…
[Using Method Upgrade Token]
[Upgrade Complete]
…
[Redeeming 9x Method Upgrade Token for 1800 Profound Points]
[Upgrade Complete]
[Immortal Bastion (Mortal II -> Heaven-Defying III)]
[Power: Extremely Weak]
[Comprehension: Grandmaster]
[Minimum Cultivation: Early-Stage Foundation Establishment]
[Effects: Creates a barrier made out of light.]
Han De closed his eyes and tried to get a sense of changes in the basic shield spell.
'It's… sturdier?'
Though the level of quality was supposed to be Heaven-Defying, there was no such thing in the spell. Spiritual energy cost was lower, cast time was faster, but all within the boundaries of Heavenly Laws, Han De the Grandmaster thought.
[Redeeming 10x Method Upgrade Token for 2000 Profound Points]
[Upgrade Complete]
[Golden Spark (Mortal II -> Heaven-Defying III)]
[Power: Extremely Weak]
[Comprehension: Grandmaster]
[Minimum Cultivation: Early-Stage Foundation Establishment]
[Effects: Heals minor wounds.]
[Redeeming 10x Method Upgrade Token for 2000 Profound Points]
[Upgrade Complete]
[Heavenly Gaze (Mortal II -> Heaven-Defying III)]
[Power: Extremely Weak]
[Comprehension: Grandmaster]
[Minimum Cultivation: Early-Stage Foundation Establishment]
[Effects: Generates heat at a small spot through concentration of light. Range depends on the amount of Primordial Light Qi.]
'… Not really worth 4000 points, but I have already grandmastered the spells I suppose. At least they are good for gathering data; spells don't affect me as much as other scriptures, if at all.'
[Redeeming 8x Method Upgrade Token for 1600 Profound Points]
[Upgrade Complete]
[Wandering Mirage Scripture (Earth I -> Heaven-Defying III)]
[Power: Extremely Weak]
[Comprehension: Grandmaster]
[Stage: Nascent Soul (1/3)]
Like the last three times Han De made a quick review of the changes. Though a scripture was vastly more comprehensive than a one-off spell, that was nothing for the instant comprehension of Han De the Grandmaster.
He whistled from inside once he completed his review. Heaven-Defying quality had improved the internal structure of the illusions, making them more durable and stable. Just from a cursory calculation alone, the efficiency had increased tenfold.
Was it really Heaven-Defying though, Han De wondered? Tenfold efficiency was quite domineering to think about, but his own perception of the scripture hadn't changed that much. Efficient compared to before, yes, but still... normal. Probably.
[Redeeming 8x Method Upgrade Token for 1600 Profound Points]
[Twilight Phantasm Scripture (Earth I -> Heaven-Defying III)]
[Power: Extremely Weak]
[Comprehension: Grandmaster]
[Stage: Nascent Soul (1/3)]
'Same as before huh. Nothing really Heaven-Defying, just an overall better version.'
If he didn't have an excessive amount of Profound Points, Han De would've thought these upgrades would've been a waste.
In the grand scheme of things though, he could see how these upgrades could come in clutch in some situations!
Han De was nothing, if not prepared for increasingly unlikely scenarios!
[Redeeming 8x Method Upgrade Token for 1600 Profound Points]
[Through the Starlight (Earth I -> Heaven-Defying III)]
[Power: Extremely Weak]
[Comprehension: Grandmaster]
[Stage: Nascent Soul (1/3)]
Previously, Han De thought there was a higher ceiling to this brilliant footwork technique. This was an inkling that came from the grandmaster level comprehension. Even if Han De had no belief whatsoever in the so-called Cultivator's Intuition, he could not ignore an educated guess from a grandmaster.
Of course, back then he had ignored this suspicion the moment he became aware of it. What could he do by himself? Improve upon a grandmaster's hunch?
No! The obvious solution to this minor dilemma was to increase his comprehension level. Something that he would rather not do until he had no other choice.
Han De didn't expect increasing the quality of the scripture would also influence his grandmaster comprehension.
