Chapter 15: Nourishing with Immortal Grass, Secretly Leaving Gold and Silver
The old woman's hands trembled as she tried to help Lin Mo up from the mud, yet she hesitated to touch his clean, presentable robes, terrified her rough hands would soil the clothes of an "Immortal."
"Get up quickly... Mo'er, the ground is cold. You are an Immortal Master now, how can you kneel to mud-legged folks like us..."
Just then, the sound of hurried footsteps came from outside the yard. Lin Mo's father, a scrawny, honest man who had spent his entire life toiling in the dirt, pushed through the crowd panting heavily, not even bothering to grab his hoe.
Seeing his son kneeling in the yard, the old man's eyes turned red. His lips trembled for a long time, and a thousand words ultimately condensed into a slightly awkward, "It's good that you're back... it's good that you're back.
Old woman, quick, go slaughter that old egg-laying hen we have. We need to stew soup for the Immortal Master... for our Mo'er!"
That night, the dilapidated adobe house of the Lin family was lit with an oil lamp they normally couldn't bear to use.
A large basin of chicken soup with floating drops of oil sat on the table. The two parents couldn't bear to drink a single sip, continuously placing meat into Lin Mo's bowl instead. Their cloudy eyes were filled with an unmelting, deep affection and pride.
They carefully asked about his life on the immortal mountain, asking if he could really summon the wind and rain.
Lin Mo's eyes felt slightly hot as he swallowed the chicken from his bowl. He swallowed all the humiliation, vicious beatings, and endurance of his three years in the Servant Quarters, as well as his near-death experience at the bottom of the Soul-Severing Cliff, deep into his stomach. He only picked the cloud-wreathed immortal scenery and the grand halls of the Azure Cloud Sect to describe to his elders.
He smiled and told his parents that he was highly regarded by the elders in the sect, that he was living very well, and that everything was fine.
Seeing his parents' relieved, incredibly proud smiles, Lin Mo silently swore in his heart that no matter how brutal this cultivation world was, he had to survive, and he had to live better than anyone else.
As night fell, the two elders, exhausted from the excitement, went to rest early. Soon, the sound of steady snoring drifted out.
Lin Mo, however, did not sleep.
Sitting cross-legged in his narrow side room, he retrieved a spirit herb glowing with a faint, translucent green light from his robes.
This was the Top-grade Mortal Tier spirit herb he had enhanced using discarded medicinal slag from the Alchemy Pavilion while staying at the Qinghe City inn. He had ten of them in total and hadn't been willing to use a single one until now.
Top-grade spirit herbs had zero impurities.
Their medicinal power was gentle yet extremely majestic. In the eyes of mortals, this was tens of thousands of times more precious than a legendary thousand-year-old ginseng.
"Mortals have weak bodies and blocked meridians. They absolutely cannot withstand the spiritual energy of an entire Top-grade spirit herb. If swallowed directly, their bodies would inevitably explode and die."
Lin Mo was well aware of the extreme danger involved.
Pressing his fingertips together, he carefully pinched off a tiny piece from the tip of a leaf, no larger than a grain of rice.
Then, he placed this rice-sized leaf tip into a large, coarse porcelain bowl. Condensing a sliver of gentle Water-attribute spiritual energy—refined to the extreme through the Qi Drawing Mantra—at his fingertip, he completely dissolved the leaf tip.
The originally clear water instantly emitted a refreshing, heart-soothing fragrance, and a faint green hue of vitality rippled across the surface.
Carrying this bowl of spirit water, Lin Mo lightened his footsteps and entered his parents' room.
He stood silently by the bed, circulating the Dust Concealment Mantra to retract all his aura. Then, dipping his finger into the spirit water, he gently dabbed it onto the lips of his sleeping parents, allowing the spirit water to naturally seep into their bodies along with their breaths.
Furthermore, to ensure his parents' frail bodies could perfectly absorb this medicinal power, Lin Mo mobilized his late-stage third-level Qi Refining spiritual energy. Transforming it into strands of Qi finer than a hair, he transmitted it through their acupoints, extremely gently helping them comb through their blood vitality and dissolve the medicinal power.
The efficacy of a Top-grade spirit herb was nothing short of heaven-defying.
Even though it was only the size of a grain of rice and had been diluted countless times, for a mortal, it was tantamount to a minor "cleansing of the marrow and cutting of the tendons."
For the next five days, Lin Mo did not take a single step away from home.
Every night, he would repeat the process, using a microscopic amount of spirit herb water to condition his parents' bodies. During the day, he helped chop wood and carry water, fulfilling his filial duties as a son.
The changes were astonishing.
By merely the third day, his old father's chronically hunched back—which ached so much he couldn't stand straight on rainy days—miraculously straightened.
The originally graying hair on his old mother's head actually started growing pitch-black strands from the roots. The deep, knife-carved wrinkles on her face smoothed out significantly.
The two elders only felt as if their entire bodies were filled with boundless strength. Their senses were sharp, their limbs agile; it was as if they had grown twenty years younger overnight. They even walked with a spring in their step.
"This... this is truly the Immortals manifesting their power! Mo'er, what kind of immortal soup are you giving your mother to drink?" His mother stroked her temples where black hair was growing, so shocked she could barely speak clearly.
Lin Mo merely smiled gently, claiming it was a mortal tonic bestowed by the sect elders, telling them to consume it with peace of mind.
He knew very well that after these five days of conditioning, that Top-grade spirit herb had been completely used up, and all its medicinal power had thoroughly settled into his parents' internal organs.
As long as they didn't meet with an unnatural disaster, the two elders living past a hundred—even a hundred and twenty years—without illness or pain would be incredibly easy.
Of all virtues, filial piety comes first. Having repaid the grace of giving him life, he could finally put down this heavy stone in his heart completely.
On the fifth night, Lin Mo knew it was time for him to leave.
A cultivator's path was destined to be filled with blood and slaughter. He could not linger in the mortal world for too long. Otherwise, once he provoked enemies, it would only bring a catastrophic disaster upon Qingshui Village and his parents.
In the dead of night, deep within the earthen bed's flue in his side room, Lin Mo silently carve out a hidden compartment.
He did not leave spirit stones.
It wasn't that he was stingy. One could say that relying on his ability to enhance spirit stones, he could endlessly exploit the system—enhancing mid-grade stones, exchanging them for a hundred low-grade stones, enhancing those low-grade stones back into mid-grade stones, and exchanging them again.
He fundamentally did not lack spirit stones.
Leaving spirit stones for mortals wasn't repaying a debt of gratitude; it was handing them a death warrant. The moment any passing rogue cultivator or evil cultivator noticed them, his parents would definitely die.
What he left behind were banknotes he had exchanged using a single mid-grade spirit stone at a mortal black market on his way down the mountain.
