Su Mo and his friends soon arrived at the Mansion of the City Governor. Yin Tianchou showed them to their accommodations.
They were led to a quiet courtyard, lush with flowers and foliage and a small pond.
This was the perfect place for him to convalesce in seclusion.
“Su Mo, I will leave you here. Please feel free to recover here. I’ll drop by again another day!” Yin Tianchou knew that Su Mo needed to rest. After settling Su Mo’s accommodation arrangements he left.
“Many thanks!” Su Mo gave him a fist-palm salute.
Su Mo turned to his friends. “Qingxuan, Li Feng, we’ll stay here for the time being!”
“Brother Su Mo, are you alright?” Concern showed on both their faces.
“I’ll be fine after some time, don’t worry!”Su Mo replied. He shook his head. “Feel free to explore. I’ll be in seclusion!”
They both nodded. Then, Su Mo found a room and began to convalesce in seclusion.
He wasn’t injured, but he had exhausted the essence, qi and spirit in his body. There was no panacea to help him recover; he could only do it slowly.
However, he still took an elixir that could restore his vitality and consolidate his basis.
The elixir might not be very effective but at least it would be able to restore a tiny portion of his vitality.
He sat cross-legged, as still as an old monk and began to replenish his exhausted essence, qi and spirit and refine his Dark Force.
Time passed quickly and 10 days had passed before he knew it.
When he left the room, his hair had turned back to its original black.
He had not fully restored his essence, qi and spirit, but he had managed to restore half of it. He would probably be able to regain peak status if he continued to convalesce for another 10 days.
He spotted Hong Qingxuan sitting on a stone bench in the courtyard. She was lost in thought with her head propped in her hands and a faint smile showing on her face.
It reminded him of Xi’er. During their time in the Su family, Xi’er had often sat on the stone bench in the courtyard as well.
How was Xi’er doing now? Had she forgotten him?
He shook his head, casting aside all these distracting thoughts and strode to Hong Qingxuan’s side.
“Qingxuan, what’s on your mind?” Su Mo asked with a smile.
“Ah!’ Hong Qingxuan returned to her senses, the tips of her ears turning red as she quickly replied, “Nothing much. I was just bored!”
“By the way, Brother Su Mo, how is your convalesce going?”
“Pretty well, I’m halfway there!” Su Mo nodded and asked, “Where’s Li Feng?”
Hong Qingxuan pouted. “That guy is practically a cultivating maniac. All he does every day is cultivate!”
“Uh…”
Su Mo shook his head with a wry smile. He could understand Li Feng.
Li Feng and Hong Qingxuan came from very different backgrounds. In a word, it was the difference between ordinary civilians and the children of officials.
Furthermore, once Li Feng’s cultivation had been destroyed, he’d had an even greater desire to be stronger.
“Qingxuan, Li Feng is putting in so much effort. Why aren’t you working as hard as he is?” Su Mo asked with a smile.
“That’s not true!” Hong Qingxuan disagreed with Su Mo.
“I have been putting in a lot of effort too. I’m just not as maniacal as Li Feng!” she retorted.
Su Mo contemplated for a moment, then said, “Let’s go find Li Feng and cultivate together!”
“Sure!” Hong Qingxuan was delighted. Cultivating with Su Mo meant that she would have a breakthrough in her cultivation again.
They both entered Li Feng’s room.
Li Feng was cultivating. He was delighted to see Su Mo.
“Su Mo, you’re finally out of seclusion. How is your recovery going?” he asked.
“I’m fine now!” Su Mo said. “How is your cultivation going?”
Knowing that Li Feng had a large amount of Spiritual Stones, Su Mo assumed that Li Feng’s cultivation would have increased considerably.
Li Feng sighed. “It is becoming more and more difficult to increase my physical strength as I get stronger. And, I absorb Spiritual Qi too slow!”
“No problem. Let’s cultivate together!” Su Mo said with a smile. “Don’t resist, I’m going to transport you into the Divine Map.”
He used his mind to envelop Li Feng and Hong Qingxuan, sending all three of them into the Divine Map.
Inside the Divine Map—
Su Mo and his friends appeared in the courtyard with a flash of light.
“Su Mo, where are we?” Li Feng asked in surprise. He looked at his surroundings in confusion.
Li Feng had never been in the Divine Map before and was thus quite shocked.
After Su Mo explained where they were, Li Feng understood what had happened, but still he found it rather unbelievable.
Then, they sat cross-legged in the courtyard. Su Mo waved his hand to reveal 100,000 Upper Spiritual Stones.
He released his Devouring Martial Soul. Dense Spiritual Qi instantly filled the courtyard.
Su Mo and his friends began to cultivate like crazy.
Their strength soared and increased rapidly.
After 10 minutes, Su Mo attained peak Lv 1 True Darkness Realm cultivation and immediately started to push past the bottleneck.
Boom!
The nine Spiritual Spirals in his body kept shaking and endless Dark Force was frothing like boiling water.
Su Mo’s Dark Force was very refined and his cultivation was quite stable, so it did not take long before he attained Lv 2 True Darkness Realm.
Everything just fell into place naturally.
As the endless Spiritual qi surged toward him, his nine Spiritual Spirals whirled madly. They started to expand, growing many times larger.
When he noticed that the Spiritual Qi from the 100,000 Upper Spiritual Stones was almost exhausted, he immediately took out another 200,000.
The moment these 200,000 Upper Spiritual Stones appeared, they turned into dense spiritual mist. Su Mo continued to cultivate without stopping.
Time passed slowly and Su Mo soon reached peak Lv 2 True Darkness Realm. He attempted to push past the bottleneck once again.
This time, it did not come as easily as last time. He spent a whole hour attempting to break through the bottleneck. Still, he failed.
He sighed. His previous cultivation might have been very stable, but as his cultivation reached higher levels, it had become harder to increase it.
In the past, he could rely purely on Spiritual Stones to increase his cultivation two levels, but today he had to overcome many difficulties!
He stopped trying to push past the bottleneck. He started to cultivate his Archean Dragonesque Elephant Skill.
The large shadow of an Archean Dragonesque Elephant appeared in a flash and wrapped itself around Su Mo’s body. His physical strength started to soar.