they said that a man’s confidence grows with his wallet.

Fortune favors the brave.

In the school’s cultivation room, Chen Mobai practiced the “Nurturing Thoughts and Casting God Technique” as usual. Unbeknownst to him, he had broken through a bottleneck. The seed he visualized had sprouted a green bud.

In that instant, he finally completely grasped the transformation of his mind.

“This is… divine consciousness!”

Having experienced it once before, Chen Mobai was very calm this time. In the cultivation room, he introspected himself. The colorful spiritual power was slowly rotating like a vortex, but this vortex was a bit distorted and not round enough.

After cultivating his divine consciousness, he could actively correct the circulation of spiritual power within his body.

Following the tips explained by Qingping Shangren, Chen Mobai slowly sent his spiritual power into his Dantian in a right-handed rotation, then corrected the originally skewed vortex. After a cycle, the vortex, which was somewhat angular, was no longer protruding.

He felt that in a while, he could completely shape the spiritual power vortex in his Dantian. By then, the Five Elements Technique would automatically help condense spiritual power, saving a lot of effort.

According to the Five Elements Technique’s courseware, if the spiritual power vortex is shaped, it could even increase the probability of Foundation Establishment.

Chen Mobai took Qingping Shangren’s words as gospel. Now that he had cultivated his divine consciousness and could take this step, he felt that his spiritual power seemed a bit more refined.

“When the Qi Refining Spirit Water is blended and given to my dad, I’ll tell him about this too.”

Muttering to himself, his phone alarm rang. It was time to leave the school’s cultivation room.

Chen Mobai got up and left.

“I heard that the representative of the Mending the Sky Academy has arrived today.”

“The representative of the Dancing Weapon Academy is said to be Master Bian.”

“So only Sentence Mang and Kunpeng of the Four Great Academies are left. But they should be coming soon. After all, they need a lot of time to arrange their own entrance exams.”

As soon as he came out, a large group of students who had also finished their cultivation time gathered in twos and threes, exchanging the rumors they had heard after their cultivation.

“I finally reached the fifth level of Qi Refining!”

A joyful shout rang in his ears. Chen Mobai looked over and found that it was his desk mate, Lu Hongsheng.

“Awesome, awesome.”

“Congratulations, you’ve finally stopped being the bottom.”

Two female classmates in the class teased, which was met with a scolding from Lu Hongsheng.

“Being fat later doesn’t count as being fat, being fat later will collapse the bed. My breakthrough is a result of accumulated efforts and natural progression. Unlike some people who need to take pills to break through, their foundation is unstable. I don’t even know if they have stabilized their realm by now.”

As Lu Hongsheng spoke, his gaze intentionally or unintentionally fell on Chen Mobai. He had always been unconvinced of the latter’s breakthrough to the fifth level of Qi Refining during the holiday.

He had been holding his breath for a while, wanting to prove himself.

Moreover, he was a believer in the non-pill-taking faction, believing that the spiritual power cultivated in this way was pure, and that it would be much easier to transform spiritual power into liquid during Foundation Establishment, increasing the success rate of Foundation Establishment.

“Old Chen, I broke through today. Do you want to go out for a good meal?”

Seeing that Chen Mobai ignored him, Lu Hongsheng deliberately came over, clearly wanting to show off.However, Chen Mobai’s current realm was much higher. He had already cultivated his divine consciousness. As long as his spiritual power was sufficient, he could easily step into the seventh level of Qi Refining. This created an indescribable gap between him and his classmates who were still in the middle stage of Qi Refining.

“Let’s do it another day, I have plans with a friend today.”

As Chen Mobai spoke, he turned to leave.

“A friend? Besides us, do you have other friends? I’m in a good mood today, let’s go together.”

Lu Hongsheng walked over, trying to stop Chen Mobai.

However, the latter didn’t even pause. He released his sixth level Qi Refining spiritual power, instantly crushing the aura that Lu Hongsheng, who had just reached the fifth level of Qi Refining, was recklessly emitting.

“How is this possible…”

After his aura was crushed, Lu Hongsheng, who was standing in front of him, stumbled.

Chen Mobai reached out and steadied him by the shoulder.

“You can’t let your emotions fluctuate too much when you just break through, or you’ll easily fall back.”

After saying this, he let go of his classmate and left the cultivation room.

“When did this guy break through to the sixth level of Qi Refining!”

Lu Hongsheng stood in place, muttering to himself, his face full of disbelief.

“Sixth level of Qi Refining!? It might be even higher.”

Song Zheng came out. He had also just left the cultivation room and was planning to leave, but he didn’t expect to witness such a scene.

Others might not have noticed, but as a seventh level Qi Refiner, he had felt the active fluctuations of divine consciousness on Chen Mobai.

This was a sign of cultivating divine consciousness, indicating that the bottleneck of the late stage of Qi Refining had been broken through.

“It seems that besides Yan Bingxuan, there is another person in the class worth paying attention to.”

Song Zheng thought of Chen Mobai frequently visiting Old Ding’s office, pondered for a moment, then turned to find his own teacher.