"Thud? Thud... boom!" Watching the little fire crow tumble headfirst, Su Hao jotted down a note in his little book. "Spirit control abilities need more practice to become a habit. Otherwise, instead of being helpful, I'm just making things worse."
Having used "Spirit Control: Acceleration" twice, Su Hao felt nothing himself. Glancing at the panel, his soul power had dropped by about two points. "According to Old Chen's description, as long as I get enough sleep, the consumed soul power can recover within a day. But using too much soul power will cause a sharp decline in mental state, even leading to unconsciousness."
Su Hao had already been able to use spirit control at school yesterday. Back then, Old Chen had warned him to stop using spirit control when he felt tired. Su Hao didn't feel anything now. "Let's try summoning."
He spread his five fingers and muttered softly. Tick— Tick— Two scale pointers lit up, and following the sensation of the soul contract, he chose to summon the silkworm. A moment later, He felt a surge of soul power being drawn out. A bewildered silkworm appeared from a position level with his arm in front of him. It quickly dropped. Mid-air, it flipped its body to maintain balance and landed steadily. "Gu no?"
Seeing the clumsy crow crash into a tree trunk, it scurried over to supervise again. A senior's stare. Stare— Under the gaze, the little fire crow wobbled up into the air, looking pitiful and helpless. It flapped its wings, continuing to fly through the dense forest of branches and leaves. Sometimes soaring up, sometimes swooping down, weaving through the treetops. Suddenly, A force enveloped it, and the little fire crow felt like it had been fitted with a booster. Branches rapidly grew larger in its vision. It dodged, dodged again, but still got tripped by a branch, tumbling out of control. "Awk awk awk awk awk—"
The sound faded into the distance. Watching the little fire crow disappear into the treetops, Su Hao fell into thought. "Maybe I should start practicing in a simpler environment from now on? Even if the spirit is tough, it should at least fall in the right place."
Su Hao mused. Suddenly, he felt dizzy. His steps faltered, and he had to crouch down. "Soul power... used too much?"
He had an advantage over others. On the panel, he saw his soul power was down to less than 3 points. "Before I used 'Spirit Control: Acceleration,' my soul power was at 3.6. I was just a bit tired, nothing obvious. But after using another point, the impact on my state became significant."
One-third seemed to be a critical threshold. When soul power dropped below one-third, the state was noticeably affected. Using spirit control further would be unwise. The enemy might not fall, but he could collapse first.
Seeing Su Hao holding his forehead, crouching down, and swaying, The silkworm rushed over nervously. "Gu no! Gu no no!" Don't die!
...
Autumn passed, winter came, And it was already finals season. As a student in the Spirit Department, Su Hao... like his peers in the Arts and Sciences, had regular final exams too. There were specialized spirit-related subjects like "Spirit History," "Spirit Cultivation," and "Spirit Analysis." And common required subjects like Chinese, Math, and Moral Education.
This year, the exams were even moved up to leave time for the joint five-school practical drill. In Classroom 2, Su Hao, wearing a thick winter uniform, gripped his pen and kept writing on the exam paper. The warm breath from his mouth turned into white mist, dissipating in the air. Finally, Slap! He finished the last question.
The bell rang, and Su Hao handed in his Moral Education paper, filled to the brim. "So hard!" His breath turned into white mist again, like ethereal smoke.
The spirit department papers were a breeze for Su Hao. The difficulty of finals was nothing compared to the Spirit Master written exam. But he still had to take the regular cultural subjects. That stumped the top student Su. Especially since he hadn't spent much time reviewing. "Still, maybe it's just my imagination, but my memory and thinking seem to have improved a bit?" Probably due to the growth of his soul power.
After finishing the last subject's paper, Su Hao walked out of the classroom. A goose-yellow figure rushed toward him, then abruptly slowed down as it got close. "Gu no~!" Su Hao caught the silkworm. Then he saw a little fire crow flutter down and land on his head. "Gu no!" the silkworm barked. "Awk awk." The little fire crow replied weakly, then flew up again and landed on Su Hao's shoulder. The silkworm, satisfied, crawled to the top of his head. Su Hao: "..." Did either of you ask for my opinion?
...
After finals, they had a rare few days off. By Monday, when Su Hao arrived at class, the report cards had already been handed out. His spirit department subjects, unsurprisingly, only lost half a point or a point each—probably the teacher's way of reminding him not to get cocky. "Chinese 117, Math 138... not bad."
Since spirit cultivation and combat scores carried the most weight, Su Hao's only requirement for common cultural subjects was not to drag him down. Just then, Liu Ren sidled over, glanced at the scores, and exclaimed: "Wow, Old Su, you're practically guaranteed a spot at a top school!" He knew Su Hao's strength all too well.
With two contracted spirits, the little fire crow was still early in its training, but the silkworm had already beaten Instructor Xiong's Little Wind Horse back in November. Now, the silkworm was probably close to the entry-level threshold. "But hey, my turtle's spiritual power is over 110 now. It'll hit the limit this winter break. Thinking about it, my progress seems pretty fast too?" Liu Ren knew who to thank.
Compared to the plan from the previous spirit master, Su Hao's was just too awesome. Otherwise, the Charcoal Turtle's spiritual power would barely have reached 100 by now. "Hey, Su Hao, what do you think my turtle's spiritual power limit will be?" "About 140. At your current training pace, it'll take about forty more days to push the Charcoal Turtle to the pre-entry limit." Su Hao glanced at Liu Ren's report card and added: "If you improve your subject scores, you might even have a shot at a top school."
Liu Ren's eyes lit up at that. Then his face fell again. Don't bring up grades—we're still bros! He changed the subject: "Your silkworm's spiritual power must be at its limit by now, right?" "Pretty much." "Then my turtle's not that far behind your silkworm." Su Hao smiled but said nothing.
The silkworm was indeed close to its limit state. But some spirits have a limit of 100 spiritual power, while others reach 130 or 150. And the silkworm's spiritual power was already... At 176! It had even completed "mini-compressions" at the 120 and 150 stages! He had also unlocked speed enhancement and physique enhancement training.
Just how strong the silkworm was now, Su Hao couldn't even say. All he knew was that several boulders on the back mountain of East Lake had been wrecked, forcing him to stop training there.