'… I see. Since the efficiency increased, I can naturally extend the "group mode" of the scripture. Carry more mass for the same price. Putting the activation speed increase on top of that…'
Han De immediately fished out a leftover gold ingot from his storage ring, then circulated the Through the Starlight scripture. The Qi from the footwork technique gathered, and the ingot started flickering.
'Not bad… Now, what would happen if I threw this away?'
Han De the Grandmaster didn't have an answer to that question. His knowledge was focused on the use cases included in the scripture. In those parts, he surely had grandmaster-level expertise. But anything else, he could only guess.
It would be a guess from a grandmaster, but still be a guess in the end!
The gold ingot continued dangerously flickering as Han De chose an appropriate target. The celestial boat was probably made of materials that he never even heard of. Surely he didn't need to take precautions, right?
'…' Han De's survival instinct took over, and he sent a voice transmission.
Han De reminded himself that overconfidence was a slow and insidious killer.
For the target, he chose to create a stack of Immortal Bastion shields, starting from three Qi condensation level shields, ending with three Nascent Soul level shields.
The gold ingot's flickering rate increased as Han De increased the power of the Through the Starlight scripture. If he was using the "footwork" technique to travel right now, he was sure he would've been faster than sword flight in his Core Formation days.
Once let go, the ingot traveled through the air with a deafening roar and exploded upon contacting the shield. Han De watched the shrapnel scatter around harmlessly. Molten gold couldn't harm anything inside, let alone the Immortal Realm shield itself.
Of course, Han De watched the spectacle inside 23 interlaced Nascent Soul level shields with Heaven-Defying quality. This was a different situation than before, where he used arrays to power an ad-hoc railgun. 23 stacks of Nascent Soul shields were enough for the current circumstances!
Visually, nothing impressive had happened. The fist-sized gold ingot was now blown into tens of thousands of bits, and two Immortal Bastian shields were lost.
Han De fell into deep thought.
'… As a last resort, I can use this to hurl other people into the ground while traveling in group mode. I have near total control over the change of momentum as I take steps, an expert of similar power shouldn't be able to notice anything's amiss.'
This was a scripture to act profound with first, and runaway second. The idea of using it directly as an offensive technique occurred to neither Han De, nor the grandmaster within him.
'It is kind of obvious now that I think about it. I could've done this without the quality upgrade, it's not even particularly impressiv- Oh...' Han De remembered what happened a few days ago. He had turned Yu Xian's current body's biological father and grandfather into emotionless drones by using the Twilight Phantasm techniques. The scripture certainly didn't include such methods. The idea and application were quite unique.
Han De suddenly understood a crucial point. All scriptures he comprehended at the grandmaster level contained habits, even ticks of a true grandmaster. Everything was as if he had done those actions tens of thousands of times already.
But that experience seemed to have its own downsides! His knowledge was too colored by the perspective of a grandmaster. His experience was rigid, and his habits were almost dogmatic in many ways. Thinking of new applications of existing techniques was a foreign concept.
'Is this like some sort of return to simplicity thing? Is that something the Dao level comprehension differs from a grandmaster?' Han De theorized. There was no way of knowing without trying, but he didn't have the courage to try just yet. But the idea seemed plausible. Especially since the grandmasters within him didn't see any way to improve his comprehension any further! To them, Han De's knowledge might as well be at the peak of existence!
It was a little bit shameful to notice this three weeks after grandmaster upgrades, but Han De subscribed to the notion of better late than never.
[Redeeming 8x Method Upgrade Token for 1600 Profound Points]
[Upgrade Complete]
[Heaven Defying Tyrannical Scripture (Earth I -> Heaven-Defying III)]
[Power: Very Weak]
[Comprehension: Grandmaster]
[Stage: Nascent Soul (1/3)]
Han De closed his eyes to prevent a change in his expression.
This inadequately named sword scripture had become quite different than the rest of his techniques. It had started as Extremely Weak, but its power increased to the legendary "Very Weak" realm during Han De's enlightenment.
