The Land of Origin's "Upper Layer"
Three days later, Lu Yuan returned to the Land of Origin and headed back to the Training Hall to cultivate.
At his current Third-rank cultivation level, working through Enhanced Spirit Power Gene Fluid, he could process roughly one bottle every twenty minutes — absorbing the equivalent of 100 Fifth-tier Spirit Crystals every twenty minutes.
Three hundred Fifth-tier Spirit Crystals per hour.
With the Gravity Room's boost, he could sustain about twelve hours of cultivation daily in the Training Hall — burning through approximately 3,600 Fifth-tier Spirit Crystals a day.
As his cultivation advanced, his permissible time in the Land of Origin had grown once more.
Forty days later, Lu Yuan finally emerged.
Over those forty days, he had absorbed roughly 140,000 Fifth-tier Spirit Crystals' worth of Spirit Power.
Since his White Jade Spirit Body had yet to evolve, he'd chosen to start with Life Light.
And yet, after pouring in that 140,000 Fifth-tier Spirit Crystals' worth of Spirit Power, the tempering progress had barely cleared a quarter.
Now that he had risen to King Grade genes, fully tempering each one had become an increasingly grueling endeavor.
That said, his stockpile of Enhanced Spirit Power Gene Fluid was enormous — all told, roughly the equivalent of sixty-three million Fifth-tier Spirit Crystals in Spirit Power, more than enough to keep him cultivating for a very long time.
And that was only a tenth of what remained in the Central Floating City's core zone.
Resource scarcity was the last thing on his mind.
After leaving the Land of Origin, Lu Yuan returned to Si Tingyu's for Steel Body training.
Perhaps stung into action by his rapid progress, Si Tingxue had been training noticeably harder, dragging Rebecca along with her — and she'd even started challenging him to sparring sessions.
He never turned her down. Si Tingxue was no pushover, and the bouts were genuinely useful. He held back Space Teleportation during their matches, using the sessions mainly to push his Steel Body tempering further.
Four days later, the Land of Origin's Light Gate reopened, and Lu Yuan stepped inside once more.
From then on, his life settled into a steady rhythm: the moment the Light Gate repaired itself, he'd enter the Land of Origin to cultivate; back in the real world, he'd head to Si Tingyu's for Steel Body training.
When cultivation fatigue crept in during Land of Origin sessions, he'd go tease Amy for a while, or chat with Yeye to unwind.
On weekends in the real world, he'd return to Li Qinghe's place to rest — though she had a habit of dragging him out shopping with her and Si Tingyu.
His role, naturally, was to carry the bags.
What baffled him was that Li Qinghe flatly refused to let him stash them in his Battle-mark Space, insisting it would ruin the "proper experience" of shopping. He found this completely inexplicable.
Thankfully, he was strong enough that being loaded down with bags from head to toe still didn't leave him struggling.
Li Qinghe and Si Tingyu hung out together often — Si Tingyu even stayed over at Li Qinghe's place from time to time — but after all these months, Lu Yuan still had no idea who Li Qinghe's other best friend was.
After all, when he'd first moved in, Li Qinghe had told him herself that she had two best friends.
Three months had passed, and he'd only ever met one of them.
Curious as he was, he hadn't asked.
He had a strong feeling that if he did, Li Qinghe would flash that mischievous grin of hers and ask whether he had designs on her friend.
He had no interest in that kind of trouble.
Time passed. Life was quiet.
By the time he emerged from his fifth stint in the Land of Origin, his permissible stay had extended to forty-three days.
And after consuming roughly 700,000 Fifth-tier Spirit Crystals' worth of Spirit Power in total, he had finally tempered Life Light to full completion.
It was the first King Grade gene he had brought to perfection.
He turned his attention next to his second King Grade gene — Mechanical Dominance.
When he emerged from the Land of Origin that following session, November had passed.
Si Tingfeng, Maige, and Yang Ping all asked why he hadn't shown up for the monthly simulated test.
The truth was he'd simply forgotten. He'd been deep in cultivation in the Land of Origin — when would he have given that a second thought?
Even so, his ranking hadn't budged. He was still second place.
The third-ranked student, Shi Xiu, was a sixth-year prodigy who had already reached Fourth-rank Battle Venerable and inscribed King Grade genes. At that level, any meaningful improvement was a slow, grinding process. In a single month, he still couldn't overcome a Fourth-rank Perfect King Grade Gnoll in the simulation.
Lu Yuan actually figured he had a real shot at first place now — fully tempering a gene had pushed his combat power up another notch. The physical boost wasn't dramatic, but his Spiritual Perception had sharpened considerably.
But a missed test was a missed test. He wasn't bothered.
First place on the Combat Rankings paid 10,000 Credits; second paid 5,000. A difference of 5,000 Credits.
He wasn't hurting for Credits anymore.
