Wordless Care

Improving his strength naturally put Shen Changchuan in a very good mood.

Especially when Light Body Technique reached perfection and, just as he had expected, gained a perfected trait. It stirred certain ambitions in Shen Changchuan's heart.

Although he had been reluctant to cultivate too hard over the past two and a half years since transmigrating, for fear that the infighting in the Shen Family Estate's back courtyard would make him stand out and attract someone's hostility, Shen Changchuan knew very well that his cultivation aptitude was quite ordinary.

He wasn't quite useless,

but he was absolutely inferior to those true cultivation geniuses!

Take, for example, his half-brother who had died by suicide after stabbing himself seven times in the back.

The other man had also been born to a concubine, and had few cultivation resources.

Yet he had still reached the sixth level of Qi Induction at a very young age.

Compared to him,

Shen Changchuan was worse than a dog.

Shen Changchuan had recognized his limitations long ago. He wasn't a cultivation genius, just an ordinary cultivator, one ordinary person among the teeming masses.

For someone like him, reaching the seventh level of Qi Induction would already be a stroke of heavenly luck!

Even the ninth level of Qi Induction

was exceedingly difficult for a cultivator of his aptitude!

But the spell progress panel had given Shen Changchuan a glimmer of hope!

His idea was simple.

If perfecting a spell granted a trait,

then if he cultivated several more spells in the future and raised each of them to 100%, earning several more traits, could his aptitude undergo a transformation and improve?

Even if he was wrong, and perfected spells couldn't improve his aptitude,

spells perfected to 100% would at least bring a tremendous boost to his strength.

And with greater combat power, he could obtain more cultivation resources from the outside world, making up for his ordinary aptitude!

Shen Changchuan had experienced this firsthand!

A perfected Gold Thorn Technique had let him kill a fourth-level Qi Induction Demon Boar in an instant. The Demon Boar's meat, brimming with vital essence, had rapidly raised his cultivation by a minor level in a short time.

At the same time,

the enormous wild boar carcass had frightened off Shen Shiying, the former guardian of Dawan Village, preventing a conflict and earning him five Spirit Stones in compensation.

That was the benefit of growing stronger!

There might have been an element of luck in how things had unfolded,

but the benefits he'd gained were real!

With sufficient strength, obtaining cultivation resources would undoubtedly become much easier.

And as he thought of the benefits he had reaped after killing the enormous wild boar,

Shen Changchuan couldn't help feeling the urge to venture into the mountains and hunt Demon Beasts.

Fortunately,

his steady nature soon suppressed the thought.

"Forget it. I'd better not take risks. I'm only in the early stage of Qi Induction. No need to court death."

"Even if I go out to hunt Demon Beasts, I should wait until I reach the middle stage of Qi Induction."

"Though even the middle stage might not be safe. I know nothing about the nearby terrain, the environment, the Demon Beasts that live there, or the dangers I might encounter. Running into the mountains without knowing anything would be suicide."

"If I'm not properly prepared, I should stay in the village and cultivate in seclusion."

"I've been given a second life. I can't afford to be reckless."

Shen Changchuan poured a bucket of cold water over his own head, quickly quelling every trace of the impulse.

Even the enormous wild boar he'd killed by sheer luck had only been at the fourth level of Qi Induction.

If he truly thought himself invincible and ran into the mountains to hunt Demon Beasts,

he wouldn't even know how he died!

"Now that I've reached the peak of the third level of Qi Induction, I can use that."

As he pondered, Shen Changchuan took a palm-sized white jade bottle from his robes. Inside, the shadow of a pill about the size of his thumb could just be made out.

A Qi Harmonizing Pill!

A pill that could help cultivators break through the bottleneck between the early and middle stages of Qi Induction.

In other words, it could help a cultivator break through from the peak of the third level of Qi Induction to the fourth!

If he relied on ordinary meditation and cultivation, Shen Changchuan estimated that it would take at least two or three years of hard work to break through his current bottleneck and reach the fourth level.

But with this pill, he could break through in a short time!

This pill

was the first he had ever received in his life!

His mother in this body had given it to him before he left the Shen Family Estate.

Holding the jade bottle, he recalled that gentle figure, and Shen Changchuan fell into a long silence.

"Mother."

Pills were never cheap.

Pills that could help a cultivator break through were even more expensive.

A single Qi Harmonizing Pill cost at least a hundred and fifty Spirit Stones within the Shen Clan!

And that was the restricted price for clan members.

Outside the clan, it would cost even more!

A hundred and fifty Spirit Stones—

that was probably most of what she had saved since Shen Changchuan was born!

His mother in this body wasn't a cultivator. In the Shen Family Estate, as a mortal, her status was only a little higher than a servant's.

