Psionic Crystal Card

After exchanging a few words with his mother, Chen Lie went to the living room and sat on the sofa in front of the television.

Outwardly, he watched a martial arts expert explain martial arts on TV, but inwardly, he was pondering how to make money.

Without money or martial arts resources, even the most advanced martial arts knowledge could not help him raise his blood qi value quickly. After all, he could not make something out of nothing.

Just as Chen Lie sank into thought, the front door suddenly swung open.

Chen Xingyao stormed inside and slammed the door shut with a bang.

Puzzled by Chen Xingyao's odd behavior, Feng Yuelan came over and asked, "What's wrong, Yaoyao?"

"Don't ask. I'm sick of everything."

With that, Chen Xingyao walked over to the sofa and plopped down heavily.

"What happened?"

Seeing her like this, Feng Yuelan could not help pressing her.

"I told you not to ask. Can you please stop bothering me?" Chen Xingyao snapped.

Feng Yuelan could only shake her head with a sigh and go back to working in the kitchen.

Sitting on the sofa, Chen Xingyao felt as though nothing was going her way. Her gaze shifted to Chen Lie.

"Why do you have the TV so loud? It's bothering me!"

Chen Lie simply switched the television off.

"I told you to turn it down. Who told you to switch it off?"

Chen Xingyao glared at Chen Lie with her big eyes, her voice much louder than usual.

"I'm going back to my room. Do whatever you want."

Chen Lie tossed her the remote, then stood and returned to his room.

"I'm so mad! Aaah!"

His attitude left the already upset Chen Xingyao stamping her feet in anger.

That evening, the three members of Chen Lie's family sat around the dinner table.

After bringing the food to the table, Feng Yuelan sat down as well.

Seeing that Chen Xingyao had calmed down somewhat, she asked again, "Yaoyao, what happened today? Why were you so angry?"

Still looking thoroughly unhappy, Chen Xingyao said, "That classmate whose results have always been about the same as mine suddenly learned a martial technique. Then her blood qi value shot up, leaving me far behind. From now on, I'm second in the class!"

"Oh, I thought something serious had happened. So that's all it was.

"It's all right. I'll sign you up for a martial technique coaching course so you can learn one too."

Chen Xingyao pouted. "You think martial techniques are that easy to learn?

"She has an older sister in the Elite Class. Her sister can teach her the basics first, and once she's learned most of those, she can sign up for a coaching course.

"If you go straight to a martial technique coaching course at a Martial Arts Hall, you might not learn a single technique even after spending hundreds of thousands of Star Dollars.

"Either way, the gap's already there. Catching up now will be even harder."

"Then there's nothing wrong with being second," Feng Yuelan said.

"I don't want to be second! I'm going to train twice as hard and catch up!"

With that, Chen Xingyao took a fierce bite of her food.

Chen Lie gave his younger sister an admiring look. On the path of martial arts, that refusal to admit defeat was an especially precious quality.

After dinner, Chen Lie returned to his room, sat cross-legged on his bed, and practiced the Star Constellation Visualization Method from the Lingguang Divine Refining Chapter.

Several consecutive nights of visualization had made the first of the Ghost Constellation Four Stars, the second constellation in his Sea of Consciousness, glow with a faint light.

"One of the Ghost Constellation Four Stars among the seven constellations has finally lit up."

Chen Lie opened his eyes and murmured to himself.

"But without the Spirit Nourishing Flower's help, my mental power is progressing far too slowly."

He felt troubled. Martial arts resources were one thing. With some ingenuity and a little more effort, he could still get his hands on some.

But Spirit Nourishing Flowers were in such short supply on Blue Star that money alone could not buy them.

"Surely not every Divine Sense Master native to Blue Star comes from a powerful family? How do they get Spirit Nourishing Flowers? I have to find out!"

He could not neglect his mental power cultivation. According to the Central Galactic Empire's advanced martial arts philosophy, cultivating mental power was also a part of martial arts—and an indispensable one.

In this life, Chen Lie wanted to travel farther down the path of martial arts and see what lay beyond. That meant he had to build a strong, flawless foundation, just like the prodigies of the Central Galactic Empire.

The next morning, Chen Lie did not go to school, since it offered him little help.

Before he had even left his room, his Communicator suddenly rang.

He picked it up, saw that Wang Hui was calling, and answered.

"Holy shit, Chen Lie! You actually got into the Elite Class?"

Wang Hui's voice came through the Communicator.

"You heard?"

"Of course! Everyone in our class's Green Bubble group is talking about it. They say you've been hiding your strength all along. Is that true?"

"I wasn't hiding my strength. My blood qi value only went up over the last few days."

"How's that possible? Everyone in the group says your blood qi value is over 6. How could it rise that much in just a few days?"

"It did. I have no reason to lie to you."

"All right, all right. I'm almost done absorbing the medicinal effects of the blood essence fluid. Once that's done, let's get together. You can tell me what miracle medicine that white-haired, white-bearded Divine Sense Master teacher of yours gave you to make your blood qi value rise so fast."

