Chapter 5: White Task! Spiritual Energy Bonus!

A thick surge of spiritual energy rushed toward him; Lin Mo sharply closed his eyes and took a deep breath:

“With two extra points of spiritual energy, it’s definitely different—so fragrant~!”

After one breath, Lin Mo felt his sleep-deprived brain suddenly sharpened.

His gaze swept the spiritual energy cultivation room; apart from a soft reed mat whose cotton had hardened from constant sitting, the room held nothing else.

Yet despite this, securing a cultivation room was still the single most essential daily ritual for every student at Nanshan.

Nanshan No. 4 High School, ranked among the top five in the entire Xichuan Province as a provincial key school, was built atop a medium-tier Grade 1 Green-level spiritual vein.

Along this spiritual vein, three hundred cultivation rooms of varying sizes had been carved out, divided into upper, middle, and lower tiers.

Even the lowest-tier rooms provided at least a 10% boost to spiritual energy.

Of course, most students could only ever access the lower-tier rooms.

Only a select few students deemed exceptional by the school were granted access to middle-tier rooms.

As for the rare upper-tier rooms, they were reserved exclusively for the school’s instructors.

Thanks to this Grade 1 Green-level spiritual vein, Nanshan No. 4 High School had attracted numerous outstanding teachers and met students’ daily cultivation needs.

Within the province, it was essentially a top-tier cultivation school that most students would kill to enter.

Lin Mo sat cross-legged on the reed mat but didn’t immediately enter meditation; instead, he glanced at the system panel’s time and silently counted down:

3, 2, 1—

【Ding! Daily cultivation task refreshed. Accept task (White): Meditate for one hour?】

【Reward: Breathing count +1】

Still just the useless white task…

Lin Mo let out a dry, expressionless chuckle.

Daily cultivation tasks refreshed precisely at 8 a.m. each day, offering rewards corresponding to their quality.

But most students’ daily tasks were always white; occasionally, a green task would appear.

Higher-quality tasks? Pure luck.

Lin Mo occasionally got one or two green tasks a month, but after over six years in Qi Refining, he’d only ever received one blue-quality daily task.

Before the Merit Fish and experience gains, that had been his most unforgettable experience.

That task rewarded him with a vial of Grade 1 Qi Refining Powder; after consuming it, his experience surged by 10 points.

Too bad—it happened only once.

It wasn’t that his luck was terrible; most Qi Refining students were the same.

For example, Zhang Da had never once pulled a blue task, and over half his classmates were just like him.

Only Ye Chen, who held the title 【Child of Fortune】, had a higher chance of drawing high-quality tasks.

That’s why he’d rapidly climbed from the bottom of the class to the top five in the entire school.

“What a pity—merit points aren’t fortune. If they were, I could just swallow pills every day and reach late Qi Refining!”

Lin Mo shook his head, cleared his mind of distractions, clicked to accept the task, and smoothly entered meditation; his Qi Refining Scripture began to slowly circulate:

【Ding! Meditation started…】

As the system notification floated up, followed by a long string of ellipses… ellipses…

Still ellipses.

About an hour later, after countless ellipses, a number finally appeared—

【One breath, experience +0.02…】

【Daily task completed. Reward: One breath, experience +0.02】

“???”

Seeing the same unchanged number, Lin Mo’s mind filled with question marks:

“Aren’t I already at Qi Refining Level 3? Why hasn’t my experience gain changed at all?”

“Oh right—my talent hasn’t improved. Never mind then…”

In truth, Lin Mo had long grown accustomed to this.

This was the reality of a Five Element Mixed Spirit Root; the nationwide #108 Five Element Qi Refining Scripture crawled like an ox dragging a cart.

In the past, he might have tolerated it.

But now…

【Ding! You invested 100 merit points into the Metal Spirit Root. The Metal Spirit Root received slight improvement: Purity ratio: 22.1% → 23.1%】

Not enough. Again!

Lin Mo mentally directed another 100 merit points into it.

