Chapter 236 The Ruthless Senior Brother of the Path ...

Heng Mo has only been cultivating for half a year, but he has already reached the bottleneck of the Foundation Establishment stage. Such a cultivation speed is rare in the entire cultivation world.

For disciples with similar cultivation levels, there's only envy and jealousy; but for elders with higher cultivation levels, they truly wish their children were their own disciples.

Fortunately, the elders of the Xuan Yang Sect had a good relationship, and there was little difference between their junior brother's disciple and their own disciple. Only Xuan Ling's mood was even more unpleasant.

Unfortunately, he couldn't care less about anything else right now, because the Fifth Elder and Sixth Elder were impersonating Heng Mo and sending him some terrible food. Xuan Ling was stuck on his own mountain and couldn't go out for the time being.

When the sect leader received Xuan Ling's letter of reprimand, he calmly tossed it aside and pulled out a draft he already had to reply to him.

It basically means that the fifth and sixth junior brothers are still young and like to play pranks on their elders. They don't really have any bad intentions. He has already taught them a lesson. He believes that the Supreme Elder, being such a magnanimous person, will not hold a grudge against the younger generation.

These replies were all written by the Fourth Elder, who wrote hundreds of them and kept them in the hands of the Sect Leader. Whenever the Fifth and Sixth Elders caused trouble, they would just randomly pick one and send it over.

This happened frequently when Xiaoqi was first injured. It only subsided for a while over the past few decades, but now it's started again.

As for the Fifth Elder and the Sixth Elder, they were naturally fined half a year's worth of resources and then confined for another month.

It was just a harmless prank, but such a punishment is indeed quite severe. After all, half a year's worth of cultivation resources for an elder is no small amount.

After receiving the reply, Xuan Ling felt somewhat aggrieved and didn't know what to say. His injury was indeed not even minor, and the sect leader had already dealt with the culprit, but he still felt a tightness in his chest.

Well, if he knew that the sect leader had openly withheld resources from the two of them, but secretly made up for it, he would probably feel even more resentful.

After hearing about this, Heng Mo went to his two senior uncles' mountain to deliver a large gift of snacks, and then paid no more attention to it. A month of confinement was nothing; for a Nascent Soul cultivator, it was basically just a matter of casually cultivating for a while.

Right now, Heng Mo is working with Lin You to research new cheat code game missions, and sure enough, the missions get harder as you progress.

[Ding! Successfully refined one batch of low-grade elixirs. (15 points)]

[Ding! Successfully crafted a low-grade spiritual weapon. (15 points)]

[Ding! You have become the first disciple of your cohort to advance to the Foundation Establishment stage. (Points: 25)]

[Ding! Ten demons have been slain. (20 points)]

[Ding! Ten mid-grade spiritual herbs have been harvested. (10 points)]

[Ding! Hunted ten monsters of the same level. (10 points)]

………

This time, there were still nearly a hundred missions, and Heng Mo, just like before, accepted all of them at once.

Although the tasks in the Golden Finger game are tedious and boring, the items in the game store are very good. Even if it weren't for helping Lin You speed up the progress bar, Heng Mo would still complete the tasks diligently.

He also wanted to buy more Breakthrough Pills to help all his senior uncles reach the Nascent Soul stage, at which point Xuan Ling would be completely powerless.

As for the other items in the mall, Heng Mo wouldn't consider anything too expensive, and the cheaper items were mostly decorations or culinary delights, so he didn't plan to waste his points on them.

Although the task points are much higher now than before, the tasks are also much more difficult, so it's better to save them for when it's really important.

Putting everything else aside, how can a mere newbie like him, who has just reached the Qi Refining stage, tell his master that he wants to take elective courses?

Even if his master has a good temper, he probably wouldn't be able to resist giving him a beating. Before breaking through to the Foundation Establishment stage, he can forget about alchemy and weapon crafting.

Although the items in the Golden Finger game store are not as complete as those in the system store, there are still many interesting ones, but Heng Mo has never intended to use the points for his own entertainment.

Lin You admired his strict self-discipline in planning. Although she could be considered frugal, she had indeed wasted some points. Maybe she should learn from Heng Mo?

After thinking about it, she decided against it. Although she had wasted some money, she could easily earn it back later, so why force herself to suffer?

However, you still need to work harder in your cultivation.

Ultimately, the mission of this world rests on Xuan Ling. Unless she or Heng Mo achieves success in their cultivation and eliminates Xuan Ling, the mission will likely not be successfully completed.

