"Please, Immortal Master, see the truth. My Zhao Family truly had no intention of keeping anything from you."
"We genuinely didn't know a high-tier demonic beast was hiding in the Spirit Field."
"How could a high-tier demonic beast have come to wreak havoc in my Spirit Field?"
Zhao Bing couldn't make head nor tail of it.
But Shen Mo knew full well why the Double-Headed Silver-Patterned Python had been drawn there. It was most likely because of that strange purple Vermilion Fruit.
From the Zhao Family's reaction, it seemed they didn't know the strange Vermilion Fruit existed?
Zhao Bing led his son, Zhao Jiachang, forward to offer a sincere apology. "It was the Zhao Family's negligence. We nearly got you hurt, Immortal Master. Please forgive us."
Shen Mo said nothing, only gazed quietly at the father and son.
He wasn't looking for an apology.
He wanted compensation.
"As for your losses, Immortal Master, my Zhao Family is willing to do everything we can to cover them." Zhao Bing gritted his teeth. "The ten Vermilion Fruits we promised you earlier—we can double that."
He knew an apology alone wouldn't cut it.
They had to offer something real to show their sincerity.
"Immortal Master, what do you think?"
"All right, then." Shen Mo gave a slight nod and accepted.
At market prices, ten Vermilion Fruits were worth roughly fifteen low-grade Spirit Stones.
That still wasn't enough to make up for the loss of his two talismans.
Still, the Zhao Family had shown some sincerity. At least it would help him recover most of what he'd lost.
Night blanketed the sky.
Inside a guest room at the Zhao Family estate, Shen Mo sat cross-legged in meditation.
He'd planned to leave that very night, but Zhao Bing had pointed out how late it was and asked him to stay until morning before returning to his sect.
After giving it some thought, Shen Mo agreed.
He could tell that the old family head was extremely reluctant to see him leave before the crisis in the Spirit Field had been fully resolved.
After all, once Shen Mo was gone, the Zhao Family would be even less able to deal with the demonic snakes occupying their Spirit Field.
While offering their compensation earlier, the father and son had hinted at one thing time and again: they hoped Shen Mo, an Immortal Master from a great sect, would see the matter through.
Ideally, he'd send word to his sect, call over some friends, and help the Zhao Family rid their Spirit Field of the threat once and for all.
At the very least, they wanted him to offer some advice and come up with a solution before the Spirit Field went to waste.
Shen Mo didn't think he had any obligation to do that.
He'd been paid to kill lesser demonic beasts. The Double-Headed Silver-Patterned Python was another matter entirely—and would cost extra.
Of course, even if the Zhao family head offered him more money, Shen Mo wouldn't take the job.
He simply wasn't up to it.
"This trip hasn't gone smoothly, but I've still gained something!"
After the day's practical combat experience, Shen Mo felt that the bottleneck in his once-solid cultivation had begun to loosen.
"Chen Mengze was right. Going out to train and fighting real battles makes it easier to find an opportunity to break through!"
He flipped his hand and took a plump, round, red fruit from his Qiankun Pouch.
A Vermilion Fruit.
"Since my bottleneck has loosened, I'll use this Vermilion Fruit and see if I can knock on the door to the next level!"
With that, he swallowed the fruit.
Its juice and spiritual essence trickled over his tongue, making his mouth water.
He had to admit, Vermilion Fruits tasted excellent, with a fresh, pleasant fragrance.
They were far more delicious than the Vitality Strengthening Powder he usually chewed.
[You swallowed a Vermilion Fruit and began circulating the Heaven Origin Technique. The fruit's medicinal power gradually spread through your body. After it was absorbed by the Heaven Origin Technique, your cultivation increased.]
Half an hour later, he opened his eyes again and saw the notification that had appeared before him.
"One Vermilion Fruit's medicinal power is nowhere near enough for me to break through!"
Shen Mo shook his head. Though he'd refined all the fruit's energy over the past half hour, he could still feel that he remained a long way from the eighth layer of Body Tempering.
He then took two more Vermilion Fruits from his Qiankun Pouch.
"Glug!"
Shen Mo quickly swallowed them one after the other, drawing out their medicinal power to boost his cultivation.
[You swallowed a Vermilion Fruit and began circulating the Heaven Origin Technique. The fruit's medicinal power gradually spread through your body. After it was absorbed by the Heaven Origin Technique, your cultivation increased.]
Another hour passed. By then, Shen Mo's aura had grown noticeably stronger.
But it still wasn't enough.
"Two more."
Shen Mo did as before, taking two more Vermilion Fruits from his storage pouch and swallowing them.
Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't consume so many spirit medicines in such a short time.
It would do more harm than good. Much of the medicine's power would go to waste before he could absorb it, and his foundation would become unstable.
But he was at a critical juncture, on the verge of breaking through.
If he couldn't make one final push and reach the eighth layer tonight, who knew how long he'd have to wait for another chance to break through?
"Eighth layer of Body Tempering—break through!"
Vast spiritual power surged through his body like an ocean, battering the barrier to the next realm.
Waves crashed against the shore, again and again, without end.
"I did it."
After an unknown stretch of time, Shen Mo shuddered. His sinews, bones, blood, and qi had all undergone another transformation.
A faint joy welled up inside him.
"I'm one step closer to the Qi Gathering Realm!"
He clenched his fists, feeling strength surge through his entire body. It was as if he could shatter a mountain with a single punch.
He suddenly wanted to charge over to the Zhao Family's Spirit Field and kill the Double-Headed Silver-Patterned Python—the beast that had forced him to flee in such a sorry state earlier that day—to get his revenge.
The moment the thought surfaced, Shen Mo immediately forced it down.
"An illusion. Just an illusion."
He murmured to himself, calming the restless thought.
When cultivators first broke through, the tremendous increase in power often gave them the feeling they'd undergone a complete transformation.
It was only natural for them to get carried away.
But that feeling was just an illusion. It wasn't real.
Even though Shen Mo had reached the eighth layer of Body Tempering, he still couldn't fight back against the Double-Headed Silver-Patterned Python, which had one foot in the second tier.
"Still, even if I can't hunt that demonic python..."
"My combat strength is formidable among those at my level."
Shen Mo thought it over, then opened his status and took a look.
After the experience he'd gained slaying demonic beasts that day, his Supreme Clarity Sword Technique had come within a hair's breadth of reaching the Entering the Hall stage.
His Heaven Origin Technique had also made great progress, approaching the stage of mastery.
He'd comprehended these two basic cultivation arts and martial techniques to an extremely high level. The boost they gave him in a fight was not to be underestimated.
On top of that, he'd mastered the Light Body Immortal Art, Thunderbolt Quickstep. With the added boost from his special Destiny, Strong as an Ox, Shen Mo estimated his true combat strength was no weaker than that of a ninth-layer Body Tempering cultivator.
"Right, I earned Destiny Points when I slew demonic beasts in the Spirit Field!"
He suddenly remembered something, opened his Destiny Points balance, and checked.
[Destiny Points: 5]
"Five!"
Seeing the number, Shen Mo smiled faintly. "That's a lot faster than accumulating them through the dull grind of daily cultivation!"
He'd been worried that as his basic Destinies improved, the Destiny Points needed for each future upgrade would multiply, while he'd earn them too slowly and his cultivation would suffer.
It seemed that worry had been unnecessary after all.
Before you continue