Early morning. The sky was beginning to brighten.

Su Chen’s eyes were still watery, and Shi Kaihuang’s words were still echoing throughout his mind.

He wiped away his tears and sat up, walking into his research room.

From this day onwards, he had another topic of research to conduct: a technique for reaching the Light Shaking Realm without a bloodline.

The gap of the three prior realms and that of the Light Shaking Realm was very different.

The Qi Drawing, Blood Boiling, and Yang Opening Realms were fundamentally related to drawing out the latent talent of a physical body and improving its control over Origin Energy.

However, the Light Shaking Realm represented a massive increase in a person’s life force.

Reaching the Light Shaking Realm necessitated the formation of Lotus Platforms.

The Lotus Platforms were formed from a combination of a person’s own Origin Energy and their bloodline, which was then contained within a person’s body.

It was actually just like a new organ being formed within a person’s body, but this organ’s main function was to control and improve that person’s ability to utilize Origin Energy. The resulting increase in strength was almost an order of magnitude greater, which was the reason behind the massive gap between the Light Shaking Realm and the prior realms.

The first step in creating a Lotus Platform was to form a simple model within a person’s Origin Energy Sea, which required expending a large quantity of Origin Energy and bloodline power. The formation of a Lotus Platform was extremely complicated, as it required a very particular method, and the process was not only difficult but also very dangerous.

Su Chen wasn’t in the Light Shaking Realm, but he needed to develop a technique for breaking through into that realm. The insurmountable difficulty of this task was like wanting to write a book without even fully understanding words.

Could he still succeed?

It might not be impossible.

Miracles always existed. After all, completely illiterate people could produce top-quality scholars, and those without the strength to even tie up a chicken could still defeat a powerful expert. No matter what world you were in, life was always full of illusions, miracles, and impossibilities.

So why was it impossible for someone who hadn’t yet reached the Light Shaking Realm to develop a technique for breaking into that realm?

Even though Su Chen wasn’t in the Light Shaking Realm, he had a few benefits that Shi Kaihuang didn’t have.

His Microscopic Eye.

With his Microscopic Eye, Su Chen’s understanding of the essence of objects had grown quite a bit.

For instance, the Lotus Platforms were formed of a combination of Origin Energy and bloodline power, but bloodline power was just a means of controlling Origin Energy at the Origin Substance level. As such, Su Chen only needed to improve his understanding of Origin Substances and their applications to use them as substitutes for bloodline power.

As such, Su Chen dived headfirst into the bottomless pit that was researching a tactic for entering the Light Shaking Realm.

Time flew by very quickly.

In the blink of an eye, a year had passed.

In this past year, Su Chen had successfully concocted the medicine that Wei Pei needed and had helped him return to the Light Shaking Realm. Simultaneously, by using Wei Pei as his target of research, Su Chen’s understanding of the Light Shaking Realm grew deeper and deeper. At the very least, he understood how to form the Lotus Platforms without any issues.

Simply put, he completely understood the entire process that would be necessary to form a Lotus Platform.

However, he was still miles away from finding substitutes for bloodline power.

After Wei Pei had reached the Light Shaking Realm, he immediately announced that he was going into closed-door cultivation and didn’t reemerge.

Su Chen knew that Wei Pei was really just avoiding him. He didn’t want to be Su Chen’s research subject anymore.

Without Wei Pei, Su Chen’s research had reached a bottleneck. In the following three years, he achieved very little and could only really perform some theoretical experiments.

The three years flew by.

This year was now also the tenth year that Su Chen had come to Clear River City.

After one more month, Su Chen would have completed his term. At that moment, he would be able to hang up his crown and leave in peace.

Su Chen was resting in the courtyard, his eyes closed as he rocked back and forth on the rocking chair, enjoying the feeling of the wind blowing past his face.

However, his heart jumped slightly as he said, “Come on out.”

There was no movement.

Su Chen sighed. He stood up, walked over to the fake mountain in the courtyard, and reached his hand behind it.

“Hey, hey, why are you pinching my ear?”