Lin You is prepared to stay here for a long time and plans to cultivate more to accumulate enough points to advance directly to the intermediate level.

Heng Mo isn't like Ye Zhen, who is favored by the Heavenly Dao. Even with a top-grade ice spiritual root, it's impossible for him to reach the Golden Core stage in one year and the Nascent Soul stage in three years.

Without Shen Ting's banter, Heng Mo and Lin You entered "super-intensive mode," cultivating day and night without eating or sleeping. If it weren't for the fact that they needed to eat during the Qi Refining stage, they probably wouldn't even need to leave the training room.

As the difficulty of the missions increased, there were fewer missions that required going to the training grounds, and Heng Mo didn't go out much anymore. Because of this, the Seventh Elder even had a special talk with him.

After confirming that his little apprentice only wanted to study hard and that he wasn't staying home because of Xuan Ling, the Seventh Elder was finally relieved.

He also prepared a lot of pills suitable for Heng Mo's cultivation, and replaced the spirit-gathering array in his courtyard with new spirit stones, striving to create the best cultivation environment for his child.

In the world of cultivation, time flies. It wasn't until Heng Mo encountered Xuan Ling again in the wilderness that he belatedly realized three months had passed.

Xuan Ling looked at Heng Mo, whose cultivation had improved again, gave him only a cold look, and then left without saying anything more.

The Seventh Elder has already reached the Nascent Soul stage, and Heng Mo's cultivation has been progressing rapidly. Xuan Ling's previous excuse was nothing but a joke.

In the cultivation world, unless both parties agree, taking someone else's disciple is like abducting someone else's child in the mortal world, and it will be despised.

Having realized that Heng Mo could not become his disciple, Xuan Ling's obsession shifted from wanting to take Heng Mo as his disciple to wanting to take on a disciple who was even more powerful than Heng Mo.

However, if top-grade spiritual roots were easy to come by, they wouldn't be so rare anymore. Xuan Ling had no choice but to put aside this thought for the time being and simply instructed the sect leader to keep an eye out for news in this area.

Xuan Ling was used to seeking help from the sect leader whenever something happened. The previous sect leader did the same, and so did the current one. He hadn't considered what would happen if the sect leader tried to deceive him.

This led to Xuan Ling receiving ambiguous messages time and time again, and then flying all over the country, with almost no time to return to the Xuan Yang Sect.

When Heng Mo's cultivation reached a bottleneck, he finally managed to persuade his master to relent and allow him to go for a walk nearby.

Having finally caught up with the schedule, Shen Ting, who had reached the late stage of Qi Refining, immediately pestered his master, Heng Mo, when he heard that they were going out to play. He insisted on going out with Heng Mo.

The Third Elder was annoyed by his nagging for three days and finally couldn't take it anymore. He kicked him into Heng Mo's courtyard, which was considered his tacit approval that he should be kicked out with him.

At the foot of the Xuan Yang Sect's mountain lies a town called Chaoyang. Initially, it was a place where Xuan Yang Sect disciples brought and settled some relatives. Later, some independent cultivators also came here to settle down because they saw that the spiritual energy was abundant.

Over time, the population grew, and ordinary people and cultivators lived together, eventually forming the sizable town we see today.

Heng Mo and Shen Ting weren't wearing sect uniforms, looking like two rogue cultivators as they curiously observed everything in the city, while Lin You remained hidden and followed beside them.

Chaoyang City is a place where cultivators and mortals live together. Next to the stall where you can buy a piece of mung bean cake for three coins, there is a stall where you can buy a pound of spirit fruit for three low-grade spirit stones.

The vendor selling mung bean cakes and the cultivator selling spirit fruits were still chatting. One was talking about how his neighbor, Granny Wang, had caught her husband having an affair with her sister-in-law, while the other was talking about encountering a bee-like monster in the wild and being chased for twenty miles because he had disturbed a hornet's nest.

Although the topics were completely different, they chatted enthusiastically and felt a strange sense of harmony.

Seeing Heng Mo looking in that direction, Shen Ting immediately explained the rules of Chaoyang City to him: "Our Xuan Yang Sect has set the rule that no one in the city, whether a cultivator or a mortal, is allowed to fight. Whoever starts a fight will be expelled from the city. In case of conflicts, the City Lord's Mansion will be responsible for the trial and adjudication."

The rules of Chaoyang City are certainly awkward for some cultivators who dislike restraint, but for those cultivators who know they have no hope of advancement and want a peaceful life, it is a haven.

