Chapter 9: The Tyrant's Strength

  Looking at the intense training below, Lei Hao sat cross-legged on the commander's platform with nothing to do.

  He suddenly felt a little lost, since being whipped by the Great Tiger Leader, he had been busy improving his strength. Until now, the Great Tiger Leader could no longer whip him, and he finally stood firm in the Water Cavern, becoming one of the notable demons under the Mixed World Demon King. He suddenly realized that he didn't know what he wanted most, to protect his dignity? In this area of several thousand miles, with five or six hundred demon troops at his command, Lei Hao was no longer a small figure that any demon could trample on, even if he hadn't started cultivating yet, relying solely on his physical strength, he could dominate the small demon groups in the nearby caves.

  "What is it that I really want?" Lei Hao asked himself over and over again in his heart.

  Lei Hao, a man from a past life, lived in an era of peace and stability. It was both a blessing and a constraint. What man, especially one who is growing up, doesn't have the dream of riding horses and commanding armies? How many times did Lei Hao hear his elderly grandfather talk about the tumultuous years before the founding of the country, only to feel his heart swell with emotion? How many times did he watch TV dramas about national heroes who died in battle, only to be moved to tears. He could only lament that he was not born in that era; if he had been, he would have been willing to be just a common soldier. Although this was just the fanciful thinking of Lei Hao, who had never experienced hardship, it was absolutely his true thoughts.

  In his heart, that is life, such a life will be fulfilling, and when he grows old, he will not feel empty and have nothing to recall about this life.

  In reality, Lei Hao has never had to worry about food and clothing from a young age, but his limited passionate ideals have been shattered by the cold reality of life. Every day is spent in a daze, refusing to discuss ideals, the future, or career prospects, only knowing that getting through one day means getting through one day, just like a big machine producing waste. The little bit of edge he once had has been ground down, and he's become ordinary and mediocre. Even if Lei Hao is resentful in his heart, what can he do to change the status quo without power, money, connections, or skills?

  "Must I still be an ordinary person like in my past life?" Lei Hao thought to himself.

  Looking at the five or six hundred little demons training under the scorching sun, Lei Hao felt that these little demons were so pitiful. They couldn't control their own destiny and didn't know when they would die in battle or be crushed to death by the big leader in the Water Cavern. Because they fundamentally didn't know what they needed for a lifetime, what they should pursue, only knowing how to drink, eat meat, sleep, and wait for death, what's the difference between them and wild beasts without spiritual awakening?

  "I want to be strong, I want to be strong enough to control my own destiny, not like a chess piece that is decided by others. What I had in the past life, I will have in this life. What I didn't have in the past life, I will also have in this life." Lei Hao muttered to himself with a look of determination.

  As he thought about it, Lei Hao suddenly remembered a line from a movie in his previous life that had left a deep impression on him: "Being strong means making the world different because of me." Lei Hao's dazed eyes slowly filled with determination, and his dull eyes grew brighter. His entire body began to undergo intense changes, like iron transforming into fine steel.

  "Alright, since being struck by lightning and thunder didn't make me disappear into the crowd but instead brought me to the world of Journey to the West, where I met this generation of strong and extraordinary heroes. If I were to live a mediocre life, what's the difference between that and not coming here at all? In this life, I'll eat the most delicious food, drink the strongest wine, ride the most handsome steed, wield the most domineering weapon, find the most beautiful wife, and enjoy the most intense battles." Lei Hao murmured his thoughts, "I only hope to be worthy of others, to be worthy of myself, to reach the limit of excitement." Then he stood up with a "whoosh", his majestic body standing upright like a spear piercing the endless sky.

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  Under the bright moonlight of the full moon, Lei Hao sat cross-legged on a huge stone in the middle of Kan Yuan Mountain. Confirming that his thoughts had calmed down, he opened the "Shen Mo Jue" given by the Mixed World Demon King and began to read page after page with his astonishing eyesight under the moonlight.

  "The primordial being, recorded events before the chaos, the beginning of the original energy......" This "Shenmo Jue" is not thick and has few words, Lei Hao quickly finished reading it. Relying on his profound literary foundation as a liberal arts student, he pondered for a long time and roughly understood that this "Shenmo Jue", with its impressive name, was actually a basic practice manual, the only valuable part being that it solved the problem of small demons storing spiritual energy.

  The little demon can't actually sense the spiritual energy, it's just that its divine thoughts are too weak to hold onto the spiritual energy. A small demon that hasn't even reached a cultivation realm has an extremely pitiful amount of spiritual energy in one breath, and after exhaling, the spiritual energy inside its body slowly leaks out, making it impossible to use the spiritual energy to break through realms. As a result, no matter how diligently the little demon cultivates, it won't make much progress. The leaked spiritual energy will only nourish the little demon's intelligence and physique, which is also why longer-lived little demons are all intelligent and powerful.

  In "Shen Mo Jue", the approach is to use all the spiritual energy absorbed through breathing exercises on the flesh, constantly breaking through the bottleneck of the flesh's stored energy before the spiritual energy is lost. Finally, when the amount of spiritual energy in the body reaches a certain level, it can break through the bottleneck of the inner elixir and an official demon with an inner elixir can be formed, which can refine spiritual energy into magical power, thus no longer worrying about the problem of storing spiritual energy.

  After making sure he understood the "Divine Demon Scripture", Lei Hao eagerly entered meditation. Slowly inhaling, slowly exhaling, soon a cool energy appeared in his dantian, like the faint glow of fireflies, weak and clear. Lei Hao continued to bask in the moon's essence, his mind struggling to move this spiritual energy, slowly dispersing it throughout his body. But what happened next left Lei Hao stunned: after entering his body, the lazy spiritual energy that had been lingering like a big shot suddenly got swallowed up by his physical body as if it had never existed before, without even leaving behind any residue.

