Chapter 12 Growth Complete

"Huff! Huff! Huff! Huff!" Mo Xiaowen exhaled as he punched out. Right now he was in the woods nearby his residence. Originally he had begun his practice within his residence itself, but he soon found that too be a bad idea.

'Who knew walls were so weak.' He sighed looking back on the event. After increasing his power somewhat, he almost ended up accidentally breaking down his wall, which looking back on it made sense. If he could semi-casually carry a 4 tonne weight, while that didn't necessarily translate into punching power, it definitely meant he could hit much much harder than a regular mortal.

From then on Mo Xiaowen took his punching training to the nearby woods, occasionally testing himself against the trees. 'One day I'll manage to leave an imprint from 10 meters away like the librarian.'

A few days later Mo Xiaowen stood in his garden, a large smile gracing his face. "Only 16 days and they've already all grown." He could barely hold himself back from laughing after seeing all the grasses.

Each grass seed would naturally produce multiple blades of grass, this meant from his original 38 seeds, nearly 500 grasses were produced. This was nearly enough to last him until the end of the Body Tempering Realm.

He then began collecting some of the grasses, taking about 20 of them. Of the 20, he kept 15 for the paste, and used 5 for seeds to replenish the amount of grasses. Frankly Mo Xiaowen was scared they'd effect each other negatively if he replanted too many, otherwise he'd have culled at least half the grasses for their seeds.

'Now to make sure they work, I'll make 2 batches of Body Tearing Paste, one with my grasses the other with the Sect's grasses. If the former doesn't work I'll just the latter, and I'll need to see what went wrong. However I doubt that's the case, they look nigh identical after all.'

With that thought Mo Xiaowen then began making the Body Tearing Paste. 'I can't wait until I reach the 5th Stage, everyday I have to collect the tuna from my lunch just to use it here. That alone is like a fifth of my lunch. Once I can take some missions I can finally buy some different food too.'

It wouldn't be a lie to say that Mo Xiaowen was looking forward to the future, right now he was restricted heavily but his options would open after reaching the 5th Stage.

He could go on missions, go to the Martial Hall, acquire a weapon and even leave the Sect for missions or even for excursions from time to time. Every disciple saw it as an important step to take due to all the benefits that accompanied it.

After preparing the pastes he then set them aside in the cupboard, before heading to the woods. Lately he had been engrossed in training in his punches and he found it quite relaxing, even somewhat meditative.

Fist after fist, breath after breath, with each punch he felt himself improve, even if it was by 0.01%. Even the smallest of gains would add up over the course of 100s of punches. This didn't mean he punched out as fast as he could, rather he took his time with each punch feeling the motion fully.

Soon the sun began to set and Mo Xiaowen decided it was time to head back and sleep. He was prone to sleeping around sunset, so he wasn't about to change that now just so he could punch a few more times.

The morning after, Mo Xiaowen applied the Body Tearing Paste to his body, the paste made with his grass. And luckily it worked as intended.

"Argh!"

He grunted before huddling over. While he had definitely grown accustomed to the pain it was still hard to endure, and one day he would have to consume the real thing once again.

After the pain subsided, Mo Xiaowen was actually quite happy. Now that he knew for a fact the grass worked, he could produce as much Body Tearing Grass as he could ever need or want. He could even sell the grass in the future, although the market for it wasn't that large.

'Wait what if I sold the paste.' A sudden thought arose in his mind, but he quickly dismissed the idea. Things would get complicated if he started selling it. From Mo Xiaowen's estimation, this paste alone could probably double the Demonic Cliff Sect's or even the entire Flood Dragon Kingdom's power.

He'd either be forced to share his secrets, or assassinated if it was found he could produce the Body Tearing Paste and so easily at that. Throughout his long life of 13 years he had never heard of something as good as this paste, besides the grass itself but everyone knew how painful that was and few dared consume it.

Regardless, Mo Xiaowen left his residence and continued his training, everything would sort itself out with time.

--

A month later.

Putting his weight away, Mo Xiaowen was about to make his way to his residence when suddenly he heard a sound.

"DONG!"

Turning his head to look for the origin of the sound, Mo Xiaowen's eyes landed near the top of the Demonic Cliff. "The Elder Hall." He muttered to himself, he had now been in the Sect for over a year but not once had the Gathering Bell been struck.

While he had no prior experience with the event, he had read about it in the book he had received on his first day. All disciples would have to gather at the Whale Subduing Plaza outside the Elder Hall to await further instruction.

According to the book, this would only be used when either there was to be a major announcement, or an emergency. Because of this Mo Xiaowen was somewhat worried, he was hoping it was just an announcement, he needed his safe cultivation environment to be preserved as long as possible.

Either way, he only had one option, and that was to make his way to the plaza, hopefully it wouldn't be anything too bad even if it was an accident.