Two Months, A Tribulation of the Human Heart

Two months later.

Main World.

Yan'an No. 7 High School.

Outside the independent teaching building where the Elite Class was located.

The autumn sun at noon poured down like melted glaze, clear and bright.

The edges of the ginkgo leaves had already begun to turn yellow, like they were plated with gold leaf. When they trembled slightly in the breeze, they scattered fine spots of light on the ground.

This caused the young man beneath the trees, dressed in ancient-style white robes, wearing a jade pendant, with his hair tied up, exuding the air of a distinguished young master, to attract the gaze of many female classmates returning from lunch.

Ye Liuyun paid no mind to the gazes of these women just returning from the cafeteria. Instead, he looked at the closed transparent doors. Accustomed to it, he walked to the side where the access control camera was, preparing to call the smart butler in Li Xijun's room to open the door for him.

"Liuyun, let me do it."

Zhou Shenghao, who had also just returned from eating, stepped forward quickly, performed facial recognition, opened the main door downstairs, and said proactively:

"You're here to find classmate Li Xijun again today, right? Next time, why don't we eat together? That way, you won't have to call the smart butler to open the door."

"Yeah, yeah! Brother Li has been improving rapidly lately. I heard he's already over level 7. He must be working very hard. Why don't we eat together on the second floor when you have time? My cousin recently got a box of Spirit Nourishing Tea."

Zhou Yibai also said with a smile, as if nothing had happened.

In response, Ye Liuyun, while observing the interior decoration filled with technological and aesthetic design, responded as usual with a casual, polite, and somewhat detached demeanor, offering no direct answer.

Only after arriving at the private martial arts rooms of the Zhou brothers did Ye Liuyun politely bid them farewell and part ways.

This attitude reminded Zhou Yibai of how Liu Yunmeng had treated Li Xijun that day at noon, with a considerate yet distant attitude.

He instinctively wanted to emulate Li Xijun, to respond with that same equanimity, to appear indifferent and self-assured.

But that was merely a fleeting fantasy born from sensing that distance.

The reality was that his inherently fragile self-esteem was greatly provoked. While his smile was outwardly enthusiastic, inwardly, he had grown to hate Ye Liuyun.

Of course, along with that, He began to resent Li Xijun as well. Why could he always appear so confident, able to remain neither humble nor arrogant in any situation?

Why could he improve so rapidly with such ease, and be favored by a beautiful senior teacher like Su Nianying?

In comparison, he himself seemed so pathetic.

Why couldn't he be like that!

With such feelings, Zhou Yibai, noticing his cousin's displeased expression, seemed to whisper enviously:

"If only those two had run into the Blood God Cult cultists back then... If they had, that evil cultist definitely wouldn't have let two geniuses go."

After saying that, he walked into his own private martial arts classroom.

Zhou Shenghao's expression remained unchanged, as if he hadn't heard anything. He also performed fingerprint verification and returned to his room to cultivate.

On the other side.

After knocking and receiving permission, Ye Liuyun entered Li Xijun's martial arts classroom.

The entire classroom space was extremely spacious and bright, filled with the aesthetic of future technology. It was fully equipped with everything from strength testing instruments and speed testing instruments to humanoid training dummies and various bodily diagnostic instruments.

There was also a physiotherapy room, a hot spring facility, a meditation room, a lounge, and fully-equipped constant temperature cabinets, with appliances that made its comfort level comparable to residences in Bo City's most expensive developments.

Ye Liuyun felt that if he hadn't been guaranteed to be in the top 30 of his grade at the end of the semester, he might have felt a touch of envy, just like the students in the regular classes.

Thinking this, he walked under the doorway-shaped blood essence detection device.

His blood essence level instantly appeared on the large screen of the martial arts classroom.

[Ye Liuyun, Blood Essence Level: 8.1.]

"You've broken through again, congratulations, congratulations. At this pace, you should be stable at level 9.0 blood essence before the college entrance examination."

Li Xijun, who had just finished cultivating for a while, didn't have much sweat due to the self-cleaning function of his black nano-integrated suit. He simply took the blood essence potion handed over by the mechanical arm from the constant temperature cabinet beside him and drank it down in one gulp.

Ye Liuyun shook his head, took off his jacket, and began his warm-up, saying calmly:

"Compared to you, I'm still a bit behind. You're already level 7.2 now, aren't you?"

"To be precise, it was level 7.2 this morning. Now, I've just broken through to level 7.3."

The other person's words made Ye Liuyun's expression falter, and the corner of his mouth twitched, a rare crack in his composure.

Meanwhile, Li Xijun concentrated his consciousness and brought up his status panel, checking it while the other person warmed up.

[Name: Li Xijun] [Age: 17] [Realm: Apprentice Level 7] [Blood Essence Level: 7.3] [Spirit Level: 16.3] [Spirit-Refining System: Spirit Solidification Realm (73%)]

[Martial Arts System: Tendons and Bones Realm (61%)]

[Cultivation Methods:]

[Azure Dragon Heaven-Reaching Method: (Proficient 99%)]

[Refining Spirit Detailed Explanation Aperture Opening Induction Method (100%)]

[Contemplation Method "Twenty-Four Rank White Lotus Salvation Chart" (Proficient 100%)]

[Subduing Tiger Bone Refining Method (Mastered 97%)]

[Martial Skills]

[True Martial Thirty-Six Forms (Mastered 91%)]

[Basic Saber Technique: (Beginner 98%)]

[Unifying the Heavens (0%)]

"I can't understand how you're progressing so quickly. Is there anything that can still stump you?" Ye Liuyun couldn't help but vent.

"Yes, there is." Li Xijun wasn't complacent; he genuinely sounded troubled. "My Azure Dragon Heaven-Reaching Method is stuck. I've practiced it to the point of being incredibly proficient, yet I just can't break through to the next level."

"Right now, my Blood Essence level 7 cultivation is indeed progressing as Teacher Su predicted, 0.1 level increase every 10 days."

"But once I reach level 8, if my Azure Dragon Heaven-Reaching Method doesn't break through, I'm afraid it will hold me back, and the speed of my Blood Essence increase will slow down."

Because the current cultivation speed met Li Xijun's expectations, he could still accept it.

However, if it remained like this after some time, when he reached Blood Essence level 8, he would truly feel distressed.

This was because he had to allocate a significant amount of time to both Spirit Refinement and Martial Arts cultivation.

Especially in the Spirit-Refining System, he possessed immense talent.

In just two months, his Spirit Refinement had reached minor completion. The time he could control the Blood Vein Cord flying sword increased to 5-6 minutes, and its speed and lethality also saw significant improvements. It was just as the book described: a Viscera Refinement martial warrior could succeed in an assassination if they seized the opportunity.

Simultaneously, his Spirit Refinement cultivation fed back into his Tendons and Bones Realm, basically ensuring he would achieve Greater Bone and Tendon Refinement in a month.

He was unwilling to give up on either Spirit Refinement or Martial Arts cultivation.

Therefore, if the Azure Dragon Heaven-Reaching Method, the foundational cultivation method for increasing Blood Essence, remained stuck and didn't break through, it would genuinely and significantly impact the efficiency of his Blood Essence level progression.

In response, Ye Liuyun, having just finished warming up, tapped his control panel and had the mechanical arm retrieve a standard longsword for him.

"Huh? Liuyun, your martial skill level has reached the stage where you can use weapons at the third stage?"

"Stop with the nonsense. Eat my sword first!"