Chapter 192: The Great Protective Umbrella

September 21st.

Xu Jin and Jiang'er got up early, had breakfast with Ning Yuchan, and then the two of them sent Ning Yuchan to the front of the Star-Plucking Plaza.

Ning Yuchan had already changed into military attire, swapping her usual long dress for dark armor and a battle robe, carrying a large backpack, looking very much like Xu Jin in his past life when he first went to university.

However, Xu Jin was going for an education.

Ning Yuchan was going to the battlefield!

Ning Yuchan held military orders and could use the Star-Plucking Tower on the transit route for free. After three transmissions, Ning Yuchan would arrive at the Star-Plucking Tower of the Star River Battlefield, and then proceed from there to the Great Chen military camp.

Ning Yuchan was from Jin Shan Prefecture and was not good at socializing. After arriving at the National Dao Academy, she spent every day burying herself in cultivation or taking care of Jiang'er and Xu Jin, so there was basically no one to see her off.

At this moment, after bidding farewell to Xu Jin and Jiang'er, she was about to leave when suddenly, starlight descended.

"Why, planning to leave without a word?" It was Academy Head Dong Zhao who had come.

"Greetings, Academy Head. It's just going to the battlefield; everyone will go eventually," Ning Yuchan smiled.

Suddenly, Dong Zhao was overjoyed, "You've broken through? When did you break through?"

"I broke through yesterday morning." When saying this, Ning Yuchan glanced at Xu Jin.

But only Xu Jin understood this look.

"Then..."

Dong Zhao had just taken two fourth-tier emblems from his bosom when he hesitated.

He had originally intended to give two fourth-tier emblems to Ning Yuchan to save her life at a critical moment, but since Ning Yuchan had broken through, their effect was a bit diminished, though not useless.

With a casual reach, Dong Zhao took a bottle of 'One Qi Return Bu Bu Xing Dan' from his bosom and handed it to Ning Yuchan together.

"Don't decline; I won't say anything else.

This time, heading to the Star River Battlefield, I wish you victory in your first battle and that all your wishes come true!" Dong Zhao took a step back, cupped his hands, and stood solemnly.

"Thank you, Academy Head, for your auspicious words."

Ning Yuchan subconsciously looked at her own legs and generously accepted the gift from Academy Head Dong Zhao.

Suddenly, another beam of starlight descended.

It was Senior Brother Pang Yu from the Danxia Academy, which surprised Xu Jin a bit.

What was he here for?

"Senior Sister Ning, the Grand Master asked me to send you five 'Long Long Gui Duan Po Elixirs,' and also asked me to bring a message for you," Pang Yu said.

Only then did Xu Jin understand that it was the Grand Master who had sent him to see her off.

"I ask Senior Brother to thank the Grand Master on my behalf," Ning Yuchan accepted the elixirs.

"The Grand Master said, a few elixirs to serve as assistance; I wish you all your wishes come true and a triumphant return!"

"Yuchan thanks the Grand Master."

Hearing this, Pang Yu cupped his hands, and after cupping his hands to Dong Zhao and Xu Jin respectively, he transformed into starlight and left.

"Academy Head, Xu Jin, Jiang'er, I'm leaving. Farewell!" With a cupped-hand salute, Ning Yuchan turned and stepped toward the Star-Plucking Tower.

Xu Jin suddenly shouted, "Five days!"

"Mm, five days!"

Ning Yuchan responded, and only then did she step into the Star-Plucking Tower.

This exchange left Dong Zhao and Jiang'er feeling a bit baffled.

What did five days mean?

Returning in five days?

That couldn't be right.

Suddenly, they saw Ning Yuchan, who had stepped into the Star-Plucking Tower, come back out and wave at Jiang'er, "Jiang'er, come in for a moment; there are some things I need to tell you privately."

Now, it was Xu Jin and Dong Zhao's turn to be puzzled.

Jiang'er went in, and after more than ten breaths, she came out, saying that Ning Yuchan had already left.

"The situation has been escalating recently; you should focus on your cultivation and don't leave the National Dao Academy. Inside the National Dao Academy, it is still safe," Dong Zhao instructed Xu Jin before leaving.

After returning to the small courtyard, Jiang'er suddenly found Xu Jin and mysteriously handed him a package, saying it was from Ning Yuchan for Xu Jin.

This surprised Xu Jin greatly, and even his heart skipped a few extra beats.

Could it be some token of affection Ning Yuchan was giving him?

Was she too shy to give it directly and entrusted Jiang'er to give it to him?

With a feeling of anticipation, Xu Jin unwrapped the package, and upon opening it, he couldn't help but laugh and cry.

He could only say that this was a woman who knew how to manage a household.

Ning Yuchan had actually transferred all the emblems and elixirs sent by Dong Zhao and the Grand Master to Xu Jin through Jiang'er.

