Chapter 53: Becoming A Saint
After the award ceremony finished, the students at the sports field gradually began to leave, dispersing until there was absolutely nobody left. During the past 3 days of fighting against the magical beasts in the forest, almost all of the students had numerous injuries. Now that the award ceremony was over, everyone returned back to their own dorms to treat their injuries. The only people left in the sports field were the completely uninjured students that had given up on the task ages ago.
However, after experiencing this event, Jian Chen’s and Tie Ta’s reputations in Kargath Academy had reached its peak form. They had already become the greatest stars in the academy; no matter where one went, their names could be heard being discussed.
Jian Chen and Tie Ta, as well as Changyang Hu’s group of three, bid each other farewell, and returned to their own dorms to treat their injuries as well.
In the center of the academy was a tall tower around 100 square meters large. Vice headmaster Chang Bai En was currently respectfully standing in the center of a room on the top of the tower. In front of him sat Kargath Academy’s headmaster, lazily sitting in front of the office desk, with a smiling expression. His profound gaze also had hints of happiness and excitement reflected in them.
“Ah, Bai En, it seems that a genius really has appeared in Kargath Academy this time.” The headmaster excitedly said with a smile.
Vice headmaster Chang Bai En nodded and smiled back, “Headmaster, that is not correct. This time, Kargath Academy has more than one genius; rather there are two. These two are Changyang Xiang Tian and Tie Ta.”
The headmaster shook his head and smiled, “No, it isn’t wrong. Tie Ta’s talent is definitely extremely high, and he also has godly strength. However, compared to Changyang Xiang Tian, he still has a long ways to go.”
Vice headmaster Chang Bai En was surprised at this response, and he asked doubtfully, “Headmaster, why do you say that?”
The headmaster let out a long sigh and said, “You definitely cannot underestimate Changyang Xiang Tian. He is quite a complicated person; no wonder the old fellow at Changyang clan kept praising him.”
“Actually, yesterday afternoon, after I had heard the news that Changyang Xiang Tian and Tie Ta had killed a Class 2 Magical Beast in the 3rd region, I personally rushed over myself to secretly watch them. Although those 2 aren’t Saints yet, their combat abilities cannot be underestimated. Especially Changyang Xiang Tian, with just a broken iron rod, he was pretty much invincible in the 3rd region. Not only are his movements incomparably fast, they are also extremely precise. His battle experience is not anything alike to a 15 year old youth’s; on the contrary, it seems as if he’s a person that has fought 100 battles already. The Class 2 Monster Cores in the two’s hands were pretty much completely killed by Changyang Xiang Tian alone. Tie Ta was simply involved in the fights.”
Hearing this, the vice headmaster Chang Bai En’s gave an incredulous look and asked, “Headmaster, is Changyang Xiang Tian really as formidable as you say?”
The headmaster nodded and said, “If I hadn’t personally witnessed it, I wouldn’t believe that a 15 year old could have such powerful strength either. The most important part is his extensive battle experience and combat techniques. These are not something that can be learned just because one wants to learn it. Without experiencing hundreds of battles, these concepts just cannot be grasped. It’s no wonder that old man Chang praised Changyang Xiang Tian so much; he really is an extremely talented genius. It seems these things were all taught by the old man.”
The vice headmaster Chang Bai En looked relieved as he said, “Under the great master Chang’s guidance, Changyang Xiang Tian would find it difficult to not be renowned.”
The headmaster nodded and said, “Even if old man Chang is guiding from the sidelines, if Changyang Xiang Tian didn’t originally have such outstanding talent, then even old man Chang wouldn’t be able to teach him much, even under careful teaching. If Changyang Xiang Tian wasn’t Changyang clan’s fourth master, I would really make him my apprentice. After all, such geniuses are rare. If he continues to mature like this, it would be fortunate for Gesun Kingdom.”
…….
After the awards ceremony, Jian Chen retrieved a new uniform and then took a shower to completely wash off all of the filth on his body that he had gained from the few days in the forest. After he wore the brand new uniform, he felt refreshed as he headed back the dorm. Although he had battled virtually every single moment during his 3 days in the forest, he didn’t show any traces of exhaustion. In his previous world, he had experienced even worse conditions.
After returning to his room, Jian Chen sat cross-legged on his bed. He held a Class 1 Monster Core in each hand, and began to cultivate. Although Jian Chen’s power had already reached the peak of the 10th Saint Force layer, he could clearly sense that the Saint Force in his body had not yet reached a state of saturation.
As he gradually began to absorb the energy within the monster cores, Jian Chen’s Saint Force once again quickly rose. His speed of cultivation was ten times faster than when he absorbed World Essence.
For the next three days, aside from eating meals, Jian Chen used all of his time to cultivate in his room. Eventually, the Saint Force inside him had already reached a saturated state; no matter how much further Jian Chen tried to absorb the monster cores’ energies, his inner Saint Force would no longer continue to grow.
Jian Chen clearly understood that he needed to rush to Saint level and condense his Saint Weapon. Otherwise, the Saint Force within him would come to an eternal standstill.
