The night was quiet, with a faint spiritual energy permeating between heaven and earth. All things possess spirit, and cultivators of spirit are those who absorb and refine this energy into spiritual power for their own use. Unfortunately, every time I practiced breathing techniques to draw spiritual energy into my chest, my body seemed to reject it, making it impossible to refine it into spiritual power.

I don’t know how many times I tried, but my body was so exhausted it was on the verge of collapse.

Looking at the time, it was already past 11 o’clock. Time to sleep.

The Sword-Grinding Office was empty; the old man was nowhere to be seen. But when I entered the room, I found a book placed on the wooden table, titled "Detailed Explanation of the Tianchong Meridian." Who put this book here, and when? Startled, I picked it up and flipped through it. Most of it was knowledge I was already familiar with—after all, I had already reached the peak of the Tianchong Realm and was extremely familiar with the Tianchong Meridian.

"Rustle, rustle, rustle..."

I skimmed through the entire book at a glance—wait!!

There was something fishy. Looking more carefully, I found where the trick was: a few lines on one page had been circled in red ink, as if someone wanted to draw attention to them. I read them carefully, and the content was as follows—

"The Tianchong Meridian is the second largest meridian in the human body. Once unblocked, it is equivalent to opening another spiritual meridian parallel to the main meridian, allowing the cultivator to possess stronger spiritual power and recover more quickly. The Tianchong Meridian serves as a supplement, with the spiritual meridian as the main; this is the way of mutual reinforcement."

After reading this, I suddenly saw the light.

That’s right, the Tianchong Meridian—the body’s second main meridian, a spiritual meridian opened through acquired cultivation. Although the power of the Tianchong Meridian is far inferior to the main spiritual meridian, it gave me hope.

Most people’s Tianchong Meridian is blocked, but when I reached the Tianchong Realm before, I had already unblocked it. The failed awakening ceremony burned my top-grade spiritual meridian, but it didn’t destroy the Tianchong Meridian deep within my body. As long as I could unblock the Tianchong Meridian again, I would be able to use spiritual power!

For a moment, I was filled with excitement. Even though it was just a hypothesis, it made me feel as if I could regain my strength!

……

I no longer felt like sleeping. Sitting cross-legged, I began guiding the blood and energy in my body to impact the Tianchong Meridian. But after several attempts, I failed without a doubt. My Tianchong Meridian seemed to be blocked by something, and with my current strength, I simply couldn’t break through!

Back then, I only managed to unblock the Tianchong Meridian when I was at the peak of the Illusory Light Realm, full of spiritual power. Now, with all my spiritual power lost, even if my Tianchong Meridian had been open before, the current blockage couldn’t be cleared in a short time.

"Growl, growl..."

My stomach grumbled in protest. At this rate, I probably wouldn’t even be able to sleep. Am I going to be the first student at the Myriad Spirits Academy to starve to death?

No, I can’t just sit here and wait for death!

I sat up, put my uniform back on, straightened my tie, and, looking dignified, walked out of the Sword-Grinding Office, heading straight for the Dean’s Office in the quiet night. Sister Emily lived there—if I could find her, I wouldn’t starve.

When I arrived at the Dean’s Office, I found there were guards. The Dean’s Office was next to the War Affairs Institute, which belonged to the Federal military and was responsible for recruiting students into the army, so of course there were guards.

"Stop! Who goes there?"

A guard barked at me.

Under the streetlight, he squinted at me. "You’re a student?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I’m looking for the Vice Dean."

"Ha, you think a student can just see the Vice Dean whenever they want? Don’t forget, besides being the Vice Dean, she’s also the Valkyrie. Kid, go back. It’s late, the Vice Dean is probably asleep."

I was a bit disappointed and was about to turn away when suddenly a voice came from downstairs: "Is that Ethan Baker? Guards, let him in."

It was Lucy Hughes's voice, the Vice Dean’s assistant.

The two guards looked a bit surprised, saluted me respectfully, and naturally let me in.

Lucy Hughes came over, smiling. "Why aren’t you asleep yet? Looking for your sister?"

"Well..." I was a bit embarrassed. I couldn’t just say I came over hoping she’d feed me, right? So I said, "It’s nothing, I just missed her. Is Sister Emily asleep?"

"Not yet, she’s in her office—the one on the far left. Go on in yourself."

"Okay, thank you, Assistant Hughes."

"Hehe." Lucy Hughes smiled slightly. "No need to be so formal. Just call me Sister Lucy from now on."

"Alright, I will."

Lucy Hughes turned and left, and I walked up to the Vice Dean’s office. On the door were four golden characters: "Vice Dean’s Office." Before I could knock, her voice came from inside: "The door’s not locked, come in."

"Oh..."

I pushed the door open and entered. In the dim light, I saw my cousin Emily Baker buried in a pile of books, searching for something. With just a glance, I noticed several ancient, extremely worn books: "A Brief History of Spiritual Power," "The Devouring Doctrine," "History of the Dragon Spirit Continent," "Legends of the Ancient Gods," and others. Some were even made of bamboo slips, riddled with wormholes—those were really old.

"Sis, are you busy?" I asked.