  This shock is not serious, directly dispersing the lump of spiritual energy, almost undoing all previous efforts. Lei Hao hurriedly stabilized the scattered spiritual energy bit by bit. After stabilization, the spiritual energy took on a spider web-like shape, with one end centered at Lei Hao's dantian and connecting every block of muscle in his body to the external spiritual energy.

  If it was said that Leihao's physical body had swallowed that spiritual energy before, then everything that happened after this strange 'spider web' took shape far exceeded Leihao's imagination. Leihao's flesh directly threw away his intentions, automatically following the spiritual energy 'spider web', devouring the spiritual energy continuously like a glutton, while the external spiritual energy was like a pool of water suddenly finding an outlet, reversing Leihao's previous slow and leisurely demeanor, rushing into Leihao's body along the connected external 'spider web' in an endless stream, with an increasingly rapid trend.

  Lei Hao didn't know that his physical body had already reached a certain height after two months of intense training, and later in the battle at Qing She Dong, Lei Hao broke through to an even higher level under the pressure of life and death. Moreover, during that battle, Lei Hao's body was exhausted, using up every last bit of energy, which is why his injuries healed so slowly. If everything had been normal, Lei Hao would have needed at least a month to recover from his injuries and regain his strength through blood food.

  The "Shen Mo Jue" emphasizes the importance of constantly nourishing the physical body with spiritual energy to break through the limits of the physical body's ability to absorb spiritual energy, thereby reaching the bottleneck between spiritual energy and law power. In other words, it is about creating a large container that can hold spiritual energy.

  At this time, Lei Hao's physical body was like a huge container, but it was also extremely dry and thirsty. When his cells encountered the seductive spiritual energy, what would happen? Of course, they would combine instantly, becoming inseparable, like glue sticking together, impossible to pull apart or tear asunder.

  At this time, Lei Hao was shrouded in a thin mist all over his body, which was the spirit energy turning into mist, something that only strong practitioners of the Inner Dan realm could achieve, and Lei Hao had achieved it for the first time he started practicing.

  Lei Hao was completely unaware of the outside scene, his physical energy had already reached its peak, but the external spiritual energy continued to pour into his body. The gentle spiritual power gathered together and transformed into a massive destructive force that rampaged through Lei Hao's body, causing some of his meridians to begin tearing apart.

  "What to do? What to do? If it goes on like this, the injury will heal, but the meridians will be directly crippled, and in the future, I won't be able to cultivate anymore." Lei Hao thought anxiously as he felt his meridian injuries getting more and more severe.

  "Essence? Isn't it possible to directly impact the inner elixir boundary when the essence reaches a certain level? But this is my first time cultivating, can my meridians withstand the impact of this essence?" Leihao thought of a solution and was overjoyed, but thinking about the severe consequences if he failed to advance his cultivation method made him fearful.

  In the moment of hesitation, Lei Hao's internal injuries had reached a point where he could no longer think clearly. "Damn it, I'll give it my all. No guts, no glory." Lei Hao was never a man who would be intimidated by difficulties. When his fierce determination erupted, he often did some extremely crazy things.

  Lei Hao, having made up his mind, didn't hesitate and began to mobilize all the spiritual energy he could control with his dantian as the starting and ending point, running it through his meridians. Lei Hao gradually accelerated his speed in the meridians, one cycle, two cycles, more and more spiritual energy joined the circulation from every corner of his body. The spiritual energy mist outside also grew thicker, the dense spiritual energy had turned milky white, the full moon in the sky seemed to be shining directly on Lei Hao's body, the milky white spiritual energy was flashing with silver light as it churned.

  The spiritual energy inside Lei Hao had also reached an extremely dense level, with thick spiritual energy swirling around his meridians like a white snake, constantly tearing and piercing his meridians, causing Lei Hao's eyes to redden and his mouth to fill with blood. He had to hold on, for if he couldn't, he would burst like a balloon from the intense energy. After a moment, looking at his meridians which were now riddled with holes, Lei Hao had lost all hope, having completely lost control of his body, he was powerless, and could only silently watch as his meridians were pierced and torn apart, even ignoring the pain that felt like someone was cutting his flesh with a knife.

  "Damn, it's really frustrating to have come to this world and not even seen Monkey King before dying. I wonder if Monkey King really looks like what Wu Dada said, with a hairy face and a mouth like a thunder god. And is the Buddha also really bald...?" Lei Hao, who thought he was going to die for sure, didn't care about anything anymore and just thought about some random things in his mind. "Huh, why hasn't it exploded yet?" After a long time, Lei Hao was still fine, which made him feel quite strange. With the injuries he had earlier, he shouldn't have been able to survive this long, but not only was he alive, his pain had also decreased significantly. Unable to understand what was going on, he calmed down and focused his mind to sense the situation inside his body. As soon as he felt something, he opened his mouth and cursed: "What the f**k is going on?"

  Lei Hao didn't die, because there was another kind of energy inside his body, a silver-white energy with warmth and vitality and an aura of evolution. It was this energy that was repairing Lei Hao's meridians, and after the repair, the meridians became stronger and wider. The spiritual energy kept destroying the meridians, while the silver-white energy kept repairing them, and gradually they reached a balance.

  It turns out that Lei Hao is just a supporting character in this promotion. Knowing he wouldn't die, Lei Hao let out a sigh of relief and thought to himself: "Is it really okay to be like this? Main character template, main character template, crossing over really has its benefits, the starting point is great, you guys are not deceiving me..."