Power perfected!

"Training the body and cultivating the Fate Soul complemented each other!"

"Neither could be neglected. Not even a little."

"I need to keep unsealing the Insect Codex, increase my physical strength, and cultivate and strengthen my Fate Soul as well..." Yang Yu flipped his hand, snapping the black-covered Insect Codex shut.

"Store!" A moment later, Yang Yu tore open space and put the Insect Codex into the Life-Soul Space within his body.

A Life-Soul Space that could hold Giant Mantis Beasts was naturally the safest possible place to store the Insect Codex.

The study in Yang Yu's home now seemed somewhat redundant. Its layout even included a mechanism for a hidden compartment, which Yang Yu had originally arranged specifically to conceal the Insect Codex... For now, though, he could probably still use it as a laboratory for experiments modifying various ferocious insects.

Once his strength increased further and he could modify larger, more powerful Insect Beasts, this place would probably become nothing more than an ordinary study.

"I'll wash up and have something to eat first, then keep cultivating my Fate Soul." Yang Yu wrinkled his nose twice, clearly catching the powerful stench of sweat coming from his body.

The agony of his earlier cultivation had forced a great deal of disgusting impurities out of his body. His clothes were stained with foul-smelling bodily waste, making the smell thoroughly unpleasant...

Besides, he was hungry.

Right now, he urgently needed a clean, comfortable change of clothes and a good meal to replenish himself.

As for earning money, he still had some funds left in his account. Yang Yu was engrossed in cultivating the Hundredfold Soul-Tempering Score, and there was no way he would stop now.

As long as he could endure the inhuman pain and his body was strong enough, cultivating the Hundredfold Soul-Tempering Score presented almost no bottlenecks.

With that in mind, Yang Yu naturally chose to cultivate his Fate Soul to its current limit first, strengthening himself as much as possible... That would also make it easier to protect himself if anything unexpected happened!

Whoosh~~~~~~~~~

Water poured freely down over Yang Yu, soaking his hair and washing the heat from his body. The cool, clear water streamed down muscles brimming with explosive power.

At the same time, he held a roasted pig's hind leg as thick as a burly man's arm, tearing into it with huge bites!

Crunch!

Crunch, crunch!

As he enjoyed the cool shower, Yang Yu also devoured the food in his hand with satisfaction. He did not even care that copious water from the showerhead splashed onto the exposed meat where he had bitten into it!

"That feels great!"

"Nothing in life beats a cold shower as summer approaches, followed by big mouthfuls of meat and booze!"

"Haha, this is great!"

"So damn good!"

Washing, eating, and drinking took Yang Yu a full hour.

An hour later, Yang Yu walked into the study in a white robe and threw himself into another round of cultivation.

He continued listening to the music from the first volume of the Hundredfold Soul-Tempering Score, and boundless agony descended on him once more!

Cultivation was slow, painstaking work, carried out day and night.

Given Yang Yu's current physical condition, he could neither rush nor speed up his cultivation of the Hundredfold Soul-Tempering Score. He could only listen to each note unfold at an incredibly slow pace, allowing the Dark Force to gradually temper and strengthen his Fate Soul... At this pace, Yang Yu could only run through the Hundredfold Soul-Tempering Score two or three times a day at most.

Time passed.

Yang Yu began cultivating at sunrise every day, eating and washing during the breaks. In the small hours before dawn, he also set aside two hours to rest and catch up on sleep.

Although he could theoretically go many days without sleeping, he was cultivating, after all, and naturally needed to keep his body in peak condition at all times.

He cultivated day and night.

In the blink of an eye, more than half a month had passed.

That day, after completing another cycle of the Hundredfold Soul-Tempering Score, Yang Yu opened his eyes, disappointment showing in them. "That's it. The first volume of the Hundredfold Soul-Tempering Score no longer has any effect on me. It's exactly as the cultivation method described. After forty-one repetitions of the first volume, the Fate Soul reaches its limit for this stage. To improve any further, I'll have to cultivate the music in the second volume."

"Nineteen days of frenzied cultivation with day and night turned upside down, followed by two more days consolidating and verifying the results. My Fate Soul should now have reached the peak of the acquired human rank."

