Watching online lectures, cafeteria deliveries, eating takeout, and more online lectures.
A repetitive and dull life.
Three days later, Chen Xu finally finished Zhang Jingping's three courses.
He also gained a slight understanding of mental strength.
Originally, Chen Xu's application of mental strength had relied almost entirely on instinct.
The soul cores of units like skeleton soldiers and skeleton heroes were subordinate to him, and their mental strength was also under his control.
Therefore, when entering or exiting the Necrotic Space, controlling the skeleton soldiers, skeleton heroes, and himself was as natural as breathing.
Beyond breathing, what were the more advanced operations of mental strength?
According to the lectures in 《Introductory Mental Strength Application》, mental strength below the Transcendent-tier is considered primary.
There are five abilities that one can and should master at the primary level: Soul Protection Rune, Soul Communication, Psychokinesis, Spirit Shield, and Heavenly Eye.
The Soul Protection Rune is the foundation. The reason it is difficult to control inanimate objects with mental strength is due to the rejection response caused by the soul's self-preservation.
Mental strength can be viewed as the body of the soul. Using mental strength to touch or control objects at will can lead to direct pollution of the soul if the object carries corruption or some kind of curse.
Consequently, biological instinct suppresses the act of using mental strength to manipulate objects.
The function of the Soul Protection Rune is to provide a layer of skin for the mental strength. With skin, humans can resist most bacteria and viruses. Similarly, the Soul Protection Rune blocks most mental pollution and curses.
After constructing the Soul Protection Rune, one can practice the remaining four primary mental strength abilities.
Soul Communication is a faster and more precise method of communication than speech. It is more discreet and can transcend species limitations.
Psychokinesis, as the name implies, is the most fundamental operation for mental strength to exert influence on the physical world.
A Spirit Shield involves condensing mental strength to actively build a defensive barrier to block violent mental impacts. After all, the Soul Protection Rune is just skin and can only block tiny things like microscopic bacteria.
The Heavenly Eye is an investigation technique. Unlike the human eye, which has blind spots, mental strength observation is all-encompassing. This technique is particularly important for the bizarre environments found in dungeons.
However, the Heavenly Eye is automatically mastered once mental strength reaches the Transcendent-tier, which is why Chen Xu could previously use his mental strength to observe things from a distance.
Below the Transcendent-tier, it is difficult for mental strength to escape the constraints of the body. At the Transcendent-tier, a qualitative change occurs, and it upgrades directly into a mental strength field that covers the surrounding area.
After finishing the courses, Chen Xu also completed the post-class exercises.
The Soul Protection Rune assignment required condensing three runes, but Chen Xu condensed nine.
He had already mastered Soul Communication after being prompted by Bone Guard Two earlier.
As for manipulating objects, he no longer needed to use skeleton soldiers as intermediaries. Chen Xu could now directly wrap objects in mental strength and store them into the Necrotic Space. He couldn't even test the upper weight limit. The weights provided in the training space for the warrior classes totaled over ten tons, yet Chen Xu could lift them with ease.
While practicing the Spirit Shield, Chen Xu discovered that the essence of the shield was simply highly compressed mental strength to block the spread of pollution or curses. Thus, ordinary Spirit Shields were directional.
However, while fusing the Dragon Tomb fragment, his soul had been constantly battered, and his mind had repeatedly gone through steps of contraction and expansion. This resulted in Chen Xu's mental strength being able to compress into a sphere in all directions extremely quickly.
On this basis, Chen Xu developed an advanced version of the Spirit Shield, a 360-degree defense called the Black Tortoise Shield!
After feeling the power brought by knowledge, Chen Xu grew even more eager for the subsequent Transcendent-tier and epic-tier mental strength applications.
Unfortunately, because mental strength operations were too dangerous, teaching for applications at the Transcendent-tier and above required passing an assessment by a professional teacher.
Chen Xu immediately used the Fuxi sub-unit to make an appointment for the course assessment on the military academy's academic affairs website.
