After Feng Yuxiang returned to his body, Yuan sat down on the soft ground and began his cultivation.

The still atmosphere suddenly changed when Yuan started to absorb the spiritual energy in the air, and a small tornado appeared around him once again.

[+8,174 Qi]

[+8,412 Qi]

[+8,059 Qi]

Feng Yuxiang was greatly shocked when she saw this, as she'd just returned and didn't know about the Dragon Essence.

"What's happening? Did the Young Master consume a treasure that increased his cultivation speed?" Feng Yuxiang decided to ask Xiao Hua using her spiritual sense.

"Brother Yuan absorbed a Minor Dragon Essence, which gave him not only increased Soul Strength but also cultivation speed… I think." Xiao Hua responded to her.

"What! Dragon Essence?! Soul Strength! That's the rarest property one can obtain from essences! How lucky!" Feng Yuxiang grew even more shocked after hearing this.

"Wait… Cultivation speed? I have never heard of essences giving such an effect before," she suddenly realized.

"You may not know this, but Brother Yuan not only has the ability to consume monster cores. He can even obtain their abilities after consuming them. Perhaps it also applies to essences."

"What! That's impos—"

Feng Yuxiang wanted to say that such a thing couldn't be possible, but after recalling Yuan's unfathomable talents and his legendary physique, she decided to not continue that sentence.

After a moment of silence, Xiao Hua suddenly spoke, "Phoenix, you're a Divine Beast as well, right? Why don't you create some Phoenix Essence for Brother Yuan."

"You make it sound like it's easy making essence…" Feng Yuxiang responded in a sighing voice.

"I also have my powers sealed, so I cannot do that in a reasonable amount of time. Perhaps once the curse is lifted, I will be able to create some Phoenix Essence for the Young Master, but in my current condition, that's impossible."

Yuan cultivated in silence, not moving from that spot for ten hours straight.

At the end of the day, he'd obtained a little over 300 million Qi. In just two days, Yuan had managed to accumulate around 500 million Qi, which is enough Qi for someone at first level Spirit Apprentice to enter 4th level Spirit Warrior.

After he stopped cultivating, Yuan logged off the game to wait for Meixiu to return from school.

Sometime later, Meixiu returned home, cooked dinner, and began feeding Yuan.

"Yuan… Can I ask you why you decided to use this name?" Meixiu suddenly asked him.

"..."

After a moment of silence, Yuan said, "That was my name before I was adopted."

"Eh?"

Meixiu's eyes widened slightly from surprise. Now that she thought about it, she didn't know anything about Yuan's life before he was adopted into the Yu Family.

"As you already know, I was adopted into the Yu Family when I was just three years old. Yu Rou was still a baby at that time so she doesn't know about it. I don't know my real parents and when I was in the orphanage, everyone would call me Yuan."

"I see…"

"Do you know why I was adopted into the Yu Family in the first place?" Yuan suddenly asked her.

"I do not…" Meixiu said.

"Someone had posted to the internet a video of a three-year-old playing a piano, which immediately became an internet sensation. Of course, that kid was me, and when the Yu Family saw that video, they decided to adopt me and trained me so I can play for the family— at least that's why I think I was adopted. Otherwise, I cannot imagine the Yu Family adopting me for any other reason."

Meixiu was speechless after learning this for the first time. So the Yu Family adopted Yuan merely for his musical talents? Of course, this made sense and wasn't too shocking considering how the Yu Family treated him after Yuan could no longer play the instruments.

"I'm sorry…" Meixiu suddenly apologized to him.

"Why are you apologizing to me? You're not the one at fault here." Yuan chuckled.

"I know, but I am also part of the Yu Family." Meixiu sighed.

Once dinner was finished, Meixiu went to do her necessities before going to sleep.

'Even though I missed sleep last night, I didn't feel tired or sleepy at all during school today. How weird…' Meixiu thought to herself

Although she was trained to do her job even with very little to no sleep, it was odd for her to feel no fatigue despite lacking sleep.

The following day, Yuan returned to Cultivation Online and proceeded to spend another 10 hours cultivating, bringing the total of Qi absorbed to 800 million.

'I am still about 2 billion Qi away from Spirit Master… I might now make it to Spirit Master before the Mystic Realm even with my increased cultivation speed.' Yuan thought to himself.

Three days later, Yuan absorbed another 900 million Qi, accumulated 1.7 billion Qi.

Meanwhile, at Carp Leaping Over Dragon's Gate Tower, the gamble between Long Yijun and the other Sect Master has finally come to an end.

"Hahaha!" Long Yijun exploded with laughter as the last disciple walked out of the tower with a defeated look on his face, the results obvious.

"Looks like none of your disciples were able to defeat all 100 floors! I win this bet! Now, hand over your treasures!" Long Yijun said to the fuming Sect Masters with a wide smug on his face.

"This isn't the end, Sect Master Long! We'll be back after the Mystic Realm!" The Sect Masters there said to him as they reluctantly retrieved their Divine-grade treasures and handed them to Long Yijun in front of the spectators, shocking them greatly.

"Heavens! I thought this entire event was just for show! To think there was so much on the line!" The disciples watched with salivating mouths as Long Yijun held four Divine-grade treasures at once.

"We're leaving!" The other Sect Masters didn't dare to stay any longer and said to their disciples.

"You're leaving already? Don't you want to stay behind a little longer? Perhaps we can sit down for a drink or something!" Long Yijun said to them in a sarcastic voice.

"Hmph!"

The Sect Masters pretended they couldn't hear him and disappeared from the Dragon Essence Temple without looking back.