The power level upgrade seemed to have substantially improved the results of the quality upgrade. Now the scripture was so cheap in terms of spiritual energy requirements, he felt as if he could spam it from dawn till dusk, without breaking a sweat!
'…If I increase the purity of my Primordial Light roots, the increased purity of Qi should also increase efficiency, right? Heaven Defying Tyrannical Scripture would be even cheaper then… But even with my current state, it feels that it is just too efficient…'
The shield made by Xin Meili was still up. Therefore, Han De didn't waste another second, and directly used the scripture to its full potential!
Immediately, his surroundings turned pitch black, and an impossibly sharp sword energy clashed with the Immortal Realm level shield.
'F#$% me…'
Han De condensed ten simultaneous swords next, and the result was the same. His Qi reserves were barely touched!
In the next breath, he increased the number to a hundred, and next to a thousand. It wasn't until ten thousand swords, could he detect a change in his reserves.
But currently, he was no longer interested in spiritual energy usage. Right now, Han De the Xianxia Enthusiast was speechless.
'… Holy S#$%… A ten-thousand swords technique!!'
Han De was a sword cultivator. Or rather, the cultivation idiot was a sword cultivator. And he was a very specific kind of sword cultivator. The kind that would openly scoff at others! The kind, that would make his own scripture! This was a fundamental aspect of the cultivation idiot's character. A line that couldn't be crossed. A line, that wasn't even comparable to Han De's previous attempts to expand his repertoire.
In fact, if the past Han De had the cautiousness of the current Han De, he never would've learned the Starfall Mountain Standard Sword Scripture!
Over time the fear of getting discovered as an impostor had gone down significantly due to various developments. But that didn't mean Han De could do as he pleased when it came to sword scriptures!
1600 Profound Points. That was all that took to sidestep this entire issue! No one would bat an eye if Han De started to use a ten thousand swords technique, if the technique was the one he created in the first place!
Han De continued his experiment with a hundred thousand swords. He then doubled the number, then doubled again, and again. After around half a million mark, he became more worried about the speed of constructing the sword energy, rather than his energy reserves. Cultivation idiot's sword scripture wasn't made for this purpose after all; Han De was simply brute forcing his way with the Grandmaster comprehension level.
After his Xianxia enthusiast side was satisfied for the time being, Han De nodded to himself.
'Alright. I'll give it to you this time, System. This is kinda Heaven-Defying, in a good way.'
The shield that could withstand 10 full-power Immortal Realm attacks now had a hairline fracture. A 4th major realm disciple damaging a 7th major realm shield should, in fact, satisfy the term Heaven-Defying by itself
Most of Han De's cultivation arts were extremely weak, and he didn't have extra divination or soul cultivation arts to make direct comparisons. Heaven Defying Tyrannical Scripture, was the only direct upgrade with clear, tangible improvements.
'No wonder this is in the legendary "Very Weak" realm. Well, it wasn't as ridiculous when I tested it before. Hmm. Well, let's not look a gift horse in his mouth. This is Heaven-Defying. That's enough.'
Then, Han De paused.
'Wait, this is the good kind of Heaven-Defying, right? This won't summon a tribulation or anything, right?!'
In front of Han De's eyes, a single black chrysanthemum flower appeared.
'…'
[Redeeming 9x Method Upgrade Token for 1800 Profound Points]
[Upgrade Complete]
[Immortal Sentinel Scripture (Mortal III -> Heaven-Defying III)]
-------------------------------------------
[Power: Very Weak]
[Accuracy: Very Low]
[Defense: Very Weak]
[Comprehension: Grandmaster]
[Medium(s)]
-------------------------------------------
[Starlight]
-----------------------
[Distance: Minimum 50.000 ly]
[Type(s): 45_fB, 46-vB, Remnants]
The change in his perception of the Immortal Sentinel Scripture distracted Han De from the ominous illusory flower, just as he planned!
'Alright, the efficiency is nice, but this wasn't a power-intensive scripture to begin with… But… I suppose this means I can leverage Primordial Light Qi better, since the instability within the Qi boundaries will be lower as a result…'
Han De the Divination Grandmaster really wanted to make a new divination on the spot, just for the sake of it! But ultimately didn't, due to the intense stare from Han De the Survivor.
