Ch. 33
Chapter 33. Fourth-Realm Peak, Su Zhan Was Shocked
Night quietly fell.
In the Su family’s living room, Su Zhan watched the news on television and slowly frowned.
“A martial opportunity appeared at the Qinglin River. Anyone who listened to it could awaken martial talent if they were an ordinary person, break through their realm if they were a martial artist, and even evolve their talent?”
He sucked in a sharp breath.
How could such an enormous martial opportunity appear in the Huazhong Region?
Letting ordinary people awaken martial talent and helping martial artists break through was secondary. The truly terrifying part was that this opportunity could actually enhance martial talent.
To a martial artist, that was more shocking than any other opportunity.
For martial artists, martial talent determined their upper limit. If their martial talent could be improved, then that upper limit would rise as well.
If he could encounter something like that, then breaking through the bottleneck of the Martial God realm would become infinitely possible.
Su Zhan immediately took out his phone, opened the martial artist forum, and searched for posts about the Qinglin River.
But as he read the descriptions in the posts, his expression grew stranger and stranger.
“A martial opportunity that a fisherman pulled up with a fishing rod? Isn’t that a little too absurd?”
He checked several more posts, yet every single one still said the martial opportunity had been fished up by an angler.
They also claimed that everyone fishing nearby had awakened martial talent and become martial artists.
By now, the Qinglin River had already been placed under state control, and specialized researchers had been sent to investigate it.
A puzzled look appeared on Su Zhan’s face. As a Martial God, he had seen too many different ways martial opportunities could appear, but this was the first time he had ever heard of one being fished out of a river.
After searching a little longer, he finally found a video from the scene.
In it, a streak of golden light shot from the river straight into the sky, where it gathered into an ancient gate high above.
At the moment the ancient gate opened, countless sacred scriptures floated out, but there was no sound in the video.
According to the comments below, however, there had been obscure and incomprehensible Sanskrit chants at the scene, and those who heard them could enter a state of enlightenment.
He watched the video several times, then let out a sigh. “If only I could encounter an opportunity like this, why would I have to worry about failing to break above the Martial God realm? What a pity.”
Su Zhan set down his phone, pinched the hard metallic surface of his mechanical right leg, and shook his head.
Click.
“Dad, I’m back.”
At that moment, the living room door opened, and Su Linyu walked in, looking incredibly happy.
“Dad, I already ate at Brother Yichen’s place. I’m going back to my room first.” As she spoke, she turned to head upstairs.
Su Zhan frowned. “Stop right there!”
Su Linyu’s steps halted, and she smacked her forehead. She was about to get scolded again.
“Dad, what is it?” She turned around.
Su Zhan rose to his feet with his cane, his face stern. “The butler told me that you’ve been fooling around with Jiang Yichen these last two days and have even neglected your cultivation.”
Su Linyu lowered her head and stubbornly said, “Brother Yichen has been really good to me. It’s not fooling around.”
“Oh? Then tell me what you’ve been doing these past two days.”
Counting on her fingers, Su Linyu said, “Yesterday, I went with Brother Yichen to enjoy a massage and eat delicious food. The dishes made by that private chef were amazing. I’ll bring Dad there to try them another day.”
“Today, I went fishing with Brother Yichen. Dad, do you know how amazing Brother Yichen was? He caught—”
“Nonsense!”
Before Su Linyu could finish, Su Zhan cut her off with an angry roar and pointed at her. “And you still say you weren’t fooling around?”
“The graduation assessment is only one day away, yet instead of cultivating properly and improving your strength, you ran off to enjoy life and go fishing with that useless Jiang Yichen!”
“Do you think you’re worthy of the SSS-grade talent you awakened? Look at you. How long have you been stuck at the sixth level of the fourth realm? And you’re still playing around!”
Su Linyu trembled all over from the shouting. “I wasn’t—”
“You still dare talk back? Starting today, don’t even think about stepping out of the Su family estate. Stay here and cultivate properly.” Su Zhan spoke as if laying down an iron command.
Su Linyu grew anxious. She still had to deliver breakfast to Brother Yichen tomorrow morning.
Her eyes shifted. Wasn’t Dad only afraid that she would neglect her cultivation?
She had an idea.
“Then how about this? If I break through to the eighth level of the fourth realm, you can’t stop me from seeing Brother Yichen anymore,” she said with her chin raised.
Su Zhan gave a cold snort. She had only been at the sixth level of the fourth realm before the graduation ceremony. Breaking through to the eighth level in such a short time was absolutely impossible without at least a month.
Since his daughter was willing to use a breakthrough as the stake, that was fine with him.
“All right, I agree. If you can break through to the eighth level of the fourth realm, I won’t stop you anymore.”
A triumphant smile curved across Su Linyu’s lips. She immediately mobilized the Blood Qi throughout her body, and Vermilion Bird flames swirled around her.
