Chapter 205: Chapter 83: The Extraordinary Realm and Cultivation

After the physical assessment ended, everyone stayed at the camp for another day, only returning to school on the last day of 2014.

Almost everyone received an extremely detailed physical examination report, along with related Cultivation and health advice from professional Cultivators and Physicians.

Everyone’s constitution is different, so Cultivation naturally needs to be tailored to the individual. This is especially true in the Junior Level of Spiritual Qi Cultivation, where physical condition is still very important. Under the same conditions, a sick person could never outperform their healthy self. What one eats daily and how much rest is needed to maintain peak physical condition were all issues worthy of attention.

Take Shao Qiming, for example. After a detailed physical exam, it was determined that his Spiritual Attribute leaned toward ’Yang and Wood,’ with an affinity for life and light. The advice he received was to get at least eight hours of ample sleep every day, get more sun, eat more fruit, and eat less saltwater fish. If conditions permitted, he should consider living in a place with abundant plant life and sunlight to better his Cultivation.

This constitution was likely the result of his body constantly fighting a Yin Attribute Curse over the years, further strengthened by a Wisdom Fruit. The advice Shao Qiming received was quite normal, basically a template for the vast majority of students.

Su Zhou’s advice, on the other hand, was rather strange.

"Spiritual Attribute: ’Wind Thunder,’ possessing strong Spiritual Qi influence... Sleep recommendation: sleep until you wake up naturally. If conditions permit, you should go to the peak of a mountain in a thunderstorm-prone area and cultivate bare-chested in the wind and rain..."

Sitting on the armored bus back to school, Su Zhou frowned. He slapped his thigh, a ’what the hell is this supposed to mean’ look on his face as he scanned the report in his hands. "No dietary advice, just that I should eat my fill every day to ensure sufficient nutrition... You think I need you to tell me that? Was I going to starve myself?!"

"The lifestyle recommendations are even more absurd. I should ideally live in cumulonimbus clouds or the upper-middle troposphere? Do they really think I’m some kind of sky Dragon? Why not just tell me to pitch a tent under a high-voltage tower."

However, after saying this, Su Zhou thought of the Divine Wood World, of the Cloud Peak sky above the Immortal Banyan Tree...

’That place seems to fit the requirements pretty well, doesn’t it?’

"Try to be a little more understanding of the Cultivators who gave the advice." Shao Qiming, who was sitting beside him, took the recommendation sheet from Su Zhou. He laughed out loud after reading it and tried to console him, "You’re already a Transcendent—the Cultivators giving the advice might not even be at Tier Three of the Awakening Realm. What kind of advice do you expect them to give? They’re probably at their wit’s end, too."

That may have been true, but it didn’t stop him from roaring with laughter.

Back at school, Su Zhou certainly drew a lot of attention, cheers, and gasps of amazement from the crowds of students and teachers. However, most people weren’t as stunned as those at the camp. It was more of a detached, spectator-like feeling of, ’Our school produced a national champion!’

This wasn’t surprising. After all, the entire high school was preparing for the college entrance exams. Su Zhou was amazing, so what? After a moment of envy, they still had to work hard for their own scores.

Besides, Su Zhou had already demonstrated immense Talent in Spiritual Energy Class. Him taking first place felt almost natural and expected. Coupled with the fact that most people hadn’t witnessed it in person, their reactions were just so-so.

When he returned home, Father Su and Su’s Mother celebrated with the Shao Family. They happily spent the last day of 2014 and New Year’s Day together, and even spent a good while on the phone sharing the good news with relatives back in their hometown.

Su Zhou’s paternal grandparents had passed away early, but upon hearing the news, his various uncles, aunts, and other relatives all called one after another. This wave of enthusiasm lasted for a full day before he managed to calm them down by explaining that he needed to prepare for the Holy Ascension Selection Test.

「Late at night, January 4, 2015.」

Having finished a day of studying and Cultivation, Su Zhou stood by his bedroom window. He gazed outside and activated his Spiritual Vision.

At this very moment, the Spiritual Qi between heaven and earth was already incredibly dense, even slightly surpassing the concentration in the Divine Wood World.

Whether Su Zhou gazed into the distance or up at the sky, all he could see was an expanse of pure azure Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi drifting like clouds. He wondered if it was the same in the Cosmos—if the empty Void of space was also filled with an endless tide of azure.

Although this azure qi was dense, it surprisingly didn’t obstruct his Spiritual Vision. It was as if this "azure color" was merely a synesthetic effect of his Spiritual Qi sense on his sight, rather than a true color.

But Su Zhou wasn’t sure if things would stay this way once the Spiritual Qi concentration became even higher.

’With such a high concentration of Spiritual Qi, and now that I’ve reached the Extraordinary Realm, I can try to construct a complete Gale Armor.’

