Level ten was his limit

The disciple on night patrol stopped and shone his lantern into the room.

Li Zhexian pushed the window open.

"I'm watching you make your rounds."

"Why aren't you sleeping at night? What good does watching us do you?"

"I'm checking whether you walk steadily."

"We don't have time to practice swordplay with you."

"I didn't invite you either."

The patrolling disciple didn't want to pay him any more attention and walked away with his lantern.

Li Zhexian closed the window, then lay back down on the bed.

He had wanted to find someone to test his sword against, but the disciples didn't even want to lend him a wooden sword.

It seemed that trying to find the right feeling by taking a beating wasn't an easy thing to do either.

The next day, Chen Xin took him to the sword training ground.

"Today you'll learn to block."

"I haven't mastered my thrust yet."

"That's why you need to learn to block first."

Ning Rongrong sat down beside the training ground, holding a food box.

"I won't be supervising you today."

Li Zhexian looked at the food box.

"Are there snacks in there?"

"My mother had the kitchen make them."

"Your mother knows more about cultivation than you do."

Ning Rongrong took out a snack and popped it straight into her mouth.

"Raise your hand and stop talking."

Chen Xin struck at Li Zhexian's shoulder with his sword.

Li Zhexian raised his sword to block the blow.

The wooden sword jolted, then flew out of his hand.

Chen Xin picked up the wooden sword and handed it back to him.

"Don't let your wrist go slack."

"I didn't."

"You already dropped your sword."

"It fell on its own."

Chen Xin just looked at him.

"Say that again?"

"I let my wrist go slack."

Ning Rongrong laughed from the sidelines.

Li Zhexian took the wooden sword and returned to his original position, behaving himself a little more.

Over the course of that day, Chen Xin knocked his wooden sword away more than forty times.

By the end of practice, his wrist was too sore to lift, and his Soul Power was still at level ten.

Over the next few months, Ning Fengzhi reserved the sect's best cultivation room for him.

The medicinal herbs delivered each day were prepared according to the prescription, and Chen Xin also made time to teach him swordplay.

"Soak in the medicinal bath for a quarter of an hour, then meditate."

Ning Fengzhi gave these instructions to the disciple looking after him.

"Make sure to use the amount of medicine specified in the prescription."

Li Zhexian sat down in the medicinal bath, the steam making his eyes sting a little.

"If I drink this medicine, will it increase my Soul Power?"

"The sect master said it's for soaking in."

"I was just asking."

He had been taking medicinal baths for half a month, and he had never stopped meditating.

His Soul Power still hadn't changed.

Later, Li Zhexian began practicing actual combat with the sect's disciples.

His wooden sword struck their protective gear again and again, making his wrist go numb.

But every time he returned to the cultivation room, his Soul Power was still at level ten.

Someone suggested using Soul Beast blood to temper his body.

Ning Fengzhi first had a pharmacist examine the prescription. Only after confirming that it wouldn't harm his body did he allow him to try it once.

The medicinal bath and body tempering together left Li Zhexian in pain for two days.

His Soul Power still hadn't increased in the slightest.

When Ning Rongrong went to attend support-system classes, Li Zhexian followed her and sat in the back row.

The instructor spent half the class talking about Martial Soul support and coordinating Soul Power. Li Zhexian filled half a page with notes, then set his pen down on the desk.

After class, Ning Rongrong asked him a question.

"Did you understand any of it?"

"I understood."

"What did the instructor just say?"

"Support-system Soul Masters should stand in the right position and not get in their teammates' way."

"What else?"

"When you're hungry, you should eat snacks, and you shouldn't miss what the instructor says."

Ning Rongrong put the pen in his hand.

"I'm asking you a serious question."

"My answer was serious too."

"You weren't listening to the lesson at all."

"I was listening."

Li Zhexian looked at her.

"You're asking me now whether I heard you, and I've heard that too."

"Li Zhexian!"

"I definitely heard that one."

Ning Rongrong angrily slammed her textbook on the desk.

Li Zhexian looked down at the snack in his hand and decided not to provoke her any further for the time being.

When she was eight, Ning Rongrong had already reached level twelve and obtained her first Soul Ring.

She displayed the projection of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda in front of Li Zhexian.

"Look, this is a Soul Ring."

"I can see it."

"Soon you won't be able to catch up with me."

"Once I learn to fly, I'll take my time catching up to you."

Ning Rongrong laughed.

"If you really can fly, take me flying sometime."

"All right. Don't be scared when the time comes."

"I won't be scared."

She gave Li Zhexian a piece of candy.

Li Zhexian took the candy and walked toward the training ground.

The candy wrapper made a faint sound in his palm.

His Soul Power still hadn't changed, and people in the sect had begun talking about his awakening back then.

"Could there have been something wrong with the crystal ball when it showed Innate Full Soul Power?"

