Cultivation

By the time Chen Mo finished cultivating for the day, Lin Yaodong was still sleeping soundly in the bathing tub.

Chen Mo had originally planned to scare him again, but when he saw the tear tracks at the corners of his eyes, his heart softened.

On reflection, although he hadn't actually hurt him physically, and had instead helped improve his physique and build his foundation,

Chen Mo had indeed done considerable damage to his young heart.

Sigh!

I won't bully you anymore from now on? That's impossible. At most, I'll go a little easier on you and give you some extra compensation.

┐(￣ヘ￣)┌

Another three months passed.

All fifty-four playing cards had long since filled up, and now he worried himself sick every day.

His Soul Power was growing far too quickly.

Only five months had passed since his awakening, yet Chen Mo was already level eight. He had risen from level three to level eight, gaining a full five levels of Soul Power-an average of one level a month. At this rate, he feared it would take less than two months to reach level ten.

Even someone with Innate Full Soul Power would need two or three months to gain a level, no matter how fast they were, right?

But Chen Mo couldn't simply refrain from using the experience cards. Once twenty-four hours passed, the system would automatically use any unsealed experience cards.

And as luck would have it, he couldn't throw the experience cards away, either.

There was nothing he could do!

Forget it. At worst, I just won't put a Soul Ring on myself when the time comes.

Chen Mo refused to believe he wouldn't draw an experience card from an immortal cultivation world.

Over those three months, Chen Mo had accumulated a total of five monthly treasure chests. He needed five more to get a critical hit.

He had opened weekly treasure chests many times already and obtained two kinds of tier-three items: a tier-three experience card from the Douluo Continent, and a Thunderclap Seed (tier three) from a cultivation world, comparable to a full-power strike from someone at the Golden Core Stage.

Chen Mo had also obtained several cultivation arts, but unfortunately, they were all from martial arts worlds. The highest-ranked one was the Cold Jade Art (tier two), which could be cultivated up to the Innate realm.

However, Chen Mo hadn't cultivated it. There was little point in practicing such a low-tier martial arts world cultivation art. If it were a martial art from a high-level martial arts world, he might have considered it.

Chen Mo wasn't dead set on cultivating immortality. He could accept any cultivation system, as long as it was reasonably powerful.

During this time, Chen Mo had also taken care to nurture Uncle Dong. Mainly, he had grown used to beating him up, and if he were gone, Chen Mo would be a little reluctant to part with him.

Besides, Uncle Dong had completely changed his ways. He was very obedient now, and his formerly punchable manner had been completely turned around.

Chen Mo felt quite a sense of accomplishment over this.

When it came to educating children, wasn't having hands enough?

Uncle Dong: "Right, right, right. It just takes a bit of a toll on the kid."

Over those three months, Chen Mo had also given Uncle Dong a medicinal bath every five days and taught him the Seven Forms of the Martial God.

He had no choice but to teach him. Chen Mo's physique was too strong now. On average, every medicinal bath followed by a session of the Seven Forms of the Martial God added several jin to his strength. By now, Chen Mo had the strength to lift nearly eight hundred jin.

That was eight hundred jin of lifting strength, not striking force!

If he threw a punch at full strength, its force would probably amount to several tons.

Splitting mountains and shattering rocks would be no problem.

It was easy to understand. A person might be able to punch with several hundred kilograms of force, but ask him to lift a weight, and he might not even be able to lift a hundred kilograms.

Besides, Chen Mo hadn't practiced the Seven Forms of the Martial God for nothing. His physical coordination and control were insanely good now. Otherwise, Uncle Dong would have been beaten to death by him long ago.

So Lin Yaodong had to train his body alongside him. Otherwise, Chen Mo couldn't even enjoy beating people to his heart's content!

Uncle Dong: =_=

If Chen Mo was willing to nurture his underling Lin Yaodong, then his own parents naturally wouldn't go without all sorts of benefits.

Chen Mo handed the Seven Forms of the Martial God and all the various medicinal bath formulas directly to Chen He, and his parents had already begun cultivating. Of course, because they were too old and had lost their primordial essence, their results weren't as good as Chen Mo's.

On the very day Chen Mo obtained the Cold Jade Art, he gave it to Father Chen and Mother Chen.

Chen Mo said that cultivating this art could speed up Soul Power cultivation and even allow ordinary people to cultivate and become Soul Masters.

At first, Father Chen, Chen He, didn't believe him. But when Father Chen cultivated his first wisp of Soul Power, he was stunned.

Tears streamed down his face on the spot.

He immediately instructed Chen Mo and his mother, Li Xiao: "A fourth person must never learn about this cultivation art. Otherwise, all three of us in the Chen family could die violent deaths."

A cultivation art that allowed ordinary people to cultivate Soul Power—Father Chen and Mother Chen naturally knew what that meant.

A common man was innocent, but carrying a treasure made him guilty. The Chens were just an ordinary family, not even a Soul Master family. If word got out, a catastrophic disaster might befall them.

Of course, that was only Father Chen and Mother Chen's view.

If they knew Chen Mo possessed god-slaying power and could slaughter Titled Douluo like chickens, they wouldn't have been so nervous.

Of course, Chen Mo couldn't tell them about the system, either.

One should still hold all things in reverence.