In terms of condensing Saint Weapons, Jian Chen had long since clearly learned the procedures to becoming Saint from the school library. It used the principle of condensing all inner Saint Force and slowly shaping it into a Saint Weapon. In the end, one uses their ‘Soul’ to perfectly harmonize with it. Once the inner Saint Force is completely condensed into a weapon, then a person is officially a Saint.
Jian Chen didn’t stop. He took out a Class 4 Monster Core from his Space Belt, preparing to use it if needed, and immediately began to condense a Saint Weapon and rush to Saint level.
The Saint Force in Jian Chen’s dantian was firmly contained by his “Soul”. In the presence of his powerful “Soul”, Jian Chen had absolute control over the Saint Force in his dantian. Jian Chen used his mind to control all the Saint Force within his dantian and gradually began to gather it together. Slowly, he formed it into the shape of a sword, and he finally began to compress it.
Jian Chen’s powerful Soul was brought over from his previous world. Since birth, it far surpassed other people’s and under this power, the weak Saint Force had no way of resisting it. The Saint Force was firmly suppressed by Jian Chen, and he constantly compressed the sword-shaped Saint Force.
As the Saint Force was compressed smaller and smaller, Jian Chen’s dantian that was originally filled with Saint Force quickly began to lessen as well. Despite this, the strength of his Saint Force continued to rise, and the makeshift sword became clearer in form as well. Eventually, it became an extremely tiny sword within his dantian.
At the same time, Jian Chen was still trying to condense it even more.
Although Jian Chen had already successfully gathered and condensed his Saint Force into a sword, this didn’t mean that he had already become a Saint. There was still the last and most difficult step left; this step was precisely what blocked so many people in Tian Yun Continent from becoming Saints for the rest of their lives.
In this last step, he had to merge a part of his Soul into his dantian to completely condense and form the sword and create a spiritual relationship with it. At the same time, he would have to completely harmonize with the Saint Weapon. Although this seemed simple, it was extremely difficult to do in reality.
Although this step was difficult for most people, to those that had incomparably strong Souls like Jian Chen, this was something that could be smoothly performed. Jian Chen directly split a part of his Soul and began to merge it with the condensed Saint Weapon in his dantian. He then used his practiced control to quickly link the two together. Eventually, the two had completely harmonized; they were no longer separate entities.
It was at this moment that Jian Chen had finally become a legitimate Saint. This last step had provided absolutely no obstruction to him.
Just as Jian Chen had perfectly harmonized his Soul and his Saint Weapon, he suddenly felt something strange, as if the condensed sword within him had become his own limb. He could easily control it, and he could also clearly sense every single component of this sword.
Right now, Jian Chen’s dantian didn’t have a single trace of Saint Force remaining inside it. The only thing left was the condensed sword, which acted as the new energy source. The sword seemed extremely tiny; from its width and length, it didn’t seem very different from an embroidery needle.
Now that he had condensed his Saint Weapon, Jian Chen could sense the powerful fluctuations from Saint Weapons far clearer than he had before. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that as an ordinary Saint, he could easily defeat a person at the peak of the 10th Saint Force layer. Unless some unexpected or special circumstances occurred, a person at the peak of the 10th layer would absolutely be no match for a Saint.
Both Jian Chen and Tie Ta were amazing. With Tie Ta’s godly strength, as well as his extremely powerful body, even Jian Chen who had been training Saint Force since he was young was naturally not as powerful as Tie Ta. Tie Ta’s abnormal strength in addition to his formidable defense was enough to make up for any lack of Saint Force. Unless the difference in strength was extremely large, there was no way he could be a match against Tie Ta. At most, they would be stuck at a standstill.
Jian Chen had previously used his power at the peak 10th layer to defeat a middle ranked Saint. Although he had completely relied on the experience and battle techniques from his past world, Jian Chen’s quick sword techniques and his high accomplishments in the ways of the sword, as well as his fighting willpower gained from countless experiences from life-or-death battles in his previous world were enough to make him invincible to those at the same level as him. In addition, battles with ranks higher than him weren’t even worth mentioning either.
At this moment, Jian Chen’s expression suddenly changed. Immediately following, his dantian had surprisingly begun to tremble once more. His entire dantian began to fluctuate intensely in an unstable way. As soon as it began fluctuating, before Jian Chen could react, the World Essence began to frantically burst forth. The countless surrounding World Essence seemed to have been affected by some invisible attractive force, and gradually began to gather where Jian Chen was. At this moment, Jian Chen’s body seemed to have left his control, and it felt as though all of his pores had suddenly opened. They frantically began absorbing the dense World Essence surrounding him.
The energy within the Monster Core in Jain Chen’s hand also fiercely dropped, forming a stream of energy visible to the naked eye which flowed into Jian Chen’s body.
At this moment, Jian Chen’s body was like a bottomless pit. It didn’t matter how strong the World Essence around him was, it was completely absorbed into his body like a whale swallowing water. At the same time, the energy of the Class four Monster Core in his hand rapidly diminished, and the speed at which it was being absorbed was unbelievable. The originally fist sized Monster Core was shrinking at a speed visible to the naked eye.