Before the three powerhouses of the 3000 World started a hunt for his life, Sal had busied himself with memorizing as much knowledge of the past as he could.
His initial plan was to reenact the events mentioned in the heavenly secret of time travel with himself as the protagonist and travel through time all the way back to when he was still a teenager, at the best age for spiritual cultivation.
As he was planning to go back in time, he memorized all there was to the opportunities that appeared in the past hundred years so that he could monopolize them and ascend to the upper realm fully armed to the teeth in as least time as possible and take his revenge.
He knew the time of their appearance and the location where they appeared. He also knew what they were and how they could be utilized.
Except for that, at that time, he had also traded his treasures for a bunch of low-level cultivation manuals.
In the Upper realm of the 3000 World, low-level didn't mean inferior goods. It meant techniques that were good for spiritual cultivators in the first step of cultivation.
Sal was an enlightened grandmaster, which placed him at the peak of the second step. These manuals were useless for him.
He acquired them solely because once he regressed to the past and his cultivation was lost, these manuals would help him cultivate faster.
As for why he had to buy them, the low-level cultivation manuals he knew were of inferior quality. He had used these inferior manuals to cultivate to the second step, but it had taken a lot of his time. He could significantly cut down on time if he had better manuals, so he had traded his treasures for them.
Before the hunt began, he had memorized them all.
The Ten Thousand Star Refining Cultivation Manual was the strongest low-level cultivation manual he knew.
It was a tyrannical method that allowed for the production of the purest kind of spiritual energy.
What does producing the purest kind of spiritual energy have to do with it being the strongest low-level cultivation manual?
Well, to understand that, a better understanding of the first realm of spiritual cultivation was needed.
The first realm of spiritual cultivation was known as the Introductory phase.
In this realm, you need to introduce the spiritual energy into your vessel to grow strong.
Once you succeed at that, you will be considered to have entered the first level of the introductory phase and your strength would increase way last mortal limits.
This realm was further separated into nine levels.
Cultivating to the ninth level of the introductory phase would allow the spiritual vessel to hold hundred of units of spiritual energy.
The more the quantity of spiritual energy in one's vessel, the greater their power. However, the quality of spiritual energy in one's vessel greatly affected their strength.
A person with poor quality spiritual energy in their vessel would never be able to exhibit the same amount of force as a person who is in the same level as them but have higher-quality spiritual energy in their vessel.
The punch force of a spiritual combatant practicing the Ten Thousand Star Refining Cultivation Manual was 600 pounds at the first level of the introductory phase, which was 10 to 5 times that of the maximum punch force of an average human and double that of an average individual in the first level of the introductory phase.
This just goes to show that a person practicing the Ten Thousand Star Refining Cultivation Manual would always be invincible in the same level.
This was the biggest difference.
There were many other big and small differences.
Moreover, through this cultivation manual, even a waste could step into the first realm overnight.
That's how great it was.
Amongst low-level manuals, it was considered divine grade for a reason.
"Unfortunately, I can't cultivate it. The environment of this world is not suitable." Sal sighed heavily.
To cultivate the Ten Thousand Star Refining Cultivation Manual, clear skies were needed.
The stars and the moon should be entirely visible at night and the sun should be visible during the day.
However, in this world, a thin layer of darkness stretched throughout the sky, and it was permanent.
As a result, this world had obscured skies day and night.
It failed to meet the most important requirements needed for the effective cultivation of the Ten Thousand Star Refining Cultivation Manual.
Cultivating the Ten Thousand Star Refining Cultivation Manual in a world like this would do more harm than good.
'Guess I can only go for the second best option,' Sal thought to himself.
Sal was disappointed as he couldn't cultivate the strongest low-level cultivation method, but his disappointment wasn't overwhelming.
He could still cultivate the Ancestral Breathing Method.
It was also one of the low-level cultivation manuals he had traded his treasures for and memorized prior to being hunted down by the three major forces of the upper realm of the 3000 world.
He had purchased and memorized many low-level cultivation manual for different situations just in case, and his preparation were proving to be worthwhile.
The Ancestral Breathing Method was a tyrannical method that allowed one to directly purify the spiritual energy present in nature and forcefully drag it into their spiritual vessel.
It had both pros and cons.
Its performance was greatly affected by the concentration of spiritual energy in nature.
If the spiritual energy in nature was sparse, the performance of this method would naturally be subpar. However, if the concentration of spiritual energy in the air was thick, its performance would be far better than average cultivation manuals.