Ning Yuchan had likely understood Xu Jin's so-called blood-refining method; the cost shouldn't be high, but it was very effective. Otherwise, it would be impossible for him to give her so many blood-refined elixirs and emblems in large quantities.

So she had directly borrowed Jiang'er's hand to send all the emblems and elixirs sent by Dong Zhao, including that bottle of One Qi Return Bu Bu Xing Dan, as well as the five Long Long Gui Duan Po Elixirs sent by the Grand Master, to Xu Jin.

She didn't leave any other instructions.

But the general meaning was that these treasures would be more useful after Xu Jin blood-refined them; if she used them directly, it would be a waste.

Xu Jin naturally accepted them.

Using fourth-tier emblems directly was definitely a waste; after nourishment, they could slay fourth-tier and injure fifth-tier experts.

Not to mention the Long Long Gui Duan Po Elixirs.

The life-saving items Xu Jin had given Ning Yuchan this time had also cost him a fortune.

Three bottles of top-grade Spirit-Refreshing Elixirs, five bottles of Three-Yuan Return Star Elixirs, two bottles of Four-Mystic Restore Star Elixirs, and one bottle of One Qi Return Bu Bu Xing Dan, all of which had been nourished.

Besides that, eight primary-tier Star Healing emblems, ten third-tier upper emblems, two each of fourth-tier lower, mid, and upper emblems, and one fifth-tier lower emblem, 'Fire Meteor.'

All of them had been nourished.

Not counting what he had obtained from Teacher Liu Qingzhu yesterday, Xu Jin had given half of his emblems to Ning Yuchan.

But it was worth it!

With these treasures, Ning Yuchan would be much safer on the Star River Battlefield.

Not to mention the feelings in his heart.

Just considering the value of the help Ning Yuchan had given Xu Jin in the past, it was immeasurable.

Without that, Xu Jin would have been finished long ago.

September 21st, everything in the Academy returned to normal, but the defenses were clearly much stricter, and the number of disciples within the Academy had increased.

The main reason was that it was too dangerous outside, so many disciples had moved back into the Academy.

Xu Jin continued his intensive cultivation.

On the evening of September 22nd, Xu Jin received good news.

Jiang'er had successfully condensed stars!

It took four days.

This was definitely a top-tier talent; if this were placed in the Jin Shan Prefecture Academy, it would very likely be the number one star-condensing person of this year.

But at the Great Chen National Dao Academy, this result was quite ordinary.

Before Jiang'er, among the many disciples of the National Dao Academy's autumn star-condensing season, Jiang'er was the 25th to successfully condense stars, so she was no longer in the first tier.

Xu Jin also estimated that if the effects of nourishing the star palace were removed, including the Grand Master's personal nourishment, the prior learning, and the supply of Spirit-Awakening Elixirs, if Jiang'er had condensed stars in Jin Shan Prefecture, it would likely have taken at least thirty days or even longer.

However, this talent was still quite good.

If Xu Jin cultivated her further, Jiang'er's self-preservation would absolutely be no problem.

However, Xu Jin had also thought about it.

Before forging stars, apart from the Divine Spirit Jin Dan and the Star-Plucking Token, Xu Jin would not give Jiang'er any additional help.

Even if it took half a year or a year to forge stars, she must lay a solid foundation for star arts.

If basic star arts couldn't reach great success, one would be a pushover everywhere.

Jiang'er had successfully condensed stars as scheduled, so a heavy stone in Xu Jin's heart had finally landed.

On the evening of September 22nd, Xu Jin's cultivation in the lower star palace reached the peak of the fifth layer of Refine Star, and a new star pattern position was added to the lower star palace.

Xu Jin did not hesitate to engrave the mid-fifth-tier 'Wandering Fish' star pattern into his lower star palace.

The moment he finished engraving, Xu Jin began to activate his star arts one by one to experience the effect of the Wandering Fish star pattern.

After activating the Wandering Fish star pattern, Xu Jin's Rain Curtain Fire Shield, Rain Curtain Thunder Shield, and even his body-protecting star light all seemed to have added a layer of slippery scales, becoming slippery and elusive. The feeling was truly like a wandering fish.

It could deflect force.

Xu Jin blasted a Lei Shi at himself.

He was pleasantly surprised to find that the passive defensive effect of the Wandering Fish star pattern was truly strong!

Theoretically, two of Xu Jin's Thunder Arrows could absolutely easily shatter his Rain Curtain Fire Shield.

However, after two Thunder Arrows, the Rain Curtain Fire Shield remained intact.

It took Xu Jin three Thunder Arrows to shatter the Rain Curtain Fire Shield.

Under the blessing of the Wandering Fish star pattern, the structure of the Rain Curtain Fire Shield and the body-protecting star light became more complex, as if it could naturally deflect or erode a portion of star power.

