The Blood Corpse Real Person had already noticed someone was coming.
Ever since he had been captured, there had already been two groups of people who came to interrogate him, but it was all in vain.
He hadn't expected that it would be less than half an hour before someone came again?
It seemed they truly placed great importance on him.
The Blood Corpse Real Person thought bitterly in his heart.
Facing the many interrogation techniques of the Tower of Guardians, he had not said a word.
What puzzled him was how his identity had been exposed in the first place.
The Blood Corpse Real Person slightly lifted his eyelids to look outside the bars.
His pupils suddenly contracted.
——Outside the bars was not the Prison Warden Office cultivator he had expected, but an extremely young-looking teenager!
It was impossible for outsiders to be present within the heavily guarded precincts of the Prison Warden Office.
This teenager was an important figure.
The black-robed cultivator silently opened the iron gate on the bars and said softly to Lu Qingshan, "We've placed dozens of restrictions on him, he has no strength left to struggle or resist, please proceed as you wish."
Lu Qingshan nodded and entered the cell.
The Blood Corpse Real Person's face was pale without a trace of blood, yet his body bore no injuries.
It was clear that the previous interrogation had been conducted on the level of the divine soul.
But it seemed that the Blood Corpse Real Person was indeed quite tight-lipped.
That was also within expectations.
If the Netherworld could exist within the Human Race for so long, how could it be an ordinary organization?
How could the mouths of the members of the Netherworld organization be so easily pried open?
"Who are you?" The Blood Corpse Real Person, gritting his teeth, asked word by word.
Lu Qingshan did not answer the Blood Corpse Real Person's question, but instead squatted in front of him, looking at his eyes full of dark shadows.
"Do you recognize me now?"
The memory of a cultivator was inherently outstanding, not to mention their last encounter had been not so long ago.
"Great Xia Commercial Firm...." The Blood Corpse Real Person quickly realized and recognized Lu Qingshan's face, "It's you?!"
"It's me," Lu Qingshan acknowledged.
The Blood Corpse Real Person was silent for a while, then suddenly let out a dry chuckle, "I just can't understand, we've never crossed paths before, just met once at Great Xia Commercial Firm, how did you find out I was from the Netherworld?"
Lu Qingshan looked at the Blood Corpse Real Person indifferently, "Does it matter?"
"It may not be important to you, but it's very important to me," the Blood Corpse Real Person looked at Lu Qingshan's delicate face and dryly laughed, "If you're willing to give me an explanation, I might reveal some information about the Netherworld to you."
"Apart from this, you won't get any information from me by any means," said the Blood Corpse Real Person resentfully, "because from the moment I was captured, I held no hope for survival, I just want to know the answer now."
Lu Qingshan shook his head, unmoved, "I didn't come to extract information from you."
The Blood Corpse Real Person faintly guessed something and swallowed with some difficulty, "Impossible, you went through so much effort to capture me alive, how could you easily give up extracting information from me..."
"The Tower of Guardians indeed would not easily kill you, but I'm not one of the Tower of Guardians," Lu Qingshan said calmly to the Blood Corpse Real Person.
He requested the Blood Corpse Real Person from the Tower of Guardians as a reward for exchanging information for three reasons.
First, the body of Lu Qingshan had died by the hands of the Blood Corpse Real Person, and if this vengeance was not avenged, he would not feel at ease.
Second, the cultivators of the Tower of Guardians were cautious by nature; no one gets pie falling from the sky, and anything given for free always tends to raise suspicions.
Therefore, even though Lu Qingshan's intent was to divulge information to Yuanshan Tower to stop the Netherworld's plot, he chose to cooperate in the form of a deal to provide the information, rather than give it for free.
This, in fact, lessened the suspicion of the two Tower Masters of Yuanshan on Lu Qingshan.
Because in their view, Lu Qingshan had requests to make when he disclosed the Netherworld's information to them.
Third, and most importantly, Lu Qingshan urgently needed Experience Points to enhance his own strength.
Strength is the foundation of everything.
With the impending chaos in Chang'an, he urgently needed a certain level of strength to protect himself in the times of turmoil.
And the Experience Points earned from killing a Foundation Establishment cultivator of a higher rank were generous enough to significantly increase Lu Qingshan's strength.
Without any further idle talk with the Blood Corpse Real Person, under the resentful gaze of the Blood Corpse Real Person, Lu Qingshan gently placed his palm on the forehead of the Blood Corpse Real Person, and spiritual power surged out from his palm.
Under the control of Lu Qingshan, this spiritual power aimed directly at the divine soul inside the Blood Corpse Real Person's forehead.
The Blood Corpse Real Person, restrained by numerous restrictions, had no way to block this spiritual power, which he would normally deem negligible.
The spiritual power tore apart the fragile divine soul of the Blood Corpse Real Person.
In an instant, the soul extinguished and the person perished.
...
"You launched a fatal attack; you inflicted 60 points of damage to the Blood Corpse Real Person (Lv27)!"
"Target deceased, you have slain the Blood Corpse Real Person (Lv27), a kill above your rank, granting experience reward, you gained a total of 2100 (Base Experience) x2 (multiplier) = 4200 Experience Points!"
...
Base Experience Points 2100, and double the reward for slaying a rank higher, just this once, gave Lu Qingshan a whopping 4200 Experience Points.
This was enough for Lu Qingshan to soar directly to the ninth level of Qi Refinement.
Even the whaling leveling speed of gaming tycoons in the game cannot compare to this.
Lu Qingshan was very satisfied.
Looking at the Blood Corpse who lay on the ground, silent in death, Lu Qingshan felt no psychological fluctuations as he left the cell.
