Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Ye Mo finally got his hands on the Essence of the Forest, but his dimensional bracelet was almost empty. Only a few Beast Cores and two Heavenly Frost Charms were left in it.

Ye Mo shut his door tightly as soon as he returned to his room and took the Goddess’s Tears and Essence of the Forest out.

“Extract the essence with your energy and drip them on the tears,” Ling’er instructed. “Then merge them into all five of your Mortal Gates. You should be able to reach Rank One Focus with that.”

Ye Mo nodded and held the Essence of the Forest in his hand. He wrapped his energy around the dry stick, squeezing thick blue liquid out to the surface of the stick.

The liquid was the Essence of the Forest. Ye Mo let the essence drip onto each of the Goddess’s Tear, combining them together while they float in mid-air.

“Hurry up and absorb them!” Ling’er shouted.

Without hesitation, Ye Mo willed the tears into his head, hands, and legs.

The Goddess’s Tears were thick, yet they penetrated the Rank One Dragon Blood easily. That alone was enough to prove how powerful the tears were.

As soon as the tears merged with Ye Mo’s Mortal Gates, he could feel the same immense pain as when he was waking his Mortal Gates.

The pain was so sharp that Ye Mo even thought of absorbing them away with the Rising Dragon Pillar.

“Don’t fight it!” Ling’er warned. “The more you fight it, the lesser the effect will be. Bite your lips and endure the pain!”

It was a battle of willpower.

The Goddess’s Tears wrapped themselves around Ye Mo’s Mortal Gates as they did their works.

Reinforcing Mortal Gates had nothing to do with the warrior’s energy strength. It was a procedure to allow the warrior to apply more energy to the Mortal Gate.

If Ye Mo were to succeed, he could defeat a Spirit Cultivating Eighth Realm warrior without relying on the Dragon Energies.

Ye Mo sat on his bed for the whole day as dim black light shone around him. He had been enduring the pain for the whole time until he was used to it and couldn’t feel anything anymore.

Ye Mo suddenly opened his eyes as if a beast had awakened from his slumber. Cracking noises could be heard throughout his body.

Ye Mo could feel that his Mortal Gates had gone through huge changes as a golden substance, hard as a rock, covered each of his Mortal Gate. Each substance had a single crack on it, implying that Ye Mo had reached the Rank One Focus.

“Finally!” Ye Mo shouted. “I wonder how many Dragon Energies can Rank One Focus hold…”

Dragon Energies began to flow into his hand’s Mortal Gate until a total of 30 Dragon Energies swirled inside it.

“Leveling up my Mortal Gates allows me to hold 14 more Dragon Energies in each of them!” Ye Mo laughed. “This has to be cheating!”

Even though Ye Mo did not have 150 Dragon Energies lying around in the Energy Center, he was glad that he didn’t have to worry about waking more of them without being able to use them.

With 30 Dragon Energies in his hand, he could defeat an Energy Shaping First Realm warrior with just a single punch.

“Congratulations,” Ling’er said as she woke up. “Now that you’ve reached the Rank One Focus, you should be able to defeat a Spirit Cultivating Ninth Realm warrior without relying on the Dragon Energies. And if you do use them, anyone weaker than the Energy Shaping Third Realm won’t even land a scratch on you.”

“Seriously?” Ye Mo laughed as he threw a punch at the air which caused a minor explosion.

“This isn’t your full potential yet,” Ling’er said. “The Energy Shaping Realm is when you’ll see your strength skyrocket. That’s when we can learn about the secrets of the Five-Element Cores.”

“With this, I can defeat Hua Cuican without any worries.”

With the boost of confidence, Ye Mo stretched his back as he walked out from his room.

As soon as he opened his door, Qing Qing was walking towards Ye Mo’s room. She was tall, even taller than Ye Mo, but she had the face of a gentle girl that could make anyone want to protect her instead of fight her.

“I hope you will do your best in tomorrow’s fight,” Qing Qing said.

“Of course I will. Cai Ling is my friend after all.”

“Hua Cuican has been cultivating her energy for the past few days, and with Hua Musang helping her, she’s gotten even stronger,” Qing Qing said. “Even if you can defeat Mu’er and me, I still don’t think you can win against her.”

“Do you still have no faith in me?” Ye Mo asked as he stared at Qing Qing’s beautiful ,worried face.

“It’s not that I don’t trust you, but Hua Cuican is just too powerful. The martial technique that she was trained in is the Resplendent Swordplay, a Mortal Level martial technique.”

“Come on, are you trying to make me worry? Just wait and see for yourself tomorrow.”

“Of course, I still hope you will win. Master has been living a hard life for the past few years. I don’t want all of her doings gone just like that!” Qing Qing said as she took out a charm. “This is a Heavenly Frost Charm. It might be able to help you tomorrow.”

Qing Qing handed Ye Mo the charm and left.

Ye Mo looked at the charm in his hand and almost burst out laughing. It was the same charm that he’d sold to the old woman in the trade market. He’d never thought that it would return back to him through Qing Qing.

“Looks like I’ll have to go all out tomorrow!” Ye Mo said to himself.

He put the charm away into his dimensional bracelet and noticed Mu’er was walking towards him slowly. She looked at Ye Mo and slid a Heavenly Frost Charm into his hand.

“Don’t you dare lose tomorrow, or I’ll kill you myself!”