Though he really was immune to divination, they were in unknown territory, traveling through the void within a vehicle that he didn't fully understand. What if fluctuations from divinations traveled across the void? Did the celestial ship have an artificial gravitation pull around it that mimicked a close-by planet?
Causality could propagate differently than mere sword techniques!
What if someone detected them? Han De being immune to divinations didn't mean his divination techniques were undetectable!
On the contrary! If someone detected a divination, but couldn't identify the source, that would only pique the other (hypothetical) party's curiosity!
And Han De's mind naturally went to the worst possibility he could think of. 'I'll probably die if another void S#$% appeared out of nowhere…'
Though Han De didn't notice it, at that moment he wasn't at all concerned about lower beings. When he thought of something that could be a threat, all he could think of were void creatures and ancient higher-being families.
'Ok move on. Don't think about it. Move on, move on…'
On Han De's must-upgrade list, there was only one scripture that remained. The only mythical "Weak" level scripture he dared to touch at that moment!
[Redeeming 11x Method Upgrade Token for 2200 Profound Points]
[Upgrade Complete]
[Eternal Light Scripture (Mortal -> Heaven-Defying III)]
[Power: Weak]
[Comprehension: Grandmaster]
[Stage: - ]
'This…'
Under normal circumstances, an increase in efficiency implicitly meant a decrease in resource usage. Han De didn't care for the outrageous resource requirements of the Eternal Light Scripture, but he did not expect the required materials to further increase!
'… So I can increase the cultivation speed by a factor of 3, durability by a factor of 8, by increasing the resources by a factor of… 11?'
More than an order of magnitude increase in cost… didn't even give Han De a pause!
The durability increase was far more important! In fact, if he could trade cultivation speed for more resilience, he would!
What was the point of using a body cultivation scripture, if not to become a cockroach?!
Han De made a mental note to start cultivating Eternal Light Scripture at the first opportunity!
[Profound Points: 524267 -> 508067 (-16200)]
'That's… more than I thought it would be. 16200 Profound Points, but that was… Wait, that was less than 1% of my reserves?!'
Han De could only stare at his points with renewed concern!
If he did the math, he would've realized that he had spent only 3% of his wealth. But thankfully he didn't, and saved himself from raising his concern levels even further.
Since his expenditure was lower than he thought, and his "allowance" was higher than he realized, Han De thought this was the best opportunity to use/abuse the Profound Points shop.
He wanted to buy everything that would improve his chances of survival, and he wanted to buy them now!
[Profound Points Shop]
------------------------------------------------------
[Spiritual Roots Upgrade Token] [500]
[Spiritual Roots Seed Token] [5.000]
[Spiritual Roots Healing Token] [800]
[Spiritual Roots Removal Token] [10.000 / 100.000 / 2.000.000]
[Spiritual Roots Cleansing Token] [200.000]
…
The shop had upgraded to tier 3 and stayed suspended for a while. Dozens of new and old items made Han De raise an eyebrow.
'2 million? Removing a high-tier spiritual root costs 2 frickin' million?!'
Han De thought he was rich, but as he looked at the list of items, he quickly figured out he was mistaken! Bloodline and constitution removal tokens were cheaper than root removal ones, but they were still 50.000 a pop at high-grade!
Eventually he saw a few tokens that got his attention.
[Enlightenment Token] [400.000]
[Method Modification Token] [20.000]
[Method Creation Token] [50.000]
'Enlightenment costs 400k? That's actually quite cheap… in comparison… Method Creation Token is even cheaper? Wait, what am I saying? That's 1/10th of my current points!'
After a thorough review of the shop, Han De was torn between mild disappointment and concern.
The concern came from understanding his past mistakes. Specifically, concerning a certain token.
[Spiritual Roots Cleansing Token] [200.000]
The One-Time Gift Box he opened had five of these tokens. Normally Han De would've felt regret at wasting tokens worth a million Profound Points in total. But he had reasonable suspicion that his soul's instability was caused by the said tokens! But what was done was done at this point.