Chen Mo had also given the big and little jokers to his parents. The experience cards sealed in the two jokers could be used by other people, and only those two cards could do that; none of the others could.

Moreover, once someone else used one, it couldn't be given to anyone else to use for a year. Only the same person could use it.

Of course, the risk involved was especially great. Once a playing card left his body, it could be destroyed, and if that happened, Chen Mo wouldn't come out of it unscathed.

What was more, once a playing card was destroyed, it was gone and couldn't be repaired. Gone meant gone forever.

Chen Mo naturally knew how dangerous it was.

But that was simply the kind of person he was. His own safety mattered, but his closest family mattered just as much.

That was also why Chen Mo had passed the Blood Refiner System and the Cold Jade Art on to his parents.

Becoming a Soul Master was Father Chen, Chen He's lifelong obsession. Strictly speaking, becoming a Soul Master was the obsession of every ordinary person on the Douluo Continent.

If he hadn't had the ability, that would have been one thing; there would have been nothing Chen Mo could do. But as long as he could, he would grant their wishes.

Murphy's law told us that, between tomorrow and an accident, the accident would always arrive first.

Chen Mo didn't want to leave himself with regrets. So even at the risk of suffering grave injuries himself, he had to give his parents the ability to protect themselves.

The big and little jokers each sealed a tier-three experience card. Both were from the Douluo World, and Chen Mo had drawn them only with great difficulty over the past three months.

One was a level seventy-six Soul Saint experience card, and the other was a level eighty-two Soul Douluo experience card.

Haier City was only a small city, and even its strongest resident was merely a Soul King. These two tier-three experience cards were enough to deal with any danger.

Even if a Titled Douluo really did come, Father Chen and Mother Chen were honest, humble commoners. A Titled Douluo couldn't possibly go out of their way to cause trouble for them, and Father Chen and Mother Chen couldn't possibly take the initiative to provoke one, either.

So, as long as Father Chen and Mother Chen didn't deliberately set Chen Mo up or go looking for trouble, Chen Mo would be fine.

After all these years, Chen Mo knew his parents' temperaments well. His mother, Li Xiao, preferred quiet to activity and usually stayed home as a wealthy lady.

His father, Chen He, was one of the wealthiest merchants with the largest businesses in all of Haier City. In terms of ability, he was shrewd and capable. When it came to human nature and reading people's expressions, he was better than Chen Mo by who knew how much.

On top of that, his father, Chen He, had the greatest noble in all of Haier City as his protector, so barring any accidents, there shouldn't be any problems on his end either.

Still, Chen Mo had to explain the dangers involved.

The experience cards could be activated by feeding a trace of Soul Power into them, and Father Chen had already successfully cultivated Soul Power, so he naturally had no trouble using one either.

Chen Mo said, "Remember, you must keep these two cards safe. They're part of my Martial Soul, and any damage they suffer will be reflected back on me. If a card is destroyed, I'll die too, so you must protect them."

"Also, these two cards can respectively give you the strength of a level seventy-six Soul Saint and a level eighty-two Soul Douluo for one day. If you run into danger, use them when you need to. Just make sure to protect the card."

Chen He asked, "Then, after we use a card, will it have some effect on you?"

Chen Mo said, "Don't worry, it won't have any effect. The power inside just needs to be replenished."

Chen He smiled. "Perhaps you're telling the truth, and it won't have much effect on you. But we won't accept these. We appreciate the thought. The body-tempering method and Cold Jade Art you gave us are enough already. To your mother and me, you're what matters most."

But no matter how Chen Mo tried to persuade them, Father Chen and Mother Chen refused to accept them.

Heh, you just have to force my hand, don't you?

If I insist on giving them to you, you'll take them whether you want to or not.

On the day he returned to the academy, Chen Mo shoved the two cards into their hands and ran off at full speed.

Father Chen and Mother Chen had no choice but to accept them and keep them safe. They resolved to protect the two cards even if it killed them.

Although Chen Mo had explained it many times, they still firmly believed that the greater the power, the greater the price. So even if their lives really were in danger, they might not use the cards.

Chen Mo couldn't exactly have them try the cards on the spot. Once used, they would have to wait a year.

One year later.

"Haha, I ride my sword upon the wind, carefree between heaven and earth. What joy, what joy..."

The person flying on a sword was none other than Chen Mo.

Chen Mo was only seven now. Perhaps because he had persisted in body tempering and taking medicinal baths, he had developed differently from ordinary people. He was already nearly 1.5 meters tall and looked every bit like a little adult.

On second thought, Blood Refinement Masters in the Blood Refinement World were generally around two meters tall. Perhaps the Blood Refiner System could also promote growth. That was an unexpected surprise.

But the greatest surprise, of course, was immortal cultivation.

Yes, Chen Mo had successfully embarked on the path of immortal cultivation.

Moreover, his cultivation had reached the Fifth Layer of Qi Refinement, which counted as the Mid Qi Refinement Stage. Only then could he barely manage to fly on a sword.

It had happened more than half a year ago, when Chen Mo had just collected ten monthly treasure chests.

Treasure chests could yield all sorts of items, and experience cards came from them as well.

What Chen Mo had opened back then was a tier-three experience card from an immortal cultivation world.