Su Hao ultimately wasn’t that cruel. The main issue was that the silkworm couldn’t keep up with his bike speed right now.
“Huff~ huff~” By the time they reached the back of East Lake Mountain, Su Hao was nearly out of breath, even though he’d been alternating between jogging and walking.
The silkworm flipped over, its eight tiny legs pointing skyward. It had been running the whole way, its top speed only matching Su Hao’s slow jog, without even a moment to catch its breath.
“Goo~ no (＞﹏＜)” Su Hao glanced at the silkworm’s stats; its status showed ‘very fatigued.’ “Huff~ Good, we can start the next training session.”
“Goo, goo no??” The silkworm kicked its little legs, turned around, and faced away from him.
Su Hao reached out and spun the silkworm back. In its ‘very fatigued’ state, it had no strength to resist.
“You have to trust that my training plan is absolutely reasonable…”
What he meant by ‘absolutely reasonable’ was: if it doesn’t kill you, train until it does. Su Hao thought for a moment, then said earnestly, “Look at it from another angle—if you can’t finish the training tasks, the time will drag on. But if you work hard and meet the requirements, can’t you move on to other things earlier?”
Yeah, moving on to the next training phase earlier. Su Hao added silently.
“Goo no—” The silkworm reluctantly accepted his reasoning, flipped over, and began training its spiritual power.
It puffed up its cheeks and spat out tiny green light particles with a *pfft pfft*. Each particle was about the size of a grain of rice, scattered widely, and dissipated in the air within half a meter.
Density: unqualified. Intensity: unqualified. Spiritual power output: insufficient.
“Harder, push it—condense the spiritual power into a single stream in your mouth and shoot it out in a straight line, like this…” Su Hao mimicked the spiritual power condensation method from the plan, gathered a bit of saliva in his mouth, pursed his lips, and spat with force.
*Ah ptooey!* *Whoosh~* The saliva traced an ungraceful arc and landed less than a meter away.
The silkworm looked at him with utter disdain, shuffling sideways a bit. But it figured it should give him some face—he was its spirit master, after all… even if a bit dumb.
It puffed up its cheeks, charged for two or three seconds, then suddenly expelled its spiritual power. It was still fan-shaped, but the angle had narrowed significantly, and the maximum range had increased from about 40 cm to 60 cm. Some fallen leaves swept by the spiritual light particles, fluttering into the air.
“About the level of a gust of wind…” Su Hao reached out and blocked the spray of green particles, moving his hand slowly from the farthest point inward. It felt like raindrops hitting his skin.
Lethal damage: essentially zero.
He checked the silkworm’s stats—its spiritual power had dropped from 6 to 2.3, with two bursts costing 3.7. The spiritual power bar now read ‘significantly depleted.’
“Also, each burst lasts about three seconds, but I don’t have a precise timer.” “One of the training plan’s requirements is to exhaust the silkworm’s spiritual power while it’s physically tired, at least down to below 0.2, for the best training effect.”
He soothed the silkworm and threw in some coaxing, finally getting it to continue spitting out spiritual power—this was the simplest way to use it, almost instinctive for a spirit. But having both physical and spiritual power drained to the limit must feel awful.
Like when he’d run from home to here this morning, exhausted. Luckily, the silkworm was training hard, just like him.
…
Third spiritual power burst: maximum range only a bit over 50 cm—Su Hao hadn’t brought a tape measure—and the duration was shorter. Remaining spiritual power: 1.1 units.
Silkworm, pitifully: (ó﹏ò?)
Fourth burst: the silkworm dawdled, letting its spiritual power rise by 0.2 before spitting, consuming only 0.8, leaving 0.5.
Silkworm, on the verge of tears: (?_?)
Fifth burst… By the time the silkworm’s spiritual power was down to the last 0.1, it flopped onto the ground, looking utterly lifeless.
