I can use my morality points to allocate stats

A few minutes later...

After much haggling, Lin Mo reluctantly paid 8 yuan less and plopped down at the small table behind the barbecue stand. He reached over and snatched a skewer of grilled sausage from in front of Chu Wange, biting into it fiercely.

Noticing Chu Wange curiously observing him from across the table, Lin Mo said irritably:

"What are you looking at? I paid for this, can't I eat a few skewers?"

Chu Wange shook her head and pushed the plate of barbecue towards the center of the table, saying:

"Go ahead and eat."

Lin Mo didn't hesitate. He was already hungry, and now feeling annoyed after haggling with the barbecue vendor, his stomach felt even more aggrieved. 

He ravenously grabbed several beef skewers and stuffed them into his mouth.

Across from him, Chu Wange appeared much more elegant, though she ate just as quickly. Her hand moved especially fast in grabbing skewers - Lin Mo could barely see her movements before the meat was already in her mouth.

The two of them ate silently, focused on their food. The middle-aged barbecue vendor watched them and shook his head:

"Young people these days, wasting opportunities..."

He glanced at Chu Wange's beautiful face, which remained stunning even as she ate for free, and thought to himself:

"If I were twenty years younger, you wouldn't stand a chance, you melon head! What a shame such a pretty young lady is going to be wasted on this pig."

At that thought, he unconsciously rubbed his lower back:

"I wonder if that tigress at home is done playing mahjong yet. Better get home late tonight..."

There wasn't much barbecue for the hundred or so yuan, and Lin Mo and Chu Wange ate at an incredibly fast pace. Within minutes, they had cleared the table.

"Charging 100 yuan for just this bit of barbecue - the prices in the city are way too high!" Lin Mo grumbled quietly as he patted his barely satisfied stomach.

The high cost of living in the provincial capital was also why he didn't carry money when going out, given his limited monthly allowance. 

Fortunately, the 100 yuan today was found money. Otherwise, he would have been heartbroken over the expense.

"Oh, it's almost 2 AM," Lin Mo said, glancing at the time. He immediately stood up from the table and hurried back towards the residential complex without even saying goodbye.

The old man was the old man - if he said lights out at 2 AM, he wouldn't wait until 2:01 AM.

Though Lin Mo had never returned to the complex after 2 AM, he had heard about a couple who came back late from a midnight snack. They accidentally missed the old man's "operating hours" and ended up stuck outside all night, only able to enter the complex the next morning.

Thinking of this, Lin Mo quickened his pace even more.

Chu Wange unhurriedly wiped her mouth while watching Lin Mo disappear from view with her spirited eyes.

Then she turned to look at the bamboo basket beside the middle-aged vendor, a thoughtful expression on her face...

The next evening at 9 PM, in an ordinary cultivation room at Nanshan No. 4 Middle School.

"No way! It can only go up to 39%?" Lin Mo stared at the message [Unable to invest more merit points] in prolonged disbelief.

The good news: In less than two days, he had consumed 1,700 merit points to raise his Gold Spirit Root from 22% purity to 39%.

The bad news: It could only be raised to 39%.

For a moment, he didn't know how to react as he pondered the information panel.

Actually, it was quite cost-effective - an investment of 1,700 merit points had increased his cultivation speed by 3.4%.

If he could raise all his other Spirit Roots to 39% purity as well, his final cultivation speed would be nearly double the original!

Of course, the experience gained from investing merit points would also be almost halved compared to before.

This was the principle of achieving twice the results with half the effort.

Today when Lin Mo meditated in the spiritual energy cultivation room, he clearly felt that the circulation of techniques within his body was much faster than usual.

"Just when I was starting to feel like a genius, I can't become one anymore?" he muttered to himself sarcastically, though his mood wasn't as bad as expected.

Even if the Five Elements Spirit Root could be raised to 100% purity, it would still be a Five Elements Spirit Root.

Forget about comparing to single Spirit Root geniuses - even those with dual or triple Spirit Roots would be a level above him.

But as long as merit points could increase experience, these gaps wouldn't matter...

Lin Mo quickly accepted this reality, while secretly wondering:

"I wonder if Chu Wange has a single or dual Spirit Root?"

He glanced at the mere 10 merit points remaining on his panel after maxing out the Gold Spirit Root. His slightly sore fingers tensed up again.

He flexed them slightly, then straightened them -

[Merit +1]

Not enough, still not enough. I need more merit points!

Lin Mo made up his mind once again to postpone his bedtime by two hours tonight.

It's decided - I'm going to outwork Ye Chen, outwork Chu Wange, outwork all the geniuses in the cultivation world!

He thought confidently.

In the evening, near the pavilion at Shahe Park.

"Hei!"

"Ha!"

"Huo!"

...

Forceful shouts filled with vigor accompanied the steady footsteps of the elderly men and women along the riverside.

Lin Mo also followed the steps of the majority, tirelessly practicing the Kuixing Stance.

A resting old man nearby offered some helpful guidance while stretching:

"The key to standing exercises is to keep your body centered, relaxed, with an empty stance, rounded intent, and smooth qi... Young man, don't tense up your body so much. Keep still - I'm talking about that pinky finger, why are you twitching it? Are you having a seizure?"

As Lin Mo went through the stances over and over, the enthusiastic old man kept offering advice, seemingly inexhaustible.

It made Lin Mo want to tell the old man: What do you know? This isn't how our school teachers taught us!

But then he glanced at the old man's muscular physique and the perfectly rounded aura emanating from his body. Lin Mo felt the old man could probably take out two of him with one punch.

So he chose to keep his mouth shut.

Fortunately, the old man didn't prattle on until the end. He was forcibly dragged away by his wife who had finished stretching, finally freeing Lin Mo's ears.

Lin Mo let out a sigh of relief, no longer in the mood to continue the stance practice.

He had originally planned to keep going until almost 2 AM, but now he didn't feel like moving after just getting started.

Lin Mo rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on.

Sleeping only 4 hours for two nights in a row was a bit too much for this young, sleep-loving body.

"Maybe I should go to bed early tonight and get up earlier tomorrow..." 

Just as this thought crossed his mind, a notification suddenly sounded in his ear:

[Accumulated 1000 merit points, condensing into 1 Luck value]

[Luck value: 2]

"Forget sleep, time to grind!"

Lin Mo's headache suddenly improved significantly. In an instant, his waist no longer ached and his legs no longer hurt. He resumed the stance and began going through the motions repeatedly.

"Hei! Ha! Huo!"

His vigorous shouts blended perfectly with the voices of the surrounding elderly.

Lin Mo's form also improved. Though the stance practice didn't add experience points, he seemed to become increasingly proficient.

He continued like this from around 11 PM until his alarm went off at nearly 1 AM.

Only when his body was drenched in sweat, soaking his clothes once again, did he slowly come to a stop.

[Completed stance practice 21 times, Proficiency +0.21]

The system notification floated across the interface.

Lin Mo pursed his lips and chose to ignore it.

The purpose of stance practice was to ward off sleepiness and exercise the body while continuing to gain merit points, not to increase proficiency. Why bother looking at that?

He stretched his slightly sore arms and was about to extend his long legs for a stretch when suddenly a flash of bright red caught his eye. A soft "swish" sound followed.

He instinctively looked down and saw two crisp red hundred-yuan bills had just appeared under his feet.

"Did... did money just rain down?" he thought, his gaze frozen in surprise.