【Ding! Invested 100 merit points. Metal Spirit Root received slight improvement: Purity ratio: 23.1% → 24.1%】

Good!

Lin Mo’s eyes lit up; compared to his original Metal Spirit Root, its purity had now increased by 2.1%.

Surely his cultivation speed would skyrocket now!

He closed his eyes and plunged back into meditation. An hour later:

【One breath, experience +0.021…】

That’s it?

Lin Mo opened his eyes, a flicker of confusion and bewilderment in them:

“Why does it feel worse than just directly investing merit points into experience?”

But in the long run, investing merit points into the spirit root was actually more efficient—and there was still a month until the Immortal Exam…

“Forget it. Slow is slow. I already messed up once this morning. Suffer now, reap later. Suffer now, reap later…”

Lin Mo muttered to himself, trying to hypnotize his mind.

Slowly, he closed his eyes again and re-entered meditation.

Meanwhile, his thumb never stopped tapping:

【Merit points +1, Merit points +1, Merit points +1…】

The merit points on the data screen steadily accumulated.

In about an hour, he’d gathered 60 merit points.

At his current spirit root conversion rate, that equaled 12 experience points.

Add the 0.021 from meditation, and it totaled 12.021 experience points—wasn’t that far more impressive?

Never before had he experienced such a delightful meditation session!

Feeling the accumulation of merit points, Lin Mo felt utterly at ease.

Three hours later…

【Ding! Your cultivation room time has expired. Please leave immediately.】

The cold notification cut his meditation short; after a series of “beep-beep-beep” alerts, the room’s door slowly slid open.

“Phew!”

Lin Mo exhaled deeply and broke his meditation.

Whether due to psychology or not, he always felt this session had been smoother than usual.

Even though the experience gain on his panel hadn’t changed much.

He kept tapping his thumb, then stood up to vacate the seat.

“What are you dawdling for? Time is spiritual energy—every second you waste costs others precious time!”

A female classmate rushed in impatiently, showing no mercy despite Lin Mo’s handsome face.

“Go ahead, take it.”

Lin Mo kept tapping his thumb as he rose to leave.

The girl was about to complain, but then noticed his moving fingers—her expression instantly turned strange, and the words died on her lips.

After Lin Mo walked out with a blank face, the girl glanced at the reed mat beneath her, sniffed the air, and blushed.

“Pfft! Pervert!”

She muttered under her breath, watching his retreating back.

But Lin Mo didn’t notice her expression; he turned and walked out gracefully, even politely closing the door behind him.

Turn right, go upstairs.

Floors five through ten housed ordinary cultivation rooms without spiritual veins.

Compared to the lower two floors’ spiritual energy rooms, these felt far more spacious; no long queues lined the corridors, and vacant single rooms were easy to find.

Lin Mo picked one at random, pushed open the door, and stepped inside—familiar decor greeted him.

No different from the spiritual energy rooms: just an empty room with a hard reed mat.

Ordinary cultivation rooms, like the spiritual ones, were equipped with ventilation systems and soundproofing.

Not a soundproof array, but simply rooms built with sound-dampening materials.

Compared to ancient cultivators, modern cultivators were far more economical.

Rumor had it that even the lowest-tier soundproof array required a lower-grade spirit stone—and its effect wasn’t much better than a soundproof room, nor was it durable.

Fake spirit stones with impurities cost 100,000 apiece; even a pure lower-grade spirit stone cost at least 200,000 to 300,000—enough to outfit dozens of soundproof cultivation rooms.

Gratitude to General Chen for inventing the first soundproof Immortal Vessel!

Lin Mo silently gave him a mental thumbs-up, then sat down and activated his cultivation technique:

【Ding! Meditation started…】

【Merit +1, Merit +1, Merit +1……】

One hour later……

【One breath cycle, Experience +0.015……】

Lin Mo: «……»

The instant he saw the number «+0.015» float up, the symbols «???» flashed instantly in his mind, and he couldn’t help asking himself internally:

«That’s not right—why am I still sitting in meditation?»