"First Senior Sister... has she returned?"
Lu Sheng looked at the message Lan Linglong had sent him on his phone. After pondering for a moment, he set the phone aside.
"I'm really curious what kind of person First Senior Sister is!"
Lu Sheng shook his head, a trace of anticipation appearing in his eyes.
Then Lu Sheng lay down on the bed, gazed at the night beyond the window, and soon drifted off to sleep.
The next day, sunlight gently tapped against the doors and windows, spilling across Lu Sheng's face.
Lu Sheng slowly opened his eyes. After checking the time, he got out of bed, went to the bathroom, and freshened up.
He packed his things and prepared to head to the dojo.
Since it was the weekend, he did not need to go to school.
And since Lan Linglong had also messaged him last night, Lu Sheng decided to head straight to the Heaven and Earth Dojo.
Before long, Lu Sheng arrived at the dojo.
But as he reached its entrance, Lu Sheng sensed that something was off.
Usually, even if he arrived at the dojo at this hour, he would see quite a few Heaven and Earth Dojo disciples cultivating inside.
But today...
Standing at the entrance, he could not see a single person!
"What... is going on?"
Lu Sheng stared at the dojo before him in surprise, utterly puzzled.
Yet despite his doubts, Lu Sheng still stepped forward and walked into the dojo.
The moment he entered, Lu Sheng heard an icy voice carrying out from within the training hall.
"What have you all been practicing day after day? You cannot even manage the simplest Standing Meditation, and you still have the nerve to call yourselves Outer Disciples of the Heaven and Earth Dojo?"
"It seems that while I was away, Father and Junior Sister have been far too kind to you!"
"Although you are merely Outer Disciples of the dojo, once you step outside, you represent the reputation of the Heaven and Earth Dojo! Instead of training properly, every last one of you thinks only of slacking off!"
"A bunch of trash!!"
Hearing that voice, Lu Sheng's expression immediately turned strange.
"The owner of that voice... could she be the First Senior Sister I have never met?"
Lu Sheng could not help muttering, a trace of hesitation in his gaze as he looked toward the training hall.
"Did I... come at the wrong time?"
Lu Sheng scratched his head. Looking at the hall before him, he was suddenly unsure whether he should go in.
Judging from the words coming from inside, this First Senior Sister of his did not seem like someone to trifle with!
Just as Lu Sheng's thoughts wavered, that icy voice came from the hall once more.
"What are you still doing outside? Since you're here, come in!"
At those words, goosebumps immediately rose all over Lu Sheng's body. He looked toward the training hall in alarm.
He had to know that he was a full hundred meters away from the training hall right now!
And from inside the hall, she could not even see him.
Yet under such circumstances, she had still detected his presence?
Just... how powerful was she?!
Lu Sheng swallowed, and the hesitation in his heart instantly vanished.
Though somewhat nervous, he still obediently walked toward the training hall.
But when Lu Sheng entered the hall and saw what it looked like inside, he was still stunned.
Kong Yunzhang was reclining on a wicker chair, with a pot of tea beside him.
Next to Kong Yunzhang, Lan Linglong sat quietly in a chair, holding a yellowed book in her hands and reading it with great interest.
Apart from the two of them, a tall woman with a head of red hair stood atop the platform in the training hall. She wore a tight combat suit, and her entire face seemed covered in layers of frost.
If Lan Linglong embodied gentleness taken to the extreme, then this tall woman before him was the very embodiment of coldness taken to the extreme.
Within the training hall, the Outer Disciples of the Heaven and Earth Dojo were each standing still in an exceedingly bizarre posture, their faces all twisted in strain.
Apart from a very few disciples who could still remain calm, the other Outer Disciples were all swaying unsteadily, as though they would collapse at any moment.
Even those disciples who could maintain their stability had flushed faces, as though enduring some kind of pain, sweat beading down their foreheads.
"This is..."
Lu Sheng looked at the scene before him and was completely dumbfounded.
As Lu Sheng entered the hall, the tall woman's gaze shifted onto him as well.
"So this is Junior Disciple Brother?"
The tall woman's eyes lit up. The instant her words fell, she appeared directly in front of Lu Sheng.
Lu Sheng's pupils contracted slightly. Before he could even react, a faint fragrance reached his nose, followed by an incomparably perfect figure standing before him.
"Gulp!"
Breathing in that wafting fragrance, Lu Sheng involuntarily swallowed, and his gaze began to dart away.
"Blood Qi Layer Ten, with a solid foundation. Not bad, not bad!"
"Old man, I never expected you to find such a genius!"
Her mature, alluring voice slowly rang out.
Only then did Lu Sheng carefully examine the woman before him.
"What fast legs—no, what incredible speed!"
Lu Sheng's face flushed slightly. Though he had lived two lives, this was still the first time he had been so close to a woman.
