Chapter 8: Grinding Spells

Dark clouds obscure the moon; the night is deep and profound.

The shantytown outside the border city of Nanmo is currently immersed in silence.

People are either diligently practicing their cultivation or have already fallen into a deep, drowsy sleep.

At this moment, Du En calmly pushes open his door.

Looking around at the other rooms in the small courtyard, everyone else is already fast asleep, burdened by their worries; no one discovered him getting up in the night, and naturally, no one saw him slip away.

Moving stealthily along the way, he weaves through the crowded shanties and finally arrives at the adjacent mountain forest, where, after a careful search, he finds a good place to practice spells.

All is pitch black around him, and everything is quiet.

After circulating his energy once and having his mana basically restored, Du En calls up his personal interface.

As his thoughts stir, a soft *whoosh* sound rings out.

【Spell: Earth Bullet Technique (Entry Level 0/20)】

Just as the Yellow Earth Art being one stage higher allows for a commanding perspective that shortens the time needed to accumulate proficiency in the Earth Bullet Technique, now that the Earth Bullet Technique has caught up, it in turn elevates the proficiency of the Yellow Earth Art.

Clearly, he has already realized the drawbacks of being overly tense and exhausting his mental energy during the day.

He can be considered a skilled hand now!

Du En feels no anxiety; he simply continues to practice in silence.

"Accumulating 1.5 points of proficiency a day—no, that's not right; based on the actual feeling just now, it actually takes nine and a half times to accumulate one point of proficiency... It must be the influence of the cultivation method; because both are Earth-elemental, there is a positive correlation, so the cultivation method, being one stage higher, forms a commanding advantage over this spell."

While pondering, Du En does not linger; he leaves as he should, sneaking through the small paths again to quickly return to the corpse-burier's courtyard.

A while later.

Du En opens his eyes, raises his hand, and breaks the silence.

After all, only three days remain!

I'll ask again tomorrow or the day after!

Du En is naturally aware of the restlessness in people's hearts.

However, he maintains his own rhythm and is completely unaffected.

Practice, recover, practice, recover... During these few hours in the dead of night, Du En repeats this process.

After a moment of preparation, he raises his hand.

However, his luck is quite good; in the following six days, no accidents occurred while burying corpses, and everyone got through it safely.

By observing Du En, they follow his example, start to adjust, and work hard, gradually finding their way; they have adapted to this job and can be said to have shed the title of newcomer.

He then draws the machete he carries, chops down the tree in a few strokes, trims it slightly to make it look like firewood, and drags the tree toward the wood-chopping spot he happened to like the night before.

【Divine Ability: None】

In this pitch-black forest, there is no sound.

Clearly, this is the change brought about by the breakthrough in the Earth Bullet Technique.

High consumption, low power; it is truly just beginning to be learned.

It's about to fall!

As soon as he circulates his cultivation method, he immediately feels a change, even though he is not fully focused.

Earth Bullet Technique!

As his mana flows, an earth bullet the size of an inch, emitting a faint yellow light, rapidly condenses a few inches in front of his fingers, and then, responding to his thoughts, it shoots out violently.

Of course, that thing about boiled monster owl is truly impossible to learn!

As time passes, the deadline for Luo Heng to demand protection money draws ever closer, making people feel uneasy.

Fifteen times!

This is the upper limit of his nightly practice sessions while reserving energy and focusing entirely on the spell.

【Cultivation: Early Qi Refining (14/100)】

Du En stands still, calms his mind, and then begins to mobilize the mana in his dantian.

Boom!

The long-battered tree is immediately blasted with a bowl-sized gap; wood chips and debris fly high, followed by a teeth-gritting *crack-crack* sound.

Firewood is indeed a necessity; he will leave it here for now and handle it reasonably later.

The mobilization of mana feels different from just before—faster and more efficient; it travels through his meridians, begins to overflow, and produces profound changes, and a solid earth bullet the size of a fist appears several inches in front of his fingers.

Snap!

Accompanied by a faint shattering sound, this earth bullet embeds itself into the tree trunk, causing damage only an inch deep, without yet creating a bursting effect on the wound.

Not long after sleeping, it is dawn.

In these few days, Du En has not been practicing with full concentration, yet the proficiency of his Yellow Earth Art has increased by two points.

The tension in their hearts has not eased, but seeing Du En, their leader, still calm and unhurried as always, the others can only suppress it for now.

"Furthermore, although the power of the Earth Bullet Technique has indeed increased significantly, my base cultivation is not quite compatible; with this amount of mana, I can release the spell at most three times."

Everyone gets up and stretches their bodies.

In other words, calculating at this speed, it won't even take seven days for this Earth Bullet Technique to break through to the next stage.

【Hundred Arts: None】

Every accumulation from focused practice adds up bit by bit, bringing subtle changes that make the consumption lower and the power greater, though it is not obvious to the naked eye.

Wei Ming looks sickly, unable to stop yawning; he wants to maintain the state he was in yesterday afternoon but cannot enter it at all, and he cannot help but feel worried and sigh.

Every three practice sessions, he sits cross-legged in the dark, remaining vigilant while circulating his energy to recover.

Then, Du En finds a corner, sits cross-legged, and circulates his energy to recover.

【Spirit Root: Low Grade】

【Cultivation Method: Yellow Earth Art (Entry Level 2/20)】

"However, the experimental spellcasting just now has already proven that at the same stage, there will no longer be the previous influence, returning to the normal situation of one point for every ten times."

However, it did not actually collapse down, because Du En stepped forward, raised a hand to support it, and stopped this trend.

The target was a tree a zhang and a half away; it looked unremarkable, only the wood of the tree trunk appeared quite dense, barely comparable to the normal physical defense of an ordinary early-stage Qi Refining practitioner, and it could be used as a reference.

"The power is not good, and the consumption of magic power is not small; even if the magic power is full, I can only cast it six times."

In the deep night of this seventh day, in the woods on the outer edge of the shack area, accompanied by an Earth Bullet spell that had already restrained its light, skillfully cast by Du En, his Earth Bullet Technique was also officially grinded to the level of 'First Glimpse of the Path'!

After returning to the room, he observed silently for a moment before going to sleep.

【Age: 18/91】

"As expected, there are some changes..."

It was not until the fourth watch had passed and the fifth watch was approaching that he stopped.

His eyes closed slightly, silently experiencing that change of water flowing and a channel being formed.

Next, first focus on grinding the cultivation method to improve the cultivation base that serves as the foundation, and then use the advantage of a high vantage point to grind spells faster.

Du En slightly adjusted his subsequent grinding plan.

As for now, it is time to take action!

(End of this chapter)