Huangfu Qing lifted his chin. His gaze swept across his few disciples and finally settled on An Nuan.
"An Nuan, you'll lead your Junior Brothers and Junior Sisters to this martial arts competition," said Huangfu Qing.
"Yes, Master!" An Nuan nodded.
Huangfu Qing gave a few more words of advice, waved his hand and said, "Alright, you may all leave now!"
Everyone bowed and left the hall.
Outside the hall, An Nuan spoke to Su Mo and the other two who accompanied him. "Junior Brothers, Junior Sisters, let's meet the morning of the competition at the square. It is five days from now. Then we can head to the competition together, as a team."
"Alright, Second Senior Sister!" Hua Suiyu and Feng Shaoyu nodded.
Su Mo said to An Nuan, "Second Senior Sister, thank you so much for your help last time!"
Su Mo referred to the incident when An Nuan saved his life at Skysea Lake by killing the Master of All Beasts.
An Nuan stared straight at Su Mo and said seriously, "You're welcome, Junior Brother. I hope you can control yourself better in the future and hold yourself back from killing!"
"Uh…"
Su Mo was taken aback. Was she trying to say that I kill too much?
"Junior Brother, don't do anything dumb!" An Nuan shook her head and left.
Su Mo was stunned. His Second Senior Sister seemed to have a misconception about him!
The others had left, except for Tian Chen.
When Tian Chen saw that everyone had left, he immediately sidled up to Su Mo and asked excitedly, "Eleventh Junior Brother, now that we're alone, can you tell me how you've been cultivating? Do you have any shortcuts to share?"
Tian Chen's eyes flashed and stared expectantly at Su Mo. He could not believe that Su Mo could increase his cultivation so quickly. There had to be some sort of shortcut!
Su Mo shook his head silently. He was about to send Tian Chen away, but the blatant desire in his eyes made him swallow his words.
After a long sigh, he said with a smile, "Tenth Senior Brother, come find me after the Martial Arts Competition of Nine Peaks, and bring as many Spiritual Stones as you can!"
Su Mo and Tian Chen were pretty close. He knew what Tian Chen's character was like, so he was happy to help.
"Really?" Tian Chen was overjoyed and said with a laugh, "Haha! Alright, I'll find you. Gathering Spiritual Stones won't be an issue!"
666
"Alright, then I'm going!" Su Mo nodded and walked toward his tower.
Su Mo sat cross-legged in his practice room and took out a large amount of Spiritual Stones.
"Regardless of whether I can master Chaotic Force or not, I should first increase my physical strength to its maximum." Su Mo murmured loud to himself.
While his cultivation had reached Lv 7 Enlightenment Realm, he had not worked on increasing his physical strength.
Su Mo's current physical strength was the equivalent of a martial artist at Peak Lv 8 Enlightenment Realm. If he could increase it to Lv9, the combination of it along with his cultivation level would make him almost unbeatable!
Pop! Pop! Pop!
All at once, the sound of continuous explosions rang out. Spiritual Qi gushed about, while spiritual mist filled the area.
Su Mo's physical strength surged rapidly and the golden light that covered his body became even more dazzling. His muscles were in a state of constant vibration.
Giant Archean Dragonesque Elephant shadows appeared all around him. Simultaneously, tiny Giant Archean Dargonesque Elephant shadows danced over his skin. The sight was truly majestic.
Within 15 minutes the display ended. The Spiritual Qi had dissapated and Su Mo stopped cultivating. His physical strength had now reached the equivalent of a Peak Lv 9 Enlightenment Realm martial artist.
Su Mo clenched his fists and smiled as he sensed the explosive energy within his body.
Although he was not confident that his current state would prove him invincible amongst the Outer Gate, it was highly unlikely that he could be defeated.
Su Mo used 5,000,000 Medium Spiritual Stones to achieve this level, more than he had ever used.
Excluding the Medium Spiritual Stones Hong Qingxuan had given him, he had now had less than 1,000,000 Spiritual Stones remaining. It was not enough to continue cultivating.
"Let's try merging the Five Elements Force."
He would now use his time to continue his attempts at fusing the Vital Spirit. Although he was already very strong, if he could draw on the Chaotic Force, he would be able to defeat all the Outer Gate disciples.
Gold property Vital Spirit and Earth property Vital Spirit bounced between his fingers. He focused his concentration, once again, on fusing these two properties together.
The two began to interweave and slowly started fusing together. This was an extremely slow process. The properties mutually reinforced and neutralized each other .
Pop!
The Gold property Vital Spirit soon exploded and disintegrated. Su Mo continued his attempts.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The explosions lingered. Su Mo continued the cycle of trying and failing; he spent the entire day doing this. He made hundreds of attempts, but still failed after each time.
He had not expected the process to be so difficult. His heart sank.
One day later, Su Mo gave up. Instead he aimed his focus on the Wood and Fire property, Vital Spirits.
He had cultivated the Wood property, Scorched-Trees Divine Skill, and the Fire property, Sky-burning Fire Skill. Both skills ranked similarly at medium Lv 6.
The cultivation methods were also related. Wood bred Fire, which meant that the two properties naturally reinforced one another, rather than neutralizing the other.
The Teal Wood property and cThe Crimson Fire property beamed between Su Mo's fingers and slowly began fusing together.
These two properties did not immediately explode, as many others had. On the contrary, they mingled with each other and looked like they were about to gradually fuse together.
Su Mo concentrated hard on controlling the two Vital Spirits. After a while there was no distinction between the two, but they were far from fully fused.
Su Mo was overjoyed, he seemed to be on the right path.
Pop!
Suddenly, the Wood property, Vital Spirit, exploded and dissipated.
Su Mo had no choice but to keep trying, but he always seemed to fail at the very last step.
Finally, Su Mo stopped. He needed to step back and mull over the issue at hand. He realised that despite his continuous attempts, his yield was poor. First he needed to fully understand the principles of the merging process.
He recalled the Five Elements Theory. They mutually reinforced and neutralized each other.
Wood feeds fire. Wood has warm properties and fire needs wood to burn.
What does this cycle produce?
In their own way, they each had the capabilities to nourish, reinforce, and help one another grow.
Wood fed fire by increasing its power and intensity. How did fire feed wood?
Su Mo sat quietly for a long time, deconstructing the theory. He gained a deeper understanding of the two properties.
He began to try again.