「Five months later.」

The autumn chill deepened.

In the Magic Experiment Hall, Chu Mu stood before a target. With a slight movement of his sleeve, a Fireball appeared in his palm.

Then, the Fireball shot out like a meteor, speeding toward the target in the distance.

The next second, a deafening explosion rang out. Amidst the flying sparks, a crater the size of a millstone appeared on the massive stone target—a mundane rock Chu Mu had specially brought in as a replacement.

The crater wasn’t large, but a closer look would reveal that it had penetrated nearly a meter into the massive stone.

The Fireball Skill’s greatest lethality came from the instantaneous burst of Magical Power and Spiritual Power upon impact, similar to the impact and explosive damage of an artillery shell from his previous life.

Yet on the stone before him, while the crater could be said to have been formed by the Fireball Skill’s impact, the subsequent explosion had caused no secondary damage.

This crater alone was undeniable proof of Chu Mu’s meticulous control over the Magic!

Despite such perfection, Chu Mu seemed dissatisfied. He frowned, and another Fireball materialized.

This time, the Fireball didn’t shoot out. Instead, it blazed in Chu Mu’s hand. As time passed, the originally spherical Fireball actually began to slowly change shape.

It was like a balloon in his hand, being kneaded, flattened, and even stretched.

But this transformation seemed to be under some kind of restriction, rigidly confined within its original spherical boundary, unable to extend beyond it in the slightest.

Ultimately, under this constant manipulation, the fiercely burning Fireball suddenly collapsed and extinguished.

Chu Mu was clearly used to this. With a slight frown, he had apparently confirmed something.

’Is it this Inscription that’s limiting the Fireball Skill’s shape?’

Chu Mu took out his experiment notebook, his gaze fixing on an Inscription that had been circled within its pages.

Five months had been spent on cultivating his Sword Technique and Magic.

He had even spent more than half of his Monthly Stipend buying up usage vouchers for the Magic Experiment Hall from Wang Mazi.

The official minimum price was one Spirit Stone for three hours, which was for the public experiment area where Chu Mu had conducted his first test.

But from Wang Mazi, one Spirit Stone could buy three vouchers. Chu Mu earned about three Lower Grade Spirit Stones a month, so by spending two of them, he got six opportunities to practice in the Magic Experiment Hall.

It wasn’t much, but he had no other choice. After all,

According to the rules of the Jade Emperor Valley Marketplace, private duels and the use of Magic or Magical Artifacts were strictly forbidden within a hundred-li radius of the Marketplace, and Law Enforcement Teams patrolled daily.

He had to be on duty during the day, leaving him only with the evenings. Chu Mu couldn’t possibly travel two hundred li back and forth in a single night just for that.

Besides, the expansion of Jade Emperor Valley was still ongoing, and there were many foreign Cultivators around. The area outside the Marketplace was a chaotic mix of all sorts. Practicing the Fireball Skill out there... Chu Mu felt that would be gambling with his life.

Practicing inside the Marketplace was expensive, but at least it was safe. Besides, training the Fireball Skill didn’t necessarily require repeated casting.

Over the past five-plus months, Chu Mu had already figured out his own training regimen for Magic.

The Fireball Skill was formed by a Magic Model constructed from Magic Inscriptions.

This was the unquestionable foundation of Magic.

His practice of the Fireball Skill, therefore, began with the Magic Inscriptions!

It didn’t matter that he had never studied the theory of Inscriptions. The book described the Fireball Skill’s three Fire Attribute Runes with great clarity, and he had already constructed the Magic Model.

He started by reverse-engineering the three Fire Attribute Runes, allowing him to gradually but completely master their structures, and in turn, gain total control over the Fireball Skill’s Magic Model.

The process was clearly documented in the experiment notebook now in his hands.

Over the past few months, he had experimented bit by bit to figure out the function of every single line and structure within the three Fire Attribute Runes.

It was safe to say that, by now, the Fireball Skill held no more mysteries for Chu Mu.

Its Inscription structure, its principles, the combination of its Magic Model, the flow path of Magical Power...

He understood it all, clear as day.

And this clarity was reflected on his Light Curtain Panel, where the skill had leaped from Beginner’s Practice to Entering the Hall and the Room—a realm he was now close to mastering!

[Name: Chu Mu]

[Skills: Basic Blade Technique (Refined Skill) 3980/5000, Fireball Skill (Entering the Hall and the Room 1895/2000)]

[Body Refining Technique (1000/1000)]

[Flame Decision Layer 1 (370/1000)]

[Alchemy: Dragon and Snake Soup: Refined Skill (1300/2000), Grain Avoidance Pill: Beginner’s Practice (5/100)]

[Spiritual Radiance Value: 111.1%]

Chu Mu glanced at his equally fast-progressing Sword Technique, his eyes flickering slightly. Then, the Light Curtain Panel vanished, and another Fireball condensed at his fingertip.

