Chapter 421 - 290: Probing and Winning Over at the Banquet, Advancement in Cultivation

Su Muxue watched her younger sister’s retreating back and sighed.

"Don’t be too hard on her. A person like Han Feng has such a powerful aura that Yunxi can’t find any confidence around him."

"That’s true."

Su Jian rubbed his chin.

"That guy... he’s only twenty, so how does he feel even harder to deal with than the old man?

At the dinner table just now, I could barely handle the old man’s stare, but him? He just ate and drank like nothing was wrong, completely unaffected."

"Because he’s strong enough."

Su Muxue turned and started walking back, her voice sounding exceptionally clear in the night wind.

"Strong enough that he doesn’t need to depend on anyone.

People like him are destined to stand among the clouds."

...

「In the study.」

Su Zhen stood before the floor-to-ceiling window, still rolling the two beads in his hand.

"He’s gone?"

"He’s gone." The butler, Old Chen, stood respectfully behind him. "The young master and young ladies saw him to the door."

"What do you think of this young man?"

Old Chen mulled it over for a moment before offering his assessment:

"Immeasurably deep, with lofty ambitions."

"Indeed..."

Su Zhen sighed as well. "I had thought about recruiting him as a grandson-in-law.

But observing his words and actions, this young man’s ambitions are so lofty that I fear not even East Sea City will be able to hold him."

"That girl, Yunxi, is too simple-minded. She and he are not of the same world. It’s best to let nature take its course."

Finally, Su Zhen looked out at the pitch-black night sky and muttered to himself.

"The great calamity is coming, Dragon Abyss will soon open... These are increasingly chaotic times. I can only hope the Tinder Project can cultivate more outstanding seeds."

"It’s just a pity that time is too short. The Speaker’s plan was ultimately a bit too hasty."

...

The Su family’s anti-gravity flying car was extremely stable, with not a single sound penetrating the interior.

Han Feng sat on the soft leather seat, his eyes closed in rest, but his mind was replaying every frame of the family dinner.

The Su family’s olive branch, Su Zhen’s shrewd and calculating gaze, Su Jian’s enthusiasm, and the starkly different reactions of the Su sisters.

’Great families... none of them are simple.’

However, he didn’t care about any of that.

To him, this was a fair transaction.

He showed sufficient value, and they offered corresponding respect and resources. That was all.

As for Su Yunxi’s girlish crush, he had noticed it but paid it no mind.

Right now, his mind was completely filled with getting stronger, making money, and crossing off that damn ten-million-plus Contribution Point debt.

’Romance?’

’Too much of a luxury.’

’With that kind of time, wouldn’t it be better to study a few more magic models or forge a few more pieces of equipment?’

The flying car stopped at the entrance of East Sea Martial Arts University.

"Mr. Han, this is as far as I can take you," the driver said respectfully.

"Thank you."

Han Feng got out of the car. He looked at the heavily guarded school gate but didn’t walk through it.

His figure flickered and blended into the shadows by the road. With a slight stir of Sword Essence within him, an invisible current of air lifted his body like a pair of wings.

Wind Manipulation Technique!

He seemed to lose all weight, transforming into a Night Owl skimming close to the ground. He silently flitted along the tree-lined path, bypassing all patrols and surveillance cameras.

The tips of his toes tapped lightly on the treetops, like a dragonfly skimming the water’s surface. He didn’t make the slightest sound, not even disturbing a single falling leaf.

Even Old Liu, the butler at his villa whose ears were as sharp as radar, failed to notice that "someone" had returned.

Han Feng’s figure passed like a ghost through a gap in a second-floor window and landed directly in the Underground Cultivation Chamber.

BEEP.

As his identity was verified, the heavy alloy door of the cultivation chamber slowly closed, sealing off everything, inside and out.

Han Feng casually placed the two ore blocks he had received from the Su family to the side.

Then, from his Storage Ring, he took out all the assets he had earned over the past few days as the "Divine Artisan."

In an instant, the small Cultivation Chamber was brightly illuminated by the treasured glow emanating from various Jade Boxes and Porcelain Bottles.

"The deposit from the Iron Wall Mercenary Corps: one bottle of Tier Three Middle Grade Rock Core Body Tempering Liquid."

"From the Blazing Fire Mercenary Corps: three Tier Three Upper Grade Red Flame Fruits."

"From the Wind Wolf adventure team..."

He laid out these Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures one by one. A rough estimate put their total value at nearly ten thousand Spirit Coins.

This sum was enough to buy a decent apartment building in the Outer City of East Sea City.

’The poor pursue literacy, the rich pursue martial arts. The ancients truly did not deceive me.’

Han Feng let out a self-deprecating laugh. Martial Arts cultivation was, at every step, an exercise in burning money.

This was especially true upon reaching the Enlightenment Realm; if one wanted to advance quickly, they had to stuff themselves with resources.

Without further hesitation, he sat down cross-legged, twisted open the bottle of Rock Core Body Tempering Liquid, and drank it all in one go.

A gentle but heavy wave of energy instantly dissolved in his abdomen, surging like a warm current to his limbs and bones, nourishing every cell in his body.

Riding on the momentum of this medicinal power, Han Feng’s eyes focused, and he submerged his Divine Sense into his Dantian Qi Sea.

He mobilized the fifty wisps of newly-formed silver Sword Aura and, without hesitation, charged toward the first illuminated acupoint—the Dubhe Acupoint.

The technique of the Cyan Cloud Spirit Martial Technique was not about gentle nourishment, but "expansion."

It was like forcibly carving out a new room next to an existing one inside his body.

VMMMM!

The incomparably sharp silver Sword Aura transformed into a high-speed, microscopic drill and slammed viciously against the inner wall of the Dubhe Acupoint.

HISS—

A wave of excruciating pain, impossible to describe with words, exploded outwards, instantly overwhelming Han Feng’s every nerve.

The moment the acupoint was damaged, the heavy medicinal power from the Rock Core Body Tempering Liquid immediately surged forward like a soothing rain.

It was like the most effective restorative agent, rapidly mending the wounds.

Damage, repair.

More damage, more repair.

In this endlessly repeating, painful cycle, the inner wall of the Dubhe Acupoint was tempered through countless instances of tearing and healing, growing ever more tenacious and thick.