Li Ling stood atop a rather small plateau, overlooking the eastern side of the third sector of the hunting grounds. His spear was secured to his back and his belongings were present, but his mind wandered slightly as he used his Qi Seeking Technique to scan the forest below.
This was near where the previous battle went down and despite leaving, Li Ling decided to linger near a vantage spot to see if anyone would pass by. He had no way of knowing whether the people he took down had any backup that could come, and while he was not worried about such a thing, it was best to leave the circumstances of this group's death as unknown.
Seeing as nothing occurred, Li Ling finally had time to glance at the system panel.
｢Infinite Slaughter System
Owner: Li Ling
Status: Healthy.
Slaughter Points: 61
Cultivation Level: Qi Refinement level 9 (0/9)
Cultivation Technique: Qi Circulation Mantra
Skills:
1. Fireball Technique – Advanced (0/2)
2. Li Family Spear Technique – Advanced (0/3)
3. Qi Restraining Control – Advanced (0/15)
4. Qi Seeking Technique – Expert (0/10)｣
A windfall of Slaughter Points and a lot of places to spend. This was a combination that made Li Ling's mouth curl upwards, but he steadied himself as he realized that indeed, his previous passing thought should be taken seriously.
When he started out, he had areas to spend but no Slaughter Points to spend on them, causing his growth to stagnate. Based on the way the Infinite Slaughter System worked so far, and based on his suspicions, he had a feeling that the reverse was also likely to be true.
Now was the key moment to verify this.
Li Ling increased his cultivation to the perfection of Qi Refinement, the complete theorized limit of the realm, and felt the changes within him immediately.
There was no new strand of refined spiritual qi, but rather those that existed before—the three large ones—shuddered and then fused together, forming a super strand of refined qi that was more than five times larger than the ones that existed before and ten times larger than the initial small strands.
This mega strand made a cycle through his body, widening his meridians once more and increasing his power by double what existed at level nine. When the strand returned to his dantian and settled, Li Ling felt like his meridians had reached a limit, and that any further widening would cause ruptures.
There was also a feeling of consummation, as if he had touched upon a further threshold and could push through to go forward, but that threshold seemed extremely firm, like a bank's vault door that stood before him while he had the strength of a toddler in trying to push it open.
Li Ling shook his head, knowing that this was the representation of his base talent and natural chances at breaking through to Foundation Establishment, which was realistically zero. In fact, bluntly speaking, he should not have even gotten to this point, though it was still possible if one used some forceful methods, demonic techniques or simply gorged on precious resources.
Li Ling glanced at the system panel to check if his theory was correct, for this was the moment of truth.
｢Infinite Slaughter System
Owner: Li Ling
Status: Healthy.
Slaughter Points: 52
Cultivation Level: Qi Refinement Perfection (Unable To Breakthrough)
Cultivation Technique: Qi Circulation Mantra (Technique Reached Limit)
Skills:
1. Fireball Technique – Advanced (0/2)
2. Li Family Spear Technique – Advanced (0/3)
3. Qi Restraining Control – Advanced (0/15)
4. Qi Seeking Technique – Expert (0/10)｣
Well, his cultivation climb would have to be paused here, Li Ling thought with pursed lips. Even though he had expected it, he was still a little dissatisfied with the Infinite Slaughter System's rigidity because even if it could not forcefully break through with a technique, at least it should be able to enhance foundation, right?
Enhancing foundation was simply being able to continue accumulating minor cultivation base, because even though he felt consummate, Li Ling knew that his dantian was not actually full. He could continue to increasingly perfect his qi by absorbing more, increasing the mega strand or even adding new smaller ones, which would increase his chances at successful Foundation Establishment.
Li Ling was not entirely sure about the mechanics of Foundation Establishment because his wealth of knowledge started and ended at Qi Refinement with regards to what he was taught or what he experienced while in Firmament Heaven. Everything he knew about what came after was from his knowledge of eastern fantasy as an earthling due to the similar terminologies and stage names.
So he could not know if typical geniuses or sect disciples were groomed to continue increasing their qi even after reaching perfection. He also did not know if doing so was pointless and did not yield any real benefits, so he could only hope to increase his breadth of knowledge when the time was right.
In the end, his eyes fell on his precious skills and he could not help but hesitate. Earlier, he was gung-ho about leveling everything to the max to make his repertoire look great, but now that he was actually here, he still valued effectiveness and utility, not willing to uniformly raise everything up.
First things first, the Qi Restraining Control had to be maxed out or he literally could not step out of this place regardless of what he accomplished. As such, he directly placed 15 points within to increase it to the expert level of practice.
Li Ling felt the knowledge of how to control the qi fluctuations from his body and suppress his aura flood his mind, along with the mechanical experience necessary to effect this to the highest degree. When he opened his eyes, he ran the technique and was able to now suppress his perfected Qi Refinement cultivation down to the seventh level at most, which was not bad.
Still, Li Ling knew he could push further, and he invested another 20 Slaughter Points to increase the technique up to the Mastery stage, which was the penultimate realm in technique progression.
When this happened, Li Ling was once again bathed in pure technical growth, now able to push his cultivation down to the fourth level of Qi Refinement without straining himself.