The fact that people from the Assassin Temple had harmed the young talents from the Knight Temple who were participating in the Demon Hunt Squad selection competition was impossible to hide. The nature of the incident was extremely bad, and if handled poorly, it could affect the very foundation of the Six Great Temples Alliance.

However, to everyone’s surprise, the Knight Temple remained silent about the matter and did not file a lawsuit with the Temple Alliance. The Assassin Temple was even more low-key, and both sides acted as if nothing had happened. Even when members of the alliance committees from the other major temples inquired, the Knight Temple and the Assassin Temple had already agreed on a unified response, saying it was just a misunderstanding.

With the two major temples maintaining a tacit understanding, the other temples naturally wouldn’t say much. After all, they weren’t the ones who had suffered losses. As for how the matter was resolved, they had no way of finding out.

By this point in the Demon Hunt Squad selection competition’s preliminary round, most of the matches had concluded, with only the final rankings remaining. Long Haochen had lost, and Yang Wenzhao was seriously injured, and both of them had lost the possibility of continuing to participate in the preliminary round. Because Long Haochen’s performance in the match against Yang Wenzhao was particularly outstanding, he was ranked sixth in the Knight Temple’s preliminary round. Yang Wenzhao’s tragedy of entering the top five but being unable to continue the competition meant he could only be fifth.

Stretching his body vigorously, Long Haochen gradually woke up from his dream. The painful sensations of last night still lingered, but they were much better than before.

Rubbing his eyes, Long Haochen sat up in bed. It had been a long time since he had slept so deeply.

Cai’er. As his consciousness returned, the first thing he thought of was that beautiful and extraordinary face. Although his mental state was extremely poor last night, that brief gaze had already deeply imprinted that face in his mind.

Was I dreaming last night? Long Haochen wasn’t even sure if what he experienced last night had really happened. After all, he was too weak at the time.

“Huh?” The uneven feeling under his fingers caught his attention. He touched it carefully, and it seemed like there were words.

He quickly sat up and looked at the writing. Sure enough, a line of delicate handwriting was carved on the bed board.

“Take care of your injuries and don’t worry about me. When the finals begin, we will naturally meet again. Cai’er.”

It wasn’t a dream, haha, it wasn’t a dream. Long Haochen was overjoyed when he saw this message. He clearly remembered that Cai’er had said last night that she didn’t blame him.

We will naturally meet again in the finals? What does that mean? Last night… Last night, Cai’er seemed to have used spiritual power to help me heal. Could she also be a professional from the Six Great Temples? But, she can’t see! Which temple does she belong to?

Questions kept popping up in his mind, but how could he possibly find the answers?

Soon after, Ye Hua and Li Xin came to see him. Both siblings had lost their matches and could rest for the next five days, waiting for the finals to begin.

Ye Hua checked Long Haochen’s body again, especially his meridians and internal organs. After finding that the sacrifice skill hadn’t left any sequelae, he breathed a sigh of relief.

“You idiot,” Ye Hua immediately scolded, his face so dark it seemed like it could drip water. Li Xin, who was standing beside him, stuck out her tongue, but didn’t dare to say anything.

Long Haochen lowered his head and said, “Teacher, I just wanted to test my abilities through actual combat and stimulate my potential. Using the sacrifice skill was something I suddenly realized. Don’t be angry, I won’t be so impulsive in the future.”

Ye Hua raged, “Bullshit. Do you think I’m angry because you challenged Yang Wenzhao? You’re wrong. I’m angry because of your stupidity. I ask you, who is stronger, you or Yang Wenzhao?”

Long Haochen was stunned and looked at his teacher, puzzled. “Naturally, he is much stronger.”

Ye Hua snorted coldly, “You still know that he’s stronger? Then why did you choose to fight head-on? Did you let the dog eat all the combat skills you’ve learned from me for the past two years? It’s fun to fight head-on, isn’t it? But have you thought about what if this were on a battlefield against the demons? What if your opponent were a demon? What if you had comrades waiting for you to rescue them? Would you still fight like this?”

A series of questions left Long Haochen speechless.

Ye Hua said coldly, “How many combat skills have I taught you? That’s right, fighting head-on does make it easier to stimulate potential, especially when fighting against opponents stronger than yourself. However, if you really want to improve your combat experience and stimulate potential, you can’t treat it like a match, but rather like a battle to the death. What should you do in a battle to the death? Didn’t I teach you that?”

Long Haochen lowered his head again. “Try to maneuver around the enemy with skill and preserve yourself as much as possible.”

Ye Hua clenched his fist. “It’s good that you still remember. Now tell me, are you a Guardian Knight or a Retribution Knight?”

Long Haochen was silent. He didn’t know how to answer Ye Hua’s question.

