Chapter 13

A few minutes later...

After much persuasion, Lin Mo, who had managed to cut 8 yuan off the price, sat down at the small table behind the barbecue stall. He reached out, snatched a skewer of grilled ham sausage from in front of Chu Wange, and bit into it viciously.

Seeing Chu Wange sitting opposite him, curiously looking him over, Lin Mo said unpleasantly:

"What are you looking at? I paid for it, can't I eat a few skewers?"

Chu Wange shook her head, reached out, pushed the barbecue platter in front of her toward the middle of the table, and said:

"You eat."

Lin Mo naturally didn't stand on ceremony. He was already hungry, and he had been filled with anger by the barbecue owner, so his stomach was feeling wronged.

He grabbed several skewers of beef with ravenous hunger and stuffed them into his mouth in large bites.

Chu Wange opposite him appeared much more elegant, though her speed was no slower.

Her speed in grabbing skewers was especially fast; Lin Mo didn't even see a shadow before she already had meat in her mouth.

The two of them just buried their heads and ate hard, neither paying any attention to the other, which made the middle-aged owner grilling skewers behind them shake his head:

Young people, even when given a chance, you don't know how to use it!

He raised an eyebrow and glanced at Chu Wange's face, which still looked so beautiful even while getting a free meal, and muttered to himself:

"If I were twenty years younger, would there be any room for a brat like you? What a pity, such a beautiful young girl is about to be gobbled up by a pig."

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but rub his lower back:

"I wonder if the tigress at home has finished playing mahjong. I'd better go back later today..."

A hundred yuan worth of barbecue wasn't much, and Lin Mo and Chu Wange's speed at devouring food was incredibly fast; in just a few minutes, the table was wiped clean.

"A hundred yuan for just this little bit of barbecue? The cost of living in the city is too expensive now!"

Lin Mo rubbed his stomach, which was only thirty percent full, and complained in a low voice.

The high cost of living in the provincial capital was the reason he didn't carry money when he went out; after all, his monthly living expenses were only that much.

Fortunately, the hundred yuan today was found, otherwise, his heart would have ached to death.

"Yo, it's almost two o'clock."

Lin Mo glanced at the time, immediately stood up from the table, and without even saying goodbye, hurried toward the residential complex.

Your grandpa is your grandpa; if he says he sleeps at two, he will never wait until two-oh-one.

Although Lin Mo had never returned to the complex after two o'clock, he had heard of a couple who went out for a late-night snack and accidentally exceeded the grandpa's "operating hours," resulting in them being forced to blow in the wind outside for half the night before they could enter the complex the next morning.

Thinking of this, he quickened his pace a bit more.

Chu Wange wiped her mouth unhurriedly while watching Lin Mo disappear from view with those spirited eyes of hers.

Afterward, she turned her head to look at the bamboo basket by the middle-aged owner's side, her expression thoughtful...

The next night at nine o'clock, Nanshan No. 4 Middle School ordinary cultivation room.

"No way! It can only reach 39% at most?"

Lin Mo looked at the 【Temporarily unable to invest merit points】 prompt and fell into a long silence.

Good news: In less than two days, consuming a total of 1700 merit points, his Metal Linggen's purity ratio increased from the original 22% to 39%.

Bad news: It can only be increased to 39%.

For a moment, he didn't know what expression to make, and he began to ponder while looking at the panel.

Actually, it was still cost-effective; an investment of 1700 merit points increased his cultivation speed by 3.4%.

If all other Linggens were also increased to a 39% purity ratio, then his final cultivation speed would be nearly twice as fast as before!

Of course, the experience points gained by investing merit would also save nearly half compared to before.

This is the principle of getting twice the result with half the effort.

Lin Mo had been meditating in the spiritual energy cultivation room today and could already clearly feel that the speed of his internal cultivation technique was much faster than in the past.

"I just found the feeling of being a genius, and now I can't become one?"

He muttered to himself, though his mood wasn't as bad as he had imagined.

Even if the Five Elements Linggen could be increased to a 100% purity ratio, it would still be a Five Elements Linggen.

Not to mention comparing it with a single-Linggen genius, which of the dual-Linggen or triple-Linggen geniuses wouldn't suppress him?

But as long as merit could increase experience points, these gaps would cease to exist...

Lin Mo quickly accepted this reality, while secretly thinking in his heart:

"I wonder if Chu Wange is single or dual?"

He glanced at the 10 merit points remaining on the panel after finishing the Metal Linggen, and his somewhat sore fingers hardened again.

Curled slightly, then straightened—

【Merit +1】

Not enough, still not enough, I need more merit points!

Lin Mo made up his mind once again to postpone his bedtime tonight by two hours.

Decided, I'm going to out-roll Ye Chen, out-roll Chu Wange, and out-roll all the geniuses in the cultivation world!

He thought confidently.

Evening, near the pavilion in Shahe Park.

"Hey!"

"Ha!"

"Ho!"

"..."

Sounds of exertion full of vigor, accompanied by the steady footsteps of grandpas and grandmas, kept ringing out by the riverbank.

Lin Mo also followed the majority's pace, practicing the Kui Xing Stance tirelessly.

An old grandpa resting nearby was stretching while kindly guiding him:

"Stance training emphasizes a centered body, relaxed frame, void-like posture, rounded intent, and smooth energy... Young man, don't tense your body so much, don't move around randomly. I'm talking about that little finger, why are you moving it? Are you having a seizure..."

Lin Mo walked the stance over and over, and the enthusiastic old grandpa guided him over and over, tirelessly.

It made him really want to tell the old grandpa: You don't know a damn thing, our school teachers don't teach it like that!

However, he glanced at the old grandpa's lean, muscular physique and the aura of perfection he exuded, feeling that the other party could probably take him out with one punch.

Therefore, he chose to keep his mouth shut.

Fortunately, the old grandpa didn't nag until the end before being forcibly dragged away by an old grandma who had finished stretching, and only then were his ears liberated.

He let out a sigh of relief and had no heart for walking the stance anymore.

He had originally planned to walk until nearly two in the morning, but he didn't want to move anymore after just starting for a while.

Lin Mo rubbed his temples; his head hurt!

Sleeping for only 4 hours for two consecutive nights was still a bit too much for this young, sleep-deprived body.

"Maybe I should go back and sleep early tonight, and get up early tomorrow..."

Just as this thought arose, a prompt suddenly came to his ears:

【Accumulated 1000 merit points, condensed luck value: 1】

【Luck value: 2】

"Sleep my ass, let's roll!"

Lin Mo's headache suddenly improved by more than half. In an instant, his waist didn't ache, his legs didn't hurt, and he began to set up his stance again, walking it over and over.

"Hey! Ha! Ho!"

The vigorous shouts blended perfectly into the sounds of the grandpas and grandmas around him.

Lin Mo's form was the same; the stance steps didn't need experience points added, and they seemed to become more and more proficient.

Just like that, he walked from around eleven at night until the alarm clock rang at nearly one in the morning.

Only when he was drenched in sweat, his clothes soaked through once again, did he slowly stop.

【Walked the stance twenty-one times, proficiency +0.21】

The system prompt floated across the interface.

Lin Mo pursed his lips and chose to ignore it directly.

Practicing the stance was to eliminate sleepiness and exercise the body; continuing to press 1 wasn't for adding proficiency, so why look at it?

He stretched his somewhat sore arms and was about to extend his long legs forward to stretch when a flash of bright red suddenly flickered past his eyes, followed by a slight "crack" sound.

He subconsciously looked down and saw two bright red hundred-yuan bills appearing right under the soles of his feet.

"Swipe, swiped money?"

His gaze was somewhat stunned.