NOVEL NEXT Chapter 87: Interlude: Full Upgrade!
Li Ling's movement was rapid, crossing the distance between himself and his foe so fast that a normal human's eye could not track it, making it seem akin to teleportation. His outstretched hand was inches from the right temple of Huo Yang, who seemed to be unable to react in time, causing Li Ling to curl his lips.
PAH!
And yet, with a seemingly casual slap, Huo Yang deflected Li Ling's palm away with a rapid movement from stillness to motion that caught the young man off guard. Then, Huo Yang punched outwards, striking Li Ling in the chest with his full force, causing a small shockwave of power to erupt from behind the young man's back and billow out into the distance.
Li Ling was curled in the air like a shrimp before coming down to his knees before Huo Yang, grasping his chest with agony as his shattered ribs struggled to heal since Huo Yang had invested some of his Fire Aura into that attack.
"Young man, you are certainly talented and strong, but you cannot be so arrogant to think that you can face me with a realm disadvantage and win, do you? If so, then I will shamelessly take the free chance you've given me to end your threat once and for all." Huo Yang said slowly as he walked over to the injured Li Ling and grabbed the young man by the head, aiming to crush it with his strength.
However, when he saw Li Ling's expression of a slightly crazed smile, the pupils of Huo Yang constricted greatly as he tried to let go and distance himself due to a feeling of alarm in his heart.
"Ah! Ah! Ah! It's too late to run now, you stupid bastard!" Li Ling shouted with excitement as he grasped the arm of Huo Yang holding him, immediately activating the Soul Piercing Seal.
"ARGHHH!!" Huo Yang screamed in agony as, regardless of his level, his resistance to this method was the same as those who came before, with his Sea of Consciousness blasted open by Li Ling, a cruel slave mark planted within that instantly corralled the thoughts of his foe.
Li Ling let go of the man, who fell to the ground weakly, then slowly rose up with a dull look in his eyes, bowing to Li Ling with utmost respect.
"Huo Yang greets the Master. How can I be of service, My Lord?"
Li Ling did not speak, simply glancing at Huo Yang with a smile that stretched from ear to ear slowly until he burst out into laughter. His laughter was long and loud, feeling very ominous with the background of charred corpses, a bloody battleground, and a kneeling sect master with his free will erased.
"Heh, you are no longer Huo Yang, but Majin Three henceforth. Now, unseal your treasury and retrieve the special item you've been hiding there, but do not bring it to me right away. When I summon you, you can appear with it." Li Ling ordered with a smile, turning to leave the cavern for fresh air.
Majin Three initially paused but went to carry out Li Ling's order after understanding what he meant. Meanwhile, outside, Li Ling just happened to see a bloody and slightly panting Majin Two coming up, his arms trembling and his dull eyes seeming quite heavy, causing the young man to frown.
"Well, in the end, it's my fault. I did not invest enough points into the Soul Piercing Seal, so what did I expect? Time to fix that though." Li Ling chided himself and opened the system panel.
｢Infinite Slaughter System
Owner: Li Ling
Status: Healthy
Age: 20/350
Slaughter Points: 4,395
Qi Cultivation Base: Foundation Establishment Perfection (Unable to Breakthrough)
Qi Cultivation Technique: Solaris Azure Meditation Mantra (Cannot be Limit Broken)
Body Refinement Level: Mortal Flesh level Perfection. (Unable to Breakthrough)
Body Refinement Technique: Blood Asura Descent. (Cannot be Limit Broken)
Mind Power Realm: Acolyte Realm Level 1 (0/2)
Mind Power Technique: Expanding Mind Sequence
Daoist Arts:
1. Fireball Technique – Perfection (Can be Limit Broken, 0/50)
2. Mana Regressing Art – Perfection (Cannot be Limit Broken, Insufficient Realm.)
3. Qi Seeking Technique – Perfection (Can be Limit Broken, 0/50)
4. Voice Transmission – Entry (0/1)
5. Spirit Sense Control – Perfection (Cannot be Limit Broken, Insufficient Realm.)
6. Earth Tunneling Art – Perfection (Cannot be Limit Broken, Insufficient Realm.)
7. Golden Blockade Technique – Perfection (Cannot be Limit Broken, Insufficient Realm.)
8. Cleansing Spell – Entry (0/1)
9. Qi Sealing Technique – Expert (0/15)
10. Yin-Yang Reversal Art – Entry (0/500)
11. The Meteor Spell – Perfection (Cannot be Limit Broken, Insufficient Realm.)
12. Soul Piercing Seal – Expert (0/30)
13. Memory Plunder Method – Entry (0/10)
14. Blessed Augury – Perfection (Cannot be Limit Broken, Insufficient Realm.)
Non Daoist Techniques:
1. Li Family Spear Technique – Perfection (Can be Limit Broken, 0/50)
2. Disguise Art – Perfection (Can be Limit Broken, 0/50)
3. Swift Swallow Step – Perfection (Can be Limit Broken, 0/50)
4. Sky Rending Palm – Perfection (Can be Limit Broken, 0/50)
5. Hidden Sleeve Art – Mastery (0/4).｣
Going over his list of techniques, Li Ling noticed that he had been min-maxing a little too hard. Every technique he chose, even something as simple as the Qi Seeking Technique, had its uses to him that, even though were not prudent today, could still yield great benefits if they were limit broken.
