A hint of confusion flickered in Shu Feng's eyes. "Why do you ask?" he inquired, curious.
Gao Wen explained, "Generally, once your Spiritual Power surpasses 90 points, raising your Spiritual Power cap through cultivation becomes extremely slow. The efficiency drops by a factor of dozens, and it only gets harder the higher you go. That's because our life forms have reached a limit. To continue evolving, we must break through and become Spirit Warriors."
"An ordinary Spiritualist will condense their Spirit Core somewhere between 90 and 100 Spiritual Power to become a Spirit Warrior. This is divided into tiers based on 10-point increments. The five tiers are, in order: Normal, Excellent, Elite, Genius, and Celestial Pride. The higher your Spiritual Power when condensing your Spirit Core, the more stable your foundation and the greater your future accomplishments will be."
Shu Feng asked, "In that case, couldn't everyone just cultivate hard at this stage, raise their Spiritual Power, and wait to advance until they reach the Celestial Pride level?"
"This is where aptitude becomes important. It's not impossible for someone with ordinary aptitude to break the 100-point Spiritual Power limit. You can take a Primordial Spirit Pill—which costs ten million a piece—to break through the boundary and reach the Excellent tier. To go from Excellent to Elite, you'll need even more Primordial Spirit Pills."
"I knew all this back then," Ma Jin said with a soft sigh. "But after my Spiritual Power Value hit 93, I couldn't raise it no matter how hard I tried. I had no choice but to condense my Spirit Core and advance to Spirit Warrior."
Ding Xiaoxue smiled faintly. "I condensed my Spirit Core and became a Spirit Warrior at a Spiritual Power Value of 141!"
"A Spiritual Power Value of 141!!"
Aside from Wang Chu, the other three members of Guardian Flame present all had looks of shock flash across their eyes.
Gao Wen's eyes glinted with a strange light as he said in admiration, "That's incredible! Xiaoxue, you've broken through the first boundary. Truly incredible."
"A Spiritual Power Value of 140 is a major limit. Even among Celestial Pride-level geniuses, very few can surpass it. Surpassing 140 Spiritual Power is known as breaking the First Boundary. Only those Celestial Prides who break the First Boundary have any hope of reaching the Spirit Sect Realm."
"Of course, anyone who condenses their Spirit Core with a Spiritual Power Value over 130 has a chance of reaching the Spirit Sect Realm. It's just that the success rate is low," Ma Jin explained, noticing Shu Feng's confused expression.
Gao Wen added, "After the First Boundary, there is a Second Boundary and a Third Boundary, each representing another 10-point tier of Spiritual Power. Breaking the Second Boundary gives you a hope of reaching Spirit Venerable, and breaking the Third Boundary gives you a hope of reaching Spirit Saint."
After this period of cultivation, Shu Feng had already learned that the cultivation realms for Spiritualists were divided into seven Great Realms: Spiritual Ability Apprentice, Spirit Warrior, Spirit Master, Great Spirit Master, Spirit Sect, Spirit Venerable, and Spirit Saint.
The governors of every province had to be at the Spirit Sect realm or higher, and their numbers were extremely small. Many Patriarchs of Spiritualist families and leaders of large Spiritualist factions were also only at the Spirit Sect Level.
Shu Feng thought, 'As expected of Ding Xiaoxue. She's really amazing. I have to work even harder.'
Ma Jin offered a word of caution, "Ah Feng, in the future, if you feel like you really can't raise your Spiritual Power any further, don't force it. That's the limit of your aptitude. Don't waste time on the impossible. I've seen many guys exhaust all their resources and time as Level 9 Spirit Warrior Apprentices, only to fail to even reach the Spirit Warrior realm in the end."
For a genius like Ding Xiaoxue, advancing to Spirit Warrior was a given. It was only a matter of time before she advanced to Spirit Master and Great Spirit Master. Only reaching the Spirit Sect realm would be even slightly difficult for her.
However, for Spiritualists with ordinary aptitude, there was a failure rate of over fifty percent when trying to advance to Spirit Warrior. If they failed, these ordinary Spiritualists could basically only take up clerical or logistical jobs, and their opportunities for promotion would become severely limited.