Ye Hua said lightly, “In terms of talent, even ten teachers are no match for you, but in terms of experience, ten of you are not as good as me. Let me answer this question for you. Punish when you need to punish, and protect when you need to protect. But you have to pay attention to one thing: when you use the abilities of a Retribution Knight, don’t forget your other identity. Your talent is enough to support you in dual-wielding Retribution and Guardian. Since that’s the case, you must show the advantages of them being fused together in actual combat. Don’t let me see you acting stupid and recklessly again, otherwise you don’t deserve to be Ye Hua’s disciple.”

“Yes,” Long Haochen hurriedly replied respectfully. Although Ye Hua’s words were scolding him, they contained a lot of concern. He knew that his teacher was afraid that he would go down the wrong path!

After washing up and eating something, Long Haochen began his cultivation again. Although his physical condition was much better in the morning, what had recovered were all external spiritual power and the injured body. His internal spiritual power was still completely gone. Only the Saint Spiritual Stove seemed to have regained its original brilliance.

He had very few of the cultivation pills that Lin Xin had given him left. Long Haochen didn’t take one this time. Instead, he quietly sat cross-legged and carefully felt the spiritual power fluctuations within the Saint Spiritual Stove after entering a meditative state.

Gentle, profound, vast. When his consciousness entered the Saint Spiritual Stove, he immediately felt these three auras.

The internal spiritual power he had previously felt in the Saint Spiritual Stove seemed to not exist, but he saw a little golden light.

That little golden light was very small, but it was still quite eye-catching in the milky-white overall color of the Saint Spiritual Stove. The gold was only the size of a grain of rice, but what surprised Long Haochen was that this little bit of gold was completely liquid.

Liquid spiritual power?

Could it be that after using the sacrifice skill, I accidentally cultivated liquid spiritual power?

Subconsciously, Long Haochen began to cultivate according to his usual methods.

Because there was no internal spiritual power in his body at this time, the speed at which he absorbed external light elements was much slower than usual. However, don’t forget that he was a Child of Light, and his affinity for light elements was unmatched by anyone.

A trace of gentle light element slowly entered Long Haochen’s body. He immediately discovered that without him even needing to activate it, these light elements immediately went straight to the Saint Spiritual Stove, as if they had found their source, and directly merged into it.

The Saint Spiritual Stove’s reaction was very calm, only slightly releasing some faint golden light beneath its original milky-white color.

Looking inside the stove again, it was as Long Haochen had expected. The light elements absorbed through cultivation directly poured into that drop of golden liquid spiritual power, becoming a part of it.

Because the concentration of light elements absorbed from the outside was extremely thin, far less than that of the drop of liquid internal spiritual power, those foreign light elements had no reaction when they merged into it.

But this didn’t affect Long Haochen’s excitement. Without a doubt, he had really cultivated liquid spiritual power. The question now was how to expand it and how to get it out of the Saint Spiritual Stove.

Thinking of this, Long Haochen took out a spirit gathering pill for cultivation, which he had named himself.

As the spirit gathering pill entered his stomach, Long Haochen’s qi and blood were mobilized, and his body’s sensitivity to light elements in the air suddenly increased.

This spirit gathering pill was a fourth-order pill, which must be taken by a fourth-order powerhouse. Although Long Haochen had lost his internal spiritual power, his physical state was still that of a fourth-order Great Knight, and his meridians were strong enough to withstand the effects of the medicine, so there was nothing wrong with it.

Sure enough, after taking the spirit gathering pill, his speed of absorbing light elements suddenly increased. Light elements from all directions poured in, entering his body through his pores and breath, and then immediately, like rivers flowing into the sea, they were devoured by the Saint Spiritual Stove.

At this time, the Saint Spiritual Stove was like a bottomless abyss. No matter how many light elements Long Haochen absorbed, they would all be devoured by it. The only change was that the golden light emitted by the Saint Spiritual Stove itself was gradually increasing, and the drop of liquid spiritual power inside the Saint Spiritual Stove was also beginning to gradually increase in size.

In this way, Long Haochen was completely immersed in his cultivation state. Cultivation was tedious, but feeling that little bit of accumulation could bring a strong sense of satisfaction to the cultivator. This was the commonality of all professions.

In the blink of an eye, three days had passed. For these three days, except for eating, Long Haochen was completely immersed in his cultivation state. He also told Ye Hua about the situation that had occurred in his current cultivation. But Ye Hua didn’t know what was going on with him either.

Silently waiting was Ye Hua’s only method. Without a doubt, this was a good thing. Although he didn’t know what mysteries existed in the Saint Spiritual Stove, Ye Hua was willing to see Long Haochen in this state. Even if he couldn’t control it all. Yes! Who could control the growth of the Child of Light?

(To be continued)