Era of Mist

Chapter 131: Chapter 130: Leveling Up Two Stars in a Row

[Basic Chemistry: First Stage Cultivation Progress has reached Perfect.]

[Attribute Activated: Qi Pulse +1]

Shi Tiexin looked at the interface and sighed to himself, ’It’s just as I expected.’ Little Dog’s explanation was true; he hadn’t lied. The attribute activated by Basic Chemistry really was Qi Pulse.

The status of the Six Basic Heart Techniques was also just as described. There was no distinction between major and minor subjects; this breakthrough still cost ten points. The price was clearly marked and non-negotiable.

Only fifteen points remained on the illusory certificate. One more subject would be the limit, so he had to choose the last one carefully.

After long consideration, Shi Tiexin decided to use this opportunity on Physics.

SHWISH! The golden light erupted once more. The Physics progress bar collapsed into a shining point of light, adding another star to the desolate expanse of Qingming.

Only a faint outline of the certificate remained, looking bleak and empty. The examination bonus he’d brought back from the previous world line was now all but spent.

But the resources hadn’t been wasted. In a short span of time, two subjects had reached the Perfect level one after the other. Shi Tiexin felt the mental energy in his mind surge, the rate of growth so fast it almost made him dizzy.

The key was that it wasn’t just greater in quantity, but also more resilient than before. If his previous mental energy had been like scattered sand, that sand was now beginning to take some shape.

[Basic Physics: First Stage Cultivation Progress has reached Perfect.]

[Attribute Activated: Vigor +1]

Mental energy produced by a Perfect-level Heart Skill was inherently stronger than ordinary mental energy. With the added bonus from the Vigor attribute, Shi Tiexin was confident that his ”light layer” would be far sturdier and more powerful than anyone else’s during the exam.

With a sturdy light layer and rapid energy recovery, Shi Tiexin figured he could fight a battle of attrition and would likely have a good chance of winning.

Shi Tiexin glanced at his current stats. Of the Six Basic Heart Techniques, Natural History and Biology were at the First Stage limit, while the other four were already Perfect. At this level, all that stood between him and qualifying for the Junior Prefecture Exam was achieving a ”Pass” in the Second Stage of Basic Mathematics and Basic Rhetoric.

Previously, to ensure the Champion Scholar Stone focused on boosting his scores in Physics, Chemistry, and Biology, Shi Tiexin had deliberately held himself back from breaking through to the second level of Basic Mathematics. He had discovered that by capping his cultivation level, his dream-studies would avoid subjects with no room for growth and instead focus on those that still had potential.

Now, four of his subjects were maxed out, and the two that weren’t Perfect only lacked an infusion of Celestial Golden Light. It was the perfect time to break through in Mathematics and Rhetoric.

However, the mental energy in his mind was currently in turmoil. Shi Tiexin rubbed his head, deciding that caution came first. After all, this wasn’t like last time, when he’d advanced while eating skewers. Back then, he had already formed and depleted a ”pseudo-elixir” several times over. He knew the process by heart, and it was impossible to make a mistake.

But mental energy was a permanent gain, and Shi Tiexin had no experience with breaking through its minor stages.

For someone like him, who was essentially feeling his way forward into unknown territory, it was best not to rush. Caution came first.

At 11:20 PM, Shi Tiexin headed out, going with Little Dog to the Meat Processing Plant. They stood watch all night, taking turns on guard duty. Shi Tiexin hesitated for a moment, wondering whether he should ask Si Chongtian again.

Explaining attributes could barely be considered common knowledge—though, for Shi Tiexin, even that ”common knowledge” was hard to come by. But the intricacies and details of a cultivation breakthrough were by no means common knowledge. They were a genuine form of wealth, the secret techniques and hidden lore of cultivation. In cheap novels, this kind of information was always an unteachable secret. In reality, it was much the same.

Shi Tiexin felt that Little Dog was a good person, and he was unsure if he should ask. If he spoke rashly and damaged his friendship with Gou Danzi, it would be a result he was unwilling to accept.