Zhou Yang said, "You two are both eligible to apply for a sidearm. Do you want to?"
Shu Feng's eyes lit up. "Yes! I want to apply for one!"
Shu Feng's physical condition had soared. His Power stat was at 13 points, making him stronger than many rigorously trained special forces soldiers. When he fired the Black Crow, he could hit the bullseye of a stationary target at thirty meters most of the time.
Ding Xiaoxue shook her head slightly. "My aptitude is poor; specializing in the Sword Dao already takes all my effort. I don't want to divide my focus by learning to use a gun."
Zhou Yang smiled faintly. "Total dedication to a single path. That is also a way of cultivation that leads directly to the Great Dao."
Ma Jin warned, "Shu Feng, that 'total dedication' is a cultivation method only geniuses can afford. If ordinary Spiritualists like us tried to cultivate that way, we'd have become piles of white bones long ago. The correct path for us is to make full use of the Abilities we've awakened."
A Spiritualist genius like Ding Xiaoxue could increase her Spiritual Power cap by two or three points or more every single day. By specializing in the Spirit Martial Dao, they could become incredibly strong very quickly.
If ordinary Spiritualists like Ma Jin and Shu Feng didn't use guns, they wouldn't stand a chance against a Sword Dao genius like Ding Xiaoxue.
Shu Feng chuckled. "Don't worry, Ma Jin. I'm well aware of my own capabilities."
After gathering You Meng and Gongsun Hai, Wang Chu and the group went straight to Juxing Tower for a celebratory feast in honor of Ding Xiaoxue's successful advancement to Spirit Warrior.
Xu Gang's father, Xu Canghai, was arrested and thrown in prison for tax evasion and hiring someone to commit assault. Xu Chenghai was also sent to prison for corruption and bribery. Xu Gang, in turn, was expelled from school.
With the Xu Family having suffered such a blow, their enemies came out of the woodwork to attack them, causing the family to suffer even greater losses.
Wang Mo and Zhou Haifeng were also promptly expelled from school and disappeared from the public eye.
Shu Feng's status changed overnight. He went from being a bullied, insignificant student to a mysterious and influential figure, the new heartthrob of the school. No one was foolish enough to provoke him anymore. In fact, quite a few of the younger girls secretly developed crushes on him, his Charm having greatly increased.
Shu Feng himself, however, remained unchanged. He continued to study diligently, cultivating the Spirit Cultivation Technique 2.0 and the Thirteen Forms Body Forging Technique, as well as practicing his Spear Technique and Fighting Art to increase his strength.
「Beiling Street.」
"Bullets are so expensive!!"
Shu Feng's eye twitched as he browsed the various types of bullets available in the Spiritual Ability Mall.
A single Spiritual Bullet with the Purification ability cost 100,000 yuan and 1 Contribution Point. A Demon-Breaking Bullet cost 200,000 yuan and 2 Contribution Points.
Of course, these Spiritual Bullets were expensive, but their power was immense. After a Spiritual Spear Master advanced to Spirit Warrior, they could use a Secret Treasure-Level Spiritual Spear to infuse it with their Spiritual Power. Combined with these various Spiritual Bullets, their Destructive Power became even more terrifying.
In this world, a Spiritual Spear Master could often heavily injure or even kill an expert of the same tier with a single, well-placed shot. They could even kill enemies of a higher tier. This was all because of the combination of incredibly powerful Spiritual Spears and a variety of Spiritual Bullets with different effects.
Shu Feng hesitated for a long while before buying one Purification bullet and one Demon-Breaking Bullet to keep as his trump cards. He then purchased forty regular bullets for his Black Crow, twenty Armor-Piercing Bullets, and ten Blast Bullets.
The regular bullets for the Black Crow were very cheap, only 100 yuan each, so forty of them cost 4,000 yuan. An Armor-Piercing Bullet cost 10,000 yuan and could penetrate the armor of a standard armored vehicle to kill enemies inside. A Blast Bullet cost 50,000 yuan and could produce an explosive effect similar to a grenade.