After making the appointment, Chen Xu was about to open the military academy cafeteria app to order some good food and relax when Zhang Jingping unexpectedly sent him a message.
"Institute of Mental Strength and Soul, 3rd Floor, Office 308."
Usually, course assessments were conducted by professional teachers at the school. Although the lectures were Zhang Jingping's online versions, there were too many people for Zhang Jingping to assess everyone himself.
Therefore, the institute would send people to various universities to act as assessment teachers.
Chen Xu had thought he would be assigned a local military academy teacher for the assessment, but he hadn't expected Zhang Jingping to contact him directly.
Having just tasted the beauty of knowledge, Chen Xu also wanted to communicate with this titan in the field of mental strength. He immediately washed up, changed into new clothes, turned on the Fuxi sub-unit, set the navigation, confirmed the direction, and activated teleportation.
A few seconds later, Chen Xu arrived at the bottom of the Institute of Mental Strength and Soul building.
Looking at the scanner, which was the same model as the others, he was about to present his Soul-Inducing Token when a thought occurred to him as he passively sensed the research institute with his mental strength.
The institute's security might work by blocking specific mental wave frequencies, using manually set frequencies of non-normal creatures for verification.
Scanning a credential like the Soul-Inducing Token was equivalent to a pardon for a single soul, bypassing the need for verification.
If he controlled his mental strength to match the verification frequency of the research institute, could he bypass it?
Acting on the thought, Chen Xu withdrew the Soul-Inducing Token and stood in place, sensing the mental wave frequency of the institute.
After three minutes, having identified all the frequencies, Chen Xu began to mobilize his mental strength to mimic them.
The moment he synchronized the frequencies, the institute's sense of rejection vanished instantly.
"Hahaha, it actually works. It seems I have some talent in the field of mental strength after all."
Successful in his experiment, Chen Xu laughed happily and prepared to walk into the research institute.
"Sly boy, the institute's frequency changes periodically. Just scan your Soul-Inducing Token like a good student!"
Before he could even step through the side door, a soul message was forcibly transmitted into Chen Xu's soul.
Startled, Chen Xu immediately deployed his Black Tortoise Shield while keeping part of his mental strength to check his surroundings, but he found no suspicious targets.
"Heh, quite an interesting turtle shell. Stop looking and come to the third floor to find me."
Another soul message arrived. He didn't know how it bypassed the Black Tortoise Shield's defense or if it was transmitted directly to his soul core.
Chen Xu knew this was a message from the great Zhang Jingping. It was an incredible technique that he couldn't wrap his head around.
Obediently scanning his Soul-Inducing Token, Chen Xu entered the institute, took the elevator, and arrived outside Room 308.
He knocked on the door three times.
"Come in."
After receiving a reply, Chen Xu pushed the door open and walked in. A man with pale hair but a youthful face sat in a chair, still organizing some materials and books.
"You must be Teacher Zhang Jingping. I am Chen Xu. I made an appointment for the primary mental strength course assessment."
"Take a seat," Zhang Jingping nodded, gesturing for Chen Xu to sit.
After Chen Xu sat down, Zhang Jingping continued organizing his materials. On the side table, the top cup from an inverted stack of disposable cups was removed. A teapot then rose into the air, filled the paper cup with tea, and moved it in front of Chen Xu.
"Thank you, Teacher." Chen Xu knew Zhang Jingping was controlling this through mental strength. However, at such a close distance, Chen Xu couldn't feel a single ripple, which only deepened his admiration for Zhang Jingping.
He picked up the paper cup and took a sip of the tea.
The moment the tea entered his mouth, a cool sensation spread from his mouth to his brain. Chen Xu felt as if his soul was being brushed by a gentle breeze that blew away his fatigue. Even the periodic stinging pain caused by the fragment fusion was suppressed.
With two gulps, he finished the cup. "Teacher, what kind of tea is this? It's delicious."
