Chen Shu stood in his assigned position, watching Senior Brother Ji across from him as he silently calculated.
Senior Brother Ji had only recently advanced to the Fifth Tier, so he was probably at the early stage, the middle stage at most. But even at the early stage, the overall power of his Spirit Sea was beyond that of a lousy Fourth Tier cultivator like Chen Shu, who was somewhere between the middle and late stages.
But the Spirit Sea did not directly translate into fighting strength.
That had been true since ancient times.
In ancient times, knowledge had been monopolized. A Fifth Tier cultivator from an ordinary sect might genuinely lose to a Fourth Tier cultivator from the Top-Tier Sects. And a young genius who had spent almost all his time and energy cultivating might face a seasoned Fourth Tier veteran with decades of hard knocks behind him, with no telling who would win.
The modern era was another matter.
Many modern Cultivators did not devote much effort to "personal combat strength."
Chen Shu had also learned a little about Senior Brother Ji over the past few days.
Though this senior brother was a Spirit Sect disciple from the Top-Tier Sects and highly talented, he was passionate about developing Spells. He especially liked creating oddball Spells that nobody could call useless. He had registered numerous spell patents and won many awards.
Over the past few days, Chen Shu had already scored several such Spells from Senior Brother Ji for free.
For example, there was the Knot-Untying Spell, designed to deal specifically with "delivery food arriving in one solid lump," along with the Ultrasonic Teeth-Cleaning Spell, which prevented tartar, and the Bath Scrubbing Spell.
According to Senior Brother Ji, he had recently been researching a Seawater Purification Spell that could