All who heard of this were astonished!
Many martial artists even started to head to Great World City during this period to see if Su Mo could live up to his reputation.
As more and more people started to ask about Su Mo, it wasn't long before his background was made known.
The information they uncovered shocked them as well.
It turned out that Su Mo belonged to Celestialspirit Sect and was the pro-disciple of the peak master of Towering Sky Peak.
Furthermore, Su Mo's previous achievements left many people in a state of shock.
Not only was Su Mo a peerless genius of his class, but he alone had also defeated everyone else from the other eight peaks in the Martial Arts Competition of the Nine Peaks!
Soon, Su Mo's name was known all across Dark Domain, and it wouldn't be long before his fame would spread across the entire East Continent.
Su Mo entered the Divine Map, heedless of the attention he had attracted.
As he stood in the small yard in front of the stone hut, his thoughts turned to Hong Qingxuan for she was the one who had cared for it.
Su Mo felt at peace in this place, as if all his worries had dissipated.
Su Mo then shook his head and sat down in the yard.
"I first need to reach peak Lv 9 Enlightenment Realm cultivation so I can advance to True Darkness Realm in the few days thereafter." Su Mo murmured to himself.
He then took out a great number of Spiritual Stones and started devouring them.
As the Stones exploded and Spiritual Qi surged, Su Mo took less than 10 minutes to reach Lv 9 Enlightenment Realm cultivation.
He immediately stopped devouring Spiritual Qi after that. There was a huge gap to bridge between Enlightenment and Ture Darkness Realm so he would not act rashly.
He then closed his eyes and started to refine his cultivation.
Time flew by, and soon five days had passed.
Su Mo opened his eyes and felt that the time was ripe for him to advance.
He had not neglected to stabilize his cultivation while making his way back to Dark Domain from Hong Domain. Including his refinement over the past five days, he felt that his cultivation had stabilized enough for him to advance to True Darkness Realm.
He took a deep breath, waved his hand, and in a flash of white light, a small mountain of spiritual stones appeared in the yard.
They totaled 1.5 million Medium Spiritual Stones, the winnings from his bet with Wang Zhuo.
"Explode!" he shouted.
He released his Devouring Martial Soul to devour the stones.
The mountain of Spiritual Stones exploded with a bang and a dense spiritual mist filled the entire yard.
Attracted by the devouring power, a dense spiritual Qi completely covered Su Mo.
As time passed, the concentration of Spiritual Qi fell but Su Mo's aura continued to soar, becoming more and more vast.
His nine Spiritual Spirals swirled wildly and his Vital Spirit was at its highest density. A trace of five-colored Qi strength appeared at the bottom of every spiral, completely unlike his Vital Spirit.
This Qi strength might have looked similar in appearance to Vital Spirit, but they were completely different. This was a stronger form known as Dark Spirit, or Dark Force.
Dark Force gave off a terrifying aura, full of destructive power, and was many more times powerful than Vital Spirt.
Once Su Mo transformed all his Vital Spirit into Dark Force, he would be able to advance to True Darkness Realm.
The spiritual mist started to clear as time passed. As the last wisp of Spiritual Qi disappeared, Su Mo discovered that he had only completed less than 40% of his Dark Force transformation.
"I can't believe it consumes so much Spiritual Qi!"
Su Mo's heart sank. This transformation of Dark Force had consumed Spiritual Qi at a speed many times faster than when he was cultivating Vital Spirit.
"One more time!"
Su Mo's eyes glinted with determination. Nothing cost was going to deter him from advancing, no matter how high.
Su Mo took out all of his Medium Spiritual Stones. This totaled almost 30 million stones, and piled up to about 30 meters high.
Furthermore, he also added 10,000 Upper Spiritual Stones. This brought the total to about 40 million Medium Spiritual Stones in value.
Su Mo continued to devour the Spiritual Qi. A larger and even more dense spiritual mist appeared and shrouded the entire yard.
He continued to cultivate and worked on transforming Dark Force to increase his cultivation.
An hour later, after all of his Spiritual Qi was exhausted, Su Mo opened his eyes. He still remained at Enlightenment Realm cultivation.
Despite that, he had succeeded in transforming 99% of his Vital Spirit. His strength had increased rapidly.
After transforming 99% of his Vital Spirit, he wasn't able to to transform the remaining 1% no matter how hard he tried. It was as if he had hit a bottleneck.
He ascribed this situation to the instability of his foundation. It wasn't time yet.
Fortunately, although he failed to advance, he was now of Half Step to the True Darkness Realm cultivation!
Su Mo could not help sighing at the thought of the large number of Spiritual Stones he spent getting here.
Now, he was just left with 10,000 Upper Spiritual Stones!
He needed Spiritual Stones whether it was upgrading his Martial Soul to Heaven Class, elevating his cultivation or improving his body strength. The thought of it all made his head ache.
He had no choice but to find ways to earn more Spiritual Stones.
Craftsmanship seemed promising, but he needed a good bit more practice before he could make any money from it.
"Distant water cannot quench present thirst!"
Su Mo thought for a moment before he left the confines of the Divine Map and reappeared in his room.
He went to the great hall of the inn to have a meal before returning to his room to continue his cultivation.
Ten days later, Su Mo stopped cultivation. He was ready to breach the bottleneck once again.
This time, he was very confident!
Suddenly, an angry cry was heard from outside.
"Su Mo, come out!"
The loud voice rang everywhere with a strength that made the inn shake.
"What's going on?"
Confusion showed on Su Mo's face as he frowned. He didn't remember offending anyone in Great World City.
If he did, the only person he offended was Wang Zhuo, but this man was not Wang Zhuo!
Su Mo released his spiritual consciousness and found the source of the cry.
It was a man, tall and thin, with a cold, arrogant expression. He stood in front of the inn, his face full of fighting desire.
His name was Nie Yu, and he was ranked 977th on the List of Top 1,000 Talents. Su Mo had challenged him at the Heaven's Proud Jade Wall.
Why would he come after him? Su Mo could not figure this out. Was it just because Su Mo took his spot on the list?
Su Mo was speechless. This man was just asking for trouble!
He could defeat Nie Yu at the Heaven's Proud Jade Wall, and it would be no different now.
Su Mo shook his head and walked out.