The Urban Cultivation Grandmaster

Chapter 14: The Crimson Radiance of the Starry Sea

“Huh, it’s actually crimson starlight—I’ve never seen anything like this before.” Mu Tian whistled in amazement. After confirming he hadn’t misseen it, a few suspicions began to form in his mind. Previously, the radiance analyzed from the Star Sea had always been milky white. In theory, the Star Sea could analyze all things in the world, but when it came to certain substances and entities, it was still powerless—for example, the *Visualization Diagram of the Three-Headed Fierce Dragon* could not be analyzed. Mu Tian had long suspected that there must be a form of radiance more advanced than the milky-white Starlight Radiance. Since the milky-white radiance of the Star Sea wouldn’t work, he wondered if this crimson radiance might. He wondered if it was an advanced version of the milky-white radiance. With this in mind, Mu Tian sprang into action. There wasn’t much of the crimson radiance—just a small cluster—and he carefully directed it toward the Dragon Legacy Stele. Soon, a look of delight spread across Mu Tian’s face. He discovered that the crimson radiance was beginning to take effect; a crimson starlit sea radiance began to flow ceaselessly around the Dragon Stele. Immediately afterward, it was as if a vast amount of information were converging into Mu Tian’s mind. It was indeed the cultivation manual for the “Visualization of the Three-Headed Fierce Dragon” from the Dragon Stele! Sure enough, the crimson starlit radiance was an advanced version of the Starlit Sea analysis—but he still had no idea where this crimson starlit radiance actually came from! Mu Tian felt both joy and anxiety. His joy stemmed from the fact that the “Analyzing the Starry Sea” technique held even greater potential and offered even more powerful abilities. His anxiety, however, arose from the fact that he still had no idea how this crimson radiance was produced. If he couldn’t obtain it in the future, wouldn’t that be a terrible regret? Having tasted a delicacy once, only to be forced to eat coarse grains and vegetables every day afterward—who could stand that? Mu Tian shook his head and focused his mind back on his Sea of Consciousness, directing the milky-white radiance of the Star Sea—sparkling with divine light—toward the Wild Ox Stele and the Rolling Waves Stele. Of course, the ratio of the milky-white starlit radiance allocated to each was different. Since he had already analyzed *The Ancient Wild Ox Visualization Diagram* to 45 percent—and making further progress was extremely difficult—Mu Tian focused his energy on *The Art of a Thousand Tides and Ten Thousand Waves*. In truth, there was no clear superiority between the two; each had its own merits. For the average person, merely learning and mastering a single text would be a remarkable achievement, but Mu Tian did not see it that way. With his ability to analyze the Star Sea, the notion that “trying to do too much at once leads to failure” simply did not apply to him. Applying what he learns to other areas and synthesizing the strengths of various schools was his path to cultivation. Although the *Wild Ox Visualization Diagram* and the *Art of a Thousand Tides and Ten Thousand Waves* were cultivation techniques of the same level, each had its own distinct characteristics. The former placed greater emphasis on physical conditioning, with attacks centered on the physical body and supported by spiritual energy, while the latter focused on the mastery of spiritual energy, emphasizing the control of spiritual energy as it surged like rolling waves, creating a majestic and overwhelming momentum. After fiddling with it for quite a while, Mu Tian finally emerged from his cultivation state, his stomach growling with hunger. He pulled out his cell phone only to discover that the battery had long since died. Mu Tian shook his head and smiled wryly. He’d been swamped these past two days. He’d just finished his first lecture at Tianjiang Cultivator Academy when, shortly afterward, his phone was flooded with calls—from family, friends, and classmates—coming at him in a deluge. It was quite a hassle. Humans are social creatures, and although Mu Tian wasn’t good at handling situations like this, he had no choice but to grit his teeth and reply to each message with extreme patience. It was fine with those he was close to, but there were also many people he didn’t even know. The one that gave Mu Tian the biggest sigh of relief was the matter involving Lu Yue. Of course, Lu Yue wasn’t the first to reach out—in fact, she had blocked him the moment he stepped onto the podium in the Tianjiang Cultivator Academy auditorium. Although Mu Tian wasn’t particularly emotionally intelligent, he understood the situation clearly. As for Lu Yue, he was actually quite innocent in the matter—after all, he never could have imagined such an awkward situation would arise. Now that it had happened, the one feeling the most awkward was undoubtedly Lu Yue, the busty girl who had been the center of attention. Mu Tian immediately sent Lu Yue a friend request again and explained to her that he hadn’t intentionally concealed his identity. It took Lu Yue nearly half a day to finally accept his friend request. After chatting for quite a while, Mu Tian and Lu Yue gradually smoothed things over, and the awkward atmosphere slowly faded. [Xiao Ping is pestering you to teach her Daowen. Do you want to say something? ] 【Hahaha, I’ll answer any question she has—I’ll definitely teach her well. 】 【Well, it’s a deal then. When you start teaching officially, we’ll leave everything we don’t understand up to you. 】 [No problem. ] While Mu Tian and Lu Yue were chatting, Lu Yue’s dorm room had already become a lively hub of activity. “Xiaoyue, I just love you so much! Wow, what a coincidence! I never expected we’d run into Mu Tian on our way back to Tianjiang. And what’s even more fate-driven is that he actually knows us—this is amazing!” The cute-looking Ke Ping was a real blabbermouth; in no time at all, she’d spread the secret so that the whole dorm knew about it. Lu Yue felt helpless and deeply regretted not having shut Ke Ping up. She had just unfriended Mu Tian, and now Ke Ping had gone and spilled the beans. Lu Yue, who was already in a very awkward situation, found herself in even deeper trouble. If Mu Tian hadn’t sent her several friend requests afterward, she wouldn’t have known what to do. Awkward. Extremely awkward. “So, what’s the verdict, Little Yueyue? Did Teacher Mu Tian agree to teach us?” Ke Ping asked cautiously. The other two girls in the dorm were also looking at Lu Yue with eager anticipation. If things really worked out, they’d get to ride his coattails too—wouldn’t that be wonderful? Lu Yue shot Ke Ping a sidelong glance, then said nonchalantly, standing tall with her chest out: “With me handling it, of course there’s no problem!” After saying that, Lu Yue showed Ke Ping the chat log. Instantly, the entire dorm erupted in screams. Seeing how excited her roommates were, Lu Yue sighed inwardly. Thankfully, she hadn’t been too stubborn; if she’d completely blocked Mu Tian, she’d probably be in a truly awkward situation right now. She still felt a bit embarrassed and annoyed, but at least things weren’t too bad—especially seeing the envious looks on her roommates’ faces, which helped ease her inner turmoil considerably. Mu Tian was charging his phone while scrolling through it. After checking QQ and We Chat, he opened his email. Young people prefer QQ, while older folks tend to favor We Chat, but there are still many who like to use email—for example, Mu Tian’s professor, Professor Cha. As soon as Mu Tian opened his inbox, he saw an email from Professor Cha. The message was actually quite simple—it basically commended Mu Tian’s academic performance and urged him to stay humble, avoid complacency, and keep up the good work. Mu Tian replied to the email immediately. After finishing that, he saw that his phone had regained some charge, so he got up and headed toward the cafeteria. People are made of iron, and food is made of steel. Even for cultivators, unless they’ve reached a certain level of cultivation, the idea of abstaining from food is difficult to achieve. On the contrary, the more they cultivate, the more voraciously they consume food. Don’t let Mu Tian’s frail appearance fool you—when it comes to eating, he could out-eat ten ordinary people combined. On the way to the cafeteria, Mu Tian felt completely out of sorts.