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Ding-a-ling.
The bell for class dismissal rang.
Shi Quan did not get up immediately; instead, he carefully finished reading the last few pages of the book in his hand before slowly rising.
He looked at the empty classroom, picked up his book, and walked out of the classroom, heading towards the library.
He had borrowed these books before the school holiday last semester, and it had already been over a week since school started, yet he had only just finished them.
"Dean, I'm here to return the books."
Shi Quan gently knocked on the library door, peered inside, and only entered after seeing Marde's figure.
Marde asked with a smile, "Were these books difficult to understand this time?"
Shi Quan smiled, rubbed his head, and shook it, saying, "Not at all, it's just that I was delayed for a while when I went home, so it took me a bit longer."
Marde looked at the intelligent Shi Quan, stepped forward, took the books from his hand, and affectionately patted his head, saying gently, "Child, I have two questions I want to ask you. Can you answer me truthfully?"
Shi Quan looked up at Marde's somewhat cloudy eyes, thought for a moment, and said, "Dean, please ask. I will tell you truthfully."
"Good child." Marde nodded in satisfaction, led Shi Quan to sit down, and then asked, "Child, your Blue Silver Grass Martial Spirit should be a mutated Martial Spirit, right?"
Shi Quan nodded in affirmation, "Yes, Dean."
"May I see it?"
"No problem, Dean."
Shi Quan raised his right hand and released his Blue Silver Grass Martial Spirit.
"Such strong Life." Marde looked at the emerald-blue Blue Silver Grass in Shi Quan's hand, and the light in his eyes brightened.
His previously serious expression immediately relaxed, and a smile appeared on his lips.
As the saying goes, amateurs watch the excitement, while experts see the Dao.
Marde's Martial Spirit theory was also profound.
The Life Qi emanating from Shi Quan's Blue Silver Grass Martial Spirit was mellow and gentle.
Such a Martial Spirit could not possibly be an evil Martial Spirit, and Shi Quan could not possibly be an evil Spirit Master.
Having confirmed this, the taut string in Marde's heart relaxed by more than half.
Shi Quan was not surprised by Marde's sudden inquiry.
After falling out with Tang San, how could Tang San's personality not be protective?
In Shi Quan's opinion, Marde's sudden inquiry must have been related to Tang San and Yu Xiaogang.
Shi Quan had already prepared for this.
Since his Martial Spirit mutation was complete, Shi Quan discovered that he could change the manifestation of his Martial Spirit's attributes by injecting Internal Energy.
For example, when he only injected Yang-attributed Internal Energy into his Blue Silver Grass Martial Spirit, the Life attribute of the Blue Silver Grass Martial Spirit would be enhanced, and its own Devouring attribute would be hidden, and vice versa.
Therefore, when faced with an inquiry or investigation, Shi Quan remained completely calm.
"I wasn't mistaken. The direction of your Martial Spirit mutation should be Life, right?" Marde exclaimed with a look of surprise.
From his feeling, the Life of Shi Quan's Blue Silver Grass was much stronger than that of ordinary Blue Silver Grass.
Such a mutation should not result in only Rank one Innate spirit power.
"Yes, Dean."
Marde looked at Shi Quan's neither humble nor arrogant expression, and his heart grew even fonder of him.
He asked again, "Child, can you tell me your current spirit power Rank?"
"spirit power Rank?" Shi Quan murmured softly, feigning deep thought.
After a long pause, he revealed a determined expression and said, "Dean, my spirit power should already be Rank seven or eight."
"What?!" Marde shot up, gripping Shi Quan's shoulders tightly, and asked again, word by word, "Shi Quan, you said your spirit power is already Rank seven or eight?!"
"That's right, Dean."
"Don't resist." Marde frowned deeply, and his spirit power surged into Shi Quan's body.
Upon sensing the surging Internal Energy flowing within Shi Quan's body, a look of stupefaction appeared on his face, and he murmured to himself, "Not just Rank seven, it's Rank eight! And his spirit power is even much purer than that of ordinary people."
Shi Quan breathed a sigh of relief after hearing Marde's murmur.
The only thing he couldn't quite grasp was whether anyone investigating his spirit power Rank would discover the abnormality within his body.
From Marde's reaction, he hadn't discovered the special nature of his Internal Energy, only that it was purer than ordinary spirit power.
After a long while, Marde finally came back to his senses and asked in a deep voice, "Is your Innate spirit power really only Rank one?"
"It should be. Isn't that what's written on the Martial Spirit certificate?"
Listening to Shi Quan's answer, Marde couldn't help but fall into deep thought.
