Chương 27: Time Skip! Time Skip!

Time Skip!

During this past month, both Ren Qingquan and Ren Xuan have been busy hunting beasts. All this time, Ren Qingquan has been staying in the endless mountain. As for Ren Xuan, I've seen him visit a sect hidden deep in the mountains once. From what I've analyzed, that sect should be the Martial Spirit Sect, the world's strongest sect. In terms of power, it should only be a level weaker than the Azure Empire, the only empire in the world. Ren Xuan only stayed in the sect briefly.

After selling his gains and restocking his supplies, he met an elderly white-haired, white-browed man and chatted for half an hour. From their conversation, it seems the white haired elder is Ren Xuan's current master. They mainly talked about the things Ren Xuan had been doing the past few months. Except for that, they also talked about a grand plan that'll soon begin. After chatting in cryptic code I couldn't understand, Ren Xuan left and returned to the forest to hunt beasts and gather precious plants.

Meanwhile, after more than a month, Ren Qingquan has advanced to the second stage of Qi Refining. If not for fearing the Soul Swallowing Technique's side effect, he would've reached the third or fourth stage of Qi Refining already. He has also invested another 300 points to upgrade the selective devour function. With the upgrade, I can choose the things I devoured in more detail.

That also means I can devour more of the middle section of a soul that contains the memory and is responsible for the Soul Swallowing Technique's side effects. Which means Ren Qingquan's leveling speed will soon increase. Anyway, all of those aren't important. The most important thing is that after more than a month of hunting, I've finally gathered 1. 100 points! With this, I can use 1. 000 points to unlock my new ability while leaving 100 points as emergency funds. Inside the dark space.

Accompanied by my excitement, I immediately willed the energy around me to be consumed to open my new ability. Instantly, 1. 000 points worth of energy disappeared. In return, I gained memories containing complex knowledge. Most of them are incomprehensible and have become part of my instincts immediately. The few I can comprehend became something akin to a guidebook for that ability. After I absorbed all the memories, I am incredibly happy because the ability I've unlocked is truly remarkable.

Furthermore, I thought of a way to leave this dark space using this ability. I immediately tried to leave this dark space, but it failed instantly. I tested it several times, but it all ended in failure. After that failure, I calmed down and began testing my newly acquired ability more thoroughly. First and foremost, I decided to name the ability [Transfer]. It's the ability to send materials and information from one place to another.

The higher the energy contained in the item, the further the distance, the bigger the items, the more points will be consumed. As expected of my ability. Like its siblings, it's a terrifying points-eating monster. Honestly, I am kinda torn between naming the ability [Space] or [Teleport]. Considering that it not only allows me to teleport material things but also information. I decided to name it [Transfer] instead, which means the ability to transfer things.

Just like the other abilities I've gained, [Transfer] can be upgraded by spending points. As usual, the memory didn't tell me anything about the possible upgrades, so I need to slowly uncover them later. This ability to send things is extremely OP. It's also exactly what I need to leave this dark space. But when I tried to use it to leave this place, I found out the ability can't be used on me. While attempting to leave, I discovered I could activate the ability through Ren Qingquan.

So, I tested this by transferring a handful of soil near Ren Qingquan to a spot one meter away. Just transferring that soil cost me less than one point. I also tried to target other things with [Transfer], but I didn't teleport them to avoid wasting energy. Whether it is a tree, an insect, a soul, or Ren Qingquan himself, I found I can actually use [Transfer] on them and teleport them away. However, from how the energy around me behaved when I tried to use [Transfer] on Ren Qingquan.

The cost of teleporting Ren Qingquan across space should be astronomical. But it also means it's possible to teleport living intelligent creatures. Then, why can't [Transfer] target myself and teleport me out of this dark, empty space! I felt like I was having a mental breakdown from this disappointment. It's not like I'm short on points to use [Transfer] on myself. Otherwise, the energy around me would've responded by flying around erratically at high speed instead of not responding at all.

From how it feels when I tried to activate [Transfer] on myself, it's like I am simply a background object in a game while others are interactive objects that can be selected by [Transfer]. This emotional rollercoaster makes me want to cry myself to sleep. All of this makes me tired, so I decided to take a rest. Until he left the Endless Mountain, I decided to spend most of my time reading novels that Ren Qingquan had scanned. I've been working nonstop since Ren Qingquan has been anchored to me.

I deserved some break time. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. I've already got a general understanding of everything I've scanned, anyway. So I stopped studying or testing my abilities and only occasionally checked in on the situation around Ren Qingquan, Ren Xuan, and Ren Shiluo.

Time quickly passes, and slightly more than five months have gone by. This also marks six and a half months since Ren Qingquan entered the Endless Mountain. Even though it's already beyond his planned stay, Ren Qingquan decided to stay and continue the hunt because he can feel he's already close to the limit of the Qi Refining realm. During these five months, Ren Qingquan has gone deeper into the Endless Mountain. This increased his chance of encountering strong ferocious beasts that can be converted into points.

While I am reading novels as usual, I heard Ren Qingquan ask me to devour the soul of a Martial Saint level ferocious beast. After I devoured the soul and converted it into points, Ren Qingquan used his Soul Swallowing Technique and converted the soul into refined spirit qi. This time, I didn't continue to read my novels as usual. Instead, I watched as Ren Qingquan converted the soul of the Martial Saint beast into refined spirit qi.

