The Eve of Enrollment

After ten months, Yan Hongchen had become largely isolated from the rest of his family.

Cultivation, meditation, then cultivation again—the daily cycle had reduced his interactions with his family to almost nothing.

Every time Yan Hongchen finished cultivating his spiritual power and soul power, he felt exhaustion deep in his bones. Whenever he rested, he was almost always plunged into deep sleep.

But he had not been entirely unaware. Occasionally, in the middle of the night, half-asleep and half-awake, he could sense a familiar presence enveloping him from the bed beside him—that was Liu Yueming.

She would quietly lie down beside him and accompany him to sleep in silence. Sometimes, she would gently tuck in his blanket, her movements so soft it was as though she feared waking a sleeping young beast.

Yan Hongchen felt guilty. He should have been the one taking care of his mother, yet now he had made her worry about him instead.

On the day he emerged from seclusion, he fell into a deep sleep as usual. The following morning, sunlight streamed into the room through the window lattice. When Yan Hongchen opened his eyes, he saw Liu Yueming lying beside him.

She was still asleep, her breathing long and even, but her brows were faintly furrowed. Even in her dreams, she had not fully relaxed. Her complexion was somewhat better than it had been ten months ago.

Yan Hongchen lay still for a moment, then silently activated the spiritual power of the Gentle Waves realm. He consecutively used Spiritual Sharing and Spiritual Detection, cautiously extending his senses toward Liu Yueming's sea of spirit.

The gap in cultivation between him and Liu Yueming was far too great. If Liu Yueming had not been asleep, and if she had not gone so long without using her soul power and spiritual power, leaving her less sensitive to Yan Hongchen's strength, he could never have breached her defenses without a sound.

Even so, Yan Hongchen's movements remained as light as a feather, afraid of disturbing her.

His spiritual power entered that frozen sea. Ice covered its surface, thick and frigid, filled with fine cracks like an ice mirror that had suffered a heavy blow.

Above the ice, scattered spiritual power indeed drifted about, like wisps of rootless smoke slowly wandering in the cold wind.

But that spiritual power had formed no flow, gathered into no stream, and was even less capable of forming the seamless cycle found within an ordinary person's sea of spirit.

Beneath the ice, that weak "flame of spirit" was still burning. It neither went out nor faded, trapped in the deepest depths as it stubbornly flickered.

Yan Hongchen frowned slightly. He felt that he had overlooked something—ice and water...

At a certain temperature, ice water was naturally a mixed state, but the key was energy. The side with greater energy would overwhelm the side with less.

Liu Yueming's soul bone skill was Soul Freezing. That layer of ice was a dam she had built with the last of her strength.

Logically, over time, she should have drawn upon newly acquired spiritual power to reinforce the ice, or attempted to gather another lake of spirit above it.

Yet all Yan Hongchen sensed was scattered spiritual power drifting above the ice like rootless duckweed.

Without a foundation, this spiritual power could not form a cycle and would naturally dissipate before long.

It could only barely maintain Liu Yueming's mental state at the level of an ordinary person—awake, able to communicate, able to think, yet unable to mobilize any power.

Bitterness welled up in his heart. So it had failed. Of course it would not be that simple.

Unless he used the purified Spirit Devouring Carving Knife, or some other supreme treasure capable of reshaping a sea of spirit, to open up a new sea of spirit for Liu Yueming, she would not be able to cultivate again.

He had thought the matters of the soul and spiritual power were too simple.

Yan Hongchen gathered his thoughts and turned the spiritual power of the Gentle Waves realm into strands of warm, gentle ripples that softly brushed across Liu Yueming's sea of spirit.

Wherever the ripples passed, the scattered spiritual power atop the ice was soothed and arranged. The flame of spirit beneath the ice also seemed to calm slightly, its flickering becoming more even.

He could not heal Liu Yueming yet, but at the very least, he could make her spirit more stable for a while, allowing her to sleep more deeply and for longer.

Liu Yueming's furrowed brow gradually relaxed. Her breathing became more even, and the corners of her lips even lifted into the faintest curve.

Yan Hongchen lay there a little longer. Only after confirming that she had fully sunk into peaceful sleep did he quietly rise.

He walked to the clothes rack and took down the new clothes he had prepared. Judging by the time, it was about time to enroll at the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy.

Yan Hongchen quietly left the room, closed the door, and headed down the corridor toward Xiao Hongchen's residence.

He stopped outside Xiao Hongchen's door and knocked three times. A moment later, the door opened from within.

When Xiao Hongchen saw Yan Hongchen, he froze for a moment before his eyes lit up and a broad grin spread across his face.

