Chapter 650 - 353: Sudden Prying

"A Cultivation Residence?" Su Chen paused slightly, a gleam of realization flashing in his eyes. "Undisturbed by outsiders? A training room?"

The virtual screen shifted again, displaying two slowly rotating palaces. One was the palace where he had just passed the trial, and the other was naturally his current location.

This was likely asking him to choose the location for his Cultivation Residence.

After a brief hesitation, Su Chen naturally chose the palace beneath his feet on the third floor. His fingertip tapped the virtual screen, causing it to ripple like water before suddenly dissipating.

He felt the platform beneath him tremble slightly as dense, intricate patterns began to flow across the metallic surface.

CLICK. CLACK. The next second, the narrow corridor rattled as if pushed aside by invisible giant hands. The stairs descended, overlapping layer by layer until they leveled out.

In the blink of an eye, the area transformed into a massive silver space. The floor, walls, and ceiling were entirely seamless, without a single visible joint.

The edges of the room even looked faintly blurred.

At the same time, a virtual screen popped up in front of him, displaying numerous adjustable parameters.

Su Chen glanced over it. Basic functions like gravity multipliers and mental guiding went without saying.

"I can even adjust the concentration of Elemental Particles." Intrigued, Su Chen selected the dual elements of lightning and Flame Fire. He dragged the slider down to zero percent. The space remained silent and unchanged.

Then, he cranked it straight to a hundred percent.

Instantly, the area boiled over. Arc particles condensed, emitting a CRACKLE, while flames roared to life, nearly filling the entire space.

He slowly dragged the slider back down to fifty percent, and the anomalies around him gradually subsided.

Increasing the concentration of Elemental Particles offered tangible benefits for class development, indirectly boosting his progress efficiency.

"It can’t just adjust particle concentration—it can change the environment, too."

Fascinated, Su Chen clicked the "Nature" option under the default environment settings.

In an instant, invisible ripples spread out from under his feet. Brown earth materialized, and the faint sound of falling rain—RUSTLE RUSTLE—echoed in his ears. In the distance, thick trees and various bizarre plants sprouted and evolved into existence.

Very quickly, the space transformed into a rainforest-like setting. The flora looked incredibly lifelike, their leaves emitting a PITTER-PATTER as raindrops struck them.

He could even smell the distinct, earthy scent of rain in the air. Crouching down, he grabbed a handful of dirt from the ground, letting it sift through his fingers and drop with a soft RUSTLE.

He was internally astonished. "This level of mimetic capability is almost on par with Copper Heart."

He flipped through the menus again but couldn’t find an option to adjust the environmental time flow. Furthermore, the mimetic scenes had their limits, but it was still an astounding feature.

"It’s just as I guessed. It provides me with a room here that I can use for development and training."

Su Chen’s eyes flickered. He didn’t care much about the flashy bells and whistles of the Cultivation Residence. What mattered most was the "undisturbed by outsiders" function.

"This way, I actually have a hiding spot here. If my identity is truly exposed and I’m left with no other choice, I can hide in here and slowly focus on my development. The only downside is the lack of Potion supply. Once I’m out, I’ll have to find a way to stockpile a massive batch."

He was already calculating his next moves. "Other Potions are fine, but the Holy Cauldron Sect’s Potions are supplied on a monthly basis. They won’t be easy to hoard."

"Regardless, I at least have a way out now. As for the Sect..."

Su Chen frowned slightly. If his identity was exposed, he wouldn’t be the only one facing pressure—the Bronze Sect would be implicated as well.

After a long moment of contemplation, Su Chen muttered in a low voice, "Lose land to keep people, and both will be preserved. Keep land and lose people, and both will be lost."

If push truly came to shove, he wouldn’t agonizingly overthink it.

He just needed to engrave his grudges into his heart. He firmly believed that, sooner or later, he would make his enemies pay in blood.

"I’m overthinking it. This is just a last-resort escape route." Shaking his head, Su Chen refocused his attention on the Cultivation Site itself.

Moreover, he still wasn’t sure if the so-called "outsiders" referred to people other than him, or people unacknowledged by this Flame Space.

If it was relative to him, then "outsiders" naturally meant everyone else. If it was relative to the Flame Space, then it likely referred to anyone who hadn’t gained its recognition.

It would be difficult for him to verify this in the short term.

"This Cultivation Site is the reward for passing the so-called Sun Trial for the first time."

Su Chen recalled the information he had just acquired. "That name probably doesn’t refer to the stair-climbing trial I just did. It should be a difficulty classification."

His thoughts couldn’t help but wander. Could the trials on the two floors below be the Moonlight and Morning Star Trials?

"Perhaps this is also a form of testing. With the same level of recognition, passing a higher-difficulty trial grants higher authority, even yielding something like this Cultivation Site."

Su Chen speculated that ordinary recognized individuals, despite being able to walk freely in this place, couldn’t train here, let alone possess their own private rooms.

"Passing trials in higher-tier palaces might grant even higher authority. I wonder if I can use it to expel other people? The design is quite interesting. It definitely wasn’t created by the Spirit of Sun—it could only be the work of that deceased Morning Star Tier."

But judging by the situation here in the Dust Star Sea, Spirituality should be of utmost importance. Why would it be left behind here alongside the Flame Fire?

And how exactly did that Sun Tier die?

Numerous questions surfaced in Su Chen’s mind. After pondering for a moment to no avail, he simply dropped the matter and turned his attention to his newly acquired Perfect-Level Deceitful God Source Power.

He was genuinely curious about what this thing actually did. His gaze lingered on the Shadow Shattering Body, and his heart suddenly stirred.

"What if I try applying it to the Great Venerable? Source Power, Material Source... they both share the word ’Source.’ I wonder if it could trigger a transformation in the Great Venerable?"

The moment this thought surfaced, text appeared on his interface—