The dual elements that came late

Zhou Sining was so happy he could burst.

A domain!

A domain that countless mages could only dream of obtaining, and he already had one.

With his fire element alone, he could stand at the very top of the pyramid of Intermediate Mages.

He could hardly imagine how much broader his prospects would become if he awakened a second element.

His second element... ugh, he did not even want to talk about it.

Failing his awakening was just too embarrassing.

Putting that painful memory aside, Zhou Sining returned to cultivating.

The second floor of the Wild Goose Pagoda offered a fortyfold cultivation boost. Combined with his own 3.5-fold multiplier, his cultivation speed now reached 140 times the norm.

One day of cultivation here was worth three and a half months outside.

Two days meant seven months!

Even accounting for his breaks, that was still worth half a year of hard cultivation.

With the exceptional control Gangsha gave him, he would probably touch that barrier again.

The thought filled him with delight, and he immersed himself in cultivation once more.

As the fire element nebula absorbed the dense fire essence in the air, two stars hidden in the chaos mist lit up, seizing the opportunity to steal tiny threads of magic energy.

Dense magic energy continued pouring into Zhou Sining's spiritual world. Even though the little stars only got the scraps, they grew brighter and brighter, their starlight increasingly dazzling.

"Ding~"

A ripple rang out within the chaos mist, but it was too faint to attract anyone's attention.

The chaos mist slowly began to rotate. Two sesame-sized motes of starlight appeared, one beside each of the two stars.

Then came the third, the fourth, the fifth, the sixth...

More and more motes appeared, gathering around the stars in groups. As they snatched more magic energy, they produced still more motes of starlight.

The cycle continued, each star leading its own motes to steal as much magic energy as possible from the colossal fire element nebula to nourish themselves.

Two days passed quickly.

Zhou Sining stretched, his face looking more haggard than it had two days earlier.

Intensive cultivation was always like this, nothing like those cultivation novels where it was effortless and time passed in the blink of an eye.

The original novel had stressed countless times that cultivation was a dull, tedious process. Only after experiencing it himself did he understand how painful it was.

Fortunately, his previous life had not been particularly good. After being reincarnated into another world, he had faced the threats of an early death and demon beasts, leaving him no chance to develop a habit of slacking off.

"Ten minutes left. I'll take another look at the nebula before heading out."

Zhou Sining plunged into his spiritual world again.

This time, he did not cultivate. He simply admired that dense, enormous nebula in silence.

So beautiful.

Over those two days, Zhou Sining had indeed brushed against that invisible barrier, but he was still a long way from being able to attempt a breakthrough.

Still, that was fine. This was already a very good result.

Feeling pleased, Zhou Sining looked it over a few times. Just as he was about to leave, he suddenly stopped.

He thought he had just seen something.

Beside the dazzling fire element nebula, tucked away in a far, far corner, a little point jutted out where it had no business being.

How could he describe how out of place it looked?

For example, the nebula as a whole looked like a perfect circle. Around that circle was a ring of starry space revealed after the chaos mist had been dispersed.

Now, however, two tiny patches of stellar dust had suddenly appeared at the circle's lower right, disrupting its symmetry.

More simply, it had gone from O to Q.

It was an extremely jarring change, because no matter how violently the nebula churned inside, the shape of its boundary never changed.

Even when it advanced from Level One to Level Two, the nebula merely expanded proportionally. Its shape had been fixed when he first advanced from the primary level to the intermediate level.

So that "," was completely out of place, as jarring as a castrated eunuch suddenly growing a third leg.

Nervous and curious, Zhou Sining moved closer to examine it.

It was not a single continuous dot, but two patches of star dust nestled very, very close together.

Those two patches were also very, very close to the nebula, which was why its outline looked so strange.

Both patches of star dust happened to be very faint in color. Even after looking closely, Zhou Sining could only make out a silver glow and a pale white one.

Then he extended his consciousness into the two patches. Perhaps recognizing who had come, the weak, sparse motes of starlight began dancing and wrapped themselves around that thread of his consciousness.

They were just like bullied children who had finally waited long enough for their parent to arrive and could at last cry their hearts out.

At that moment, Zhou Sining finally confirmed what they were.

Star dust. Magical star dust.

The star dust he had always believed Gangsha had blasted to death!

The star dust he had obtained during his awakening—and it was a double-yolk egg!

Oh my God! Zhou Sining's eyes widened.

He had never imagined that the newborn star dust had survived, quietly developing in hiding all this time and only revealing itself now that it had stabilized.

As expected of the elements he had awakened. They were just as resilient as he was!

Badass!

After the shock came wild joy.

The gains from three days of cultivation in the Wild Goose Pagoda had already been enough to make Zhou Sining happy.

Now he had recovered the elements he thought he had lost. He was so happy he could go three days without sleeping.

And it was a double-yolk egg, too! Two elements gave his future so many more possibilities, along with two whole trump cards.

This was so, so much better than spending his entire life alone with only the fire element.

"Whoosh, whoosh~!" Gangsha protested.

"Get lost. Don't interrupt our father-and-sons reunion."

"Whoosh, whoosh~!!"

Gangsha vehemently objected to Zhou Sining's behavior, but Zhou Sining ignored it completely and plunged into the two frail patches of star dust.

"My babies, Daddy loves you. You're so strong and so brave. Look at you, you've gotten so skinny. Don't worry, I'll get you nourished up in a bit."

"Be good, don't be afraid. Daddy's here. I won't let that sleazy, nasty uncle hurt you again."

Gangsha: "..."

Although the sentient Gangsha was furious, there was indeed nothing it could do.

The two patches of star dust had already passed its test. Deep down, it acknowledged them.

It was just that Zhou Sining's disgust-filled tone was so infuriating. The hot-tempered Gangsha could not stand it.

But Zhou Sining was immersed in the happiness of recovering what he had lost and paid it no attention whatsoever.

After spending a little time bonding with them, it was time to leave the Wild Goose Pagoda.

"Tap... tap... tap..."

The trip downstairs was quite easy. He swaggered along, immediately drawing the attention of quite a few students.

Watching the boy descend from the second floor, everyone began wondering whether they had remembered the rules wrong.

"You went upstairs?" asked another student from No. 3 High School.

Zhou Sining smiled without answering, giving him a meaningful look.

"You've got to be kidding. Didn't they say we weren't allowed upstairs?" someone asked in disbelief.

"What do you mean, not allowed? The guard only said it wasn't recommended because of the mental pressure. Of course you can go upstairs if you can withstand it."

"That guy's seriously badass. I tried going up before, and all my magic energy was gone halfway there. I was exhausted. I had to crawl back down."

Someone asked curiously, "Who is that guy? He looks so cocky, not saying a single word."

"He's from our No. 3 High School. He placed first in the college entrance exam. His name's Zhou Sining," a student from No. 3 High School said.

"Oh! I've heard of him. He's the one who got full marks in spellcasting!"

"Holy crap, full marks in spellcasting? What, was the examiner his dad?"

"He broke through to the intermediate level ages ago. Apparently, he even used Intermediate Level Two magic during the exam."

"Intermediate Level Two? Dude, you really know how to exaggerate. I'm still struggling at Beginner Level 3."

Hearing that, the student from Ancient Capital No. 3 High School gave a helpless, bitter smile.

First place had originally been his, until the school took in a class of refugees from Bo City during his final year.

His first place...

Sigh...