As everyone knows, young people are full of vigor, and Little Li has always been your childish troublemaker, so he’s especially spirited when facing you.

Also as everyone knows, too much rigidity leads to breaking, and too much vigor leads to illness.

If others heard this description of Little Li, they’d probably think Young Master Li had a pure heart, forever brimming with youthful energy.

But coming from this somewhat strange system, and after Ying Bing had just witnessed the childish troublemaker’s transformation, what else could this "vigor" mean?

It was the feverish affliction of Hammer Baby.

The lingering sensation made Ying Bing unconsciously curl her delicate fingers again.

[This time’s punishment is to help Little Li cure Hammer Baby’s illness.]

"Cure Hammer Baby...?"

Still as a statue, poised and graceful like an ice sculpture—anyone who saw her frosty, jade-like complexion would surely praise her as coldly enchanting, radiantly wise.

No one could imagine that the flashes in her mind were leaking from the new world of possibilities in Little Li’s head.

Perhaps noticing her daze, the system prompted again:

[Is the host at a loss on how to proceed?]

"I don’t understand what you mean."

Ying Bing snapped back to reality, hearing the system’s question, her face expressionless as if indifferent.

A little guilty, but utterly unapologetic.

Come to think of it, this was probably a trick she’d learned from someone...

[Detecting the host’s confusion, the system is obligated to provide a method for completing the reward.]

Ying Bing: "?"

[Playing relevant footage...]

Ying Bing: "??"

At this moment, the Ice Fairy sat at her desk, the martial arts texts she intended to write for Little Li laid out before her. Anyone who saw her would assume she was pondering some profound martial theory.

But all she could think about now was how to cure Hammer Baby.

...

Meanwhile, Li Mo, chewing on an ice-less popsicle stick after washing his clothes, returned to his room.

He reached for a fresh change of clothes but accidentally pulled out his Pure Yang Robe. Sighing, he put it back.

"No, I need to find something to occupy myself."

Li Mo lay on his bed for a long while before sinking his consciousness into his inner world.

This space was no longer just a minor realm, self-contained—it now operated entirely around him as its foundation.

A crimson giant stood with feet planted in chaos, head brushing the stars, vast and magnificent, a sight so grand it dwarfed the inner worlds of others, enough to leave an indelible mark on the martial path.

With a solemn expression, Young Li stirred the starry sky, manifesting illusions through shifting light and shadow.

A booming voice echoed through the heavens, shaking the world.

"Calabash Brothers, Calabash Brothers, seven brothers on one vine..."

"Tsk... Huh, gotta admit, that Snake Spirit’s kinda alluring..."

After watching for a while, Li Mo felt he was truly beyond redemption.

Getting tempted by Calabash Brothers—was that even right?

How was he any different from Uncle Murong Feng now?

Of course, that was secondary. The real issue was the exorbitant cost of watching cartoons, comparable to the 2G era when downloading videos cost a fortune per megabyte.

Body exhausted, wallet drained.

"Is this because my former minor realm was self-contained, while my inner world now relies entirely on me?"

Young Li finally found something to distract himself.

Honestly, most people, fresh from a breakthrough, would cautiously consolidate their realm and study martial arts.

But Li Mo needed a seductive Snake Spirit to remind him.

After some introspection, he finally grasped the nature of his inner world.

Normally, at the fourth realm, the inner world and the outer Nine Heavens and Ten Earths would resonate, forming a cycle that allowed endless regeneration.

This was the key difference between the Inner Landscape Realm and the Observation Divine Realm—as long as one didn’t exceed the cycle’s limits, their energy would be inexhaustible.

But in Li Mo’s inner world, the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths simply didn’t exist.

Even if he could harmonize with heaven and earth, there was nothing to resonate with, let alone form a cycle.

So whether in battle, cultivation, or even watching Calabash Brothers, he had to rely solely on himself.

The bigger problem was that all 365 stars in his inner sky required different exotic energies to ignite, just as the great sun in his body relied on karmic flames and fallen starfire.

Absorbing the world’s natural energy was possible, but painfully slow.

Heavenly treasures could drastically shorten the process.

"Three hundred sixty-five Mystic Pills... how many heavenly treasures would that take?"

Even the well-endowed Little Li Furnace shuddered at the calculation.

Given his cultivation speed, the usable stock from his investment returns would likely last only two months—since most of the returns weren’t heavenly treasures, and even fewer were compatible.

Li Mo wasn’t one to fret over hypotheticals, and he wasn’t truly desperate yet.

Once his stock ran out, he could always buy more.

So he took out a Solar Mystic Crystal, then hesitated and retrieved a Lunar Mystic Crystal as well.

...

The next morning, Li Mo stepped into the courtyard, stretching before heading to the kitchen. After a night absorbing two exotic-energy treasures, his aura had grown deeper, lacking the overwhelming presence typical of fourth-realm cultivators—instead, he seemed almost ordinary.

First, because his inner world existed independently of the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths.

Second, due to his physique and the Eight-Nine Mystic Art.

Through the mystic art, he could sense the myriad energies drifting in the air—mountain spirits, the life-and-death aura of autumn cicadas...

"Huh? Where’s the solar essence?"

Li Mo gazed into the distance as three suns rose above the horizon, the eastern sky already scorched crimson.

With such intense sunlight, solar essence should have been abundant, yet he couldn’t detect a trace in the world.

"No wonder the Three Suns haven’t turned the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths into a wasteland."

Li Mo figured the Great Yu must have powerful figures restricting the flow of solar essence.

He didn’t dwell on it and headed to the kitchen.

Today, the Southern Suppressing King was returning to the imperial capital to report, and he, along with the Qingyuan Sect elders, would see him off.

"Waaah..."

"Stop crying, you’re acting like a girl. So annoying."

"Wuuu!!"

"Not a girl, not a girl—here, let me toast you. From now on, I’ll call you ‘bro,’ alright?"

"Oooowooo..."

"?"

Hearing the wailing outside, Li Mo set down his spatula and peeked out.

In the courtyard, a little girl with twin braids, dressed in clothes clearly not of this era, was crying like a wild animal.

Shang Wu sat beside her, massaging her temples in despair.

"Whose kid is this? Kinda cute."

"My younger brother, Shang Li."

"??"

...