Calculating My Way To Immortality

Yu Tian settled down and steadied his breathing.

He began gathering energy through the Path to Heaven method, but there was a problem.

Although Xueling thought he had enough energy to break through, it seemed all of it had transformed into internal energy by his core and couldn't be used to enter the Qi Gathering realm.

He wondered if he could really enter the Qi Gathering realm like this.

[78%]

The percentage surprised him. He wondered if something had changed.

[100%]

A strange feeling washed over him. As he reached out to sense the qi around him and tried to absorb it, the energy rapidly poured into his body. This kind of absorption speed was definitely not normal for someone like him.

He wondered if his spiritual root had been upgraded.

[100%]

This revelation shocked him greatly. He hadn't expected this sort of transformation at all. The upgrade seemed to be related to the body rejuvenation he had experienced. The numbers confirmed his suspicions.

This excited him greatly. He wondered if he could upgrade his spiritual root further by taking cores from other snake monsters about to shed their skin.

[33%]

That percentage was quite low. He wondered if there was another factor he wasn't accounting for.

[58%]

Well, he decided to think about it later.

As he absorbed qi, he realized that even though his spiritual root had upgraded, his situation wasn't that much better than before. It was an improvement, but compared to others on the same level, it was nothing special.

The way spiritual roots worked was simple - every spiritual root had a certain absorption power that was divided among the number of elements it contained. That was why a pure single-element spiritual root was always better than multiple elements.

Although he had a low-grade spiritual root before, it shouldn't have been terrible. After all, this wasn't some high-ranking sect, and most disciples actually had low-grade spiritual roots too. But because of his five-element spiritual root, his base absorption rate was only a fifth of an average low-grade spiritual root, making him the absolute worst of the worst.

Even so, compared to before, this was progress. Although each of his elements only had a fifth of his full absorption power, it was still about twice the speed of a single-element low-grade spiritual root. Since it wasn't that hard for someone with a single-element low-grade spiritual root to enter the Qi Gathering realm, it shouldn't take him long either with his doubled absorption speed.

As he absorbed energy, he noticed something strange.

When using the Path to Heaven method, the path with the highest chances of success involved absorbing all five elements simultaneously. Usually, someone with a split-element spiritual root could only absorb one element at a time, letting the root refine that energy before absorbing another element.

So why did his Path to Heaven method show this simultaneous approach as the most successful?

Since it was the path with the highest success rate, he decided to try it.

He felt fire, water, wood, metal, and earth qi all enter his body at once. As the energies flowed into him, they began reacting to each other - some remaining calm while others showed hostile reactions. He wondered if this was really the right approach.

He stayed calm and continued following the method, slowly refining the incoming energy through the Path to Heaven technique. As he did this, the five elements gradually settled down, their hostility disappearing as they came under his control.

A refreshing sensation spread throughout his entire body. He opened his eyes.

He had succeeded.

…

He flexed his arm a few times.

"Is this the Qi Gathering realm? I don't feel that much difference in power," he said.

"Of course you don't," Xueling explained.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Unlike the Body Refining realms, the Qi realms focus on qi emission and infusion, not on raw physical power," she explained. "At the Qi Gathering realm, both qi emission and infusion aren't all that great - just a little better than Body Refining. But since you've entered the tenth layer of Body Refining, the difference to you will be practically nonexistent until you enter the Foundation realm."

"Until the Foundation realm?" he asked.

"That's right. At the tenth layer of Body Refining, your combat power should be the same as peak Qi Gathering. Although you'll get a little stronger as you progress through the Qi Gathering realms, the difference won't be all that significant compared to your current combat ability. The only real power boost you'll get is when you enter the Foundation realm," she replied.

Yu Tian nodded his head. "I see."

He thought to himself that he hadn't expected this. Well, it was a good thing that his combat power had reached the peak of the Qi Gathering realm. Combined with his Path to Heaven method, he was practically invincible within the Qi Gathering realm.

"Say... do you have a concealment technique?" he asked.

"Oh, you want to hide your cultivation already? Quite smart," she said with a smile.

"That too... but there's something else," he said.

His expression turned serious as he looked directly at her. "You can feel it, can't you?"

Her expression stiffened. She had thought it was something he didn't wish to talk about - she hadn't expected him to be so direct.

"Yeah. Before, I thought it was some sort of treasure, but it seems it's not," she said, letting out a sigh.

Yu Tian then explained to her about the inner core. He thought to himself that Xueling was quite trustworthy. Besides, he needed her help, and it would be difficult for her to assist him without revealing this secret.

She held her chin in thought. "An inner core, huh." She nodded. "I see, so that's how it is."

She thought to herself that no wonder he had been able to rejuvenate his body. After absorbing the energy in the monster core, it seemed the power had been transferred to his own core and then triggered the rejuvenation ability.

She let out a sigh. "I understand your situation, but I might not be able to help you. Although I do have a concealment method, it's only for concealing cultivation and won't hide your monster aura since that's a physical property."

…

Author's Corner

Trying my hardest not to yap about the rebirth effect. (i'm dying)

Hi guys, sorry for no update yesterday. Me owe you 2 chapters, put it on my tab.