Break Through and Alter Fate

Today's lunch was the most satisfying meal Wang Chen had eaten since transmigrating.

The staples were still grain rice with husks and pickles.

But there was also a bowl of soy sauce-steamed insect meat.

Life had ascended to a higher plane!

As someone who would die without meat, he had gone a full three days without touching a speck of flesh.

Before, it had only been enough to fill his stomach. Now this was a proper meal!

When he was nearly finished, Wang Chen took all the remaining grain rice from the pot.

Then he peeled away the husks one grain at a time.

He kneaded them into a fist-sized ball of pure rice.

He stuffed the rice ball with pickles and two strips of insect meat, then poured in the soy sauce gravy from the bowl and wrapped it up.

Holding it in his hands, he took a big bite.

Though the rice was cold and the meat had gone cool, Wang Chen felt as though he had returned to the Great Gourmet Empire in that instant.

He nearly burst into tears.

He finished the pickle-and-meat rice ball in three bites.

It was so delicious!

But it was easy to go from frugality to luxury, and hard to go from luxury back to frugality.

After finishing the rice ball, Wang Chen looked at the pile of grain husks on the table and simply had no desire to eat them.

Forget it, forget it!

He would splurge for once today!

Without a shred of guilt, Wang Chen put the grain husks...

Into his Storage Bag.

Even a landlord's household had no surplus grain, much less a little tenant farmer like him.

If he truly had nothing left to eat, the husks could still fill his stomach.

After eating, he went to the quiet room as usual to cultivate.

Five Elements Technique · Experience +1

Glancing at the Cultivation Panel, which had not changed in the slightest, Wang Chen sighed after finishing his cultivation.

The Five Elements Technique was Yunyang Sect's introductory Qi Condensation cultivation method. It was said to have originated from the Ancient Immortal Sect Kunlun Sect's supreme sect-defending art, the unfathomably profound Grand Unity Primordial Chaos True Law, which pointed directly toward the Great Dao.

But time was merciless, and seas turned into mulberry fields.

After several tens of thousands of years, who knew how many times that Divine Skill Secret Manual had been altered and revised before reaching the present day.

It had long since become unrecognizable.

The Five Elements Technique had an impressive origin.

Yet among the hundred thousand Qi Condensation disciples of the Yunyang Sect outer sect, ninety-nine percent had begun with it.

It had no prestige whatsoever.

Still, though the technique was common, the Five Elements Technique was balanced and peaceful, with exceptionally strong compatibility.

As a primary cultivation method, it could drive nearly all low-level spells.

It was also easy to learn, with an extremely low chance of cultivation deviation, making it most suitable for ordinary cultivators newly entering Qi Condensation.

Of course, the Five Elements Technique's shortcomings were also obvious.

It was far too mediocre.

Therefore, after advancing to the middle Qi Condensation stage, the vast majority of Qi Condensation cultivators changed their primary cultivation method according to their own Bone and Root Attributes.

The original owner had planned to do the same.

He had painstakingly farmed the land and paid grain taxes, unwilling to spend even a single point of the sect contributions he had saved.

His goal had been to reach the fourth layer of Qi Condensation, then head to the Technique Hall and exchange them for a new primary cultivation method.

Regrettably, he was still stuck at the bottleneck of the third layer.

Wang Chen was not discouraged.

With the experience of breaking through with Gengjin Finger, he believed the Qi Condensation bottleneck was not an impassable natural chasm either.

The difficulty of advancing a primary cultivation method was certainly greater than that of advancing a spell skill.

Perseverance meant victory!

Leaving the quiet room, Wang Chen picked up his hoe and went outside to weed the fields.

The fiercest heat of the sun had already passed.

The weather was still scorching, and after hoeing several mu of land, Wang Chen was drenched in sweat.

Yet his enthusiasm remained undiminished.

As he weeded, Wang Chen carefully searched the spirit fields for any "rhinos" that had slipped through the net.

Earth Rhinoceroses usually operated in groups, with a nest containing around a dozen of them.

Their nests burrowed deep underground. They hid by night and emerged by day to gnaw on rice ears.

Wang Chen had killed seven Earth Rhinoceroses that morning, but he suspected he had not yet wiped out the whole nest.

