The night was silent. Chen Mo lay quietly on his bed. This Mortal Transformation was going more smoothly than the last one.
At least he was indoors, and he was the only person in the room.
A copper gong rested in his hands. He had secretly taken it from the military camp's storehouse earlier.
The personal guards responsible for patrolling at night had to strike this gong every evening. Even now, with only a few dozen of them left, they still struck it every night to announce the time.
When there had been more people, several teams had been assigned to patrol and stand watch, so two or three gongs—or even more—would be used at the same time. Now only one was needed, leaving the rest unused.
Chen Mo had quietly slipped one away. If this Mortal Transformation sent him into the Gray Mist again, he planned to try striking the gong himself.
Besides that, the steel spear he usually practiced with and a short blade he carried on him were both within reach, ensuring that he would never again be caught empty-handed like last time.
After confirming that everything was there, Chen Mo sat up, crossed his legs, focused his mind, and activated the Mortal Transformation Pearl.
Within the Mortal Transformation Pearl, the blood-and-qi power he had accumulated over this period spread continuously, beginning another Mortal Transformation.
This Mortal Transformation was no longer a simple enhancement of his muscles, bones, and sinews.
The blood-and-qi power first entered his internal organs. These were the foundation of the human body. Only if the internal organs were strong enough could they withstand a powerful physique.
Otherwise, if the body possessed great strength while the internal organs remained weak, it would instead create an extremely severe burden.
Once the internal organs could no longer bear the body, they would begin to collapse, and the person would naturally be unable to escape death.
As the blood and qi merged into his internal organs, Chen Mo's heart grew stronger and sturdier with every beat.
With each breath in and out, he could contain and draw in more air. These were merely the most obvious improvements.
As for the changes to his liver, kidneys, stomach, and the like, he could not fully sense them yet.
In particular, after his stomach and intestines had been strengthened, he would surely be able to eat more food and digest more of it.
That meant he could draw more blood and qi from his food.
Afterward, besides food, he could also try various medicinal soups used to replenish blood and qi.
The trouble was that these medicinal soups cost far more than food.
A fine ginseng root cost at least a dozen ounces of silver, and using it to replenish blood and qi would not last him three days.
Yet if a dozen or more ounces of silver were spent on meals, he could eat for more than a month, even if he ate meat every day.
Drinking medicinal soup was certainly a good thing. It could speed up the rate at which he increased his blood and qi.
But before he could drink medicinal soup, he had to solve one problem first: money.
Chen Mo could not exactly say that his family had been stripped bare. He could only say that he possessed absolutely nothing.
The reason he had been able to drink medicinal soup before was entirely because General Sun had sent someone to deliver it.
Without that, with his own finances, drinking medicinal soup would have been utterly impossible.
As the blood and qi merged into his internal organs, another portion began flowing into his skin, flesh, sinews, and bones. After cultivating the Greedy Wolf Seven Kill Fist for this period, Chen Mo had inevitably accumulated hidden injuries and ailments.
Even with nourishing medicinal soup to drink, this was still unavoidable.
Otherwise, how could this technique accomplish, in a single year, what ten years of painstaking cultivation of an internal martial art could achieve?
It relied on digging into and exhausting a martial artist's physical potential, bringing the greatest improvement in the shortest possible time.
Now, nourished by his own blood and qi, all those hidden injuries and ailments were erased and smoothed away. His body once again returned to a perfect state, without the slightest flaw.
This was one of the benefits brought by the Mortal Transformation. Regardless of the size of the improvement, the Mortal Transformation would cause his body to transform from the inside out.
Once the hidden injuries had healed, the remaining blood and qi finally began to truly enhance Chen Mo's physical strength.
The improvements brought by his internal organs could be said to have extended Chen Mo's endurance and increased his body's potential to bear power. They allowed him to erupt with greater strength all at once without being affected, and, more importantly, without leaving hidden dangers in his body.
However, the direct increase to his physical strength was not particularly great. Now that the blood-and-qi power had begun nourishing his muscles, sinews, and bones, that was what directly improved his physical strength.
Chen Mo carefully sensed this Mortal Transformation. His entire body was surrounded by a warm feeling that brimmed with vitality. His mind was left only with clarity and vigor, and his perception of the world had never been so lucid.
As the Mortal Transformation ended, Chen Mo knew even before opening his eyes that he had definitely not fallen into the mist this time.
That was because he happened to hear the gong being struck. Its crisp, sonorous sound echoed through the military camp.
Even if the Gray Mist had appeared, it must have been dispersed by now.
He lay on the bed and let out a long sigh of relief.
The gong beside him had been secretly taken away. He only needed to find a way to return it tomorrow.
The management of these gongs was extremely strict, even stricter than that of many common military weapons.
If most of the personal guards had not been away from the military camp, it would never have been so easy for him to get one.
But in a few more days, they should all be back.
The twentieth day of the first lunar month was the latest date by which all the personal guards had to return to camp. Most people certainly would not wait until then. Some should begin returning one after another on the eighteenth or nineteenth.
He had obtained the gong easily this time, but getting one again would not be so simple.
Chen Mo moved the steel spear off the bed and carefully hid the gong beneath it, planning to return it later.
Chen Mo exhaled a long breath. Only then did he dare relax and lie back down.
Yet just after he closed his eyes, they suddenly flew open again. His entire body sprang upright from the bed like a launched projectile.
Something was wrong. Very wrong.
Chen Mo furrowed his brows deeply and once again focused his mind on the Mortal Transformation Pearl.
There was nothing unusual about the Mortal Transformation Pearl. It had just undergone a Mortal Transformation, and the blood-and-qi power accumulated inside had been completely exhausted, leaving it transparent and colorless once more.
Yet Chen Mo could sense that there was a thread of aura within the Mortal Transformation Pearl.
This thread of aura was incomparably faint, but it seemed extremely tough and weighty. It also appeared astonishingly sharp, as if it could pierce through anything.
Most importantly, this thread of aura belonged to him. Through it, Chen Mo could even see the space where the Mortal Transformation Pearl was located.
Of course, this "seeing" was not true sight, but merely another method of perception.
Previously, he had been able to sense that the Mortal Transformation Pearl was in his abdomen, but he could not determine its exact position within his abdomen, nor which space it occupied.
But now, through this thread of aura, he could roughly sense that the Mortal Transformation Pearl was located three inches below his navel.
If he remembered correctly, that seemed to be where the human body's dantian was located. This did not surprise him. He had already made this guess earlier.
The Mortal Transformation Pearl was in his abdomen, so it was most likely lodged within his dantian.
Entering this thread of inner qi, he could roughly inspect the area. The dantian where the Mortal Transformation Pearl rested was filled with a gray haze, devoid of any color, as if all things lay in stillness.
Only this thread of aura gave off a faint light. His consciousness could sense only this thread of aura, not the entire dantian.
The reason he could see the dantian's general condition was entirely because this thread of aura was surveying it from within his body.
Then what exactly was this aura that had suddenly appeared in his dantian?
Could it be inner qi?
A guess surfaced in Chen Mo's mind.
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