Revolutionary Discovery

Qin Yue thus settled into life at the Luo residence.

Every day, Luo Yu followed his father to classes. The curriculum was not extensive—primarily English, classical literature, and the history of Chinese art, along with a few routine courses. These subjects were all exceedingly familiar to Luo Yu; he had studied them either under his father's guidance or his grandfather's tutelage. As for English, Luo Yu, a programming expert, felt no pressure at all.

Regarding attendance and discipline, Luo Yu had grown up darting around school with Father Chu; he was acquainted with most of his father's colleagues, many of whom had attended the banquet celebrating their new home. At the start of term, the professors kept a close eye on him, helping his father supervise his son. Eventually, they realized he was slippery yet excelled in every subject, so they stopped bothering. His habit of dozing off or daydreaming in class was overlooked. During foundational sketching and color courses, he drew at remarkable speed, listened to feedback, and then dashed off, leaving the sketch instructor dizzy with frustration—such a gifted child, why couldn’t he sit still and draw a few more pieces? If he didn’t resemble his father so closely, one might doubt he was his biological son. To deduct credits felt too harsh, and for the sake of his father’s reputation, combined with Luo Yu’s uncanny ability to disappear without anyone noticing, the faculty simply turned a blind eye.

Despite his elusive presence, Luo Yu and his father became well-known among the freshmen: "Professor Luo’s son, Luo Yu, is brilliant at painting—his gouache and sketches rival the oil painting juniors. I heard Professor Yang even deliberately showed his work to Professor Li from the oil painting department… Now I finally understand how much family environment influences a person. We lost right at the starting line… Yes, Professor Luo—handsome, right? Like Toshiyuki Morikawa, he’s aging backwards! And I heard he’s got a Queen attribute!"

What did Luo Yu do in class? He would pretend to nap, practicing lucid dreaming and honing his spiritual awareness, occasionally choosing a window seat to absorb a bit of spiritual energy—though the yield was small, every little bit counts. Besides, the academy was lush with plants, resembling a garden, and its spiritual energy was far superior to his home before the gathering array was set up. When not engaged in these pursuits, Luo Yu worked on alchemy formulas in his notebook, studied herbal proportions, and hid a copy of "Compendium of Materia Medica" behind the massive "History of Chinese Art," hoping to uncover more about plants and alchemy; or he would devour programming books. Though he boasted he could code World of Warcraft himself, he encountered plenty of challenges and could only learn as he went. Still, he was confident he could pull it off. While he wasn’t certain how similar formations and programming were, Luo Yu believed some of the flexible thinking in coding could definitely be applied.

After class, Luo Yu went home to practice alchemy and sought Qin Yue’s advice on using magical power—for example, object manipulation or pure spell attacks. He discovered that, depending on the spiritual root, magical power could be divided and used individually according to the five elements. He learned to use fire, water, metal, and wood elements separately, though their power was greatly diminished once divided, but sometimes they proved useful—like not needing a lighter thanks to fire element, or not needing bottled water thanks to water element (except when cravings struck). These elemental abilities didn’t manifest out of thin air: fire element gathered hydrogen in the air, raised the temperature to the ignition point, and burned directly in oxygen; water element condensed hydrogen and oxygen into water; metal and wood required a base—metallic or wooden material—to work.

According to Qin Yue, metal-element spells combined strength and flexibility; those who specialized in metal were formidable and best avoided. Why was metal so powerful? Magical power could kindle air or freeze it; metal melts into liquid when heated, becomes tough when cooled, possesses resilience, and excels at both offense and defense. Naturally, metal spells were hard to master, so few specialized in them. If someone dared to major in metal spells, they were not to be trifled with. Generally, it was difficult to reach the level where one could freely manipulate metal between liquid and solid states—it required strong spiritual awareness and deep magical power. If one failed to control liquid metal, they could easily be countered by fire element users.

As for wood element, it was most effective for attack if one possessed aggressive spirit wood seeds. By infusing spiritual power, the seeds could be instantly grown and wielded against enemies; spirit wood was highly compatible with wood-element spiritual energy, making it easy to control. However, after such a battle, the seed was spent, so wood-element cultivators rarely fought—instead, they tended their spirit flowers and wood at home, sold medicinal herbs, and upgraded quietly.

Among cultivators, fire-element practitioners were the most combative—fire cost nothing and had high attack power, so they often caused trouble or committed robberies.

Of course, the cultivation world was not limited to spells and five-element attacks; there were formations, illusions, curses, poison arts, ghost and beast taming, insect control… far too many to list.

Luo Yu, with relentless curiosity, bombarded Qin Yue daily with questions. After two days, Qin Yue’s throat was parched and he stopped teaching, saying, “You’ll discover it when you encounter it,” then swiftly escaped.

Thanks to the century-old wild ginseng provided by Qin Yue, Luo Yu’s cultivation soared, and in less than a month he felt another breakthrough approaching the second layer.

