Isn't Cultivation This Simple?

Isn't Cultivation This Simple?

Maintained order on the River Surface, River Favor Points +1000

Hearing the system reward of a full thousand River Favor Points, Su Mu grinned so wide his mouth nearly split.

It would be great if a few more river trespassers like Li Qi Ye came along. He could earn River Favor Points and charge them a little toll at the same time.

He was a River Warden. Charging a little toll was perfectly reasonable, wasn't it??

Su Mu returned to his Stone House and looked over the Iron Lump Li Qi Ye had given him from every angle, but he could not see anything extraordinary about it.

He treated it like a useless lump of scrap iron and tossed it into his house.

His gaze fell upon the glittering golden heart. It felt somewhat heavy in his hand. He weighed it a little—it had to be a thousand jin at least!

Oh no!

He had forgotten to ask Li Qi Ye how to use this treasure!

Other than being golden in color, it looked no different from an ordinary heart. It was even continuously contracting and beating.

"Or...?"

"Should I just eat it?"

When in doubt, just eat it and be done with it.

Once it was in his stomach, it could not possibly be wrong.

With that, Su Mu deftly set up an iron pot. Once the water boiled, he threw the heart into the pot to cook.

After only a few seconds of boiling, the water in the pot was instantly absorbed.

Su Mu kept adding water. He added it several times, but each time it was absorbed just seconds later, while the heart remained as flawless as ever.

"Forget it."

"Eat it dirty, and you won't get sick!"

As he spoke, Su Mu opened his mouth and swallowed the heart in one bite.

In an instant, the heart got stuck in Su Mu's throat. His face turned purple from choking as he repeatedly pounded his chest.

After striking himself hard several times, he finally managed to swallow it.

However, it did not reach his stomach. It got lodged in his chest and would not move.

Su Mu gulped down water furiously, but still could not swallow it.

That made him panic. If he had known, he would have cut it into little pieces before eating it!

I'm not going to choke to death, am I?? Su Mu hurriedly sat down to meditate on the spot, preparing to refine the heart in his chest. The instant the spiritual power within his body touched the heart—

The heart reacted as if electrocuted. It instantly passed through his esophagus and entered Su Mu's chest cavity, settling on the right side of his chest.

The next second.

Flesh began to wrap around the heart, and countless fine blood vessels grew out, beginning to merge with Su Mu's body. This process lasted a full day and night.

Su Mu's entire body was enveloped in blood qi. The instant the heart's blood vessels connected, his aura surged explosively! Purple Mansion First Level! Purple Mansion Second Level!

Purple Mansion Third Level!

Purple Mansion Great Perfection! His cultivation continued rising until it reached Purple Mansion Great Perfection before finally stopping.

Su Mu's physical body had also strengthened by more than a hundredfold. He had even grown five centimeters taller, reaching a standard height of 1.85 meters. His muscles were well-proportioned, and his temperament had undergone a complete rebirth.

Moreover, he could clearly feel that he had refined only an extremely tiny part of this golden heart—perhaps not even 0.1 percent.

Just that 0.1 percent had directly sent Su Mu's cultivation soaring to Purple Mansion Great Perfection. If he completely refined it, what terrifying realm would he reach? Su Mu now had two hearts, one on each side.

The one on the left was his original heart, flesh-colored, while the additional second heart on the right was pale gold.

As for why Su Mu could determine that he had refined only around 0.1 percent—

It was because three million fine blood vessels connected his physical body to his original heart.

Yet only three thousand blood vessels from this second heart connected to his physical body, which was roughly 0.1 percent.

Over the following days.

Su Mu deliberately tried to "build blood vessels" to connect to the second heart, but every attempt failed.

He also figured out the reason: his original physical body was too weak to bear this heart.

To put it bluntly, his physical body was level one, while this heart required a level-one-hundred physical body to fully fit it.

It was like trying to stuff a three-meter-tall train through a one-meter-tall culvert. How could that possibly work?

Thus, Su Mu's dream of speedrunning his cultivation was shattered.

He had thought that by completely refining this heart, he could ascend to the heavens in a single step! It seemed he had been too young and too naive. He still had to take things one step at a time and strengthen his physical body first.

Among the heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and other organs, only the heart was high-grade. The rest were all far too low-grade.

"This snake meat really is good stuff!"

"Too bad there are only ten jin left."

Su Mu wolfed down the remaining Water Snake meat from last time. Although it could no longer increase his cultivation, eating the snake meat could strengthen his physical body.

After eating dozens of jin of snake meat over the past few days.

The three thousand heart blood vessels had increased to four thousand, and he had refined another small portion.

However, his cultivation did not rise. He was still at Purple Mansion Great Perfection.

Although his cultivation had not increased, his Sea of Consciousness had expanded tenfold, his Qi and Blood Power had increased fiftyfold, and his mental power, Divine Sense, soul power, and more had all improved considerably.

There were quite a few treasure fish in this river.

Unfortunately, he could not catch them.

The first treasure fish had been obtained for free. The second Silver Arowana and third Water Snake had both been brought by Little Mahi.

At this moment, Su Mu dearly missed Little Mahi.

He came to the shore.

He released a mental summons, only to discover that Little Mahi had already left this stretch of water. It was also very far away, and he could only vaguely sense a direction.

Little fellow, don't go and croak. You're my lucky koi.

Without you, I won't have any meat to eat! Su Mu had not failed to try going into the river to catch treasure fish himself. Some time ago, relying on his outstanding swimming skills, he searched underwater for several hours without seeing so much as a single scale.

Although he often came across stranded fish and shrimp, those were all ordinary fish. Su Mu could not even be bothered with them; he might as well release them and earn River Favor Points.

What he lacked were treasure fish and treasure snakes like the Silver Arowana and Water Snake.

Su Mu planned to use River Favor Points to increase his cultivation method proficiency.

Azure Heaven Dragon Transformation Art +100

Azure Heaven Dragon Transformation Art: Level 1 (0/100) → Azure Heaven Dragon Transformation Art: Level 2 (0/200)

The next second, Su Mu's aura began to rise. His mind gained experience and memories related to the Azure Heaven Dragon Transformation Art. Although he had not broken through to the Great Ascension Stage, he was infinitely close to it.

Following the improvement of the Azure Heaven Dragon Transformation Art, Su Mu's spiritual power strength, dimension, and vastness all received comprehensive improvements.

His cultivation strength had risen too quickly, so he had to raise his cultivation method as well. Otherwise, having cultivation but no combat cultivation method would be rather awkward.

Today, Su Mu felt uncomfortable all over. Unable to bear it any longer, he decided to take a huge gamble! He opened the attribute panel:

Host: Su Mu

Cultivation: Purple Mansion Great Perfection

Controlled Divine Abilities: Water Manipulation (Level 2), Swimming (Level 2)

Mastered Cultivation Methods: Azure Heaven Dragon Transformation Art (Level 2)

Controlled Water Beasts: No-Loach Dragon

River Affinity: 0.1%)

River Favor Points: 1650 points

All this time, he had only drawn Ordinary Lottery rewards. The highest he had gone was a hundred-point Silver Lottery.

He was in a good mood today, and he had a powerful premonition that today was suited for a huge gamble!

Give me a thousand-point Golden Lottery right now! Spend one thousand Favor Points to conduct a Golden Lottery draw?

"Draw it for me!!"