Chapter 16: God's Jealousy
Because he had to move house, Lin Shen asked the school for another three days off.
With more than 300,000 spirit coins on him, Lin Shen was confident of his wealth. He spent generously and finally rented a stand-alone house in the suburbs. It was fully furnished, and all he needed was his luggage.
The house was located in the East District and near the district center. However, there were no large entertainment venues or transportation stations in the vicinity. It was a quiet place in the bustling city.
At first, Lin Shen wanted to rent a villa. The gates were guarded, and security guards patrolled at night. It was far safer than apartment buildings.
However, on second thought, if he had more clones in the future and needed them to take action, the safety of the villa area would become an obstacle.
Therefore, after thinking about it, Lin Shen finally chose a stand-alone house in the suburbs.
As for his safety… He would let his clone guard the house in the night in the future.
In any case, his clone wouldn't be tired and didn't need to sleep.
After running around for two days, the new house was rented. Lin Shen moved to his new residence on the third day.
Surprisingly, after three days of cultivation, the two clones had finally reached Beginner in Mortal Restrain.
[Name: Lin Shen]
[Talent: Perseverance]
[Stage: Qi Transformation Level 5, 25%]
[Cultivation Technique: Original Breathing Technique (Mastery 40%), Blazing Sun Palm (Mastery 11%), Mortal Restrain (Beginner 1%)]
[Number of clones: 3 (35%)]
Seeing the "Mortal Restrain" on the interface, Lin Shen nodded in satisfaction.
As long as he made it to Beginner, improving the level of Mortal Restrain would be much easier. He only needed to cultivate step by step and make constant progress.
There was a full-length mirror embedded in the wardrobe in the bedroom. Lin Shen stood in front of it and silently activated Mortal Restrain.
In an instant,
the young man in the mirror seemed to have undergone some kind of change. It was as if a stone with sharp edges had been rubbed flat and smooth. He seemed to have lost his sharpness and become ordinary-looking.
"Nice!"
Lin Shen nodded in satisfaction.
At Beginner, Mortal Restrain could already hide most of his aura. He looked about the same as at the third level of the Qi Transformation Stage.
If he reached Proficient or even Mastery, he might be able to disguise himself as an ordinary harmless person.
With Mortal Restrain, he wouldn't have to worry about attracting attention if he made rapid breakthroughs in the future.
After experimenting with the effects of Mortal Restrain, Lin Shen returned to the living room and summoned the interface.
[Clone 2 (Dead), Remaining Resurrection Time: 00: 12: 39]
A look of helplessness flashed across Lin Shen's eyes when he saw the countdown.
In the past three days, Clone 2 had been revived twice, and his talent had also been renewed twice.
However, he wasn't happy with any of the new talents.
[Fast as Lightning: Movement technique +50%, Concealing technique +30%]
[No Desire: Resistance to illusions +50%, Human Desire -50%, Willpower +50%]
The first talent, "Fast as Lightning", wasn't a bad one.
The problem was the only movement technique manual Lin Shen had was Shadows, and he hadn't reached Beginner yet. This talent was temporarily useless.
The second talent, No Desire, was also hard to pinpoint.
The increase in willpower and resistance to illusions wasn't bad, but the side effect of 50% less Human Desire was very annoying.
The purpose of cultivation was longevity and freedom. If he became a heartless person, no matter how long he lived or how strong he was, life would be boring.
More importantly, these two talents were almost useless at this stage.
What Lin Shen wanted was a talent that could speed up his cultivation!
The twelve-minute countdown soon ended.
Lin Shen took a deep breath and rubbed his hands. For some reason, he felt like he was playing a gacha game from the past.
"Please let me have a good talent!"
The shadow of a clone left his body and stood in the middle of the living room.
[Clone 2]
[Talent: God's Jealousy]
[Stage: Qi Transformation Level 5, 25%]
[Current Cultivation: None]
"God's Jealousy?"
Lin Shen was slightly stunned and immediately looked at the description.
[God's Jealousy: Cultivation speed +100%, lifespan -50%]
There was a strange look on Lin Shen's face.
This talent seemed alright.
Although the side effects of halving one's lifespan were a little detrimental, the clone didn't need a long lifespan, anyway.
In comparison, doubling the cultivation speed was very powerful!
It had far exceeded the 20% intermediate of Above Average.
The only thing he cared about was whether he should use this talent on himself.
Even though the effect would disappear as soon as the talent was switched, the effect of -50% lifespan was still disturbing.
Fortunately, the 50% decrease was in his lifespan. If 50 years were to be taken from him, Lin Shen would never switch to that talent.
Because if he had less than 50 years left, that effect might kill him instantly.
The thought of that made Lin Shen shudder.
After some thought, Lin Shen finally decided not to renew the talent.
If he continued, he might not find a better outcome than this one. He'd better not take any more risks.
…
The next day was Saturday, and there was no class.
After breakfast, Lin Shen summoned his three clones and prepared to start cultivating.
With a flick of his wrist, a bottle of Essence Tempering Pills appeared in his palm.
"I wonder how effective this pill is."
Strictly speaking, this was the first time Lin Shen had used medicinal pills to assist in his cultivation.
To someone growing up in a welfare institute, spirit beast meat was already a luxury. He couldn't even come into contact with medicinal pills.
If Tian Dian hadn't "kindly" sent him this huge gift, he would probably have had to wait until after the competition if he wanted to take medicinal pills to assist in his cultivation.
Taking out four Essence Tempering Pills, Lin Shen handed one to each of his three clones and stuffed the remaining one into his mouth. With a gulp, he swallowed the pill.
Almost instantly, a warm current burst out from his dantian and streamed into his limbs and bones.
Lin Shen calmed his mind and immediately began to cultivate.
It took Lin Shen, Clone 1, and Clone 3 more than three hours to digest the medicinal power of the Essence Tempering Pill.
As for Clone 2, who had the talent of God's Jealousy, had already digested the medicinal power more than an hour ago. The time it took was only half of Lin Shen and the other two clones.
Looking at the interface again, Lin Shen saw their cultivation progress had all increased by 5%.
"I'm now eating a kilo of spirit beast meat at a time. Even after circulating my energy to digest it, my cultivation progress will only increase by 3%. The effect of one Essence Tempering Pill is almost equivalent to more than 1.5kg of spirit beast meat!"
A smile flashed across Lin Shen's face.
There were a total of twelve Essence Tempering Pills in a bottle. Judging from the situation, a little more than a bottle of it was sufficient to raise him to the sixth level of the Qi Transformation Stage.
"Clone 2 cultivates faster. I'll let it take the pill and cultivate the Origin Breathing Technique.
"Clone 3 will continue to cultivate the Blazing Sun Palm and try to reach Mastery as soon as possible.
"As for Clone 1, he will specialize in comprehending Shadows and occasionally cultivates Mortal Restrain."
Lin Shen thought about the arrangements for the next few days.
Although he had a huge sum of money on hand now, cultivation resources were extremely expensive. Just buying 4kg of spirit beast meat every day would cost more than 200,000 spirit coins a month.
With the rent and other expenses, the 300,000 spirit coins could only last him for a little over a month.
If he didn't try to earn some money, he would be left with nothing sooner or later.
Therefore, he had to keep his part-time job in the martial arts school.
During the day, he would attend classes and work part-time. At night, he would take the Essence Tempering Pills with his clones to cultivate.
Perfect!