They amounted to a full five hundred taels of gold and two thousand taels of pure silver, redeemable at any major merchant guild.
To a cultivator, this sum of money could only buy an ordinary low-grade magical artifact. But in the remote Qingshui Village, this was a massive, overflowing fortune enough to buy half the town and ensure his parents and their future generations lived a life free from worries about food and clothing!
Lin Mo stacked these banknotes neatly inside the hidden compartment, covered them with moisture-proof oilcloth, and flawlessly disguised the opening with mud and blue bricks.
He ensured that even if a thief broke into the house, they would absolutely never discover it.
Afterwards, by the moonlight, he left a letter.
The letter contained only a few short sentences, stating that the sect had issued an urgent summons and he had to rush back overnight. He mentioned the mortal wealth left in the hidden compartment and sternly instructed his parents absolutely not to breathe a word of it to outsiders.
Wealth must not be revealed; remember this well, remember this well.
Having done all this, Lin Mo put on the coarse cloth robe he had bought in Qinghe City and placed the bamboo hat back on his head.
Shouldering his deflated little bundle, he stood outside his parents' room. Looking at his sleeping parents through the moonlight filtering through the window lattice, he bent his knees and silently kowtowed three times on the blue flagstone.
"Father, Mother. Your son is leaving. If I manage to achieve something, your son will return to fulfill his filial duties; if I die a sudden death halfway... I hope this gold and silver is enough for you to live out your twilight years in peace."
Lin Mo slowly stood up.
He circulated the Dust Concealment Mantra, suppressing his aura to that of a mortal once more. His figure blurred as he executed the preliminarily mastered "Flowing Fire Steps."
Swoosh—!
With only a slight rustle of the wind, Lin Mo's figure vanished from the yard.
In the dark of the night, a lean figure shuttled through the rural dirt paths like a phantom, his target aimed straight for the west—the primordial mountain range regarded by rogue cultivators as both a forbidden zone and a treasure trove: Black Wind Ridge.
Chapter 16: Fourth Level of Qi Refining, Domineering Fire Seal
The night was as black as ink, and a fierce wind howled past his ears.
Lin Mo's figure was like a phantom shuttling through the darkness. With every tap of his toes against the ground, the spiritual energy of the Flowing Fire Steps within him would erupt with a scorching thrust, carrying him several zhang away in an instant.
Traveling continuously through the night might have exhausted a mortal half to death, but for the current Lin Mo, it was hardly a burden.
He was already a cultivator at the late stage of the third level of Qi Refining. The spiritual energy in his Dantian was abundant and condensed.
Coupled with his continuous tempering of the Flowing Fire Steps in the deep mountains over the past few days, his body had long since adapted to this intensity of spiritual energy circulation.
Whenever the spiritual energy within him was depleted by half, he only needed to slightly slow his pace.
The Top-grade Qi Drawing Mantra would then swallow the free-floating spiritual energy in the surroundings like a giant whale inhaling water, rapidly replenishing his exhaustion.
When the first touch of pale white appeared on the eastern horizon, Lin Mo had already left Qingshui Village far behind, having dashed over two hundred miles.
This was a transitional, desolate mountain range stretching between Qinghe City and Black Wind Ridge.
Lin Mo halted his steps before a towering, precipitous mountain.
Ancient trees reaching into the sky surrounded him. Thick vines coiled around the towering trunks like horned dragons, and the air was thick with the heavy scent of damp earth and rotting leaves.
Morning mist swirled through the forest, and the roars of unknown wild beasts echoing from the deep valleys in the distance could be faintly heard.
This place was desolate and uninhabited. The spiritual energy here was considerably denser than in the mortal settlement of Qinghe City, making it a perfect place to rest.
Lin Mo released his divine sense and found a natural cave halfway up the mountain, concealed by dense shrubs.
He carefully inspected the interior. After confirming there were no traces of demonic beasts occupying it, he moved several large boulders to block most of the entrance, leaving only a small gap for ventilation.
Sitting cross-legged deep within the dry cave, Lin Mo let out a long breath of turbid air.
This long-distance, overnight dash hadn't made him feel fatigued; on the contrary, it had made the spiritual energy stagnant at the peak of the third level of Qi Refining become increasingly active and condensed.
The feeling of fullness—like water overflowing a cup, on the verge of breaking through some sort of shackle—became stronger than ever before.
"My realm has been completely consolidated. It's time to break through."
Lin Mo's eyes narrowed. He took out the enhanced spirit-locking pill bottle from his robes and poured out a round, plump Top-grade Mortal Tier Qi Gathering Pill that emitted a faint, refreshing fragrance.
Without any hesitation, he threw his head back and swallowed the pill.
Boom!
The Top-grade Qi Gathering Pill melted the moment it entered his mouth. In that instant, Lin Mo felt as if he had swallowed an exploding miniature sun. Majestic, flawlessly pure spiritual energy washed madly through his limbs and bones like a breached dam.
If this were an ordinary genius with a Single or Dual Spiritual Root, facing such massive spiritual energy, they would only need to guide it slightly.
Their broad, tough Spiritual Roots would act like a grand avenue, rapidly converting this spiritual energy into their own cultivation, allowing them to easily break through their realm.
But Lin Mo couldn't.
He possessed the most inferior mixed Five-Element Spiritual Roots.
If a Single Spiritual Root genius's conversion channel was a five-lane highway running side-by-side, then his Five-Element Spiritual Roots were a rugged, long-unrepaired single-lane dirt road.
"Ugh, ah—!"
Lin Mo bit down hard on his jaw, a low, agonizing growl tearing from his throat. That majestic medicinal power converged at the entrance of his Spiritual Roots, but because the channel was far too narrow, it simply couldn't pass through smoothly, instantly forming a terrifying "traffic jam."
His meridians bulged high, stretched taut by the violent spiritual energy. A fine layer of blood beads even seeped out from the surface of his skin.
The sensation was as if someone were using a steel needle to pick apart his flesh inch by inch; the agonizing pain felt like it was going to tear his soul apart.
"Get in!"
Lin Mo's eyes instantly became bloodshot. He desperately pushed the Qi Drawing Mantra and the Heavenly Derivation Blazing Fire Mantra.
His powerful divine sense transformed into an invisible, giant hand, forcefully suppressing the rioting spiritual energy. Like squeezing toothpaste, he forced it little by little into his narrow Spiritual Roots.
This was an incredibly cruel and drawn-out process.
Beads of sweat the size of beans, mixed with blood, rolled down his cheeks. His body twitched slightly in agony. But he didn't retreat a single step.
The three years of inhuman torment in the Servant Quarters had long since tempered his willpower to be harder than solid rock.
