Chapter 33: I Want Some Peace and Quiet

"Little Han? What's wrong?"

The Princess Consort's voice pulled Su Han back from his thoughts.

He looked up to see his mother, the Princess Consort, wearing a strange expression.

"Leave me alone. I need some quiet time."

Su Han said listlessly, "And don't ask me who 'Quiet Time' is. I don't know her either."

Prince Jing: "..."

The Princess Consort: "..."

'So, what on earth is wrong with our son?'

'He clearly broke through to the Spirit Platform Realm, taking another step closer to becoming a true cultivator. Why has he suddenly become so dejected?'

'If I recall correctly... I gave birth to a son!'

Watching the dejected Su Han walk away, the Princess Consort couldn't help but wonder, 'Could it be... I actually gave birth to a daughter all this time?'

Naturally, Su Han was completely unaware of his mother's less-than-charitable speculation. If he had known, he probably would have laughed out of sheer exasperation.

Leaving the Princess Consort's courtyard, Su Han headed straight back to his own.

He shut himself in his room, lay down on the soft couch with his eyes closed, and submerged his consciousness into his Sea of Consciousness to observe it in silence.

He looked and looked, thought and thought, and in the end... he had no choice but to begrudgingly admit it—his Sea of Consciousness was truly countless thousands of times larger than the vastest ocean.

'So... for someone like me... is there any hope of filling this Sea of Consciousness in my lifetime?'

'But... the good thing is that my Sea of Consciousness opened earlier than others. Most people can only attempt to tear open their Sea of Consciousness and give birth to their Divine Sense after reaching the flawless Perfection stage of the Spirit Platform Realm.'

'I, on the other hand, had already birthed my Divine Sense during the Foundation Establishment stage. That Divine Sense automatically broke open my Sea of Consciousness, giving me a head start of two entire realms.'

'Most importantly, others can only enhance their Divine Thought through constant cultivation and refinement.'

'But for me... every time I light up a Skill Tree and obtain a skill, the power of my Divine Sense strengthens and grows a little.'

'If I can light up enough Skill Trees, my Divine Thought will continue to grow, and maybe one day, I really could fill my entire Sea of Consciousness.'

'It's just... a long and arduous road ahead!'

Glancing once more at his seemingly boundless Sea of Consciousness, Su Han sighed silently.

'Alright, I've decided.'

'Starting tomorrow, I'll redouble my efforts to light up Skill Trees.'

'Today, I burned the Ning Residence. Tomorrow, the great fire will start at the Wu Hou's Residence!'

His fighting spirit rekindled, he cast aside the thought that he might never reach the Immortal Platform Realm in this life. Su Han began to seriously inspect his own condition.

Birthing his Divine Thought and opening his Sea of Consciousness early during the Foundation Establishment Realm didn't just bring him the benefit of being able to use techniques typically mastered by Divine Sea Realm cultivators ahead of time.

More importantly, when forging his Spirit Platform, because he possessed Divine Thought, he had microscopic control over his own condition. Under the guidance of his Divine Thought, Su Han was able to forge a flawless Spiritual Foundation.

He prepared to use his Divine Sense for Introspection to check his condition.

However, the moment he looked inward, Su Han couldn't help but freeze for a moment.

'It's changed!'

'The state of my body is different from what I saw during my last Introspection.'

The last time, when his Divine Sea had opened before his Spirit Platform was forged, he had used the power of his Divine Sense to inspect his body. Back then, Su Han had seen many points of light hidden within a gray fog, flickering in and out of view like the stars in the heavens.

But this time, upon looking inward, Su Han discovered that after opening his Qi Sea within his Dantian and forging the Spirit Platform from it, the newly-formed Spirit Platform shone like a brilliant lighthouse, illuminating his entire body.

Under the Spirit Platform's radiance, the paths of Spiritual Power circulating through his meridians became much clearer, allowing a Spirit Platform Realm cultivator to have more precise control over their cultivation.

But while his meridians became more distinct, those points of light that had been outside the meridian paths, hidden within the thick gray fog, seemed to have vanished completely.

No matter how he probed with his Divine Thought, he could no longer see any light beyond the Spirit Platform.

'So...'

'Did those points of light disappear after I forged the Spirit Platform, or were they simply obscured by the Spirit Platform's glow, unable to manifest within the gray fog anymore?'

Following his memory from the last observation, Su Han extended his Divine Thought toward a specific area in the gray fog.

He remembered seeing a flickering point of light in this patch of fog, like a star obscured by a heavy haze.

Su Han wanted to confirm whether the points of light had truly vanished after he forged his Spirit Platform, or if they had always been there, just hidden by the Spirit Platform's glow.

However, as his Divine Thought Power reached out and touched the gray fog, Su Han immediately felt immense resistance.

He tried to force his way through, but after penetrating less than half a fraction, his Divine Thought Power felt like it was failing. A wave of exhaustion washed over his mind, and before Su Han could even react, his consciousness slipped into darkness.

