Jack already knew a lot about the coding system from Cedric's memory; to get familiar with it, he started by typing something simple.
After a few seconds, he finished and hit 'Run'. His speed was far faster than Cedric's; he is a cultivator and can think and type much quicker. In fact, he is fast enough to code an entire Black-level item in less than a second.
After choosing a location for the item to appear, with a black shine, a long sword appeared. This one was called the Sword of Sharpness; it had low durability, but its edges were amazingly sharp. It might even be able to cut the head off an unprepared soul transformation cultivator in one hit.
However, against a perfection cultivator, it would not even penetrate the skin. In any case, a soul transformation cultivator wouldn't die even if one cuts their soul's head, but they would be seriously injured and forced to retreat for a long time. Of course, soul transformation cultivators can teleport, so hitting them with this sword can only be achieved by the strong.
Seeing that his code worked, he put the sword away. He planned on testing it later, but for now, he was planning on discovering the limits of the coding system.
"Regarding Cedric's memory, the only things that can be coded are items. It's impossible to code skills or increase HP with codes. Even more, items can only be used by the system's owner and are completely ineffective for everyone else. For some items, such as mortal gold, it doesn't make any difference, but for immortal items, their magic not working makes them useless for everyone besides the system carrier," he thought.
Still, Jack planned on crafting items using materials produced by the system to see if he could code main materials like metals and precious diamonds.
"But those are only Cedric's conclusions. I am much more skilled, so I should test all of those myself to confirm their accuracy," Jack thought. Without more hesitation, he started typing.
...
Jack had a lot of time, so he didn't hurry and spent 20 years testing everything about the coding system.
His results were amazing.
Jack laughed, touching a golden ring on his left index finger; his efforts had worked. Through lots of experimentation, he found that most of Cedric's beliefs about the system were true, but there were some workarounds for most of them.
For example, although he cannot directly increase his stats, he can design equipment like this ring, which increases the desired stats by a maximum value of 1,000,000.
Over the years, Jack designed many rings, necklaces, etc., all designed to increase his stats by 1,000,000. Unfortunately, the maximum number of rings he can carry is 4, two for each hand; for the necklace, the limit is 1.
In the end, using all of his equipment slots, Jack managed to elevate his armor to a total of 9,500,000. This was enough to resist the attack of perfection cultivators.
However, as Jack tested it with the help of Blood Sea Puppet, even 9,500,000 armor points were like paper in front of peak perfection cultivators. According to the puppet and knowledge from many books left behind by Master Blood Sea, the 9,500,000 was enough to defend against perfection cultivators who just broke through, but for those peak perfection realm cultivators, like the puppet, it was still completely like a piece of paper.
"I shouldn't have made the perfection realm so strong!" Jack sighed. This difficulty is too high; even with all these cheats, the core problem remains. He has to dominate thousands of peak perfection cultivators. He may be able to defeat one, and that is only because of the puppet. Jack would be killed if two perfection cultivators attacked, unable to run away.
Fortunately, there was far more to the coding system, many of which helped to close the gaps.
First, Jack was able to use the system to create cultivation pills; these pills were completely useless for others but worked perfectly for Jack. Now, he had many different types of pills, all very overpowered and with no side effects.
The second is that raw materials were usable! He had already coded many rare plants, using them successfully to concoct pills; the pills he conducted with coded main materials were consumable by not only him but everyone. It was a massive breakthrough. Now, with endless resources, Jack could produce unbelievable quantities of pills. If he sold them, he would get rich. His profit margin would be amazing; it's a pity he had no plans to sell anything.
The next discovery was that it's actually possible to code living beings. Jack had already used it to code a golden dragon. Unfortunately, no matter how hard Jack tried, he couldn't control them. The golden dragon attacked him as soon as it appeared. Fortunately, the puppet saved him, as the golden dragon he coded was at least peak void soul realm power strength.
"Time to test things in actual combat!" Jack thought. He had done much theoretical work, but it was finally time to test things in the 'real' world. Only through practical training can he truly realize his flaws.
...
Elder Firespring was from the Icefall Sect. He was recently kicked out because of a power struggle.
Fortunately for him, Jack hired him.
He was a mid-stage multiple souls realm cultivator with 35 substance souls. For multiple souls realm cultivators, the way to determine their strength is the number of their souls: 2-25 is the early stage, 26-50 is the middle stage, 51 99 is the late stage, and 100 is the peak stage.