Similar to the martial arts realm, the Qi Refining stage is divided into ten stages. From the 1st stage to the 9th stage, and an additional peak stage. After accumulating for so long, Ren Qingquan has already reached the limit of the ninth stage of Qi Refining. With the spirit qi from this Martial Saint, he finally collected enough spirit qi to reach the peak of Qi Refining. He quickly sat cross-legged and tried to break through his cultivation realm.

Perhaps because Ren Qingquan is actually incredibly talented, or the way he just smashed the barrier between cultivation stages by using an insane amount of refined spirit qi. Ren Qingquan never met the infamous bottleneck I often read in the cultivation book I've scanned. Once he broke through, Ren Qingquan immediately told everyone, "I've finished what I needed to do in the Endless Mountain. Thank you for accompanying me beyond the half-year I had estimated. We can leave now."

While everyone happily packed and prepared to leave, I heard Ren Qingquan's complaints, 'I can't endure living in the forest for another day. The hard ground, the noises, the insects crawling and buzzing around make me exhausted. Furthermore, Fatty Zhang almost ran out of seasonings. I don't want to eat bland barbecued meat at all.'

'Thankfully, I am smart enough to invest more points in selective devour so I achieved my goal of reaching Peak Qi Refining faster.' When I heard how Ren Qingquan praised himself, I laughed in glee. It seems that after living in the forest for a long time and wanting to go home quickly, he has forgotten that the initial reason he went to kill ferocious beasts in the Endless Mountain was to collect points for the frequency-changing function.

In my opinion, spending points to upgrade the selective devour function is far more helpful than adding the frequency-changing function, which only lets Ren Qingquan control his corpses a little farther. While laughing at Ren Qingquan, who had forgotten about the useless function, I heard him continue his thought.

'The Body Tempering Method I obtained doesn't contain the Foundation Building chapters. That means it can only be cultivated to the peak of Qi Refining. So, I can return before planning to either switch to another technique or look for the Foundation Building chapters for my Body Tempering Method.' The Body Tempering Method is only important because it can generate spirit qi in an environment devoid of it.

That means it's necessary to use the Body Tempering Method to advance from Martial Grandmaster to Qi Refining cultivator in this world, where I haven't seen any trace of spirit qi except for Ren Shiluo and Xiao Cai. Of course, it's a slightly different case for Ren Qingquan. He doesn't need the Body Tempering Method to continuously convert martial artists' vital energy into spirit qi, because he can absorb refined spirit qi by devouring souls using the Soul Swallowing Technique.

But without the first batch of spirit qi converted using the Body Tempering Method, it'll be impossible to use the Soul Swallowing Technique at all, so I couldn't exactly say the technique is useless for him. Now that I think about it, I must say Ren Qingquan has bullshit-level luck. First, he found the Body Tempering Method. Although it'll take forever to reach the Qi Refining stage through that cultivation method, it still lets him obtain his first trace of spirit qi.

Then, he found the Soul Swallowing Technique that allows him to easily level up by killing mobs. Finally, there's me, the good ol' System that helps him alleviate the side effects of the Soul Swallowing Technique. If Ren Qingquan lacks one out of the three, he wouldn't be able to level up as quickly.

Watching as everyone packed their equipment, Ren Qingquan opened his personal panel. [Name: Ren Qingquan Point: 204 Cultivation realm: Peak Qi Refining. Cultivation method: Body Tempering Method. Cultivation Technique: Soul Swallowing Technique, Blood Nurturing Technique. Martial arts technique: Iron Palm (Beginner). System function: Devour, Scan, Calculate, Map, Mission, Skill Learning, Selective Devour.] Over the past slightly more than five months, he has gained 800 points.

That means he earned an average of 150 points per month. It's not as much as I initially expected because he only met with Martial Saint-level beasts once every three days on average. The reason Ren Qingquan has only 204 Points left is that he spent most of them to upgrade the selective devour function. Without spending money to upgrade that function, he wouldn't have reached the peak of Qi Refining this quickly. After all, the side effect of the Soul Swallowing Technique is no joke.

I am also still contemplating whether to tell Ren Qingquan about the [Transfer] function for free or fleece another wave of points from him. That's why the [Transfer] function isn't written in his status panel yet. After Ren Qingquan checked his status panel, he nodded while praising himself for his hard work. Soon, everyone had collected their belongings and started to leave. They rode their horse and slowly moved out of the Endless Mountain. Well, I guess my rest time is also over.

After all, I've already planned to rest until Ren Qingquan leaves the forest. With renewed vigor, I also took the time to sort my gains. [Name: System Points: 810 [Scan] Range: 100 meters [Calculate] Calculation power: 0 [Devour] Selective Devour: 1500 points [Transfer] Unknown upgrade [Anchor] All Abilities Anchor: Ren Qingquan 2 Abilities Anchor: Ren Xuan (Scan, Devour) 1 Ability Anchor: Ren Shiluo (Scan) Ren Wangzhen (Scan)] Unknowingly, I've also grown a lot.

Of course, most of them happen thanks to Ren Qingquan's tricks at gathering points. Whether it's gathering points from fish in the fish market or hunting ferocious beasts with his minions, I must say they're a pretty good moves.