Attempting a Breakthrough

Since this mysterious Purple Crystal has existed safely in my Consciousness Sea for so long, it should be safe for the time being.

The surface of the purple crystal shimmered with flowing light, as brilliant as a real gemstone.

"It's so beautiful!" Yuan couldn't help but feel the urge to claim this gem as his own.

Struggling to push aside these extraneous thoughts, Yuan calculated in his Consciousness Sea: "My primary goal now is how to bring the information that there is a purple crystal in my mind out of the Consciousness Sea!"

"Only then can I determine the nature of the Purple Crystal and whether it will affect my future cultivation."

Looking at the still-thin mist of spirit power in his Consciousness Sea, Yuan felt a bit helpless.

"Even if this Purple Crystal has some incredible properties, if it causes me to fail to break through to the Earth Rank in time, then everything is for nothing!"

The "Creator" is very "fair"; they gave humans far more intelligence than other species, but in exchange, they gave them fragile genetic bodies.

The oppression of the Light-Deriving Snake Race and the limitations of lifespan have always been the Sword of Damocles hanging over the survival of the human race on Dongyuan Planet.

Yuan tried several more times, whether by attempting self-suggestion or trying to imprint the image of the purple crystal onto his mind.

Each time, Yuan would return to his cultivation in a daze, ending in failure.

In the end, the constantly experimenting Yuan thought of a clumsy method: bring out one word every time he exited the Consciousness Sea.

This way, he could tell his waking self what needed to be done.

Yuan found a piece of "paper," memorized one Isis Race character at a time, and suggested to himself that he write it down after exiting the Consciousness Sea.

"Query... exists... in... Consciousness Sea... purple... crystal... is... what... thing?"

The Purple Crystal, which seemed capable of deleting the memories of its own existence from Yuan's mind at any time, seemed indifferent to such behavior.

Leaving the Consciousness Sea for the last time, Yuan looked at the purple crystal before him, which remained unchanged, and felt slightly relieved.

Yuan searched the entire internet of the human Isis Kingdom, but there was no information related to "a purple crystal existing in the Consciousness Sea."

He only found a specialty of Dongyuan Planet called "Mituoya," which was purple and crystal-shaped, and the energy it emitted had a calming and soothing effect.

It was an A3-grade mineral, widely used in the cultivation of Spirit Readers from the Earth Rank to the Flying Star Rank.

He tried asking his mother indirectly and called his father at the mining site, but neither could provide an answer.

He even nearly aroused the suspicion of his mother, Doris, that something had gone wrong with his cultivation, which Yuan managed to brush off with great effort.

Yuan, a blind optimist, was at his wit's end and finally chose to—give up for now!

There is nothing difficult in the world, as long as you are willing to give up!

He put away the note, finished his meal, practiced for a while, and fell into a peaceful sleep...

The next day, at the Martial Arts Academy's advanced division.

This place gathered all the boys and girls under 12 years old from nearby residential areas who had not yet undergone their second talent assessment.

If their talent was sufficient, they would be selected as reserve warriors; if their talent was insufficient, they would return home after graduating from cultural classes to strive for the Earth Rank.

Then, upon reaching adulthood at 18, they would go out to find work and live independently.

As Yuan walked into the classroom, everyone immediately looked over.

"It seems the news of my C+ Spirit Reader talent has already reached the academy."

Yuan greeted his classmates warmly one by one and sat down in his seat.

The young girls looked at Yuan, who was smiling as usual, feeling hesitant about whether they should go up and comfort him.

It was the "class monitor," Karin Wright, who was the first to step forward, showing concern for a classmate.

"You don't have to 'force a smile.' We understand if you feel fragile occasionally; after all, no one can be strong all the time."

Before Yuan could react, this sentence struck a chord with several classmates nearby who had also recently taken talent tests and received poor results.

The more fragile girls even buried their heads on their desks and cried; after all, it took resources that could empty a normal family's savings just to cultivate one Earth Rank warrior.

Nearby, close friends hurried over to comfort them, while classmates who usually had friction whispered a few mocking words.

They were then pulled away by others nearby and fell silent, for today's victim could be tomorrow's you...

Yuan suddenly burst into laughter: "Don't be sad! Our parents work hard to raise us, not so we can spend our days wallowing in sorrow!"

"There's no need to feel sad for our parents. Why would you feel sad for them?"

Yuan's explosive remarks completely captured everyone's attention.

He continued: "One day, we will also marry and have children, and we will work as hard as our parents, even giving our all to raise them to the Earth Rank."

"This cycle is our destiny, and it is the very foundation that has allowed our Isis Race to stand tall on Dongyuan Planet for billions of years!"

"If every individual of a race experiencing hardship lacked this resolve, then we might as well be wiped out sooner!"

"Do you want your future children to spend their days wallowing in sorrow for you?"

"I'm afraid you'd immediately give them a slap and tell them to get to cultivation, so they can break through to the Earth Rank and start a family as soon as possible!"

The sudden turn of phrase made the whole class burst into laughter, and the sorrowful atmosphere was swept away.

The young girls felt relieved and gathered around, making small talk to express their pity for Yuan; a C+ Spirit Reader rating still had a slim chance of being selected as a reserve warrior.

To maintain his persona of hard work and avoid weakening the effect of his "chicken soup," Yuan couldn't say too much and could only join the girls in pretending to be regretful.

