Boom!
Inside the bedroom, Lu Jun floated in midair, his entire body enveloped in transparent ripples. At the center of his brow, a silver moon hung suspended, vaguely resembling a lake of viscous spiritual energy.
He was using the magic energy of the Star River Vein to repeatedly bombard the barrier to the Advanced Level.
Soon, within his spiritual world, the translucent nebula quaked and shattered smoothly, and a vast translucent star river cut across the sky.
Mind Element Advanced Level—Achieved!
In the Dark Universe, four-elemental star rivers spiraled: dark blue, black-red, white-gold, and translucent, cycling in a magnificent and grand display.
Around Lu Jun, one star chart after another interwove, constellations standing tall in pride, and 343 star nodes sparkled brilliantly.
In the outside world, the air above the Golden Source Apartment distorted, transforming into a resplendent palace, crystalline and radiant, causing passersby to exclaim and rub their eyes—only for it to vanish again.
They could only assume it was an illusion and didn't think much of it.
Even Mu Nujiao and Ai Tutu, the two women living in the apartment, briefly lost a few seconds of memory under the impact of the immense spiritual energy. When they regained awareness, they were bewildered and unaware, simply continuing with their own tasks.
In their perception, those few seconds had silently slipped away.
In the bedroom, Lu Jun's aura surged. He was immensely joyful. With four elements reaching Advanced Level, he was growing stronger and stronger. Within the National Competition, his cultivation was undoubtedly in the top three.
Everything had come together naturally. His spiritual realm had already reached the Fifth Realm. With the assistance of the Star River Magic Tool, and after long honing of the Mind Element, this breakthrough was expected.
It was just that in the moment of breakthrough, he'd momentarily lost control, letting his increasingly magnificent Mind Palace leak out, almost exposing himself.
Moreover, upon ascending to Advanced Level in a spiritual magic element, a considerable amount of spiritual energy fed back, pushing his spiritual realm to the peak of the Fifth Realm.
"Too bad that in the National Tournament, I can only display the power of the Water, Curse, and Summoning Elements."
Lu Jun sighed slightly. So, although the Metal and Mind Elements had advanced by leaps and bounds, their usefulness in the tournament would be limited. Still, as trump cards, they were absolutely monstrous.
There was less than a month left until the National Tournament.
He seized every moment to enhance himself, while simultaneously mastering the Advanced Mind Spell Soul Seize and Mind Control, and refining the second Ghostfiend of the Curse Element.
The latter was where most of his energy went.
After all, the Curse Element was his official trump card.
Zzzt zzzt zzzt!
Lu Jun released the soul of Mu He. With a surge from the White Tiger Pendant, he cleansed Mu He's consciousness completely, leaving only a pure soul form.
It floated like a blue ghost moon in the bedroom, illuminating the space like a ghost dimension.
Upon seeing this, Lu Jun triggered a thought. Above the soul form, the Nether Realm opened. A layered, black-red Cursed Well Space emerged, with thousands of threads of sigil silk falling from it.
The soul form let out a sound as it was imprinted with Blood Abyss Curse Matter, gradually forming into shape step by step.
No one knew how much time passed. A fifteen-meter-tall black-robed GhostFiend stood upright, its form penetrating multiple floors of the building, looming within the Golden Source Apartment, radiating a chilling aura, making the whole place seem like a haunted house.
The GhostFiend's body was covered in black-red curse runes. It had a stern male appearance, surrounded by gusts of green-black wind, within which faint shapes of a giant tiger could be seen.
Father Mu Ghostfiend! Of course, after Lu Jun's prolonged nurturing and the infusion of nether energy from the ancient King's Armor Robes, it had quickly grown to the level of a Second-Tier Ghost Executioner.
It had awakened a divine ability from its past life, named Qiantian Ghostfiend, placing it on par with the Kuntu Ghostfiend.
"Clouds follow dragons, wind follows tigers. Qiantian is the Wind of the Heavens."
Lu Jun reflected. Mu He, the original form of Qiantian Ghostfiend, had wielded Mind, Curse, and Wind perfectly suited to him.
The Qiantian Ghostfiend possessed Wind Phase, Biao Wings, capable of enveloping its host, granting unparalleled movement skills. Combined with the Earth Escape of the Kuntu Ghostfiend, and the Shadow Escape of the Night Thunder Dream Beast, mobility was now a complete non-issue.
