Darius Supreme

Darius turned to his people. "A week has passed and now it is time to climb from the first stage of cultivation to the next. How fast you want to do so, is up to you, but you are not allowed to continue without fully mastering the Qi Cultivation and Body Refinement techniques to their maximum value."

The group nodded as the maidbots brought over two sets of manuals again.

On the left was a book that was thick and full of energy while the other was twice as thick and seemed to stink like new flesh.

[Foundation Building Technique - Manual

Durability: 200/200

Grade: Basic

Description: Contained within is the required knowledge to obtain the Foundation Building skill. Due to the high quality of the material and the penmanship, the success chance of learning the skill is increased by 100% while its effectiveness is increased by 500%.]

[Body Foundation Technique - Manual

Durability: 200/200

Grade: Basic

Description: Contained within is the required knowledge to obtain the Body Foundation skill. Due to the high quality of the material and the penmanship, the success chance of learning the skill is increased by 100% while its effectiveness is increased by 500%.]

Everyone shared a look and then decided to learn the techniques on the spot. After going through Qi Condensation and Mortal Flesh, they had some idea of what came next and their subsequent continuation was relatively smooth.

They naturally easily learned the techniques, excluding the branded servants who just absorbed them directly using the True Supreme System.

[Foundation Building Technique - Level 1 Skill

Grade: Basic

Cost: None

Description: This is a sub-technique within Qi Cultivation that specifically aims at using Qi to nourish the Spirit Root, transforming it into the Dantian.The more Qi infused into the Spirit Root during this stage, and the purer the Qi, the large and sturdier the dantians that forms at the peak of this stage. Using this skill, your Qi infusion is already perfect and your infused Qi is extremely pure. Currently, this skill adds 1% extra perfection to your Qi Infusion and Purification.]

[Body Foundation Technique - Level 1 Skill

Grade: Basic

Cost: None

Description: This is a sub-technique within Body Refinement that specifically aims at using Qi to nourish the Spirit Root, transforming it into the Dantian.The more Qi infused into the Spirit Root during this stage, and the purer the Qi, the large and sturdier the dantians that forms at the peak of this stage. Using this skill, your Qi infusion is already perfect and your infused Qi is extremely pure. Currently, this skill adds 1% extra perfection to your Qi Infusion and Purification.]

Looking at both techniques, it practically seemed like they were the same thing, so what was the point? Well, Body Foundation and Foundation Building really were the same thing.

In fact, most stages from here on in Qi Cultivation could be easily mirrored in Boyd Refinement, and vice versa. What separated the two was obviously what and where they were cultivated.

For example, in Qi Cultivation, the nourished Spirit Root transforms into a Dantian that is located in the lower abdomen, around where your stomach is connected to your genitals.

This dantian was built to store Spirit Energy converted from neutral to your elemental Qi that is later used to power spells and various cultivation techniques. It is your fuel tank, and the better it is, the more fuel you can hold.

In Body Refinement, the nourished Spirit Roots transforms into a dantian that is located in the chest, smack dab in the heart. The Spirit Root doesn't actually change but rather turns your physical heart into a dantian where all the elemental Qi you have converted is stored, allowing it to be pumped through your body and strengthening you from the inside out.

You cannot use spells but only a few techniques because all the energy you absorbed was pumped by your heart into your body, entering your cells and nourishing as well as strengthening them. It is your engine, continually providing you with physical power.

So the Qi cultivator stores the energy and controls it with their mind, strengthening mind power and mental faculties while the Body Refiner, pumps energy into their body and releases it to fight, strengthening their raw physical power and fortifying their constitution and vitality.

So yes, while Body Foundation and Foundation Building had similar methods, the goal was different. One was to create a fuel tank in the lower belly and the other was to create a perpetual engine in the heart.

This was also why the two systems could be cultivated at the same time, they did not directly clash with each other. However, since the same Qi absorbed went into building both foundations, it was clear that doing both would directly double the time you need to clear this stage, and that was being generous.

It could even triple or more, so it was understandable why many were deterred from doing both.

So that was basically it for Foundation Building and Body Foundation. It was a relatively simple stage like Qi Cultivation that was not too strenuous to powerhouses like Darius and co with their current stats and power.

After all, Foundation Building and Body Foundation were the latter half of the Amateur stage, from level 10 to level 20. The harder you worked here, the better you would be in the Journeyman stage.

Whether Fallon or Pan, the Journeyman stage was where you became mature and could now fight competently, and whole unique fighting systems were derived. That was Core Formation fellows and Nascent Soul fellows, so it checked out once you thought of their abilities.

Anyway, while Shanks and co worked hard to comprehend the Qi Cultivation and Body Refinement initial techniques they were given to fulfill Darius' requirements, Darius and his Branded Servants gathered together and used a more direct method.

[Qi Cultivation Technique - Level 1000 (1) Skill

Grade: Basic

Cost: None

Description: This is a common technique passed around on Pan for entry-level cultivators to use. Its original version had been refined over hundreds of millennia into pseudo-perfection, but it could not fully allow all beings to cultivate smoothly. This version has been perfected and can be used by anyone with a Spirit Root to achieve 100% efficiency of their Qi Cultivation instantly and even possibly upgrade it over time when mastered. Currently, this skill adds 1000% (1%) efficiency to the cultivation of your Qi.]

[Body Refinement Technique - Level 1000 (1) Skill

Grade: Basic

Cost: None

Description: This is a common technique passed around on Pan for entry-level body refiners to use. Its original version had been refined over hundreds of millennia into pseudo-perfection, but it could not fully allow all beings to refine their bodies smoothly. This version has been perfected and can be used by anyone with a Spirit Root to achieve 100% efficiency of their Body Refinement instantly and even possibly upgrade it over time when mastered. Currently, this skill adds 1000% (1%) efficiency to the refinement of your body.]

That's right, they invested 999 Skill points from their bank of thousands to bring this skill to the highest height they had out of all their skills. The result was that when they cultivated Qi or Body from henceforth, regardless of the stage they reached, they would always be a thousand times better than the best of their peers.

Already, the base technique granted one perfect efficiency, meaning that unless someone with the same technique and same quality Spirit Roots as them appeared, they now represented the best among all cultivators for their stage in the history of Pan.

Now that advantage was multiplied by a thousand percent!

Just what kind of power would they be able to display with their cultivation? The very thought was frightening!

Of course, since they increased their basic skill so much, it went without saying that they would do the same for their newly learned techniques for Foundation Building and Body Foundation.

Both now added 1000% to their Qi Infusion and Purification, meaning that their dantians would be infused with that much more Qi than average and be that much purer than average, and the base technique already provided the best of both.

One couldn't help but gulp and wonder what their Dantians would look like with such superior Qi in all regards. While others had dantians built like hard stone, theirs would be made out of titanium!

When one person filled their dantian with around 100 units of elemental Qi, Darius, and co would have almost 1,000 units at the least!

At this point, the city below was also beginning to fully take shape and the various sects on the continent began to notice something wrong. The barren area to the south that they had 'banished' Darius to was becoming lush and full of life within the range of his territory.

They couldn't help but wonder what the hell was going on, and you could imagine their shock when their spies told them of what they saw. Immediately, they began to panic because they knew something was wrong!