The lock on the old equipment room door had been smashed open. Inside, several energy stones flickered with dim light, scattered across the floor next to empty wrappers from Wang Hao's special energy bars.
Caught red-handed!
When security found these "evidence pieces" under Lin Mo's "innocent" guidance, Wang Hao's face went beyond pale—he looked like death itself, cold sweat soaking through his shirt.
"Wang Hao! What do you have to say for yourself now!" Li Gang's fury reignited, but this time he had a new target. He couldn't believe a student had played him like a fool, nearly getting an actual genius in trouble.
"I... I didn't... these aren't mine..." Wang Hao stammered, his voice cracking with desperation.
Security hauled Wang Hao away for questioning. A harsh punishment from the school awaited him.
Meanwhile, Lin Mo calmly returned to his seat under Li Gang's awkward, almost apologetic gaze and the mixed awe and fear of his classmates.
The crisis targeting him was over.
When the dismissal bell rang, Lin Mo didn't waste a second. He bolted from school.
His most important task now was mastering the "Innate Qi Cultivation Technique (Incomplete Version)."
Jiang City, South District. A worn-down old residential building.
This was where Lin Mo lived.
He pushed open the door to the scent of herbal medicine. His mother, Su Wan, sat on the living room couch looking tired as she watched martial arts news on TV.
"Mom, I'm home," Lin Mo said softly.
"Mo-mo's back." Su Wan's face lit up when she saw her son, though worry still clouded her eyes. "How was school today? The aptitude test tomorrow... do you feel ready?"
She knew how much pressure her son was under for tomorrow's evaluation.
Lin Mo's heart warmed. He walked over and took her rough hands in his. "Don't worry, Mom. Everything went great today. I'm feeling really good—maybe I'll surprise you tomorrow."
"Silly boy, just do your best. Don't put so much pressure on yourself." Su Wan gently stroked his head.
After a simple dinner, Lin Mo returned to his small room.
He sat cross-legged on his bed, took a deep breath, and steadied his mind.
"System, learn the Innate Qi Cultivation Technique (Incomplete Version)."
Buzz!
A massive flood of information crashed into his mind.
Thousands of mysterious symbols, complex meridian flow charts, and an ancient, primordial essence that seemed to come from the dawn of time assaulted his consciousness.
Even with Lin Mo's mental strength from two lifetimes, he felt dizzy and disoriented.
This "Innate Qi Cultivation Technique" might only be incomplete, but its profound subtlety far exceeded any technique he'd encountered in his previous life!
The qi circulation concepts it described struck directly at the essence of martial arts, giving him a moment of sudden clarity.
"Truly worthy of the 'Innate' name!" Lin Mo was shaken.
What thrilled him even more was how perfectly this technique matched his awakening "Innate Dao Embryo" constitution!
It was as if the technique had been tailor-made for him.
He pushed through the throbbing pain in his mind and began attempting to circulate the weak strand of qi that had just been born within him, following the incomplete technique's guidance.
At first it felt clumsy, but as the technique operated, that strand of qi found its path like a stream finding its riverbed, slowly flowing through specific meridians in his body.
One cycle, two cycles...
With each circulation, he could feel his internal qi growing stronger at a visible rate, becoming more refined and concentrated.
Every cell in his body seemed to moan with pleasure, greedily absorbing the nourishment the technique brought.
His body, freshly cleansed by the Marrow Cleansing Pill, showed incredible affinity for the ambient qi between heaven and earth.
Threads of natural qi gathered around him without any conscious effort, flowing into his limbs through his breathing.
If an ordinary person's body was like a sponge, his current body was like a high-speed qi black hole!
When Lin Mo finally emerged from his cultivation state, stars filled the sky outside his window.
He clenched his fist, feeling the qi inside him—several times stronger than before—and his eyes flashed with excitement.
"Just the incomplete version on the first try, and already such incredible results!"
He could clearly sense that his total qi had increased at least fivefold! Moreover, the quality was incomparable to before.
If his previous qi had been thin mist, his current qi had condensed into flowing droplets!
"This Innate Qi Cultivation Technique paired with my Innate Dao Embryo—it's a perfect match!"
A confident smile played at Lin Mo's lips.
Tomorrow's aptitude test wouldn't just shock everyone—it would completely change his and his mother's fate!
And to change their fate, the first step was money!
That ten thousand yuan worth of Essence Liquid—he had to get his hands on it.
"The black market's potential betting pool..." Lin Mo's eyes gleamed.
In his previous life, he'd only heard rumors about the black market, never actually been involved. But in this life, he'd caught some useful information from scattered memory fragments.
Jiang City's underground black market did indeed have a secret betting pool focused on the aptitude test results of top talents from various martial arts high schools.
Getting into this kind of betting pool required not just connections, but capital.
"Capital..." Lin Mo frowned. He didn't even have a hundred yuan on him right now.
Suddenly, inspiration struck as he remembered something from his previous life.
At Jiang City's antique market, there was supposedly a boss named Qian who regularly bought seemingly worthless "old trinkets." Among them were old copper pieces with special markings that this Boss Qian apparently had a soft spot for, paying good money for them.
He remembered that when he was little, his grandmother had given him two similar copper pieces as toys, which he'd carelessly tossed into an old junk box under his bed...