What was pain? As long as he could become stronger, even if it meant crushing his meridians to powder and rebuilding them, he could endure it!
As time ticked by minute by minute, the massive, flood-like medicinal power was finally drawn into his Dantian bit by agonizing bit under his ruthless suppression.
The domineering nature of the Heavenly Derivation Blazing Fire Mantra was fully displayed at this moment. The spiritual energy entering his Dantian was instantly calcined and purified by the scorching heat, transforming into wisps of pure, dark red Fire-attribute spiritual energy that gathered in the center of his Dantian.
An unknown amount of time passed.
Crack—
A faint sound of shattering seemed to echo in Lin Mo's mind.
The incredibly sturdy barrier standing between the early and mid-stages of Qi Refining finally collapsed under the continuous impact of the accumulating torrent of spiritual energy!
Boom!
An aura several times stronger than before erupted from Lin Mo's body, kicking up a layer of dust within the cave.
Fourth level of Qi Refining!
Lin Mo's eyes snapped open, two almost tangible glints of dark red fire flashing through the pitch-black cave. He exhaled a long breath of turbid air; the breath actually carried a trace of scorching heat.
"Finally stepped into the mid-stage of Qi Refining."
Lin Mo looked down at his hands.
Although the process of breaking through was like taking a stroll through the gates of hell, the Fire-attribute spiritual energy within his Dantian, which was now a full three times thicker, made him feel an unprecedented sense of powerful strength.
He stood up and casually swung a fist. A series of soft, popping sonic booms immediately crackled in the air.
"My cultivation has broken through. Just the right time to test where my current limits lie."
Lin Mo pushed aside the boulder blocking the entrance and walked out of the cave.
The early morning mountain forest was quiet and still. Lin Mo arrived at an open clearing among the trees. He took a deep breath, and the Heavenly Derivation Blazing Fire Mantra abruptly circulated. Majestic spiritual energy surged toward his right hand like a runaway wild horse.
"Heavenly Derivation Fire Seal!"
Vvvmmm—!
The air instantly distorted. A fire seal, only the size of a soybean and entirely deep black-red, instantly formed at his fingertips.
Compared to when he was at the third level of Qi Refining, the speed of condensation this time was a full twice as fast. Furthermore, the fire seal's volume was smaller, its color deeper, and the internalized aura of destruction was even more terrifying!
With a casual wave of his hand, the black-red fire seal silently sank into a massive boulder over a dozen paces away.
Sizzle—
Just like last time, there was no explosion, only a teeth-aching sound of dissolution. Within three breaths, the massive boulder melted from the inside out into a puddle of scalding, dark red magma.
"This strike consumed roughly thirty percent of my total spiritual energy," Lin Mo calculated silently in his heart.
This meant that, in his peak condition, he could consecutively execute three full-power "Heavenly Derivation Fire Seals." After that, he would be completely exhausted, reduced to a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.
"Three times... that's enough for a trump card. However..."
Lin Mo's gaze fell upon an ancient Ironwood tree nearby, its trunk thick enough to require three people to wrap their arms around it, its branches and leaves flourishing.
"I also want to see what it would look like if this fire seal wasn't completely compressed, or if it merely grazed an inanimate object."
He raised his hand again.
This time, he only mobilized ten percent of his spiritual energy and didn't compress it to the absolute limit. It transformed into a streak of dark red flowing fire that he casually struck against the thick trunk of the Ironwood tree.
Boom!
This time, it wasn't a silent melting. The instant the dark red flame touched the trunk, it seemed to come alive. With a loud boom, it burst into a conflagration, instantly climbing rapidly up the trunk!
Ironwood trees were renowned for their hardness and fire resistance, but in the face of this dark red flame, it was like dry straw doused in kerosene. Not only did the bark instantly carbonize, but even the inner wood crackled as it burned.
The fire spread incredibly fast.
In just a few breaths, more than half of the ancient tree was engulfed in a sea of black-red fire. The flame was incredibly domineering; not only did it burn the wood, but Lin Mo could even feel that the moisture and free-floating spiritual energy in the surrounding air were being greedily devoured by the flame to fuel its burn!
"Not good, the fire is too big. If it starts a forest fire, I'll be in trouble."
Lin Mo's expression changed.
Although this was a desolate mountain, causing a large-scale forest fire and creating too much of a commotion would likely attract passing rogue cultivators or sect patrols.
He immediately circulated his spiritual energy and ran to a clear mountain stream at the edge of the clearing.
His hands formed the most basic "Water Drawing Spell" he had learned in the Servant Quarters.
Splash!
A large volume of clear stream water was drawn up by him. Like a water python, it crashed heavily onto the burning Ironwood tree.
However, a scalp-numbing scene unfolded.
Hiss, hiss, hiss—!
The moment the massive amount of stream water came into contact with the dark red flame, it had absolutely no fire-extinguishing effect! Instead, upon contact, it was instantly vaporized by the terrifyingly extreme heat!
A sky full of white steam billowed up, obscuring his vision, but the dark red flame continued to burn fiercely through the thick white fog. The fire hadn't been weakened in the slightest!
"Mortal water can't extinguish it at all?"
Lin Mo took two steps back in shock. This was a true, raging fire, and the water he had just dumped on it weighed at least a hundred pounds, yet it was vaporized clean in an instant!
The flame produced by an Earth Tier Fire-attribute technique was actually domineering to the point of ignoring the mutual generation and restriction of the Five Elements!
The massive fire burned for nearly half an hour.
The flame didn't spread to the ordinary grass and trees around it.
As if possessing a life of its own, it clung stubbornly to that Ironwood tree, madly squeezing dry every ounce of spiritual essence and moisture within it.
Finally, with a muffled roar, the ancient Ironwood tree, dozens of zhang tall, crashed down, turning into a pile of black-red, glass-like ash. Even the solid bedrock beneath the ancient tree was burned into a glassy crater several feet deep.
A gentle breeze blew past, and the scorched crater still emitted astonishing waves of heat.
Lin Mo stood rooted to the spot, speechless for a long time, only feeling a continuous chill run down his spine.
If a wisp of this flame touched a person... even if they jumped into a river, this fire would cling to their bones like maggots, not stopping until it had burned their flesh, meridians, and even their bone marrow into glassy slag, right?
"What an incredible Heavenly Derivation Blazing Fire Mantra... No wonder the manual said it is 'utterly Yang, utterly fierce; capable of incinerating rivers and boiling seas.'"
Lin Mo took a deep breath, burying the shock deep within his eyes.
Chapter 17: Storage Treasure, Demon Subjugation City
Traveling continuously for days, he was covered in the dust of the road.
During the day, Lin Mo utilized the Flowing Fire Steps to travel through the desolate wilderness and dense forests.
At night, he would find a hidden spot to meditate and regulate his breathing, consolidating his newly broken-through fourth-level Qi Refining cultivation.
Five days later, at the very edge of his line of sight, a majestic city resembling a massive black beast crouching at the end of the plains finally appeared.
And about fifty miles behind this giant city lay that perilous land resembling a black chasm stretching endlessly for thousands of miles—Black Wind Ridge.
This city was named "Demon Subjugation City."
It was the largest gathering place for cultivators within a radius of several thousand miles, and the closest one to Black Wind Ridge.
Lin Mo halted his steps in a dense forest about three miles away from the city gates. He took a deep breath and skillfully circulated the Top-grade Mortal Tier Dust Concealment Mantra.
He firmly retracted the massive spiritual energy fluctuations of his fourth-level Qi Refining cultivation, even masking the sharp edge of his blood vitality. To the outside world, he only displayed the weak, impure aura of the early first level of Qi Refining.
Then, he pulled down his battered bamboo hat, smoothed out his dust-covered coarse clothes, and, looking like the lowest, most destitute rogue cultivator from the countryside, blended into the flow of people entering the city.
The walls of Demon Subjugation City were dozens of zhang high, built entirely of pitch-black obsidian, with the faint flowing light of formations shimmering across their surface.
The security at the city gates was extreme. Two full rows of guards clad in standard-issue black magical robes were conducting inspections. The lead guard commander possessed a deep, heavy aura—he was unmistakably an expert at the seventh level of Qi Refining.
Compared to a small city like Qinghe City where mortals and cultivators mixed, Demon Subjugation City was a true frontier stronghold of the cultivation world. Even the air was permeated with the scent of slaughter and blood.
After paying an entrance fee of ten copper coins, Lin Mo followed the crowd into the city.
Why did he need to pay an entrance fee? Because he didn't have a travel permit.
In essence, he was an undocumented person here; it was good enough that they even let him in.
The streets inside the city were broad, lined with shops on both sides, and the sounds of hawking wares were incessant. Over ninety percent of the pedestrians coming and going were cultivators, each exuding a fierce aura and bearing various sword and knife scars.
They were clearly all ruthless characters who spent their years licking blood from the edge of a blade in Black Wind Ridge.
Lin Mo hunched his shoulders and stuck close to the base of the walls, his gaze observing his surroundings without a change in expression.
He was currently facing a very awkward problem—he didn't have a weapon.
That enhanced, iron-cleaving inferior woodcutting ax had been left behind in a hidden rock crevice in the back mountain when he left the Azure Cloud Sect.
Firstly, the ax bore the unified mark of the Servant Quarters. Carrying it would easily expose his identity as an Azure Cloud Sect servant, inviting unnecessary interrogation.
Secondly, walking around the cultivation world carrying a woodcutting ax was simply too eye-catching; it completely contradicted his desire to remain low-key and hidden.
In the cultivation world, the sword was the most common and inconspicuous weapon. Out of ten rogue cultivators, eight carried swords on their backs.
"I need to get a handy longsword first, then buy some miasma-cleansing pills and dry rations before I can enter the mountains."
Having made up his mind, Lin Mo walked down the main street for a bit and chose a medium-sized weapon shop named the "Hundred Weapons Pavilion" to enter.
The shop displayed swords, spears, sabers, and halberds; everything from mortal weapons to Low-grade magical artifacts was available. Lin Mo was looking down, sorting through a pile of mortal iron longswords, when out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly caught sight of a burly, bearded man covered in blood standing before the counter.
With a heavy thud, the man slammed the corpse of an Ironclad Rhinoceros, half the size of a man, onto the floor.
The Ironclad Rhinoceros was massive, yet Lin Mo clearly remembered that when this burly man walked through the door just moments ago, he was completely empty-handed!
His heart jolted. His gaze locked onto a dusty, palm-sized cloth bag hanging from the man's waist. He saw the burly man reach out and brush his hand over the cloth bag, and the Ironclad Rhinoceros corpse on the floor instantly vanished into thin air, having been collected inside.
"A mustard seed storing Mount Sumeru?!"
Lin Mo's pupils contracted slightly, his heart skipping a heavy beat.
During his three years as a servant in the Azure Cloud Sect, he had only heard rumors that those lofty Inner Sect elders, Inner Sect disciples, and personal disciples possessed legendary storage magical treasures containing their own internal space. But a bottom-tier servant like him had absolutely no right to see one with his own eyes.
So, things like this actually existed in the world!
Waiting until the bearded man finished his transaction and left, Lin Mo put on a look of curiosity and envy. He sidled up to the counter, suppressed his voice, and offered the shopkeeper an ingratiating smile.
"Shopkeeper, that bag hanging from the senior's waist just now... could it be a legendary storage treasure? Does the shop sell such divine items?"
The shopkeeper, a shrewd fat man, glanced at Lin Mo's first-level Qi Refining, impoverished, and destitute getup.
He didn't outright chase him away, but offered a fake smile and said, "You have a bit of an eye, little rogue cultivator.
That's right, that's a storage bag. What, you want to buy one?"
"I want to broaden my horizons... I wonder what the price is..." Lin Mo deliberately rubbed his hands together, acting nervous and cramped.
The shopkeeper held up one finger and wagged it. "The most basic storage bag has an internal space of about one cubic meter. It's not worth much, just one thousand low-grade spirit stones.
If you think that's too small, we also have storage rings. Those are Low-grade Spirit Tier magical artifacts with an internal space of a full ten cubic meters. The price? Five thousand low-grade spirit stones. No haggling."
One thousand! Five thousand!
Lin Mo gasped.
In Qinghe City, a Top-grade Qi Gathering Pill had only sold for two hundred and fifty low-grade spirit stones. The price of these storage treasures was simply an astronomical figure for an ordinary rogue cultivator in the early to mid-stages of Qi Refining. No wonder that burly man just now could afford one; he was an expert at the tenth level of Qi Refining.
That burly man hadn't deliberately concealed his aura, so Lin Mo had compared his aura to Zhang Long's; it was only stronger, not weaker.
"Too... too expensive. I can't afford it, I can't afford it."
Lin Mo waved his hands repeatedly, his face turning pale. He didn't even bother picking out a sword anymore, turning and fleeing the "Hundred Weapons Pavilion" as if running for his life.
It wasn't until he had walked two streets away and turned into a deserted dead-end alley that the terrified, impoverished expression on Lin Mo's face instantly vanished, replaced by an uncontrollable glint in his eyes.
A thousand low-grade spirit stones for a storage bag was indeed very expensive.
But did he, Lin Mo, lack spirit stones?
What he lacked was simply the process of turning stones from trash into treasure!