"Little brother! Now this is rare. You're not planning to keep cultivating?" As he spoke, he stepped aside to let Yan Hongchen in.

Yan Hongchen stepped inside and nodded. "Yeah, I'm not. My spiritual power has reached a bottleneck, and my soul power has reached level thirty as well. I'm still lacking quite a bit in physical training."

Xiao Hongchen closed the door and turned to look at him. The smile on his face gradually became one of envy, mixed with a trace of helplessness. "Your speed really is fast. Your sister and I are only at level twenty-eight, and that's after taking Soul Ascension Pills. We'll probably need another four or five months to catch up to your current level."

As he spoke, he walked over to the table, poured two cups of water, and handed one to Yan Hongchen.

Yan Hongchen accepted the cup and held it in his palm without drinking. "Brother, I've thrown myself entirely into cultivation these past ten months and haven't paid much attention to things at home. You and Sister have had it hard, taking care of Mom while cultivating. You've had to worry about both."

He had sensed as much from the traces within Liu Yueming's sea of spirit. Meng Hongchen often stayed by Liu Yueming's side, talking to her to ease her boredom, while Xiao Hongchen handled all sorts of matters and had to make sure Liu Yueming ate and rested on time.

Xiao Hongchen waved a hand, raised his cup, and gulped down a large mouthful. Wiping the corner of his mouth, he said, "Alright, we know it hasn't been easy for you. Your sister and I are still here. We can't do anything on the spiritual level, but we can still take care of her body."

He set down his cup, his gaze falling on Yan Hongchen's face. "Do you have any way to deal with Mom's condition now? Or rather... do you have any ideas?"

Yan Hongchen fell silent for a moment, then nodded. "I do. I've made considerable progress in cultivating spiritual power and the power of water lately."

He paused. "Mom is still asleep in my room. I used the spiritual power I cultivated to soothe her a little. It has a sleep-inducing effect, so she can sleep a while longer. That's why I came to see you first."

Xiao Hongchen looked him up and down, then suddenly laughed. "No wonder your hair and face look like they haven't been cleaned up at all. Go freshen up in the bathroom in my room. Don't go out later looking like a wild man."

Yan Hongchen lowered his head to look at himself and smiled as well. He really had not had time to attend to those things, and he had planned to clean himself up here anyway.

He entered the bathroom in Xiao Hongchen's room and tidied himself up. He fixed his hair in front of the mirror and changed into clean clothes. By the time he came back out, he looked much more refreshed.

Xiao Hongchen leaned against the window, idly playing with a metal ball in his hand. Seeing Yan Hongchen emerge, he looked him over and nodded in satisfaction. "Now that's more like it."

Yan Hongchen sat down at the table and got to the point. "Brother, do you know when we enroll?" He only knew it was around this time, but the specific opening date was not fixed.

Xiao Hongchen tossed the metal ball into the air and caught it again, his tone casual. "So you finally remembered that you still have school to attend. We start in three days."

"By then, we might not be staying at the Duke's Manor as often. The whole family will be moving to the academy. You need to get your things packed."

Yan Hongchen was slightly stunned. Three days? That soon?

"And how did this Soul Fighting Tournament turn out?" he asked. "Still runner-up? I'm guessing Shrek Academy has a particularly formidable captain, and their students shouldn't be weak either."

The moment Xiao Hongchen heard this, he perked up at once, straightening his back a little. "Mm, still runner-up. As for Shrek Academy, they really are very strong."

There was a touch of unwillingness in his voice, but also a measure of respect. "I don't know the specifics yet, but Father said Grandfather needs to discuss some matters with us. We'll talk about it after we get to the academy."

Seeing this, Yan Hongchen understood that Jing Hongchen had certain concerns. Still, it would be fine to discuss it after arriving at the academy. They would spend these three days packing up and prepare to welcome their new lives.

Yan Hongchen did not stay with Xiao Hongchen for long. He still had to see Meng Hongchen and Yi Hongchen. It had likewise been a long time since they had met, and after talking things over, he got a general understanding of the situation.

Yue Hongchen had already broken through to become a Titled Douluo, with the title Iron Armor. He had just entered Mingde Hall as a consecrated elder, helping to share Jing Hongchen's burden.

Yi Hongchen had also just broken through to Rank 86 during this period. Yan Hongchen only hoped Zhang Lexuan would not advance too quickly.

The three days passed in a flash. Yi Hongchen and Liu Yueming brought Xiao Hongchen, Meng Hongchen, and Yan Hongchen to the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy.