Calculating My Way To Immortality

"Is it really that impressive?" Yu Tian asked.

"What are you talking about? Of course it is!" she said.

"The Twin Secret Tombs have all sorts of treasures from the two sisters who were great experts. Do you know how rare it is to find an expert's secret tomb, let alone two that open at the same time?" she spoke excitedly.

"You said it opens every one hundred years?" he asked.

"That's right," she said.

"Then how are there still treasures? Haven't they all been looted by others?" he asked.

"Not really. In fact, it's said that the tombs have barely been explored," she said. "The tombs only allow people below the Golden Core realm to enter and have many difficult puzzles that you need to solve to get rewards and continue exploring," she explained.

"Puzzles?" he asked.

"That's right. The two sisters don't seem to have been the fighting type. One was a talisman expert, and the other was a formations expert," she explained.

Yu Tian thought to himself that cultivation wasn't the only path to power. There were also secondary professions like talisman making, formation making, alchemy, and all that. These, while not immediately as powerful as pure cultivation, had their own unique methods that couldn't be underestimated.

"Puzzles, huh," he thought. With his calculation ability, it was like they were handing it to him. He might not have great combat abilities, but when it came to puzzles, he was sure he could crack them.

He thought to himself that the twin sisters were probably looking for someone to inherit their craft. That's how it was mostly with secret tombs. They could also be considered inheritance grounds. Otherwise, why would you have your tomb open every few years? Isn't it to look for someone?

He wondered why they weren't allowing Golden Core realm and above.

After thinking about it, he figured it out. Golden Core and above cultivators have high mind levels and could use their powerful minds to brute force through the puzzles, making the entire thing pointless.

Taking Core Formation realm and below, who have relatively low mind levels, means they get someone who is actually talented in what they're doing and not just brute forcing.

"So, what do you think?" she asked.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Well, about going together," she said. She glanced to the side. "You are good with numbers, right? That means you're good with puzzles. Maybe we can get something useful from there," she said.

"I guess that's true," he said.

"Is that a yes?" she asked.

"Sure, we can go together. But no promises about the puzzles," he said.

She jumped up in excitement. "Nice!" she said.

"Didn't you hear what I said?" he asked.

"Ah, the puzzles? I don't really care about them," she said.

"You don't?" he asked suspiciously. She had been so enthusiastic before. What changed? he wondered.

"Uh, well... you know... it's tempering expectations. If you don't expect something, you won't be disappointed," she said.

"That makes sense," he said.

She just looked at him. "You stupid fuck. How could someone be so smart and so dumb at the same time?" she cursed internally.

She then glanced to the side with a slight blush. "Can this be considered a date?" she wondered.

…

Xueling and Yu Tian sat in a meditative posture facing each other.

"Aren't you going to cultivate first?" she asked.

"Since the opening of the tomb is so soon, why don't you cultivate on your own for the next week? No need to help me. This way, you can get stronger much faster. Besides, you already gave me the Pure Chime Method, which is much better than the method I was practicing, so I won't lag behind by much," she said.

"It's fine, we can still do both," Yu Tian said.

"Do both?" she asked.

Yu Tian brought out his right hand and she extended hers, the two pressing against each other. Then with his other hand, he picked up a spirit stone and began absorbing its energy.

"This is..." she was shocked by the scene.

"I entered the second level of the mind realm earlier today. With this, I should be able to easily guide you in your cultivation and still cultivate my own," he said.

"Ah, makes sense," she said, closing her eyes and beginning her cultivation.

She thought to herself that there was nothing she could do but come to terms with it. Even after trying her best to overestimate him, she had still greatly underestimated him. Was there something he couldn't do?

Yu Tian began drawing energy from the spirit stone in his hand, using the Path to Heaven method of course. He thought to himself that with the level two mind, he was able to handle doing multiple things at the same time that required maximum concentration. Even so, this wasn't how it was supposed to be used, especially with his relatively low mind level. Even if it was level two, it still was challenging to handle these two extremely taxing tasks.

Even so, he felt that it should be fine. It could also be seen as practicing his mind. There were two kinds of practice: one was following a specific set of methods that allowed one to improve, and another was pushing oneself to the limit. Although it was much more difficult than traditional practice, it had a higher growth rate overall.

Still, although great for things like physical power, it was dangerous for sensitive things like the mind. Pushing the mind to its limits could lead to great complications, so he reminded himself not to overdo it.

Yu Tian and Xueling practiced throughout the night.

The following day, Xueling was getting even closer to the third layer. Because of Yu Tian's increased mind level, he could make even more calculations and thus optimize his Path to Heaven method even more, allowing her to advance significantly quickly. She felt that in the next cultivation session, she would definitely break through to the third layer of Core Formation.

Yu Tian, on the other hand, had absorbed quite a number of spirit stones.

Even though there were still a few left, Yu Tian felt they might not get him to the Foundation stage as he wanted. Although he could absorb them at one hundred percent efficiency due to the Path to Heaven method, he had failed to account for his five elements method.

Since he was going for the Five Elements Foundation, he had to cultivate all the elements at once, meaning he used five times the energy needed.

He sighed. There was nothing he could do about that. Instead of Foundation, he decided to set his eyes on the peak of Qi Gathering instead.