Chapter 46: Four Months
Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, 4 months had passed.
At Heaven Dou Intermediate Soul Master Academy, the morning theory class had just ended, and students were walking toward the cafeteria or the dormitories in small groups.
Lin Mo stood alone in the corridor outside the classroom, leaning against the railing as he watched several senior students training on the distant playground. His brows were slightly furrowed, and a faint trace of helplessness appeared on his face.
The final exams for this semester, specifically the spirit power test, were only a few days away.
According to the academy's rules, only students who passed the academy's examination and were confirmed to have reached the Rank 20 Bottleneck could participate in the end-of-semester Spirit Hunt organized by the academy and follow the main group to the Soul Hunting Forest to obtain a Spirit Ring.
But... he had only recently broken through his Bottleneck and raised his spirit power to Rank 19.
With only a few days left, even if he squeezed out every last bit of time to Cultivate desperately, it would still be impossible for him to raise his spirit power to Rank 20 in such a short period.
This time, he was definitely going to miss the end-of-semester Spirit Hunt.
"I can only wait until next semester..." Lin Mo sighed softly.
Missing this opportunity meant that he would have to wait at least another half year before obtaining his second Spirit Ring.
That would undoubtedly slow down his Cultivation progress.
After all, once spirit power reached a Bottleneck, the Rank could no longer increase without obtaining a Spirit Ring.
Although the spirit power gained from daily Cultivation would continue to accumulate and would erupt once a Spirit Ring was acquired, the Cultivation efficiency of a Rank 20 quasi-Spirit Grandmaster was ultimately inferior to that of a Spirit Grandmaster who had already completed the Breakthrough. In other words, he would lose 6 months of true Cultivation efficiency.
However, Lin Mo also understood that Cultivation could not be rushed.
He quickly adjusted his mindset and pushed this small regret to the back of his mind.
During this period, his life had been extremely full, even busy.
On weekdays, he attended classes at the academy in the morning and used all his spare time to Cultivate spirit power.
In the afternoon, he would unfailingly go to the Ye Family Medical Hall for 1 or 2 hours to complete his apprentice duties.
Fortunately, the Medical Hall was not too far from the academy, so the trip back and forth was not overly troublesome.
His studies at the Medical Hall during this period had been quite fruitful. Not only had his Cultivation not fallen behind, he had also learned many practical things there.
As early as 2 months ago, Lin Mo had already stopped going to the academy library.
He had moved all the time he originally spent there to the Ye Family Medical Hall.
His apprentice assessment had not even taken 3 months.
In fact, before the first month had even ended, he had already successfully passed Old Ye Linyuan's test.
Old Ye was very satisfied with both his learning ability and his calm, focused temperament, and he had officially accepted him as an apprentice.
What surprised Old Ye the most was that Lin Mo himself seemed to possess some very basic and rather crude medical knowledge, which meant he did not need to be taught entirely from scratch.
That alone let him breathe a sigh of relief.
As a result, Lin Mo became one of the only 3 Spirit Master apprentices currently in the Ye Family Medical Hall.
The other 2 were Old Ye's granddaughter, Ye Lingling, and the boy Lin Mo had seen on his first day at the Medical Hall, the one who was always buried in illustrated herb books, Li He.
However, judging from Li He's recent state, he probably would not be staying much longer.
Through their interactions and occasional chats during this period, Lin Mo had gained some understanding of Li He.
He had come to the Medical Hall as an apprentice mostly because of his family's wishes.
His own attitude toward medical skills had always been rather vague, more of an "if my family wants me to learn, then I'll try it" kind of mentality.
Recently, however, that "I'll try it" attitude had clearly begun to lean toward "this isn't for me."
According to information Li He had revealed during a chat not long ago, he would most likely be leaving the Medical Hall soon.
Lin Mo was not surprised by that.
In fact, Li He's situation was quite common among the Spirit Master apprentices recruited by the Ye Family Medical Hall.
Spirit Master apprentices who could truly pass the test and persevere until they mastered the craft were not nonexistent, but they were very rare.
Most people ended up giving up halfway, just like Li He.
The reason was simple.
Studying medicine was an extremely long and tedious process.
It required memorizing a massive amount of knowledge about medicinal herbs, human meridians, and the characteristics of illnesses. It also demanded a great deal of practical experience to be accumulated over time.
For Spirit Masters, who placed most of their time and energy into raising their spirit power, this kind of process had two fatal flaws: it was hard to see any obvious results in the short term, and it consumed a large amount of precious Cultivation time.
That was why Old Ye Linyuan had such strict requirements regarding Heart-Nature when recruiting apprentices.
He wanted to find people who were truly interested in medicine, people who could endure loneliness and settle down to learn.
But even so, someone like Li He, who had persisted for almost a year before deciding to leave, was already considered rather rare and commendable among past Spirit Master apprentices.
Old Ye Linyuan himself seemed long accustomed to the coming and going of apprentices.
From time to time, he would sigh a few words to Lin Mo, his tone carrying a trace of open-mindedness.
In his words, it would naturally be best if his medical skills could find a suitable successor and be passed on as a Legacy.
If they could not be passed on, then so be it. Such things could not be forced, and everything ultimately depended on fate.
After all, for the great majority of Spirit Masters, raising their spirit power Rank was the most important and most practical thing.
Learning medical skills was more often treated as either a possible fallback for making a living, or an unimportant hobby.
Li He's decision to leave this time was precisely because of that.
His spirit power Rank had already reached the graduation requirement for an Intermediate Spirit Master Academy, and his next step was to focus entirely on preparing for the entrance examination of an Advanced Spirit Master Academy.
Between Cultivation and medicine, he had ultimately chosen the former.
As for Lin Mo himself, his situation was rather special.
On one hand, it was because he was afraid of death. On the other hand, and more importantly, he needed to use this special environment to research his Body Martial Soul's Cultivation method and his Self-created Spirit Skills.
Furthermore, with Charmander around, not only would staying here not delay his Cultivation, but his Cultivation speed was actually faster than it had been in the academy library.
Aside from him and Li He, the situation of the third apprentice, Ye Lingling, was also rather special.
Ye Lingling had grown up by Ye Linyuan's side since childhood, and under the old man's influence, she had naturally inherited quite a bit of knowledge and skill in medicine.
However, Ye Lingling herself did not seem especially interested in deeply studying medical skills.
The talent she inherited and displayed was more reflected in her family's Martial Soul, the Nine Heart Begonia.
That unique healing ability seemed like an innate instinct, far beyond the healing effects that acquired medical knowledge could achieve.
Because of that, Ye Lingling's attitude toward medicine could only be described as lukewarm.
Yet compared to Ye Lingling's talent in medicine and her Martial Soul, what worried Old Ye Linyuan even more was the personality of his eldest granddaughter.
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