Chapter 53 : Chapter 53
Chapter 53: To His Heart’s Content?
“To his heart’s content”??
Wang Longcheng was quite surprised by Li Mu’s answer.
A fight to the death was not drinking and revelry.
Wang Longcheng truly found the phrase difficult to understand.
But as he savored it more carefully, a faint smile gradually appeared at the corners of his lips.
Come to think of it, ever since he had met Li Mu, the boy really had seemed different from other students.
On the very first day of military training, he had broken an instructor’s leg.
In broad daylight, he had beaten his former eldest uncle from the Li family until the man knelt in the public square.
During the Abyss First Battle, he had deliberately headed into the dangerous areas, and the moment he heard that a Strange-Tailed Python had appeared, he had gone to support them immediately.
He had protected his teammates all the way to the very limit of his spirit.
In all these matters, Li Mu never seemed to consider the consequences.
He did as he pleased, acting whenever he wanted to act.
But could that really be called recklessness?
He absolutely was not that kind of person.
Li Mu’s calmness and caution on the battlefield were far beyond those of others his age and realm.
And he kept his trump cards hidden extremely well.
If Wang Longcheng were truly asked to sum Li Mu up in just a few words, he honestly would not know how.
Yet the words “to his heart’s content” somehow conveyed a sense of freedom and ease.
It gave him the feeling of some immortal or divine being reborn into mortal flesh, living in the human world only to experience it to the fullest.
“What a fine ‘to his heart’s content’ that is.”
“Get some rest. We will talk about everything tomorrow.”
After saying that, Wang Longcheng stopped disturbing Li Mu and left the room.
Li Mu was genuinely exhausted.
His spirit was terribly drained.
As soon as Wang Longcheng left, Li Mu sank into a deep sleep.
Early the next morning, Li Mu sat up in bed almost at once, but he did not rush to get dressed.
Instead, he impatiently opened the system.
【Triumph Points: 6980.】
Seeing that number, Li Mu nearly laughed himself senseless.
After calming himself down, he began planning how to use those points.
First of all, he definitely had to make up for the weak points in his strength.
After yesterday’s battle, Li Mu had realized that he had one major flaw.
He lacked True Qi.
He lacked it badly, desperately, catastrophically!
The Immobilization Art, the divine ability he relied on the most, just so happened to be the one that consumed the most True Qi.
Even if he used up all the True Qi in his body, he still could not instantly kill more than a few boss monsters.
In a place like the Abyss, where monsters were practically endless, that was woefully inadequate.
The second huge flaw was that he had too few methods at his disposal.
He still did not have enough means capable of turning the tide of battle.
There were many other weaknesses as well, but these two were the most urgent.
Once that thought arose, Li Mu stopped hesitating.
If he wanted to solve the problem of True Qi, he had to start with his own internal cultivation method.
Come to think of it, he had never actually improved the No-Grade Celestial Immortal Art.
The No-Grade Celestial Immortal Art was also one of his own Divine Abilities.
Li Mu opened the description for the No-Grade Celestial Immortal Art.
【No-Grade Celestial Immortal Art: Deepens understanding and insight into cultivated arts by fifty years, broadens the Dantian Sea, strengthens the Meridians, and allows any art to be used with greater ease.】
As he looked further down, an option that had never appeared before suddenly popped out.
【Host detected at Yellow Rank Third Grade. The Heavenly Immortal Art can advance!】
“Damn, so it was a realm restriction all along.”
Even now that Li Mu had reached Third Grade, only this single option had appeared.
No wonder he had never seen it before.
It was probably because his own martial artist realm had not been high enough to control a higher-grade heavenly immortal art at all.
【Triumph Points required to advance the Heavenly Immortal Art: 1000.】
“Upgrade it!”
【The No-Grade Celestial Immortal Art has advanced!】
【Inferior Heavenly Immortal Art: Deepens understanding and insight into cultivated arts by one hundred years. Greatly improves the Dantian Sea and Meridians. Can fuse Internal Cultivation Methods and absorb their traits into the Heavenly Immortal Art. Currently able to fuse three Internal Cultivation Methods. Fused methods may be replaced.】
“What??”
Li Mu’s eyes widened immediately.
Fuse Internal Cultivation Methods?
Absorb their traits and merge them into the Heavenly Immortal Art?
Now that was interesting. Li Mu already had some ideas.
Since he lacked True Qi, could he not just fuse several cultivation arts that increased the amount of True Qi and the speed at which it recovered?
Li Mu could not help complaining about how heaven-defying the Immobilization Art was.
Since it deducted True Qi by percentage, increasing his total amount of True Qi did little to help with its consumption.
Even if his True Qi became as vast as the sea, if the Immobilization Art still cost 5% each time, then twenty uses would drain him completely dry.
