Chapter 53: Foundation Establishment - End
｢Infinite Slaughter System
Owner: Li Ling
Status: Healthy.
Age: 20/350
Slaughter Points: 224
Qi Cultivation Base: Foundation Establishment level 1 (0/30)
Qi Cultivation Technique: Solaris Azure Meditiation Mantra
Body Refinement Level: Mortal Flesh level Perfection. (Unable to Breakthrough)
Body Refinement Technique: Blood Asura Descent. (Cannot be Limit Broken)
Mind Power Realm: Acolyte Realm Level 1 (0/2)
Mind Power Technique: Expanding Mind Sequence
Daoist Arts:
1. Fireball Technique – Advanced (0/2)
2. Qi Restraining Control – Perfection (Can be Limit Broken, 0/50)
3. Qi Seeking Technique – Perfection (Can be Limit Broken, 0/50)
4. Voice Transmission – Entry (0/1)
5. Object Control – Perfection (Can be Limit Broken, 0/50)
6. Earth Escape – Expert (0/30)
7. Golden Bell Shield – Expert (0/9)
8. Cleansing Spell – Entry (0/1)
9. Qi Sealing Technique – Expert (0/15)
10. Essence Locking Technique – Perfection (Can be Limit Broken, 0/50)
11. Falling Boulder Art – Perfection (Can be Limit Broken, 0/50)
12. Soul Piercing Seal – Entry (0/10)
13. Memory Plunder Method – Entry (0/10)
14. Blessed Augury – Entry (0/100)
Non Daoist Techniques:
1. Li Family Spear Technique – Advanced (0/3)
2. Disguise Art – Perfection (Can be Limit Broken, 0/50)
3. Swift Swallow Step – Entry (0/1)
4. Sky Rending Palm – Entry (0/1)
5. Hidden Sleeve Art – Mastery (0/4).｣
Li Ling eyed his current status and felt emotional. Look at how far he had come from that weakling at Qi Refinement level 1 with only four skills, three of them being daoist arts and one being his spear technique from his clan. Now, if he were to list his page on a piece of paper or a scroll, some might rightfully call it a wall of text!
What an achievement!
But he wasn’t overcome by his feelings of accomplishment. Firstly, he noted that his lifespan was quite secure, being at exactly three hundred and fifty years, which was correct per his calculation. He obtained three hundred years from achieving Foundation Establishment normally with a technique that didn’t particularly boost lifespan, and he got the extra fifty from his peak Body Refinement.
Unfortunately, lifespan gained from cultivation did not add onto your original lifespan, it just replaced it. So if you were a hundred years old and you entered Qi Refinement, you would not gain one hundred and fifty years as a top up and have two hundred and fifty years to go, you would only have an extra fifty.
Another thing was that lifespan was only gained when entering a new realm for the lower levels. It was only at higher cultivation levels where the gap between minor realms was as vast as the entire cultivation practice from the start to that point where there would be some gains.
Li Ling noted that the Solaris Azure True Method had quite a steep cost. It was obvious by now that the sequence for the Slaughter Point cost of various techniques and daoist arts was that of a linear one, possibly a unique feature of the Infinite Slaughter System.
So its first level had taken 15 Slaughter Points to enter, and now going to the second level would cost 30. That meant that the third would be 45, the fourth 60...
The total cost for Foundation Establishment, from start to finish, was a resounding 825 Slaughter Points!
Tsk, it was no wonder the Infinite Slaughter System complained, because truly, what was Li Ling doing? With such strength, he could even have challenged a Foundation Establishment cultivator before these upgrades, but conventional thinking prevented him from taking the risk.
You, Li Ling, claim you do not fear death and want to enjoy life, right? So why not enjoy battling at the edge of life and death? Why do you always pick safe battles where you can reap rather low rewards and upgrade slowly?
This same system, in the hands of someone truly brave, they would already have reached Core Formation peak or Nascent Soul by now!
Li Ling was silent, not sure what to say to rebut his current thoughts. His basic intelligence told him that such recklessness was foolish, what did he have to prove to anyone? It was perfectly fine to be fearless of death and still not actively court it like a fool.
But yes, he would have to up his intensity, that much he agreed. His gain rate for Slaughter Points was far too slow, even mysterious fellows from who knows where were descending from the future to give him free boons, so what’s stopping the ones from the future who want to kill him in the cradle from paying a visit too?
Before Li Ling continued to empower himself, he noted something interesting. His Mind Power Realm had rightly fallen to the beginner stage of cultivation after all his ’painstakingly’ cultivated Mind Power was swallowed up by his spirit sense, allowing it to balloon to ten times the size of cultivators at the same realm.
In Foundation Establishment, a cultivator would obtain a ten-meter radius of spirit sense upon reaching the first level, which allowed them to achieve many things with it. The list of utilities of spirit sense were so grand and diverse that it was impossible to list, not to mention that cultivators of Firmament Heaven had yet to fully excavate this miraculous power.
But throughout Foundation Establishment, each breakthrough featured three things. First was that you would gain a new amount of permanent magic power, about 10% of your dantian’s capacity to add on top of the first batch cultivated on breakthrough. The second was that you would empower your spirit sense with your newly cultivated magic power and cause it to increase in radius linearly. And finally, you would naturally temper your body passively just as was done in Qi Refinement.
