Su Mo, Elder Wei, and the Second Elder stayed in the Highest Elder's cave for several hours before leaving.
"Su Mo, since you've now entered the True Spirit Realm, you can proceed to the Inner Sect Affairs Hall to receive the jade identification badge and clothing for a core disciple!" the Second Elder said.
"Understood!"
Su Mo then excused himself and proceeded to the Inner Sect Affairs Hall.
The Second Elder watched as Su Mo walked away and said, "Elder Wei, you've gotten a truly great disciple!"
Elder Wei nodded with a big smile on his face and replied, "He's alright!"
The Second Elder pouted and thought to himself, "Just alright? He's way exceeded that! Stop showing off!"
Meanwhile, Su Mo quickly collected his jade identification badge and the iconic light yellow long robe of a core disciple at the Inner Sect Affairs Hall.
His fame was now through the roof. Apart from the disciples, even some Elders were respectful toward Su Mo and prioritized his requests.
Su Mo then found himself a small palace in the residential area of the core disciples.
The core disciples lived in palaces. They enjoyed extraordinary treatment equalled to that of an Elder.
Su Mo decided to stay here since his residence in the outer gate had already been destroyed.
In the palace, Su Mo sat cross-legged on a futon while being deep in thought. His cultivation had now rocketed into the Peak Lv 2 True Spirit Realm, meaning that his foundation was too unstable for him to advance to the next level in the near future.
His physical strength was now equivalent to the strength of a Lv 4 True Spirit Realm martial artist as well, far beyond his cultivation.
He was currently most desperate of learning new cultivation methods and martial arts techniques. The Lower Lv 3 Martial Skill that he had learned was no longer sufficient for him.
These skills might be enough for an average martial artist at the lower levels of the True Spirit Realm, but they were too underpowered for Su Mo.
Su Mo figured that Duan Jingtian's cultivation methods were at least of Upper Lv 3. His Soaring Dragon Halberd Skill was likely at an even higher grade, hence allowing him to fight with such overwhelming combat strength.
With a flip of his hand, a piece of jade notes appeared. It was the one that contained Nirvana Swordplay Skill.
Su Mo then started reading it carefully to study its profound content.
Nirvana Swordplay Skill was a complete set of martial arts. It consisted of two parts, the Nirvana Cultivation Method and Nirvana Swordplay.
Su Mo decided to begin with the Nirvana Cultivation Method.
There were seven realms to this cultivation method. Every extra realm completed would refine the user's Genuine Vitality by 30% while significantly improving its strength as well.
Once the user had reached the fourth realm, a stream of pure Nirvana Sword Qi would be produced in his Spiritual Spiral. Every additional realm beyond that would increase the number of Nirvana Sword Qi by one. At the seventh realm, there would be a total of four streams of Nirvana Sword Qi.
Nirvana Sword Qi was the pure and refined version of Nirvana Qi. It contained a powerful force of destruction that could shatter the void easily.
Su Mo became more excited as he read through the Nirvana Cultivation Method carefully. "Powerful! It's too powerful! As expected of a Lv 6 post-archean Martial Skill!"
A long time passed, and Su Mo finished reading it twice and memorized all of the tips.
He then kept the jade notes and started cultivating the Nirvana Cultivation Method.
The Genuine Vitality in his elixir field flowed through the necessary meridians. After 15 minutes, Su Mo had completed a small circulation of vital energy. Then, two hours passed and he had completed a big circulation of vital energy.
Time flew by quickly as Su Mo cultivated in seclusion. Five days had passed in the blink of an eye.
In the morning, Su Mo exited his palace and went toward the Inner Square.
Today was the day to compete for a spot for the Top-100-talent Competition at Sky Rapier Sect. Although Su Mo would face no difficulty in earning a spot, he had to show up nonetheless.
After five days, Su Mo had now changed his cultivation method and successfully completed the first realm of Nirvana Cultivation Method.
The Genuine Vitality in his nine Spiritual Spirals had now converted from Premodial Genuine Vitality to Nirvana Genuine Vitality, becoming more than twice as strong as before.
Su Mo was now confident that he could kill Duan Jingtian in three moves if they were to fight again.
If Su Mo could reach the second or third realm, his strength would greatly improve again.
At this moment, there were over 20 core disciples on the Inner Square. All of them were undoubtedly experts of the True Spirit Realm that were rarely seen before.
"Good morning, Senior Brother Su Mo!"
"Hi, Senior Brother Su Mo!"
"Senior Brother Su Mo, you're extraordinarily talented! Please share your knowledge with us!"
All of the core disciples greeted Su Mo warmly and he nodded back at them.
This was the benefit that strength brought about. Everyone would respect you if you were strong enough, and the opposite was true. That was how realistic the world was!
At a distance away, there were three disciples looking awkward and keeping their head low in silence.
Su Mo turned toward them and realized that they were the three disciples that he had met at the Ethereal Territory previously.
It was two guys and a lady. One of the guys was squared-faced and lofty, and he was at Middle-stage of Lv 2 True Spirit Realm. The other guy was tall and slim with a solemn face. He had reached the Early Lv 3 True Spirit Realm and seemed as strong as Pang He.
The lady was about 24 years old, and at the Peak of Lv 2. She was a beauty with a good figure and a pretty face.
The three of them could be considered powerful even amongst the core disciples.
They turned pale as they saw Su Mo looking toward them.
The slim young man gritted his teeth and stepped forward, cupping his hands to Su Mo and said, "Senior Brother Su Mo, regarding our actions at Ethereal Territory…"
He wanted to apologize for almost attacking Su Mo in the Ethereal Territory previously.
However, Su Mo interrupted him with a wave.
"You've done nothing wrong. It's normal to fight over a treasure!" Su Mo said indifferently.
Su Mo was not a petty man. He paid no mind to what had happened, as they had not known he was a disciple of Gale Island. Moreover, they did not actually attack him.
"Huff!"
The three of them sighed in relief. They had actually been afraid that Su Mo would hold a grudge against them. After all, Su Mo's presence in Gale Island was now weightier than even Duan Jingtian.
"Thank you for forgiving us, Senior Brother Su Mo!" the lady and the square-faced youth said while cupping their hands to Su Mo.
Su Mo smiled and started chatting with them since the rest had yet to arrive.
"What are your names?" Su Mo asked.
"I'm Shen Fan!" the slim youth replied.
"Ren Qianshan!"
"Xia Han!"
The square-faced youth and the lady also introduced themselves respectively.
Su Mo nodded, but he suddenly paused as he was about to speak.
At this moment, several figures approached from the air, and the leader was none other than Duan Jingtian.