Han De imagined the System reciting a contract clause with its usual demonic voice.
'[Warning: The tokens are provided "as is", without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to…]'
Naturally, there was no response.
'Let's see… What's useful for me without a huge risk of F#$%&# things up…'
[Body Constitution Refinement Token] [500]
[Soul Constitution Refinement Token] [500]
'Yeah, these make sense. The System improved my constitution during evolution, then I got the exact kind of soul constitution I needed through [Sheer Luck.] Makes sense to improve those two asap, right?'
Naturally, anything to do with his Primordial Whatever Dragon bloodline was off the table. Any sort of awakening, refinement, modification, or removal, he wanted to have nothing to do with those!
[Redeeming Body Constitution Refinement Token for 500 Profound Points]
[…]
[Otherworldly Light Body Progress increased by 1%]
Han De, who was going to check whether he felt any different despite knowing that he wouldn't, completely forgot what he was doing.
'It increased by a whole percent?!'
[Constitutions]
-------------------------------------------
[Otherworldly Light Body (Unawakened)]
[Progress: 9.05%]
[Power: Extremely High]
He had to prevent himself from audibly gasping after seeing his status! Of course the System didn't lie! His constitution really progressed!
At that moment decided to spend everything he could until the constitution gained the magic trait he saw from his disciples. The ability to contain high-tier bloodlines without drawbacks!
'Actually, look, I'm fine with a few drawbacks. Really! As long as my soul doesn't collapse or my brain doesn't turn into mush, I'll accept anything. I'm serious. System? You hear me?'
Han De purchased and used 15 refinement tokens without a pause. Everything progressed smoothly until he purchased the 16th one.
[Redeeming Body Constitution Refinement Token for 500 Profound Points]
[…]
[Otherworldly Light Body Progress increased by 0.95%]
[Constitution cannot be refined any further]
'Cannot be refined any further? Why?'
He didn't expect the System to explain anything, but Han De still tried to click everything he could in hopes of getting just a little bit more information. But just as he expected, his hopes were crushed after a few minutes of fruitless attempts.
'… Ok, so the refinement token doesn't have any higher tiers. At least not yet. Maybe they'll unlock with a higher privilege level, maybe not. Otherworldly Light Body progress stopped at exactly 25%, and it still lists as unawakened. It may be related to that too. And since there's no constitution awakening token at the shop, I can't test anything…'
[Constitutions]
-------------------------------------------
[Otherworldly Light Body (Unawakened)]
[Progress: 25.00%]
[Power: Extremely High]
[Effects:]
[Tremendously increases the efficiency of all types of Light element body cultivation methods.]
[Moderately increases the speed of all types of Light element body cultivation methods. (New)]
[Tremendously increases the efficiency of all types of Light element soul cultivation methods. (Moderately -> Tremendously)]
[Tremendously increases the passive healing speed. (Considerably -> Tremendously)]
[Tremendously increases the healing efficiency. (New)]
[Tremendously increases the regeneration speed. (New)]
[Tremendously increases the physical toughness. (New)]
[Tremendously increases the radiation resistance. (New)]
[Tremendously increases the heat resistance. (New)]
[Tremendously increases the cold resistance. (New)]
[Tremendously increases the space-time resistance. (New)]
[Tremendously increases the decay resistance. (New)]
[Tremendously increases the disintegration resistance. (New)]
[Can passively absorb all types of Light Qi that comes in contact.]
[Can passively cleanse the body by emitting Primordial Qi or any type of absorbed Qi.]
[Can only cultivate, contain, or interact with Primordial Qi types.]
[Overrides all other body constitutions.]
[Complete immunity to sealing techniques. (New)]
[Complete immunity to Qi reversal techniques. (New)]
[Complete immunity to life-drain techniques. (New)]
[Complete immunity to reality techniques. (New)]
[Complete immunity to Chaos energies.]
[Can contain, or interact with Chaos Qi. (New)]
[Further effects are locked.]
Upon reading the new and upgraded effects, Han De became enthusiastic. For a few seconds.
