# Chapter 111: Elder Yue Jingchan
Adding Zi Qian, Prince Huo Xing, and Yao Qingtong, the number of outer palace students standing outside the Divine Power Hall reached twelve, each one a top-tier genius elite.
"Boom!"
When the first ray of sunlight fell upon the top of the Divine Power Hall, the heavy palace gates slowly opened.
A silver-robed old woman and a gold-robed old man walked out from the main entrance, standing on the nine-tiered white stone steps, looking down at the twelve young martial artists below.
The silver-robed old woman appeared to be eighty or ninety years old, hunched and stooped, holding a dark iron staff. Her eyebrows and hair were pure white, giving her an exceptionally aged appearance.
She was one of the two vice deans of the Western Academy, Vice Dean Qinghua.
Vice Dean Qinghua's voice was very resonant, saying: "I am Qinghua, the vice dean of the Western Academy. I believe the older students already know me. As for the new students, you now know me as well. According to the rules, the Divine Power Hall opens once a month, and only the yearly top newcomer can enter the Divine Power Hall to cultivate for one hour."
"This year is slightly different. Among the new students of the Western Academy, four exceptionally talented individuals have emerged. Therefore, all four of them may enter the Divine Power Hall to cultivate."
"Additionally, let me introduce a gold-robed elder from the Inner Palace, Elder Yue Jingchan."
All the students showed respect as they looked toward the gold-robed old man, bowing and saying in unison: "Greetings, Elder Yue Jingchan."
In the Western Academy, only the Western Academy Dean could wear a gold robe. This Elder Yue Jingchan from the Inner Palace also wore a gold robe, indicating that his status and position were on the same level as the Western Academy Dean.
Elder Yue Jingchan's face carried a kind smile as he said: "The Western Academy is quite impressive, with many talented individuals emerging. Especially this year, four prodigies have simultaneously passed the third floor's first level of the Martial Tower. Among the four outer academies' new students, the Western Academy ranks second this year."
Vice Dean Qinghua's face also showed a gratified smile. Previously, the Western Academy's new students had almost always ranked last every year, but this year, several geniuses had emerged in succession, pushing the Western Academy to second place in new student rankings. As the vice dean of the Western Academy, her face naturally shone with glory.
Prince Huo Xing puffed out his chest, slightly cupped his hands, and smiled: "Becoming an outer palace student of the Martial Market Academy is our honor."
Elder Yue Jingchan glanced at Prince Huo Xing, smiled faintly, and then said: "Everyone might not know much about me yet, so let me first give a brief introduction. I am not a martial artist, but rather a formation master."
Vice Dean Qinghua added a supplementary remark: "Elder Yue Jingchan is the chief formation master of the Inner Palace, with a spiritual power reaching the thirty-ninth rank. Within the Martial Market Academy, he is the person with the strongest spiritual power."
The students below all showed expressions of shock. To have cultivated spiritual power to the thirty-ninth rank—this was too formidable, something they could only look up to.
Elder Yue Jingchan said: "Cultivation in the Divine Power Hall is meant to enhance your spiritual power. For ordinary martial artists, cultivating spiritual power is a waste of time, a foolish act. But for true geniuses, it is absolutely necessary to also cultivate spiritual power. For example, all of you—you are true top-tier geniuses, so you must cultivate spiritual power. Who can tell me why the academy wants you to cultivate spiritual power?"
The oldest student, Mu Tuozi, stepped forward and said: "Geniuses have fast cultivation speeds, so they can afford to spend time on spiritual power cultivation. With strong spiritual power, one can specialize in formations, alchemy, artifact refinement, and beast taming."
Yue Jingchan gently shook his head, dissatisfied with this answer, saying: "You have spent too much time on spiritual power cultivation and learned too many miscellaneous things. That is why you have not yet broken through to the Earth Extreme Realm."
Mu Tuozi felt very ashamed and stepped back.
Huang Yanchen stepped forward, her posture straight and upright, very cold and elegant, saying: "Cultivating spiritual power is to make it easier to break through to the Heavenly Extreme Realm in the future, and even to assault the Half-Saint realm."
Elder Yue Jingchan nodded slightly, quite approvingly, saying: "Correct! Before the Heavenly Extreme Realm, cultivation has little to do with spiritual power. However, to reach the Heavenly Extreme Realm, there is a threshold—spiritual power must reach the twentieth rank."
"Many martial artists only realize the importance of spiritual power when they reach the Great Perfection of the Earth Extreme Realm and then begin cultivating it. But by then, it is already too late. They must spend ten times more effort than others just to possibly reach the twentieth rank of spiritual power. Some may even die of old age without reaching the twentieth rank."
"Furthermore, the stronger one's spiritual power, the faster their cultivation speed will be in the Heavenly Extreme Realm. Many years ago, the Martial Market Academy conducted an experiment. Two top-tier geniuses, both thirty years old, were provided with the same cultivation resources and the same cultivation environment. The only difference was that one genius had spiritual power at the twentieth rank, while the other had spiritual power at the thirtieth rank."
"The genius with twentieth-rank spiritual power took five years to break through to the middle stage of the Heavenly Extreme Realm and another fifteen years to break through to the late stage of the Heavenly Extreme Realm."
"Guess how long it took the genius with thirtieth-rank spiritual power?"
