Li Yuan was unaware of Wan Qinghe's troubles; he was still experiencing the 'Source Power Entering the Body' process.
In his room at Jiangbei Martial Arts University, Li Yuan was in a special state where his body was constantly transforming. This state persisted for a while. At first, his consciousness was only half-awake, but eventually, he unknowingly fell asleep.
In the quiet of the night, he suddenly opened his eyes.
"Huh?" Li Yuan, who was used to starting his training at three in the morning, felt his body had developed a kind of biological clock. He was wide awake in an instant.
"Me?"
Li Yuan quickly noticed the changes in himself. His eyesight had improved, and he felt an incredible power within his body.
"My body?"
He glanced through dozens of notifications on the Divine Palace Panel, finally focusing on the data displayed.
[Life Level: 9.6 (Not Ranked)]
Physical Constitution Index: 99 (This measures various aspects like explosive power, endurance, speed, physique, and spiritual power.)
Fist Power: 1180 kg
Speed: 21.1 m/s
Spiritual Power: Level 16.4
Awakening Degree: 12.8% (Current limit 20%)
...
"What?" Li Yuan was both shocked and delighted.
His martial arts skills hadn't changed, but his physical constitution and spiritual power had increased significantly.
"In just five hours, my physical constitution went up by 0.7 levels? My spiritual power increased by 1.3 levels?" Li Yuan was almost breathless.
It was truly unbelievable.
In the past three months, he had taken Source Power Pills, Basic Vitality Elixirs, and trained like crazy, only managing to increase his physical constitution by less than one level. Moreover, the higher he went, the slower the improvements became.
This transformation was astonishing.
"Huh?" Li Yuan noticed that the notification saying 'Can guide Source Power into the body once' had disappeared.
"Source Power entering the body."
"It has this effect? It significantly boosts my physical constitution and spiritual power." Li Yuan recalled everything he experienced last night and still found it hard to believe.
The Divine Palace was indeed magical.
He let out a long breath, feeling all his fatigue vanish, and he was filled with boundless energy.
He opened the door and stepped out of the lounge without turning on the lights. The moonlight streamed through the window, and with his improved eyesight, he could see everything clearly in the martial arts room.
"Whoosh!"
"Boom!" Li Yuan didn't take his weapon, as that might wake Gu Qianghan. Instead, he practiced his fist techniques, moving his feet, every punch landing with a powerful impact that made the air resonate.
Strong and forceful!
"Feels great." Li Yuan reveled in the powerful energy flowing through his limbs, filled with excitement: "If I had this level of strength during yesterday's practical assessment, killing the Moon Demon Wolf King would have been much easier."
With a physical constitution of 9.6, he was almost at the ranked level.
...
After releasing his energy with several sets of punches, Li Yuan calmed down and returned to his room to think.
"Is this the benefit of reaching a spiritual awakening degree of 10%?" he mused.
"Source Power entering the body means drawing external Source Power into my body to promote evolution?"
"Then, the increase in my spiritual power must be due to the golden mist that appeared in the Divine Palace?" He recalled his experiences in the spiritual world.
The dark space, the twinkling stars, and the ancient, vague sounds, along with the mystical words and formulas that resonated deep within him...
Li Yuan understood.
The Divine Palace seemed more mysterious than he initially thought.
"Source Power entering the body promotes evolution, so there shouldn't be any side effects." He thought to himself: "At least, I don’t feel any negative reactions now."
Li Yuan had heard of some forbidden drugs that could greatly enhance strength, but they drained one's life potential.
"My spiritual power has increased so much."
"Let's try the stairs in the Divine Palace again." Li Yuan closed his eyes and focused his consciousness back into the Divine Palace.
Just three seconds later, he opened his eyes again, shocked: "The white jade stairs? Gone?"
The white jade stairs that had suddenly appeared in the Divine Palace a few hours ago had vanished.
The Divine Palace had returned to normal.
"Could it be that I need to reach a spiritual awakening degree of 10% for the opportunity to guide Source Power into my body to appear?" Li Yuan speculated.
He looked back at the Divine Palace Panel.
"If I reach a spiritual awakening degree of 10% and get one chance to guide Source Power into my body, will I get another chance at 20%?" He felt a spark of hope.
If he could raise his physical constitution by 0.7 levels this time, wouldn’t the next time push him directly into the ranked level?
What if he reached an awakening degree of 25%? Spiritual guidance? Li Yuan felt that was still a bit far off, especially since the current awakening limit was only 20%.
He didn't yet know how to raise that limit.
But he was clear on how to raise his awakening degree from 12.8% to 20%—by killing Star Realm creatures.
"It seems I need to find more practical opportunities like yesterday." Li Yuan thought.
He was quite satisfied with his performance in yesterday's practical assessment. He had given it his all.
Not raising his spiritual awakening degree to 20% was something he had anticipated.
Time passed.
"First, I need to continue exploring the Divine Palace; it might be my biggest trump card." Li Yuan's eyes shone with determination: "Second, my spiritual power has greatly increased, which matches my talent for spiritual power, so that's fine."
"Third, my physical constitution skyrocketed overnight. If I don’t hide it, it will definitely attract attention."
"At least for the next few days, I can’t have any physical tests and should avoid drawing attention until the assessment next month."
