anwhile, Lan Hao braced himself and pushed open the ironwood door. This was the core area; through the window, one could see that bronze tower.
"You're back." Lan Hai stood up, his attitude very warm. On the display rack behind him, rare mineral specins sealed in amber were neatly arranged.
"Father," Lan Hao called out with his head lowered.
"Not bad. Going out does temper a person," Lan Hai chuckled. "But between us father and son, there's no need to be so formal."
Lan Hao's expression shifted, but he remained silent. Lan Hai, however, looked out the window with a sigh. "I really didn't expect that the mont Su Chen arrived, he would gain the recognition of the Ancient King Stele."
He originally thought that even if the Ancient King intervened and killed Hu Qi to show his stance, it wouldn't have much to do with Su Chen himself. It would only deter those with ulterior motives, but it wouldn't eliminate the scrutiny of the vast majority toward Su Chen.
"But now, the montum Venerable Qin Yun had built up for so long was instantly shattered. Having gained the recognition of the Ancient King Stele, his status as a Star Seed is now seventy or eighty percent secure."
"I'm afraid no one will dare to ntion the idea of replacing him anymore."
Speaking of this, Lan Hai couldn't help but marvel, "Still, it's truly unbelievable. With his talent, how could he trigger the Ancient King Stele the very mont he arrived?"
Lan Hao hesitated and said, "Father, I might know a thing or two about that."
"Oh?"
Seeing his father's inquiring look, Lan Hao recounted how Lin Yue and Wan Chen were consecutively defeated by Su Chen on the spaceship.
"His strength is actually that high... and he's only at the fourth tier..."
After hearing this, Lan Hai's expression shifted slightly, becoming unpredictable. "It seems that gaining the recognition of Grand Exalt Crimson Fla Resounding Thunder wasn't just about compatibility. He has a secret—a massive secret."
"No wonder he could be recognized by the Ancient King Stele."
A surge of greed swelled in his heart, but he soon sighed. "Unfortunately, he has already arrived at the sect. Ninety percent of our underhanded thods can no longer be used."
"Fortunately, we established a good relationship with him in advance. The matter of him marrying into our family cannot be delayed." Lan Hai pondered. There might still be an opportunity to pry into Su Chen's secrets later.
But when he glanced over, he saw Lan Hao's expression fluctuating, his gaze faintly evasive.
He knew his son extrely well and imdiately sensed sothing was wrong. His voice darkened. "How did you handle what I instructed you to do earlier?"
"I..." Lan Hao swallowed hard and hurriedly said, "I've already improved my relationship with Su Chen."
"Is that so?" Lan Hai asked questioningly. Cold sweat instantly rolled down Lan Hao's forehead, and he stamred.
"Speak!"
Lan Hao gritted his teeth and said, "That day, when Hu Qi died..."
"You... you actually didn't speak up to testify?!" Lan Hai flew into a rage upon hearing this. "Fool! You absolute fool!"
"Wan Chen had already taken the lead to speak. If you had just chid in, even if Hu Qi didn't die, how much heat would have fallen on you? What were you afraid of? Do you think your father is just for show?!"
Lan Hai found it incomprehensible. How could Lan Hao miss such an opportunity to show his face before the Ancient King and sell Su Chen a favor?
"I..." Lan Hao was drenched in sweat, but he also felt a bit resentful. "The situation developed too quickly. I didn't have ti to speak."
"How did I end up with such a..." Lan Hai took a deep breath but managed to hold back his words. He knew Lan Hao still hadn't adjusted his mindset.
Fundantally, he still harbored a certain reluctance to accept Su Chen's rise, which had led to his hesitation at a critical mont.
"I'll go apologize..." Lan Hao said hesitantly.
"There's no need." Lan Hai shot him a look, rubbing his temples. "It's completely aningless now."
If he forced Lan Hao to interact with Su Chen again, his ntality would probably beco twisted. This was his son, after all.
Hearing this, Lan Hao breathed a sigh of relief. He truly didn't know what attitude to adopt when facing Su Chen; he just couldn't seem to find the right balance.
"You... avoid contacting Su Chen for the ti being," Lan Hai mused. "The round trip took half a year, wasting a lot of ti. Focus on improving yourself first."
"Yes." Lan Hao nodded solemnly and said, "Father, my preparations for the Nourisher are almost complete."
"Almost?" Lan Hai was surprised. "You..."
Lan Hao nodded. "On the way back, I spent the entire ti fulfilling the requirent for lethal wound restoration."
He was truly stimulated quite a bit, wasn't he? Lan Hai felt sowhat gratified. "Good. After you assu the class, you can also strive for a third special class."
