Celestial Taoist

Li Mofan felt a violent spinning sensation, followed by a sudden crushing of his cheek and skull, sending waves of excruciating pain through him. He gripped the delicate little foot that was pressing down on his face tightly, and "Ugh, ugh, ugh," words of pleading welled up in his throat, but in the end, only soft sobs escaped his lips.

Su Qingyao's voice was filled with anger: "Good disciple, today I will teach you the first lesson of the Heavenly Punishment World—the strong are respected." Li Mofan remained silent, only trembling uncontrollably. Besides feeling excruciating pain, he also felt that the flow of energy generated by his superpower had reached an unprecedented level—although the intensity was far less than the wisp he had absorbed at the martial arts school. He finally understood that, contrary to his expectations, anger also had a reaction... This damn superpower.

With a slight exertion of her slender jade feet, she gently ground the stone twice more. The piercing pain made Li Mofan's whole body stiffen, all his strength was drained by the intense pain, and even the thought of struggling completely vanished.

A moment later, Su Qingyao slowly withdrew her foot, looking down at the person who was sprawled on the ground, looking utterly disheveled.

Li Mofan lay sprawled on the ground, his cheeks red, swollen, and numb, his forehead beaded with cold sweat, his body aching and weak. The crushing lesson he had just received had made him dare not harbor the slightest rebellious thought.

He struggled to prop himself up on the ground, his head bowed, not daring to look up, his eyes filled with fear and restraint.

Su Qingyao walked slowly to him, her sharp gaze sweeping over his disheveled appearance. Her tone was cold: "The lesson you just learned is to make you face reality. In this world of Heavenly Punishment, weakness itself is the original sin. Without sufficient strength, dignity and life are worthless."

She slightly raised her hand, and a gentle spiritual energy slowly descended upon Li Mofan's body, gently smoothing the bruises and wounds on his face, and the piercing pain quickly subsided by more than half.

"Now that I've taken you under my wing, I won't leave you to fend for yourself." Su Qingyao's tone was unreadable, but every word was sharp. "Discipline is discipline, and guidance is guidance. From today onward, I will teach you the methods of cultivation."

Li Mofan's heart skipped a beat. He quickly lowered his head, respectfully cupped his hands, and said in a hoarse voice, "Disciple... will remember the captain's teachings and will never dare to be lazy and arrogant again. I will definitely correct my mistakes in the future."

Su Qingyao nodded: "Taoist cultivation is based on the spiritual root that a Taoist is born with, which is integrated and cultivated to form a Dao foundation and then a Dao fruit, until finally the Great Dao is derived and the body is transformed into the Great Dao." The anger in her eyes seemed to have dissipated. She glanced at Li Mofan and continued: "You have maxed-out spirituality, and your spiritual root is naturally perfected. You can sense it with just a little stimulation. When your spiritual power is sufficient, you can form a Dao foundation. This is the method and some experience for forming a Dao foundation."

As he spoke, a prompt flashed through Li Mofan's mind.

[Received a gift from Su Qingyao]

【Whether to accept】

Li Mofan clicked on it and saw that it was indeed knowledge about cultivation. He quickly thanked them and took his leave, heading towards the camp barracks even faster than when he came.

As soon as he stepped into the barracks courtyard, before he could even return to his bed, a slightly reserved figure quickly blocked his way.

The person who came was rather thin, with ordinary features, and looked to be about sixteen or seventeen years old.

The boy hesitated for a moment, gritted his teeth, and took the initiative to speak: "You must be Li Mofan, who was recently personally nominated by Captain Su? My name is Wang Shi, and I'm also a new recruit."

Li Mofan looked up at the other person, his expression now calm: "I am Li Mofan. What is it?"

Wang Shi rubbed his hands together, his expression a mixture of helplessness and earnestness: "Brother Li, I suppose you haven't passed the initial talent trial yet either. I've come here to invite you to team up and complete the mission together, so we can build up our strength and face the trial together."

Li Mofan raised an eyebrow slightly and asked in a deep voice, "Oh? What are the intricacies of this beginner-level talent trial?"

Upon hearing the word "trial," Wang Shi's expression suddenly darkened, a hint of apprehension and fear flashing in his eyes. He unconsciously lowered his voice: "Brother Li, you may not know this, but this trial is not a simple assessment of aptitude. It is a life-or-death rule set by the Heavenly Punishment World."

He took a deep breath and continued, "All talents above level one who are not yet determined must participate in the beginner talent trial within the time limit. Moreover, this assessment is purely based on personal strength and cannot rely on external forces. Once the assessment is failed, or the trial task is not completed by the time limit, the world law will judge them as useless and they will be directly recycled by the power of heavenly punishment."

As these words were spoken, a chilling coldness quietly spread.

Li Mofan felt a chill run down his spine, realizing that the cruelty of this world far exceeded his imagination, and that elimination could happen in the blink of an eye.

Seeing his solemn expression, Wang Shi quickly added, "I know that with my current strength, I have no chance of surviving the trial. So during this time, I have been contacting the new recruits in the recruit camp to take on higher-level missions together to accumulate strength."

"Besides you, I've also invited three other newcomers, just like us. If Brother Li joins, we'll have a team of five. Teaming up together allows us to take on level 5 missions, which offer significantly higher resources and training intensity, enabling us to improve our strength much faster. This will greatly increase our chances of survival."

After a moment of silence, Li Mofan's expression gradually hardened, and his tone was calm yet clear: "What you said makes sense."

Upon hearing this, Wang Shi's eyes lit up instantly, his initial restraint vanished, and he quickly stepped forward, his voice urgent and excited: "Brother Li, you agree to join us?"

Li Mofan nodded and added, "Yes, I can join, but I need to meet the other three first before making a decision."

"Don't worry, don't worry!" Wang Shi nodded quickly, his face showing joy. "Brother Li, don't worry, I'll take you there to meet them right away. We can discuss when to take on the level 5 mission and how to divide the work."

Li Mofan raised his hand slightly, indicating that he should wait a moment: "No rush, I'll go back to my room first to sort out the method that Captain Su just taught me, I'll be there in a moment."

"Okay, okay!" Wang Shi was overjoyed and quickly agreed, "I'll wait for you here, I won't take up any more of your time!"

Li Mofan said no more and turned to walk towards his room.

The room was very tidy. Apart from the missing laptop and the unknown material of the furniture, the room was almost identical to his previous dormitory at the Liefeng Martial Arts Academy. He closed the door behind him, quickly walked to the table, and sat down. With a slight thought, the cultivation tips given to him by Su Qingyao reappeared in his mind.

He had only glanced at the document briefly after thanking him hastily before taking his leave, but now that he had calmed down and studied it carefully, he discovered that the document was far more detailed than he had imagined.

He had finally made progress on his special ability; it should be the spiritual root that Su Qingyao had mentioned.