As Long Chen’s Spiritual Strength surged, the red liquid in the tablet began to fluctuate. However, even after several seconds, it didn’t climb at all.

“Hahaha, he probably can’t even reach a hundred thousand, and he acted so big. How laughable.”

“Didn’t he compare himself to Di Xin? I’ve never seen someone with such a thick skin. If I were him, I’d kill myself right now.”

Seeing that the red liquid didn’t move, the sharp-tongued people immediately began to add on insults.

Long Chen didn’t say anything, but the disciple testing him coldly said, “The spirit testing tablet is different from the spirit testing stones. It doesn’t finish the test instantly, which is why we don’t use it normally. He needs to use his Spiritual Strength to make the soul blood liquid inside reach a boiling point before it can start rising. That usually requires half an incense stick’s worth of time, so if you don’t understand, don’t randomly speak. You only reveal how ignorant you are.”

Those mocking people’s expressions immediately became ugly. The surrounding people were all looking at them disdainfully.

“Hmph, so what? I don’t believe such a person has a soul value of a million. He’s clearly just wasting time,” quibbled a man.

“It’s moving!”

Just at this moment, the red liquid representing his soul value began to rise.

The disciple standing beside it was shocked. In just five breath’s time, Long Chen had made the soul blood liquid inside reach its boiling point. That was absolutely shocking. Even Di Xin had used over ten breath’s time to reach this point.

This not only represented that his soul value was double Di Xin’s, but it also represented his terrifyingly powerful Spiritual Strength.

Just at this moment, within the main palace, the palace master became shocked. “Long Chen’s Spiritual Strength, is it even greater than yours, Meng Qi?”

Meng Qi was a pure soul cultivator. In truth, her Spiritual Strength had mutated strangely and could no longer be classified according to normal standards.

As for Chu Yao, she was the disciple that the palace master was fondest of, to such a point that the latter had been willing to sacrifice her longevity and beautiful appearance to make up for the fact that Chu Yao had missed her golden cultivation time.

As a wood cultivator, Chu Yao had both plentiful spiritual yuan and Spiritual Strength that wouldn’t lose out to her master’s. When Meng Qi had arrived, the palace master had been shocked to find that Meng Qi’s Spiritual Strength was even greater than Chu Yao’s. That had already filled her with disbelief.

As for Di Xin, his Spiritual Strength hadn’t surpassed Meng Qi’s. He had only reached the same level as Chu Yao.

In truth, Meng Qi’s Spiritual Strength was the result of Long Chen cutting off a portion of his own Spiritual Strength, creating a spiritual seed for her. That was what had resulted in the mutation.

Chu Yao’s soul value had been measured at 1,370,000 points, while Di Xin had reached 1,350,000 points. It could be said that he was equal with Chu Yao in this regard. However, Di Xin had been holding back at that time, but in the same vein, Chu Yao had only measured her soul value a few months ago, and it had now increased by quite a bit. It was just that she hadn’t tested it again. In any case, their Spiritual Strength should be on the same level.

However, Meng Qi’s soul value had reached 1,490,000 points. She was at the top of all of them.

On the other hand, Tang Wan-er was left out. Her soul value was only 57,000 points. In the outside world, this was incredible, but compared to these monsters, she was clearly much inferior.

When they had tested themselves, even Meng Qi hadn’t expected Tang Wan-er’s soul value to be so low. However, she was a very brute-force kind of fighter, so it was understandable.

Nevertheless, Tang Wan-er couldn’t help feeling disappointed. Her emotions were always written all over her face. She felt inferior.

Hence, they had called Long Chen over mainly for Tang Wan-er. They had to fight for one of the many opportunities in the Jade Lake Pageant that would increase Tang Wan-er’s Spiritual Strength. This was also why Tang Wan-er was so anxious when Long Chen arrived so late. She wanted to get back at him for it.

Hearing the palace master’s shocked cry, Meng Qi merely smiled. She looked at the scene on the wall. The red liquid was still rising.

“200,000.”

“300,000.”

“400,000.”

As Long Chen’s Spiritual Strength circulated, it continued to rise. The surrounding experts all stared in stunned silence.

It had to be known that a normal cultivator at their level had a soul value under three thousand. After all, Spiritual Strength wasn’t the only kind of energy used by a cultivator.

In truth, when fighting, cultivators had to merge the essence, qi, and soul together. Those three things represented their physical strength, spiritual yuan, and Spiritual Strength respectively. Those three types of energy had to merge together to unleash magical arts.

Different magical arts required different proportions of energy. For the majority of Battle Skills, unleashed with weapons or fists, the proportion was normally 4:5:1. In other words, forty percent came from the physical body, fifty percent came from spiritual yuan, and ten percent came from Spiritual Strength.

