It was currently nighttime and the hunting grounds were silent as many beasts and critters went to sleep, minus those few predators that hunted in the dark. Li Ling himself was seated casually around a campfire, roasting some of the meat of the warthog he killed from earlier, spraying some seasoning and spices on it to make it palatable.
As he chewed on the soft and juicy pork, his eyes couldn't help but land on the system panel.
｢Infinite Slaughter System
Owner: Li Ling
Status: Healthy.
Slaughter Points: 7
Cultivation Level: Qi Refinement level 3 (0/3)
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)｣
Today had been quite fruitful, with him taking down multiple beasts in the vicinity. After his first battle, he soon met a bunch of wolves at the first level of Qi Refinement and engaged them, taking them all down at once.
As there were many, he tidied their corpses together and took them back to the camp, selling them for barely over 3 spirit stones in total, a complete ripoff. Had he gone to the market and set up a stall, he could have gotten at least 5 or 6 spirit stones for that at least, but Li Ling was not bothered.
Rather, he used his newly gotten funds to purchase some more talismans and a new technique manual called the Qi Seeking Technique, which did exactly as it said, allowing one to more efficiently sense and track qi signatures from living - or dead - beings.
It came highly recommended from the provision store owner who stated that every hunter at least learned this technique to a suitable level. Li Ling, seeing that it was cheap and could actually yield help to him in the right situation, bought it.
The rest of the day saw him hunting beasts one after the other, most being solo with a few being in groups. The solo ones he tied together and dragged along while the groups he brought back to the encampment for sale as they were too heavy or too distracting.
Li Ling really began to crave a storage pouch, but even if he could afford one, and he couldn't, he definitely wouldn't buy it just yet, so he made do. A lot of carcasses he eventually just left where they were to save time, as no matter how selfish he was, he simply could not fight against the concept of logistics.
However, looking at his current haul of Slaughter Points, he felt that it was all worth it. Now that he was done and was in a period of rest, he decided to increase his cultivation in order to enhance his power once more.
Investing three Slaughter Points, Li Ling closed his eyes and felt the fourth strand of refined qi manifested in his dantian, joining with the previous three and circling around his meridians once. However, when they returned to his dantian, something miraculous happened.
The first three strands from the early stage of Qi Refinement suddenly shuddered and merged together, forming a thicker and more resilient strand that stood apart from the fourth one. Once again, they made a cycle around his body, with much stronger effect, widening his meridians by almost twice their previous size.
Meridians were the channels by which spiritual energy flowed through the body for whatever purpose, and having this passage widened meant that the speed, control and quantity of refined qi he could mobilize had practically doubled.
Opening his eyes, Li Ling felt emotional. It was not just the marvel at the way cultivation worked, nor was it the pleasure of greatly increased power, but it was a subtle comprehension of why people at various cultivation stages behaved the way they did.
A Qi Refinement level 4 cultivator basically had doubled the prowess as a cultivator at level 3, so it was now quite clear why those even at level 4 dared to be so derisive to those below. Who knew that the gap even at the most basic first stage of cultivation could be so wide?
So then what about Nascent Soul? Could a person at Nascent Soul early stage truly be able to match someone at Nascent Soul middle stage? Or was the gap even greater than here, completely isolating people at different minor stages of cultivation?
Li Ling shook his head and allocated the last of his four Slaughter Points into cultivation once more. A fifth strand of refined qi popped up, but did not merge with the fourth nor did it join the behemoth that was the combination of the first three.
The group once again made a round in his body, increasing his power by about 20% compared to the 4th level, which was significant growth.
Li Ling felt invigorated and chuckled, feeling that he truly was going to become a monster unlike anything Firmament Heaven had ever seen. For now though, he settled down and opened the manual for the Qi Seeking Technique, reading it slowly in order to comprehend its details, noting that it was not too difficult, but was not nearly as useful as he thought.
Anyway, it was worth its price and besides, Li Ling could only master it to the entry level in one night. As for taking it further, he would have to see once he had a suitable amount of excess Slaughter Points to squander.
Once done, he began to work on his Qi Restraining Control, frowning when he was barely able to squeeze his overt cultivation level down to the 3rd level of Qi Refinement. Even then, he had to consciously keep it active, straining his mind and cultivation base, which wasn't worth it in the long run.
It seemed like until he could increase the technique further, it would not be advisable to return to the encampment, lest he startled those observing him greatly.
This was just as well, as from tomorrow onward, Li Ling planned to up the efficiency of his Slaughter Point acquisition by heading to the mid section and start targeting beasts at the mid level of Qi Refinement, which would definitely yield more points even faster.