"Mind-Calming Tea. If you want more, pour it yourself." Zhang Jingping finished organizing his materials and looked at Chen Xu, who was pouring a second cup. "It's not that the tea is delicious. It's that you haven't rested for too long. At the same time, your mental strength is too vast compared to your physical body, causing your body to be on the verge of extreme exhaustion, held up entirely by your mental strength."
Having finished his second cup of tea, Chen Xu realized after hearing Zhang Jingping's words that he had been in a state of excitement ever since fusing the first dungeon space fragment. He hadn't slept since then.
He had been busy replenishing his skeleton army in the Green Calamity dungeon. That night in Mohai City, he had been constantly browsing the official internal forums through the Fuxi sub-unit. After coming to the military academy, he still hadn't slept once.
"When a person sleeps, their mental strength retreats to the soul core, allowing the physical body time to relax and recover. If you don't engage in natural sleep, then you must learn mental meditation to replace it." He pushed a book titled 《Balance Meditation Method — Translated by Zhang Jingping》 toward Chen Xu.
"This is the application technique for the Transcendent-tier." Another book, 《Mental Strength: Transcendent-tier Application》, was placed before Chen Xu, followed by a jade slip. "This jade slip contains epic-tier applications. Knowledge at this level is difficult to express through written records alone, so jade slips are used to communicate directly with the soul."
He then placed a stack of freshly printed and bound materials in front of Chen Xu. "《Mental Strength: From Entry to the Grave》. This is the history of the understanding of mental strength by predecessors in Daxia since the start of the dungeon era. Although some of the knowledge may seem outdated or even incorrect now, the paths walked by the sages might inspire you."
Looking at the materials before him, Chen Xu couldn't help but ask, "Teacher Zhang, don't I need to pass an assessment?"
Zhang Jingping raised an eyebrow and said, "I am not a pure Martial Artist like Xiang Longwu. I can say I have some minor achievements on the path of mental strength. When such an obvious and unreserved epic-tier mental strength is right in front of me, I can't pretend not to notice even if I wanted to."
Xiang Longwu was a top-tier powerhouse of the Martial Artist class in Daxia's current first echelon. He was a hero known to everyone and had helped Daxia conquer several high-level dungeons.
Zhang Jingping's joke about Xiang Longwu suggested that his own strength was even more terrifying than Chen Xu had imagined.
"But you did remind me." Zhang Jingping turned and took two more books from the bookshelf. "After learning the meditation method, read these two books first. Then, replace those nine low-level runes in your soul. I don't want word getting out that Zhang Jingping is misleading his students."
Chen Xu took them and saw the titles: 《Runes and the World》 and 《Runes and Spirit》.
"Low-level runes?"
"Why else do you think the assignment only asked to condense three? Those are just for transition below the Transcendent-tier. You, on the other hand, have nine low-level runes circling in your soul."
"I didn't know," Chen Xu replied with an embarrassed smile.
"Alright, head back quickly. Learn the meditation method soon, and that headache of yours will get better."
"Yes, thank you very much, Teacher Zhang. I'll be going now." After putting the books into his Necrotic Space, Chen Xu stood up, gave Zhang Jingping a slight bow, and turned to leave.
As he turned toward the tea table, his gaze lingered for a few seconds.
"Sigh!" Zhang Jingping sighed, opened a drawer, took out a whole bag of tea leaves, and threw it to Chen Xu. "Take it."
Catching the tea leaves, Chen Xu immediately beamed with joy. "Thank you, Teacher Zhang!"
With that, he finally left.
After Chen Xu departed, Zhang Jingping sighed again and shook his head, murmuring softly, "Grow up quickly. The transition period is almost over. No one knows when that day will come."
Having said that, he stood up and walked to the window, looking toward the boundary where the Three Great Academies met. There sat a dungeon entrance, which was also the origin of the 'Abyss' in the name of the Zhongyuan District.
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