“Who?”
Upon hearing the knocking sound, the gatekeeper was very unhappy. He yawned and grumbled angrily.
Usually speaking, no one would be gutsy enough to pay a visit to Zheng Qingfang at night. Even if they had a very important matter, they would wait until the next day.
After all it was impossible for a major character like Zheng Qingfang to get up from his bed in the middle of the night to receive you.
“It must be a newbie who doesn’t know how deep the waters are!”
The lips of the gatekeeper twitched. There would always be some scholars or newly ascended officials who wished to stand out, and the thought of visiting Zheng Qingfang would suddenly appear in their minds.
“Sun Mo!”
Upon hearing the answer, the gatekeeper’s entire body sweated profusely, drenching his clothes. He directly shivered as all his sleepiness faded away.
There was no need for others to urge him. The gatekeeper hurried to the gate and lifted the bolt, opening the door for Sun Mo.
“Great Teacher Sun, why are you here?”
The gatekeeper smiled and bowed with a fawning look on his face. “Please, come in!”
Everyone in the entire Zheng Manor knew that Sun Mo was treated as the number one VIP by their old master. Sun Mo was an esteemed guest that Zheng Qingfang and the head butler would personally receive.
For someone like him, he could at most stand at the side and hoped that Sun Mo would become familiar with him.
“Ah, my mouth!”
When the gatekeeper recalled his unkind tone, he directly lifted his hand and slapped himself. If this matter was known by the head butler, his legs would surely be broken.
“Could I trouble you to make a report to Uncle Zheng? Just tell him that Sun Mo is here to visit him due to an urgent matter!”
Sun Mo requested.
“Old Master Zheng has said before that if Teacher Sun comes, you can directly head to the study.”
After the gatekeeper walked a few steps, he got a maid to lead the way. This was because he wasn’t qualified to enter the inner residence.
…
Outside the manor, over ten people were already waiting to be the first to visit Zheng Qingfang tomorrow morning. Hence, when they saw Sun Mo knocking on the door earlier, all of them were mocking him for not knowing the rules.
However, leaving aside the door that opened for him, even the gatekeeper had a fawning and respectful smile on his face.
“Who is that?”
Someone was curious.
“Sun Mo from the Central Province. You actually don’t know him?”
“Ah? He’s that God Hands?”
“Isn’t he a little too young? I thought Sun Mo was a middle-aged man!”
“Can a middle-aged man marry An Xinhui? You are thinking too much.”
A group of people started gossiping with each other.
…
In the study, Zheng Qingfang came over in his sleeping clothes. After hearing Sun Mo’s words, his expression immediately grew heavy.
“Sun Mo, you return first. I will think of a solution!”
Although Zheng Qingfang’s influence could be considered the top three in Jinling, he had no way to shoulder such a major matter.
Just think about it. Firstly, this involved Dark Dawn and Prince Li Zixing. If things got blown up, a prince might die.
As a loyal subject of the Great Tang Emperor, Zheng Qingfang naturally wanted nothing more than for Li Zixing to die. Hence, under his calm countenance, his emotions were agitated.
A chance was finally here.
(Even if there were no problems with Li Zixing, as long as I joined forces with the eldest princess, we could make problems appear for him.)
“Uncle Zheng, this matter is extremely urgent. The longer we wait, the more medicine-humans would be sacrificed.”
After all, Sun Mo was an ordinary person, and he wouldn’t consider so many things like an official.
…
After returning to the villa, Sun Mo couldn’t fall asleep and decided to head to the Wind King Divine Hall instead. He was preparing to consume the divine force fruit and level up. By doing this, he would have more confidence when he fought later.
Sun Mo patrolled a round and discovered that Li Ziqi wasn’t here. After all, she was a princess and couldn’t always stay through the night. Otherwise, the eldest princess would worry.
Lu Zhiruo also wasn’t around. There was an 80-90% chance that she was taking care of that darn bird.
As for the others, Xuanyuan Po, Ying Baiwu, Qi Shengjia, and Jiang Leng were either meditating in their respective halls or were cultivating.
Even Tantai Yutang was reading a book.
Being in a place with dense spirit qi throughout the year, even if one didn’t cultivate, they would still feel great benefits to their bodies.
Upon seeing this scene, Sun Mo felt even more impatient. His urge of building a spirit gathering tower grew. If he could envelop the entire campus with its effect, that would truly be impressive.
After returning to the main hall, Sun Mo sat cross-legged and took out the divine force fruit, consuming it.
As the nature fruit was digested, currents of warmth immediately spread throughout his body. Sun Mo hurriedly activated his cultivation art to refine the currents.
Because he already had many experiences, the entire process was risk-free. But at the last surge, Sun Mo frowned.
“Eh?”
Sun Mo was surprised because even after he had digested the spirit qi completely, he didn’t level up.
“What the hell?”
Sun Mo was depressed. “Could it be that this divine force fruit is defective?”
This felt like the betrayal of a wife.
“Please don’t insult the system. The rewards I give are always of the best quality.”
The system spoke.
“Why didn’t I level up?”
Sun Mo counter-asked.
“Why don’t you count how many divine force fruits you have eaten?”
The system was speechless. “Firstly, your body has started to show slight signs of rejection, and you can’t completely absorb the fruit’s energy anymore. Secondly, your talent is too outstanding. If you wish to level up, the amount of energy you need is 10 times more compared to salted fish at the same cultivation base as you.”
“Does this mean that it would be useless even if I eat more divine force fruits? Do I need more powerful nature fruits?”
Sun Mo frowned, he was a little unhappy.
