Twenty minutes later, the muscular genie vanished.
A total of four branch techniques made up a set. And a set of massage was indeed finished. However, it felt so perfunctory and not precise at all. It was like just finishing the process and getting the massage over and done with.
“System, are you pranking me?”
Sun Mo doubted.
“Let me repeat again. The rewards given by the system are definitely worth their price. If you are unable to unleash the effect, it means that it is your problem.”
The system was unhappy. “It’s clear you are stupid alright? A second-level spirit rune can summon the muscular genie and even execute the ancient massaging technique. What are you unhappy about?”
Even for the blind massage shops on the roadside, 80% of them were out to cheat money. Only the remaining 20% truly had blind masseuses.
“Ziqi, thank you for your trouble. You can get up first!”
Sun Mo tore another spirit rune paper. This time around, a spirit qi tornado formed. This meant that this was at least at the fifth-level.
Spirit qi surged forth and condensed into the muscular genie. It glanced at the surroundings and after verifying its target, it floated toward Li Ziqi’s side.
Sun Mo heaved a sigh of relief. He understood now. The higher the level of a spirit rune, the higher the intelligence of the genie and the better its massage techniques would be.
Naturally, the genie from low-level spirit runes might be slightly inferior in terms of massage techniques, but it was still better than nothing. Besides, cases of being injured from the massage would definitely not appear.
Sun Mo used a total of ten ancient dragon capturing hands spirit runes to do an observation and collect data.
He discovered that even for the best, a seventh-level spirit rune, although the muscular genie had quite a high intelligence, it was still inferior compared to the muscular genie that appeared whenever he personally performed a massage.
At the very least, the genie he summoned would take the initiative to reject massaging females.
“Teacher, why is the summoned genie capable of using the Ancient Dragon Capturing Hands?”
Li Ziqi had a shocked look on her face. She then thought of a possibility. “Teacher, is this a new spirit rune you designed?”
“No!”
Sun Mo denied. Although he was the only person in this world to know this, he didn’t need this type of false glory.
“But…”
Li Ziqi furrowed her brows. The Ancient Dragon Capturing Hands was a peerless-grade saint-tier massaging technique solely possessed by her teacher. Other than him, who could do things to this extent? “System, is this spirit rune design perfect?” Sun Mo returned to the study and spread out an ancient dragon capturing hands spirit rune as he started to analyze it, wanting to try and optimize it. If he drew spirit runes according to this design, the success rate of drawing a peak-grade product would be too low. Not only was it a waste of time, but the effects were too inferior as well.
“It’s practically perfect!” The system mocked, “Why? You want to modify it? You can give it a try!”
The system snorted in disdain. The word ‘practically’ was used just because it was humble. One must know that it spent over an hour on this and computed millions of calculations before it managed to design this.
“Oh!”
Sun Mo sank into contemplation. He took up his spirit rune brush and started to draw a little.
“Teacher, you still say that this wasn’t designed by you?”
Li Ziqi’s lips twitched. Sun Mo was clearly modifying the spirit rune. However, wasn’t this spirit rune a little too complicated?
One must know that Li Ziqi had a photographic memory and had the ability to rapidly memorize things. But even so, it was extremely strenuous for her. Hence, she started to ponder over the design concept of this spirit rune.
The moon and stars were bright. The sounds of crickets chirping could be heard as they leaped onto the swing in the garden before jumping back into the nearby bushes.
A day and a night passed.
Lu Zhiruo carried a rice box and came to deliver breakfast for Sun Mo. However, she was stunned the moment she entered. There were several pieces of spirit rune papers lying on the red-wood table as well as on the floor.
The papaya girl casually picked one up and glanced at it. She immediately felt her head spinning. What was this drawing? It was so complicated!
Sun Mo sat on the ground. His brows were furrowed in contemplation. Not far away, Li Ziqi was currently drawing a spirit rune. When the papaya girl saw how focused they were, she didn’t disturb them and decided to exit the study.
Time continued flowing, and afternoon had arrived.
“Teacher, it’s time to eat!”
Lu Zhiruo felt her heart aching. Her teacher had dark circles now. How many days had he gone by without sleep?
The papaya girl called out thrice, but there was no response from Sun Mo.
“Sun Mo, don’t waste your time any longer. The spirit runes I designed are perfect. You…”
Even before the system could finish speaking, Sun Mo suddenly called out in excitement.
“I understand!”
Sun Mo grabbed a piece of spirit rune paper and dipped his brush into ink and started to draw. Because he now understood the thinking process of the rune’s creation, when he drew it, it was like moving clouds and flowing water, natural and smooth.
Fifteen minutes later, as the last stroke was drawn, a rumbling sound echoed out. The spirit qi in the villa’s surroundings gushed over, forming a spirit qi tornado, drawing the spirit qi into the spirit rune.
This….”
The system was shocked.
Sun Mo’s hands didn’t stop. He took another piece of spirit rune paper and continued drawing.
An hour passed as three more spirit runes were completed consequently. They were placed before Sun Mo. He opened his eyes wide and inspected them as he called out.
“Zhiruo!”
The papaya girl was like a little puppy fully obedient to its owner and immediately ran over.
“Teacher!” “Lie down!” Sun Mo instructed. “Oh!”
The papaya girl lay down immediately. Her hands and feet were tense and straight, like a frozen salted fish.
“Relax!”
After Sun Mo spoke, he crushed the spirit rune.
“BOOM!”
The spirit qi gathered, and amidst the golden light, a muscular genie with a violet-colored turban appeared. It lifted its arms and posed, displaying its muscles. After that, it began to massage the papaya girl.
The muscleforge technique was activated.
