After three hours, the silkworm finally achieved an excellent score of 90.
"Guu~" The little one was brimming with a sense of accomplishment.
Su Hao nodded approvingly. "Not bad. You've gotten pretty good at the easy difficulty. You're about ready to try the normal difficulty."
"Guu, guu?" (Is that so?)
"Excited that there's still a higher challenge to conquer?"
The crystal ball had three difficulty settings: easy, normal, and hard.
Scoring an excellent 90 on hard difficulty meant the spirit's control over spiritual power was already outstanding.
Instructor Xiong's little Wind Horse hadn't even reached a 90 on hard.
These route designs weren't simple; they involved scientific pathways for spiritual power circulation.
But...
The knowledge instilled by the spiritual power enhancement training gave Su Hao access to many more complex spiritual power design routes.
He could set the crystal ball's routes himself.
Nightmare difficulty, hell difficulty—Su Hao could create them all.
He'd worked so hard for this silkworm.
The silkworm stared at him with wide eyes, then looked down at the crystal ball.
It had already switched to normal difficulty.
The route was twice as long, with five more turns, and the complexity had increased severalfold.
It flopped onto the ground, utterly spent, a ruined silkworm.
Su Hao put the crystal ball away.
Color returned to the silkworm's eyes.
Su Hao said, "We'll train with the spiritual power crystal ball tomorrow. Today, I've prepared another surprise for you."
A surprise?
The silkworm shrank back.
Su Hao pulled out some other items he'd just bought.
"This is Heavenly Rest Wood, this is Mountain Spring Water, this is goji berries and Codonopsis pilosula..."
A variety of materials were laid out on the floor.
Finally, Su Hao brought out a large pot.
Silkworm: "???"
A bad feeling suddenly crept in.
It wriggled, trying to sneak away through the door.
Su Hao grabbed it, holding it upside down by its tail.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"This is the only path to getting stronger. Only by feeling pain can you... pfft, no, it won't hurt. Be good."
The silkworm struggled.
But it didn't dare use too much force.
It swayed back and forth, hanging upside down.
In the end, it was placed into the pot. Water was added, heat applied, and the materials were poured in.
The scent of medicinal herbs gradually filled the air.
A silkworm swam around in the big pot, opening its mouth to gobble down a few goji berries.
They were pretty tasty.
Su Hao flicked it on the head. "You can't eat those."
"Guu nuo~"
The silkworm felt utterly wronged.
Couldn't it even have a full meal before being boiled?
The water temperature in the pot was only raised to forty or fifty degrees Celsius; any higher, and the silkworm would be uncomfortable.
All the herbs were supplementary.
The most expensive one was that wood called Heavenly Rest Wood, which Su Hao had never heard of before.
The Green Shade Supermarket actually sold it.
Had to give them credit for that.
If only it were cheaper.
The real key to the stimulation method was acupuncture.
By inserting needles at the right spots, it stimulated the spirit's spiritual power circulation, constantly pushing and widening the "bucket's" capacity.
At the same time, it absorbed the medicinal effects, achieving a gentle transformation.
This technique could even be used for the spirit's daily recovery.
Provided,
the technique was masterful.
Su Hao took out the acupuncture needles and gave them a squeeze.
It felt a bit unfamiliar.
The information was directly instilled in his mind, so his theoretical knowledge was very rich—he knew exactly where to insert the needles, how deep, and so on.
But practical skill...
Zero.
Su Hao held the needle and slowly approached.
Sunlight streamed through the window, the needle tip glinting.
In the pot, the water temperature was just right, too comfortable—the silkworm had already fallen asleep, completely unaware.
The needle tip drew closer.
It pierced into one side of its body.
In an instant—
"Guu—"
"Guu nuo—!!"
The silkworm's scream echoed through the entire residential building.
...
Half an hour later,
Su Hao's throat was dry from explaining.
He finally saw off the old lady from the Spirit Protection Association.
Wiping the sweat from his forehead.
Who the hell reported him for abusing a spirit!
He, Su Hao, would remember this grudge.
"Good thing Mom and Dad are at work and not home. Still, I shouldn't do this kind of stuff at home next time."
"Guu nuo?"
There's a next time?
The silkworm lay on the ground, eyes vacant, shedding tears of humiliation.
"Ahem..." Su Hao felt a bit embarrassed too. "See, didn't it hurt less toward the end? That means you're getting used to... pfft, I mean, my technique is improving.
"After a few more times, you'll adapt."
"Guu nuo!"
The silkworm puffed up angrily.
If it hadn't genuinely felt the improvement, it would never agree to a second time.
But now...
It was still a bit tempting.
...
Carrying the exhausted silkworm back to its little nest and tucking it in, Su Hao also wiped his sweat, thoroughly worn out.
The bedroom was a bit messy.
He had to clean it up before his parents got home.
This big pot would be used many more times, so Su Hao washed it and pushed it under the bed.
"This external stimulation method needs to be done about once a week...
"Next time, I'll go to school... no, I'll just go to East Lake Mountain instead."
Carrying a big pot wasn't a problem.
Since the start of the semester, with constant training, Su Hao had gotten much stronger.
But the herbs...
"One herbal bath costs over a thousand, and the higher the limit I break, the more expensive the materials get..."
Su Hao summed it up in two words: broke.
So he searched for ways to make money on the Thousand Net.
The search results were a mixed bag.
But nine out of ten results were scams, and the tenth was impossible to pull off.
After thinking it over, he added the words "apprentice spirit master."
The results became much more reliable.
"Apprentice spirit masters, especially those who've contracted wood-type spirits, actually have plenty of ways to make money."
Su Hao saw a lot of short-term job listings.
Jobs like using wood-type spirits to promote crop growth, help with sowing, help tend plants, and so on...
The daily pay ranged from three to five hundred.
"Calculating carefully, you could even earn over ten thousand a month!"
"But these are all short-term gigs. The employer might only hire for two or three days. Actually making over ten thousand a month is tough, and besides...
"I don't have that kind of time. Wasting precious training time on earning small money is too shortsighted!
"Once the silkworm reaches the entry level and I become a full-fledged spirit master, just lending my name could earn a decent amount, plus the alliance's subsidies."
The most profitable jobs in this world were those related to spirits.
The most expensive ones were also those related to spirits.
High-grade jade powder, nutritional supplements, energy fruits, spiritual herbs, attribute essences... the prices were hard to imagine before Su Hao learned about them.
"But besides spirit masters, there are also jobs like spirit breeders, spirit medical practitioners, spirit scholars, and so on.
"Unlike becoming a full-fledged spirit master, which requires an entry-level spirit as a hard standard, spirit breeders don't have that."
Spirit breeders mainly focus on spirit cultivation.
The mainstream spirit training methods today were all summarized by generations of spirit breeders.
Children from wealthy families would hire spirit breeders to customize the best training plans for their spirits.
Many spirit masters, when their spirits were on the verge of evolution, would also seek out spirit breeders to design the optimal evolution plan, fully unleashing the spirit's potential.
Su Hao summed it up in another sentence: Spirit breeders, rich.