But after thinking it over, Shi Tiexin decided to ask anyway.

He had no choice. He had no other way of obtaining this kind of knowledge. Besides, a breakthrough was a major event; not a single detail could be out of place. He had to use the most reliable method, one that would leave no lingering issues, to break through his current stage. This was for his own sake, for his future. And so, after a moment’s hesitation, Shi Tiexin decided to ask him straight up.

To his surprise, Gou Danzi just stared at him, stunned.

”A secret technique for breaking through? What kind of secret technique? If you want to break through, you just do it!”

’Is it really like that?’

’Or is it that Si Chongtian doesn’t want to tell me, so he just made something up to fool me?’

Shi Tiexin was skeptical, but he didn’t want to assume the worst of Little Dog. He pushed his doubts aside for a moment and pressed, ”So there’s nothing to avoid or be careful about? You don’t need to prepare anything to prevent failure?”

”Nope, not at all. Oh, wait, let me think... It’s not that you need *nothing*. There is something you should prepare.” Si Chongtian clapped his hands. ”Actually, the only preparation you need is the depth of your cultivation. The more profound your cultivation is at one level, the easier it is to break through to the next. There’s one other thing: confidence. And confidence, really, is directly tied to how well you cultivated the previous level.”

”Things like succumbing to qi deviation? You don’t need to worry about that at all. You know your own level. If you’re just barely at the ’Pass’ level and forcing a breakthrough, then of course you won’t feel confident. You’ll be prone to self-doubt, your mind will be swarmed with distracting thoughts, and naturally, you’ll be at risk of qi deviation.”

”But if you’ve trained to the Profound level, the Limit, or even reached Perfect, how could you not know how incredible you are? ’Someone as incredible as me, fail a breakthrough? Impossible!’ With that kind of mentality, it’s hard to succumb to qi deviation even if you try.”

”Of course, I’ve never reached the higher levels, so I can’t say for sure if there are some special Secret Techniques involved there. But at least for basic-level Fundamental Heart Skills, a breakthrough is just that simple, in my opinion. There’s no mystical nonsense about it.”

Gou Danzi spoke as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Shi Tiexin thought for a moment and decided that Gou Danzi probably wasn’t lying.

Shi Tiexin had struggled to survive since he was young and had seen his share of human treachery. He also believed that a Secret Technique for breakthroughs was incredibly valuable, top-secret information, which made him suspicious by default. But after mulling it over, Shi Tiexin decided to trust Gou Danzi.

True teachings can be conveyed in a single sentence; false ones fill ten thousand scrolls.

Saying a lot doesn’t make something right. Often, the truth is simple and plain to see, but people refuse to believe it. For instance, many people don’t believe that hard work pays off, or that diligence leads to progress. But Shi Tiexin did. Therefore, he immediately accepted the simple, unadorned truth that as long as his foundation was solid, a breakthrough would be a natural consequence.

Shi Tiexin looked at Si Chongtian, and the gratitude he felt for him deepened.

Although what Si Chongtian had said was just a broad principle, Shi Tiexin was still sincerely grateful to Little Dog. ’In a world like this, a person who doesn’t try to deceive you is already a good person.’

’I owe Little Dog a huge favor now.’

At 9:00 AM, after getting off work and having a meal, Shi Tiexin delivered the items to Tao Zhongming and settled the bill. Tao Zhongming was extremely satisfied with Shi Tiexin’s handwritten business cards and remarked that his calligraphy had gotten even better. This deputy director was truly a man of culture; they had agreed on one point per ten cards, but after inspecting them, he gave Shi Tiexin an extra ten points.

”Your calligraphy has improved, so of course it’s worth more.” Tao Zhongming patted Shi Tiexin’s shoulder. ”Don’t you worry, young man. As long as you’ve got the skill, I’ll be sure to pull the right strings and build the right bridges for you with this gig!”