Even more criminally underutilized was the Yin-Yang Reversal Art, which he had shelved after escaping the Boundless Joy Sect region. He cursed himself for that because he had put it in his mind that he would only use that technique to navigate that danger zone and it wasn't important here as much.
But what if?
What if its high price led to high rewards?
Thinking like this, Li Ling spoke to Majin Two coldly. "Guard me with your life, and make sure none come even a hundred meters close."
Majin Two regained the dullness in his pupils after being controlled by Li Ling again and bowed respectfully. Li Ling manifested the Mountain Splitting Blade and sat upon it casually, not fearing that the blade edge would cut his thighs or backside.
The first thing Li Ling did was to Limit Break the Fireball Technique, which he did not do earlier. Immediately, the panel shifted and displayed the Foundation Establishment equivalent of this basic spell, which was the Fire Stream Art.
At the Entry level, the Fire Stream Art allowed one to condense a mouthful of flames and spurt them out, covering a vast area of a hundred meters around the person, burning everyone within to ashes if they did not have sufficient defenses.
At the Advanced level, the flames could be condensed, granting them double the potency compared to before, which was where most people ended their practice with this daoist art. At the Expert stage, the flames released would gain a persistent trait, still burning where they were spewed by absorbing ambient spiritual energy, but it would eventually decay in time.
At the Mastery stage, the flames could now burn spiritual energy itself, specifically the spiritual energy of the targets. So if the Fire Stream Art's flame even lightly touched you at this stage, you'd better cut off the affected part as it would use your own spiritual energy as fuel.
Finally, at the Perfection stage, the Fire Stream Art could be expanded to encompass the full range of your spirit sense, in case you had a range greater than the base hundred meters by Foundation Establishment Perfection. This was obviously developed for those talents who would be able to go far in this daoist art, because if you could reach Perfection here, then you could definitely cultivate your spirit sense to a higher tier.
Li Ling was quite satisfied with this Fire Stream and slightly regretted not limit breaking earlier. As he had no knowledge of daoist arts above the second realm, he did not know that the fireball would evolve from a single-target attack with splash damage to a direct AOE.
This motivated him to upgrade the other daoist arts and see what they would yield!
The Mana Regressing Art was already perfected, so he skipped over that and rather looked at the Qi Seeking Technique.
Ah, this one was necessary back in the day because without spirit sense, it was not easy to tell someone's cultivation level unless they wantonly released their aura. It was also great for tracking people and spirit beasts, as well as for investigative purposes, so Li Ling decided to pay the limit break cost.
The moment he did, Li Ling's face changed as a huge force acted upon him, which made him both excited and shocked because this was the same kind of feeling as when he upgraded the Essence Locking Technique to the Yin-Yang Reversal Art, meaning that the Infinite Slaughter System was designing something new never seen in Firmament Heaven before!
After what was around twelve hours, Li Ling opened his eyes, which were no longer merely dark pupils with no special nature. Rather, his eyes had a white background with a seven-colored brilliance around his pupils, featuring the colors of red, blue, green, gold, brown, purple, and silver.
This bizarrely aesthetic look seemed to feel extremely harmonious when manifested by Li Ling, but that was for outsiders. For Li Ling, the scope and the nature of his vision had changed completely, and coupled with the memory injection from the system, he knew the function of this new technique.
Basically, it was an ocular technique that allowed him to see through the false and identify the true. It could break illusions, identify the true natures of items or people, see the raw spiritual energy in the air, identify elements, and also see through any daoist art or technique utilized against him.
Li Ling decided to name it the Dao Seeing Eye, and he breathed out as he quickly deactivated it, his face becoming somewhat pale. This technique was extremely high-end, and even though he could use it, it cost both vitality, mental energy, and his cultivated power.
The rate at which it drained his power meant he could only use it for a brief few seconds at the Foundation Establishment realm. This one depended solely on qi cultivation, so no matter how good his body cultivation got, it wouldn't help him much.
Li Ling took a look and swore, because this one cost 1500 Slaughter Points to go from Entry to the Advanced level!
Damn!
In favor of unearthing more hidden talents, he could only put it to the side for now and upgrade other skills. However, he decided that before he hit Nascent Soul, he would definitely max out this technique!
Looking down, it was the good old Voice Transmission technique, which Li Ling himself had seen little use for. It was not that the technique was bad, but rather that he was paranoid as an earthling, knowing that any form of communication could be intercepted or eavesdropped by peeping toms, so he hardly used it for important things.
Another reason was that up until now, Li Ling did not have any real conspirators or partners. Even Bai Ruyi was more of a tagalong, a burden he carried due to his previous weakness that he intended to fully exploit before dealing with.
No one yet had come into his way that could be called his equal or be someone who he could assign basic respect to.
But that did not stop him from taking the Voice Transmission technique from Entry level to Perfection after spending. A total of ten Slaughter Points were invested to send the rather banal technique to its peak, and its low cost was justified because each stage only made the distance larger, the number of targets greater, the security of the connection stronger, and the duration longer.
Li Ling hesitated but then decided to Limit Break this as well, and to his pleasant surprise, he was put in another deep meditation as knowledge flooded his mind, another new technique being created never seen in Firmament Heaven.