The massage lasted a total of 15 minutes and was masterfully done. The amount of force exerted was just right. It felt so comfortable that the papaya girl started meowing involuntarily. “This…”
The system was stunned.
After the whole set of muscleforge technique was completed, the genie vanished. Sun Mo immediately tore another spirit rune paper.
RUMBLE!
A new muscular genie manifested. This time around, it used the circulation technique!
After he finished drawing four new spirit runes, Sun Mo heaved a sigh of relief. He leaned against his chair, and a look of enlightenment could be seen on his face.
“You…you actually split my spirit rune design into parts?”
The system stuttered a little. (I know you have exceptional talent in the study of spirit runes, but I didn’t expect your talent would be so high to such an extent.)
“System. The calculation ability of an A.I. is truly invincible. But do you know what its flaw is?”
Sun Mo asked.
“What is it?”
The system was curious.
“It’s logic!”
Sun Mo smiled. “Their thinking isn’t as bold and imaginative as intelligent lifeforms and is backed clearly by logic. Just look at the design. Although it looks extremely complicated, as long as you understand the concept of the design, everything will become simpler instantly.”
The system was speechless. “Why was the genie summoned by the spirit rune so lifeless? Because you placed the emphasis on strengthening the effect of the four branches of the ancient massaging technique. When they were combined, the process wasn’t smooth enough. Although the genie’s movements could still be considered passable, there was inevitably a ‘lag’ when it switched to a different branch technique, causing its movements to become stiffer and stiffer.”
This was the result of Sun Mo’s observation. Firstly, he wanted to optimize the combination process, but he failed to do so. After all, the spirit rune designed by the system was too complex. If he modified it a little, it could lead to errors in the other areas.
In the end, Sun Mo had no solutions left. Hence, he chose to break it up into different portions.
“You actually understood the concept of this spirit rune?”
The system was astonished. “I understand!” Li Ziqi at the side suddenly called out.
“She also understood it?”
The system was badly frightened. “This spirit rune is formed from a combination of four major portions. After activation, each portion will generate their effects, forming the process of a complete massage!”
After Li Ziqi spoke, she looked towards Sun Mo.
“Completely correct!”
Sun Mo gestured a thumbs up while sighing in admiration in his heart. He could only understand it because he possessed a grandmaster-grade understanding of the Ancient Dragon Capturing Hands Spirit Rune Drawing Technique. But Li Ziqi purely depended on her intellect.
As expected of a genius.
“Are you two goddamn monsters?”
The system was truly frightened and started to curse.
“System, this design of yours is really impressive!”
Sun Mo was incomparably impressed. In any case, he wasn’t able to optimize this design with his current abilities and could only break them into parts for now. He didn’t expect the effects to be so good.
This was like there were no problems when one was doing a simple maths question consisting of a single aspect of either ‘plus, minus, multiplication and division’. But once the question changed to one that needed a mixture of the principles, that person didn’t know how to solve it.
“Who said that I’m impressive? You guys are the impressive ones!”
The system sighed. As expected, the intelligence of humans was filled with boundless possibilities.
What Sun Mo and Li Ziqi did was equivalent to understanding why 1+1 was equal to 2. They managed to dissect and analyze the root of its design. To ordinary humans, they naturally knew that 1+1 was equal to 2. This was because this was the basic and of the rule of addition. But when you asked them why was 1+1 =2, they didn’t know how to explain.
The process to prove 1+1 = 2 was very complicated.
In simple words, Sun Mo and Li Ziqi were considered geniuses who could deduce a brand new established theorem or formula.
“This spirit rune is excellent, but it is too difficult to draw it!”
“Wanting to replicate the effect of a peerless-grade saint-tier art is simply this difficult. In the future, you better not give me such difficult problems anymore!” The system persuaded. It was truly a torture.
“I will not overdo it.”
Sun Mo could understand.
Ding!
“Congratulations on your successful analysis of the Ancient Dragon Capturing Hands Spirit Rune. Reward: Your proficiency level is improved by a grade, reaching the ancestor-grade!”
The system congratulated him.
“This can work as well?”
Sun Mo grew joyful. He didn’t think there would be an unexpected surprise. “Sun Mo, you are very talented in this subject. Please continue to work hard. You would surely be able to become the number one spirit-rune grand ancestor of the Nine Provinces!”
The system encouraged him.
“I’m not interested!”
Sun Mo shook his head.
“You…”
The system was almost angered to the point of coughing up blood. “Teacher, you are so impressive!” Li Ziqi looked at Sun Mo with eyes filled with worship. Her teacher had transmitted the essence of the Ancient Dragon Capturing Hands into a spirit rune. Th…this…was simply a domain only spirit rune grand ancestors could reach!
The little sunny egg dared to say that Sun Mo’s level of attainment in the field of spirit runes was already top three in Jinling, no, top three in the Tang Country.
Ding!
Favorable impression points from Li Ziqi +1,000. Reverence (14,161/100,000).
“Ziqi, you misunderstood. This was not designed by me.”
Sun Mo was frightened by the huge number of favorable impression points, hence, he hurriedly explained.
“I understand. Teacher just doesn’t want fame!”
Li Ziqi expressed her understanding. It was better to wait for the future, announcing this discovery after he had higher status. At that time, no one would dare to doubt him. “Alright, it’s time to rest seeing that I’ve been pushing myself for quite a few days!”
Sun Mo scratched his head and was preparing to take a bath. He hadn’t left the study for these few days; even his body was starting to stink.
“Teacher, should we go to the Battle Hall and watch the fights? Today is the test date for those keen to join the Battle Hall. Qi Shengjia will be fighting!”
Lu Zhiruo raised her hands and made a suggestion.