Night Demon was hauled out by Su Chen.

Su Chen released his grip, letting Night Demon go. “I told you to come out but you wouldn’t.”

“That’s because I thought you were cheating me,” Night Demon said, feeling wronged.

She grabbed a nearby chair and plopped down on it, then picked up a Red Serpentfruit and took a large bite out of it. Juice ran down her mouth.

Su Chen ignored her and returned to his rocking chair, closing his eyes and falling back into a slumber.

Night Demon ate three of the Red Serpentfruits in a row before patting her stomach and saying, “That felt good. Hey, do you have anymore? Maybe you can bring me another platter of them.”

“Red Serpentfruits only grow in territory belonging to the Ferocious Race, so the quantities we can obtain each year are extremely limited. The ones you ate were specially delivered to me by Wang Doushan and there’s only a single basket. After giving Cloud Leopard and the others a few, I only had six left. I ate three of them, and the remaining three were eaten by you.”

Night Demon laughed when she heard this. “It seems like I came at just the right time! Any later and they would have been gone.”

Su Chen said bluntly, “I left it for you anyways. It’s about time you showed up.”

“Oh? You knew that I was coming? Then do you know why I’m here?”

“I don’t know why you’re here, but since I’m about to be relieved of my official duties, the Immortal Temple wouldn’t have any reason not to send someone to talk with me about my future plans unless they weren’t planning on cooperating with me anymore in the future.”

“You’re too clever,” Night Demon mumbled. “Chief wanted me to ask you whether you’ve put some thought into where you’re going to go after finishing your term. If not, he has something he’d like you to do.”

“You’re waiting for me to say something like ‘I haven’t thought of where to go yet’ right now, right?”

Night Demon tilted her head back and laughed before saying, “The Immortal Temple has a job. Will you do it or not?”

“What kind of job?”

“Remember what I told you when you first came to Clear River City?”

Su Chen thought for a moment, then remembered. “You mean that the Immortal Temple has drunk so many Spirit Sobering Medicines that they are about to throw up?”

“That’s right!” Night Demon clapped and said, “I asked you to make a few new kinds of medicine then, right?”

“Yes. But not long after that, I collaborated with the Immortal Temple to make the Three Yangs Medicine, and I owe them nothing at this point.”

One of the conditions Su Chen had agreed on with the Immortal Temple was that all of Su Chen’s debt to the Immortal Temple would be totally erased. With no more debt, naturally there were no more medicines to concoct for them.

As such, Su Chen always believed that this matter no longer had anything to do with him anymore.

It wasn’t until now that Night Demon reminded him again.

Night Demon said, “You don’t owe the Immortal Temple anything anymore. However, the medicines that the Immortal Temple needs right now are ones we want to purchase from you. The price is quite negotiable, since the Immortal Temple has become quite rich lately.”

Night Demon acted rich and imposing, forgetting that this windfall had been largely due to Su Chen’s contributions.

Su Chen chuckled. “I thought that you guys had taken care of that already.”

“How could it be that easy? The situation is extremely complicated. We need the Chaotic Soul Medicine and the Clear Spirit Medicine for this. However, both of these medicines require Corpse Spirit Flowers to concoct. The weather has been favorable lately and not many people have died, so Corpse Spirit Flowers are hard to come by. The few we found were all ruined by those trash alchemists, harming our plan as well. We don’t have much time remaining, and the Chief is starting to get anxious, which is why he told me to come find you. When considering both Corpse Spirit Flower inventory and medicine-concocting abilities, you’re probably the only person who can concoct large quantities of these two medicines in a short time frame.”

Su Chen squinted his eyes. “From what you’ve told me, it seems like you won’t be able to ask anyone else for help. Doesn’t this mean that I can get a good price for them?”

Night Demon covered her mouth, her expression horrified. “I said too much again!”

Su Chen comforted her, “Don’t worry about it. This is why I was so insistent on making you my contact. If anyone else were doing this, I wouldn’t accept it. First, tell me what you guys are planning on doing in a bit more detail so that I can think of an appropriate price.”