"Sure!"

After ending the call, Chen Lie put away his Communicator and went to the bathroom to wash his face and freshen up.

As he entered the living room, he suddenly heard voices.

Seeing him, Feng Yuelan rose from the sofa and said, "Chen Lie, come say hello to your Aunt Liu."

Only then did Chen Lie notice a middle-aged woman sitting on their sofa.

He knew her. Her name was Liu Lianqing, and her family had been their neighbors for over a decade. She was always pleasant on the surface, but often secretly compared their families.

"Hello, Aunt Liu."

Chen Lie walked over to the sofa and greeted her as his mother had asked.

"Oh, Chen Lie? I haven't had a proper look at you in months. You've gotten even more handsome. How are things? Is your blood qi value still below 1?"

Liu Lianqing looked at him with a broad smile.

"It's already passed 1," Feng Yuelan said beside him.

"Well, your blood qi has finally passed 1. It's just a pity it's a little late. There are only a little over two hundred days until the college entrance exam, so a key martial arts university is out of the question. But that's all right. If you work hard from now on, you still have a chance of getting into a decent ordinary martial arts university."

Liu Lianqing shook her head, her tone full of regret.

Feng Yuelan responded with a somewhat strained smile.

"What brings you over today, Aunt Liu?"

Chen Lie acted as though he had not heard Liu Lianqing's words, which sounded encouraging but were really a veiled put-down.

"Oh, I was just about to tell your mother. It's about your Brother Zhenming. You know he got into Yunchuan Province Key Martial Arts University, right?

"He's made tremendous progress at university lately and successfully broken through to become a Martial Artist. He happens to be home on leave these next couple of days, so your uncle and I are planning a banquet to celebrate his breakthrough. I've come especially to invite you all!"

"Zhenming has become a Martial Artist?" Feng Yuelan asked.

"Yes! A mentor at Yunchuan Province Key Martial Arts University thinks very highly of him and helped him apply for most of the resources he needed for his breakthrough. Zhenming really saves us a lot of worry. Becoming a Martial Artist barely cost the family anything."

Liu Lianqing looked proud.

"When will the banquet celebrating Zhenming's breakthrough be held?" Feng Yuelan asked.

"In three days. I'll have his father come over to invite you then. Have Chen Lie's father come home too. Your whole family must attend."

Having said her piece, Liu Lianqing rose to leave. Feng Yuelan asked her to stay, but Liu Lianqing said she still had another household to invite.

Feng Yuelan escorted Liu Lianqing to the door, then returned to the living room.

At that moment, Chen Xingyao emerged from her room.

"Hmph. They held an enrollment banquet when he got into a martial arts university in Cloud River Province, and now they're throwing another banquet because he became a Martial Artist. They really have nothing better to do. And asking Dad to come home just for that stupid banquet? How can they even bring themselves to ask?"

Chen Xingyao started grumbling the moment she entered the living room.

Clearly, she had been hiding in her room and eavesdropping.

"Your father won't come home just to attend a banquet," Feng Yuelan said.

"Of course we can't have Dad come home over something so trivial. He Zhenming's almost twenty and has only just become a Martial Artist. I don't see what there is to brag about!

"Mom, let me say this now: I'm not going to that banquet."

"All right, all right. None of you have to go. I'll go by myself."

As she spoke, Feng Yuelan took an elegant box out of the coffee table drawer.

"Yaoyao, these are the Combat Technique Crystal Cards your father just sent. There are three sets, six cards in total. Choose the right time to use them."

"Wow, that's great!"

Chen Xingyao hurried over and took the Combat Technique Crystal Cards from her mother.

She had already learned most of the Combat Arts. With these three sets of Combat Technique Crystal Cards, she believed she would be able to use them proficiently.

Cards in hand, Chen Xingyao eagerly headed to the family's Practice Room to try them out.

"Psionic Crystal Cards?"

Looking at the box in Chen Xingyao's hands, Chen Lie grew thoughtful.

These things had been phased out in the Outer Stars hundreds of years ago, yet they remained extremely popular on Blue Star.

"Mom, how many Star Dollars did those three sets of Combat Technique Crystal Cards cost?" Chen Lie asked.

"Close to twenty thousand, I think? I'm not sure of the exact amount," Feng Yuelan said.

Chen Lie nodded. He seemed to have thought of a way to make money quickly.

Psionic Crystal Cards contained a great deal of mental power. Clearly, the main step in manufacturing them required a Divine Sense Master to imbue them with mental power.

Chen Lie knew without even thinking about it that Divine Sense Masters must be extremely rare on Blue Star, because the planet simply lacked the conditions needed to nurture them.

The scarcity of Divine Sense Masters meant that Psionic Crystal Cards were bound to be expensive. And Chen Lie himself had already awakened his divine sense and condensed mental power within his Sea of Consciousness, so he was perfectly capable of inscribing mental power onto Psionic Crystal Cards.