...
Lu Qingshan left Yuanshan Tower and returned to the inn where he was temporarily staying.
Next up was the players' favorite activity, the spending spree.
After a brief calculation in his mind, Lu Qingshan had a plan.
First, he invested experience points into the [Qi Refinement Technique], starting his level grind.
"[Qi Refinement Technique]leveled up to lv3, Spiritual Power Value +10!"
...
"[Qi Refinement Technique]leveled up to lv8, Spiritual Power Value +10, gained 1 Free Attribute Point!"
Spending a total of 2700 Experience Points, he leveled up his [Qi Refinement Technique]from lv2 to lv8, increasing his Spiritual Power Value cap by 60 points and gaining 3 Free Attribute Points.
Without much hesitation, Lu Qingshan added all 3 points to his Strength.
Just two more levels, and he would reach the max level cap for the Qi Refinement stage, ready to advance to Foundation Establishment.
Checking his panel, he still had 1518 Experience Points remaining. Then, spending another 1350 Experience Points {2250*0.6 ([Innate Swordseed] -30% Experience Cost, [Primary Level Sword Technique Affinity] -10% Experience Cost)}, he leveled up his Falling Bright Sword Technique to max Level lv10.
The level of one's Cultivation is important, but the level of one's Skills is equally important.
If one focuses only on increasing Cultivation while neglecting to level up Skills, it leads to a scenario where, despite having a very high level, the combat power isn't as strong—these players are called 'baby giants' with high level yet low combat power.
A significant drawback for baby giant players is that their leveling speed can be greatly slowed down.
With only Cultivation and no Skill Levels, normally, they are no match for NPCs of the same level, and thus they can only bully lower-level lesser creatures. However, in "Nine Heavens", besides the over-level kill experience rewards, there is also an experience penalty mechanism.
Bullying lesser creatures of a lower level means that the Experience Points gained will be pitifully low.
But even if one deliberately doesn't increase their Cultivation level and focuses solely on boosting combat power, it's not necessarily a guaranteed win-win situation.
After all, Attribute Values are the foundation of all combat power. Even if you are a Qi Refining Cultivator with all Skills at max level, you can't win against a Golden Core Cultivator who has all Skill Levels at 1.
It's about finding a balance between the two.
But with plenty of experience, none of that is a problem.
Why overthink it?
Just max everything out.
However, after his transmigration, Lu Qingshan was no longer constrained by version limitations on his level cap.
—For instance, during the Chaos of Chang'an version, the player's level cap was 30 (Foundation Establishment).
Speaking of maxing out was naturally out of the question.
As the seemingly vast amount of Experience Points quickly dwindled, Lu Qingshan felt a pang of distress.
The little base Experience that was left was Lu Qingshan's reserve for learning new Skills in the future.
But the expenditure was worth it, as Lu Qingshan's combat power soared.
——————
Lu Qingshan (Human Race)
Class: Sword Cultivator
Cultivation Technique: [Qi Refinement Technique]Lv8 (0/800) —— [Spiritual Power +80]
Rank: Qi Refinement
Experience Points: 168
Free Attribute Points: 0
Personal Attributes: Strength 5, Agility 1, Mana 1, Divine Soul 1, Charm 1, Stamina 1
Health Points: 20/20
Spiritual Power Value: 80/80
Talents: [Innate Swordseed] (Legendary): As someone with a natural talent far above ordinary people in swordsmanship, you need 30% less Experience Points to learn and level up any Sword Technique. Moreover, you can use any Sword Artifact and learn any Sword Technique without limitations.
[Thick-skinned]: After soaking in the strong liquid of corpses for a long time, it has rotted your Divine Soul but has also greatly enhanced your physical constitution, giving you an extra +10 Health Points and reducing the damage received from First Grade Spells by 20%.
[Specialization]: Without specialization, one cannot become adept. Sword Cultivators who specialize in Sword Dao cannot switch to any secondary profession!
[Trapped in Formation]: With the resolve to infiltrate formations, facing death without fear, the damage dealt by sword cultivators increases: Rank x 5%. To balance this, Sword Cultivators will not receive any additional bonuses to their Stamina Attribute!
[Sword Technique Affinity] (Primary Level): As a Sword Cultivator, you need 10% less Experience Points to learn and upgrade Sword Techniques. However, you need 10% more experience to learn and upgrade Skills that are not Sword Techniques, and your Sword Technique damage increases by 5%!
Skills: [Heavenly Eye Technique] (Universal): Detect character information; the greater the Cultivation disparity, the less information is obtainable.
[Falling Bright Sword Technique]lv10 (max): Damage is Strength x2 (1+0.1*Skill Level), and each Sword Technique carries a layer of Power of Dark Erosion, which can slow the target by 1 per layer; Power of Dark Erosion can stack up to three layers, and upon reaching three layers, it can be actively detonated to briefly Bind the enemy.
Each Sword Technique costs 2 Spiritual Power to execute, detonating Power of Dark Erosion costs 5 Spiritual Power.
Faction: [Yuanshan Tower]: Friendly (50)
[Chizhou Tower]: Friendly (5)
————————
With his current Strength at 5, that means Lu Qingshan's Falling Bright Sword Technique, without taking into account defense mitigation and Defensive Spells, theoretically deals 11 points of damage (5*2*110% ([Trapped in Formation] 5% + [Sword Technique Affinity] 5%)).
It's worth noting that, apart from Body Cultivators, the typical Health Points cap for Qi Refining Cultivators is also 11 points.
That is the essence of Sword Cultivators.