79 At the Peak of Level Two

The little commotion between the four of them continued for a while before Tang Meng initiated his departure.

"Yes, it's getting late, you should head home soon. Be careful when you drive. Feel free to come here again next time!" Qin Qiuyue replied.

"Auntie Qin, I'll definitely come here very often! Oh and… If you want to visit the city, you can come to my place!" Tang Meng took a short peek at Ning Lingyu as he spoke.

"Okay, that will do! Hurry up and drive home!" Ling Yun interrupted as he could not deal with the formalities. "Mum, I'll send Tang Meng out. You guys can head back in first."

Qin Qiuyue nodded her head in agreement, before walking back into the house with her daughter.

"Hey! What were you looking at just now? Look at my sister with those eyes again and I will cover your body in bruises!" Ling Yun threatened.

"Not even her back view? Discreetly?"

"If you wanna look at her, do it openly! Why do you need to hide? And, oh...why did you not dare to start a conversation with Ling Yu earlier on?"

"If I can I would! I could not bring myself to converse with Ling Yu in front of Auntie Qin."

"Lame! Why do you have to be scared of my mother? She won't eat you up! Anyways, get home quick but be careful on the road!" Ling Yun exclaimed as he walked with Tang Meng towards his Ferrari.

"Brother! I really feel that your mum is not a mortal!"

"Of course she's not! How would a mortal be able to look so gorgeous? How would a mortal be able to cook up such delicacies? She's too perfect to be one!" It might be his first time seeing Qin Qiuyue but there wasn't any difference between the one in his memory. She was still so motherly and loving.

"No bro, that's not what I meant. What I am trying to say is…" Tang Meng was interrupted by Ling Yun before he could finish his sentence.

"Okay enough, stop your tales! Leave now! Call my new number once you've found an apartment for me" Ling Yun could not waste any more time as he had to rush off for something urgent.

Tang Meng duly turned his Ferrari's engine on, waved goodbye at Ling Yun and accelerated off the street. After a few kilometers away, Tang Meng lit up a cigarette to smoke, as he thought to himself. "This family does not have a fixed family name, as if none of them were related by blood. Also, Auntie Qin was exhibiting this civilized and elegant side, despite being decked in her usual attire. No one could compare to her level of gracefulness."

After sending Tang Meng off, Ling Yun walked back into the house only to see his mother and sister chit-chatting happily. "Mum, I'll be going out for some exercise now. I'll reach home rather late so do not wait for me. Rest early!" Ling Yun attempted to convince his mum.

"Alright! Remember to bring your keys along!"

"Brother, come back home early. Do not let both of us worry" Ning Lingyu added to her mother's reminder.

Nodding his head, Ling Yun made his way to his room, grabbed his items and left for his run. At the doorstep, he hesitated and walked to his sister. "Ling Yu, these two cards are for Mum and you. I've already credited sufficient values inside of them."

Before she could ask about the origin of the cards, Ling Yun had already left the house. "He rarely comes back home to spend time with us. Yet now that he has come back, all he cares about is slimming down. There's no time for us at all!" Ling Yu whined at her departed brother.

"Wow! Six eights? And this...six nines?? These two numbers are impressive! How did he get his hands on these numbers?" Ling Yu was stunned when she looked at the digits of the two phone number cards. "Mum! Come here! Look at the digits of the phone number brother had gotten for us! It's unbelievable!" she added.

However, Qin Qiuyue was more concerned about her son who had just left the house and had not heard Ling Yu's exclamation.

After walking for half a kilometer, Ling Yun checked his leather needle bag to make sure the nine golden needles and eighty-one silver needles were all present, shining brightly inside the dark colored bag.

I can't lose these needles. It would be terrible if they were to fall into the hands of others and they decided to misuse it by harming people.

As of now, Ling Yun does not have the ability to retrieve items to himself through the hair. Hence, if he were to use the silver needles in times of battles, he would have to remove the needles from his victims at the end. That simply does not make any sense. Especially when it is chaotic, where do you get the time and composure to spot the casualties and pluck the needles out from them! Ling Yun pondered.

Thus, he deemed that these two sets of needles would only be used to heal, not harm. He could get the ordinary needles from the supermarket for self-protection. That would save a massive amount of time and money for him.

He packed his leather bag compact to himself before tightening the sandbags around his legs. Off he ran, for his Shichiyou herbs!

He took off with great momentum before sprinting straight, faster than Usain Bolt in the Olympics. His speed was comparable to that of Tang Meng's Ferrari!

Spending a long day together with his sister today, Ling Yun had managed to absorb enough spiritual energy from her to replenish what he had expended on Doctor Xue's poisoned body earlier today. Hence, in order to maximize the spiritual energy he would be able to absorb from the Shichiyou herbs, he had to vent out as much as possible the remaining spiritual energy inside his body.

The Shichiyou herbs were discovered not far from the school. However, the distance between Ling Yun's place and the school is the problem. Given the speed Tang Meng drove at earlier, he took close to forty minutes to cover twenty-five kilometers or more. Ling Yun, moving on his legs, would definitely require a greater period of time.

