As soon as the insane absorption of the qi into Long Chen's body ended, he fell onto the ground, dead tired. He was barely holding on after these five days. Long Chen was beginning to feel like he would not be able to hold on for even one more day, but thankfully, the phenomenon stopped on time.
After resting for an hour, Long Chen woke up and dragged his tired body to his bed and swiftly, he fell asleep. He slept soundly for a whole day before eventually walking up. As he got up, he found Xun sitting on the bed next to him.
"About time you woke up! Congratulations on breaking through the Gold Core realm, or should I say, the Red Core realm," Xun told him with a gentle smile on her face.
Long Chen sent his consciousness deep into his Martial Space to observe the changes that happened to it after he broke through. There, he couldn't help but be amazed by what he saw. There was a blood-red core rotating at the center of his Martial space and above the head of his Martial Soul. It looked as if it was a blood-red sun, lighting up the entirety of his Martial Space.
His Martial Soul stood below that red core; his eyes were still closed, but Long Chen noticed a slight change in his Martial Soul. Before breaking through, his Martial soul looked like the 12-year-old boy whom he transmigrated into. But now, although it looked similar in terms of facial features, it was clearly older and taller. It used to look like a kid. However, now it looked like a teenager.
There were some changes to the armor of his Martial Spirit as well. His old, completely golden armor now had various patterns embellished upon it; all red in color. Long Chen noticed that the patterns looked similar to the patterns that Long Chen saw on the walls of the Bloodline Temple, the place where he entered in order to participate in this test. As for the sword in his Martial Soul's hands, although it remained mostly the same, somehow it now looked sharper and even more threatening.
Long Chen again turned his attention back to his core to observe it carefully. He was shocked when he saw three black lines already visible on his core. He immediately brought his consciousness back as he stared at Xun.
"There are three Spirit lines on my red core!! Did I actually broke through to the 3rd stage of Gold Core realm in a single attempt??" Asked Long Chen with a shocked expression written all over his face.
Long Chen knew that in the Gold Core realm, a person's core will have something called Spirit Lines on it. Just as how a cultivator at the first stage of the Gold Core realm has one Spirit Line, a ninth stage Gold Core realm cultivator would have had nine Spirit Lines on his core! Although his core wasn't golden but rather red. He couldn't help but be shocked when he saw the three Spirit Lines which had appeared on his core.
"That's right, you're a third strange Gold Core realm cultivator now! If you couldn't break through to the third stage of the Gold Core realm, after emptying most of the qi in the nearby areas, then wouldn't your talent truly be trash." Said Xun gave a light chuckle as she said to Long Chen.
"Amazing! I've never heard of someone breaking into the Gold Core realm at 12, won't I be a miracle if anyone in our kingdom finds out about this?" Long Chen smiled as he said
"Well... actually..."
Xun looked like she wanted to say something, but stopped herself.
"What is it?" Long Chen asked with curiosity.
"Ahem nothing," Xun said.
"Hmm, I'm in the Gold Core realm, but I don't have any suitable techniques I can use in this realm to fight Gold Core enemies other than Seven Forms of Saint Sword. Do you have any Martial skills you can teach me? I'm sure that Tian Shen's storage space inside this ring must have many awesome techniques. If only you could allow me to take a peek," said Long Chen slyly.
"Good try! Of course, there are many strong Martial skills in there, but no! You can't access Tian Shen's storage space!" Xun said.
"As for teaching you a skill, well... I do know quite a bit of skill but I can't teach you anything at the moment. You'll be getting many Martial skills after your pass this trial as a reward but other than that, I can't give you any Martial skills myself as that would be considered as me directly involving myself to help you in this test and that would break the Blood Temple's rules." Xun said in a serious voice, a direct contrast with her former attitude.
"So I can't learn a new Martial skill before passing this test?" Long Chen asked with a downcast expression.
"I apologize, but I can't help you with that," Xun told him.
"It's fine. I still have my old techniques. Although they won't be as effective as stronger ones, but with my Gold Core cultivation, I can at the very least bring out the best in them." Said Long Chen, radiating positivity.
Xun couldn't help but smile radiantly as she heard Long Chen's words.
"It's about time I get to work and do what we are here to do!" Long Chen said looking at Xun.
"This mask has a time limit of ten minutes, so I need to steal that orb in ten minutes or I would be recognized. Wait a minute... I remember now! It has a limitation of ten minutes, but this limit increases with the increase of the user's cultivation! Since I'm currently in the Gold Core, it can last twice as long. Ah... I almost forgot the most important part," Long Chen struck his head with a light punch as he remembered a rather important piece of information.
"Since I now have more time, I won't need to take as much risk as before. At first, I was planning to go within a hundred-meter radius of the orb's location without the mask, disguise with the mask on and enter to steal the orb. But now I can do it slightly farther away from the actual heavily guarded location," Long Chen said with a happy smile.
Long Chen got up from the bed and changed his clothes to his newer ones. After preparing himself, he exited the place. The maid which was still standing outside started following him as Long Chen walked ahead.
"You don't need to follow me, just stay there. I'm just going for a short walk in the hall and I'll be right back. You don't need to go back and forth with me as I'll be returning here soon," Long Chen said
"But..." The maid tried rejecting Long Chen.
"No buts. Why don't you get rest while I take a walk? You've been standing here all the while. Go inside my room and take a rest. The bed is really comfortable, you know? If I need anything, I'll wake you up when I'm back," replied Long Chen swiftly.
"But going inside the guest's room when he's not inside is against the rules." She meekly rebutted.
"If anyone knocks, don't open the door and no one will know. I'll be back soon," said Long Chen as he touched the maid's back and gently pushed her into the room.
The maid felt a current storm through her body as soon as Long Chen touched her back, her cheeks turned red as she stopped thinking and entered the room.
Long Chen immediately departed.
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