He left the lab and, instead of returning to his rented apartment, went to the hospital again.
In the ward, only Cheng Xingtong was eating liquid food, cared for by a nurse.
"Brother, you're here." Seeing him, Xing Tong's eyes curved into a smile.
"Mm, where's Mom?" Cheng Mo nodded at his sister. At this hour, Cheng Jianguo should be at work, but he hadn't expected his mother to be absent either.
"Mom went back to get a change of clothes," Xing Tong whispered, her breathing still a little weak.
Cheng Mo nodded, took the bowl from the nurse's hand, and carefully fed her the rest.
After the nurse left, he sat by the bed, chatting with his sister.
He didn't talk about other worlds, or about ghosts and blades. Instead, he chose to share some "sights and sounds" he could talk about—unique customs in remote places, the fresh air in the mountains, the exceptionally bright stars at night... His pace was unhurried, his voice soft, carrying a reassuring strength.
As he spoke, he noticed his sister's breathing was short, rapid, and somewhat ragged due to her weakness.
His heart stirred slightly, and he thought of the Breathing Technique.
Thunder Breathing was too violent, so that was out of the question, but the core of the Breathing Technique lay in the exquisite control of one's breath.
He tried to adjust the rhythm of his speech, making his own breathing extremely long, steady, and imbued with a unique rhythm. His voice subconsciously carried a subtle, almost imperceptible fluctuation that could guide others' breathing frequency.
This was an extremely subtle application, unrelated to power, only to control.
Listening to her brother's steady and gentle voice, Xing Tong unconsciously began to adjust her own breathing to that peculiar rhythm, making it deeper and more even.
The constant oppressive feeling in her chest seemed to lessen a little.
She blinked curiously, "Brother, when you talk... it makes me feel so comfortable, and I don't feel as breathless."
Cheng Mo smiled, gently holding her frail wrist. A trace of Lightning Release Chakra, extremely faint, almost devoid of aggression, retaining only its purest vitality, seeped in.
The Chakra energy, like the finest warm current, slowly permeated her skin, very gently stimulating her tired and atrophied cells.
Xing Tong let out a soft "Oh?" and felt a warm sensation where her wrist was touched.
It seemed a very weak but comfortable warm current slowly spread up her arm, and the pervasive feeling of soreness and weakness in her body seemed to be dispelled a little.
"So comfortable..." she murmured softly, her eyelids slowly beginning to droop.
Cheng Mo said nothing, merely maintaining that subtle energy output and breathing rhythm until he watched his sister, holding his hand, her breathing becoming long and steady, falling into a deep sleep.
A faint blush seemed to appear on her pale face.
He gently withdrew his hand, tucked the blanket around his sister, watched her quietly for a while, and then silently left the ward.
Night fell once more.
Cheng Mo drove alone, arriving again at the sturdy, quiet villa on the outskirts.
The lights in the basement came on, illuminating his solitary figure.
The soundproofing here was excellent; no matter what happened, nothing could be heard from outside.
He took off his shirt, revealing his upper body, which, though not exaggerated, had clear lines and contained explosive power.
Closing his eyes, his consciousness sank into his body, and he began to try to extract the energy called "Chakra" according to the knowledge in his mind.
The process was not easy.
The fusion of spiritual energy and physical energy to produce Chakra required extremely strong perception and control over the body.
Fortunately, the cultivation of the Myriad Realms Physique and the Breathing Technique had laid a solid foundation.
Traces of weak energy, cool with a tingling sensation, began to be refined from cells throughout his body.
The energy gathered at the Dantian in his abdomen.
But the quantity was very small, like a shallow stream.
"The amount is too small..."
Cheng Mo frowned slightly.
With this little Chakra, let alone supporting the coverage of the Lightning Release Armor, even releasing it was difficult.
Next, he attempted to cultivate the Lightning Release Armor.
His will guided the sparse Chakra to undergo a lightning nature transformation, then he tried to cover his body with it.
Zzzzzzt!
Tiny blue electric arcs flashed across the surface of his skin, bringing a strong, needle-like stinging and numbing sensation.
His muscles instantly tensed, twitching uncontrollably.
"Hiss..." He let out a muffled groan and immediately dispersed the energy.
Looking down, the skin on his chest was slightly red, as if scorched by tiny electric sparks.
Indeed, with his current Chakra reserves and bodily adaptation, directly cultivating such a high-level Ninjutsu was still too strenuous.
Moreover, it was accompanied by intense pain and great consumption.
But his eyes showed no hint of retreat.
He once again gathered the pitifully small amount of Chakra, attempting lightning nature transformation again and again, guiding them to cover his body again and again, even if it could only be maintained for an instant, even if each time was accompanied by needle-like, electric-shock pain.
Sweat quickly soaked his hair and pants, and his muscles twitched slightly from the frequent electrical stimulation.
In the basement, there was only his heavy breathing and the occasional, extremely faint crackle of electricity.
It was in this almost masochistic repetitive training that a thought suddenly occurred to him.
The Lightning Release Armor was used to stimulate the activity of body cells to gain speed.
Then, could he reverse it, using this weak, controlled Lightning Release Chakra to slightly stimulate his own cells during training, to accelerate the speed of Chakra refinement?
He acted on the thought immediately.
He separated a wisp of the newly transformed, extremely weak Lightning Release Chakra, carefully guided it, no longer to cover the body surface, but inward, slowly permeating into the muscle cells of his arm.
A peculiar sensation, a mix of slight pain and tingling, came over him. The cells there seemed to be slightly activated, and metabolism seemed to accelerate a little.
And at the same time this sensation appeared, the speed at which he refined Chakra from that stimulated area actually increased by about one-tenth!
It worked!
Cheng Mo's eyes suddenly lit up!
Although it was accompanied by a continuous, subtle stinging sensation, for him, who had experienced real combat and severe injuries, this was completely bearable.
Trading pain for efficiency; this deal couldn't be more cost-effective.
He immediately began to try, carefully controlling the weak Lightning Release Chakra, stimulating different parts of his body in turn, while fully operating the Chakra extraction method.
Sure enough, the overall extraction efficiency increased by nearly fifty percent!
Although the total accumulation of Chakra was still slow, compared to the snail-paced progress before, it was already a huge leap!
Moreover, he could feel that under this continuous, weak electrical stimulation, his body's adaptability to Lightning Release Chakra was also slowly strengthening.
In the basement, Cheng Mo's figure was completely drenched in sweat, faint blue electric arcs occasionally flashed across his skin, accompanied by his suppressed breathing.
The pain was real, but the path to becoming stronger was also clearly laid out before him.
There were still a few days until the next Crossing, and he had to seize every second to accumulate as much capital as possible to establish himself in this reality and to change his fate in that world.