In the days since advancing to the Extraordinary Realm, Su Zhou had been stabilizing his Cultivation... To be precise, it wasn’t so much stabilization as it was an assessment of his current power—the "know thyself" part of "know thyself, know thy enemy."

’If I were to say my total Spiritual Power before reaching the Extraordinary Realm was equivalent to about fifteen Zhou Buyis, then after reaching it, my total Spiritual Power is at least seventy to eighty Zhou Buyis!’

’In other words, it’s increased at least five-fold!’

Because Zhou Buyi was the most well-rounded Cultivator Su Zhou had met in the Divine Wood World in terms of stats, with a Spiritual Power Value of roughly ten thousand, Su Zhou used him as a basic unit to measure his own strength.

He thought carefully. ’However, compared to the Awakening Tier where my physical strength grew rapidly, my body hasn’t been strengthened much in the Extraordinary Tier. Instead, my Soul has grown at a tremendous rate, as has my control over Spiritual Power.’

’Thinking about it, the progression is quite clear. Spirit Awakening is for sensing Spiritual Power. The Awakening Tier develops one’s physical potential. The Extraordinary Tier enhances the Soul and Spiritual Power. The next stage, Commander Tier, must be a full-body Transcendent Transformation, turning one into a walking Celestial Calamity. The destructive power might even rival natural phenomena.’

WHOOSH— The sound of wind whistled. Su Zhou raised his right hand. A translucent, bluish-purple orb of Spiritual Qi could be seen flashing within the flesh of his wrist.

That was a Gale Seed. It was absorbing Spiritual Qi from Su Zhou and his surroundings, generating a violent yet solid, translucent Wind Shield that coiled around his right fist. Although it looked inconspicuous, Su Zhou knew that if he were to punch his own wall with this fist wreathed in the Wind Shield, the resulting blast of wind would be enough to easily demolish the entire room.

And for defense, this Gale Shield was also strong enough to block most pistol and rifle bullets, as well as stray projectiles.

Su Zhou clenched his fist in satisfaction. The abundant Spiritual Power gave him a very tangible sense of strength. ’No wonder I could only construct four Gale Seeds during the Awakening Tier, even with my Talent. But now, having just advanced to the Extraordinary Realm, I can already construct at least twenty, enough to roughly cover my entire body.’

’Once I cultivate a little more, build a Spiritual Qi Organ inside my body to store Spiritual Qi, and reach the Extraordinary Early Stage, then achieving Minor Achievement in my full-body Gale Armor will be just around the corner.’

Based on Yara’s recent teachings and his own analysis, Su Zhou figured that Minor Achievement in the full-body Gale Armor should correspond to the Extraordinary Middle Stage. Ordinary humans didn’t have his vast amount of Spiritual Energy, so they would have to wait until the Extraordinary Middle Stage to reach Minor Achievement, and High Tier to reach Great Success. At that point, every single move would be augmented by hundreds of tons of additional power and defense, granting them the strength to shatter cities and crush armies.

For context, a heavy tank typically weighs around forty to fifty tons. The heaviest tank in the history of the European Union was just over one hundred and eighty tons. When the time came, Su Zhou could toss them all around like balls relying on his Gale Armor alone.

However, Su Zhou had no intention of displaying the defensive aspect of his Gale Armor in public.

He only planned to use the Gale produced by the armor, combined with his Wind Aid ability, to make himself look like a Transcendent with the ’Wind Thunder’ Attribute.

As for why, Su Zhou felt the answer was simple—he had already shown enough of his Talent and strength. He needed to keep a trump card for himself. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

Right now, almost everyone knew he had dual Wind and Thunder Attributes. So, he would continue to reinforce this public perception, making everyone think he was a Wind Thunder Attribute Transcendent who specialized in ’long-range’ attacks. And that while his physical strength was also great, his class was, for all intents and purposes, a Mage!

But if someone were to actually try and use this information to ambush him, Su Zhou could unleash his true Attributes—using the Fire Element’s ’Burst and Enhancement’ to strengthen his body, then combine that with the superhuman reaction speed granted by the Sacred Geometry: Pentagram to fight in close combat!

’—You thought I was a Mage? You wanted to launch a sneak attack on me?’

’Surprise! I’m actually a melee fighter!’

Cultivating the Gale Armor was second nature to the current Su Zhou. Even as the number of Gale Seeds increased, and each new Seed had to be placed in coordination with the previous ones and linked into a network with Spiritual Power, creating one per day was no problem at all.

Studying, cultivating... time passed just like that, until Saturday, January 10, 2015.

As Su Zhou cultivated his tenth Gale Seed, he encountered a small bottleneck in his Extraordinary Early Stage.