Psionic Crystal Cards

After talking with his mother for a while, Chen Lie went to sit on the sofa in front of the living room television.

On the surface, he watched a martial arts expert on TV explain martial arts, but inwardly, he was considering how to make money.

Without money or martial arts resources, no matter how advanced his martial arts knowledge was, he could not rapidly raise his vitality and blood value. After all, even the cleverest housewife could not cook without rice.

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

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

Feng Yuelan found Chen Xingyao's strange behavior odd, so she stepped forward and asked, "What's wrong, Yaoyao?"

"Don't ask me. I'm annoyed to death."

With that, Chen Xingyao walked over to the sofa and dropped heavily onto it.

"What happened?"

Seeing Chen Xingyao like this, Feng Yuelan could not help pressing further.

Chen Xingyao said irritably, "I told you not to ask! Stop bothering me, okay?"

Seeing this, Feng Yuelan could only shake her head, sigh, and head into the kitchen to get busy.

Sitting on the sofa, Chen Xingyao felt that nothing was going right. Her gaze drifted toward Chen Lie.

"Why do you have the TV so loud? You're disturbing me!"

Seeing this, Chen Lie simply turned off the television.

"I told you to turn it down! Who told you to turn it off?"

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

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

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

"I'm so mad! Aaaah!"

Chen Lie's attitude made Chen Xingyao, who was already in a bad mood, stamp her feet in frustration.

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

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

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

Chen Xingyao still looked displeased as she said, "That classmate whose grades have always been about the same as mine suddenly learned a martial art. Then her vitality and blood value shot up, leaving me far behind. From now on, I'll be second in the class!"

"Oh, I thought it was something serious. So that's what it was.

"It's fine. Mom will enroll you in a martial arts guidance course too, so you can learn a martial art."

Chen Xingyao pursed her lips. "How can martial arts be that easy to learn?

"She has an older sister in the elite class. Normally, her sister can teach her the basics of a martial art, and once she has mostly learned those basics, she can enroll in a martial arts guidance course.

"If you directly enroll in a martial arts academy's guidance course, even if you spend hundreds of thousands of star credits, you might not necessarily learn a single martial art.

"No matter what, the gap has already widened. Trying to catch up now will definitely be much harder."

"Then being second is pretty good too," Feng Yuelan said.

"I don't want to be second! From now on, I'll train twice as hard and catch up!"

As she spoke, Chen Xingyao fiercely took a bite of rice.

Chen Lie looked at his sister with admiration. On the path of martial arts, such an unwillingness to admit defeat was the most precious quality.

After dinner, Chen Lie returned to his room, sat cross-legged on his bed, and cultivated the Stellar Visualization Method of the Lingguang Divine Refinement Chapter.

After several consecutive nights of visualization, the first star among the four stars of the Ghost Mansion, the second constellation in his sea of consciousness, had begun to emit a faint glow.

"One of the Ghost Mansion's four stars among the seven mansions has finally lit up."

Chen Lie opened his eyes and muttered to himself.

"But without the Mind-Nurturing Flower's help, my mental power is progressing far too slowly."

He was somewhat troubled. Martial arts resources were manageable—if he thought of a way and worked harder, he could still get some.

But Mind-Nurturing Flowers were scarce even on Blue Star. They were simply not something money could buy.

"Surely not every native Mind Reader on Blue Star comes from a wealthy or powerful family? How do they obtain Mind-Nurturing Flowers? I have to find out!"

Mental power cultivation could not be neglected. According to the Central Galactic Empire's advanced martial arts theories, mental power cultivation could also be classified as part of martial arts—and it was an indispensable part.

In this life, Chen Lie wanted to travel farther down the path of martial arts and see the scenery in the distance. Therefore, like the Central Galactic Empire's prodigies, he had to forge a solid, flawless foundation.

Early the next morning, Chen Lie did not go to school, because school was of little help to him.

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

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

"Damn, Chen Lie, you got promoted to the elite class?"

Wang Hui's voice came through the communicator.

"You heard?"

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

"I wasn't hiding my strength. My vitality and blood value only rose in the past few days."

"How is that possible? They're saying in the group that your vitality and blood value broke through 6. How could it rise that much in just a few days?"

"Of course it could. I have no reason to lie to you."

"Alright, alright. I'll soon finish absorbing the medicinal effects of the Vitality and Blood Essence. When the time comes, let's meet up, and you can tell me what miracle pill your white-haired Mind Reader master gave you to raise your vitality and blood value so quickly."