After running straight for ten kilometers without a break, the spiritual energy inside his body was finally activated. His 'engine' was raring to go. As his spiritual energy flowed all around his meridians and body, he felt pumped up as his legs started to move at a higher cadence. He was moving extremely fast. So fast in fact that he left the sports cars on the road in his shadow.

Forty minutes. Ling Yun took only forty minutes to arrive at his destination. Despite this vigorous output, he still had more than half of his spiritual energy still not expended. Seemed like running fast and far was not enough to bring aid to his project. Panting heavily, he was disappointed to not be able to use up all of his spiritual energy.

He would have no problem leveling up to level two without expending all of his spiritual energy. But that was not his goal tonight. He had originally hoped to reach level three. To do so, he had to release everything so that he will have enough capacity to absorb spiritual energy from the Shichiyou herbs to proceed to level two first followed by level three.

Reaching level two just means that you would get stronger physically, expanding your spiritual energy capacity as well. However, Level three was a completely different thing. After reaching level three, you would be able to make use of the needles to control and modify your spiritual energy. That ability is very crucial to him!

Without further ado, Ling Yun clenched his teeth together and stripped naked. Realising the redundancy to hide his clothes so late at night, he rushed towards the river like a pig running towards its food and jumped into the ice-cold water body.

"What the heck! It's so damn cold in here!" Ling Yun ranted out loud. In order to use up his energy, he started to run against the current of the river whose water level was at his belly button. This is mad! This is worse than running ten kilometers with his 25-kilogram sandbag!Ling Yun thought to himself.

Can you imagine the water resistance acting on his legs? Swimming streamlined in still water(with low water resistance) would have taken up a big portion of his energy already! Much less moving against the strong current with half your body submerged in water! Doing so was basically as good as self-harm!

Despite so, Ling Yun was not bothered. He had fallen in love with this effective method of burning energy and fats inside his body. Anyone will be able to feel the resistance in the water by putting your palm inside the water. How great would the resistance be acting on Ling Yun's two hundred kilogram body!!

It did not take too long before he had tired himself out! His legs turned jelly against the strong water currents, like waves after waves of ants biting his legs. If not for his remaining spiritual energy and high physical endurance, he would not even be able to conquer a short fifty meters!

Through this method, his spiritual energy depleted rapidly. Two hundred meters in water was more effective than twenty kilometers on land! Not to forget the amount of fats he shredded at the end of this exhausting exercise!

He persevered in the water and challenged his own limit so as to drain out all of his remaining energy. Only till then would he make his way up the shore. "The only way to go is forward!" Ling Yun told himself as surrendering now would not get him anywhere.

After using up all of his energy, he lethargically dressed back up before making his way to the direction of Shichiyou herbs. It was still there. Looking sturdy and upright.

Be it the Spiritual Jade Box or Ning Ling Yu's innate spiritual body, nothing can compare to the amount of spiritual energy dispensed by the Shichiyou herbs. Ling Yu sat near them and started to absorb the spiritual energy of the herbs. However, only twenty percent of the spiritual energy was absorbed by Ling Yun given his method. The other eighty percent was spread out into the air.

Getting to level two required twice the amount of spiritual energy needed to reach level one. To reach level three, twice the amount needed to reach level two was needed. This goes on and on with each level. Thus, when Ling Yun reaches level nine, he has to absorb two hundred and fifty-six times the amount of spiritual energy needed to reach level one!

"Zzz! When I reach level four and become able to control my spiritual energy flow in my body, I will come up with a solution to prevent such waste of the spiritual energy!!" Ling Yun felt guilty of his wastefulness of the Shichiyou herb.

As it turned twelve on the clock, Ling Yun was filled with spiritual energy and he did not hesitate to level up to level two. Within minutes, his body felt a strong cooling sensation! He knew he succeeded in reaching level two and could feel himself become physically stronger.

However, he was not satisfied. His goal tonight was to hit level three. Now he had to absorb four times the amount required to reach level one. He stayed calm and patient, before taking a deep breath to start absorbing again. The more spiritual energy he absorbed, the further he progressed, eventually reaching the peak of Level two!

By now, it looked as if the spiritual energy from the Shichiyou herbs transmitted itself into the body of Ling Yun, aiding him in leveling up! Such is the incredible potential of Ling Yun!

However, at the most crucial point of leveling up to level three, Ling Yun felt abnormal movements near his forehead, middle of his eyebrows, as well as his pubic region! He became excited! That was the immortal spirit energy he possessed after the countless evolutions and changes he went through to get to today! Ling Yun was distracted from his goal tonight as he was overjoyed by his discovery!

This immortal spirit energy might not be immense, but it will be enough to benefit future training and practices tremendously. Even absorbing a whole field of Shichiyou herbs could not compare with this!

I thought I had lost all of this spiritual energy! Turns out there's still some hiding at these regions! Ling Yun cooled down his composure and transited into deep thoughts.

Though he was not able to get to level three, he had made a magnificent discovery about himself. "I am so blessed!" He shouted in joy, looking up into the sky of twinkling stars, who seemed to be winking at him.