Shen Ting briefly recounted the history of Chaoyang City, then swallowed hard as he looked at the mung bean cakes. The pine wood cart was covered with a blue cloth canopy, and the rough earthenware basin on it was filled with freshly steamed mung bean cakes, still emitting wisps of heat.

The greenish-yellow pastries were cut into neat squares, each garnished with amber-colored osmanthus honey, and you could also smell a hint of mung bean fragrance if you smelled closely.

Shen Ting was well-prepared for his trip. He not only exchanged some silver but also brought some copper coins. He counted out twenty-one coins and handed them over. The vendor promptly wrapped seven coins in oil paper and gave him two extra pieces of winter melon candy.

After Shen Ting shared a piece with Heng Mo, he took a bite himself. The rich, smooth flavor spread in his mouth, the sweetness of mung beans and the fragrance of osmanthus blending perfectly. Shen Ting couldn't help but squint his eyes as he ate, and casually suggested to Heng Mo:

"Your snack shop doesn't have a wide variety of products. Why don't we grow some beans and make our own pastries? Mung bean cakes, red bean cakes, chestnut cakes, anything will do..."

Heng Mo took the mung bean cake and tasted it. Although it wasn't a spiritual food, the ingredients used must have grown in a place with spiritual energy, and it tasted really good.

As for the spirit fruits sold for those three low-grade spirit stones, Heng Mo and Shen Ting had no interest in them. Such spirit fruits were plentiful in the training grounds, and they were already tired of eating them.

After wandering around aimlessly for a while and buying a bunch of snacks, Heng Mo suddenly heard a system notification.

[Ding! Side Quest 1 for Chaoyang City has been activated. Please go to the seventeenth stall on East Street and buy a black oval stone for no more than ten low-grade spirit stones. (30 points)]

Heng Mo exchanged a glance with the invisible Lin You without making a sound, then opened the cheat page to check. He found that the cheat page had changed. In other words, the tasks Heng Mo had accepted before were all beginner tutorials, and now they were being used to trigger official tasks.

Lin You could even sense a hint of disappointment in the description, and there was even a small note at the end: Due to the limited skill level of the tester, the game difficulty has been reduced.

She always felt that this cheat was too simplistic, just endlessly completing tasks and collecting points to buy things, but it turns out they were just too bad at the game?

Heng Mo never cared about such verbal belittling, especially since the golden finger had indeed helped him a lot. If it weren't for the Breakthrough Pill, it would be hard to say whether his master could have broken through.

After confirming that it was indeed the task assigned by the cheat system and that there were no malfunctions, Heng Mo sincerely apologized to the cheat system on the message board and then led Shen Ting to do the task.

Chaoyang City's urban planning is very organized. East Street is full of cultivators setting up stalls, selling all sorts of things, from grass roots and tree bark to stones. As long as it has spiritual energy, they put it out there, making it even more lively than the food street.

Shen Ting was not very interested in this matter and secretly sent a message to Heng Mo, saying, "This kind of thing is just like the antique market in the mortal world. Nine times out of ten, it's fake. They make up a story that is not true and let people fill in the blanks. The remaining ten percent are just ordinary things. It's basically impossible to find a bargain."

Heng Mo agreed with this, nodding, "I'm just taking a look casually, it'll cost me at most ten or so low-grade spirit stones."

After saying that, he stopped at the seventeenth stall designated by the system, curiously looking at the items on it, as if he were watching a spectacle.

When Shen Ting spoke, he used telepathy, but Heng Mo spoke directly, and the stall owner's eyes immediately lit up.

Ten low-grade spirit stones are nothing to Heng Mo and Shen Ting, who are direct disciples of a sect. They could easily ask an elder for more money to buy candy. But for a cultivator who sets up a stall in a place like this, it is a huge sum of money.

Even a menial disciple of the Xuan Yang Sect only earns one low-grade spirit stone a month.

Upon hearing Heng Mo's budget, the stall owner immediately greeted them earnestly, "Please feel free to look around. The items aren't worth much, but they're quite interesting. It wouldn't be bad to buy them and see something new."

Heng Mo asked him curiously, "Isn't there anything special about this thing? People have already said a lot about it."

After saying that, he gestured to the stall owner at the next stall who was holding a section of tree root and talking eloquently about it.

The stall owner at number seventeen coughed and said with a forced smile, "You two gentlemen are clearly knowledgeable. How could I presume to teach you my humble skills? However, if you'd like to hear a story, I can certainly tell you a thing or two. Which one would you like to choose?"