With a storage treasure, he would no longer have to carry that shriveled bundle that drew sideways glances. And in the future, he wouldn't have to worry about having nowhere to put the demonic beast materials he hunted or the spirit herbs he picked in Black Wind Ridge!
Lin Mo immediately found a rather dilapidated mortal inn in a remote alley in the southern part of the city and booked the innermost, cheapest room.
Entering the room, he meticulously inspected the doors and windows, using strips of rag to completely plug all the cracks.
Confirming that absolutely no divine sense or line of sight could probe inside, he finally sat cross-legged on the wooden plank bed.
He untied the bundle from his body and dug out his accumulated life savings from the very bottom—he currently had over 80 low-grade spirit stones and 9 mid-grade spirit stones on him.
Lin Mo took a deep breath.
"With my current fourth-level Qi Refining cultivation, my spiritual energy reserves have multiplied several times over compared to before. Enhancing these low-grade spirit stones shouldn't be as strenuous as last time."
Lin Mo formed hand seals, closed his eyes, and silently commanded in his heart:
"Enhance!"
Vvvmmm—!
Wisps of pure Fire-attribute spiritual energy were drawn from his Dantian, transforming into invisible rivulets that precisely covered the low-grade spirit stones before him.
There was no blinding light, no violent spiritual energy fluctuations. Under the control of Lin Mo's willpower, everything was undergoing a silent transformation.
It took less than the time it takes an incense stick to burn for Lin Mo to slowly open his eyes. The spiritual energy within his body had been depleted by about forty percent, still within a tolerable range.
And the 80-plus low-grade spirit stones before him—originally dusty and containing impure spiritual energy—had now entirely transformed into pristine white, spiritually radiant mid-grade spirit stones!
Over 80 mid-grade spirit stones!
According to the fixed one-to-one-hundred exchange rate in the cultivation world, these 80-plus mid-grade spirit stones were equivalent to a full 8,000-plus low-grade spirit stones!
"That's enough."
A satisfied arc curled the corners of Lin Mo's mouth. He tucked 60 mid-grade spirit stones securely close to his body to serve as the "massive fortune" for his upcoming purchases. The remaining spirit stones and pills were re-wrapped and hidden in his robes.
For the sake of safety, Lin Mo didn't rush out the door. He first meditated in the inn for an hour, relying on the Qi Drawing Mantra to completely restore his depleted spiritual energy to its peak state.
Then, he took off the battered bamboo hat and dug out a piece of coarse black cloth from his bundle. He wrapped it tightly around most of his face, revealing only a pair of cold, indifferent eyes.
At the same time, he used the Dust Concealment Mantra to slightly release his originally disguised first-level Qi Refining aura, maintaining it at the level of the early third level of Qi Refining.
A first-level Qi Refining cultivator taking out a massive sum of spirit stones was like a three-year-old child carrying a gold brick in the street—it was courting death. But a third-level Qi Refining cultivator, in a place like Demon Subjugation City, while not high-level, was still considered a normal rogue cultivator with barely enough ability to protect themselves.
Taking out a life's savings to buy a storage ring wouldn't seem so glaringly out of place.
Having finished his disguise, Lin Mo left the inn and headed straight for the city center.
He didn't return to the "Hundred Weapons Pavilion" from before. Instead, he chose the largest shop with the deepest background in Demon Subjugation City—the Myriad Treasures Pavilion.
Although items in large establishments like this were expensive, their reputation was excellent. They would absolutely not stoop to murder and robbery for a mere few thousand spirit stones.
Walking into the Myriad Treasures Pavilion, Lin Mo ignored the dazzling array of goods surrounding him and walked straight to the counter.
His voice was hoarse and low, carrying a cold indifference that warned strangers to keep their distance: "I want a Low-grade Spirit Tier storage ring, and a hundred-refined fine steel sword."
The clerk responsible for reception was slightly taken aback. He glanced at Lin Mo. Seeing that although he was only at the third level of Qi Refining, his tone was absolute, the clerk didn't dare to be negligent. He immediately brought out a tray.
On the tray lay an archaic black iron ring and a three-foot longsword attached to an antique bronze scabbard.
"Customer, the storage ring contains ten cubic meters of space and costs five thousand low-grade spirit stones. This Cold Light Sword, although it has no tier, is refined from steel a hundred times over and cuts iron like mud; its selling price is fifty low-grade spirit stones.
What do you think?"
Lin Mo didn't waste words. He reached directly into his robes, pulled out 60 crystalline white mid-grade spirit stones, and slapped them onto the counter with a smack.
"Exchange all the excess spirit stones into low-grade spirit stones for me."
"M... Mid-grade spirit stones?" The clerk's eyes lit up, his attitude instantly becoming even more respectful. "The customer is straightforward! I will settle this for you immediately!"
Mid-grade spirit stones were hot commodities in Demon Subjugation City, and large shops especially loved collecting them.
In no time, the clerk brought out the storage ring and the Cold Light Sword, saying respectfully,
"Customer, please inspect this. I have already placed the 950 low-grade spirit stones into the storage ring. Please count them."
"No need to count. I trust you have at least this much reputation."
...
With the transaction complete, Lin Mo hung the Cold Light Sword at his waist, picked up the black iron storage ring, turned, and walked briskly out of the Myriad Treasures Pavilion, swiftly vanishing into the crowded flow of people outside.
He didn't linger on the street for a moment. Twisting and turning through the alleys, he only returned to the cheap room in the remote inn after confirming there was no tail from the Myriad Treasures Pavilion following him.
Locking the door dead.
Lin Mo couldn't wait. He bit his fingertip, dropped a bead of fresh blood onto the black iron storage ring, and then divided a sliver of divine sense to probe inside.
Vvvmmm—
His vision suddenly opened up. A misty, static space, over two meters long, wide, and high, appeared in his divine sense perception.
"Collect!"
With a thought from Lin Mo, the heavy bundle in his hand, the pill bottle containing the Top-grade Qi Gathering Pills, and all the remaining mid-grade spirit stones were instantly sucked inside.
Looking at his completely empty hands, Lin Mo felt a wave of relaxation wash over his entire body, as if a massive mountain had been lifted from his shoulders.
Chapter 18: Ten Thousand Cubic Meter Ring, The Sword Hides Its Edge
Demon Subjugation City, inside a cheap room of a remote inn.
The cracks in the doors and windows were tightly plugged. The room was dim and silent, with only the steady rhythm of Lin Mo's breathing softly rising and falling in the air.
He toyed with the black iron storage ring he had just bought for five thousand low-grade spirit stones, a flash of fiery passion crossing his eyes.
Ten cubic meters of space might be enough for an ordinary Qi Refining rogue cultivator to store all their worldly possessions, but in Lin Mo's eyes, this tiny space was far from worthy of his upcoming plans.
