NIP Chapter 166 Source Spirit Crystal
Chapter 166 Source Spirit Crystal
Zhou Wangyue stood at the edge of the cave, his gaze sweeping across the entire underground cavern.
His expression remained unchanged, but Song Chen noticed that the fingers of his right hand, which was behind his back, tightened slightly.
"In the water?"
Song Chen nodded.
Zhou Wangyue leaped into the dark river, entering the water silently. The sixth-level grandmaster's control over his power was so refined that he could eliminate all sound and ripples upon entering the water.
Song Chen jumped in after him, and the two of them dived into the dark blue river, simultaneously unleashing their Eye of Truth and Grandmaster-level perception.
On the riverbed, the fragments lay there quietly.
Large and small, covering an area of hundreds of meters.
Blue light spots seeped continuously from the surface of the fragments, dissolving into the river water. As the water flowed upwards, the eerie blue glow of the entire dark river originated from this source.
Zhou Wangyue squatted down on the riverbed, picked up a fragment, and examined it from all angles.
The moment the fragment left the river, the blue light went out and turned grayish-white.
He watched for a while, then put the fragment back into the water. The light returned, and he broke through the water's surface, leaping back to the edge of the cave.
Song Chen followed, and the two stood at the edge of the cave, their bodies steaming with a dark blue mist.
Zhou Wangyue turned around, looked at him, and his gaze fell on his collar.
"Let me take a look at your crystal."
He already knew that Song Chen had one too.
Song Chen reached out and pulled out the blue crystal. As the crystal came into contact with the air inside the cave, the words on its surface reappeared.
Zhou Wangyue stared at the crystal for a long time, then looked at Song Chen and said, "You are incredibly lucky to have found two Origin Spirit Crystals."
Source Spirit Crystal?
Upon hearing this, Song Chen was startled.
He had never heard of this name before; it wasn't in the system store, the Martial Arts Guild's database, or the Tianhai University library.
But Zhou Wangyue said it aloud, his tone calm and resolute, as if he were referring to a term that already existed.
Moreover, he said "two".
"Two?" Song Chen asked.
"What you're wearing around your neck is a complete one."
Zhou Wangyue then pointed to the bottom of the river, "Those fragments at the bottom of the river are what another fragment looked like after it shattered."
Song Chen looked down at the crystal on his chest, which was intact, while the one at the bottom of the river had shattered into countless pieces, which covered the riverbed, for reasons unknown.
"What exactly is a Source Spirit Crystal?" Song Chen asked, his eyes full of questions.
Zhou Wangyue did not answer immediately.
He stood at the edge of the cave, hands behind his back, his gaze fixed on the deep blue river.
The cave was quiet, with only the low murmur of the flowing river.
After a long silence, he finally spoke.
"Fifty years ago, a meteorite fell into the Pacific Ocean, creating the era of martial arts."
"You should know that the meteorite broke apart as it passed through the atmosphere, releasing countless psionic particles."
Song Chen nodded. This is basic knowledge, of course he knows it.
Zhou Wangyue continued.
"But there's something you probably don't know: when a meteorite breaks apart, in addition to the fragments of the meteorite itself, a batch of crystals also scatter out from the meteorite."
"The materials of these crystals are completely different from those of meteorites. They are not fragments of meteorites, but rather things that were originally encased inside meteorites and existed independently."
"The quantity of these crystals is extremely rare; globally, no more than fifteen are known to have been found by humans."
"Those who obtain this crystal, as long as they don't die, basically become powerful."
Song Chen's fingers gripped the hilt of the Tianjun Blade tightly.
Zhou Wangyue looked at him.
"You've grown so fast, this Source Spirit Crystal must have played a significant role."
Song Chen didn't answer, not because he was right, but because he wasn't.
His rapid growth was not due to the Source Spirit Crystal, but to the Killing System.
But this is something that can't be said. Since the system was awakened, he has never revealed its existence to anyone, so there's really no way to explain it.
A system that allows one to exchange kills for elixirs, improve combat skills, and upgrade superpowers is beyond the comprehension of this world.
But Zhou Wangyue needs an answer.
He was silent for three seconds, then nodded.
He nodded vaguely, somewhere between yes and no.
Zhou Wangyue didn't ask any further questions. He simply reached into his collar and pulled out a thin black rope.
A crystal was also hanging at the end of the rope.
It has the exact same material, the exact same luster, and the exact same texture as the one on Song Chen's chest.
The only difference is the color; Song Chen's is a deep blue, while Zhou Wangyue's is a dark red.
Zhou Wangyue held the crystal in his hand.
"I have one too."
Song Chen was surprised again. No wonder his teacher had never wondered why his strength had improved so quickly.
Zhou Wangyue held the dark red crystal in his palm. There were also words on the surface of the crystal, which he couldn't understand, just like Song Chen's crystal, but the arrangement of the words and the strokes were completely different.
"I found this Source Spirit Crystal thirty years ago."
"It crashed in the South China Sea. After the Great Xia found it, it was divided into three parts and entrusted to three sixth-level Grandmasters for safekeeping. I was one of them."
"Each Source Spirit Crystal has different abilities. I don't know what yours is yet, but this one, if I carry it with me, can increase my speed of cultivating combat skills by ten times."
Song Chen looked at the crystal with some shock.
Zhou Wangyue's ability to become a sixth-level grandmaster, the president of Tianhai University, and stand at the pinnacle of martial arts in the Great Xia Dynasty was all thanks to this dark red crystal, which began accelerating his progress thirty years ago.
Zhou Wangyue tucked the crystal back into his collar, his voice regaining its composure as he continued.
"Humans have studied the origins of the Source Spirit Crystal for fifty years and have come up with many guesses."
"You've probably heard of the three most common ones."
Song Chen nodded.
"The first type is a special celestial body formed by long-term exposure to cosmic rays; the second type is an experimental product of an advanced civilization; the third type is a meteorite itself, which is a passage to a higher dimension."
"These three guesses are the most widespread and believed by the most people, but I want to tell you that all three guesses are wrong."
"Meteorites are not special celestial bodies formed naturally, nor are they experimental products of advanced civilizations, nor are they passages to higher dimensions. They are something that humans cannot currently comprehend."
Zhou Wangyue stood with his hands behind his back, a faint blue light flickering on his face.
"For the past fifty years, all the powerful individuals around the world who have found Source Spirit Crystals have been trying to figure out its origin. No one has succeeded, but all those who have possessed Source Spirit Crystals have one consensus—"
"These crystals do not belong to Earth, nor to any dimension known to humankind; they come from a completely unknown place."
"Most importantly, their arrival on Earth was not an accident."
Song Chen looked down at his blue crystal, no, it should be called the Source Spirit Crystal.
It came to Earth along with the meteorite that changed the fate of the planet.
They came from a completely unknown place.
Their arrival on Earth was not an accident.
Song Chen looked up at Zhou Wangyue.
"Teacher, could you explain it more clearly?"
Zhou Wangyue hesitated for a moment before speaking.
"About the Source Spirit Crystals, about why they came to Blue Star, about their true origins."
"The Great Xia Dynasty has a top-secret file, numbered zero, file number zero."
"In the entire Great Xia Dynasty, there are no more than ten people with the authority to access File Zero."
"I am one of them."
"Alright, you're already this strong. A fourth-tier cultivator can kill a fifth-tier upper-level cultivator. Having reached this point, there are some things you should know."