Progress

After making some plans, Shen Mo quickly put together a cultivation schedule.

He gave himself no holidays and set aside no free time.

He posted the schedule on the wall of his quarters, washed up, and sank into a deep sleep.

Over the next month, Shen Mo worked exceptionally hard.

Just as his schedule had planned, he was remarkably disciplined.

Heaven moves with vigor; the diligent and hardworking are naturally rewarded. Shen Mo reaped great rewards over the course of that month.

[Destiny's Master: Shen Mo]

[Cultivation: Body Tempering Realm, Seventh Heaven]

[Technique: Heaven Origin Technique Entering the Hall (325/1000)]

[Martial Skill: Supreme Clarity Sword Technique Minor Accomplishment (225/500)]

[Immortal Art: Thunderbolt Quickstep First Glimpse of the Path (240/500).]

Shen Mo marked off the final date on his schedule and circled it.

Then he opened his status panel and looked over the data recorded for each of his techniques and martial skills.

"Quite a bit of progress."

After a month of cultivation, his Heaven Origin Technique had improved again.

It had advanced from Minor Accomplishment to Entering the Hall.

The breakthrough had made Shen Mo feel that Heaven Origin Technique absorbed spiritual energy from heaven and earth at least thirty percent faster.

Apart from his foundational technique, he hadn't neglected his swordsmanship, either.

The Supreme Clarity Sword Technique was a sword art Shen Mo had learned shortly after becoming an outer disciple of the River-Facing Sect.

Since he hadn't practiced it much before, it had remained at the introductory level for a long time.

But after squeezing in some practice over the past month, he'd finally advanced to the Minor Accomplishment stage. Its power had increased greatly!

As for Thunderbolt Quickstep, the light-body immortal art he'd traded for with Gu Qingshan, he hadn't made much progress.

Although Shen Mo placed great importance on the light-body immortal art and devoted most of his practice time to it, he still hadn't cultivated it to the Minor Accomplishment stage.

His current proficiency level was only First Glimpse of the Path.

Perhaps because Thunderbolt Quickstep was a graded art, its experience grew very slowly, and it was much harder to cultivate than the Supreme Clarity Sword Technique.

"Besides improving my techniques and martial skills, my cultivation has also advanced by leaps and bounds this month!"

He felt the surging power of qi and blood within him as he spoke.

Unlike last month, when Shen Mo had been obsessed with his side pursuits and neglected his cultivation fundamentals, he now made sure to set aside three hours each day for seated cultivation, steadily improving his cultivation.

With the medicinal effects of Vitality Strengthening Powder to support him, Shen Mo's progress was rapid.

Although he hadn't yet broken through to the eighth level of the Body Tempering Realm,

he felt he was already at the very edge of the realm's threshold, with enough foundation built up.

From here, all he needed was the right opportunity to break through in one fell swoop!

"As for pills, I've refined quite a few this month, so I can say I've gotten started."

As Shen Mo spoke, he turned to look at the inner hall.

Two large vats stood there, one filled with Vitality Strengthening Powder and the other with Qi Recovery Pills.

The two kinds of pills were piled as high as mountains.

After taking stock, Shen Mo calculated the totals.

There were a hundred and fifty Qi Recovery Pills, and two hundred and fifty portions of Vitality Strengthening Powder.

If he counted the finished product, there should have been two hundred and sixty portions of Vitality Strengthening Powder.

But over the past month, Shen Mo had taken one portion every three days while cultivating, using up ten portions.

"Still, I haven't made nearly as many Lesser Foundation Establishment Pills."

He patted his storage bag and sighed.

The two ungraded spirit medicines were not difficult to refine, and their success rates were already fairly high.

Half a month ago, after Shen Mo advanced his Alchemy Dao to the first-grade level, refining these two medicines had become even easier.

Only the first-grade spirit pill, the Lesser Foundation Establishment Pill, still had a low yield.

Ten batches of ingredients had produced just two pills, and his proficiency with the pill was still low.

Thinking this, he opened the Destiny Panel, which recorded his Alchemy Dao progress.

[Alchemy Dao (First Grade) 305/1000]

[Vitality Strengthening Powder (Masterful) 233/5000]

[Qi Recovery Pill (Masterful) 13/5000]

[Lesser Foundation Establishment Pill (Proficient) 33/1000]

"Alchemy Dao is starting to come along, too." Looking at the data, Shen Mo said with a sigh, "Talisman Dao and Alchemy Dao—my two side pursuits are finally on the right track."

With his status panel and its experience-bar effect,

he had never run into the bottlenecks that other people faced when refining pills or improving his Alchemy Dao and Talisman Dao.

At least, that was how things stood for now.

"But that doesn't mean I can just sit back and relax. If I want to keep improving at these two pursuits, I'll need to get my hands on more pill recipes and talisman scrolls."

Although there were no bottlenecks and filling the experience bar was enough to advance,

Shen Mo had found that his Alchemy Dao faced the same sort of predicament as his Talisman Dao.

After his Alchemy Dao reached the first-grade level, refining ungraded, low-tier spirit medicines like Qi Recovery Pills and Vitality Strengthening Powder yielded very little experience.

Sometimes, he didn't gain any experience at all.

For sustainable progress, he would need more high-grade pill recipes.

"Knock, knock."

As Shen Mo pondered, he suddenly heard someone at the door.

He got out of bed, walked into the courtyard, and opened the gate.

A young woman stood outside.

It was Chen Mengze. She had come again.

"On Father's instructions, I've come to check on your cultivation progress."

Chen Mengze spoke coolly. "You haven't been slacking off lately, have you?"

"I've been doing all right."

Shen Mo thought back over the past month and answered.

"How's your progress?"

"My cultivation has reached the bottleneck at the seventh level. I just need to put in enough time and effort to break through."

"Really?" Chen Mengze raised an eyebrow, seeming unconvinced.

She placed her jade-white hand on Shen Mo's shoulder and carefully examined him with Qi Observation Technique for a while. Only then did she believe what he'd said.

"Your cultivation has been improving pretty quickly lately. It's probably thanks to the Qi Gathering Pills."

Chen Mengze thought it over and settled on that explanation.

After all, Shen Mo had once been stuck at the fifth level of the Body Tempering Realm for a full three years.

Shen Mo didn't argue.

Some of his rapid progress really was thanks to those two Qi Gathering Pills.

"Cultivation boosted by medicinal power makes it hard to find the opportunity for a breakthrough."

Chen Mengze thought for a moment, then said, "If you want to break through sooner, you'll need some real combat experience."

"Real combat?"

Shen Mo was taken aback.

"Exactly." Chen Mengze nodded. "It's hard to find a breakthrough just by shutting yourself away and cultivating."

"But if you venture out and go through life-and-death battles, you'll often get results you never expected."

"The outside world seems pretty dangerous."

Shen Mo did want to break through to the eighth level of the Body Tempering Realm soon.

But safety came first for him.

The world beyond the River-Facing Sect was far too dangerous. The risk of dying was practically unacceptable.

He wanted to keep his head down a little longer and improve his cultivation before doing anything else.

"If you want to climb the path to immortality, how can you avoid weathering storms?"

Chen Mengze knew what Shen Mo was thinking. "You'll have to face the outside world sooner or later."

"The Deacon Hall often posts sect missions for disciples to gain experience."

"Besides missions in the Linjiang Mountain Range, there are often tasks that low-ranking disciples can accept. I heard you quit your job guarding the mountain gate. If you have time, you might as well go out and take a look."