Lin Mo took a deep breath, adjusting the spiritual energy within his body to its peak state. Gripping the black iron ring with both hands, he focused all his willpower:
"Enhance!"
This ring was inherently a Low-grade Spirit Tier magical artifact; its foundation was vastly superior to mortal iron. The instant the thought formed, Lin Mo felt his Dantian violently convulse.
It consumed nearly eighty percent of his massive spiritual energy at the fourth level of Qi Refining before it barely came to a halt.
Vvvmmm—!
An extremely obscure yet incomparably profound dark gleam flowed across the surface of the storage ring.
The originally somewhat rough surface of the ring became as unfathomable as a black hole. Even the magical artifact's own intrinsic fluctuations were completely internalized.
Dividing a sliver of his divine sense, Lin Mo couldn't wait to probe inside. Immediately, his entire body froze stiff.
"This... this is too exaggerated..."
The initially misty space, which was only ten cubic meters in size, had actually expanded thousands of times over!
The length and width were a full thirty zhang (about a thousand square meters), and the height had reached an astonishing three zhang (ten meters)!
How was this still a storage ring? This was simply the equivalent of forcefully stuffing the interior space of a massive, luxurious mansion inside! A staggering volume of a full ten thousand cubic meters!
At the same time, a brand-new line of text surfaced in his consciousness:
[Item: Sumeru Hidden Moon Ring]
* [Quality: Top-grade Spirit Tier!]
* [Traits: Internal space of 10,000 cubic meters. Includes the 'Hidden Origin' array, allowing it to merge into the host's flesh and blood. Absolutely undetectable by the divine sense of cultivators at the Nascent Soul stage and below.]
* [Status: Temporarily Unenhancable. Current Enhancements: 1]
* [Cost for Next Enhancement: 100% of total Qi capacity at the early stage of Golden Core.]
"Merge into flesh and blood?!"
Lin Mo's heart pounded wildly. Following the newly acquired understanding in his mind, he immediately forced out a drop of heart's blood onto the ring.
As the black iron ring absorbed the essence blood, it seemed to come alive. Transforming into a streak of black light, it drilled directly into the skin of Lin Mo's left index finger.
There was no sensation of a foreign object at all. Looking from the outside, his finger was as smooth and pristine as before, without even a trace of a scar!
Yet, with a mere thought from Lin Mo, the massive space of ten thousand cubic meters would open for him at any time.
"With this concealment function, even if I stand in front of Foundation Establishment or even Golden Core old monsters, they won't even dream of discovering that I'm carrying a storage ring!"
Lin Mo let out a long sigh of relief. His biggest hidden danger was finally resolved.
Originally, he had planned to thread it on a string and wear it around his neck, but even that wasn't entirely safe. Now he was spared the trouble; it was completely invisible.
He didn't rush to do anything else. Instead, he immediately sat cross-legged in meditation. Relying on the terrifying efficiency of the Top-grade Mortal Tier Qi Drawing Mantra, his depleted spiritual energy filled his Dantian once more after the better part of an hour.
Next was his weapon.
Lin Mo drew the Cold Light Sword he had just bought.
The blade was forged from hundred-refined fine steel. To mortals, it was already a sharp weapon that cut iron like mud. But in the life-and-death struggles between cultivators, mortal iron without spiritual energy enhancement could easily be snapped by spells or magical artifacts.
"Enhance."
This time, it only drew ten percent of Lin Mo's spiritual energy.
The longsword let out a crisp hum in his hand. The originally silver-white blade was instantly covered in a faint layer of ice-blue frost.
The impurities along the edge were thoroughly purged, rendering it as thin as a cicada's wing, gleaming with cold light and radiating an oppressive sharpness.
[Item: Cold Light Sword]
* [Quality: Top-grade Mortal Tier!]
* [Traits: Cuts falling hair, micro-armor piercing, 99% spiritual energy conductivity.]
* [Status: Unenhancable.]
With a casual wave of his hand, Lin Mo swept the blade across the corner of the hard solid wood table in front of him. There was no sense of resistance whatsoever.
As if cutting through a block of tofu, the corner of the solid wood table slid off silently, the cut surface as smooth as a mirror.
"Good sword! Paired with my Heavenly Derivation Fire Seal and Flowing Fire Steps, in close-quarters combat, I absolutely fear no one within the same realm!"
Lin Mo sheathed the sword and stored the Cold Light Sword into the storage ring hidden within his flesh.
As for it being unenhancable, Lin Mo felt it was quite reasonable. It was likely because the base material couldn't keep up. Unlike the deduction of a cultivation technique, the material itself set a fixed qualitative limit.
Now possessing a massive space of ten thousand cubic meters, and with the storage ring able to perfectly isolate spiritual energy fluctuations, Lin Mo no longer had to worry about a massive pile of spirit stones causing their aura to leak.
He piled the 950 low-grade spirit stones he had just received as change onto the bed, forming a dusty little mountain.
"I'll keep 50 low-grade spirit stones for daily, trivial expenses to serve as a smokescreen. The remaining 900 will all be enhanced into mid-grade spirit stones!"
He did as he said.
This was a massive, extremely exhausting project. Even though he was now at the fourth level of Qi Refining, enhancing a massive batch of spirit stones at once still rapidly depleted his spiritual energy.
Drawing spiritual energy, enhancing, exhausting his strength, meditating to recover, enhancing again...
Lin Mo was like a tireless man of iron, sitting blankly in this cramped cheap room for a full half-day.
It wasn't until the sun dipped to the west and the room turned completely dark that this "turning stone into gold" project finally concluded.
In a corner of his storage space, the 900 low-grade spirit stones had vanished, replaced by 900 pristine white, translucent mid-grade spirit stones radiating dense, pure spiritual energy!
Combined with the ones he had left over from before, he now held nearly a thousand mid-grade spirit stones in his hands! This was a terrifyingly massive fortune worth one hundred thousand low-grade spirit stones!
Let alone the Qi Refining stage, even an ordinary Foundation Establishment rogue cultivator might not be able to produce this much liquid cash if they liquidated their entire estate.
Lin Mo casually picked up a mid-grade spirit stone and focused his mind to probe it.
[Item: Mid-grade Spirit Stone]
* [Quality: Mid-grade]
* [Status: Enhancable. Current Enhancements: 1]
* [Cost to Enhance: 3% of total Qi capacity at the 4th level of Qi Refining.]
"Three percent..."
A strong pulse of impulse flashed deep within Lin Mo's eyes. With his current cultivation, he only needed to consume three percent of his spiritual energy to enhance this mid-grade spirit stone into a legendary "High-grade Spirit Stone"!
A single high-grade spirit stone contained spiritual energy a hundred times purer than a mid-grade one; they were the absolute top-tier materials used by Golden Core patriarchs for cultivation, array formation, and pill refinement!