The swelling energy made Luo Yu restless; he dared not meditate any further. Finally, a weekend arrived, and that night he eagerly slipped into the courtyard, ready to upgrade.

He sat cross-legged, calmed his mind, and thought: This time, I’ll test my previous hypothesis, focus carefully, and examine this so-called ‘bottleneck’ to see what it truly is.

He circulated his spiritual power, drawing in energy and filling all his meridians. Luo Yu refrained from forcing a breakthrough, letting the spiritual energy crowd his dantian, using his spiritual awareness to examine the unseen ‘obstacle,’ yet found nothing.

He thought: It’s impossible for something intangible and formless to restrain spiritual energy. There must be some unknown force pressing down, causing this. What could it be? If I treat it as a kind of unknown void, and the void around the energy sphere shows no change or anomaly, then this entire area is identical. As the saying goes, you can’t see Mount Lu because you’re in the mountain—the void itself is the obstacle.

If so, this ‘void’ is a part of my body, and should be under my control. To break through, the approach shouldn’t be via the spiritual energy, but through the void itself.

Thus, Luo Yu emptied his thoughts, focusing solely on sensing the void with his spiritual mind, attempting to command it. It was as difficult as trying to wiggle one’s ears, but Luo Yu firmly believed in his theory and persisted.

At last, in a fleeting moment, he sensed it move. Encouraged, he kept at it. Gradually, his spiritual awareness could detect its presence. This intangible void was indeed substantial, yet tightly constricted, refusing to let the energy escape—like holding a mouthful of air, trying to force it out, but the lips tightly sealed, blocking its release.

Luo Yu grew excited: Isn’t this simply a matter of relaxing it? The cause of the ‘obstacle’ must be the slow accumulation of energy, subconsciously tightening that layer of void, much like unconsciously pursing one’s lips when inhaling, with the inner pressure prompting greater resistance. Luo Yu’s approach now was akin to relaxing and letting nature take its course, rather than forcing things.

He realized he would need to regularly train and control this void, or future breakthroughs would be difficult. Now was the time to deepen his sense of it, to maintain awareness even after it relaxed.

So, Luo Yu communed with the void for a long time, until he was confident he could sense it even in a relaxed state. He then tried to ease it little by little… As the pressure lessened, the spiritual energy broke through the obstacle and dispersed. The walnut-sized energy sphere vibrated within him and gradually settled—success! Luo Yu was beside himself with joy: Bottlenecks? Science states it clearly—all is but fleeting clouds!

Dispelling his spiritual awareness, Luo Yu awoke from meditation and stood up brimming with energy—“Ouch!” Why were his legs so weak? Why was he so hungry? He glanced at the clock: It was already the afternoon of the second day! The first to greet him was Little Bei, who raised his head and meowed vigorously. The two people inside heard the commotion and came out—first Father Chu, then Qin Yue.

Father Chu said, “Hurry and eat! You haven’t eaten for two days, are you starving?”

Luo Yu was astonished, “Two days? What day is it?”

Father Chu replied, “If you hadn’t woken up, we’d have to ask for leave tomorrow.”

Qin Yue asked calmly, “Why did your breakthrough take so long? Was there a problem?”

Luo Yu became excited, rushing over to grab his shoulder and shake him, “I made a revolutionary discovery!”

Father Chu gave him a sharp smack on the backside, “Whatever you discovered, eat first! And take a shower!”

With his head full of major discoveries, Luo Yu quickly ate and bathed, then dragged Qin Yue aside to share his findings.

Since practicing lucid dreaming and achieving excellent results, Qin Yue had begun to take Luo Yu’s discoveries in this realm seriously. After listening to Luo Yu’s account, Qin Yue’s mind buzzed with shock: If this were true, bottlenecks might not exist, and… his own strength… the entire cultivation world might be turned upside down. Though his reason told him Luo Yu’s explanation was plausible, he couldn’t help but ask, “Is it really true?”

Luo Yu replied earnestly, “If you don’t relax it, the void will develop habitual resistance through repeated breakthroughs, becoming stronger and making upgrades increasingly difficult. I strongly recommend you start practicing sensing it now—it’ll definitely help you break through to the tenth layer.”

Qin Yue gazed at him quietly for a while, “Is it okay for you to share something so important with me?”

Luo Yu was stunned. It took him a moment to recover, and he replied sheepishly, “I got too excited and forgot.”

Qin Yue snorted, “You really are honest.”

Luo Yu said, “We’re good friends, and you’d never harm me… You… wouldn’t betray me, would you? You wouldn’t do something like silencing witnesses, right?! I’m your benefactor! I’ve told you something this important! You can’t do anything immoral!”

Qin Yue snapped, “Shut up!”

Cultivator Bros Saga 19: Revolutionary Discovery—Chapter Complete!