“.....~~((--)”
Thankfully, he could see the silkworm’s exact stats, allowing him to devise such a detailed training plan. Otherwise, by the third or fourth burst, the silkworm might have charmed its way out of it.
He checked the time—still not mealtime—but to reward the silkworm, Su Hao pulled out a carton of Fat God Milk he’d prepared as bait, stuck a straw in…
The silkworm immediately sprang up.
Su Hao turned to look at it, suspecting it was faking, but he had no proof. The silkworm flopped back down softly, staring at him with big, watery eyes.
“Alright, it was meant for you anyway.” It crawled over to the milk carton, slurped several gulps, then paused, hesitating before pushing the carton toward Su Hao. “Goo no, goo no~”
Su Hao was taken aback, then chuckled, patting the silkworm’s head. “It’s for you—grow up plump and white… no, get stronger fast… don’t push it, drink up. I’ve got my own.” He pulled a bottle of Mizone from his backpack and took a big gulp—he was tired and thirsty too. If not for setting an example for the silkworm, Su Hao would’ve loved to sprawl out flat.
Once the silkworm’s physical and spiritual power were exhausted, it was recovery time. During this period, it needed to avoid using spiritual power, but Su Hao didn’t let it idle. He pulled out his phone and played some videos he’d downloaded yesterday—battle videos of silkworms.
In the videos, the silkworms were much bigger than his, likely nearing maturity, and after some training and nurturing, they had decent combat ability. Their eight tiny legs ran fast, weaving through a forest arena, battling another spirit, and finally seizing an opportunity to ram and defeat it.
The silkworm watched, thrilled, “Goo no goo no,” its training enthusiasm soaring—Su Hao had only picked videos where silkworms won. The little one wanted to bask in the spotlight like its kin.
Once the silkworm’s condition recovered, its physique and spiritual power had indeed increased a bit. According to the training plan, this ‘extreme training method’ could be used three times a day, spaced out, with diminishing returns beyond that.
“Alright, next up: speed and reaction training.” Su Hao pulled out two items—a fetch frisbee for dogs and a bouncy ball—bought that morning at a street-side shop. He’d have liked fancier methods, but alas, he was broke.
“I’ll throw the frisbee, and you need to fetch it as fast as you can and bring it back, got it?”
“Goo no no!” The silkworm pawed the ground with its little legs, full of confidence.
Su Hao picked up a frisbee, weighed it, and hurled it with force.
*Swoosh!* The silkworm shot out, locked onto the frisbee, and leaped high with all its might. Its upward momentum stopped just a handspan or two short of the frisbee, then it plummeted.
*Thud—* It had pushed too hard, lost its balance, hit the ground, and rolled several times.
“Goo no (ㄒoㄒ)~~” The silkworm’s eyes welled up—it hurt a lot.
Su Hao comforted it, “Don’t worry, don’t worry. When you really get hurt later, you’ll find this pain is nothing… ahem, I mean, once you’re stronger, you won’t get hurt easily.”
The silkworm looked at him suspiciously, feeling like this spirit master had ill intentions.
Su Hao pinched its little leg and demonstrated, “When you push off, you should do it like this… and keep your body balanced when jumping…” “Also, try to use spiritual power when you push—concentrate it at the soles of your feet, and burst it out the moment before you push. What? You don’t know how to concentrate it at your feet? Well… uh… you’ll have to figure that out yourself.”
Su Hao had no spiritual power, but the training plan detailed the methods for pushing off and using spiritual power. He didn’t say much, letting the silkworm try repeatedly. Only by getting hurt would it remember more carefully.
Besides, the silkworm’s trait was ‘Revitalize,’ with spiritual power that had a mild healing effect. If it didn’t get hurt, wouldn’t that waste the precious trait?
By tapping into the spirit’s potential from multiple angles, Su Hao felt he was already a decent spirit master. Definitely not a devil.
-------------- Even if the silkworm dies from exhaustion, it will rasp out with a hoarse voice, “Please vote for recommendation tickets, goo no~!!”