Sure enough, he discovered two more during his search.

There was nothing to say about it—Gengjin Finger served them right!

After eating his fill at noon, the mana in his Dantian was fully replenished, and his proficient-level Gengjin Finger was even more powerful.

The tiny Earth Rhinoceroses were not only no threat at all, but had instead become beginner gift packs for farming skill experience and meat strips!

Wang Chen almost wished a few more would show up in his spirit fields.

Then he could have insect meat as an extra dish for dinner.

Unfortunately, by the time evening approached, he did not find any more Earth Rhinoceroses.

All the weeds in the ten mu of spirit fields had been cleared, and Wang Chen cast the Cloud Rain Art just as he had yesterday.

Seeing that it was getting late, Wang Chen decided to call it a day and go home.

At that very moment, a black shadow suddenly shot out from the spirit fields and lunged at his face like lightning!

Wang Chen instinctively tilted his head aside.

The black shadow swept past his ear, its buzzing roar hammering against his eardrums!

Wang Chen hurriedly turned around and saw that his attacker was an enormous Earth Rhinoceros.

Though Earth Rhinoceroses lived underground, they were also capable of flight.

They just could not fly very high.

And this Earth Rhinoceros that had attacked Wang Chen was noticeably larger than the ones he had killed with his finger before.

Its horned head was savage and ferocious!

Like a miniature fighter jet, it failed in its first strike and immediately came back for another pass.

It circled through the air, then pounced at Wang Chen again.

The curved, dagger-like horn on its head stabbed down at his right eye!

But Wang Chen was prepared this time and dodged again.

At the same time, he swung up his hoe.

The hoe he used to till the fields and remove weeds was not a Magic Tool either, but it too had been forged from Hundred-Refined Fine Iron.

He smashed it viciously at the Earth Rhinoceros.

The original owner's father, Wang Shaoyuan, had come from the mortal world and Entered Dao through Martial Arts before joining the Yunyang Sect.

He had once taught little Wang Chen physical conditioning and the arts of Close Combat.

Combined with five years of cultivating spirit fields, the fine-iron hoe in Wang Chen's hands was no less deadly than a blade or axe.

Smack!

The iron hoe struck the Earth Rhinoceros hard, knocking it to the ground.

The Earth Rhinoceros's shell was impervious to blades and spears, exceptionally hard.

Though Wang Chen's blow was heavy and powerful, it did not grievously injure it.

The Earth Rhinoceros spread its wings again, wanting to take flight once more.

How could Wang Chen possibly give it the chance!

Mana surged. His Sword Finger thrust out, and sharp Gengjin Qi pierced through the air.

In an instant, it nailed the Earth Rhinoceros dead to the ground.

Gengjin Finger · Experience +1

Human Virtue +1

The two notifications that appeared simultaneously in his vision made Wang Chen pause.

He immediately summoned the Cultivation Panel.

The panel had changed.

A "+" sign had appeared after each of the four major attribute fields—Physique, Bone and Root Attributes, Comprehension, and Divine Soul—as well as after every technique and skill in the Technique and Skill Bar.

However, the "+" signs after the four major attributes and the cultivation methods were gray.

The "+" signs after the four skills—Cleanse Art, Mighty Strength Art, Gengjin Finger, and Cloud Rain Art—were all shining gold!

The final two fields of the Cultivation Panel had become...

Heavenly Merit: 0
Human Virtue: 1

Moreover, each of those two fields had gained a suffix: Fate Alteration and Breakthrough.

Heavenly Merit altered fate, Human Virtue broke through realms!

Wang Chen remembered that the "cultivation" mobile game he had played also had a Merit Points field on its system panel.

But it did not distinguish between Heavenly Merit and Human Virtue.

The Merit Points earned through completing tasks could only be used to upgrade character titles.

The Heavenly Merit and Human Virtue on the Cultivation Panel were clearly entirely different!

With a thought, Wang Chen focused on the Skill Bar.

Cloud Rain Art (Beginner): 99/100

Add a point!

Cloud Rain Art (Proficient): 0/200
Human Virtue: 0

Just as expected!

After consuming his only point of Human Virtue.

This spell, which had originally been unable to break through, directly advanced!!