Li Ling left the stall area with his new quarry in a cage beside him, heading towards his home rather quickly. He did not even glance at the creature once since he bought it, as he had no intention of keeping it... it was purely to serve as a test for his new system.
The beast did not seem to sense this, as despite its savage nature, it had some level of understanding of the world.
For this old wolf who had been alpha of his pack, he had come to understand the true nature of the world, and that these two-legged creatures were the true rulers of it. In the forest, it had been unmatched after undergoing demonization, going from a mere beta wolf to the alpha of his pack and dominating many miles around, gathering an extremely large wolf clan under him.
This brought the attention of the two-legged creatures who immediately came to slaughter his clan and capture him.
The old wolf would never forget that scene. The woman who sold him stood at the front while others who were weaker than her dispatched his clan, and when he tried to fight back, she simply subdued him with a flick of her finger, not investing any extra effort.
He was brought back and caged, not even beaten nor tamed, just fed occasionally while she awaited buyers. After coming to a human area and feeling all the beings here who had power at the same level as him and higher, the old wolf understood that to survive, he had to bow to the whims of the two-legged creatures.
Finally, a young two-legged creature that was stronger had purchased the old wolf, which would give him the chance to survive in this cruel world.
The old wolf thought so until they returned to Li Ling's home, and the young man immediately stabbed into its skull with a short spear, unable to think anymore after that.
Meanwhile, Li Ling removed his spear and glanced at the notification that appeared before him.
｢System Prompt: You have gained 0.1 Slaughter Points.｣
Li Ling's eyes narrowed as he began to see a pattern here. Livestock were worth a thousandth of a Slaughter Point while mortal humans were worth a hundredth of one. Now Demon Beasts, animals with 'cultivation', were worth a tenth of a Slaughter Point.
So would a cultivator be worth a single Slaughter Point? Was it also as he suspected, with higher-level cultivators being worth higher amounts of Slaughter Points?
Well, that was for the future when he had that capability. Right now, it seemed that indeed, his best path to growth was the killing of Demon Beasts, because just ten of them could yield a Slaughter Point, far better than a thousand livestock.
However, the problem came in the form of their acquisition. One option was to utilize his ability as an architect to go deeper into the paths of arrays and make money from there, using his spirit stones that were earned to buy Demon Beasts legally, then kill them for Slaughter Points.
The other was to actively hunt them down himself in the wild, just as the woman selling in the market had done, only that he did not need to do it for money, but for power.
Li Ling immediately discarded the first option and began drawing up plans for the second. A Slaughter System was best used directly in the field to kill and grow rapidly, and this notion was buttressed by how his cultivation had grown when the Slaughter Point was added.
Silent, quick, and without any flaws. It could be done while in a fight or even sealed in a vacuum, because the spiritual energy provided for the upgrade came from the system, so no external source was needed.
The only problem, really, was the need for strong combat techniques to effect the killing and a cultivation technique that could rise higher. Li Ling was not sure that the slaughter system was the type to let him breakthrough if his cultivation technique did not possess the method for the next realm.
With that in mind, Li Ling settled in for the night and glanced at his system panel.
｢Infinite Slaughter System
Owner: Li Ling
Status: Healthy.
Slaughter Points: 2
Cultivation Level: Qi Refinement level 2 (0/2)
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)｣
Well, it seemed that he could extrapolate the requirements for each level then. The first level needed 1 Slaughter Point, so the second needed 2 Slaughter Points, while the third would likely need three, and so on.
So he would need to acquire 52 Slaughter Points then to reach the peak of Qi Refinement?
Li Ling unhesitatingly placed the 2 Slaughter Points into his cultivation level and once again felt the feeling his cultivation increasing as well as his power soaring. Without even factoring in the spiritual qi, Li Ling felt like the current him could smash the level 1 version of himself to death.
This made him understand that the gap in cultivation, even with small realms, should not be taken lightly. Until he could accumulate a slew of skills and techniques that could allow him to fight above his level, it was best to keep his enmities within and below his level of power.
After doing this, he practiced the Qi Restraining Control and managed to bring his cultivation down one level to Qi Refinement level 2. This was the most he could do with his current mastery of the technique, and he painfully realized that this technique was not even that great.
However, since he was planning to display his outward cultivation at this level, it was just as well. When he became stronger and could afford better techniques, he would acquire something that would be better able to help him constrain his outward power lest people start to suspect that he was in possession of some treasure.
Li Ling cultivated rather normally during the night, feeling it to be rather interesting to do so when he could rapidly upgrade, especially since, by every natural metric, he was still just as talentless as when he began.
It was very much akin to driving 'normally' in GTA offline when you were bored of all the carnage.