Right away, he called up the Infinite Slaughter System.
｢Infinite Slaughter System
Owner: Li Ling
Status: Fatigued.
Slaughter Points: 3
Cultivation Level: Qi Refinement level 1 (0/1)
Cultivation Technique: Qi Circulation Mantra
Skills:
1. Fireball Technique – Entry (0/1)
2. Li Family Spear Technique – Entry (0/1)
3. Qi Restraining Control – Advanced (0/15)｣
It was now that he had time to finally look at his repertoire, and he couldn't help but chuckle somewhat darkly. His cultivation technique itself was not bad, as the Qi Circulation Mantra was a publicly traded and promoted cultivation art that was suitable for any type of spirit root and talent.
Really, unless you had high talent or a special spirit root, most would encourage one to utilize this technique as it was good for the entirety of the Qi Refinement cultivation stage, especially since it was compatible with almost any Foundation Establishment technique.
Its development was also akin to the open source model from Earth, even having a spiritual repository where updates were made to it by sages after careful review. More than ninety percent of all cultivators in existence likely cultivated this technique, so unless Li Ling found one with benefits that were so great that he couldn't pass up, it was best to stick to this.
However, it was his skills that led him to feel unpleasantly amused. First was the basic fireball technique, which he had struggled to learn after starting his cultivation, just when he began his exile. He did not learn it for any childish reason like loving fireballs from video games, but mostly because, while traveling in the wilds, he needed a quick source of fire.
Without it, he might have long died during his journey back then.
The Li Family Spear Technique was taught to everyone in the family before the age of 12, starting from the age of 7. It was a combat martial arts technique meant for quick killing and dispatching an enemy using physical means, a way to guard oneself at the Qi Refinement level and below, where most people fought using cold weapons rather than Daoist arts.
It was thanks to this that he could also guarantee his life with a mere Qi Refinement level 1 cultivation base, along with the short spear given to him by his clan. Actually, 'given' was an overstatement; it was just left with him and no one bothered to take it back because, after all, he still was a cultivator, even if it was one with next to no value.
The one that made him chuckle darkly was the Qi Restraining Control, the only skill he had learned to an advanced level through hard work. From the name, one would think it was a technique to suppress others, but no, it was a technique to suppress oneself.
On Earth, it had a more familiar yet esoteric name, the Turtle Breath Control method. It was the fabled technique that allowed one to hide and suppress their cultivation from others, making them seem weaker than they actually were.
It was the foundational skill of every transmigrator, allowing them to play the pig to eat the tiger and grow rapidly using their cheat without facing questioning or witch hunts.
Li Ling found it funny because he had learned this skill at Qi Refinement level 1… what the heck had he been trying to hide? At the time, he thought it would be useful later on, but he lost hope at some point and became numb, aiming to just survive until something could change.
And now, something had changed, which was why he couldn't help but uselessly reminisce like this.
But enough of that, it was time to move on.
Li Ling did not deliberate for even a second, allocating one of his three Slaughter Points into his cultivation.
Almost immediately, his body froze as he felt a heat surge from his dantian, where his single flimsy strand of colorless refined spiritual qi suddenly shook and then doubled, becoming a duo!
Immediately, Li Ling felt his entire body shake as the new strand of qi autonomously made a round through his body and meridians, announcing its presence and leaving its mark, making his base flesh and spirit stronger than before by about 10%.
When it came back and settled, Li Ling felt like a new man. He rose to his feet and resisted the urge to smile and laugh crazily, and it took him all of his effort to do so.
It might seem unhinged, but you had to understand, that declaration of 'living and dying in the first level of Qi Refinement' was something that deeply haunted him all these years.
Li Ling still remembered that scene where his grandfather hurriedly called the fellow over and privately inquired. However, this Foundation Establishment fellow loudly announced his death sentence for Li Ling's cultivation future, as if he wanted everyone to hear about it.
Maybe there was no malice behind it, and it was just the senior cultivators' casual act. However, the aftereffect was that even if his grandfather had the intention to suppress it and still give him a chance, the rest of the clan who heard it would not tolerate that, especially since all the other kids had been living in his shadow.
In fact, that declaration had been so powerful that when exiled, they literally told him almost verbatim to only come back if he started a family and had children with spirit roots, if he was about to die or if he reached the second level of qi cultivation.
Well, it seemed he now qualified right?
With that, Li Ling couldn't hold it anymore as he burst into raucous laughter, the corpses of Da Niu and hundreds of farm animals covered in blood surrounding him like a scene from hell. Yet the young man himself remained spotless, as if a foreign part of this painted scene.
Li Ling eventually curbed his laughter, expelling all the frustration and resentment from nearly a decade of brooding, feeling for the first time how sweet power was and understanding that now, he was willing to do anything to keep getting this strength.
Looking at the system panel before him, Li Ling retracted his short spear and smiled faintly.
Some transmigrators came to the magical world of cultivation to be heroes and lived by a code of honor. Li Ling decided that the only rule in his code of honor would be acts that served his wishes and self-interests, no matter the supposed morality attached to them.