Mental Power Purity

The group reached the third floor, and Chen Lie felt the space open up around him. Not another person was in sight. The entire floor looked like a crystal barrier.

"The Divine Sense Master assessment has three stages. The first tests Mental Power purity, and the second tests Mental Power strength.

"The third is optional. It measures the potential of your Consciousness Sea World.

"As long as your Mental Power meets the standards for strength and purity, you'll pass the assessment. You won't have to take the third test.

"But if you do pass the third test, you'll receive a reward from the Divine Sense Master Association."

"What reward?" Chen Lie asked.

"Naturally, something that helps with Mental Power cultivation."

"All right. Let's begin!" Chen Lie nodded.

"The first test measures Mental Power purity."

As he spoke, Wei Changshan called over two staff members carrying a tray covered with transparent crystal cards.

"Pour your Mental Power into one of these special crystal cards. Put in as much as you can, but don't let the card shatter under the strain. If it breaks, you fail."

Chen Lie nodded, stepped forward, picked up a card, and began pouring his Mental Power into it.

In just a few dozen seconds, the transparent card turned golden.

"Done!"

Chen Lie put the card back.

"You've finished?" Wei Changshan asked.

"Yes."

"How were you so fast?"

"Is it hard for other people?"

"This isn't about speed. Filling a crystal card with Mental Power that quickly takes a level of control even a high-ranking Divine Sense Master would probably... Never mind. Take it for dilution!"

Wei Changshan waved a staff member over.

Shen Miaowei glanced at Chen Lie, her expression faintly conflicted.

Chen Lie saw it but kept his face calm. Privately, he began to reconsider.

I've shown too much of what I can do.

But he knew little about Blue Star's native Divine Sense Masters, so he had no idea what they were capable of.

Now he could see that they were even less capable than he had expected. He would have to hold back.

He could be talented, even exceptional, as a Divine Sense Master. But he could not go so far beyond the norm that he shattered everyone's understanding. Showing off would do him more harm than good.

"Let me explain the Mental Power purity test now underway.

"The Mental Power in your card will be diluted across one hundred crystal cards.

"If your Mental Power changes the color of all one hundred, you pass.

"Begin the dilution!"

Chen Lie asked a staff member how the purity test worked.

Once infused with Mental Power, a crystal card could take on one of five colors depending on the strength of the Mental Power inside: gold, bright yellow, dark yellow, pale yellow, or transparent.

In essence, the test measured how much strength remained after the Mental Power was diluted a hundredfold. If all one hundred cards stayed transparent, virtually nothing remained, and the examinee failed.

Chen Lie had cultivated the Lingguang Divine Refining Chapter, a state-level supreme art of the Central Galactic Empire. His Mental Power had long since reached an inconceivable degree of refinement.

Even diluted a thousandfold, let alone a hundredfold, its purity might not diminish enough to matter.

Fortunately, he had held back, secretly suppressing more than ninety percent of that refinement.

As the association staff worked, the Mental Power from Chen Lie's special card slowly flowed into the hundred other cards.

Before their eyes, the hundred cards gradually turned pale yellow, then dark yellow, and finally bright yellow.

Shen Miaowei and Shen Feixue stared in disbelief. Even Wei Changshan looked stunned.

"How can your Mental Power be this pure?"

Even a Divine Sense Master who had already attained a rank could not possibly remain at bright yellow after their Mental Power was diluted a hundredfold, could they?

"Are you only one step away from attaining a rank? But even then, your Mental Power shouldn't be this pure. How did you do it?" Wei Changshan demanded.

"I have my methods. Let's move on to the next test."

Chen Lie merely waved off the question.

He had revealed only the tip of the iceberg, yet he had still shocked them.

The Central Galactic Empire's state-level Mental Power cultivation method was in another league entirely from anything Blue Star's Divine Sense Masters knew.

"I can guess even if you won't tell me. You must have used a Mental Power Treasure from the Outer Stars. Otherwise, there's no way you could have cultivated your Mental Power to this level of purity."

A thought suddenly struck Wei Changshan. He looked at the disheartened Shen Miaowei and said, "Miao Wei, don't lose heart. This fellow must come from a province outside Chuanzhong where the martial arts flourish—probably one of Blue Star's ten most prosperous provinces.

"Some powerful forces in those provinces can buy Mental Power Treasures from the Outer Stars through special channels.

"With one of those treasures, this level of purity isn't surprising.

"Compared with Blue Star's most gifted young Divine Sense Masters, your only disadvantage is that you were born in Chuanzhong, a province poor in both Mental Power and martial arts. Otherwise, you would have achieved even more."

Shen Miaowei nodded. Wei Changshan's words made her feel much better. "Thank you, Grandpa Wei. I won't lose heart."

If Chen Lie had reached this level through his own talent, she would have accepted that he was better. But if he had used a Mental Power Treasure, she did not believe she was inferior to him.

He's from one of Blue Star's ten most prosperous martial arts provinces?

Shen Feixue glanced at Chen Lie. The Shen Family's Lingfeng Group was a corporate giant in Cloud River Province, famous even across the Chuanshan Eight Provinces. But in one of Blue Star's ten most developed provinces, it probably would not even rank among the top hundred.

"All right. On to the next test."

Wei Changshan led Chen Lie to a corridor nearly a hundred meters long.

"This is the Mental Power strength testing corridor," he explained. "Three Divine Sense Masters worked together to create it, and it's filled with a fog that obstructs Mental Power.

"This test measures how far your Mental Power can travel through the fog. Break through thirty meters of it, and you pass.

"Begin!"

Chen Lie approached the testing corridor and sent a wisp of Mental Power into the fog.

This time, he held back even more. He guided his Mental Power to just short of ninety meters, then stopped.

A series of ding-dongs rang out from inside the corridor.

"Hm? Eighty-nine meters!"

Wei Changshan was the first to react. He turned to Chen Lie.

"Your Mental Power made it through eighty-nine meters of that fog. Your talent as a Divine Sense Master is one in ten thousand."

Shen Feixue muttered under her breath, "It's only eighty-nine meters. What's so impressive about that? Miaowei reached ninety-one back then."

Shen Miaowei finally breathed a sigh of relief.

A gifted Divine Sense Master from one of Blue Star's ten leading provinces had put her under enormous pressure. At last, there was something she did better than Chen Lie.