Clark rubbed his forehead in consternation. What did strengthening his dao heart mean? It simply connoted time, sacrifice, and a hell lot of life and death battles.

This would also entail that Clark should strengthen his foundation unto an impregnable state so that the minor details such as heaven's negative buff could not anymore influence his state of mind.

​​

This was why most old goats spend a lot of time in closed door cultivation and also why much of them consistently fortified, stabilized and comprehended all the ins and outs of their realms, big or small ones, before taking the next step to breakthrough at a higher cultivation level.

But given Clark's current speed of upgrade, doing this kind of chore was an almost impossible task for our bored gamer.

"Are there really no shortcuts for this problem, Nancy?" Clark asked, not giving up on hope yet.

"Negative, host. Since every level up will grant a significant boost to your physique, it will then become your task to calibrate both your mind and soul unto your newly found strength.

The system cannot help you in this task." Nancy responded sadly.

'Tsk. Tsk. It seems that Nancy is not as powerful as i thought she was.' Clark sighed deeply and looked at his handsome bearing in the mirror. It did not take him long to shake his head in defeat.

"SIGH!"

"No sense in crying over something that can't be changed."

"Not everyone can be Li Qiye after all." Clark muttered in dismay and in this moment of trouble, he did what he always did in the past. Procrastinate and be productive about it at the same time.

"BOINK!" a young man jumped on the bed and closed his eyes in an instant. He moved not an inch and to an untrained eye, this youth might have been mistakenly observed as sleeping.

And yet, anyone who would have reached such a conclusion could not have been anymore wrong at the moment because our boy gamer was in fact meditating in search a myriad of solutions out of his present dilemma.

If this was Lu Chen then he would have long drowned himself to the pull of the spirits. A drunk man would choose to numb his feelings at life and everything else in it.

Alas, half of this person's soul was Clark also and that has made all the difference in this moment. Silence pervaded the chambers and Clark imagined a way out of this mess.

He stayed true to his purpose for 10 minutes or so but found no answer to his predicament still. And that was when Clark felt the influence of Lu Chen's way of solving his problems. To escape.

"Fuck! This old man's craving at alcohol is unbelievable!" Clark cursed and could not help but gulp at them imaginary waters of forgetting.

Although he was an avid gamer in the past but Clark has not at all indulged in a life of intoxication. For him, these vices were stupid. Plain and simple.

Alas, a part of Lu Chen's soul inside him begged to differ otherwise even as he conjured these conflicting thoughts in his mind.

"I need a distraction. A good one!" Clark decided and got up without ado.

He was about to get his most treasured item from one of his personal boxes but only made it halfway through the deed because the obvious blood stains on the floors called for his immediate attention.

Although he was used to being a topsy-turvy individual before and was an accomplished murderer already at this point but sleeping with blood around him was definitely not one of his acquired oddities.

"Hmmm... Should I call Lai Peng or one of the girls to clean this up?"

"Nah... just my handsome self is enough to do this kind of easy job!"

Clark got himself a rather expensive looking robe from out of the closet since he did not want to use his own clothes and sully it in shattered flesh and blood.

He then attacked the trivial work with a single minded purpose. A few minutes of hard rubbing and Clark was now standing to gaze at his masterpiece.

"It's barely passable. No more stains that I could see but the unmistakable stench of blood still lingers in the room. It's suffocating inside this enclosure."

"I need to do something about this smell." Clark carressed his long black beard and contemplated on how to solve this little inconvenience.

As long as this minor thing took his mind off of his most pressing challenge, that was enough to at least offer him what meager solace he could get from this circumstance.

"How could i have been so foolish?! Why don't i do some research on my powers and try that!" Clark smiled after a sudden flash of inspiration.

He waved his hand thereafter and crimson shades began to appear before him.

This was not his first play with the elemental powers of nature because he had used exactly the same trick earlier when he deflected any nosy bystanders during his dance with the lovely Xu Min.

At that time, Clark borrowed the might of the wind. But this time around, he was trying to harness the wild forces of fire and if truth be told, Clark was indeed a natural in handling this fiery element.

The red hues visited the inanimate floors and breathed hotly on its surface.

"HAHAHA! I'm such a gifted master of flames at my first try already! I bet it won't take me a year to fully command every element at my beck and call."

"This is just so easy. A noob's quest." Clark shook his head over and over again as his narcissistic side absolutely took control at this moment.

He even did an extra wave or two to grant his finishing touches on a job well done. Alas, this careless act may have proven the last straw for the otherwise perfect performance.

"SNIFF!"

"SNIFF!"

"Why do i smell smoke?"

"Is someone cooking?" Clark asked himself. He looked around the room and saw nothing out of the ordinary.

In the end, he directed his nose at the only exit in sight to better ascertain where the smoke was coming from.

He did this for a few seconds and the obvious fragrance of something burning became even more apparent with each tick of the clock.

"If there was something wrong, Lai Peng would have already come to me by now."

"I better check it just to be sure." Clark walked towards the doorways and after only the seventh step, a flash of angry brilliance loomed at him from behind.

He did a quick turnaround and witnessed the majesty of his own making.

"Well, shit!"