Chapter 21: Chen Banxia (Thanks to the Alliance Leader

There is a meditation cushion in the hotel room, which is basically standard equipment for all accommodation in this world, convenient for some Cultivators who like to meditate.

Chen Shu practiced until midnight and was extremely exhausted.

Recently, he had already felt something—

His "Spirit Sea Lock" had already loosened.

Every time he finished practicing, when his Spirit Power was at its most abundant, there was a faint sense that he could shake his Spirit Sea.

Once reaching this step, the strength of the Spirit Sea would almost no longer increase, so daily practice became negligible for improving the quality of Spirit Power.

His cultivation had reached a bottleneck.

It had also reached the minimum standard for using a breakthrough Pill.

It was time to seek a breakthrough.

If he relied solely on himself to impact the Spirit Sea Lock, from being able to shake the Spirit Sea to successfully breaking the lock and expanding the Spirit Sea, Chen Shu estimated it might take him more than two years.

This indeed had certain benefits: in this year, the increase in Spirit Sea strength and Spirit Power Quality would be minimal, but not equal to zero. And the strength of the Spirit Sea and the quality of Spirit Power before the breakthrough directly determined the capacity of the new Spirit Sea after the breakthrough, so being down-to-earth did indeed have its benefits.

A tiny bit.

But the time cost was too high, and the cost-performance ratio was too low.

If you don't use a Pill, by the time you reach the Fourth Stage, your Spirit Sea might indeed be a tiny bit larger than other Fourth-tier Practitioners with the same talent, however, those Cultivators of the same age as you with similar talent might have already reached the Sixth Stage and walked into the peak of their lives long ago.

Usually, Chen Shu would take a compromise approach.

After reaching the bottleneck, he would practice for a period of time until he felt he could no longer improve, then use a Pill to assist in the breakthrough, which could also increase the success rate.

Thanks to the development of technology.

If he had been born in ancient times, he likely wouldn't have been able to afford those heavenly treasures and miraculous Pills.

The effects of those treasures and Pills weren't necessarily good, and most had side effects. But with the rapid development of modern pharmacology, once you reach the standard for using a Pill at the Low Tier to Third Tier, the success rate of using a Pill for a breakthrough is usually higher than 95%, with no side effects, and it won't affect subsequent cultivation.

But it's different once you reach the Intermediate Stage.

When breaking through from the Third Tier to the Fourth Stage, a Pill still has a certain effect, but after reaching the Fourth Stage, the effect becomes extremely, extremely small, and it can only be used as an aid or a placebo. And currently, there are no Pills in the world useful for promoting to High-Tier or above.

Therefore, in this world, Low-level Practitioners are not rare; as long as your talent is decent and you are relatively diligent, you can promote to the Third Tier just by relying on Pills.

Intermediate Cultivators become rare.

And because of various reasons, the Yiguo Government currently does not really wish to see non-military personnel promote to High-Tier. Even for those doing technical research, Intermediate Stage abilities are enough; the cost-performance ratio of promoting to High-Tier is too low, and the Spirit Decay is too severe, so it's not worth it.

"It's still more comfortable lying down."

"Snap."

Chen Shu pressed the light switch and peeled a grapefruit.

It was bitter and not tasty at all.

He went to the window again, opened it, poked his head out, and looked at the room next door; the light in Ning Qing's room had long been extinguished.

Woke up after a night's sleep.

Went out with Ning Qing to eat a bowl of sour and spicy noodles, which also weren't tasty and not sour at all; immediately after, Ning Qing returned to the hotel, while Chen Shu scanned a shared bike and followed the navigation to his sister's residence.

The distance was not too far.

Relying on his youthful appearance, Chen Shu quickly blended into this residential complex, which was mostly rented by students, found the door by the address, and it was left ajar.

"Creak..."

Chen Shu pushed the door open directly and poked his head in to take a look.

The apartment layout wasn't large; at a glance, he saw the living room. The first impression was that the lighting was very good, there was a protruding balcony, and the color scheme of the decoration and furniture was very fresh, simple, and elegant. He didn't know if it had been tidied up before he arrived, but it was quite neat.

A woman was lying on the sofa, hugging a pillow, curled up, seemingly asleep.

Taking a closer look, hmm, it was her.

Chen Banxia.

He hadn't gone to the wrong place.

Chen Shu pushed the door and walked in, glanced at the woman on the sofa, turned around, and deliberately closed the door heavily.

"Bang!"

Chen Banxia woke up with a start, lifted her body to look, revealing a face that looked like sixteen or seventeen years old, her face snow-white, her big eyes widened:

"Why are you being so forceful!?"

"Jie-jie! My dear Jie-jie! Haven't seen you in so long, have you missed me?" Chen Shu smiled and walked into the living room, sniffing the air, faintly smelling medicine; he wasn't surprised, because his sister was majoring in pharmacology at Yujing University.

"Why are you being so sarcastic?"

"I'm not imitating it well."

"That... that..."

Chen Banxia put down the pillow and stood up, poked her head to look behind him, and recalled Chen Shu's statement: "Where is that girlfriend who isn't dating? Why didn't she come?"

"She has her own things to do."

"What could she possibly have to do just after arriving in Yujing?"

"Mind your own..."

"When I was little, I even bought her candy to eat, and she doesn't even come to see me." Chen Banxia was not very happy, but her focus quickly shifted again, "The hotel you two stayed at last night?"

"Two rooms..."

"I don't believe it!"

"I'll show you the hotel booking."

"Fake! It's just to cover your tracks! Just to lie to me! Not listening, not listening!"

"You overestimate your status in my heart; going to the trouble of telling a lie just to deceive you is not worth it at all."