Still, considering the terrifying effect of the Immobilization Art, Li Mu could only accept it.
For now, the first major problem could more or less be considered solved.
He just needed to find a few internal cultivation methods.
Now it was time to solve the second problem.
“Continue. Next, unlock Wine-Borrowed Might for me first. Let me see what it does.”
【100 Triumph Points consumed. ‘Wine-Borrowed Might’ unlocked.】
【Wine-Borrowed Might: Take one drink, and wine aura spreads outward, creating a pressure field within two meters of the body. Enemies within the field suffer shaken courage and slowed movement. Your own courage surges, increasing movement speed by 5%. Duration: 10 minutes.】
A domain!
Li Mu’s eyes lit up at once, but he quickly noticed a problem.
The slowing effect on enemy movement had no numerical value attached to it.
That meant it was not like the Immobilization Art, which ignored realm differences.
The suppressive force limiting the enemy’s movement speed would depend on the enemy’s strength.
The stronger the enemy, the weaker the effect. The weaker the enemy, the stronger the effect.
Still, against enemies stronger than himself, it was enough as long as it took effect at all.
And once the domain was enhanced, monsters at Li Mu’s level or below would become even less threatening to him.
It was extremely useful for fighting groups.
Forget it. He had plenty of points anyway, so he would upgrade it first.
Opening the skill tree for Wine-Borrowed Might, Li Mu lit up three nodes in succession.
【The Wine Might Domain expands to a five-metre radius around the body. 】
【Duration increases to 15 minutes. 】
【Allies within the domain can also enjoy the speed increase. 】
Those three nodes cost Li Mu 400 Triumph Points.
He had 5,480 Triumph Points left.
Li Mu got out of bed. The Thornflower Cudgel and the cloak had already been placed beside it.
He casually picked up the Thornflower Cudgel and weighed it in his hand.
“Next, I’ll dump the remaining odd amount into Divine Weapon Art first.”
Divine Weapon Art and Mountain-Bearing Art were the foundation of his combat strength.
Even if he wanted to expand his other methods, he could not neglect those two.
【480 Triumph Points consumed. ‘Divine Weapon Art’ enhancement successful.】
【Divine Weapon Art: Bestows weight upon a weapon. Current weight: 1155 jin.】
The cudgel suddenly sank heavily in his hand.
Li Mu abruptly felt as though a lifetime had passed.
What he was holding now weighed half a ton!
Back when he had been on Earth, forget a thousand jin—even carrying two buckets of water upstairs would have left him panting for quite a while.
“Five hundred points into mountain-bearing art."
【500 Triumph Points consumed. ‘Mountain-Bearing Art’ enhancement successful.】
【Mountain-Bearing Art: Increases strength by the might of eight tigers and nine bulls.】
With that enhancement, Mountain-Bearing Art probably would not need any more investment until he was handling one and a half tons.
That left him with 4,500 points.
Li Mu then unlocked the Blessed Field Art.
【100 Triumph Points consumed. Blessed Field Art unlocked.】
【Blessed Field Art: Creates a world of spiritual energy. The Divine Soul may reside within it, nurturing spiritual plants and spiritual objects for your own use. 】
Farming??
Li Mu’s interest rose immediately, and he tried entering the Field of Blessings with his Divine Soul.
In an instant, his spirit separated from his body and entered another space.
His vision opened wide at once.
Heaven and earth, sun and moon, white clouds and flying birds.
It was actually a bright and beautiful world.
The land was unusually flat, carpeted in green grass.
But when Li Mu walked farther back, he discovered a mirror-like wall stretching all the way into the sky.
It was obvious that the place had fixed boundaries.
“So this is basically a real-life Minecraft, huh?”
Li Mu murmured to himself as he walked back and forth. Very quickly, he found all four boundaries.
The space in the middle was not very large.
Ten mu of land.
Li Mu withdrew from the Field of Blessings.
The Blessed Field Art also used a skill tree structure.
Li Mu spent 600 Triumph Points in one go and lit up four nodes.
【The Field of Blessings expands to 20 mu.】
【Gain one Spiritual Spring.】
【Living creatures from the real world may enter it.】
【The Field of Blessings expands to 40 mu.】
The reason he spent so much on it was that he intended to plant medicinal herbs inside.
The description stated that herbs planted in the Field of Blessings and irrigated by the Spiritual Spring would absolutely differ from ordinary herbs, both in quality and in growth speed.
And the Alchemy Art required quite a lot of herbs.
He now had 3,800 Triumph Points left.
Li Mu planned to keep around 2,000 in reserve.
Because he intended to first push Divine Weapon Art past the small target of one ton, he could only unlock one more Divine Ability for now.
Thus, Li Mu turned his attention toward the Divine Ability that cost 300 points.
【External Incarnation】