Weichi Tiancong said: "The further one progresses in cultivation, the harder it is to break through to higher realms. I speculate that the genius with thirtieth-rank spiritual power would take at least fifteen years to go from the initial stage of the Heavenly Extreme Realm to the late stage."
Elder Yue Jingchan gently shook his head.
Xue Ling said: "At least ten years, right?"
Elder Yue Jingchan said: "The genius with thirtieth-rank spiritual power took two years to break through to the middle stage of the Heavenly Extreme Realm and another three years to break through to the late stage, a total of only five years."
"Boom!"
The students present were all stunned!
Both were top-tier geniuses who had reached the Heavenly Extreme Realm by age thirty, yet one took twenty years while the other took only five years—the gap was too enormous! It was easy to imagine that their future disparity would only grow larger.
At this moment, everyone present realized the importance of cultivating spiritual power, because they were geniuses and had to consider their future path.
Ordinary students didn't need to consider it, because they might not even reach the Heavenly Extreme Realm, let alone think about the cultivation path beyond it.
Prince Huo Xing became excited, because he was not only a martial artist but also a talented beast tamer. He had been cultivating spiritual power since childhood, and his spiritual power had already reached the seventeenth rank.
Prince Huo Xing glanced sideways at Zhang Ruochen, revealing a hint of contemptuous smile, as if saying: "What does high talent matter? Your spiritual power is far inferior to mine. On the path of future cultivation, I will only go further than you."
Elder Yue Jingchan then said: "Since everyone now understands the importance of spiritual power, how many of you know what help spiritual power provides you at your current stage?"
This time, everyone fell silent.
Hadn't they just been told that spiritual power only showed its advantages when reaching the Heavenly Extreme Realm?
Did spiritual power also help martial artists at lower realms? What help? Artifact refinement? Alchemy? Beast taming?
Clearly, Elder Yue Jingchan wasn't referring to these, but to martial arts.
Zhang Ruochen looked at the other students, seeing that no one knew the answer. After pondering for a moment, he stepped forward and said: "Student believes that the stronger one's spiritual power, the earlier one can comprehend the higher realms of the Sword Dao compared to martial artists at the same cultivation level."
Elder Yue Jingchan's eyes lit up as he stared at Zhang Ruochen, saying: "What is your name?"
"Zhang Ruochen!" Zhang Ruochen said.
Elder Yue Jingchan showed an expression of sudden realization and laughed heartily: "Before coming to the Western Academy, your dean kept mentioning you to me, saying you are a rare genius the Western Academy hasn't seen in a hundred years, praising you to the skies."
"After arriving at the Western Academy, your dean deliberately told me that you had already comprehended the high-level realm of Sword Heart Follows Hand, showing off to me for half the day. Originally, I didn't believe his words, but now that I've met you, I believe them somewhat. Zhang Ruochen, tell me, what rank has your spiritual power reached?"
Elder Yue Jingchan's spiritual power was extremely formidable. Earlier, he had infused his spiritual power into his gaze. When he stared at them, the eleven students below all dared not meet his eyes and immediately lowered their proud heads.
Only Zhang Ruochen remained calm and composed under his gaze. At that moment, he felt this youth was very extraordinary. After learning Zhang Ruochen's name, he was no longer surprised.
How could a youth who had cultivated Sword Heart Follows Hand at the age of sixteen have weak spiritual power?
In fact, Zhang Ruochen himself wasn't entirely sure what rank his spiritual power had reached. He only knew that in his previous life, it had already reached the thirty-second rank.
In this life, having awakened the Time and Space Divine Martial Mark, coupled with the resonance of all gods triggered by reaching the Supreme Extreme Realm of the Yellow Extreme Realm, he felt that his spiritual power had increased significantly. As for what rank it had reached, he wasn't certain—only testing would reveal the answer.
Of course, Zhang Ruochen wouldn't tell everyone that his spiritual power had already reached above the thirtieth rank. Seeing everyone staring at him, he concealed somewhat and said: "Elder, I'm not entirely sure what rank my spiritual power has reached. I estimate it should be around the twenty-fifth rank."
When Zhang Ruochen finished speaking, aside from Elder Yue Jingchan, no one believed him. How old was he? How could he have cultivated his spiritual power to the twenty-fifth rank?
"If you don't brag, will you die?" Huang Yanchen's starry eyes glared fiercely at Zhang Ruochen.
Huang Yanchen had entered the Divine Power Hall to cultivate dozens of times, and even now, her spiritual power had only reached the twentieth rank. How could she believe that Zhang Ruochen's spiritual power had already reached the twenty-fifth rank?
Prince Huo Xing was even more incredulous, so he laughed and said: "Zhang Ruochen, anyone can talk big. I could also say my spiritual power has reached the thirtieth rank, but who would believe it?"
"If you don't believe it, that's fine!" Zhang Ruochen said very casually.
Since no one believed him, he didn't bother to explain. In his view, this wasn't a big deal.
Moreover, he didn't really want everyone to know his true spiritual power level. If he performed too outstandingly, it would only attract more assassins.
Hearing Zhang Ruochen's words, Prince Huo Xing became even more convinced that Zhang Ruochen was boasting. Since that was the case, why not take this opportunity to make him lose face in front of everyone?
Prince Huo Xing cupped his hands and bowed deeply to Elder Yue Jingchan, smiling as he said: "Elder, the student proposes that before entering the Divine Power Hall, all students present undergo a spiritual power test. That way, who is a genius and who is mediocre will naturally be clear at a glance."