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Hou Yun'er had a full filling meal, she never had for ages. She was able to fill her stomach full.

Onced she felt full, Hou Yun'er went to sleep, resting her head on her older brother's shoulders. As Hou Xiao Ming remains still, wrapping a warmth cloth around her, he sighs.

Hou Xiao Ming is the older brother, although he and Hou Yun'er are not actually related by blood, but they do considered themselves as brothers and sisters. Even though, they don't share the same blood coursing through their veins.

"So why did you decided to share your stock of food with us." Hou Xiao Ming asked Shen Huo having become slightly curious over the matter.

Shen Huo nonchalantly responded, "There is no particular reason, really. I just saw a hungry person, and decided to help them out of my good will." There is not much thoughtfulness in Shen Huo's words, but he pretty much got the message across.

"So you did this out of your good will." Hou Xiao Ming repeated the last sentence he just heard.

"I guess so." Shen Huo said, as he then stares at the ceiling. 'Well, that is one of the reasons. If I don't share my food with you guys, sooner or later, you guys will eventually start to pounced on me... A starving person will resolve to do anything, even if it means hurting someone else or even themselves.'

"People will desperately try to do anything in order to hang on to their dear lives." Shen Huo said so in a low quiet voice, in audible to Huo Xiao Ming and Hou Yun'er.

"Did you say something?" Hou Xiao Ming asked, having heard something, but could not make it out in words.

Shen Huo immediately answers back. "It's nothing, just some hopeless mumbles jumble then." 

"Alright, then." Hou Xiao Ming accepted Shen Huo's words at face value. 

"My name is Hou Xiao Ming, but people just call me Xiao Ming." Hou Xiao Ming decided then to formally introduce himself, and then his sister. "And this one here is Hou Yun'er."

"So you guys are both brothers and sisters. You guys both shares the same family surname." Shen Huo said, having realised the obvious similarities in their own names.

"We are not actually related by blood, but it's a family name that we decided to come up with." Hou Xiao Ming said, thereby explaining his reasonings. "We are not that much different from an actual family, like how we rely on each other. Support each other in order to survive. Even our age gaps are not that much different."

Shen Huo lightly smiles as he then agrees with his point of view. "I see your point. A family is something that runs even deeper than blood. It is something you called home, and a place to fostered love and prosperity." Shen Huo spoke to Hou Xiao Ming from across the room.

"I guess you're right." Hou Xiao Ming agrees with what Shen Huo said, as they both enjoy talking with one another.

"I didn't quite catch your name yet?" Hou Xiao Ming then asked Shen Huo for his name.

"That is because I've never told you my name before. It's Shen Huo." Shen Huo then formally introduces himself.

. . .

Shen Huo then went back into training his elemental fire spirit essence, that which he expends all of his spirit power into maintaining the spirit flame.

Onced he exhausted all of his spirit power, he then practices his daily basic breathing excercises just in order to replenish his depleted spirit power. He continues this sort of simple training until the very next day.

Shen Huo then suddenly encounters a mile stone, which he easily broke through to the next level, within seconds. His basic fire controlling skill then evolves to the next tier.

▪The skill Basic Fire Control Lv100 has reached the maximum level. It has evolved and become Novice Fire Control Lv1.▪

Shen Huo's grasp over his elemental fire spirit essence steadily improves, as he could extend the duration of the flames burning time and the size of the fire at will. 

He didn't sleep for the entire duration of his training, eyes completely bloodshot, with dark rings around his eyes.

'I haven't slept for three days.' Shen Huo thought, as he could feel an intensive headache wrecking his head.

Shen Huo started showing multiple signs of symptoms of overworking. He is experiencing extreme sense of mental fatigue and exhaustion, insomnia from the lack of sleep.

Beads of sweat dribbled down the side of Shen Huo's face. His deadpan eyes then stares up at the ceiling.

'I'm nearing the threshold of breaking into the fourth level of the spirit scholar realm.' Shen Huo tiredly thought to himself, finding it difficult to keep his eyes remain open.

'It would seem that my child like body could not handle the exhaustion and backlash of the training.' Shen Huo thought to himself having realised the obvious fact.

'It would seem that I've actually forgotten that I was an actual full grown adult in the body of a child.' Shen Huo thought to himself.

'But if I don't hurry up and break through, I will forever be stuck in these dirty trudges. With no money or a staple income, there is no guarantee that I will get food everyday in order to fill my stomach.' Shen Huo thought to himself, as he lamented over his pitifulness.

Shen Huo's eyes slowly drifted away into the darkness, his vision then becomes much more blurier by the second, until it becomes completely black. 

Shen Huo's body couldn't take it any longer, so his body then forcefully shuts down, and he immediately falls asleep where he stand.

During the long duration of his sleep, his body has been gradually asborbing the spiritual energy in the atmosphere, although to a way lesser degree than when he was practising his basic breathing excercises. 

The spirit power reservoir within his small spiritual sea then begans to fill up, as he then silently breakthrough to the next level of the spirit scholar realm, whilst inot the middle of the night.

Ding!

▪Congratulations, you have broken through to the next spirit rank. You are now spirit rank 4.▪