Chapter 55: Soul Force Testing Sphere

Xue Chiluo gave Su Jin a detailed account of how he had managed to get Su Jian to willingly become his watering tool.

Su Jin praised Xue Chiluo again.

She felt Xue Chiluo had been making rapid progress in his studies lately.

“If you don’t want to be cooped up in the courtyard every day, I can get you a household access token. Then you can go out whenever you want using it. What do you think?” Su Jin asked Xue Chiluo.

Xue Chiluo immediately shook Ye Zi to indicate disagreement.

It felt things were fine just as they were.

It believed that although Su Family’s array restricted the sky and the courtyard’s perimeter, the ground beneath held little constraint—merely connected to the vast array below the earth.

If it wished to leave, it only needed to burrow deeper along the array’s connection point and could escape the courtyard, even the entire city.

“You don’t want to go out and play?” Su Jin hurriedly asked.

“I still need to care for the Little Red Ginsengs. They can’t manage without me,” Xue Chiluo said.

Su Jin felt deeply moved: “You’ve worked so hard.”

“Xue Chiluo is happy to serve Zu Zu. Xue Chiluo is truly happy now—only when Zu Zu needs it does Xue Chiluo feel joy.”

After comforting Xue Chiluo thoroughly, Su Jin hurried back to the front courtyard.

Just then, her eldest brother Su Jian came out to wash up.

Su Jin quickly approached him, flatteringly saying, “Big Brother, thank you for watering my plants yesterday. If not for you, my Little Red Ginsengs would’ve surely died of thirst.”

Hearing “Red Ginseng,” Su Jian immediately felt a chill run through his scalp.

“Xiao Jin, do you know your grandfather is coming today?” Su Jian hurriedly asked.

“Why is my grandfather coming?” Su Jin looked at her brother in surprise.

“He wants me to draw a portrait of Xue Chiluo and take it back for study—how ordinary Red Ginsengs mutate into Xue Chiluo,” Su Jian said. He wasn’t wrong: Su Changyin had come specifically to see what Xue Chiluo looked like and to press Su Jian for details on how Xue Chiluo had mutated from a Red Ginseng seedling.

“Then let Grandpa study it thoroughly,” Su Jin said. After all, she knew she couldn’t possibly understand it—she’d merely hatched Xue Chiluo by accident.

Could she study how Red Ginseng seeds mutated?

Could she manage it?

Absolutely not.

“Oh, by the way, in seven days is my day off. Big Brother, can you spare some time to accompany me outside the city? I plan to practice extracting Wood Essence Qi,” Su Jin asked.

“Of course. No problem,” Su Jian immediately agreed.

He hadn’t forgotten he’d been left at home specifically to be Su Jin’s study companion.

His great-uncle gave him five thousand spirit stones annually as a stipend just to ensure he stayed focused.

Besides, if he fulfilled his duties faithfully for three years, his younger uncle would surely return in a flash to take over.

And during these three years at home, he could also care for his daughter, Su Hua, alongside looking after Su Jin.

After eating breakfast and bidding farewell to her brother and others, Su Jin went to school.

Today, Master Liu taught a lecture on cultivation basics; every time she asked a question, Qi Yi would scramble to answer, acting like a relentless warrior.

Everyone couldn’t help glancing at her several times.

Everyone thought: How did this person swing from one extreme to the other?

Had she gone from being an obvious cultivation prodigy to becoming the most obvious classroom show-off?

Wasn’t her intent to reclaim her recommendation for Outer Sect membership painfully obvious?

Su Jin sensed the hostility directed at Qi Yi had grown even stronger.

Su Jin: “...”

Su Jin recalled briefly: as a child, she had lived with Su Zhang for a while.

In her memory, Su Zhang was a steady, considerate, emotionally mature man.

He didn’t seem like an idiot!

Then how had he raised Qi Yi to be like this?

So was Qi Yi’s personality more like her biological father’s or her biological mother’s?

Master Liu’s behavior was even more surprising.

At first, she seemed astonished by Qi Yi’s intense effort.

Then she began deliberately targeting Qi Yi with questions, forcing her to answer all the knowledge she’d taught.

Su Jin felt that the better Qi Yi performed, the more stimulated the other students became.

Soon, a bizarre competition erupted.

Qi Yi would shout out answers, and other students would shout too.

Every time Master Liu asked a question, dozens of small hands shot up to answer.

Master Liu’s mouth curled into a wide smile.

I have to say, time flies in such an interesting class.

Almost in the blink of an eye, the morning lessons ended.

Master Liu suddenly called out Su Jin’s name. “Su Jin, come out with me.”

Su Jin thought: Why is she calling me?

Master Liu led Su Jin into a small empty room.

The two sat facing each other.

“Your grandfather says you’ve broken through to Level One of the Great Expansion Divine Art?” Master Liu cut straight to the point.

Though surprised internally, Su Jin kept her expression calm.

After all, it was her grandfather who had revealed it—what could she do?

“Here, place this small sphere in your palm and activate it with your spiritual sense,” Master Liu said. “This sphere is a special testing device designed specifically to measure progress in Divine Art cultivation.”

Su Jin quickly gripped the egg-sized, silver-white, translucent sphere Master Liu handed her and sent her spiritual sense into it.

She sent in one thread—no reaction.

She sent in two threads—still no reaction.

Su Jin glanced at Master Liu.

“Keep sending. When the quantity and quality of your spiritual sense meet the threshold for Level One, the sphere will glow. That confirms your breakthrough,” Master Liu explained.

Teachers couldn’t directly probe students’ mind seas after they began cultivating Divine Art.

So senior cultivators invented various detection devices.

The testing sphere in Master Liu’s hand was one such invention.

Su Jin: Fine, I’ll keep sending.

Ten threads, twenty threads, forty threads—she noticed that when she sent in the fortieth thread, the sphere began to glow faintly.

“Su Jin, can you hold on? Send a few more threads—the sphere will light up completely,” Master Liu said, eyes bright with delight as she stared at the silver sphere.

Su Jin glanced at the testing sphere in surprise: When I broke through Level One, I accumulated sixty threads of soul force.

Why is this sphere lighting up at just forty threads? Is its threshold this low? Can this silver sphere even accurately measure my soul force? Seeing Master Liu’s happy face, Su Jin held back her doubts and didn’t voice them.