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Lijiang City, Yongtong District, Chen Residence.
Chen Mu slept until he naturally awoke, flipped off the thin blanket from his body, glanced at the Soul-Calming Stake standing by the window, and felt extremely satisfied in his heart.
Ever since he discovered the wondrous use of the Soul-Calming Stake, Chen Mu had his own refrigerator and air conditioner.
Making iced herbal tea didn't require the hassle of making ice anymore.
At night, placing it beside the bed not only kept it cool all night, but it also came with the added benefit of repelling mosquitoes.
"Chao Tianwang is such a good person," Chen Mu beamed with joy.
For a moment, he suddenly felt that the Thousand Mountains Sutra wasn't so sinister after all.
Using the cultivation strategy of bearing Yin aligned with twelve Soul-Calming Stakes, wouldn't it be great as a large central air conditioning unit?
"It's the way of thinking of these locals that's flawed!"
"Each one of them so deeply steeped in resentment."
Chen Mu couldn't help but shake his head and sigh, "Good people like me are truly too few!"
Once again feeling sorrow for the people of this world, Chen Mu got up, washed up, and ate.
After the meal, he didn't rush to increase his proficiency, but instead started preliminary processing on the medicinal herbs he had bought on the way home yesterday.
The Blue Medicine Pill required some herbs to have a long preparation time, which needed to be started in advance.
"In a little over twenty days, they should be just about ready to use," said Chen Mu as he sealed the fermentation jar and placed it in a cool corner of the room.
...
Having stored everything away, Chen Mu returned to the thatched shed.
He didn't like staying in the room much during the day.
The house, designed to keep out rain and wind, had small windows. Moreover, they were latticed and covered with oiled paper, making poor lighting conditions.
Even with all the windows open, the room still felt somewhat dim.
The east side of the courtyard, under the thatched shed, had thus become the main area of activity.
The original thatched shed had been dismantled and rebuilt by Chen Mu. The whole shed now hugged the east wall, stretching five to six meters in length from north to south.
The shed was divided into two parts.
On the side close to the room, the floor was paved with green bricks and furnished with a dining table, small tables, rocking chairs, and a wooden storage cabinet for teapots, bowls, and spoons.
Near the gate, the ground was also paved with green bricks, but Chen Mu had added a layer of polished wood on top as his regular practice area.
Under the thatched shed,
black smoke and water flowed over the ground. The mess left from processing the medicinal herbs quickly disappeared.
At the same time, garbage began to fall pitter-patter into a wooden barrel behind the courtyard gate.
Once the cleaning was done, Chen Mu took a short break before walking to the wooden floor area on the south side of the shed.
He took off his shoes, sat on the wooden planks, bent his left knee, draped his right leg over his left, and touched the ground with the tip of his big toe.
His left hand pressed on the right side of his body, while his right hand wrapped around from behind to press on the left side of his body, rotating his head nearly one hundred and twenty degrees backward.
"If it weren't for mastering the Heavenly Serpent Shape Cultivation Technique, this pose for the Cloud Mirage Shape Cultivation Technique would be pretty hard to achieve!"
There were up to one hundred and eight variations of the breathing method for the Cloud Mirage Shape Cultivation Technique.
However, there were only thirty-six poses.
He then immediately used the excuse of a ruined reputation to quickly leave Nanyang Prefecture City and settle down in Lijiang Guard City for retirement.
Thinking about this, old man Ding couldn't help but smile smugly, "Old Ding is still one step ahead!"
"Raid my house?"
"Don't you know the saying about the crafty rabbit having three burrows?"
"The bit of property in Nanyang Prefecture was just a shell!"
He had long since quietly transferred his assets, even purchasing a bookstore and a small two-entry courtyard in Lijiang Guard City.
The silver he had amassed during Chao Tianwang's recruitment was also stashed away throughout Nanyang Prefecture City.
He had now taken all of it out and brought it to Lijiang City.
"Now I can live out my old age in peace!"
Thinking of the beautiful young concubine he had just taken into his house, old man Ding's face glowed red.
"I need to find that silver-booted errand boy and get some more Jinyang Pills."
"The Xue Family goods station really does have divine reach, being able to buy the secret medicine famous in Nanyang Prefecture even in the small Lijiang City. Heh heh..."
...
Three days later.
Chen Mu stared in disbelief at the gray wall.
Cloud Mirage Shape Cultivation Technique: 892/10000/Third Rank;
"This isn't another weak sauce technique, is it?" Chen Mu wondered.
Muscle Transformation in just three days?!
"Or is it that the accumulation of numerous Shape Cultivation Techniques has pushed my body to its limits?" Chen Mu speculated.
If that were true, then the time required to practice the other three Shape Cultivation Techniques would decrease.
"There's only one way to find out." Chen Mu immediately buried himself in training again.
...
Five days later.
Chen Mu sat cross-legged on the wooden floor under the wooden shed.
Cloud Mirage Shape Cultivation Technique: 15/10000/Fourth Rank;
"It's indeed due to too much stacking," Chen Mu concluded.
In just a total of nine days, he completed the Muscle Transformation with the Cloud Mirage Shape Cultivation Technique.
"Perhaps I don't even need fifty Shell Souls, maybe just forty will do," Chen Mu said, invigorated.
"But where am I supposed to find so many Shape Cultivation Techniques?"
The faster he trained, the quicker the stacking, which meant shorter time needed to cultivate Shell Souls.
But too quick, and he'd find himself without any Shape Cultivation Techniques to practice.
"It seems I can only feel my way through this, piling up the Limit Shape Cultivation Techniques," Chen Mu said resignedly.
It was a dilemma of happiness.
"Forget it, I still have three other techniques to learn, no use worrying about these troubling matters."
"On a day of great joy, to Ruyi Tower, here we come!"