Lan Hai thought for a mont and comforted him, "Although the Morning Star rank is formidable, Qin Yun and Chu Lingyuan aren't enough to make grovel and flatter them."
"Even if Su Chen reaches the Morning Star rank, if you can achieve dual ninth-tier, with the deep foundations passed down through generations of our Lan family, you'll only be half a step behind him."
"Furthermore, your chances of achieving dual ninth-tier are far greater than his chances of advancing to the Morning Star rank."
Lan Hao's heart surged with emotion, and he imdiately responded in a resonant voice, "I will definitely work hard."
"This place really isn't small."
Su Chen looked at the floating island before him. It was suspended within a tranquil energy field. At first glance, there weren't many tallic structures; instead, quite a few oddly shaped plants were cultivated here.
For instance, there were fan palms that looked as if they had been plated in mithril. Every fan-shaped silver leaf swayed on its own in the windless environnt, producing a soft rustling sound.
The trunks were translucent, allowing one to see liquid energy circulating along the xylem inside.
There weren't many buildings on the island. The main building featured a streamlined tower design, its outer walls covered with an adaptive gray-blue coating that shifted in shade depending on the lighting.
The building lacked windows, replaced instead by neatly arranged diamond-shaped tal panels.
Scattered around the main building were six or seven low-rise annexes of various designs. Soone was already tidying up the place, all of them chanical entities.
"If you don't like using these chanical entities, you can also recruit human staff, though you'll have to pay for them yourself," Wan Chen explained.
"These are perfectly fine." Su Chen swept his gaze around, highly satisfied.
Having escorted them here, Wan Chen exchanged contact information with Su Chen before turning to leave.
Ming Lin naturally lived on this floating island with him and proactively took on the responsibility of managing these chanical entities.
Seeing this, Su Chen didn't know what Chong Jingtian had instructed Ming Lin to do, so he could only say, "You should focus on your training. There aren't really any chores you need to worry about."
"Don't worry, I won't fall behind," Ming Lin smiled.
Su Chen opened his wristband, briefly recorded Ming Lin's physical features, and searched for permissions he could grant.
"Servant—movent range is fixed. If discovered outside of it, they will be captured and sent back."
"Attendant—cannot approach the core area and will be expelled..."
After searching for a long ti, Su Chen finally found a suitable permission: "Proxy—possesses partial permissions of the primary user. All permission-required commands will be recorded on file."
"I'll go for a stroll outside and get a general feel for the place first," Ming Lin said.
The Bronze Sect was ancient and complex. Even though one could look up information at any ti, the texts were as vast as an ocean, and it wasn't sothing that could be fully understood in a short amount of ti.
Moreover, he believed that even in a place like the Bronze Sect, there were many under-the-table matters that couldn't be found just by looking through docunts.
"Alright." Su Chen watched Ming Lin leave before entering the main building and taking a brief tour.
There was a dedicated training room here. While a spiritual pressure ring was convenient to carry around...
...the training room here was far more ticulous and exquisite, capable of simulating almost any training environnt and the required elents.
It could even perform deep bodily scans to identify flaws and deficiencies in the circulation of one's training thods.
There was also a combat simulator, a kitchen, and a potion storage room—it had everything one could possibly need.
'I suppose I've established a foothold now.'
After finishing his tour, Su Chen returned to the training room. It was incredibly spacious, with the walls, floor, and even the ceiling entirely plated in silver-white tal panels.
He adjusted the gravity multiplier and various other data points. Once everything was roughly set, he opened his communication wristband again.
As a Star Seed, he lacked none of the standard privileges, such as a dedicated class analysis team.
'I probably won't have much use for this. I can't exactly tell them about my massive pile of classes.'
There was also a potion supply that fluctuated at any ti based on his personal consumption.
'It's basically an unlimited supply, but it's impossible to request extra.'
Su Chen completely understood this restriction; it was to prevent individuals from exploiting sect loopholes for large-scale potion reselling.
There were also food supplies and such. The benefits were plentiful.
After a cursory glance, Su Chen's eyes settled on the so-called Sanctuary Leaderboard. His data had already been updated, but he didn't have a specific ranking yet.
"Please proceed to the Challenge Center for your initial ranking assessnt to anchor your position."
Su Chen looked at the prompt with so surprise. He scrolled through the details and finally understood.
The primary thod for anchoring a rank on this leaderboard was through combat—not against real people, but against training projections.
For the initial ranking, he would face a special training projection. He could unleash his full strength upon it, and it would calculate an appropriate ranking based on his comprehensive strength and various data points on the leaderboard.
After securing a rank, if he wanted to challenge a stronger opponent, he would also face their training projection. This approach not only saved ti but also prevented the festering of blood feuds.
