He Yuan managed to breeze through the first ten-meters quite easily. Although he was a little shocked, he was glad his past months of hard work paid off.

Instead of going back to continue his cultivation in the cave, he decided to move on and test his limits.

The second ten-meters was also okay.

At the third ten-meters, he began to feel a heavy pressure but he pressed on. He couldn't give up so easily every time he encountered a setback if he wanted this body to become stronger.

At the fifth ten-meters, He Yuan reached the second barrier. The distance between the second barrier and the Back mountain entrance was actually 50 meters. Before he could continue, Da Hei rushed out in front of him.

He Yuan sighed through gritted teeth as he tried his best to withstand the spiritual pressure. He knew why Da Hei was so alarmed. "I'm not stupid. I'm not going to enter the mountain, now move away." He'd promised elder Mo not to enter the Back mountain and of course he was keeping that promise. Again, he wasn't stupid. He loved his life

Going close to the entrance was not the same as entering it. He just needed to get close enough to temper his body. The full training could be done when the seal was broken.

Da Hei snorted and grunted for a while before slowly moving away.

As soon as He Yuan crossed the second barrier. The strong spiritual force in the atmosphere directly blasted him out.

historical

BANG!

He Yuan flew back 15 meters and crashed into a tree. He held his chest as he fell to the ground face first, not noticing that he'd landed at someone's feet.

When he heard an amused chuckle, he looked up and his face hardened when he met Mo Jiu's smirking one.

"Tsk! It's such a shame that you're elder Mo's first disciple." A voice said from the side and He Yuan looked away only to realize that Mo Jiu had his four major followers behind him.

The sly Han Wei -the one who had just spoken- was the last disciple of the Martial arts peak master. The sexy and energetic Mei Hua who was just an inner disciple of Duoluo sect -not all inner disciples were accepted as personal disciples. The seemingly all-brawn-and-no-brain Ba Duo, the only disciple of the Weapon crafting peak master and finally, the cold and aloof Gu Long.

Gu Long was the eldest disciple of the Alchemy peak master. He was ultra talented and was said to be capable of refining pills with grades higher than his level.

The male cultivator also happened to be Mo Jiu's second in command who also doubled as his bedroom partner every once in a while. It had been very obvious in the storyline that Gu Long was hopelessly in love with Mo Jiu and hated the fact that Mo Jiu had so many others beside him.

That was also the reason the young cultivator was never fully a harem member. He Yuan pitied him sometimes. In fact, he felt for all of them.

Each one of Mo Jiu's followers were ultra talented in their own right and He Yuan could not, for the life of him, figure out why they constantly stuck to Mo Jiu like glue. It was okay to be tight friends but in their cases, their lives practically revolved around Mo Jiu.

Like they had no sense of existence without him.

More often than not, treasures found on their outings would solely belong to Mo Jiu. The only time the good stuff got into somebody else's hands was when the artifact had no direct connection with Mo Jiu's method of cultivation.

Whenever a special artifact that could be used by Mo Jiu and another one of his followers was found, that follower always gave up the right to the artifact and the excuse that they always spouted was,

<Big brother Mo is so talented. He would be able to make better use of the artifact in order not to let such a precious treasure go to waste in the hands of others>

He Yuan felt that each one of these young talents would have better development if they were left to grow outside of Mo Jiu's shadow but that would never happen would it?

This was one of the major things that fueled Mo Jiu's absurd sense of entitlement.

"Just how useless are you?" Han Wei continued, "Even merely walking past the second barrier is such a chore for you."

He Yuan pushed himself into a sitting position and glared at Han Wei. "How is it any of your business?" He was not scared of them because he had discreetly taken out a teleportation talisman in case anything went wrong.

Although Da Hei was there, he wasn't sure of what would happen if Mo Jiu decided to subdue the spirit beast. It should not be possible at Mo Jiu's level but it was Mo Jiu he was talking about. The man was basically the god of luck

"BAH!" The voluptuous female disciple, Mei Hua, with a huge axe on her shoulder spat. "I hate disciples like you the most. You spend all your time doing nothing. You're basically trash but just because you happen to have a powerful master, you want everyone to concede to you. Disgusting!"

He Yuan was dumbfounded. Even if Mo Sheng was elder Mo's first disciple, the leaser never pulled rank on the other disciples because he was too busy feeling inadequate. Just where did the Mei Hua get that idea from?

He Yuan's lips arched as he slowly mocked, "You sound bitter. I might be trash but I will always be my master's first disciple. You, on the other hand, with all your talent, would never be noticed and would remain as a mere inner disciple all your life."

"MO SHENG!" A red faced Mei Hua shouted and rushed to He Yuan with her axe. She was stopped halfway by an indifferent Gu Long.

The aloof cultivator cast He Yuan a bored look before locking eyes with Mo Jiu, who was busy petting Da Hei as if he had no connection with everyone present. "Let's go?"

Mo Jiu straightened. "Sure." Then he grinned at He Yuan. "See you later, da~xiong~"

Next, all five cultivators sprinted into the Back mountain using top notch qingqong whilst He Yuan looked away, trying so hard not to feel like a failure for finding it so difficult to move past the second barrier.

It took another month to make it past the second barrier, hence the sixth ten-meters. The sixth pill was also gone. From there onwards, He Yuan's tempering began.

Since residual effects from the unstable temperature inside the Back mountain always slipped outside the entrance and into the surroundings of the second barrier, He Yuan had his fair share of lightening bolts and unpredictable eruptions of molten lava from random geysers every one in a while.

As time moved on, He Yuan's meridians formed a rubbery texture and his skin hardened too. He used to get singed by the lightening bolts but by the end of the seventh month, he made it to the ninth ten-meters and the tension in the atmosphere no longer had a major effect on him.

In the eighth month, after taking his time to diligently practice the Duoluo sect sword moves as he tempered his body and getting more than half of his robes destroyed by lightening bolts, He Yuan finally made it to the entrance of the Back mountain.

The rush of qi coming from the inside was both frightening and exhilarating at the same time. Unfortunately, he'd have to wait for one more year, after the seal was broken to know what the inside looked like.

After cultivating his revamped method for ten more days, He Yuan was finally ready to leave. He could practically see Da Hei's shoulder relax once he stepped away from the entrance.

It seemed elder Mo's spirit beast still had little faith in his ability to practice restraint.

He Yuan walked out of the Back mountain first barrier, looking like a beggar with dirtied robes and burnt hair but he had the biggest smiles on his face.

He'd successfully merged Mo Sheng's method of cultivation with his [Strongest Martial Arts]. Cultivating was going to be much easier and he had a feeling he was going to advance smoother than Mo Sheng had in the storyline.