Over the past month, he'd been selling a range of goods through the school's forum — fair quality at fair prices, and buyers had been plentiful. First-rank Spirit Power Gene Fluid in particular was in constant demand; even Second-Rank Battle Masters would pick some up, since it still offered a meaningful boost to cultivation speed.
It was a necessity.
In just a single month, his Credit balance had climbed back above one million — 1,034,000 Credits.
He'd started at 393,500; selling various goods across the month had netted him over 640,000 more.
A shame that the higher-ticket items hadn't moved much — Transcendent Genes, Second-rank Boss Grade and Lord Grade Gene Armaments, and the Lord Grade Mechanical Guardians had all seen little interest.
Otherwise, his total would have been even higher.
Not that he was in a rush. The Talent Camp's First and Second-rank students were a limited pool, and they couldn't scrape together large amounts of Credits all at once. Once they completed some missions and fattened their accounts, they'd be back for more.
The key was playing the long game.
At this pace, in under a year, he'd have enough to acquire another powerful Transcendent Gene.
He was content with that.
And so his quiet life continued.
Mechanical Dominance demanded more from him than Life Light had — the tempering requirements were steeper, and the Spirit Crystal consumption was higher.
Two months later, after eight more stints in the Land of Origin and roughly 1.2 million Fifth-tier Spirit Crystals absorbed, Mechanical Dominance had reached 95% tempering.
The final 5% would demand more Spirit Power than any preceding stretch — he estimated it would take another 200,000 to 300,000 Fifth-tier Spirit Crystals to reach full completion.
That put the total somewhere around 1.4 to 1.5 million Fifth-tier Spirit Crystals.
About twice what Life Light had required.
By now, the date had reached February 7th.
The festival season was approaching.
In the Red Maple Empire, of course, what corresponded to the New Year of his previous life was called Harvest Day — a celebration of the year's fruits of labor and life, and a prayer for even greater prosperity in the year ahead.
It wasn't just the Red Maple Empire; every human civilization on Great Qi Star observed the tradition.
Legend had it the custom had been carried here from another human homeworld.
Across the White Cloud Star Domain, Great Qi Star was far from the only human world — and beyond the domain, in other star regions, there were more human planets still. Some surpassed Great Qi Star in power, with their strongest reaching Battle Saint, or even War God.
Humanity was, after all, one of the mightiest factions in the entire Human Race Alliance.
The Talent Camp naturally granted leave for Harvest Day — a full ten days off, which felt practically miraculous.
Students headed home to reunite with family.
Lu Yuan, too, packed up and made his way back to White Willow District — to Li Qinghe's home.
He knocked. The villa door swung open, and a white metallic head appeared before him.
Unit One — the villa's smart robot.
"Young Master, welcome home," the mechanical voice announced. "The mistress is currently preparing lunch for you. We hope you enjoy your meal."
The smile froze on Lu Yuan's face. He went slightly pale.
Li Qinghe's cooking defied description. The best analogy he had was a mystery box — everything looked perfectly normal on the outside, and whether it actually tasted that way when you ate it was purely a matter of luck. Good luck, and dinner was fine. Bad luck, and you had no one to blame but yourself.
He genuinely couldn't figure out how the same person could produce some dishes that were genuinely delicious and others that belonged firmly in the category of culinary catastrophe.
He hurried inside, determined to avert the disaster.
But the moment he caught sight of the kitchen, he stopped dead.
There was someone else in there alongside Li Qinghe.
Emerald-green hair, lustrous as polished jade. Pointed ears. A slender, graceful figure. Porcelain-white skin.
He could only see her from behind, but this was unmistakably an elf.
*An elf. In Li Qinghe's kitchen.*
*And the two of them are chatting away like old friends?*
Lu Yuan was thoroughly baffled.
Sensing his arrival, Li Qinghe turned around. Her face lit up the moment she saw him.
"Yuan'er, you're back! Let me introduce you — this is Shuangyue Feicui! My other best friend."
Shuangyue Feicui turned to face him, revealing a face of refined, serene beauty.
She smiled softly. "Hello, Lu Yuan. Qinghe has mentioned you — quite a few times, actually. Would it be all right if I called you little brother, the same as she does?"
Lu Yuan was still a beat behind. He recovered and smiled back.
"Hello — of course. May I call you Sister Shuangyue?"
"Of course."
He stole a slightly bewildered glance at Li Qinghe, who was grinning from ear to ear.
*She actually has an elf for a best friend.*
Not that Great Qi had no means of interstellar travel, but an elf just showing up like this was the last thing he'd expected.
Li Qinghe seemed to notice his confusion. She smiled and offered an explanation:
"Shuangyue's people — the Jade Tribe — are allied with the Red Maple Empire. So every Harvest Day, the Jade Tribe sends representatives to celebrate with us, and Shuangyue almost always comes. And we're also battle companions in the Land of Origin's 'Upper Layer' — the kind of bond where your lives are on the line together."
