Chapter 150 - 109: Taking Stock of the Harvest and Fei Lian’s 8 Winds

Chapter 150: Chapter 109: Taking Stock of the Harvest and Fei Lian’s 8 Winds

Chen Shang was momentarily taken aback, feeling both amused and helpless. "Are you planning on living here permanently? We should figure out a way to send you back. Renting an Elemental Chamber costs money—two hundred Wizard Coins a day. I can’t afford that."

Hearing this, the Heart of Fire grew anxious. "I don’t need to stay in the Elemental Chamber, really! As long as I can maintain my minimum operational state, that’s enough. Just let me finish reading those evolution case studies!"

It had realized that its past method of recklessly absorbing Earth Vein Energy—which seemed like accumulating power—was actually wasting the vast majority of it. If that energy had been utilized efficiently, it might have already evolved successfully. Now that it had a more precise and stable success plan to reference, it naturally couldn’t bear to leave.

Seeing Chen Shang remain silent, the Heart of Fire became frantic. "You can’t send me back right now! Those Lords harbor a deep-seated hatred for you. They might be lying in ambush! Let’s talk about it later... I’m really not in a rush to go back!"

Chen Shang thought about it and had to agree. The other Lords might be fine, but the guy he had tricked out of the Divine Sword definitely wouldn’t let it go so easily.

"Alright, then you can stay here. Let me know when you want to go back, and I’ll figure something out."

After dealing with his miscellaneous tasks, Chen Shang sat down at the Recording Platform and reviewed the accounts on his Crystal Plate.

His recent trip to the Red Flame Realm had yielded a substantial amount of physical loot. Between the Fire Elemental Spirit’s Crystal Core, the fragments of the Flame Heart Talisman, and his share of the compensation for the Divine Sword based on his contribution, he could receive around three hundred thousand Wizard Coins.

What did this number mean? If he provided his own materials, this sum would be enough to cover the crafting fees for a Divine Artifact Staff. If converted into recording materials, it would allow him to finish the latter half of Zhong Kui’s recording process, and the remainder could sustain his cultivation resources for a long time. In short, he didn’t need to worry about money for the time being.

The gains in terms of entries were even greater. First, his Eye of Truth had evolved into an Orange Entry, which was currently his highest-quality ability. He had tested the waters when slicing the Cyan Bird Face. The precision with which his sword tip severed the main root of the Wind-Binding Mark was a whole tier higher than that of the Eye of True Sight. What caught his attention even more was that the Eye of Truth could briefly glimpse the true flow of time. The fleeting flash of chaos-colored light during the Water-Fire Heaven Extremes explosion, as well as the further optimization of the Phase Angle Ladder in Elemental Multiplication—both could be researched in depth using this eye.

Additionally, there were three Purple entries.

[Wind-Fire Mixed Curse]: The core method the Cyan Bird Face had used to entangle the Heart of Fire for thousands of years. It was a hybrid of curses and compound elemental laws. However, since he had not dabbled deeply in Curse Studies, it would be difficult to develop for now.

[Wind-Binding Mark]: The energy brand left behind by the Cyan Bird Face. It concealed the cultivation path and evolutionary method of that Wind Element creature, requiring time to reverse-engineer.

[Molten Fire Origin]: The core mechanism of the Heart of Fire. He guessed it could be used to upgrade his Samadhi True Flame. But the Samadhi True Flame also required a balance between Fire in Wood, Earth Fire, and Aerial Fire. Lacking the matching Aerial Fire and Fire in Wood, rashly upgrading it would only shatter its current stability.

A few days later.

Evelyn returned. She stood at the laboratory door, gripping a Crystal Plate in her hand. Her expression was one of painful financial loss—like someone who had just bled a fortune—but her spirits were good.

"I’ve raised the money. Rounded it up to a whole number for you—three hundred and ten thousand Wizard Coins!"

"So generous?"

"I’m already in debt anyway, a little more doesn’t scare me!" She opened the Crystal Plate, transferred the funds directly to Chen Shang, and then asked, "Where’s my sword?"

Chen Shang retrieved the sword from the Recording Platform and handed it over with both hands. Evelyn supported the blade with her palm, testing its weight, before gripping the hilt tightly. She inspected it over and over again, finally stowing it away carefully in her Space Book.

"I really bled money this time!"

Chen Shang checked his Crystal Plate. With the three hundred and ten thousand now in his account, plus what he had left over from before, he had slightly over three hundred and twenty thousand.

"What price did you have to pay for this?" he asked curiously.

Evelyn sighed. "Well... I just have to work for my parents to pay off the debt, and secure a certain ranking in the Star Fall assessment."

"Assessment? Does that mean we might end up as opponents?"

"Heh heh, you’d better pray you don’t run into me, otherwise I won’t hold back!" Evelyn waved the Divine Sword, chuckled, and then turned to leave. "I’m off!"

After she left, Chen Shang admired the numbers on his Crystal Plate for a moment before getting up and heading to the Repulsive-Attractive Dual Force Training Ground. There were fewer people in the training ground than the last time he had visited, but the ones remaining were all familiar faces.

In the corner, Oleg was levitating a fist-sized metal block above a platform. It was larger than the one Chen Shang had seen him use last time, and his control proficiency had visibly improved. His Dual Force Anchoring was executed very steadily.

Chen Shang didn’t rashly approach anyone. Instead, he walked slowly around the edge of the training ground as his interface danced in his field of vision.

[Extractable Entry Detected: Force Touch Perception · Fragment (Green) — Source: Third Level Apprentice (Unidentified). Completeness: 31%. Extract?]

[Extractable Entry Detected: Micro-Repulsive Guidance · Fragment (Green) — Source: Third Level Apprentice (Unidentified). Completeness: 28%. Extract?]

[Extractable Entry Detected: Micro-Attractor · Fragment (Green) — Source: Third Level Apprentice (Unidentified). Completeness: 34%. Extract?]

[Extractable Entry Detected: Dual Force Anchoring · Fragment (Blue) — Source: Third Level Apprentice (Unidentified). Completeness: 19%. Extract?]

Chen Shang extracted several of them in one go.

The fragments of Force Touch Perception merged with the ones he already had, upgrading the entry from Green to Blue. His proficiency in Micro-Repulsive Guidance and Micro-Attractor also shot up significantly. He gave them a try and found that he could succeed nine times out of ten. Furthermore, the suspension time had extended from a few seconds to over ten seconds.