Lin Mo's fingers gripping the spirit stone tightened slightly, his knuckles turning white, but he ultimately took a deep breath and forcefully severed the thought of continuing the enhancement.
"No! A snake trying to swallow an elephant will only choke on its own greed. Mid-grade spirit stones can still be spent in Demon Subjugation City. I have no use for high-grade spirit stones right now, nor do I dare take them out. With my current strength, the moment they appear in the world, it will trigger a bloodbath."
Forcefully suppressing the greed in his heart, he stored the 900 mid-grade spirit stones and the 50 low-grade spirit stones all at once into the massive space of the Sumeru Hidden Moon Ring.
After all, the spiritual energy contained within mid-grade spirit stones was dense enough already. Even if he enhanced a high-grade spirit stone, it would just be tossed to the side, completely unusable out of fear.
Although Lin Mo had never seen a high-grade spirit stone, inferring from the mid-grade stones, the moment a high-grade stone was enhanced, before he even had time to withdraw it into his storage ring, the overflowing spiritual energy would instantly multiply the ambient Qi within a ten-zhang radius several times over.
That completely contradicted his philosophy of acting low-key.
Having done all this, Lin Mo fished out a newly bought, ordinary clay pill bottle from the corner of his bundle.
"Enhance."
With a slight exhalation of spiritual energy, the ordinary clay pill bottle instantly became as dense as jade.
A spirit-locking glaze formed at the mouth, transforming it into a High-grade Mortal Tier "Basic Spirit-Locking Pill Bottle."
Lin Mo focused his gaze on it; it could still be enhanced.
"Enhance!"
Chapter 19: Foundation Establishment Cultivator
Vvvmmm—!
Accompanied by a low shout from Lin Mo, another surge of spiritual energy was rapidly drawn from his Dantian, flowing like a trickling stream into the pill bottle in his hand that was already beginning to resemble jade.
There was no blinding light, but under Lin Mo's watchful eyes, the exterior of the pill bottle underwent a visible transformation.
The body of the bottle, which was merely as warm and smooth as jade moments ago, actually became slightly translucent. Silver, naturally occurring veins resembling flowing clouds surfaced organically across its exterior, exuding a quaint, ancient glimmer.
[Item: Flawless Cloud-Veined Bottle]
* [Quality: Top-grade Mortal Tier!]
* [Traits: Perfect spirit locking. Not a single trace of pill aura will leak. Capable of warming and nourishing the spiritual essence of pills.]
* [Status: Unenhancable.]
"Good stuff. Now I don't have to worry about medicinal power degrading or auras leaking out."
Lin Mo nodded in satisfaction.
He carefully opened the inner lining of his clothes and took out the bundle of ruined medicinal slag wrapped in five full layers of oilcloth.
This was the Foundation Establishment Pill slag he had pilfered from the Azure Cloud Sect's Alchemy Pavilion.
It contained not only the residual medicinal power of century-old Dew Condensation Flowers and three-century-old Foundation Establishment Grass, but even the incredibly precious Marrow Cleansing Flower.
Lin Mo stared at the scorched black slag, his eyes flickering, but he ultimately chose not to enhance it.
"The tier of this item is too high, and the medicinal power is too fierce. With my current cultivation, even if I enhanced it into a Top-grade Foundation Establishment Pill, forcefully swallowing it would only result in my body exploding and dying. Furthermore, once enhanced, even with the Flawless Cloud-Veined Bottle, the pill fragrance and spiritual energy fluctuations that would leak out in the split second it takes to put it inside would be enough to drive all the cultivators around this inn completely mad."
He knew very well what to prioritize.
Good steel must be used on the blade's edge. This Foundation Establishment Pill slag had to be saved for when he eventually attempted to break through to the Foundation Establishment stage, and only after finding an absolutely safe place for secluded cultivation.
After properly placing the slag into the bottle and plugging it tightly, Lin Mo, with a thought, stored it preciously into the deepest part of the Sumeru Hidden Moon Ring.
"Next, I need to prepare supplies for entering the mountains."
Lin Mo pushed open the door. With a flash, his figure blended into the descending night of Demon Subjugation City.
Black Wind Ridge stretched for thousands of miles. Inside, miasma hung thick, and venomous insects ran rampant.
Once a cultivator ventured deep within, starting a fire to cook would not only expose their position but also attract demonic beasts with sharp senses of smell. Therefore, Inedia Pills, Antidote Pills, and pills that replenished Qi and blood were the fundamental lifelines for rogue cultivators entering the mountains.
Lin Mo's initial calculations were very shrewd—he wanted to go to the backyards of major medicine shops or rogue cultivator stalls to buy the medicinal slag and ruined pills discarded by others at a low price.
After all, back in the Azure Cloud Sect, he had relied on his ability to turn decay into magic, transforming worthless dregs into Top-grade Qi Gathering Pills.
He took a stroll through the market in the southern part of the city and chose a rather bustling shop named "Hundred Herbs Hall" to enter.
A clerk was standing behind the counter calculating accounts. Seeing a customer arrive, he immediately came forward.
"Customer, are you looking to buy some pills for entering the mountains?"
Lin Mo pulled his bamboo hat down low, rubbed his hands together somewhat nervously, and asked tentatively, "Little brother, may I ask if your esteemed shop has any ruined pills from failed refinements or leftover medicinal slag for sale? I can pay with spirit stones."
Hearing this, the smile on the clerk's face instantly froze. Then, his eyes widened dramatically, and he looked Lin Mo up and down as if looking at a madman.
"What? Ruined pills? Medicinal slag?!" The clerk's voice instantly shot up an octave. With a face full of disgust, he scolded loudly, "Do you think we are a garbage dump here? How could we possibly have such unlucky trash!"
This shout drew the attention of the other rogue cultivators browsing for pills in the shop.
Lin Mo pretended to be embarrassed, repeatedly cupping his hands in apology.
"Please quell your anger, little brother. I am merely a newcomer here and tight on funds. I was thinking there might still be a sliver of residual medicinal properties in the ruined pills, and I could take them back to make do..."
"Go, go, go! If you want to court death, don't die at the entrance of our Hundred Herbs Hall!"
The clerk waved his hands repeatedly as if swatting a fly, cursing irritably.
"Those ruined pills and medicinal slag are full of violent medicinal properties and lethal pill toxins! Even a dog would get its intestines pierced and stomach rotted if it ate them! The slag our shopkeeper ruins has long been dumped into the moat outside the city as waste soil! Hurry up and get lost, stop being an eyesore here and ruining our shop's reputation!"
Amidst the jeers and pointing of the surrounding rogue cultivators, Lin Mo could only retreat from the medicine shop in disgrace.
