Chapter 16: Thank You

"Cultivation is not as complicated as it seems," Alex said lazily.

He casually dropped that sentence and turned to go downstairs.

He planned to visit the orphanage today and hand over the bank card to the dean.

If he delayed any longer, he would miss the bus to the town.

Lina followed closely behind him, step by step.

Her expression was a bit complex.

She had thought that she was Alex's guide into the world of cultivation.

She never expected that it would be the other way around, with him helping her break through to the Qi Refining stage.

This role reversal made the girl feel a bit embarrassed.

Thinking about how she had spoken to Alex so arrogantly before, she couldn't help but want to find a hole to crawl into.

'If you were some hidden expert, why didn't you say so earlier?'

'No wonder when I revealed secrets to him before, Alex looked so indifferent. Turns out he wasn't a newbie at all!'

Lina felt depressed.

She thought that Alex must be secretly laughing at her...

Suddenly, the boy walking ahead stopped.

School had been out for a while. The hallway was empty and the classrooms were likely quiet too.

Only occasional sounds of students playing and laughing on the sports field could be heard.

Alex turned around and looked at Lina.

"Are you thinking that I must be secretly laughing at you?"

Having her thoughts suddenly exposed, Lina tensed up and put on a small face.

"N-no, of course not"

She turned her head, refusing to meet Alex's gaze. "Whatever, do what you want"

The girl's delicate nose twitched slightly, feeling a bit wronged.

She had treated him with sincerity and cherished Alex as a newly met friend.

She chose not to hide anything and revealed everything to him.

She had even thought about taking him to the capital and entering the world of cultivation together.

This wasn't just empty talk. She had really worked hard to make many preparations for this.

Just as she said to Alex on the sports field at noon, even if he had no talent, Lina would still be willing to ask her master and elders to specially recruit Alex.

As long as he could get in, there would always be ways to change things later.

But don't think it would be easy just because she said it so lightly at the time. The resistance in actually doing this would be immense.

But she was still willing to do it.

Not for anything else, just for the hand the boy extended that afternoon.

That hand, dripping with blood.

In the end, everything she did turned out to be just her own wishful thinking. He didn't need her help at all.

The more Lina thought about it, the more aggrieved she felt, even though she knew this was very unreasonable and inexplicable.

But she still felt wronged.

Suddenly, the boy walked a bit closer, blocking most of the light.

"You're overthinking," Alex said, looking at her with a gentle expression and speaking softly. "I saw everything you did"

"Maybe in your eyes, it was all just your own wishful thinking and of no help to me, since I don't seem to need your help very much"

He paused for a long time before continuing, "But that's not true. I'm actually very grateful to you"

"Thank you"

His words were always so straightforward and concise.

But these simple words, when falling into Lina's ears, seemed to carry the weight of a thousand pounds.

She turned her head to look at him.

The girl's eyebrows curved. Even though she wasn't smiling, she still gave off a bright feeling.

She put her hands behind her back and skipped ahead.

She didn't ask anything more.

...

...

After parting ways at the school gate, Alex set off on his journey home alone.

If the orphanage could be considered home, that is.

He walked to the place where the rural bus stopped and waited for about ten minutes before a wobbly poop-yellow minibus drove over.

Alex waved his hand.

Looking at the sky, he thought his luck wasn't bad. 'This should be the last bus'

He got on, found a seat, and started to rest with his eyes closed.

Strands of spiritual energy wandering in the air, imperceptible to ordinary human eyes, seemed to find a target at this moment and surged towards Alex like a school of fish.

Vast, but not chaotic.

Alex accepted them all.

No matter how much or how fierce the spiritual energy was, he took it all into his body.

If it were a cultivator below the Nascent Soul stage facing such a vast surge of spiritual energy, they would likely explode and die in minutes.

But not Alex.

A body that had undergone the baptism of the Great Deity realm could completely withstand the impact of spiritual energy.

Under Alex's guidance, the spiritual energy that poured into his body all headed towards the spiritual platform in his inner realm.

If nothing unexpected happened, this spiritual energy would be refined in the spiritual platform and then transformed into extremely pure spiritual power to nourish Alex.

But the unexpected happened.

The spiritual platform was damaged and incomplete.

Alex calmed his mind and observed carefully.

He saw that the spiritual platform spinning around in his inner realm had a fist-sized hole in the middle, as if it had been pierced through by sword energy and stirred into a mess.

No matter which side the spiritual energy entered from, it would immediately leak out from the other side.

This also meant that this spiritual platform could no longer refine spiritual energy, let alone transform it for his own use.

In other words, apart from the spiritual power spontaneously stored in the meridians of his body, Alex could no longer continue cultivating.

The spiritual platform was the foundation of a cultivator, the source of spiritual power, and the prerequisite for a cultivator to use any techniques.

Once the spiritual platform was damaged, the consequences would be extremely serious and irreversible.

In other words, the current Alex was just wearing the shell of a Great Deity realm cultivator, but the spiritual power he could actually use was not much different from an ordinary Golden Core stage cultivator.

With the spiritual platform damaged, even if he went into seclusion for a hundred years, there would be no change when he came out.

Although according to Lina, the strongest cultivator on Earth was only at the Foundation Establishment stage.

But that was only because spiritual energy had just been revived.

In a few more years, when the spiritual energy on Earth be fully revived, many dazzling geniuses would definitely be born.

At that time, a mere Golden Core stage would probably not be enough.

Fortunately, Alex had anticipated this early on, so his expression remained calm, showing no emotional fluctuations.

If it were any other cultivator facing such a predicament, they might have already been on the verge of tears.

'So... What should be done?'

Alex turned his head and looked out the window.

The scenery outside was like frames of a flowing landscape painting, reflecting his indifferent face.

Could it be that this was the end?

Even with the body and experience of a Great Deity realm cultivator, at most he could only be invincible among those of the same stage.

There was no hope of recovering to his peak in this lifetime.

Without enough spiritual power as support, everything was just empty talk.

Even the body of a Great Deity realm cultivator was just a useless piece of flesh.

Thinking of this, Alex suddenly had an idea.

He carefully considered it and felt that it might not be impossible.

So, his mind sank into his inner realm again.

A chibi version of Alex appeared next to the spiritual platform.

Then, the little figure reached out a hand and gently pressed it on the spiritual platform.

The next moment, the spiritual platform exploded.