「The next morning, at the hospital.」

Li Wen had stayed by his father’s bedside all night, not sleeping a wink.

The attending physician came in on his rounds. He offered a gentle smile to the haggard-looking Li Wen and Wang Juan.

"Last night, an urgent payment was made to cover the costs for the special care unit. All of Mr. Li Hong’s examination and treatment fees have been paid in full.

The hospital director and our team of specialists also met overnight and have come up with an even better treatment plan. You can rest assured, we will do everything in our power."

Li Wen was stunned. ’Paid in full? Five hundred thousand? Who paid it?’

He whipped his head around to look at his mother, but Wang Juan looked just as lost and shocked. "It... it wasn’t me. Where would I get that kind of money..."

"Then who was it?" Li Wen’s mind was in turmoil. ’Someone I know, who has the means and the willingness to help me... Could it be the Flying Star Class? The school? Right, yesterday I thought I saw a familiar figure from behind, someone who looked a lot like Teacher Fang. Could it be him?’

His first instinct was to rush to school and ask Teacher Fang.

However, when a doubtful Li Wen rushed to school and found Fang Chengwu during a break in training, the teacher was standing on a walkway in the Hongyi Building, seemingly admiring the scenery.

"Teacher Fang! The hospital bills..." Li Wen began anxiously.

Fang Chengwu turned around, his face still holding that gentle yet inscrutable smile. He raised a hand and gently patted Li Wen’s shoulder, cutting him off.

"Li Wen, I know about your father. It’s all very sudden, and you’re under a lot of pressure."

Li Wen stared into Fang Chengwu’s eyes, trying to find an answer there.

Fang Chengwu met his gaze calmly. "Life inevitably has its low points. When faced with adversity, the brave are the ones who rise up. It’s useless to overthink things right now."

He paused, his eyes sharpening as his voice grew low but carried a certain power.

"I know you desperately need strength right now, and you desperately need to prove yourself. The provincial mock exam is less than three weeks away. This is the first official, province-level stage to test promising seedlings like you.

Observers from all the top martial arts schools, and maybe even people from the four great powerhouse factions, will be watching."

"Unleash your greatest strength and get me a rank in the provincial mock exam that will shake the entire province."

Fang Chengwu’s gaze was scorching, as if it could ignite a fire in Li Wen’s heart.

"If you can break into the top ranks of the province, it’s not impossible that scouts from top-tier academies, or even from the four great factions, will come knocking. Even the lowest-level D-rank contract provides over a million in sponsorship a year.

That is the proper way to solve your problems. It will also allow your father to recuperate with more peace of mind. Understand?"

A jolt went through Li Wen. He understood Teacher Fang’s meaning.

No matter who had paid the bill, now was not the time to be asking about that debt of gratitude.

Rather than pinning his hopes on the vague ’possibility’ of an early contract, he should seize the more tangible, more valuable opportunity right in front of him—the provincial mock exam.

He had to transform his current grief and pressure into a greater drive and use concrete results to knock that door open.

He took a deep breath and nodded heavily, his voice firm. "I understand, Teacher Fang! The mock exam—I will definitely get a good score."

With that, Li Wen gave Fang Chengwu one last deep look. His eyes held gratitude, understanding, and even more, the fighting spirit of someone who had burned his bridges.

He asked no more questions, turning and striding toward the private Martial Arts Rooms.

Behind him, Fang Chengwu watched his straight and determined back, his eyes a mixture of relief and anticipation that finally settled into a profound glimmer.

Li Wen gripped the key to the private training room so tightly his knuckles turned white. His steps were steady and swift.

In his eyes, there was only the upcoming provincial mock exam, only the 99% experience barrier blocking his path to the next level.

Clutching the key, he stood before the private training room, pushed the door open, and stepped inside. The soft click of the heavy, soundproof door shutting behind him sealed off the outside world.

He paced to the center of the room but didn’t immediately pick up his saber.

He closed his eyes, slowly sat down cross-legged, and leaned his back against the cold alloy wall.

He needed to calm his mind.

Lately... he had been too hasty.

Ever since learning of his father’s serious illness before winter break, he had been focused on only one thing: charge! Charge into the Unity Realm at any cost, get a contract offer as fast as possible. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

He was like a mule being frantically whipped, blindly charging down a narrow path of time with his eyes fixed only on the high wall ahead of him known as the bottleneck.

Previously, he had indeed broken through one bottleneck after another by relying on his Scholar level-ups.

But now he realized that wasn’t the right way to break through.

’When my Scholar level was low, I could rely on that.’

’But what about when my Scholar level gets higher?’

’After Level 10, can I still wait for the comprehension boost from a Scholar level-up to break through a bottleneck?’

’The answer is obvious—I can’t!’

Sometimes, fast is slow, and slow is fast.

When he was obsessed with speed, his mind was in chaos.

With his mind consumed by anxiety over the outcome, how could he ever truly immerse himself in the essence of his current cultivation?

This rush for quick success, this eagerness for immediate gains, had cost him his clarity of mind.

A true breakthrough, perhaps, didn’t require a reckless sprint. It needed the quiet accumulation of a deep, still river. It was the natural process of water overflowing when full, of a melon falling when ripe. It was that single, effortless moment that arrives when the mind is free from all distractions.

It could not be forced, only released.

And in the very instant this realization dawned—

HUM!

Deep within his mind, it was as if some long-standing blockage, some deep-seated pressure, was instantly pierced and shattered.

A cool torrent—far more turbulent, pure, and possessing a strange texture than ever before—gushed madly from the very core of his sea of consciousness.

’It’s here! The qualitative change is beginning!’

This torrent was no longer the mist-like, gas-like Spiritual Power he could only vaguely perceive before.

It began to rapidly condense and compress at the very center of the sea of consciousness between his brows.

At first, it was an formless vortex, pulling all his spiritual energy inward to collapse upon itself.

Then, at the center of the rotation, a dazzling, indescribable pinpoint of starlight was born, erupting with a tremendous gravitational pull.

His entire sea of consciousness trembled violently and expanded. The boundless, formless chaos was carved out and propped open by this point of starlight.

The surrounding Spiritual Power transformed into streams of milky-white liquid that glowed with a jade-like luster, flowing like a hundred rivers returning to the sea as they madly converged at the core.

Compression! Condensation! Formation!

Guided by the mysterious point of starlight, the liquid spiritual streams began to form a blurry humanoid silhouette within the roiling core.

This silhouette was initially just a distorted mass of energy, but it stabilized at an astonishing speed, becoming clear and distinct.

Facial features, limbs, torso... it grew more and more detailed, more and more lifelike.

Finally, a tiny humanoid figure, formed entirely from the purest, jade-like Spiritual Power that shimmered with a gentle light, solidified completely within the churning sea of consciousness.

It sat cross-legged with its eyes closed, its face identical to Li Wen’s own.

It hovered silently in the center of that newly-carved, vast, and endless void between his brows, emanating a tranquil, restrained, yet profound and majestic aura.