Here's the English translation of the given Chinese text:
"Wow, I gained over eight points of experience! Hiss~!"
Lin Mo drew in a sharp breath.
He had only successfully channeled qi into his body in the second semester of 6th grade, entering the Qi Refining 1st level.
In the six years of middle and high school combined, he had only cultivated a mere 300 or so experience points.
During that time, he had also received several awards as an outstanding class leader, granting him extra cultivation time in the advanced cultivation room.
Calculated this way, the 8.4 points of experience gained was equivalent to more than a month of his hard training.
Fantastic~!
Merit could actually increase the experience bar!
Lin Mo's face lit up with joy, but then questions arose in his mind.
Only 42 merit points had added about 8 points of experience, so what did the percentage multiplied at the end mean?
His gaze fell on the "42*20%" in the prompt's parentheses.
"I'm cultivating the Five Elements technique, and the average purity of my Five Elements spiritual roots is exactly 20%..."
He first muttered to himself, then came to a conclusion:
"So, merit points multiplied by spiritual root purity equals the increase in experience points."
"If that's the case, if I had a single spiritual root with maximum purity, wouldn't merit points equal experience points? No, there might even be a chance for critical hits..."
Thinking of this, Lin Mo's gaze shifted from the experience bar to his Five Elements spiritual roots:
[Spiritual Roots]: Metal (22%), Wood (19%), Water (20%), Fire (20%), Earth (19%)
In this cruel world of cultivation, talent was almost everything.
And the most important attribute determining cultivation talent was, naturally, spiritual roots.
Aside from some special mutated spiritual roots.
The most gifted were those with a single Heavenly spiritual root.
Next were dual spiritual roots, triple spiritual roots...
Someone like him with five spiritual roots, and an average purity of 20%, could at best be considered a "waste" barely able to step onto the path of cultivation.
Despite cultivating for eighteen years, he was still just an unremarkable Qi Refining 2nd level even in middle school.
So, was there now a possibility for this little "waste" talent to improve even slightly?
Lin Mo looked at the 10 merit points that had accumulated on the interface again, and with infinite hope, invested them into his highest purity Metal spiritual root—
[Ding! You invested 10 merit points into the Metal spiritual root, the Metal spiritual root has slightly improved, purity: 22%→22.1%]
It really worked!
Lin Mo was once again shocked by the effects of merit.
Not only could it add experience points, but it could even improve aptitude?
With such heaven-defying effects, no wonder the Venerable Lady could use merit to achieve the position of a sage.
But soon he stopped dwelling on this issue.
No matter how amazing a Heavenly spiritual root is, it still needs cultivation to progress. Now, all I need to do is "tap 1".
The corner of his mouth curved up slightly into a √ shape. With this cheat code activated, he finally felt he had a bit of a protagonist's aura.
Of course, his finger was still slightly bent, then straightened—
[Merit +1]
After verifying that merit points could directly add to experience points, a raging fire suddenly burst forth in Lin Mo's heart, which had been dormant for eighteen years.
Tonight, one finger, one miracle.
He wouldn't sleep until he had milked every last bit of merit from this little wooden fish!!!
——
"I can't believe I fell asleep!"
Lin Mo was awakened by the 6:10 AM alarm clock. The sun was already shining through the curtains onto the little panda pattern on his underwear.
I'm such an idiot, falling asleep on the first night after getting my cheat code?
He felt a bit frustrated, then stretched and climbed out of bed.
Then again, I didn't dream last night, and slept quite well.
Actually, it wasn't really his fault for falling asleep while tapping the wooden fish. Mainly because tapping the wooden fish was really sleep-inducing, especially in the dead of night...
Lin Mo shook his head and glanced at the panel:
[Merit Points]: 299
299, is this a supermarket discount promotion?
As his finger twitched slightly, the number on the interface changed from "299" to "300".
That's better~!
His expression relaxed slightly. 300 merit points meant he had continuously tapped "1" for about 5 hours.
Not bad at all.
If all of it were invested into experience points, it would be 60 experience points. Would that be enough to level up?
Lin Mo was stunned. His finger almost involuntarily dragged the merit points, ready to invest them into his cultivation technique.
At the critical moment, his "restless" pinky finger stopped because it was about to tap "1".
Wait, wait!
It's completely inefficient to invest merit points into the cultivation technique first. He should prioritize improving the purity of his spiritual roots to maximize the use of merit points.
If he improved his spiritual root purity, not only would his daily cultivation speed increase, but the utilization rate of merit points would also improve accordingly.
But then again, after yesterday's improvement, the Qi Refining 2nd level experience bar only needed 42 more experience points to reach Qi Refining 3rd level...
[Ding! You invested 210 merit points into the cultivation technique, cultivation technique experience +42]
[Ding! "National 108th Set of Five Elements Qi Refining Technique" has been upgraded to Qi Refining 3rd level.]
His finger operated involuntarily, completely out of his control.
As two consecutive system prompts entered his ears, Lin Mo suddenly felt the speed of qi circulation in his body increase significantly.
The pores all over his body opened slightly, and qi rushed into his body like joyful fish.
His pupils contracted slightly, then dilated. His body, which had just stood up, went soft again...
"Ahh~!"
Lin Mo's eyes sparkled. He had never experienced such wonderful pleasure before.
It was said that in ancient times, there were peerless geniuses who entered the path of cultivation overnight, crossing several cultivation realms in a single breath.
Although Lin Mo had only taken one step forward from his original foundation, this feeling of significant improvement was unforgettable.
"So this is how good it feels to improve rapidly instead of step by step. No wonder everyone wants to be a genius..."
Lin Mo lay limply against his pillow, muttering to himself.
"Ring ring ring~!"
Suddenly, his phone vibrated violently again. This was the second alarm of the morning.
"Get up, time for school!"
Lin Mo flipped over and jumped straight out of bed.
Having just advanced to Qi Refining 3rd level, he felt refreshed all over. Even the early morning class he usually dreaded became somewhat anticipated.
He quickly got dressed, washed up, then locked the door and left the residential complex.
After advancing to Qi Refining 3rd level, Lin Mo could clearly feel the enhancement in various aspects of his body, especially the increase in his leg strength.
The journey that usually took over half an hour only took him less than twenty minutes this morning.
Along the way, he also bought breakfast and finished it while walking.
Lin Mo entered the classroom in a very good mood, just happening to meet his deskmate Zhang Dahai at the door.
Zhang Dahai glanced at his panda eyes, then scanned his randomly "twitching" fingers, and smiled knowingly:
"Hehehe..."
Then came the three killer questions:
"Which teacher did you have a date with last night? How many times? Got any seeds? We're bros, share them with me!"