Innate Rank one simply couldn't Cultivate this quickly, unless it was an evil Spirit Master who used special devouring methods to advance seven Ranks from Rank one in just one year.
However, judging from both Shi Quan's Martial Spirit and spirit power, Shi Quan could not be an evil Spirit Master.
Therefore, there were only two possibilities now: either there was a mistake during the examination, and his Innate spirit power was more than Rank one, or Shi Quan had some special Cultivation method that allowed his spirit power Rank to increase so rapidly.
Marde, of course, leaned more towards the first possibility, but he had never heard of Spirit Hall's tests being wrong.
After much deliberation, Marde wanted to confirm, so he asked, "How do you Cultivate?"
This time, Shi Quan did not answer directly but instead asked, "Dean, what do you think are the characteristics of Blue Silver Grass?"
"The characteristics of Blue Silver Grass?" Marde was stunned.
"What characteristics could Blue Silver Grass have? Ubiquitous? Strong adaptability? Vigorous Life?"
"Exactly, it's Life." Shi Quan's fingers moved slightly, and the Blue Silver Grass in his hand emitted a faint blue light, intimately coiling around Shi Quan's arm.
"There are countless Blue Silver Grass on the continent.
Blue Silver Grass can survive in almost any environment, and what it relies on is its own tenacious Life.
'Wildfire cannot burn it out; spring breeze brings it back to Life' refers to this Blue Silver Grass.
Tenacious Life is the characteristic of Blue Silver Grass."
"Indeed." Marde nodded.
Shi Quan looked up directly at Marde, "Dean, in the past, our Human Race was weak, and in front of Spirit Beasts, humans were as fragile as this Blue Silver Grass.
But through our own efforts, with our own strength, we spread across the continent and became the dominant force on the continent.
And Blue Silver Grass also emerged from various plants, spreading to all parts of the continent.
In my opinion, Blue Silver Grass is very similar to us humans."
"It is quite similar." Marde was stunned; it was hard to imagine a seven-year-old child having such thoughts.
"Although Blue Silver Grass is common, its inherent Life and tenacious attributes are not comparable to ordinary plants.
My Blue Silver Grass, though called a mutation, in my opinion, is more like an Awakening, an Awakening of its own power.
Humans rose because of the Awakening of Martial Spirits, and the Awakening of the Life attribute of Blue Silver Grass, in my opinion, is a sign of its rise.
Humans have their own Emperors, and various Spirit Beast races also have their own Beast Kings.
Then, among the Blue Silver Grass, is there also an Emperor of its own?
Can my Blue Silver Grass become the Emperor of the countless Blue Silver Grass on this continent?"
As Shi Quan spoke, a strong light burst forth from his eyes.
After hearing Shi Quan's words, Marde was directly stunned in place; he actually saw such strong ambition in the eyes of a seven-year-old child.
"The Emperor of Blue Silver Grass?" Marde only felt his throat become somewhat dry.
Marde himself didn't know if this path was feasible, but he also didn't want to dampen Shi Quan's confidence.
After regaining his composure, he asked again, "Child, do you know how difficult this path is?"
Shi Quan, however, smiled and said, "Dean, I think I've already found my path.
Isn't my spirit power Rank proof of that?"
"What?! You found it?!"
Even as the Dean of the academy, upon hearing Shi Quan's words, Marde still lost his composure.
His horrified voice echoed throughout the entire library for a moment.
Marde continued to ask in a flustered manner, "How did you do it?"
Shi Quan did not answer, but simply looked at Marde quietly.
Marde then realized he had said the wrong thing.
How could a child as intelligent as Shi Quan not know what to say and what not to say?
His willingness to tell him all his directions already proved Shi Quan's trust in him.
To inquire further would be like prying into another Spirit Master's Spirit Ability, which was a major taboo for Spirit Masters, let alone a Cultivation method.
Marde patted his head again, saying in annoyance, "I was rash."
Shi Quan shook his head and said, "It's alright, Dean.
If possible, I hope you can help me keep my secret, especially from Yu Xiaogang."
Upon hearing Shi Quan mention Yu Xiaogang, Marde's expression became a bit awkward, understanding that Shi Quan must have guessed.
"Don't worry, good child, I won't tell anyone your secret."
Seeing Marde agree, Shi Quan then said, "Thank you, Dean.
Actually, my rapid Cultivation isn't much of a secret; it's largely related to my Martial Spirit mutation.
My Blue Silver Grass has much stronger Life than ordinary Blue Silver Grass.