There was also another aspect known as the body, mouth, and will. When unleashing one’s greatest power, the body moved, the mouth made an incantation or shouted, and the will guided everything. The three worked simultaneously.

When experts fought, they would often shout loudly what move they were using. In truth, that wasn’t used to show off or frighten their opponents, but the result of this body, mouth, and will aspect.

When they weren’t united, it would reduce the power of the attack. In fact, if things went awry, the energy might simply explode in their bodies. There were plenty of cases of people crippling themselves due to the body, mouth, and will not working in unison.

Shouting the move had a mental effect, and it allowed the essence, qi, and soul to flow through the requirements of the move naturally. This was one of the iron rules of the cultivation world that no one could change.

Some moves had different proportions of energy. For example, Long Chen’s Double Dragon Destruction, Star Fall, and other magical arts usually had a proportion of 1:4:5. Ten percent physical energy, forty percent spiritual yuan, and fifty percent Spiritual Strength. In addition, he had to summon Lei Long and Huo Long’s energy.

Such a magical art required much more Spiritual Strength. Without Spiritual Strength, there was no way to keep the magical art stable. It would just explode in the body.

People, whose Spiritual Strength was lacking, couldn’t unleash such techniques. They were all normally close-range fighters, while those with powerful Spiritual Strength had no problem fighting at long range or short range.

All attacks with a huge range, especially ones with shocking areas of destruction, required a massive amount of Spiritual Strength. That was why a genius’s soul value was a very important decider of their talent.

The Skywood Divine Palace’s Jade Lake Pageant required participants to be at the Soul Transformation realm and have a soul value of ten thousand points. That made countless geniuses cry in private.

Even Empyreans wouldn’t necessarily have such powerful Spiritual Strength, and if they didn’t, then not even Empyreans would be allowed to attend the Jade Lake Pageant.

Seeing that Long Chen’s soul value had reached 400,000 already gobsmacked countless people. On average, the people here had a soul value between 10,000 and 30,000. A very small portion might be able to reach 50,000. Those who could reach 100,000 were as rare as a phoenix feather or qilin horn. They had the power to look down arrogantly on all the others.

They had heard of people possessing a soul value in the hundreds of thousands, but they had never personally seen one. So all their hearts were pounding as they watched the red liquid slowly rise.

Those people who had mocked Long Chen before were the most shocked ones. They felt a burning sensation on their faces. Worst of all, they had even been criticized by one of the disciples of the Skywood Divine Palace for being ignorant about the testing process, making them now look both stupid and laughable.

As Long Chen’s soul value continued to rise, their faces burned hotter and hotter. It was like each increase was a slap in the face.

“500,000.”

“600,000.”

“700,000.”

…

As Long Chen’s soul value continued to rise, everyone was deathly silent, staring at the tablet as well as that mysterious figure.

Eventually, Long Chen’s soul value reached 950,000. However, there, it suddenly came to a stop, as if it couldn’t progress any further. That made countless people sigh in disappointment. It had actually been a failure in the end, and it was just a little bit off. That was regretful.

“Hahaha, didn’t I say that he wouldn’t be able to do it? Now, do you see it? Isn’t he still a failure in the end?”

“How could he compare to Di Xin? Hmph, he’s a far cry from him. Does the light of a firefly dare to compare with the light of the full moon?”

The people who had mocked Long Chen immediately sighed with relief and began with their insults once again. It was like Long Chen’s failure was the result that they wanted to see the most. Their wish was finally fulfilled.

The disciple testing him couldn’t help feeling that it was regretful that he was just a bit off. She encouraged him by saying, “Sometimes people’s Spiritual Strength fluctuates when they’re panicked or in a rush. You can try again after steadying your heart.”

“Thank you.” Long Chen smiled.

“There’s no need to waste the time. We’re not amateurs. We know the test requires unleashing all his Spiritual Strength. Doing so is exhausting, and to do it right after it will multiply the difficulty. There’s no chance for him!” laughed a disciple.

“You…!” The testing disciple glared at that person irritably. However, what he said was true. If one couldn’t make it, then after tiring themselves out, it would be even more difficult to pass the second try. There was really no hope. However, for him to say such a thing before Long Chen had even tried again was irritating.

“What do you understand? Hmph, what if I actually manage to pass? Will you eat the stone tablet?” said Long Chen disdainfully.

“Haha, if you succeed, we’ll eat the entire stone tablet! But if you fail, you have to kneel and lick our shoes. Do you dare?” Over ten people immediately raised a bet with Long Chen.

“Alright, then I’ll bet with you.”

These were precisely the words that he had been waiting for.

The red liquid that had been stagnating suddenly bloomed with light. Spiritual Strength surged forward like a tsunami, and the red light soared.

BOOM!

The red light reached the peak, and then the entire stone tablet exploded into fragments.

“It… it’s off the charts…”