The return to the Sky-Frost Institute was a grim procession. Lin Chen walked at the front, his shredded robes caked in dried blood and frost.
Behind him, Tie Shan and the twins followed in a daze, their eyes lingering on the heavy sack Lin Chen carried—a sack containing the remains of a Middle Foundation beast that should have ended their lives.
In the Task Hall, the usual noise of bickering disciples died instantly as Lin Chen approached the counter. He didn't say a word; he simply reached into the bag and pulled out the Middle Foundation Frost-Tusk Core and the two massive, rune-etched tusks. The thud of the ivory hitting the stone counter echoed like a gavel.
"Task... complete," Lin Chen said, his voice raspy but steady.
The Elder behind the counter froze. He checked the task scroll, then the core, then Lin Chen's Initial Foundation aura. "Confirmed. Middle Foundation Behemoth... slain by a newcomer. This has not happened in fifty years."
The Elder handed Lin Chen a jade slip glowing with a deep violet hue. "For the difficulty and the quality of the materials, you have been awarded 15,000 Contribution Points."
Lin Chen turned to his teammates. Without a word, he swiped his jade slip against theirs. "Each of you gets 2,000 points."
Tie Shan looked at the points—a small fortune—then at Lin Chen. He nodded solemnly, realizing this was a pact. "Understood. We saw nothing but your heroic struggle, Brother Lin."
Lin Chen then turned back to the Elder. "Exchange the remaining 9,000 points for Mid-grade Spirit Stones."
A moment later, he walked out of the hall with a storage pouch containing a shimmering mountain of energy. He bypassed the crowds and headed directly to his manor. Once inside, he locked the gates and activated the isolation array.
As he sat in the meditation chamber, his internal state was a battlefield. He could feel his 8th-grade Earth Rank (Fire Attribute) root—the result of the Han Clan's essence automatically merging and refining into his own the moment he had struck them down in the valley—pulsing with heat.
He reached into his storage ring and pulled out the Crimson Frost Fruit.
In his mind, a fragment of the Supreme Soul's memory surfaced. It wasn an ancient, forgotten knowledge on the true utility of this rare fruit.
Most used it to increase cold-attribute Qi, but the memory revealed its true purpose: as to compress a standard foundation into a Supreme Foundation.
Lin Chen's eyes flashed with a ruthless light. He crushed a handful of Mid-grade Spirit Stones, filling the room with a thick, misty fog of pure Qi, and then consumed the Crimson Frost Fruit. The juice tasted like liquid starlight and frozen iron.
CRACK.
A sound like breaking porcelain erupted from his dantian. He didn't flinch. Using the cold essence of the fruit as a hammer and his Fire Root as the forge, he began to deliberately collapse his newly formed Initial Foundation.
He shattered the nine-layered mountain, forcing the shards to condense into a single, crystalline pillar that glowed with a golden-red hue.
The pain was like being forged in a furnace, but the result was immediate. The liquid Qi in his body didn't just flow; it roared. His skin began to glow with a metallic sheen, and his strength started to surge, the density of his Qi far exceeding the limits of his current realm.