In an instant, the Fireball took shape and shot out once more.

’About two seconds...’

Chu Mu looked down at his experiment notebook, flipping to the page on the Fireball Skill’s casting time.

From six seconds, it had been shortened bit by bit, down to about two seconds.

Although it seemed like only a four-second improvement, it was undoubtedly a huge step forward.

Moreover, this two-second casting time wasn’t just for standing still. It applied to casting while moving and even casting while distracted in combat; he could achieve the two-second window in all these scenarios.

Two seconds was the shortest casting time he could currently achieve for the Fireball Skill.

Chu Mu carefully flipped through his experiment notebook, searching for any aspect that could still be improved.

’In the end, my Cultivation is the biggest bottleneck!’

In the end, Chu Mu could only shake his head and sigh.

The bucket theory held true even in the Cultivation Immortal Realm.

If his Cultivation didn’t increase, his Divine Sense Magical Power wouldn’t improve much either. No matter how easily he understood the principles and structure of the Fireball Skill or the casting process, he would still be limited by his Cultivation.

If his Magical Power and Divine Sense were double what they were now, Chu Mu was confident he could easily reduce the Fireball Skill’s casting time to under one second.

But this sluggish progress in his Cultivation was a real headache.

"Booth five, your time is up."

A young attendant watching from the side called out. Chu Mu nodded and left without lingering.

Over the past five-plus months, just as Chu Mu had predicted, the Jade Emperor Valley Marketplace had indeed expanded again. On the foundation of the originally leveled canyon, it had grown by nearly a hundred mu, with at least a thousand new residences built.

However, although these new residences were protected by Restrictions, they were no different from the room Chu Mu currently lived in at Li’s Trading House.

Aside from a basic partitioning Restriction, there was nothing else; there was no Spiritual Qi supply whatsoever.

But even these residences, no different from mundane dwellings, had a monthly rent of one Spirit Stone.

Nevertheless, despite the cost, Chu Mu had observed that the new residences caused quite a stir. In just a few short months, the majority of them were already occupied by Cultivators.

A few days ago, he had even made a special trip to the Marketplace’s housing rental office to inquire. Of the more than 1,100 residences in total, fewer than 300 vacant rooms remained after just a few months.

Although a rent of one Spirit Stone was steep, it clearly wasn’t unaffordable for Cultivators who had embarked on the Immortal Path.

Besides, while leaving the Jade Emperor Valley Marketplace was easy, there was an entrance fee of one Broken Spirit every time you came in!

If someone was a frequent traveler, going in and out thirty times in a thirty-day month would cost three Lower Grade Spirit Stones.

For an ordinary Cultivator without a residence in the Marketplace, living in the mountains outside, the entrance fees alone would likely cost almost as much as the one Spirit Stone rent.

’Maybe I should rent a place too...’

Chu Mu couldn’t help but wonder as he walked down the street.

He had a place to live, but if he were to bring that kid Xu Yuan into the Cultivation Immortal Realm, it clearly wouldn’t be appropriate for him to live at Li’s Ore Materials.

He couldn’t just let Xu Yuan live a dangerous life on the edge outside the Marketplace...

After a moment of thought, Chu Mu filed the idea away. Now wasn’t the time. He would have to wait until he was thoroughly and completely established in Jade Emperor Valley.

Returning to his room and closing the door brought an indescribable sense of peace.

Chu Mu had barely sat down when there was a knock on the door. He got up, opened it, and found Hou Cheng standing outside with a cheerful smile.

"The Imperial Gazette for the last ten days of the month is here. I just finished it, so here you go."

"Alright."

Chu Mu nodded and took the booklet from Hou Cheng. Hou Cheng didn’t linger; after a few words of small talk, he returned to his own room.

Closing the door, Chu Mu leaned against the headboard of his bed, picked up the Imperial Gazette from Hou Cheng, and began to read.

This so-called Imperial Gazette had borrowed its name from the gazettes used by the mortal Court to announce policies throughout the land.

In the Cultivation Immortal Realm, it was similar to the newspapers of his previous life, except it wasn’t published daily. It came out once every ten days—one issue for the early, middle, and late parts of each month.

A subscription cost one Broken Spirit a month.

The price wasn’t high, but every little bit saved helped.

This Imperial Gazette was the result of him and Hou Cheng splitting the cost. They took turns paying the Spirit Stone fee each month and also took turns reading it first, which was quite economical...

...