"The Curse Element is getting a bit broken now."
He thought to himself and quickly drew a constellation to summon the Kuntu Ghostfiend.
The tall, white-robed female ghost stood gracefully, her figure full and curvaceous.
In the apartment courtyard, one black and one white, one male and one female, the two GhostFiends stood side by side.
Gray-white petrifying mist and green-black wicked wind currents intertwined, and a mighty domain descended.
Lu Jun felt a tight connection form with both ghostfiends—earth representing land, wind representing sky. Together, they could be called Heaven and Earth (Qian-Kun).
Next, he activated his Psychic Element Domain. With his promotion to Advanced Tier, his Mind Palace evolved from a domain prototype into a complete Domain.
The Psychic Domain and Heaven-Earth Domain were both spiritual in nature and fused well together.
It was like when Mo Fan had erupted with his dual Lightning-Fire Domain—that was a power he only mastered a year later during the National Institute Competition.
Yet Lu Jun could now wield it with ease. His Mind Palace, under the transformation of the Kuntu and Qiantian Ghostfiends, had become a terrifying ghostfiend lair.
Gray-white hues spread over the flawless walls of the psychic fortress, and its mental fortitude grew even tougher. Encircling the outer wall, a spiraling cyclone of dark cyan wind formed a solid wind barrier defense.
Inside the eerie castle, countless webs hung like curtains, and innumerable sinister spiders climbed across the surfaces, appearing and vanishing unpredictably.
Lu Jun took a sharp breath. With Five Realm-level Spirituality, supreme Curse Substance, and the dual Ghostfiend Domains, he could shred a Commander-level peak demon beast to pieces.
Two to three months of seclusion had yielded rich rewards.
He began solidifying his cultivation in the Curse and Psychic Elements. The latter was still fresh—he hadn't yet fully mastered Advanced magic—but it was finally time to end his retreat.
At Golden Source Apartment, the moment Lu Jun stepped out of his bedroom, he was greeted by Mu Nujiao and Ai Tutu. Both girls had heavy dark circles, their hair disheveled, and were staring at him with resentful expressions like two lunatics.
"What happened to you two?"
He was baffled and asked in confusion.
"Damn it, Lu Jun! Next time you practice the Curse Element, can you stop turning the place into a damn haunted house?"
Ai Tutu exploded. "That last month of your closed-door training, the apartment randomly turned into a ghost lair—spiders and spirits popping out and scaring us half to death!"
"Really? My bad then."
Lu Jun scratched his head and apologized sincerely. His cultivation movements were getting increasingly intense—he was starting to act less and less like a normal Mage.
Well! His Water, Curse, Psychic, and Metal Elements—none of them were what you'd call normal, were they?
At last, feeling clear-headed and refreshed, Lu Jun set off for Pearl Institute.
He hadn't moved in two or three months. The death energy stored in his Ancient King's Armor Robe had built up considerably. It was time to go find his go-to punching bag, Little Lu, to vent a bit. Oh—and also get a spirit massage from Ding Yumian.
Along the way, with his Psychic Element at Advanced Tier, it was also time to learn some new techniques.
Halfway there, Lu Jun suddenly spotted Mo Fan and called out, "Hey, you're back from your secluded training on Mount Hua? Let's go report to the Imperial Capital's National Institute gathering together."
During this time, the National Institute had already formed a mentor committee. Even the teammates had regrouped for a round of training.
Only he and Mo Fan had remained unshakable in seclusion—resulting in constant nagging from the National Institute mentors and several bigshots. They sent two to three messages a day, escalating to phone calls filled with yelling.
"Ah, yeah. Okay."
Mo Fan looked surprised to see Lu Jun but forced a smile and nodded.
Hmm? Lu Jun was a little puzzled. Mo Fan's mood didn't seem right.
No, not just "not right" he was practically exuding murderous rage. His eyes were filled with killing intent, as if he were a demon about to unleash slaughter upon the world.
He asked, "What happened to you?"
"Xin Xia was taken away," Mo Fan said grimly. "Those bastards from Parthenon Temple forced her onto a plane without my permission."
For additional chapters
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