While researching, I discovered that the strong Life within the Blue Silver Grass Martial Spirit can resonate with other Blue Silver Grass under specific circumstances.
This resonance is very peculiar, allowing me to perceive the Life fluctuations of the surrounding Blue Silver Grass.
Under the guidance of these fluctuations, the Blue Silver Grass Martial Spirit can absorb part of the Life Qi from the surrounding Blue Silver Grass.
After absorbing this Life Qi, the Blue Silver Grass Martial Spirit becomes even stronger.
At the same time, under the influence of my Blue Silver Grass Martial Spirit's Qi, the surrounding Blue Silver Grass not only doesn't wither but actually becomes more vigorous, forming an ascending cycle.
It is precisely because of this that as my Blue Silver Grass Martial Spirit becomes stronger and stronger under the nourishment of a large amount of Life Qi, I feel that my Innate talent is also increasing, and the speed of my spirit power growth has also significantly improved."
"So that's how it is!
The Blue Silver Grass Martial Spirit can actually resonate with Blue Silver Grass, a plant, and they mutually nourish and improve each other, and can even improve the Martial Spirit's quality.
Then, can other Martial Spirits also achieve similar effects with plants like Blue Silver Grass?
Regardless of whether they can or not, the fact that Martial Spirit quality can be improved alone will definitely shake the entire Spirit Master's world.
This discovery has the greatest feasibility for plant-type Spirit Masters…"
Marde's face was filled with fanaticism, and he fell into a kind of frenzied emotion, continuously muttering to himself.
Shi Quan watched this scene quietly from the side, not disturbing him.
He understood the value of what he had just said to a Martial Spirit scholar.
And everything he said was deliberately designed based on a plot point from the original work, and he was indeed able to achieve similar effects.
In the original work, when Tang San's Blue Silver Emperor Awakened, countless Blue Silver Grass offered their Life to help Tang San Awaken the Blue Silver Emperor.
After successfully Awakening, the Blue Silver Emperor also nourished those ordinary Blue Silver Grass with its own higher-Rank Life Qi.
His current Blue Silver Grass Martial Spirit's Life Qi naturally couldn't nourish other Blue Silver Grass, but when combined with Yang-attributed Internal Energy, the Blue Silver Grass's Life attribute would become even stronger, able to achieve the effect of nourishing other Blue Silver Grass.
The nourished Blue Silver Grass would also, in turn, feedback a certain amount of Life energy into the Blue Silver Grass.
In the long run, his Blue Silver Grass Martial Spirit had the potential to evolve into a Blue Silver King or even a Blue Silver Emperor.
"Shi Quan, do you know how much impact your discovery will have on the Spirit Master's world?" Marde asked, grasping Shi Quan's shoulders excitedly after regaining his composure.
Shi Quan shrugged, saying somewhat helplessly, "Dean, my situation is just a special case.
My method simply cannot be widely promoted.
Another reason I can resonate is that Blue Silver Grass is inherently weak and easy to establish a connection with.
Plus, my Blue Silver Grass Martial Spirit Awakened the Life attribute, which allowed me to conquer those Blue Silver Grass.
For other Martial Spirits, establishing a connection with plants of their own kind is almost impossible."
"Indeed." Marde nodded, gradually calming down.
Most plant-type Spirit Masters possessed plant Martial Spirits that originated from plant Spirit Beasts.
Spirit Beasts and Spirit Masters were mutually hostile, so a connection similar to Shi Quan's was impossible.
Moreover, establishing a connection was only the foundation; for the two to mutually cooperate, nourish, and grow was not so easy.
Just as Shi Quan said, he was a special case; it was the unique characteristics of the basic Blue Silver Grass that allowed for such an ascending cycle mode.
"Dean, you should have understood my situation now.
Can I apply not to attend classes anymore?
Anyway, the class content is useless to me.
If you have time, can I study with you for a period?"
Since Tang San and the others had already found Marde, it was a good opportunity for him to further reduce his interactions with Tang San and Xiao Wu.
After all, Tang San also had Clear Sky Douluo behind him.
Although Titled Douluo had their pride and rarely lowered themselves to kill weaker individuals, Tang Hao was an unpredictable fellow.
If he discovered that he had the ability to seize his son's Blue Silver Emperor, a single hammer strike would leave him with not even a speck of dust.
As the saying goes, more friends mean more paths.
The matter of his Blue Silver Grass Martial Spirit mutation and the special Cultivation method he had prepared would definitely be announced later.
Telling Marde now would not affect the overall situation.
Building a good relationship with Marde was beneficial and harmless, and in the academy, Marde was also considered his backer, which would facilitate his actions.