Academy life afterward had few ups and downs. Tian Chen attended classes every morning, then went home to continue cultivating in the afternoon, or simply cultivated at the academy's Mimicry Training Ground.
Sometimes he also went to the beast-fighting arena in Spirit Hall Academy to play with the Soul Beasts. Most of the time, however, he went to the Soul Hunting Forest accompanied by an academy teacher.
Although the Soul Beasts in the Soul Hunting Forest were not as ferocious as those in the Star Dou Great Forest, they were far better than the domesticated Soul Beasts in the beast-fighting arena.
The main reason, really, was that Spirit Hall Academy's beast-fighting arena could not withstand the rate at which Tian Chen used up its beasts.
Tian Chen never held anything back when he attacked, which left the arena's Soul Beasts either dead or injured.
The benefit was that his frequent life-and-death battles with Soul Beasts rapidly improved his combat experience.
More importantly, Tian Chen's Soul Power had recently reached Level 19. He was only one final hurdle away from breaking through to Level 20.
Moreover, the academy's annual year-end tournament was still a month away, which meant Tian Chen had plenty of time to make his breakthrough.
Once he became a Soul Grandmaster, only Xie Yue and Yan in the junior class would pose any threat to him.
Those two had also reached Level 19 and were both cultivating in seclusion to prepare for the year-end tournament.
As for the other new students in the class, every one of them had obtained their first Soul Ring and broken through to become a Soul Master.
Anyone admitted to Spirit Hall Academy could not have poor talent. If they could not become a Soul Master within a year, they did not deserve to remain at Spirit Hall Academy. After all, Spirit Hall's students were not utter trash like Su Yuntao.
One thing worth mentioning was that Hu Liena's attitude toward Tian Chen had improved considerably during this time.
She no longer deliberately picked fights with him because she found everything about him irritating. She even deliberately struck up conversations with him, seemingly casually or otherwise.
Tian Chen was quite happy with the change in Hu Liena's attitude.
The highest realm of flirting was making girls take the initiative to simp for you. That was Tian Chen's creed in life.
After all, with everything he had going for him, there would be no shortage of girls throwing themselves at him in the future. Since that was the case, there was no need to put himself out.
Besides, he still had at least several years left at Spirit Hall Academy, so Tian Chen was in no hurry.
The gap between him and Yan would only grow wider, and the comparison would make Yan's incompetence stand out even more.
Nearly a year had passed. Nourished by all kinds of supplemental foods, Tian Chen had grown to around 1.3 meters tall.
His clear blue eyes had become particularly sharp after a year of frequent battles with Soul Beasts in the Soul Hunting Forest.
Tian Chen had not gone to Spirit Hall Academy that day. He had already sensed that he was almost at the bottleneck before Level 20, so going to the academy would simply waste his time.
As for the consequences of skipping the academy? There was even less reason to worry about those. With a Level 98 grandfather, he believed that as long as he did not tear Spirit Hall Academy down, no one would be tactless enough to make trouble for him.
"Ah... Still couldn't break through."
In his room, Tian Chen rose from the sofa and sighed helplessly.
He drew aside the curtains embroidered with gold thread and looked down over all of Spirit City through the glass window.
Stretching out both hands, he loosened the joints that had grown somewhat stiff from sitting and cultivating for so long, then opened the window and took a deep breath.
Since I can't break through, I might as well go out and clear my head.
He had read some wuxia novels in his previous life, and the scenes of people suffering Qi deviation from forcing their cultivation had left a shadow over him.
Although he did not know whether Soul Power cultivation on the Douluo Continent even involved such a thing as Qi deviation, it was better to be cautious, just to be safe.
It was the depths of winter, and flurries of snow were drifting through Spirit City at the center of the Douluo Continent. A layer of white gauze covered the city, but it had done nothing to dampen people's enthusiasm.
Vendors' cries rang out continuously along the streets, some with accents from the Heaven Dou Empire, others with accents from the Star Luo Empire.
Stepping onto the street, Tian Chen instinctively wrapped his silver-white fox-fur coat more tightly around himself. He tucked both hands into his warm trouser pockets and watched the passing pedestrians with a smile.
He casually bought a few meat buns from a roadside vendor. As he munched on them, he walked out of Spirit City without realizing it.
Seeing the endless stream of carriages outside the city heading toward the Soul Hunting Forest, Tian Chen also began considering going there to fight Soul Beasts.
He had spent the past few days cultivating in seclusion to break through his bottleneck and had not fought a Soul Beast for several days.
Of course, Tian Chen was still very afraid of dying. To be safe, he called on Meng Tao, the city guard captain who had tried to curry favor with him before, a flying-type Soul Master above Level 60.
Sitting in the carriage, Meng Tao was ecstatic. He had never expected to run into Tian Chen, who happened to be heading to the Soul Hunting Forest, just when it was his turn on duty.
Looking at Tian Chen, who was resting with his eyes closed, Meng Tao forcibly suppressed his excitement and sat nervously in a corner of the carriage, not daring to make the slightest sound that might disturb him.
The carriage traveled smoothly, and in less than an hour, Tian Chen and Meng Tao arrived at the entrance to the Soul Hunting Forest.
Quite a few Soul Masters had already gathered at the entrance, calling out to recruit teammates.
Tian Chen had always scoffed at these hastily assembled teams. A team without any trust was utterly meaningless.
Even after entering the Soul Hunting Forest, you could not be sure whether someone might stab you in the back.
Tian Chen curled his lip, deftly took a token from his Soul Tool, and entered the Soul Hunting Forest with Meng Tao without saying a word.
Seeing that Tian Chen had no desire to talk, Meng Tao tactfully kept his mouth shut as well. He had a clear understanding of his position and knew what he should do and when.
With a Soul Emperor guarding him, Tian Chen had no need to overthink things. He could simply charge straight in. In any case, he had come to fight Soul Beasts, and instantly killing a few Ten-Year Soul Beasts would not be particularly interesting.
I previously tried writing the cultivation novel I'd always wanted to write, but after writing only a little, I realized I simply couldn't keep going. My prose really was terrible, so I'll stick to writing a Douluo fanfic to practice. The comments on Qidian broke earlier, so even when I replied to your comments, you couldn't see my responses. I'm explaining that here.
I'll keep writing this book. If you have any questions about it, you can ask in the comments. Lastly, thanks for all your support! This is so hard for me. Of course, leaving a recommendation vote would be even better. Hehe.