HPMC Chapter 11

　　From that day on, Yu Tianze’s life fell into a certain routine.

　　Every morning at dawn, he would begin his secluded cultivation, accumulating power, tempering his physical body, and refining his divine abilities and spells. He would finish his cultivation at dusk, then go out to eat with Mu Zirun. After the meal, he would bathe in the spiritual spring for half an hour before continuing his seclusion. This time contemplating the heavens and earth, visualizing the meaning of his own Dao. And so another night would pass before he would begin his cultivation again at dawn.

　　This cycle repeated itself. That’s right, in addition to his daily cultivation, Yu Tianze had an extra item on his schedule: eating. Perhaps because Mu Zirun was quite skilled, after tasting his cooking for the first time, at the same time the next day, Yu Tianze, for some reason, inexplicably went out of his room again.

　　Then, whether expected or unexpected, he found himself facing a table full of delicious food again. But this time, it wasn’t one meat dish, two vegetable dishes, and a soup; it was two meat dishes, one vegetable dish, and a soup. And the soup was meat broth.

　　Noticing Mu Zirun’s thoughtfulness, Yu Tianze felt a little happy. He did indeed crave meat. While spiritual vegetables contained a trace of spiritual energy and were somewhat sweet, nothing compared to the smooth and delicious taste of demon beast meat. Not to mention, demon beast meat was brimming with pure blood essence and spiritual energy, offering some benefit even to a Nascent Soul cultivator.

　　Yu Tianze further discovered that the meat he ate daily consisted of third-level demon beasts, a level comparable to a Foundation Establishment cultivator. However, in a fight against a Foundation Establishment cultivator, he was far inferior. But given his cultivation level, the spiritual energy within the flesh was still quite abundant—such meat was clearly beyond Mu Zirun’s current capabilities; otherwise, he would surely explode and die. Therefore, it was obvious that Mu Zirun had specially prepared this for him.

　　Frankly speaking, it was a waste of time for a Nascent Soul cultivator who had long since abstained from grains and didn’t need to eat daily to eat with a lowly servant every night. But Yu Tianze felt good, so he did it, doing what pleased him.

　　Besides, Yu Tianze wasn’t a particularly careless person. Despite his temper, he could still notice when someone was kind to him. Moreover, someone was meticulously preparing different kinds of meat for him every day, a stark contrast to the superficial care he used to receive from Ming Yuan. The sincerity was obvious, so he found Mu Zirun more and more agreeable each day, and didn’t mind visiting him daily.

　　Today was no exception. Yu Tianze sat at one side of the stone table, glancing at the little brat opposite him. The “little brat” smiled and placed a piece of meat on his plate. Yu Tianze ate the meat expressionlessly. The “little brat’s” eyes crinkled. Yu Tianze paused, then placed a piece of vegetable on the little brat’s plate. The “little brat” smiled again.

　　The two were no longer so silent during meals—of course, Yu Tianze remained relatively quiet, but Mu Zirun would always report what he had the demon spirits do recently, how many spirit stones he had spent, and who had come to visit but whom he had turned away. But today was different.

　　Yu Tianze spoke first, “Why aren’t you cultivating yet?”

　　He couldn’t sense any Qi from Mu Zirun at all, which meant that the other party hadn’t even tried to draw Qi into his body—not even attempted it. Although he didn’t remember how Mu Zirun started cultivating in his previous life, he didn’t believe that a cultivator with that kind of achievement and temperament would be completely satisfied just because of a relatively comfortable environment.

　　Men, after all, have an endless pursuit of power. Although Yu Tianze himself hadn’t suffered much, subconsciously, he still had some memories of the days when he wasn’t receiving much attention. This shaped his gratitude towards Ming Yuan and his pursuit of strength. Mu Zirun, who had suffered much more than him, should logically have also been frantically pursuing power.

　　Upon hearing that it was such a serious matter, Mu Zirun sat up straight, adopting a rather serious expression. “It’s like this,” he said, organizing his thoughts. “I’ve already read the cultivation technique the Peak Master gave me. However, there are quite a few obscure parts, and I don’t know much about cultivation… So, I’ve been spending time in the study lately, wanting to broaden my knowledge before practicing. That should be better than me blindly guessing and haphazardly practicing the technique now.”

　　Yu Tianze nodded in agreement. “Your awareness is commendable.”

　　Mu Zirun blinked. Yu Tianze continued,  “If you have any questions, you can come and ask me.”

　　He then gestured for the little brat to extend a hand. Mu Zirun complied. A wisp of lightning then shot from Yu Tianze’s fingertip, gently drawing a talisman on Mu Zirun’s palm. The lightning flashed, and the talisman was clearly imprinted on Mu Zirun’s skin, capable of remaining even after soaking in a spiritual spring. Mu Zirun felt a tingling, itchy sensation in his palm, a surprisingly pleasant feeling. 

Yu Tianze said, “A sound transmission talisman.” 　

　Mu Zirun looked at him with a puzzled expression. 