That was only because she had some support from being the patriarch's concubine and having a son who was a cultivator.

For that reason,

the allowance she received from the household was very limited.

Shen Changchuan could imagine how she had slowly scraped together those hundred and fifty Spirit Stones over more than a decade, saving them one by one, little by little.

Then,

when her son was ready to spread his wings and fly, she had quietly taken out everything she had and exchanged it for what he needed most.

At that moment,

something stirred inside Shen Changchuan, something he couldn't put into words.

When he had left,

his mother in this body hadn't said much.

But he could feel the worry hidden beneath the warmth in her eyes as she watched him go, and the earnest hopes she held for him.

"Shen Changchuan, I took over your body and inherited your memories. Maybe I even merged with your soul."

"From now on, I'm you, and you're me. Your mother is my mother, too!"

Holding the jade bottle containing the Qi Harmonizing Pill, Shen Changchuan closed his eyes and silently told himself this.

At that moment,

he let go of the past and accepted everything that belonged to this body.

And in that instant,

perhaps it was only his imagination, but he felt as if some burden had lifted from his heart. The world itself seemed clearer.

Shen Changchuan carefully savored the change.

After a long while,

he opened his eyes again,

and his gaze had grown calm and steady.

But the thought he had carried even before leaving the Shen Family Estate

had now become perfectly clear.

He would keep moving forward,

and become stronger.

At the very least,

he would make sure his mother could live better within the Shen Family Estate!

He was no longer

living for himself alone.

Shen Changchuan lowered his head and looked at the jade bottle in his hand.

He thought it over for a moment, then finally put it back into his robes.

He would wait a few days before taking the pill.

Better to be cautious.

He had only just reached the peak of the third level of Qi Induction, and his cultivation hadn't stabilized yet. If he rushed to force a breakthrough, he might damage his meridians.

He would spend half a month tempering and stabilizing his cultivation first.

Fortunately,

he wasn't from a wealthy household and hadn't been raised on pills, so he didn't need to worry about pill toxicity.

Even if some medicinal power and a trace of pill toxicity remained in his body after taking the Qi Harmonizing Pill, cultivators' bodies could purify themselves. Given a month or two, the residue would naturally be expelled and metabolized.

So there was no need to worry.

Pill toxicity

was a problem for wealthy people who ate pills like ordinary food.

They took too many pills, and their bodies couldn't get rid of the accumulated toxicity. It built up little by little until it began to cause harm.

A poor man like Shen Changchuan, who was taking a pill for the first time in his life, didn't need to consider such things.

So he only had to wait until he was in peak condition, take the pill, and break through to the fourth level of Qi Induction.

Over the next few days,

Shen Changchuan supervised the various reforms in Dawan Village and arranged different tasks, preparing for the next quarter's Spirit Grain planting,

while also working hard at seated meditation and qi cultivation.

Even though he had reached a bottleneck and his internal spiritual power could no longer increase, he didn't slack off at all.

He still set aside an hour each day to meditate and cultivate qi, doing his best to bring his body to perfection.

In addition,

he spent at least another hour each day practicing spells.

With a progress bar panel, he couldn't afford to neglect his advantage.

Advancing on both fronts was the way to go.

Looking at the several spells he had mastered on the panel,

Shen Changchuan thought it over for a long time before deciding which spell to perfect next.

He already had Gold Thorn Technique for offense and Light Body Technique for movement. For now, he didn't need to improve either of those areas.

So he decided to shore up his reconnaissance skills.

That was why he turned his attention to the Spirit Eye Technique Shen Shiying had given him.

That spell should strengthen his abilities.

So over the next few days, Shen Changchuan devoted his spell-practice time to grinding away at Spirit Eye Technique.

But soon,

Shen Changchuan ran into a problem.

The Demon Boar meat had run out, and he no longer had food that could replenish his vital essence in large quantities.

After using Spirit Eye Technique eight or nine times and exhausting his spiritual power, he had to meditate for half an hour to recover.

As a result, his progress in Spirit Eye Technique was slow.

Seven or eight days passed,

and his progress in Spirit Eye Technique had only reached 51%.

Fortunately, Shen Changchuan wasn't in a hurry.

Compared to the Shen Family Estate, where he had suppressed his cultivation and taken two and a half years to perfect Gold Thorn Technique,

his progress with Spirit Eye Technique was already very fast now that he was free of those constraints.

There was plenty of time ahead. No need to rush.

Besides, with 51% progress, his Spirit Eye Technique was already at least at the minor mastery level by the standards of the cultivation world, and could be quite useful when cast.

But Shen Changchuan ultimately couldn't keep practicing. His bitter cultivation was interrupted.

Because

a nearby neighbor came to visit, carrying a gift.