"Sure."

After saying that, Chen Lie put away his communicator and went to the bathroom to wash his face and freshen up.

When he reached the living room, Chen Lie suddenly heard a conversation.

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

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

He knew this woman. Her name was Liu Lianqing, and her family had been their neighbors for over a decade. They appeared friendly on the surface, but were often secretly comparing themselves to others.

"Hello, Aunt Liu."

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

"Oh, Chen Lie? I haven't looked at this child properly in months, and he's gotten even more handsome. So, has your vitality and blood value still failed to break through 1?"

Liu Lianqing looked at Chen Lie with a broad smile.

"It's already broken through 1," Feng Yuelan said from the side.

"Mm, his vitality and blood value has finally broken through 1. It's just a pity that it happened a little late. There are only a little over two hundred days until the college entrance exams, so don't even think about a key martial arts university. But it's fine. If you work hard from now on, you still have hope of getting into a decent ordinary martial arts university."

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

Feng Yuelan gave a somewhat stiff smile in response.

"I wonder what brings Aunt Liu to our home today?"

Chen Lie acted as though he had not heard Liu Lianqing's seemingly encouraging yet subtly disparaging remarks.

"Oh, I was just about to tell your mother. It's your Brother Zhenming. Didn't he get into a key martial arts university in Yunchuan Province?

"During this time, your Brother Zhenming has made great progress at university. He successfully broke through to become a martial artist. Since he happened to come back on leave these past two days, his father and I are planning to hold a banquet to celebrate his advancement. I came specially to invite your family."

"Zhenming became a martial artist?" Feng Yuelan could not help asking.

"That's right. A mentor at the key martial arts university in Yunchuan Province thinks highly of Zhenming and helped him apply for most of the resources needed to advance to martial artist. Zhenming is such a worry-free child too. His breakthrough didn't cost the family much money at all."

Liu Lianqing looked immensely proud.

"Then when will Zhenming's advancement banquet be held?" Feng Yuelan asked.

"Three days from now. I'll have Zhenming's father come by to invite you then. Have Chen Lie's father come back too. Your whole family has to attend."

After saying this, Liu Lianqing rose to leave. Feng Yuelan tried to keep her, but Liu Lianqing said she still had another family to invite.

Thus, Feng Yuelan saw Liu Lianqing out, then returned to the living room.

At that moment, Chen Xingyao came out of her room.

"Hmph. They held an admission banquet just because he got into a martial arts university in Yunchuan, and now that he's become a martial artist, they're holding another banquet. Their family really has nothing better to do. They even said Dad should come back just to attend that stupid banquet. How can they have the nerve?"

The moment Chen Xingyao entered the living room, she could not help grumbling.

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

"Your father won't come back specifically for a banquet," Feng Yuelan said.

"Of course Dad can't come back over something like this. He Zhenming is almost twenty and only just became a martial artist. I don't even know what there is to brag about!

"Mom, let's be clear—I'm not going to that banquet."

"Alright, alright. Neither of you will go. Mom will go by herself when the time comes."

As Feng Yuelan spoke, she took an exquisite box from a drawer in the coffee table.

"Yaoyao, these are the combat technique Psionic Crystal Cards your father just sent over. There are three sets, six crystal cards in total. Pick the right time to use them yourself."

"Wow, that's great!"

Chen Xingyao hurried over and took the combat technique Psionic Crystal Cards from her mother.

She had already nearly mastered the combat technique. With these three sets of combat technique Psionic Crystal Cards, she believed she would be able to use it proficiently.

Holding the combat technique Psionic Crystal Cards, Chen Xingyao eagerly went to the training room at home to try them out.

"Psionic Crystal Cards?"

Chen Lie looked thoughtfully at the box in Chen Xingyao's hands.

This was something that had been eliminated beyond the stars hundreds of years ago, yet it remained extremely popular on Blue Star.

"Mom, how many star credits do these three sets of combat technique crystal cards cost?" Chen Lie asked.

"Probably close to twenty thousand star credits? I'm not too 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 primary step in producing them was having Mind Readers imbue them with mental power.

Chen Lie did not need to think to know that Mind Readers on Blue Star had to be exceedingly rare, because Blue Star simply did not possess the conditions to cultivate them.

The rarity of Mind Readers meant that Psionic Crystal Cards were bound to be expensive. Chen Lie himself had already awakened Mind Sense and condensed mental power within his sea of consciousness, so he was fully capable of inscribing mental power into Psionic Crystal Cards.