"Hey! Taozi, you done training?"
Chen Mo called Jiang Tao as he walked down the stairs.
His weapons and backpack were with Jiang Tao.
"Just finished. I grabbed your stuff for you. Let's meet in the gym lobby."
"Okay!"
After settling it and chatting for a couple more lines, Chen Mo hung up.
Having earned another hundred thousand yuan today, Chen Mo happily hummed a tune.
"Now that I have money, there's no need to work myself so hard as a sparring partner."
So Chen Mo opened the Wuji Martial Arts Gym app and changed all the booking times on his registered sparring-partner profile.
He canceled every one-hour slot from Monday through Friday evening, leaving only the eight hours across Saturday and Sunday.
Even at two hundred yuan an hour, he could earn 3,200 yuan over the weekend. Besides, he could take the opportunity to offer pointers and earn guidance fees.
Guidance fees were where the real money was.
Chen Mo had already tasted the sweetness of it. There were plenty of people as wealthy and generous as Li Mengxue.
Ten thousand yuan an hour should be perfectly reasonable.
Thinking of his talent for making money, Chen Mo couldn't help chuckling.
"My dad only earns eight thousand a month, while I can make ten thousand in a single hour. Hehehe..."
"I just made a hundred thousand—more than Dad earns in a whole year..."
"Your grandpa's really happy today..."
Chen Mo's singing echoed through the stairwell.
If no one had been using the stairs, Chen Mo would probably have been mistaken for an idiot.
By the time he had gone halfway down, his excitement finally settled.
"Calm down, calm down! Martial Artists make hundreds of thousands, even millions, in one go. My hundred thousand is nothing."
"My sister's treatment costs will be at least a hundred million. What's a hundred thousand?"
Thinking of that, Chen Mo stopped floating on cloud nine.
He had been so excited not because he had suddenly received a hundred thousand yuan, but because Chen Mo felt that making money was simply too easy.
In the memories of both his lives, he had never made money this quickly.
But now that he had calmed down, it no longer seemed like much. He had gotten carried away just now.
Chen Mo reflected that he needed to control his emotions in the future and not lose himself over money.
He had to see the essence of things clearly: the stronger he became, the easier it would be to make money.
Therefore, strength was the true essence.
Gathering his thoughts, Chen Mo quickly went downstairs. Once he reached the gym lobby, he soon found Jiang Tao and took his things back.
"Mozi! I haven't seen you for one afternoon, and I missed you so much!"
Chen Mo hurriedly stepped back.
"Don't be weird! This is a public place."
Jiang Tao looked around and found that no one was paying attention to the two of them, but he had lost the mood to fool around anyway.
"Fine. Mozi, how did the sparring go? Who did you run into? Any beauties?"
"Of course there was, and she was a gorgeous beauty!" Chen Mo smiled faintly. "Want to know who?"
"Do we know her? Did you run into someone we know? Someone from our class?"
Jiang Tao was a little surprised, but immediately shook his head. "If she were from our class, she would've come down with you. Definitely not someone from our class."
"Of course she wasn't from our class!" Chen Mo kept up the mystery.
"If she wasn't from our class, are there any beauties we know?"
Jiang Tao suddenly came to his senses. "Mozi, you're fooling me, aren't you?"
"Why would I fool you? Come on, I made money today. I'm treating you to a drink."
"Hey, don't walk so fast! Then tell me, who did you run into?" Seeing Chen Mo already several meters ahead, Jiang Tao hurried after him.
Once Jiang Tao caught up, Chen Mo stopped keeping him in suspense. He leaned close and whispered into Jiang Tao's ear.
"I sparred with Li Mengxue this afternoon. The School Beauty herself. Isn't she gorgeous? Don't we both know her?"
"Li Mengxue is indeed a stunning beauty, and we both know her, but I don't believe you got that lucky. Your first sparring job was her!"
Jiang Tao wore a face full of disbelief.
Li Mengxue was the aloof School Beauty. Even scions of prominent families found it difficult to get close to her, let alone ordinary people like them.
Getting Li Mengxue on his very first job was no different from winning the lottery.
"Believe it or not!"
Chen Mo didn't explain. No one believed the truth anyway.
He also didn't want everyone to know about it. It might bring trouble.
Thinking of the consequences, Chen Mo quickly changed his tune.
"Haha, I was fooling you just now! I didn't meet any beauties at all today."
"Women only slow down the speed at which I draw my blade. You too!"
As he spoke, Chen Mo did not forget to pick up the drink the vending machine had dispensed and hand it to Jiang Tao.
Then he took his own bottle, twisted open the cap, and drank.
"That's true. Improving our strength is what matters most."
Jiang Tao agreed, then twisted open his cap and took several big gulps.
"Let's go!"
The two walked out of the gym together. Chen Mo suddenly said, "Taozi, I'm planning to go to the supermarket. Want to come?"
"Sure! It's not like I have anything else to do."
Jiang Tao had no objections. After training for an entire afternoon, it was just the right time to relax.
The two went to a supermarket not far from the gym.
Once inside, Chen Mo headed straight for the meat section and bought three jin of Fierce Beast Meat.
This time, he chose better-quality Fierce Beast Meat, at five hundred yuan per jin.
The ordinary kind cost just over a hundred yuan, contained less qi and blood, and tasted worse.
He had over a hundred thousand yuan now. There was nothing wrong with eating better.
After buying the meat, he went to the snack section and bought some children's snacks and compressed Dried Meat.
Compressed Dried Meat was Fierce Beast jerky packed with a large amount of energy. It was used to replenish energy during cultivation and stave off hunger.
"Mozi, there's no need to buy compressed Dried Meat. The pharmacies have been selling Blood Infusion Pills recently. They can replenish the energy consumed during cultivation."
Seeing Chen Mo toss handful after handful of compressed Dried Meat into the shopping cart, Jiang Tao hurriedly stopped him.
"Blood Infusion Pills? There's a pill like that? The clerk didn't mention it when I went to the pharmacy yesterday."
Chen Mo was somewhat puzzled. He had bought so many pills yesterday, yet the clerk had not recommended them.
"Blood Infusion Pills have the same effect as compressed Dried Meat. They provide the energy consumed during cultivation, but they don't contain much qi and blood."
"They're lower-grade than Qi and Blood Pills. They can only fill your stomach, but there's no interval period, and taking them continuously has no harmful effects."
"They cost five hundred yuan each and can last a day, though they don't taste too good."
"Maybe you didn't ask, so the clerk didn't mention them. We'll know once we go ask."
From Jiang Tao's explanation, Chen Mo learned that Blood Infusion Pills were actually Grain Abstinence Pills. With such a good thing available, why hadn't the clerk recommended them?
That way, he would no longer need to fear hunger.
When he had analyzed Stance Training, if he had not taken a Qi and Blood Pill, he would not have had enough energy to cultivate.
"In that case, I won't buy the Dried Meat. I'll buy Blood Infusion Pills at the pharmacy later."
In the children's section, Chen Mo picked out a fluffy teddy bear toy for his sister and grabbed two packs of toothpicks, finishing his shopping.
Jiang Tao picked out some snacks he liked.
After paying, they had barely stepped out of the supermarket when Jiang Tao transferred his share of the money to Chen Mo.
Chen Mo refused it, but Jiang Tao insisted. In the end, Chen Mo was defeated and accepted the money.
At the pharmacy, Chen Mo spent five thousand yuan on ten Blood Infusion Pills, then he and Jiang Tao headed home separately.
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