“Sorry, Dad, but I’m already at the peak of the fourth realm.” She stuck out her tongue at Su Zhan and spoke mischievously.
Su Zhan’s pupils shook violently, and his face filled with shock.
Feeling that blazing aura, he realized that his daughter truly had reached the peak of the fourth realm!
How was that possible? Two days ago, she had only been at the sixth level, yet in such a short span of time she had broken through three levels in a row?!
No, that was not all. His daughter’s martial talent seemed different from before.
Su Zhan sent a strand of Spiritual Energy over to inspect her, and the flames around Su Linyu immediately took the form of a Vermilion Bird, as if resisting his spiritual probe.
His pupils contracted sharply, and delight burst into his eyes. “Linyu, your martial talent improved?”
Su Linyu nodded, looking quite pleased with herself. “That’s right. It was all thanks to Brother Yichen. If he hadn’t discovered the martial opportunity in the Qinglin River, my martial talent would never have transformed.”
“Dad, you’ve always underestimated Brother Yichen. He really is amazing.”
Jiang Yichen? The Qinglin River?
Su Zhan instantly remembered the news report from earlier. A chance encounter capable of improving martial talent had appeared in the Qinglin River.
Jiang Yichen had discovered it while fishing?
That brat must have stumbled into it by sheer dumb luck.
After thinking for a moment, Su Zhan asked, “Since your talent improved, did Jiang Yichen improve as well?”
If Jiang Yichen had seized that opportunity and raised his martial talent...
Then with Divine Sense Amplification, if he worked hard in the future, becoming a spiritual psychic would not be a bad path.
The gap between him and Linyu would still be huge, but at least Jiang Yichen would give him a glimmer of hope.
He would no longer be the same useless fool as before, wasting his cultivation for the sake of some other woman.
“About that... no, but Brother Yichen has already broken through to the third realm. He’ll definitely pass the graduation assessment,” Su Linyu said with absolute confidence.
The moment Su Zhan heard that, disappointment immediately appeared in his eyes.
The opportunity had been right in front of him, and he still failed to seize it. What a useless piece of trash.
A breakthrough to the third realm? Jiang Zhentian had probably given Jiang Yichen some heavenly treasure to stop him from forming an alliance with the Zhou family.
As for discovering the martial opportunity, that was probably just luck.
Now that his daughter’s talent had risen yet another step, he had even less reason to let her marry a waste.
And not just any waste, but one who was lazy by nature and still had the leisure to go fishing when the graduation assessment was right around the corner.
This engagement had to be canceled!
A resolute expression appeared on Su Zhan’s face. As soon as the graduation assessment results came out, he would go to the Jiang family and call off the engagement.
“Linyu, I’ll keep my promise, but after you deliver breakfast tomorrow morning, you must come straight home. You are not allowed to keep fooling around with Jiang Yichen.”
Su Linyu immediately grew anxious. “Dad, you’re not keeping your word.”
Su Zhan struck the floor several times with his cane. “I’m doing this for your own good. Let me tell you this right now: you and Jiang Yichen are absolutely impossible.”
“I’ll personally attend the graduation assessment, and with Jiang Yichen’s terrible results, I’ll go to the Jiang family and dissolve your engagement.”
“My daughter, Su Zhan’s daughter, absolutely cannot marry a useless man who is lazy by nature!”
“Brother Yichen isn’t useless. He’s the most perfect idol in my heart.”
Puffing up her cheeks angrily, Su Linyu said, “Even if you cancel the engagement, I’m not afraid. If you force me to marry into the Zhou family, then I’ll cuckold the Zhou family’s young master. I’ll flaunt my love with Brother Yichen and have his children.”
“We’ll see who breaks first. I will never give up on Brother Yichen.”
After throwing down those furious words, Su Linyu turned and ran upstairs to her room.
Su Zhan trembled with rage. “A disgrace to the family! A disgrace to the family!”
Bang!
Su Linyu shut the bedroom door. She did not turn on the light, but slowly crouched down with her back against the door.
In the faint moonlight filtering through the window, countless photos of Jiang Yichen covered the walls.
Su Linyu took out the photo they had taken together at school last time from her pocket.
Alone in the dark room, she no longer hid her emotions and began to cry.
“Brother Yichen finally started showing signs of moving away from Lin Wan and accepting me again, so why does it feel like everyone is trying to stop it?”
Crystal-clear tears dripped onto the photo, and she hurriedly wiped them away with care. Her voice caught in her throat as she spoke to the photo.
“Brother Yichen, even if you fail the graduation assessment, even if so many people look down on you, I still won’t give up. I just hope you won’t give up on me again.”
Holding the photo tightly, Su Linyu lay down on the bed and slowly drifted off to sleep.