Chapter 44: New Usage
"Oh, Auntie, speaking of which, you had enough money to buy 10 Advanced Spiritual Energy Potions, so why didn't you buy a crystal core? Wouldn't that have been more cost-effective?"
Zhang Xin rolled her eyes and said irritably, "I have no use for such low-level crystal cores right now. Every time I get one, I exchange it for academic credits. Why would I have any left? Bringing you a crystal core with a skill was something I deliberately remembered to do. Who knew crystal cores would be so hard to buy in a place this small?"
Su Ke scratched his head and said sheepishly, "Oh, I see. Looks like I misunderstood. Still, Auntie, you're amazing. None of this is cheap. By the way, what are academic credits?"
Zhang Xin smiled and explained, "Academic credits are a special form of currency in universities. They can be exchanged for various resources and opportunities, and they're often more useful than money. You can only earn them by completing missions, participating in competitions, or taking exams."
"Moreover, different levels of academic credits can be exchanged for items of different value. That's why academic credits are extremely important for university students. You'll understand once you get there."
"Oh."
After politely seeing his aunt off, Su Ke could not wait to experience the feeling of 'paying to get stronger' again.
One word summed it up: refreshing.
Previously, when he cultivated step by step, his progress increased by only about 1 percent per day. Now, using a single Advanced Spiritual Energy Potion, he could improve by 5 percent in just one hour. It was simply incredible.
His current progress had reached roughly 60 percent of the Eighth Stage, and he would soon be able to break through to the Ninth Stage.
Over the next week, Su Ke split his time between cultivating and getting beaten up by Zhang Xin.
She called it improving his real combat ability.
During this time, Zhang Xin also witnessed just how heaven-defying Su Ke's Supernatural Ability truly was. He could freely switch between 8 different forms, something she had never seen even at Dijin University.
"All right. After a week of training, I'm sure you now have a better grasp of these forms," Zhang Xin said.
"I definitely understand them much better than before," Su Ke replied.
In the past, whenever Su Ke used an alien form, he would only apply its abilities in a fixed, straightforward manner.
The plant-based field manipulation he had previously developed with Wildvine could be considered his only additional application.
However, after a week of continuous sparring, he gained new insights into the abilities of different alien forms and developed several new ways to use them.
For example, after Heatblast releases flames, Su Ke can use his mental energy to control the fire, making it curve through the air instead of crashing straight forward. This makes Heatblast's attack patterns more flexible and varied, posing a greater threat to opponents.
Then there was Stinkfly. Although it naturally possesses the ability to fly, in combat it can not only beat its wings at high speed, but also coordinate with its spiritual energy to release a special sound wave. This wave resembles ultrasound—completely invisible and inaudible—yet it carries terrifying destructive power, enough to instantly reduce a solid wooden board to powder.
As for special forms like Diamondhead and Upgrade, their functionality was even more powerful and relied heavily on imagination to fully unleash their potential.
These abilities could not be improved through combat alone. They required constant experimentation and innovation.
Furthermore, building upon his original foundation, Su Ke developed an entirely new application for Wildvine. This method allowed him not only to absorb the life force of other plants and convert it into the spiritual energy he needed, but also to inject his own spiritual energy into plants, transforming it into their life force and accelerating their growth.
On one occasion, Su Ke used this ability to forcibly grow an ordinary blade of grass to a height of 1 meter, which left Zhang Xin deeply shocked.
He could even control the grass to perform various movements, making him no different from a standard wood-element Spirit Energy User.
Seeing this, Zhang Xin could not help but grow curious. She took out a seed of ling yuan grass, carefully buried it in the soil, and asked Su Ke to see if he could mature the Spirit Medicine.
Unexpectedly, the attempt was a complete success.
To fully mature the ling yuan grass, Su Ke did not hesitate to exhaust all the spiritual energy in his body. The result, however, thrilled everyone—the ling yuan grass reached full maturity in just 5 minutes.
One had to know that ling yuan grass was quite valuable. Since Su Ke could mature it, other Spirit Medicines would naturally pose no problem. The profits involved were simply beyond measure.
Just how great were those profits?
One look at how Zhang Xin stared at Su Ke—as if he were a walking gold ingot—made it obvious.
Being stared at like that made Su Ke extremely uncomfortable, as though he were about to be sold.
"Ahem, Auntie, my Realm is still too low. Being able to mature one stalk of ling yuan grass is already my limit. Don't expect me to generate much profit right now."
After thinking it over, Zhang Xin agreed.
"All right. I was too impatient. Cultivating Spirit Medicine is extremely difficult. Even wood-element Spirit Energy Users can only slightly accelerate growth based on the original timeline. But maturing ling yuan grass in just 5 minutes… I won't say no one else can do it, but there are certainly very few, and it's absolutely impossible to find someone like that in Yan City."
"It's probably because Wildvine itself is a plant life-form and has extremely high affinity with other plants. For others to replicate this, they would need either an extremely high-rank wood-element Supernatural Ability or a plant-type Vicious Beast or Mutated Beast as a partner. Otherwise, it's completely impossible."
Zhang Xin nodded.
"Not bad. Knowing that there's always someone stronger and not becoming arrogant is a very valuable trait. I hope you can always maintain it."
"Hehe, I'm very self-aware. Until I'm invincible across the world, it's absolutely impossible for me to become arrogant."
"You're just a first-rank weakling who can't even beat me, yet you want to be invincible across the world? You wouldn't even dare to dream that big."
"That's why I said 'until.' Just because I can't do it now doesn't mean I won't be able to in the future."
Su Ke was full of confidence.
After all, with the Omnitrix in hand, the higher his Realm became, the more alien forms he could unlock, and his talent rank would continue to improve. In the future, he might even reach the Mythical Rank. Who would be able to stand against him then?
Hearing his unwavering confidence, Zhang Xin felt an inexplicable urge to believe him.
She shook her head and pushed that thought aside.
Having confidence was a good thing, but how could an Earth-rank talent really reach such heights? Still, he could at least become a minor powerhouse in Yan City in the future.
"By the way, if that form of yours can absorb the life force of plants, can it do the same to animals?"
Su Ke was stunned. He had never considered that possibility.
"I don't know either."
"Wait here."
As soon as she finished speaking, Zhang Xin turned into a gust of wind and drifted away.
"I'm really jealous of an ability like that," Su Ke muttered.
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