He didn't know how long he slept. When he opened his eyes the next day, the sky was already bright.

Thinking about what happened yesterday, Su Han felt a surge of fear at his own recklessness.

He first checked his condition and found no lingering issues. In fact, his Divine Thought seemed to have grown slightly stronger. Only then did Su Han breathe a secret sigh of relief.

'This gray fog seems to hide some great secret.'

'It seems I won't be able to uncover the truth hidden behind the gray fog until my Divine Thought is powerful enough.'

'But... even if I can't probe inside the fog, its very existence might be a way for me to strengthen my Divine Thought.'

Su Han didn't ask Prince Jing or the Princess Consort about the gray fog.

The fact that he could forge his Spirit Platform so quickly was already strange enough. If people also found out that he had birthed his Divine Sense and opened his Sea of Consciousness ahead of schedule...

...he was afraid that even his own parents wouldn't be able to resist the urge to slice him up for research.

'Of course, it's not that I don't trust my father and mother. The most important thing is... I can't explain it!'

'After all... even the ancestors aren't omnipotent!'

For a period of time after that, Su Han's days fell into a regular routine.

Every morning, he would wake up, have breakfast with his father and mother, and then head out with Su Xiao'Er to visit the major families one by one.

Whenever he found a Skill Tree, he would light it up with a Rain of Fire and draw a skill.

With his noble status and a legitimate reason, Su Han's actions throughout Lingzhou City were met with no resistance.

Instead, a reputation for being a prince who cherished the common people spread among the populace.

During the day, he lit up Skill Trees. As night fell, he would return to the Prince's Residence. After dinner, Su Han would lie back in bed and control his Divine Thought to explore the gray fog.

Every time, he would recklessly push himself to the very limit. Time and again he tested his boundaries, and time and again his Divine Thought was depleted, causing him to fall unconscious.

And after every time his Divine Thought was exhausted and he fainted, Su Han would wake up the next morning to find that his Divine Thought had grown a little stronger.

More than ten days passed quietly in this routine-filled life.

Not every family had a Skill Tree, and certainly not every family was as wealthy as the Ning Residence, which had planted two of them.

On average, Su Han could only find one Skill Tree for every three families he visited.

Thus, after spending over ten days visiting all sixty or seventy families, large and small, in Lingzhou City, Su Han had barely managed to light up another twenty-one Skill Trees.

Among these Skill Trees, many of the skills were lackluster—a pity to throw away, but hardly worth using.

For example, from a Skill Tree discovered in the garden of a minor clan, the Wang Family, Su Han obtained a skill called Flower and Plant Cultivation.

This skill made him an expert in the cultivation of flora.

However, the useless part was that this applied only to ordinary flora; it was completely useless for Spirit Grass and Spirit Medicine.

Another example was Disguise Magic. According to its legacy, it came from a master thief and could be used to exquisitely change one's face or even entire appearance to that of another person.

It sounded very impressive, but it couldn't fool the Divine Thought probe of a cultivator at the Divine Sea Realm or higher.

Of the twenty-one skills, more than ten were similarly underwhelming.

Of course, there were some useful ones too.

For instance, in an old courtyard of the Sun Family, an Artifact Refining Family, Su Han obtained Three-Star Artifact Refining Magic.

In the Ling Family, a Spirit Pattern Family, Su Han discovered two Skill Trees at once.

After lighting up one of them, he received the Three-Star Spirit Pattern Master skill.

The other Skill Tree contained the Four-Star Spirit Pattern Master skill. While stacking the two didn't enhance the skills themselves, it meant Su Han could use his skills to create any Spirit Pattern he knew of that was four-star or below.

In terms of experience, however, the result was profound. The combined life's work of a peak Three-Star and a Four-Star Spirit Pattern Master complemented each other perfectly. This elevated Su Han's understanding of Spirit Patterns to a level that surpassed even the master who had left the four-star skill behind.

It was even possible that once his cultivation was high enough in the future, he could rely on his own abilities to become a Spirit Pattern Master beyond the four-star level.

Besides these, Su Han also obtained a Three-Star Array skill and a Three-Star Spirit Chef skill.

But in terms of actual combat application, there was only one passive skill: Veteran Warrior.

While acquiring these skills, Su Han's Divine Sense had also been strengthened by Dao Rhyme twenty-one times, making it vastly more powerful than before.

If Su Han's Divine Thought was like a basin of water when he first opened his Sea of Consciousness, then after half a month of effort, his Divine Thought could now spread out to the size of a small lake.

Compared to the skills, this... this was his greatest gain over the past half-month.

Just as Su Han was reveling in the intoxicating pleasure of his progress, he heard a piece of news the next day. After breakfast, as he was heading out, he once again ran into Su Muyan and Miss Feng.

His older brother, who until now had only existed in Miss Feng's stories, had arrived in Lingzhou City today!