"Hmph..."

Chen Shu sat down directly on the sofa, pulled over Chen Banxia's throw pillow, and held it in his arms.

There was even the lingering warmth from her, nice and cozy.

Chen Banxia did not look much like Chen Jiaoshou and Wei Lvshi; she only resembled them a little. She looked more like Chen Jiaoshou's younger sister, Chen Shu and her aunt—not too tall or short, with a face that was extremely deceptive regarding her age, heavy baby fat, very fair skin, and eyes that were very round and large, like a child's. The black and white in her eyes were distinct, and like a child's, they were still dark, bright, and reflective, making it hard to believe she was actually twenty-five.

She looked like she was sixteen or seventeen, just graduated from Qingxue.

Chen Shu turned his head to look at this fake young girl: "You leave the door open while sleeping at home; aren't you afraid of running into a criminal?"

"Your big sister here has peerless divine skills!"

"Heh~~"

Chen Shu couldn't be bothered to pay her any mind and began to size up the apartment she rented: "How many rooms does this place have?"

"Two bedrooms and a living room."

"Why would you rent a two-bedroom place when you're living alone?"

"One-bedroom places are too hard to rent, otherwise I'd have to share with someone else. It's better to just rent a two-bedroom; the remaining room can be used for potion experiments."

"No one to share with?"

"No."

"Really none?"

"?"

"Emmm..."

Chen Shu was skeptical. He got up and snuck over to the two rooms. He opened one first, revealing a bedroom decorated like a little princess's room. Then he opened the other door, which contained only an empty bed frame against the wall, a pile of miscellaneous items on the frame, and a laboratory bench with many things he couldn't understand occupying the remaining space.

As expected, she was alone.

Turning around, Chen Banxia's kawaii young girl face was right in front of him, staring at him.

A fair-skinned fist flew over at high speed.

"Boom!"

Chen Banxia retracted her hand, very dissatisfied, and frowned: "To think you don't trust your big sister!"

"What if you were in a relationship?"

"To think you don't even understand this much about your big sister! You deserve a beating!"

"You didn't trust me just a moment ago either..."

"You two have been childhood sweethearts since you were little; Ning Qing said she wanted to marry you when she was a child. You said it yourself, a girlfriend you aren't dating—can your relationship be the same?"

"Whatever you say..."

Chen Shu didn't really care. He stretched and looked down at Chen Banxia: "What are you planning to treat me to for lunch today? My dear sister..."

"I bought groceries, you cook for me."

"I came all the way here! Never mind not taking me out to a restaurant..." Chen Shu was somewhat incredulous, "You still want me to cook?"

"I haven't eaten your cooking in a long time, I've been craving it."

"Emmm..."

"Go cook! Once your big sister is happy, I'll buy you a potion for breaking through from First Tier to Second Tier!" Chen Banxia wore a look on her face, her smile also looking very kawaii, "I reckon you're just about at the standard to break through to the Second Tier, right?"

"Almost, almost."

"You understand, right?"

"Understand, understand." Chen Shu nodded repeatedly, but paused and asked, "Can I get the cash equivalent instead?"

"Why do you want the cash?"

"I want to buy it myself."

"Why? Which brand do you want? I'll buy it for you; I can get the internal price."

"I have a twenty percent off coupon."

"You aren't planning on using the money to date someone, are you?" Chen Banxia crossed her arms, leaned back, and looked suspiciously at her younger brother. Although she trusted him, she always had the feeling he was capable of anything. "If you're short on money for dating, I can give you some dating funds, hmm, just a little."

"Am I that kind of person? Is there no trust between family?" Chen Shu was angry. "By the way, how much are the dating funds?"

"Fine, I'll give you the cash equivalent."

"The dating funds..."

"We'll talk about it later, we'll talk about it later."

Chen Banxia picked up another pillow, tipped her body to the side, and lay back down on the sofa. Her head rested by Chen Shu's legs. She closed her eyes; her face was snow-white, whiter than many girls who wore foundation, a very natural white, and her eyelashes were long: "Go cook, I'm going to sleep for a bit. If there are any missing ingredients, use my Mobile Phone to order delivery."

"..."

Seriously, he had just finished breakfast before coming over, and now he had to make lunch.

Chen Shu walked toward the refrigerator first.

Oh my, there was even a sticky note on it!

The sticky note read: Morning, dry-mixed noodles with ham sausage; noon, self-heating hot pot; evening, snail rice noodles (remember to boil the cabbage).

"..."

He opened the refrigerator.

There were some wilted garlic sprouts, green peppers of average quality, a cucumber that he wasn't sure was still edible, pork belly, tenderloin, fish, chicken, ribs, scallions, ginger, garlic, eggs... besides these, there were a large number of carbonated drinks, several different types of canned side dishes, and a box of spicy cabbage. It was clear these were the true regulars of the fridge.

Chen Shu went to the kitchen to take a look around and found some ingredients and seasonings that didn't need to be refrigerated.

He also saw a large amount of instant noodles, snail rice noodles, self-heating hot pots, dried noodles, and the like.

"The life of an aging homebody..."

Chen Shu tidied things up and started to get busy.

Two hours later.

On the dining table sat a dish of braised ribs, a dish of twice-cooked pork with garlic sprouts, a dish of shredded pork with green peppers, a bowl of stewed chicken with mushrooms, a plate of dry-braised whole fish, and a pot of Cucumber and Century Egg Soup... Chen Shu washed his hands and walked to the sofa in the living room. Seeing the girl sleeping soundly while hugging her pillow, he reached out without ceremony and tapped her face.

"Time to eat, Chen Banxia!"

Plump, soft and bouncy, the texture was quite nice.