The system analyzed, “Right now, you are at the sixth level of the divine force realm. If you eat one more fruit, you will be able to break through. However, in the future, when you want to climb higher, you will need to consume more fruits.”
“Seems like it isn’t that great to take shortcuts!”
Sun Mo sighed.
This indicated that he had to spam more favorable impression points to shop for nature fruits. This feeling was like wanting to level up in a game. However, as your level grew higher, the amount of experience points needed would increase as well. The player could only spend even more money if they wished to level up quickly.
Sun Mo’s lips twitched.
Ding!
Favorable impression points from Wang Meng and Zhou Xiaoque +1,000.
Ding!
“Congratulations on seeing through the plot and saving Wang Meng’s life. Reward: 1x golden treasure chest.”
The system notification suddenly rang out, causing Sun Mo to start. (You only discovered this during these few days? But it’s still passable. It’s at least better than ungrateful people who don’t contribute any favorable impression points.)
In any case, since he couldn’t sleep, Sun Mo started to cultivate. He mainly cultivated the Dharma Skyshock Fist, but for this particular art, the more he trained in it, the more he felt his worldly desires leaving him. His mentality became that of a monk, not even fantasizing about girls anymore.
The Grand Universe Formless Divine Art might be powerful, but it was ultimately a cultivation art that existed for the sake of teaching. It was still not too bad if he used it to deal with the majority of enemies, but if he was to fight against someone at the star general-level, it would be insufficient.
Also, it was definite that Immemorial Vairocana’s destructive prowess wasn’t enough.
The Myriad Manifestations Spirit Wave Art was okay, but Sun Mo kept feeling that if this cultivation art was used to suppress someone via long-range attacks or a surprise attack, the destructive prowess would then be much higher compared to a head-on confrontation.
Sun Mo hesitated a little. He didn’t know if he should improve the Prairie Blazing Fire Spear Technique to the grandmaster-level. Honestly speaking, he wasn’t very fond of a weapon like the spear.
“Forget it, I better improve it for the sake of increasing my strength!”
Sun Mo took out a 30-year time emblem and used it.
The greenish light immediately enveloped Sun Mo’s entire body and his mind. Multiple spear shadows flashed, kicking up a thousand-foot snow avalanche that manifested ten-thousand heavy waves, exterminating everything in sight!
Sparks first appeared. After that, the entire world seemed to have been ignited. In the end, as the spear whistled through the air, ashes covered the entire world.
Sun Mo felt a sense of nirvanic rebirth after being destroyed by fire.
The Prairie Blazing Fire Spear Technique was an art that emphasized on attack. It was bravery with no thought of personal safety.
Ding!
“Congratulations, your Prairie Blazing Fire Spear Technique has improved to the expert level.”
The system congratulated.
“…”
Sun Mo was speechless. (I spammed a 30-year time emblem and I only got to the expert level?)
“Are you trying to swindle me?”
“Please. Even for peerless saint-tier cultivation arts, their quality can be classified into different levels. The Prairie Blazing Fire Spear Technique is a peerless-level saint-tier cultivation art among the very pinnacle. Just think about how many time emblems you have spammed on the Grand Universe Formless Divine Art?”
The system explained.
“The more powerful a cultivation art is, the tougher it is to level up in terms of expertise.”
“Don’t tell me these useless things.”
Sun Mo was very impatient. He took out another 30-year time emblem and directly used it while he started to comprehend.
This time around, he directly transformed into flames, wanting to burn the entire heavens.
Ding!
“Congratulations, your Prairie Blazing Fire Spear Technique has improved to the grandmaster-level.”
Sun Mo was gratified. (This then is correct!)
(60 years…if I couldn’t become a grandmaster, I might as well go and die. Should I push a little harder and directly improve to the ancestor-level?)
At that time, when he guided Xuanyuan Po, he would be able to do so effortlessly.
“Sun Mo, don’t blame me for not reminding you. Time emblems might be able to give you experience, but they would ultimately be inferior to experience gained from practical combat. If you wish to improve to the great ancestor level, you have to practice it bitterly for a few years at the very least.”
The system’s tone was solemn.
(If one could instantly become a great ancestor, wouldn’t I be able to mass-produce ancestors?)
In the end, becoming an expert was hard, and becoming a grandmaster was even harder. As for great ancestors, they were all representatives of their generation.
It was like a factory worker who assembled phone components. Why would some people always fail and waste time while others can finish assembling one very quickly with no errors?
The more impressive ones are all starting to design the interior parts of their own mobile phones already!
On the second morning, Sun Mo returned to the villa and went for breakfast. As expected, he saw Lu Zhiruo taking care of that damn bird.
“Is it drunk again?”
Sun Mo frowned, really wanting to cook the stupid bird.
“Teacher, don’t be angry!”
Lu Zhiruo comforted. “I keep feeling that it has a lot on its mind, and it’s currently at the rock-bottom of its life.”
“It even has worries?”
Sun Mo was speechless. Not a single one of his three spiritual beasts was reliable. Look at that giant of Bai Shuang, how strong was it?
(Is the disparity between humans so great?)
In the afternoon, Zheng Qingfang sent people to invite Sun Mo and An Xinhui to his residence.
Sun Mo and An Xinhui immediately headed over and when they entered the study, they discovered that other than Fang Lun who was the Jinling Governor, as well as Prince Consort Qi Mu`en, there was also a middle-aged woman who had done a pretty good job in maintaining her appearance.
Her demeanor was extremely great, she exuded a sense of luxurious nobility.
At the instant Sun Mo entered the door, the middle-aged woman lifted her head and looked over. Her eyes that were filled with judgment also had hints of unhappiness within.