Even after experiencing so much, Lu Sheng still found it hard to keep himself composed.
"Hehe, can't you see that your Junior Disciple Brother is completely bewildered right now?"
Kong Yunzhang, reclining on the wicker chair, spoke with a chuckle and waved at Lu Sheng.
"Alright, Xiao Lu, come over here!"
Lu Sheng finally felt as though a heavy burden had been lifted. He obediently walked over to Kong Yunzhang.
"Teacher, Senior Sister!"
Lu Sheng first gave Kong Yunzhang and Lan Linglong a slight bow.
"This is..."
Lu Sheng scratched the back of his head, his peripheral vision involuntarily sweeping over the tall red-haired woman.
Lan Linglong slowly closed the book in her hands and said gently, "She is our senior sister, Kong Xin!"
Upon hearing this, Lu Sheng understood completely.
At that moment, Kong Xin strode over on her long legs, her eyes continuously sweeping over Lu Sheng.
"Nice to meet you. Mm... take this as a meeting gift!"
As she spoke, Kong Xin lightly turned her palm, and an object like a pellet, glimmering with a faint golden radiance, appeared in her hand.
The golden pellet seemed to contain an incomparably terrifying power. Lu Sheng merely glanced at it and felt as though he were looking upon an extremely dreadful existence.
"This is..."
Lu Sheng narrowed his eyes slightly.
All of a sudden, a line of text appeared before Lu Sheng.
Ding! Sword Demon Clan Golden Core detected. Can be devoured!
Seeing the message before him, Lu Sheng's pupils shrank slightly.
"Golden Core!!"
Although the highest realm among the martial artists Lu Sheng currently knew of was only the Viscera Refining Realm, he knew that condensing a Golden Core was no easy feat.
Whether Demon or human martial artist, any being capable of condensing a Golden Core was undoubtedly among the very strongest.
He had never expected that the item his First Senior Sister casually took out would be such a treasure.
But what did the devouring mentioned in the message mean?
"Can be devoured? What does that mean?"
Lu Sheng was somewhat confused.
Soon, another line of text appeared before Lu Sheng.
Devouring a Golden Core can replenish the system's power and raise the system's level!
"Upgrade??"
Lu Sheng was even more astonished.
His system could be upgraded too?
"What effect will upgrading the system have?"
Lu Sheng hurriedly asked in his heart.
Yet the system seemed to fall silent. Several full seconds passed before another message finally appeared.
By raising the system's level, the refresh probability of high-grade Martial Arts Talents can be increased!
"Refresh probability?"
A sharp gleam flashed through Lu Sheng's eyes.
Lu Sheng had thought the system's Martial Arts Talent refreshes were entirely random, but he had not expected their appearance to actually be governed by probabilities.
"Then what are the current talent refresh probabilities?"
Lu Sheng asked again in his heart.
This time, the system did not make Lu Sheng wait long before it quickly displayed an answer.
Refresh probabilities: White (60%), Green (20%), Blue (15%), Purple (4%), Red (0.5%), Gold (0.1%), Seven-Colored (0.09%), Divine (0.01%)
Looking at the text displayed by the system, Lu Sheng narrowed his eyes slightly.
"The chance for purple is only four percent, and the probabilities for Martial Arts Talents of even higher grades are so low. At this rate, even if I refreshed for ten or twenty years, I might not get a single Divine-grade talent!"
Lu Sheng could not help muttering to himself.
"So, upgrading the system can increase the refresh probability of high-grade Martial Arts Talents. In other words, once the system level rises, my chances of obtaining higher-grade Martial Arts Talents will also increase. Then..."
Lu Sheng quickly understood the benefits of upgrading the system.
"It seems that if I want to become even stronger, I still need to raise the system's level!"
Lu Sheng could not help clenching his fists.
Then he turned his gaze toward the Golden Core in Kong Xin's hand.
"This Golden Core..."
"Eh!"
All of a sudden, Kong Xin cried out in surprise, looking at Lu Sheng curiously.
"Although the person who condensed this Golden Core has already been killed by me, the power contained within it is something even Viscera Refining Realm martial artists would not dare touch recklessly. Yet a Blood Qi Realm martial artist can actually ignore the Golden Core's pressure..."
"As expected of my Junior Disciple Brother!"
Hearing this, Lu Sheng froze for a moment before understanding.
When he had first laid eyes on the Golden Core, he truly had felt an incomparably terrifying aura and had instinctively wanted to retreat.
But perhaps his Tenacity talent had taken effect, because he had actually adapted to that aura.
"Since that's the case, I'll give this thing to you!"
With that, Kong Xin lightly tossed the Golden Core to Lu Sheng.
This treasure, which would have been enough to send countless martial artists into a frenzy in the outside world, seemed to amount to nothing in Kong Xin's hands.
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