After trying a few times, Xu Jin felt that this Wandering Fish star pattern might be worth deducing in the future.

Because its defense was passive.

It only needed to be activated, and it would exist in any defense or even attack. It would make your attacks become more resilient and not easily destroyed!

Currently, it was mid-fifth-tier; according to the Grand Master, it could directly deflect 25% of the power of a star art attack.

If it could be deduced to mid-sixth-tier or even upper-sixth-tier, it could directly deflect more than 35% of the power of a star art attack.

In this situation, the Wandering Fish star pattern combined with the Rain Curtain star pattern to increase defense meant Xu Jin could hard-carry attacks from experts six or seven tiers higher than him.

Having newly learned the Wandering Fish star pattern, Xu Jin hesitated: should he challenge the 'Brilliant Star' again?

Three days ago, Xu Jin had held on for a minute and a half under the siege of the gold-star-level inner demon and the gatekeeper at the fifth layer of Condense Star.

Now that he had newly learned the Wandering Fish star pattern, was there a possibility of successfully challenging the Brilliant Star?

Once this thought arose, Xu Jin deduced it in his mind.

Because there was only one chance.

As long as the Wandering Fish star pattern was used once, the inner demon would learn it, and then the inner demon's defensive power would also greatly increase.

If he wanted to slay the star demon again, the difficulty would greatly increase.

The chance of successfully challenging the Brilliant Star would be lost.

Xu Jin felt that he should have many opportunities to obtain gold stars in the future.

But the opportunities to obtain Brilliant Stars were few.

He had to carefully design and make good use of this bug or shortcoming of the inner demon to have a possibility of obtaining a Brilliant Star.

Xu Jin simulated and deduced in his mind for more than half an hour, considering different opening moves, different combat styles of the inner demon, etc. The result of the deduction was more losses than wins.

The probability of winning was only 10%!

But if he lost, the difficulty of successfully obtaining a Brilliant Star in the next challenge would increase significantly.

Conversely, if he continued to improve his cultivation, the probability of successfully challenging the Brilliant Star next time might be more than 20% or 30%.

"Next time!"

Xu Jin gave up on challenging the Brilliant Star again, preparing to reserve the Wandering Fish star pattern until the next time he challenged the Brilliant Star before exposing it.

Subsequently, Xu Jin continued to cultivate, and his cultivation naturally broke through to the sixth layer of Refine Star.

Looking at this cultivation speed alone, it was considered slow.

Like other true disciples, some were already close to the seventh layer of Refine Star.

But if Xu Jin's cultivation in the lower star palace were exposed, this cultivation speed would be extremely fast.

At noon, Xu Jin received a gift sent by Ying Ge's father, Ying Bonian, along with a handwritten letter.

It could be considered an explanation to Xu Jin regarding the assassination incident.

After the assassination incident at the Ying Family Warehouse, a shopkeeper who handled the matter at the Ying Mansion disappeared.

After reporting it to the Spring Rain Division and the Danxia Guard, nothing was found.

The entire family of this shopkeeper had been silenced.

The information about Xu Jin and Ying Ge was nine times out of ten leaked by this person.

But this wasn't the end; the Spring Rain Division and the Danxia Guard were not pushovers.

They subsequently searched wildly inside and outside the Ying Mansion and the Ying Family Trading Firm, actually digging out five believers of the Baidou Divine Sect, and in their homes or hidden places where they stayed, they all found the Star Bucket True God they worshipped.

This shocked Ying Bonian greatly.

He hadn't expected that their Ying Mansion had been infiltrated so deeply by the Baidou Divine Sect.

Subsequently, it was naturally heads rolling.

The number of people involved in the Ying Mansion reached a hundred.

Among them was a collateral descendant and a chief shopkeeper.

Ying Bonian had also been overwhelmed these past few days, but fortunately, it had all been handled.

Accompanying the letter was also a compensation gift.

However, the Ying family had suffered a great disaster, and the expenses for handling matters had also severely damaged their vitality. The compensation gift sent to Xu Jin was mainly some cultivation elixirs.

At the end of the letter, Ying Bonian also mentioned that the iron essence and copper essence Xu Jin had previously needed had already been sent by him to be stored in the weapon forging shop under Xu Jin's name.

After reading the letter, Xu Jin fell into deep thought.

The Baidou Divine Sect!

It shouldn't be aimed at Ying Ge.

If the Baidou Divine Sect was aimed at Ying Ge, then with the Baidou Divine Sect lurking so deeply in the Ying family, if they wanted to kill Ying Ge, they could have just found any opportunity, and could even have made Ying Ge die silently.

Looking at it this way, the Baidou Divine Sect was aimed at Xu Jin.