Yu Tianze explained, “If I enter a state of enlightenment during my seclusion, and someone sends me a message, it might be able to deflect itrebounded and injure them. You have no cultivation, and you could even lose your life. Now, if you have any questions, just speak into this lightning talisman, and it will naturally be stored there. When I regain my senses, I will check it and reply to you.”

 He thought for a moment and continued, “When lightning flashes, it means I have something to say to you.” 

　　Mu Zirun quickly agreed, “Thank you, Peak Master.” 　

This was truly thoughtful enough. If he continued to be so considerate, he was starting to feel like taking advantage of the situation. After explaining everything, Yu Tianze went on to explain some precautions for guiding Qi into the body to Mu Zirun, and also described his own previous Qi-guiding process, not leaving out all the common problems. Before he knew it, they had been talking for an hour. Only then did he drink a sip of the spiritual tea that Mu Zirun had dutifully handed him, and in a good mood, he went and continued his seclusion. 

　Mu Zirun watched the other’s back as he left and began to clear away the dishes. 　　Although his reasons weren’t entirely true, he hadn’t lied to Yu Tianze. These past few days, he’d instructed the demon spirits to keep a close eye on the newly arrived demon beast carcasses in the sect’s market, selecting the ones with the most vital blood and tenderest flesh to buy. But besides that, he’d also spent a lot of time in his study.

　Most importantly, of course, was to understand the current state of cultivation in the world. The information he’d gathered in the outer sect was nothing compared to the vastness of the world as depicted in the “World Compendium” in the study. Mu Zirun knew from the beginning that his spiritual root was the lowest grade. Although it was slightly stronger than a person with five spiritual roots, even the five spiritual roots required a huge sum of money to enter the outer sect as a menial disciple, and at most, one could only cultivate to the third or fourth level of Qi Refining in their lifetime; Foundation Establishment was out of the question. As for a person with four spiritual roots?

 With sheer luck, Foundation Establishment was still a possibility… of course, the probability of success was probably only one or two out of a thousand. However, Mu Zirun himself had nothing to be afraid of. His cheat system was quite powerful, and he was confident that even if he stayed in the outer sect, it would only take him a little more time, and he could train himself step by step with the help of the system.

　　So what if his spiritual root isn’t good? There are elixirs that can purify them; he can simply research them and synthesize them! So what if the herbs in the elixir formula are too precious to obtain? He can identify all the ingredients and then research other herbs containing those ingredients! This already saves him a lot of time on alchemy and weapon crafting. He only needs to utilize all his comprehension and all available resources to reach his goal.

　　Of course, Mu Zirun wasn’t without suspicion about the origin of this cheat system. But he had a premonition that after his soul possessed this body, the system followed, imprinted deep within his soul. He could even sense that this system was less of a system and more of a divine artifact, recognizing him as its master the moment it entered his soul. Even if someone destroyed his soul, this thing would simply detach itself and seek another host. Moreover, he seemed to vaguely understand that once he reached the Void Refinement stage, the system would leave him.

　　Therefore, he had to cleanse his spiritual roots to at least have two spiritual roots, or even a heavenly spiritual root, before reaching the Void Refinement stage. He also needed to maximize the use of the system, especially its deduction and query functions, to accumulate more capital and record it. This was to prevent him from becoming completely devastated after losing the system.

　　Now, with the study of Yu Tianze, a dignified Nascent Soul stage expert, containing a vast collection of books, Mu Zirun didn’t mind the trouble of appraising each one—indeed, with his current strength, he couldn’t even open these books, but once appraised, the information was input into the system, including detailed explanations and information on which books he could read and which would cause injury. Then, he could view them without any problems.

　　At the same time, Mu Zirun also appraised most of the furnishings and the main hall itself in the Thunderfire Palace. He didn’t miss any of the Thunderfire Palace’s own spiritual spring, herb garden, beast garden, and other places. Gradually, Mu Zirun became familiar with not only the entire world, but also every place in the Thunderfire Palace except for Yu Tianze’s residence. 

  After that, he felt confident and capable in everything he did. Having finished all that, he naturally didn’t have time to cultivate, a fact that Yu Tianze noticed. But since Yu Tianze cared so much and brought it up himself, Mu Zirun felt he couldn’t let him down. After tidying up, Mu Zirun directly slapped the jade talisman Yu Tianze had given him onto his forehead. 　The next moment, a surge of consciousness flowed in, and he quickly memorized a cultivation technique.

　　Mu Zirun’s expression was slightly subtle. It was actually a low-ranking cultivation technique, and clearly suited to his own situation—of his four spiritual roots, the purest and strongest was the water spiritual root. Moreover, according to the information he had gathered, this technique wasn’t even available in the Nine Yang Sect, and it was far superior to the only one they possessed.

　　Mu Zirun felt that, given Yu Tianze’s personality, he wasn’t hiding anything.  So, this peak master he had acknowledged not only disliked his master but also had grievances against the sect?

　　Based on what he knew so far, the sect hadn’t mistreated him. So, what exactly happened? Mu Zirun sorted through all the information concerning Yu Tianze. He had a feeling that all the changes started after his last training session.