It's possible to cultivate more than 100, but that requires very difficult and expensive special techniques. Still, nearly all geniuses who reach the void soul realm usually have far more than 100 substance souls.
The difference between an early, newly promoted multiple souls realm cultivator and a peak substance soul cultivator is small. A multiple soul cultivator only has a numerical advantage, not a qualitative advantage. But, a middle-stage multiple soul cultivator would absolutely crush any substance soul cultivator by their number alone.
This time, Daoist Firespring came with 20 of his 35 souls, ready to fight Jack to help him test his strength.
"Master, I am about to start!" said Master Firespring.
"Wait for a moment!" Jack thought of something and called Lucy.
"Hero-sama! I miss you so much!" Lucy said, nearly hugging Jack even though she was physically far away.
"Lucy, how is John? Has he yet reached the void soul realm?" asked Jack. He has been waiting patiently for John to reach the void soul; his talent is very overpowered.
Usually, cannibalism is not possible; one cannot just eat another person's soul to strengthen one's own. John, however, has a special talent that allows him to perfectly use another's soul as nutrition to promote his own. He is a born murderer; as long as he kills and eats his opponent, he can advance by leaps and bounds. His speed may rival Jack with all his systems if he acts unrestrained.
"He has just created his 3rd substance soul; I have 3 boys to care for in the house now!" Lucy clearly talks about John and his two other substance souls; they are all married to Lucy. Technically, Lucy wasn't supposed to know about the matter with substance souls, but she knew everything thanks to the spying ability of the Dynasty, which, under Mike's management, was completely under the Heaven's Way Sect's control.
"Only three?" Jack asked, confused; he thought Lucy had far more than 3.
"I said 'in the house'! If we count those boys outside, it should be closer to 820 or so!" said Lucy. She had singlehandedly made the number of male strippers in Sky City skyrocket.
The number of immortal male and female cultivators is now quite close, with males slightly ahead.
Among the mortal population, society is quite conservative, with most embracing gender roles; women take care of children, while men provide food and money. Women having extramarital affairs is completely unacceptable; it's not rare for mortal judges to give the death penalty to women who cheat on their husbands.
But, among immortals, these traditions are completely absent. The only thing that actually matters is strength. For example, if a male nascent soul cultivator marries a female divine soul, he can just assume that his wife would cheat on him, and there is nothing he can do. Nobody would advocate for him. If he dares to protest, he would simply be shut down, killed, thrown out, divorced, etc.
Lucy's case is special; she is far weaker than her husband, John, but her husband actually likes seeing her with other men. Again, because John was the backer, nobody dared say anything, no matter what everyone thought of Lucy.
"800? That's not a lot. Okay, tell John I want to see him; invite him to the headquarters; I'll meet him in 5 days." said Jack.
"Yes, Hero-sama!" Lucy answered loyally.
"Lucy, I want to ask you two questions," said Jack.
"I'm all ears, Hero-sama!" Lucy paid intense attention; it was the first time her master had asked her something.
"Is it normal to like horses, I mean, sexually?" asked Jack. These days, Faith has been getting more brazen with Redy; her relationship with it is no longer a secret. Of course, no one dared say anything, but Jack knew that behind the scenes, everyone was absolutely disgusted with Faith. Intimate relations with humans differ completely from animals; even cultivators are against human-animal relations. Of course, in Faith's case, the animal was intelligent and loved Faith.
"Hero-sama, I would say no," Lucy shook her head; she never felt the slightest attraction to anything non-human.
"As I thought!" Jack nodded. It had nothing to do with him, so he shook his head and forgot about it.
"My second question! I recently asked Amber about her most cherished wish; she replied, 'I wish every mortal could live and love.' Have you any idea about how to fulfill this wish?" Jack asked. He had recently accepted a side mission about this topic. He had a few ideas but still decided to ask.
"Master, this wish is impossible! What about newborn mortals? They may not yet have the capacity for love. In any case, without having control of this world, it's impossible to make all mortals happy."
"This is what I thought as well. Any other ideas?" Jack asked.
"Maybe we can do it through magic?" said Lucy.
Shaking his head, Jack said, "You can go! Remember, help John reach the realm of multiple souls!"
"Yes, Hero-sama!" said Lucy.
Jack disconnected, then looked at Master Firespring and said, "Let's start!".