Sitting next to Yuan, his best friend Yiming Hu'er, who had long grown accustomed to Yuan "eating lemons" every day, finally couldn't take it anymore.

He complained to Yuan, who was surrounded by girls: "Stop acting. You're the 'Chosen One' in the eyes of the netizens; you'd probably wake up laughing in your dreams!"

Yuan joined the girls in criticizing Yiming, while smugly thinking to himself: My best friend really understands me the best... he isn't like these girls who only know how to worship me...

Even the teachers came over after class to comfort Yuan, asking if he wanted to find a way to be specially recruited as a "Reserve Warrior," but Yuan politely declined.

After all, with his talent, even becoming a Flying Star Rank would be difficult, let alone becoming a Universe Rank to go to the battlefield; it would only be a waste of social resources.

No thanks, I'd rather just live my quiet life as an ordinary citizen.

Returning home that night, Yuan continued his cultivation and entered his Consciousness Sea. He stared at the purple crystal before him, dazed for a moment, before recalling last night's experience.

"Considering my brain domain width is 37, I should be an absolute genius."

"Could my solid spiritual power have been absorbed by this godforsaken crystal? Leaving me with this pathetic, wispy mist of spiritual power?"

"I wonder how much those girls would worship me if they knew I was actually a genius?"

"Right, worship!" Yuan finally remembered the difference between himself and others: he was liked and approached by almost everyone around him!

Although everyone thought it was because of Yuan's own optimistic, cheerful, and positive personality that he was so well-liked.

But the clever Yuan had understood long ago that it was precisely because he had been treated kindly by almost everyone around him since childhood that he had slowly developed such an extroverted personality.

Except for his family, whom he spent every day with, and his best friend Yiming, whom he had grown up playing with, who found it slightly strange, no one thought there was anything wrong with it.

Wherever people exist, there will inevitably be those who live at the top of the social pyramid.

When it comes down to it, it's the psychological "mere-exposure effect." As the exposure to a certain thing increases, seeing the appearance of a familiar thing makes one feel that it is more likable.

And Yuan was the kind of existence that would attract people's involuntary attention wherever he went.

The common saying that chasing girls requires a "thick skin" also contains this effect to a certain extent.

Although whether a girl will eventually like you depends on many other things, brushing your face in front of the person you like appropriately makes it very easy to accumulate favor...

If you can't become lovers, you can still be backup... cough cough... good friends, right?

"Could my uniqueness be caused by the existence of the purple crystal?"

Yuan was speechless: "What kind of painful effect is this? It absorbs my talent and jams my path to being a genius."

"Shouldn't it be like those 'cultivation novels' on the internet, acting as an aid on the protagonist's path to becoming a powerhouse!"

Days passed quickly in cultivation. Some people finished testing their talent and happily went off to become "Reserve Warriors."

More people returned in disappointment, their dreams shattered, starting over and waiting for graduation to approach...

During this time, Yuan also fulfilled the promise he had made in a flash, accompanying the old man Luo to play games. This old man was truly an old monster who had lived for over five hundred years; he abused Yuan until he was so depressed he had to leave on the spot.

Leaving only the old man Luo laughing heartily behind him.

"When I reach the Earth Rank, I'll have time to practice my skills. Just you wait, old man..."

In the blink of an eye, Yuan's Gene Warrior strength reached the peak of Apprentice Level 9, and his Spirit Reader strength also "slowly grew" to Apprentice Level 7.

Knowing there wasn't much hope, Yuan, like many others, looked up the methods to break through to the Earth Rank.

The <Gene Origin Energy Cultivation Method - Cultivation Guide> recorded the method for an Apprentice Level 9 to break through to Planet Rank Level 1, which consisted of nine consecutive, strange movements.

There is a fundamental difference between a warrior and a Spirit Reader: the origin of a warrior is in the "Dantian" in the abdomen, while the origin of a Spirit Reader is in the Consciousness Sea within the head.

When he performed the first movement, Yuan felt his whole body begin to heat up. As he went through each movement, every cell in his body seemed to boil.

The Gene Origin Energy that had been lurking in each cell, unable to be absorbed, began to gather like droplets of water, merging into streams, and then into brooks and rivers.

A wave of heat came from his entire body, constantly rotating and gathering, finally converging at the position of Yuan's Dantian in his abdomen.

"Boom!"

The Gene Origin Energy began to rotate at an accelerated speed, constantly expanding and contracting. After each expansion and contraction, its volume became smaller!

Yuan felt his consciousness tremble, and his body shuddered!

He failed! The Gene Origin Energy that was about to condense into a solid was scattered again by a pair of invisible hands.

And how could the chaotic Gene Origin Energy that had been stirred up return peacefully? A mouthful of blood sprayed out, and Yuan was instantly severely injured!

Fortunately, his body's powerful metabolism helped him. Yuan managed to sit up and regulate his breathing, and it took a long while before he finally stabilized his injuries.

Yuan could clearly feel that the bottleneck before the Earth Rank had loosened a little. Perhaps after recuperating and trying a few more times, there would be a great hope of breaking through directly.

But Yuan also sensed that his body's potential had been consumed a little; the aging after adulthood would arrive even earlier than before! "It's just like what everyone said!" Unfortunately, a miracle did not happen to him.

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