So for Foundation Establishment level 1, one would have 10% magic power total, 10 meters of spirit sense and a once-tempered body. Level 2 of Foundation Establishment increases that to 20% magic power total, 20 meters of spirit sense and a twice-tempered body, and so on till level 10 of Foundation Establishment where magic power total becomes 100%, spirit sense reaches 100 meters and the body is deca-tempered.
Now, due to his special circumstances, Li Ling had the full spirit sense of an average level 10 Foundation Establishment cultivator while merely at level 1. However, he was not alone, as any sect genius, especially those he was going to meet at the Six Paths Demon Sect, would also do this to enhance themselves.
So following the trend, they should have 100 meters at level 1 of Foundation Establishment, 110 meters at level 2 of Foundation Establishment, and so on until level 10 where they obtain 190 meters of spirit sense in total, far outclassing their peers!
But Li Ling realized something. Since he didn’t end up completely crippling his Mind Power realm cultivation, did that mean he could accumulate Mind Power again? Since Mind Power was only consumed upon breakthrough when increasing spirit sense, did that mean that he could sacrifice his Mind Power per each minor realm breakthrough in Foundation Establishment?!
Li Ling could not sit still, and even though it was a risk, he simply had to test it. If it worked, the reward was too great to pass up compared to the pierced risk that would come if it failed in terms of wasted Slaughter Points.
Immediately, he spent 90 Slaughter Points to raise his Mind Power Realm cultivation to the maximum, leaving 134 of them. Immediately, he felt that dry pool of Mind Power begin to fill up rapidly, surprisingly coexisting with his spirit sense for now as neither side was agitated, but he could feel that this balance would be broken once he broke through his qi cultivation and his spirit sense roused its hunger.
So he did so.
BOOM!
30 Slaughter Points deducted and Li Ling rapidly underwent the breakthrough process in seconds. First, his magic power rapidly filled up to 20%, then it surged to his head where it interacted with his Sea of Consciousness, birthing new spirit sense that joined the already sizable mass.
Then the entire behemoth became agitated and began to sweep through the Sea of Consciousness, swallowing the freshly cultivated Mind Power as it surged in size, growing by approximately the same amount as before.
Li Ling did not even pay attention to the tempering of his body, rather marveling at his current spirit sense radius.
210 meters!
A full hundred and ten meters gained, a hundred from the devouring of his accumulated Mind Power and ten from the natural breakthrough, leading to this absurd amount!
Li Ling was deeply shocked and moved by this, now beginning to understand the depths and value of cultivating multiple disciplines. It wasn’t simply about making one easier to practice thanks to achievements of the other, they could literally form synergies and even enhance one another by multiples of their typical values.
Li Ling breathed out and recalculated everything.
It seemed his current Slaughter Point requirements had soared once again, and he hadn’t even gotten down to limit breaking his daoist arts or increasing his Blessed Augury technique so he could start ’cheating’ the system even harder.
Based on what he had left, he could only push himself to the third level of Foundation Establishment, or limit break two daoist arts to the next level, or increase Blessed Augury by one level.
He was a bit hesitant on what to choose, but then firmed his expression. Right now, he needed Slaughter Points desperately, and he wouldn’t be able to max his cultivation in one sitting, so it was best to increase his combat power first so that he could take down more foes with the least amount of effort.
As such, Li Ling decided to limit break both the Falling Boulder Art and the Object Control Technique.
Immediately, he felt a huge thunder in his Sea of Consciousness as his spirit sense began to swirl around the core, his computing power rising greatly in a short period of time as new insights were delivered straight to his memory in the most direct manner.
Both techniques were pushed to their Foundation Establishment level equivalent, the Object Control Technique transforming into the Spirit Sense Control Technique and the Falling Boulder Art becoming the Meteor Spell. Due to the fact that they were directly limit broken instead of being bought and learned—these techniques already existed in the world of Firmament Heaven—they rose to the Perfection level straight away.
If it had been a unique technique that was limit broken into something new and never seen before, then it would only enter the Entry level of its new stage and require the investment of Slaughter Points to cross the five stages of practice until Perfection.
As it were, Li Ling might only be a level 2 Foundation Establishment cultivator right now, but minus his relatively low magic power quantity, his magic power quality, his spirit sense and his combat daoist arts far surpassed those at the same level even within the top sects, much less among rogue cultivators.
In the Qi Refinement realm, he could rampage around precisely because in Firmament Heaven, cultivating daoist arts to Perfection was about as difficult as cultivating one’s realm to the next level. Often times, many wouldn’t even hit the Expert level of the daoist art before they entered the next realm and replaced their old technique with something new.
Many did not even have the chance to upgrade their techniques, being at Foundation Establishment Perfection but still using Qi Refinement tier daoist arts, even within sects. After all, sects required one to buy new techniques from their libraries with contribution points, so unless one accumulated enough, they would need time to increase their repertoire.
Of course, even with this, one should not underestimate cross realm power. A Fireball Technique at Perfection by a Qi Refinement cultivator using spiritual qi and a Fireball even at Entry level by a Foundation Establishment cultivator using magic power were two wholly different things.
If the daoist art was an engine, then one could see the cultivation realm (and the energy that came with it) as the fuel. The engine stays the same, but the fuel has upgraded from typical gasoline to jet fuel. Naturally, the RPM produced by the engine would be vastly different in that case.
With this in mind, Li Ling could no longer hold back.
It was time to farm Slaughter Points!