Would he expose himself during the assessment in April? Li Yuan wasn't worried at all.
"As long as they can't discover my Divine Palace, it will all come down to my exceptional talent." Li Yuan smiled calmly.
In this world, there were many special treasures and extraordinary talents... it wasn't uncommon for someone to raise their physical constitution by one level in a month.
It wasn’t like he had jumped up ten levels at once.
"Considering all this," Li Yuan smiled slightly: "There are still nearly three months until the college entrance exam."
"As long as Source Power entering the body has no side effects..."
"I have every hope of raising my physical constitution to 10.0 before the exam." His eyes sparkled: "I can achieve what Wu Dongdong did."
"Perfect scores in physical constitution and martial arts skills."
In Li Yuan's original plan, his goal was to raise his physical constitution to 10.0 by September this year.
Now? He could do it at least three months early.
Martial arts training has a golden age, one from 16 to 20 years old, and the second from 20 to 30 years old.
As one gets older, physical functions gradually decline.
After sorting everything out, he looked at the time.
"Three-thirty? That leaves three and a half hours until the seven o'clock meeting?" Li Yuan glanced at his smart wristband.
"The cooldown time on the Star Combat Network is up; let’s see if I can hit 300 points in the Falling Star rank."
Once he reached 300 points in the Falling Star rank, his contract with the Starfire Martial Hall would upgrade from B rank to A rank.
He took a deep breath!
Li Yuan stepped into the virtual network pod and connected his consciousness.
He entered the Star Combat Network directly.
In his personal space.
"Master, long time no see." The girl in purple spoke softly: "I missed you so much."
"Shut up."
"Ranked match." Li Yuan clicked on the screen, and just three seconds later, he was matched successfully.
Li Yuan disappeared, entering the battle space.
... Five minutes later.
In the battle space, he turned his sixth opponent into nothingness with two shots.
"Congratulations... Points +4."
"Your rank points have reached 1000, and points can no longer be increased..." the system voice announced: "Would you like to participate in the promotion match?"
"Yes." Li Yuan replied loudly.
Buzz~
Li Yuan’s figure vanished from the arena, beginning his sixth Falling Star promotion match.
...
Familiar ocean, familiar islands, familiar figures of the Fish Spirit Clan warriors.
Li Yuan appeared holding a long spear.
"Roar!"
"Roar!" Twelve Fish Spirit Clan warriors glared at Li Yuan with murderous intent.
"Seeing you all is so nostalgic." Li Yuan smiled slightly: "Too bad, this is the last time."
The Fish Spirit warriors were momentarily stunned; they couldn't understand Li Yuan's words.
But they could tell he was smiling.
Boom!
Li Yuan moved like the wind towards the group of Fish Spirits.
"Boom!"
"Roar!" More than ten Fish Spirit warriors finally swung their arms like blades and charged at Li Yuan.
"Come on!" Li Yuan grinned, his spear bursting forth, as if countless lights were exploding, tearing the air apart, and the spear's shadow swept through everything.
Star Technique Five: 'Star Awakening'
"Thud~" "Thud!" "Thud!"
Wherever the spear went, a Fish Spirit warrior was pierced through the head, and then they turned to nothingness.
A total of twelve shots!
The battle was over.
Having experienced breakthroughs in spear techniques and movement techniques, and after the practical assessment, facing more than ten Fish Spirit warriors, Li Yuan felt extremely calm, without a hint of burden.
Three seconds later.
"Congratulations, Guardian Yuan, you passed the promotion match. You have reached the Falling Star rank and are eligible for a reward of 500,000 Blue Star Coins." The system reminded him.
"Congratulations, Guardian Yuan, you have entered the 'Blue Star Youth Ranking,' currently ranked [181] globally, [42] in Xia Country, and [5] in Jiangbei Province. You can check the detailed rankings through the following methods..."
...
Swish! Li Yuan returned to his personal space.
"Congratulations, Master, for ranking in the Blue Star Youth Ranking." The girl in purple looked excited: "There are less than two hundred people on the entire Blue Star who are on the list."
"What is the Blue Star Youth Ranking?" Li Yuan asked directly.
"Please take a look, Master."
Soon, through Xiao Yu's explanation, Li Yuan understood that this ranking had the same rules as the 'Blue Star Youth List.'
The only difference was that to qualify for the list, one must reach the Falling Star rank.
"So, in Jiangbei Province, there are four others besides me?" Li Yuan thought.
Besides Wu Dongdong, Wang Yu, and Tian Dazhuang, who was the fourth?
But Li Yuan didn't care; there were countless talents in this world. What mattered was to focus on himself and surpass his limits.
"Let's continue."
"Falling Star rank match." Li Yuan started his first Falling Star rank match: "Anyway, I’m at Falling Star 0 points now; if I lose, I’m still at 0 points."
"I won’t drop ranks."
"Why be scared!"
...
Li Yuan was unaware that at the moment he broke through to 'Falling Star' on the Star Combat Network, the relevant departments of the Jiangbei Provincial Martial Arts Hall, Starfire Martial Hall 'Jiangbei Branch,' and Starry Sky Martial Hall 'Jiangbei Branch' received urgent notifications simultaneously.
(End of Chapter)