"Enough to command twenty Giant Mantis Beasts!"

"I also tested the music from the second volume of the Hundredfold Soul-Tempering Score half a day ago. Just one note nearly made my body collapse and killed me. The pain was terrifying, far beyond what my current acquired human rank body could withstand."

Yang Yu took a deep breath, an unusual gleam flashing in his eyes. "Time to head out. I should earn some money to buy the rare materials needed to unseal the second page of the Insect Codex."

Now that Yang Yu had perfected his strength for his current stage, unsealing the second page of the Insect Codex was not his only pressing concern. He was also running low on money. His formidable physique demanded an astonishing amount of energy every day, resulting in an equally terrifying appetite.

If he did not start earning money, Yang Yu would go hungry before he could even think about unsealing the Insect Codex.

Based on Yang Yu's current minimum daily requirements, his food and drink alone cost several thousand yuan a day!

Half a month ago, summer had already been approaching.

Now, after Yang Yu had cultivated for half a month, it had grown noticeably hot outside.

He traveled from the outskirts into the city.

Yang Yu took buses and the subway... Almost everywhere he went, he drew countless second glances!

His Fate Soul had reached the peak of the acquired human rank, and his body was as powerful as an inhuman monster. Although Yang Yu never displayed his strength, the faint aura he gave off still awed the passersby around him.

In particular, many of the young women among them wore skimpy tops and short shorts... Their gazes burned as they looked at Yang Yu, as though they wanted to outshine the blazing sun overhead and melt everything!

In biological evolution, strong males could always attract the favor of females.

That principle still held true in human civilization.

"What a pain." Yang Yu frowned, turning away the fifty-sixth young woman to approach him and try to get his phone number.

"I should have waited another couple of days before coming out. My Fate Soul has only just reached the perfected acquired human rank, after all. I still can't control its power with complete precision, so a little of my aura keeps leaking out."

"That trace of aura naturally does nothing against powerful life-forms, but among ordinary people, it can easily influence them... And it keeps drawing attention to me."

"What a hassle."

"I have to get the leaking power under control as soon as possible. Otherwise, it might stir up trouble eventually."

As Yang Yu brooded over the problem, he finally arrived at an old street in a distinctly antiquated part of the city.

The Shangjing City Antique and Bird Market!

One reason Yang Yu had come here was to buy more black-patterned giant mantises to turn into Giant Mantis Beasts. Now that his Fate Soul had reached the peak of the acquired human rank, he could command a small squad of twenty Giant Mantis Beasts. After testing some other creatures, Yang Yu had found that none had the potential of the Giant Mantis Beasts for the time being. Either their strength after enhancement was unsatisfactory, or they exploded and died halfway through the process.

After much deliberation, Yang Yu had therefore decided to bring his Giant Mantis Beasts up to full capacity.

Until he found a better option, the Giant Mantis Beasts were still remarkably powerful!

Let alone a combat squad of twenty of them. If they fought without restraint, even a modern human military force armed to the teeth would probably have to give them a wide berth!

Besides buying creatures to turn into Giant Mantis Beasts, Yang Yu also wanted to try his luck and see whether he could pick up any overlooked treasures. This was Shangjing City's largest antique and bird market. Alongside all sorts of pets and exotic creatures, it also offered a vast selection of antiques.

Some were genuine, and some were fake!

With Yang Yu's knowledge and experience of antiques and treasures, combined with the mysterious sensitivity to various objects granted by his now-strengthened Fate Soul, he had an advantage.

He stood a reasonably good chance of identifying treasures and picking up bargains!

PS: Please bookmark, cast recommendation votes, and click! I've mailed the contract, and once the Class A signing is officially completed, I'll update twice a day. Updates can't be too fast during the new-book period, or the book won't get many recommendation slots and its performance will suffer. I've had a terrible cold these past few days, with a forty-degree fever that kept coming back. It would go down, then return, go down, then return. It nearly fried my brain. Injections and medicine at the hospital didn't help. Later, I got an IV drip, and I'm finally improving now. The fever has gone down, but the cough is still awful. I've coughed until my throat bled. Please bear with the slower updates for these first few tens of thousands of words.