Ying Ge was implicated by Xu Jin.

Besides that, there was the third wave of assassination.

Among all the true disciples, after the fifth-ranked true disciple, only one, Bu Qinyu, had been assassinated.

Perhaps, the third wave of assassination was also Xu Jin implicating Ying Ge!

Thinking this way, Xu Jin felt even more guilty.

If not for Xu Jin's implication, Ying Ge might not have suffered such an unexpected disaster!

"In the future, if I go to the Star River Battlefield, I must find a way to help Ying Ge search for treasures that might allow for limb regeneration."

Xu Jin had already secretly made a decision.

As for visiting, he would go in a few days.

Going these past few days would likely only add to Ying Ge's troubles.

At the same time, Xu Jin was also considering another question: how could the Baidou Divine Sect be so rampant in the Great Chen imperial capital, Dachen Wan Yi!

You must know that even in Jin Shan Prefecture, the Baidou Divine Sect was like a rat crossing the street.

Theoretically, in the Great Chen imperial capital, even if they weren't extinct, they shouldn't be so rampant!

According to Xu Jin's experience from his past life, for the Baidou Divine Sect to be so rampant and act so arrogantly in the Great Chen imperial capital, Dachen Wan Yi, there was only one possibility—they had a protective umbrella!

The problem was, the protective umbrellas capable of protecting the Baidou Divine Sect under the siege of the Spring Rain Division, the Danxia Guard, and the National Dao Academy—the most powerful state machines of Great Chen—were few and far between!

The Imperial Family?

Xu Jin didn't dare to think about it!

He had previously discovered that Emperor Qian'an's divine soul cultivation was very powerful, even stronger than the Grand Master's.

Including the two imperial princes, their divine soul cultivation was stronger than the disciples of the National Dao Academy.

At the time, Xu Jin hadn't been suspicious, just thinking of two possibilities.

One was that he was the Emperor, after all, possessing the world; the Imperial Family was the largest wealthy clan in Great Chen or even the whole world, so they certainly wouldn't lack cultivation resources and various heavenly treasures.

Divine Spirit Golden Elixirs, Divine Refining Golden Elixirs, Long Long Gui Duan Po Elixirs, ascending the heavenly stairs to temper the divine soul—they could use them however they wanted, so it was hard for their divine soul not to be powerful!

It was understandable that their divine soul cultivation was powerful.

It was just a bit outrageous that it felt stronger than the Grand Master's.

The second possibility, Xu Jin thought of the Lingji Star Hall.

Twenty years ago, the Lingji Star Hall could be considered the state religion of Great Chen.

Great Chen and the Lingji Star Hall were one.

Then, it was highly possible for members of the Imperial Family to learn the secret divine soul star patterns of the Lingji Star Hall!

It was even possible that members of the Imperial Family were descendants of the Lingji Star Hall.

This possibility existed!

But now, seeing the Spring Rain Division, the Danxia Guard, and the National Dao Academy join forces to track down the Baidou Divine Sect demons in the Great Chen imperial capital, Dachen Wan Yi, only to suffer repeated setbacks!

This gave Xu Jin an extremely bold suspicion!

Could the Imperial Family, or someone involved with imperial power, be the biggest protective umbrella for the Baidou Divine Sect?

Otherwise, the Baidou Divine Sect demons should have had nowhere to hide under the joint efforts of the Spring Rain Division, the Danxia Guard, and the National Dao Academy!

Instead of only digging out a few small fries from the Ying family until now!

If the Baidou Divine Sect's backing involved the Imperial Family, then this matter was complicated!

Then, the second wave of mysterious assassins might also have a lead!

But this matter, Xu Jin could only ponder and observe slowly by himself; he couldn't act rashly.

Even in the short term, he couldn't tell the Grand Master!

Sensing Emperor Qian'an's divine soul cultivation was a loophole.

The key was that although the Grand Master was very good to Xu Jin, the Grand Master was the Grand Master of Great Chen, but the Emperor of Great Chen was the foundation of the state; Xu Jin didn't dare to compare his value with the Emperor of Great Chen.

If things went wrong, it would be death and destruction!

Better to develop first.

Suppressing this matter for now, Xu Jin began to consider another question.

Now, the materials to upgrade the Arena to the fourth tier were only missing iron essence and copper essence.

Just one step away!

But in his current state, Xu Jin didn't dare to openly leave the National Dao Academy.

Let alone go to retrieve the iron essence and copper essence.

Or perhaps, ask the Grand Master for an order to bring the iron essence and copper essence into the National Dao Academy?

But if they disappeared into thin air after being brought in, it would be trouble and hard to explain!

Looking at the thick night outside, Xu Jin suddenly had an idea!

More than ten breaths later, Xu Jin disappeared from the quiet room into thin air!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 193 =====