Understanding settled over Lu Yuan. He looked at Shuangyue with new eyes.
*So that's it.*
He had heard Si Tingfeng and the others mention the Land of Origin's "Upper Layer" before — a restricted zone, accessible only to those at Battle King Rank and above. Once inside, death was permanent. No revival. No second chances.
Even Si Tingfeng and the others couldn't quite explain the specifics. Only those at Battle King Rank or higher had ever been there, and they rarely spoke of it. At best, Si Tingfeng and his companions had caught the occasional passing mention from family.
Lu Yuan had asked Li Qinghe about it once. She'd given him little — only that he'd understand once he reached Battle King Rank himself. He hadn't pressed further.
Companions who had faced true death together in a place like that — calling them best friends wasn't even close to an exaggeration.
He glanced at the spread being prepared in the kitchen. Most of the dishes were unfamiliar to him — vegetables and fruit, but not a scrap of meat.
He'd heard somewhere that elves didn't eat meat. Apparently that was actually true.
He smiled. "Sister Shuangyue — are you the one doing the cooking?"
Her expression was warm and unhurried. "That's right."
As she said it, she glanced sidelong at Li Qinghe.
Li Qinghe's expression darkened. She crossed her arms and shot a look at Lu Yuan, then at Shuangyue.
"Are the two of you implying something about my cooking?"
They exchanged a quick glance and shook their heads in unison.
"Not at all," Lu Yuan said, the picture of innocence. "How could we possibly have any complaints?"
Shuangyue simply kept smiling.
That small exchange actually brought Lu Yuan and Shuangyue a little closer.
The two women returned to their cooking while Lu Yuan flopped onto the sofa and sank into the cushions with a quiet sigh.
*This is what life is supposed to feel like.*
Training every single day was genuinely exhausting. But being strong was still better than being weak — at the very least, it meant having some say over his own fate.
*Still, what needs to be done gets done.*
Before long, there was a knock at the door. Unit One went to answer it.
Lu Yuan looked up — Si Tingyu, with Si Tingxue and Rebecca in tow.
Rebecca spotted him on the sofa and waved enthusiastically.
"Ah Yuan! We came to visit! Surprised? Weren't expecting us, were you?"
Si Tingxue glanced at him, then tilted her chin up slightly and gave a soft, dismissive huff.
Si Tingyu, meanwhile, smiled warmly and headed straight for the kitchen, falling into easy conversation with Shuangyue and Li Qinghe.
Rebecca and Si Tingxue settled onto the sofa.
"What brought you two over?" Lu Yuan asked with a grin.
Si Tingxue's brow furrowed faintly. "Princes from other nations always come to the Red Maple Empire during Harvest Day," she said, her voice quiet.
She left it at that. Lu Yuan didn't need further explanation.
Si Tingxue was beautiful, extraordinarily talented, brimming with potential — genuinely on a path toward Battle Emperor someday, and Battle Sovereign at the very least. She was far too valuable for the Emperor to use as a political marriage pawn, but that wouldn't stop ambitious princes from every corner of the continent from descending on her during the holiday.
For anyone with ambitions of power and influence, a princess like that — gifted beyond measure and striking beyond words — was an irresistible prize.
And knowing Si Tingxue's personality as he did, Lu Yuan had no trouble imagining how thoroughly she despised that kind of attention. No wonder she'd made a run for it.
He looked at her with barely concealed amusement.
"Didn't think you'd be this popular, Ice Block."
Si Tingxue's expression froze. The air around her seemed to drop several degrees. She fixed him with a stare.
"What did you just call me?!"
Beside them, Rebecca was staring at Lu Yuan with an expression of pure disbelief.
Lu Yuan blinked — and then it hit him. He'd just said out loud the nickname he'd only ever used inside his own head.
He cleared his throat.
"I said — Tingxue, you're really quite popular. Which honestly makes complete sense, I totally understand! If you ever need any help dealing with it, just say the word!"
He looked at her with complete earnestness, his eyes doing their best to signal that he was firmly, unambiguously on her side.
Si Tingxue's expression went stiff. She shot him a sharp look, then turned her gaze slightly away — and the tips of her ears flushed a faint, telltale pink.
Lu Yuan received the glare with utter bafflement.
*I literally just declared myself on her side. And she still glares at me?!*
*What is her problem?*
Rebecca's gaze ping-ponged between the two of them, her expression growing increasingly peculiar. She quietly slipped off her shoes, tucked her bare feet beneath her, and retreated further into the corner of the sofa.
Sensing the awkward silence, she smiled and broke it.
"How about we play some games? I brought a few virtual reality headsets — want to play together?"
Lu Yuan and Si Tingxue exchanged a glance. Both nodded.