Surely, getting more powerful was a good thing, right?
… Right?
Han De decisively ignored any possible flags and purposefully took the changes in with blind optimism!
'Why yes, I do like it when I get more resilient out of nowhere with no build-up whatsoever. This is the exact kind of power-up I like! Nothing to see here! Moving on!'
[Profound Points: 508067 -> 499567 (-8500)]
There were still a variety of ways to strengthen himself on the spot. Including advancing the comprehension of some of his techniques, refining his soul constitution, learning new scriptures, or even using an Enlightenment Token!
He could still afford it all, but there were caveats to all of them. Spending the points wasn't as straightforward as he first thought!
'I should let my soul rest a little bit before refining the Chaos Origin Soul. Just because I can use them now, doesn't mean they'll be beneficial. Just a little bit more time, maybe a month at most. Then I should be able to safely use those tokens.' Han De made a special mental note to reserve at least 13 thousand points, so he could get from 0.01% to 25% in one go. It was just too irresponsible to do otherwise!
'There's no use in wasting 400k for the Enlightenment Token. System guided enlightenment also uses Profound Points per minute, so it'll cost more than 400k too. Maybe if an unprecedented issue appears in the future, it might be useful. But that's a big maybe.'
That left him with learning new scriptures as the only possible Profound Point sink in the short term.
'I need an MMO-grade healing scripture at minimum, then I should slowly master the rest of the standard scriptures, just in case. The only big expenditure should be Ning Bi's Cosmic Destruction Scripture in the short term.'
Han De reserved a generous 100 thousand points for Ning Bi, then 50 thousand for his other disciples. To be safe, he reserved another 25 thousand for disciple-related emergencies. Which left him with just over 300 thousand points.
'Alright then, let's get the body cultivation scriptures out of the way.'
[Scripture Modification Feature Invoked]
[Gathering Statistics]
[Feature Level: 1]
[…]
[Choose scripture to modify]
'Eternal Light Scripture, change the element to Fire, leave everything else as is.'
[…]
[Processing…]
[Notes: Modified cultivation method will become incompatible.]
[…]
[Congratulations.]
[Modified version of the Eternal Light Scripture has been added to the repository.]
[Profound Points: 499567 -> 499467 (-100)]
[Scarlet End Scripture (Mortal I)]
[Power: Weak]
[Comprehension: Beginner (0/1)]
[Stage: - ]
Han De didn't hesitate, and "modified" the Eternal Light Scripture for Lightning, Wood, Ice, and Metal elements. Of course, he also made a triple-element version for Treebeard using wood, earth, and metal elements.
For good measure, he also made a non-elemental version. Then, to be on the safe side, he made Air and Water element versions too. If he could grab some risk-free MCs with different elemental roots, he'll be able to whip out a mythical "Weak" level scripture on the spot. Just like that!
Failing that, he could use the extra elements to act profound while giving "educated guesses" to the masses. Since he really knew what he would be talking about, he didn't have to worry about Liang Cuifen the Lie Detector either! For the price of (mere) 800 points, he gained a new risk-free avenue to impress his disciples!
Truly, being rich was the key to success!
[Profound Points: 499467 -> 498667 (-800)]
'Body cultivation is fine, but… Should I also give them soul cultivation methods too?'
Each and every single one of his disciples were MCs. Not only that, but they were MCs that met the System's requirements!
Obviously, they could handle a pesky soul cultivation scripture. Right?
'They don't have OP soul constitutions, so their cultivation speed should be slow, but we're talking about MCs here. They can casually take a few thousand years off to cultivate in a random cave. At worst, they can use the techniques as reference.'
The more he thought about it the more it made sense. He immediately "modified" the Endless Slumber Scripture to fit his disciples' roots, and also created backup versions just like the Eternal Light scripture.
'Should I give them illusion scriptures? Maybe divination scriptures too?'
After thinking for some time, Han De decided to stop. Body cultivation was already an ordeal on its own. Even if they were MCs, Han De didn't want them to spread their efforts thin. At least not for a while. Or not until they chose to do it themselves!