Upon hearing this, Chu Feng simply smiled faintly: "My Mental Power is indeed a bit more than most people's."
"Good grief, so here I am, reduced to 'most people' around you, Brother Chu Feng," Bai Yunqing laughed.
"Don't misunderstand — you're certainly not ordinary," Chu Feng clarified.
"Just kidding. But compared to you, Brother, I really don't feel like I deserve to be called a genius."
"Still, with a monster like you on our side, this bet is as good as won."
"That Jie Yu definitely never expected me to find someone like you as my backer. I can barely wait to see the look on his face when he loses."
"Let's see if he still dares to strut around in front of me after that," Bai Yunqing said.
He had clashed with Jie Yu before, and he knew full well that Jie Yu's strength was roughly on par with his own — certainly within the ranks of geniuses.
But against a freak like Chu Feng, Jie Yu was doomed.
"We still can't let our guard down. After all, we don't know this place at all," Chu Feng said.
Though Chu Feng had always been confident, years of experience had also taught him to be cautious and careful in everything he did.
"Brother, you're already this strong, yet you're still this humble."
"I really need to learn from you going forward."
Bai Yunqing's words were not sarcastic at all — he genuinely found Chu Feng's combination of tremendous power and quiet modesty incredibly appealing.
He felt he needed to change his own approach. Maybe being more like Chu Feng would earn him more respect.
After that, Chu Feng and Bai Yunqing continued onward.
They passed through caverns, corridors, palaces, and more.
Each location served as a trial — a place that devoured their Mental Power. Chu Feng did his best to satisfy each one, filling them completely before moving on.
He didn't understand this place, and he couldn't discern any patterns, so he had no choice but to resort to the crudest method.
That crudest method meant doing the absolute best he could at every stage.
As they progressed, Bai Yunqing realized that the later trials demanded increasingly vast amounts of Mental Power.
To avoid any mishaps, he began restraining himself, conserving his strength.
He planned to unleash everything at the very last trial.
That way, he could guarantee he had enough Mental Power to reach the end, and then use whatever remained to exchange for cultivation resources and condense his crystal.
But things didn't go as planned. They entered a palace whose walls were entirely crimson — a deeply unsettling sight.
What was most bizarre, however, was that this hall was fundamentally different from everywhere else.
Every other location had actively devoured their Mental Power.
But here, there was no such pulling force.
In fact, when they tried to release their Mental Power, it was actively restricted.
"What the — what do we do now, Brother Chu Feng? We're trying to let it take our Mental Power and it won't even do that!"
"Are we near the end already? Is that why it's like this?"
"If that Jie Yu sees my crystal like this, he'll die laughing!"
Staring at the crystal still hovering beside him — which remained stubbornly white — Bai Yunqing began to panic.
He had been counting on releasing everything at the last moment.
He never expected that by the time he got here, he wouldn't even be able to release his Mental Power if he wanted to.
If he truly couldn't let it out, then he had no way to exchange Mental Power for cultivation resources.
His crystal would remain at this meager level, which would be absolutely humiliating.
"There's no need to worry. There's a way to break through this."
Unlike Bai Yunqing, Chu Feng was completely calm.
He used his hand like a brush and traced a set of movements in the air — something resembling a cultivation technique's circulation method.
"Follow this method to channel your Mental Power, then try to release it again," Chu Feng said.
Bai Yunqing trusted Chu Feng implicitly. He didn't bother examining the technique himself — the moment Chu Feng gave the instruction, he followed it to the letter.
And he discovered that the Mental Power he hadn't been able to release before now flowed freely.
As long as his Mental Power could be released, this bizarre hall would still devour it.
"It actually works! Thank you, Brother Chu Feng!"
Overjoyed and not daring to waste a single second, Bai Yunqing began unleashing his Mental Power with wild abandon.
It was as though he had been given a second chance.
He hadn't cherished the first — this time he would make the most of it.
He wished he could pour out every last drop of Mental Power he possessed and condense his crystal to the absolute peak of what he was capable of.
Under these conditions, Bai Yunqing's crystal began to change — white turned to gray, and before long it shifted to blue, still continuing to evolve.
But he knew it was far from enough. Because right now, Chu Feng's crystal was not only magnificent in color — its aura was positively divine, already reaching the level of an Immortal Dragon Rune.