Because the people on the leaderboard would almost constantly engage in challenges—whether to hone themselves or advance their rankings—the data collection for these training projections was extrely comprehensive.
The margin of error was incredibly small. Soone had once tested it: if two people ranked right next to each other fought a hundred tis, the probability of the projection yielding an inaccurate result wouldn't exceed five percent.
'As for the rewards...' Su Chen skimd the list. Depending on the ranking, there would be various rewards—Star Coins, special resources, or assistance in completing class requirents. There was a vast assortnt.
In short, the higher the rank, the better. And what Su Chen was most interested in was a special reward reserved only for the top one hundred.
"...Creation Cosmos..."
'This thing sounds pretty formidable.' Su Chen checked the detailed description.
"...Utilize the power of the Creation Cosmos to assist in fulfilling class requirents..."
'Wait...' Su Chen's brows shot up. He carefully read it again and muttered, "I can't believe sothing like this exists."
Class requirents were bizarre and varied. They included self-mutilation, item collection, rituals, and so on. They were incredibly complex, and so even had specific ti constraints.
The so-called Creation Cosmos used a special power to construct an environnt identical to reality to fulfill these class requirents.
For instance, the Spirit Word Lawmaster class Su Chen had already assud possessed the bizarre requirent of enacting laws and having people strictly enforce them. Normally, this would take a very long ti to accomplish.
But with this tool, he could conjure a suitable environnt out of thin air, complete with living beings, to satisfy the class requirent.
Furthermore, it wasn't a simple illusion; it was a "reality" genuine enough to satisfy the class's pseudo-spiritual authentication.
It could even accelerate the flow of ti within that environnt. Its utility was absolutely heaven-defying.
"Forging reality from illusions. That's absolutely insane..." Su Chen couldn't help but marvel.
Of course, the "Creation Cosmos" had its limitations. It could only create external environnts and had no way to influence requirents that physically affected the body.
For things like collecting items to enhance oneself, the Creation Cosmos fell short. It was primarily effective for ritual-type and environnt-type requirents.
Even so, it was incredibly powerful. Naturally, its consumption was also terrifyingly high. Even those in the top one hundred could only use it once a year.
The higher the rank, the more tis it could be used.
'What an incredible treasure...'
After thoroughly understanding it, a sharp glint flashed in Su Chen's eyes. This ability was extrely useful to him. Others might wait until the most difficult juncture to use it, striving for absolute certainty.
After all, using it once didn't guarantee that the class requirent would definitely be fulfilled on that attempt.
But he was different. He could use essences and divine power to influence his classes, weakening or outright erasing the requirents, making them not that difficult to begin with.
If he used this thing to assist him on top of that, the ti required could be drastically reduced.
At this thought, Su Chen couldn't help but break into a wide grin, repeatedly praising, "As expected of the Bronze Sect."
'I wonder if other sects have similar capabilities. It works out perfectly; what I'm seeking isn't just one or two sacred classes.'
He rubbed his palms together, eager to give it a try. 'I wonder what rank I'll get on my first attempt.'
Thinking of this, his heart stirred. He opened his interface again and frowned. 'However, the amount of essences I have is a bit too sparse.'
Among these essences, aside from Crimson and Dark Plague which still had two portions left, Faceless Ghost and Black Fiend only had one portion remaining. The Cunning Fox essence had been completely depleted.
It was far from enough to support the massive demands of his sacred classes.
'Trickster God Power...' He switched to another application with a shopping basket icon; it was the sect's internal exchange system.
He could use Star Coins and contribution points to exchange for various resources, but so rare resources required a combination of both. Right now, he had absolutely nothing.
But after searching, he couldn't find any Trickster God Power either.
'This stuff is considered a taboo resource even within the sect. It can't be mobilized casually.'
'Tsk... that's a bit troubleso.'
Su Chen's eyes flickered. Trickster God Power was a strict necessity; he had to find a stable source for it.
'Old Qing ntioned before that Trickster God Power could be sold, which naturally ans it can be bought. I'll probably need to find a channel for it, and I'll also need Star Coins...'
Su Chen rubbed his chin. He was a bit broke at the mont.
'Nether Domain Stones...' He rembered a path he had already scouted out and checked the price of Nether Domain Stones.
'They really aren't cheap. A single sub-stone costs a million Star Coins, and a mother-stone is over ten million.'
He hadn't been in the Mortal Star Sea for long, so he didn't have a concrete concept of the value of Star Coins. However, he looked up the price of fourth-tier training potions for comparison.
A bottle of body-tempering potion only cost around ten to twenty thousand Star Coins.
'I think there's still a three billion Star Coin bounty on my head. It's probably up to four billion by now...'
Su Chen was secretly left speechless. He was half-tempted to kill himself to collect the bounty.
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