What people feared most in life was not being able to see the end at a glance, nor darkness without a single ray of light.
It was clearly having a faint glimmer of light and hope, yet being unable to grasp it no matter what, only able to watch that tiny light go out completely, spending the rest of one's life sinking bit by bit into despair amid regret and pain.
What Chen Yumo was doing now was exactly that.
If he really smashed Gangzi to death with one blow, then Gangzi would be unable to be chosen after completely giving up, since there was no way to kill someone who was already dead. Whipping a corpse would be meaningless too.
It would bring no pleasure whatsoever.
What he wanted was to give Gangzi a little hope, then send his life soaring and crashing, crashing, crashing, crashing, crashing, crashing, crashing, crashing—then, when Gangzi was ready to give up at rock bottom, give him another sliver of hope, before sending him soaring and crashing all over again...
He would not let him die, but neither would he let him live well.
A faint glimmer lit the road ahead for him, yet the path was covered in thorns, burdock, cacti, and camelthorn. There was not even a single foxtail grass in sight.
After teaching Xiao Chenyu the secret, Chen Yumo paid little attention to what happened afterward.
He had only heard that Gangzi and Tang San had both been acting a little crazed during those first two days, while Yu Xiaogang had spent several nights wailing like a ghost, shouting things about regret.
And he truly should have regretted it.
Chen Yumo's idea of feeding Martial Souls had clearly come from him, yet as the person involved, he had failed to benefit from it, perfectly missing the best period for nurturing a Martial Soul.
If, when his Martial Soul had first awakened, he had fed Luo Sanpao as Chen Yumo did and then obtained the corresponding Spirit Rings, would he at least be a Spirit Saint by now?
Gangzi's intestines had practically turned green with regret.
Just as Chen Yumo had said, his potential had already been exhausted, and his Martial Soul had taken shape. He could no longer use feeding to promote Martial Soul Evolution. Forcing it would only cause indigestion, allowing medicinal power and energy to accumulate inside his body and harm him instead.
Neither Tang San nor Yu Xiaogang doubted Chen Yumo's theory.
After all, they had read a few books. They could still judge whether the most basic theory was feasible.
The theory was correct, and just as Chen Yumo had said, during his time at Nuoding Academy, he had only fed mulberry leaves to the Ice Silkworm. Everyone had seen it, so there was no possibility that he was lying.
That meant Yu Xiaogang was the only one who had taken the wrong path. With his potential already exhausted, he could not replicate Chen Yumo's path.
That was precisely why he had wailed like a ghost for several days.
As for why it stopped afterward, no one else knew.
Yet from those days onward, Tang San and Yu Xiaogang both became exceptionally busy, frequently leaving the academy. Even when they occasionally appeared, their faces were full of exhaustion, and they always seemed rushed.
They were probably following Chen Yumo's statement that it was theoretically impossible but that there was a slight chance in practice, beginning to search everywhere for an opportunity to evolve.
This was another pit Chen Yumo had dug for them.
Although Douluo Continent had quite a few natural treasures capable of changing one's talent and allowing Spirit Masters to undergo a complete Metamorphosis, every single one of them was a treasure among treasures. The most classic examples were the various Immortal Herbs within the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
Even though the Nine-Rank Purple Ganoderma that Gangzi consumed in the original work did not qualify as an Immortal Herb, it was still a rare wonder that had reached the ninth rank among medicinal ingredients. In terms of equivalent value, it was no less precious than a Ten Thousand Year Soul Bone.
So even if they knew that natural treasures could evolve Martial Souls, did two Soul Grandmasters have the ability to obtain them?
Not to mention someone like Gangzi, who never left home. He probably did not even know where dangerous places were or where natural treasures might grow.
So Chen Yumo was not worried at all.
If Gangzi could change his fate, he would have done so long ago. Why would he wait until Chen Yumo viciously struck the Demon Pill before suddenly turning his fortunes around and soaring into the sky?
If Gangzi could take off, Chen Yumo would swallow the Encyclopedia Advanced Edition of the Four-in-One Encyclopedia right in front of him!
Rather than worrying about Gangzi taking off, Chen Yumo might as well spend more time considering what to do about his next evolution.
Chen Yumo was feeling a little numb.
For his second Metamorphosis, he had intended to undergo the Basalt Transformation, but the problem was that he could not find suitable medicinal ingredients to feed the Ice Silkworm.
This required some time to sort out Chen Yumo's method of Metamorphosis.
He was cultivating his Ice Silkworm Martial Soul according to the transformation method of the Divine Silkworm Clan from Shrouding the Heavens.
But the difference between the Ice Silkworm and the Divine Silkworm Clan was that the Nine Transformations of the Divine Silkworm was a racial talent of the Divine Silkworm Clan. The abilities and laws of the nine transformations were engraved deep within their bloodline. They did not need to learn or comprehend them. They only needed to continuously develop their bloodline, and once they reached the limit of a certain stage, they could undergo their next Metamorphosis.
His Ice Silkworm did not possess this ability.
That was why Chen Yumo needed to preserve the Ice Silkworm Clan's Cocooning ability during its first evolution.
That was also the stage he was currently at.
If he wanted to obtain the transformation of another race during his next evolution, then during the process from level eleven to level nineteen, he needed to feed the Ice Silkworm enough resources for it to accumulate sufficient bloodline essence. Then, after obtaining a Spirit Ring and Breaking Cocoon, it would possess a second transformation.
How great the disparity was between the races did not matter.
To put it simply, after the Ice Silkworm formed a cocoon again, it was like becoming a blank egg once more. What Chen Yumo needed to do was carve the genes he wanted into that blank egg. Once the egg hatched, it could hatch into the animal he wanted.
An egg without any genes would hatch into a snake if filled with snake genes; it would hatch into a chicken if filled with Kun genes; it would hatch into a fish if filled with fish genes, and so on.
This was why, after understanding the system's mechanism from the beginning, Chen Yumo had decided to follow the path of the Nine Transformations of the Divine Silkworm.
Nine transformations, nine races that could be switched between at any time. Combined with Bloodline Secret Techniques, Chen Yumo was practically capable of possessing nine Martial Souls.
If he could truly achieve what he had envisioned in theory, then once he succeeded, he would undoubtedly be extraordinarily powerful.
Far more powerful than any Ultimate Martial Soul or God-level Martial Soul.
But the predicament before him was equally clear.
For his first evolution, he had cultivated it step by step in the direction a silkworm ought to evolve, so there was no need to add any extra materials.
This time, if he wanted to evolve toward the Black Turtle-Snake, he had to feed it medicine with both water and earth attributes, as well as the bloodlines of both snakes and turtles.
He had spent nearly half a month flipping through almost the entire Encyclopedia Advanced Edition. Either the materials did not meet his requirements, or they were simply too expensive for him to afford.
The plan for the Basalt Transformation had been declared a failure before it had even begun.
After all, the Black Turtle-Snake was far too obscure on Douluo Continent. Though powerful, creatures of this type were simply too difficult to find, whether Spirit Beasts or related materials.
"Looks like the second transformation still has to be a more common powerful Spirit Beast."
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