If cultivated in blessed lands that were known to be thick with spiritual energy, its performance could rival or even exceed the Ten Thousand Star Refining Technique in terms of cultivation speed.
But in terms of quality, it fell quite a bit.
Nonetheless, it was incomparably better than the average cultivation technique that the majority cultivated as it allowed thorough purification of spiritual energy, greatly enchanting its quality.
As explained before, the strength of a spiritual combatant in the first realm was affected by not only the quantity but also the quality of the spiritual energy present in their spiritual vessel, and the quality enchantment of spiritual energy provided by the Ancestral Breathing Method was second to none, putting it above all other methods and only below one.
Also, it should be known that this method was entirely ineffective in places devoid of spiritual energy.
Luckily, this world wasn't like that.
It had spiritual combatants, which was a direct giveaway that it had spiritual energy.
Unlike in the upper and middle realms of the 3000 worlds, where dominant cultivation sects monopolize spiritual energy through complex formations to not only maintain their tyrannical control over their territories and enforce their sovereignty over other lifeforms but also punish the mortals who live in their territory but aren't part of their sect by cutting off any chance they have of becoming a spiritual combatant and decrease the chances of rouge cultivators, who could fight for their treasures being born, to almost zero, this world's spiritual energy is evenly distributed across the globe.
This distribution ensures that spiritual energy isn't hoarded by a select few, allowing individuals from all walks of life to engage in cultivation.
Sal came to this conclusion because even a pathetic ant like Big Joe, who lived in a refugee camp and bullied the weak, was a level 2 introductory phase combatant.
Big Joe's existence was clear proof that in this world, spiritual energy wasn't restricted, and cultivation techniques weren't impossible to obtain for mortals.
'In this aspect, Earth is similar to the lower realms of the 3000 Worlds.
'It is honestly good for me.'
'Since spiritual energy isn't limited to a single place, I can easily benefit from the Ancestral Breathing Method.'
In the absence of the guidance of an elder with spiritual consciousness, it was no different than a goose chase to purify spiritual energy in nature using the Ancestral Breathing Method.
Sal didn't need the guidance of an elder as he possessed spiritual consciousness. Although it was weak, it was enough.
"In my situation, practicing the Ancestral Breathing method is my best choice," Sal thought to himself, 'Let's cultivate it.'
Before cultivation, the concentration of impurities in the spiritual energy in nature had to be verified.
Even without verification, he believed it to be highly impure.
He believed that because in a world where the flow of spiritual energy was unrestricted, mortals should be healthy and full of vigor and live to be a hundred or two hundred years old, but in this world, it was the exact opposite.
The people he had fought before were ridiculously weak for their age and one of them even seemed to be suffering from jaundice.
Out into the streets, not only had he not seen a single old person, but he had also heard countless people who looked to be in their twenties to forties coughing and sneezing. The phlegm some of them spat out was mixed with their blood.
The people in their forties were the fewest. The people in their thirties and twenties were the most. They all looked sick in one way or another.
Young children were there. Some showed signs of sickness. Some were sick. Some looked fine.
These signs indicated that they were living in an environment thick with impurities.
These impurities were continuously attacking their bodies, decreasing the average human lifespan to a pitiful 50.
Since impurities were present in such dense quality in nature, the spiritual energy should have also been affected.
Harnessing such type of spiritual energy would do more harm than good.
Sal knew he had to be very careful and take proper measures or he would be digging a grave for himself.
If he were to cultivate the Ancestral Breathing Method, to determine the impurities in the spiritual energy, the only thing he had to rely on was his spiritual consciousness.
Previously, to deal with the awakened cultivators chasing after him and traverse the Valley of Forgotten Souls, he had spent most of his spiritual consciousness. He used some of it today to glean important information from Dake and Dale. Now he was left with very little of his spiritual consciousness. He wasn't willing to waste it unnecessarily. But if it was necessary, he wouldn't hesitate to put it to use.
This was one of those necessary times.
Sal willed his spiritual consciousness to move.
Affected by his will, his spiritual energy sprang out of his skull, washing towards his eyes.
As it was going there, Sal got a clear view of his skull.
It was totally unlike a mortal's skull.
It wasn't white. And it didn't have only two eye sockets.
It had three eye sockets and it was a dim shadow of gold in color.
It oddly resembled the skull of the Limitless.
"No!"
As Sal focused his gaze on it, he realized with bated breath that it indeed was the skull of the Limitless he'd refined prior to being hunted in order to increase his chance of traveling through time!
It had integrated with the body he had possessed after time traveling.
'What a pleasant surprise.' Sal thought.