"He's already eight. Why is he still at level ten?"

"Sect Master Ning has given him so many resources. If it were someone else, they should have broken through long ago."

Li Zhexian paid no attention to those words.

He continued practicing his thrusts with a wooden sword.

Chen Xin walked over to those disciples.

"How is your training going?"

"All right."

"What level is your Soul Power?"

None of the disciples answered.

Chen Xin looked away.

"Get back to practice. Don't let other people's affairs hold you back."

Another year passed. Li Zhexian's swordsmanship had become much more consistent, but his Soul Power was still stuck at level ten.

Chen Xin picked up another wooden sword and began sparring with him.

"Make your move."

Li Zhexian thrust his sword forward.

Chen Xin used the flat of his blade to deflect the tip of Li Zhexian's sword.

The web between Li Zhexian's thumb and forefinger went numb, and the hilt nearly slipped from his hand.

"Again."

"If my hand is crippled, the sect will have to compensate me."

"You can't even hold on to your sword, and you still want the sect to compensate you for what?"

"Compensate me with a hand that works."

"First, get a firm grip on your sword."

The two exchanged more than a dozen more moves.

Li Zhexian managed to touch Chen Xin's sword every time, but he still couldn't break through his defense.

Ning Rongrong came over with her textbook.

"I've reached level seventeen."

"Very good."

"Aren't you going to ask why I advanced so quickly?"

"You've been cultivating diligently, so naturally you'd advance quickly."

Ning Rongrong lowered the textbook in her hand.

"Your Soul Power still hasn't changed?"

Li Zhexian lowered his wooden sword.

"It hasn't."

Ning Rongrong stood there for a while without asking anything else.

She knew Li Zhexian didn't want to hear other people comfort him, and he didn't like it when others compared him to her.

That night, Li Zhexian sat beside his bed.

The panel in his sea of consciousness had lit up.

Shield suppression rate: 97%.

Natural Soul Power growth efficiency: below 3%.

Li Zhexian looked at the panel for a long time before finally speaking.

"Why did you wait until now to tell me?"

"The host did not meet the conditions for an active query."

"I asked before why I couldn't mobilize my Soul Power."

"The host asked for the reason at the time, but did not query the shield suppression rate."

"The wording was only a few words different, and it cost me years?"

"The conditions for a notification have been met."

Li Zhexian picked up the Azure Lotus Sword and pointed its tip at the air in front of him.

"Come out and let me slash you once."

The system gave no response.

Li Zhexian waited for a while, then put the Azure Lotus Sword back beside the bed.

"All right. I'll remember this."

The next day, Ning Fengzhi gathered the elders to discuss Li Zhexian's future cultivation arrangements.

Li Zhexian didn't enter the meeting hall, but waited outside for Chen Xin.

Someone inside the meeting hall said, "The sect's resources are limited. It isn't very appropriate to use so many medicinal herbs on a child who has been stuck at level ten for years."

"His Innate Full Soul Power should be genuine. The rest of his power just hasn't manifested yet."

"It's also possible that there was an error in the test back then."

Chen Xin pushed the door open and walked in.

"Which of you personally tested him?"

No one in the hall answered.

An elder said, "Uncle Jian, we're not doubting you, but the sect also has to consider its other disciples."

Chen Xin looked at him.

"He uses the sect's medicinal herbs and practices the sect's sword techniques."

"If there really is a problem, I'll take responsibility."

The elder asked, "What if he never manages to break through?"

Chen Xin set down his teacup.

"If he's trash, then there aren't many people in the sect who can be called geniuses."

Ning Fengzhi had remained silent the whole time.

Only after everyone had left did he say to Chen Xin, "I won't cut off his resources, but we can't stop what people are saying out there."

"If we can't stop them, then don't."

As Chen Xin walked out of the meeting hall, he saw Li Zhexian still standing beside the door.

"You heard?"

"Half of it."

"What about the other half?"

"I didn't want to hear it."

Chen Xin glanced at him.

"Come on, let's go back and continue practicing swordsmanship."

A few days later, Li Zhexian had just entered the training ground when someone called out, "The level-ten genius is here."

The disciples who used to call him the Little Sword Immortal said nothing this time.

"Is he really level ten?"

"Could that be a lie?"

"But his treatment as a genius hasn't been reduced one bit."

Li Zhexian put the wooden sword back on the sword rack, then turned and left.

Ning Rongrong's voice came from behind him.

"He just hasn't completed his breakthrough yet. He isn't trash."

Someone said in a very quiet voice, "Why are you so anxious?"

Ning Rongrong didn't answer the question.

As Li Zhexian walked out of the training ground, he heard her asking Ning Fengzhi a question.

"Dad, do you think that too?"

Ning Fengzhi was silent for a long time.