He proceeded to ask several rogue cultivator stalls in a row, but the situation was largely the same. The stall owners either looked at him like he was an idiot or directly cursed at him to get lost.
"It seems the path of picking up cheap, discarded slag is a dead end. I can only settle for the next best thing."
Lin Mo ducked into a dark alley, helplessly pulling his bamboo hat lower.
In the cultivation world, ruined pills and medicinal slag were indeed out-and-out "poison." Pill toxins accumulated, and medicinal properties were chaotic. If a cultivator ate them, light consequences meant damaged meridians; heavy consequences meant death.
The Azure Cloud Sect had dedicated servants to clean them up, but in a perilous border town like Demon Subjugation City where all sorts of shady characters gathered, absolutely no one would keep such harmful things around to sell.
Fortunately, he was now wealthy and imposing. With nearly a thousand mid-grade spirit stones lying in his Sumeru Hidden Moon Ring, he didn't care at all about the meager silver required to buy pills.
Even so, Lin Mo still displayed an outrageous level of caution.
He didn't go to large establishments like the Myriad Treasures Pavilion for bulk purchases. Instead, he specifically chose small medicine halls and rogue cultivator stalls tucked away in street corners and alleys.
In the eastern part of the city, he spoke with a hoarse accent and walked into a dilapidated general store.
"Shopkeeper, give me two bottles of the most inferior low-grade Inedia Pills."
The shopkeeper glanced at him and tossed out two crude medicine bottles.
"Two low-grade spirit stones. I'll say the ugly words upfront: eating too many of these low-grade Inedia Pills will damage your spleen and stomach. If you eat them and get sick, this shop won't take responsibility."
"I understand, I understand." Lin Mo tossed down the spirit stones, took the medicine, and left.
After turning into a dead-end alley, he turned his outer robe inside out, hunched his back, and transformed into a decrepit old rogue cultivator. In the western part of the city, he bought three bottles of low-grade Blood Replenishing Pills.
When he reached the southern part of the city, he straightened his back, slightly released his aura, and pretended to be an inexperienced, reckless youth.
He haggled with a dark-faced, burly man running a street stall: "Big brother, give me a discount on these low-grade Antidote Pills and Qi Replenishing Pills, I'll take them all."
"Alright, alright, seeing as you're pleasing to the eye, kid, take them!" The burly man collected the spirit stones and happily handed over the goods.
Changing through six or seven entire identities and running to over a dozen different shops, Lin Mo finally purchased all the necessary supplies. The entire process was as smooth as flowing water.
Each transaction was merely a dozen or so low-grade spirit stones; in Demon Subjugation City, which swallowed and spat out oceans of resources, it didn't even make a splash.
Returning to the inn, Lin Mo immediately locked the door dead and poured all the purchased low-grade pills onto the wooden table.
The dusty pills emitted a pungent herbal smell. Their surfaces were pitted and pockmarked, containing an immense amount of impurities.
If an ordinary cultivator ate too many of these low-grade pills, the pill toxins would accumulate more and more within their body, ultimately ruining their path of cultivation.
But in Lin Mo's eyes, these were all uncarved, supreme top-grade treasures.
"Enhance!"
Lin Mo formed hand seals, and the Fire-attribute spiritual energy within his body surged out like drawing silk from a cocoon.
Accompanied by repeated cycles of spiritual energy depletion and meditative recovery, the pills on the table began to undergo a complete metamorphosis.
The originally shriveled low-grade Inedia Pills became round and plump, emitting a faint, refreshing fragrance. Just a single pill could ensure one's Qi and blood remained abundant for a month without feeling hunger.
The low-grade Blood Replenishing Pills shed their foul, bloody stench, transforming into entirely deep red, Top-grade pills resembling blood diamonds, capable of scabbing over and healing bone-deep external wounds in the span of a few breaths.
The low-grade Antidote Pills turned into translucent, ice-blue orbs, sufficient to neutralize ninety-nine percent of the malignant miasma in the outer perimeter of Black Wind Ridge.
And the low-grade Qi Replenishing Pills had their spiritual essence completely internalized, their medicinal power turning purely refined, sufficient to instantly replenish nearly half of his spiritual energy at the fourth level of Qi Refining.
Having kept busy for most of the night, Lin Mo categorized all the metamorphosed Top-grade pills and placed them into the previously enhanced pill bottles, then swept them all into the Sumeru Hidden Moon Ring.
With this, all preparations for entering the mountains were thoroughly complete!
The next morning, before the morning mist had dissipated.
At the north gate of Demon Subjugation City, on the mandatory path leading to Black Wind Ridge, many rogue cultivators had already partnered up to travel together.
Lin Mo was still dressed in his dusty coarse clothes, the enhanced Top-grade Mortal Tier Cold Light Sword hanging at his waist, his bamboo hat pulled down extremely low.
He circulated the Dust Concealment Mantra to its absolute limit, outwardly displaying only the minuscule aura of the early third level of Qi Refining. Like an inconspicuous shadow, he silently blended into the flow of people exiting the city.
Leaving the city gates, the bluestone paved road beneath his feet was soon replaced by a rugged, muddy wilderness dirt path.
He walked another thirty miles.
The surrounding vegetation began to grow dense and bizarre. A faint layer of grayish-green mist gradually permeated the air—this was the natural miasma that lingered year-round in the outer perimeter of Black Wind Ridge.
The groups of rogue cultivators traveling together soon scattered in twos and threes, each plunging into different dense forest paths to seek their fortunes.
Lin Mo raised his head. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of several dazzling rainbows occasionally streaking across the horizon; those were high-level cultivators flying through the air on their magical artifacts.
"What a pity. If I could step into the Foundation Establishment stage and become a true Foundation Establishment great cultivator, I would be able to briefly fly through the void and ride the wind. Traveling tens of thousands of miles a day would be a breeze; there would be no need to endure such bitter hardship, burying my head and rushing on foot like this."
Lin Mo recalled his day-and-night dashing on his own two legs over the past few days, a flash of unconcealed envy and yearning crossing his eyes.
After sighing, he gathered his thoughts. He didn't choose the broad main paths; instead, with a flash of his figure, he picked an overgrown, dark beast trail that was rarely trodden, and plunged headlong into it.
The moment he entered the dense forest, the light instantly dimmed. Towering ancient trees blotted out the sky and sun. It was so quiet all around that he could only hear the rustling of his own footsteps on the rotting leaves.
Lin Mo didn't rush to use the Flowing Fire Steps to delve deeper. Instead, he maintained a steady pace, moving forward while remaining vigilant against demonic beasts that might pounce out at any moment.
After venturing about a dozen miles deep into the forest.
Lin Mo, who had been moving forward, paused his footsteps almost imperceptibly.