Chương 53: Tethers of Neverwhere (I)

--so, that cloaking art. As soon as Elder Qin left, I retired into my bedroom yet again, setting shop atop the demonstrably uncomfortable bed (I swear, I will have to revolutionize the industry of comfort in this world, even if it be the last thing I do). Once again I found myself somewhat overwhelmed with the massive screen of choices, all floating over there mindlessly.

I'd wondered more than once about the nature of the System--not necessarily who created it or even who gave it to me, but just how it operates, the under-the-hood machinations, if you will. All those wonderings, though, lead nowhere, of course, so I just stopped wondering and instead tried pondering, which led to pretty much the same results.

I had two options in regard to the cloaking art: spend my Long Tao freebie on creating one that pretty much only he would be able to use, or somehow try to wrangle one that costs at maximum 100 points. I'd already tried the latter just as an experiment before, and the cheapest I could get it was at around 200 Creation Points, and even then it couldn't even hide from those at the Revolving Core Realm. Furthermore, I actually did need him to get out there and bring stuff back.

Though I sounded confident and such in winning, was I going to leave it up to Elder Qin sending resources for one disciple? Hah! I'm a guy who, before a hiking trip with my college girlfriend, actually checked out the route online!... Okay, that's actually pretty normal and doesn't make me sound like much of a prepper, but this is a different world with different rules, and I'm now a different man (literally).

And, anyway, endearing myself to someone who will eventually leave this place in the dust—hey, that's pretty smart, isn't it? So, I started fiddling around, knowing I could spend up to a full 500 points. After creating Dai Xiu's method, I played around with restrictions a little bit and quickly realized I could only really apply those that would shave up to 20ish Creation Points and were for the most part basic--can only cultivate at night, cannot move during cultivation, and so on and so forth.

Any of the more complex ones, and especially ones restricting the art to a specific physique or bloodline... and the system didn't let me.... THEN WHY EVEN SHOW ME THEY EXIST?! Khm. So, anyway, I quickly inputted the basics that I was already familiar with: Special Art with 'Elegant' internal logic, a mix of Standard Qi and Mental Power, Major Infusion of 'Illusion' Concept, Moderate Infusion of 'Sound' Concept, and Minor Infusion of 'Light' Concept. Royal Road is the home of this novel.

Visit there to read the original and support the author. That, altogether, got me to 290 Creation Points. The most expensive one was the 'Major Infusion of Illusion' at a staggering 120 Points. But that wasn't even the peak--I could spend further points to strengthen it but decided against it, as even the current setup was enough to hide from anyone under the Void Transformation Realm, and possibly even them.

Anyway, that wasn't everything--I still had 210 Points to spend, and by God, I'm going to spend every last one of them. I'm not vengeful, but I am quite petty. I temporarily skipped past the Specific Characteristics and to the Unique Properties; there it was, 'Growth', costing... 500 Creation Points. Oh. Just... Just bite me! Khm, anyway, that wasn't what I actually wanted.

I moved back up to 'Conceptual Imbuement' and trudged through a few hundred of them, ranging in cost from a measly 50 to a less-so-measly 5, 000, 000. Yes. There was a conceptual imbuement called 'Elemental Novice' that cost 5, 000, 000. Elemental Novice. Novice. Oh. Just... just bite me. Anyway, I found a few that would actually work well with my current setup, but I could only afford one of them: Breathless Qi Imbuement.

It cost 200 Creation Points, and it was probably best utilized for assassination arts and such, as it made them almost imperceptible due to the way it cloaked the released Qi, but with its addition, I'm fairly certain Long Tao would now be invisible to, well, everyone.

With the leftover 10 points, I went back up a bit and checked the Specific Characteristics, but the only one even remotely 'useful' that cost 10 points was Unscryable, which really just meant that if Long Tao was ever captured and somebody performed some Soul Arts on him, they wouldn't be able to learn the art from it. It was... well, kind of pointless, but I promised I wouldn't waste a single point, and so I created it, applied my freebie restrictions, and prompted the ever-familiar window to appear.

[CURRENT CREATION POINTS: 500/100 (Reward 2 Applied, ALLOWED)] [NAME: (Please name the art; otherwise, the system will auto-generate a name upon Art Creation)] [Description: a uniquely restrictive cloaking art designed for the bearers of the sword. Its innate construction allows one to hide even from low-seed Dao, becoming one with the world around them. Can easily move through Arrays and Formations of sub-Void level, cannot be discerned by Divine Sense, and only special constitutions or arts of higher grade have a chance to notice the user. Due to its nature, however, it consumes an inordinate amount of Qi] [TYPE: Special Art (+25 CP)] [NUMBER OF FORMS: N/A] [LOGIC: Elegant (+30 CP)] [ENERGY: Standard Qi + Mental Power (10+15 = 25)] [Major Infusion of Illusion Concept (+120 CP); Moderate Infusion of Sound Concept (+60 CP), Minor Infusion of Light Concept (+30 CP) = 210] [CHARACTERISTICS: Unscryable (+10 CP)] [UNIQUE PROPERTIES: Minor Concept of Breathless Qi Imbuement (+200 CP)] [CUSTOM RESTRICTIONS APPLIED: Sword Heart & Sword Embryo Traits of at least 'Epic' ranks] [-----------] [CALCULATED COST: 25+30+25+120+60+30+10+200 = 500 CP] [PROJECTED RANK: low-Heaven Tier] [PROJECTED DIFFICULTY:???] [CONFIRM CREATION: 500 CP (0 CP)] [CANCEL] Hoooh. Just reading it is honestly jostling my adrenaline a bit. How many years would I have had to wait until being able to create something like this naturally? Well, probably not that many, maybe three or four, but still--that's practically the length of high school! Does it say something about me that I measure a passage of time in terms of the years spent in high school? God, I hope not...

Khm, anyway, it was just at the moment I pressed the 'CONFIRM CREATION' button that I realized I'd done it again: I forgot to name the damn thing! Look, I don't mind the system coming up with appropriate names, but I also want to stir my creative juices, you know? I actually had a perfect name already set up: Hide From Gods Art. So powerful, right?! Anyone would want to learn it!... except that maybe like 6 people in total in existence could. Would have been a nice joke. But nooooo, I got too excited again...