Chapter 111: Chapter 111: S-Rank Ability: Spirit Enhancement
"Finally, the revisions are complete."
Qi Suian felt the changes within himself. He had integrated three Evil Ancient Martial Techniques, preserving their unique characteristics while modifying them to suit him perfectly.
The modification process was nothing short of brutal. Every trial and error inflicted damage on Qi Suian.
Fortunately, the injuries varied in severity, and not all of them were agonizing.
The most severe instance was when a force rushed recklessly into his brain, nearly killing him.
It was just a bit of a shame. If he had pushed just a little harder back then, Qi Suian wouldn’t have had to suffer hemiplegia and then undergo deactivation and rebirth.
The entire process took nearly two months. Meanwhile, the outside temperature had begun to rise, initially increasing by one degree every five days, and now, it was one degree every three days.
This rate of increase would only accelerate; it would not slow down.
The only regret was that during these two months, the Tai Sui God’s armor value never reached the 20 points needed to complete its evolution.
This was not only because it required too much energy for evolution, but also because the Ashen Bandage Man seemed to have sensed something about a month and a half ago.
As a result, it stopped hunting Qi Suian. No amount of baiting worked, so in the end, Qi Suian could only let it be.
Qi Suian was quite melancholic about this.
Losing such a stable source of income—especially one that made home deliveries—was a huge loss for him.
’Next up is the Pill Force realm.’ Qi Suian adjusted his body, naturally preparing to break through to a higher level.
According to his calculations, Pill Force Perfection would allow his two attributes to reach around 3.4, while perfected Astral Force would bring them to 4.
Tribulation Force was just an estimate for now, but at its peak, it would be 5 points.
Anything higher was probably unrealistic.
Any further, and Ancient Martial Techniques would likely hit their limit. Those techniques sounded impressive, but in reality, they were at a low-tier martial level.
Only a "protagonist" might have a future beyond that. If most other people really dedicated themselves to Ancient Martial Techniques, even if they didn’t die in the Doomsday World, they would be screwed over badly in the future.
From the very beginning, Qi Suian had treated it as a stepping stone—to be used when useful, and once its value was squeezed dry, to be discarded for a better method of improvement.
"Breaking through is actually very simple," Qi Suian said, promptly injecting himself with a vial of death potion.
After finishing, he immediately had the AI Brain pump large amounts of high-nutrition medicine into his stomach, then began to circulate his force using a training method.
"It’s nothing more than a natural progression."
As his voice fell, the Transformation Force in Qi Suian’s body began to endlessly exhibit a state of primordial unity.
As for the original process of condensing one’s essence, qi, and Spirit into one, Qi Suian skipped it entirely.
To him, the so-called Ancient Martial Techniques were just a means to stack attributes and provide seven extra offensive passive skills.
They weren’t an absolute necessity.
It was best if he could obtain the extra effects, but he wouldn’t lose out if he couldn’t. They were spoils he had plundered, not something that was originally his.
There was no need to be that greedy.
Within ten minutes, he smoothly broke through to the Pill Force realm.
The Ancient Martial Techniques he revised were, of course, of the Evil Dao. They inherited the traits of rapid growth and powerful effects, but they were also deadly.
Aside from the fact that they could kill the practitioner or leave them covered in injuries, they were full of advantages.
’It’s done...’
’I don’t feel much of a difference, though.’ Qi Suian checked his two attributes.
His attributes had gone from 3 to 3.1. Next, he just needed to follow the steps and continue expanding his Pill Force.
Once he reached Pill Force Perfection, he should be able to achieve 3.4 in his two attributes.
Because he had cut out a lot of the mystical mumbo-jumbo, there was no need for comprehension; he just needed to rely on accumulating quantitative changes.
Although he lost many of the special effects of ancient martial arts, his growth was much easier.
As long as the attribute gains weren’t reduced, Qi Suian could accept it.
He knew that, in the end, attributes were the only hard currency.
’The Heart Strangling Force and Bone-Breaking Force are starting to emerge as well.’
These two forces were the Evil Flood Dragon Heart Strangling Force from Soul-Devouring Fist and the Fierce Leopard Bone-Breaking Force from Soul-Devouring Fist, respectively.
Qi Suian really wanted to complain. What was the deal with this Soul-Devouring Fist? The Yin Serpent and Ghost Cat from the first realm matched well enough.
But in the second realm, how did it become a flood dragon and a leopard? The two didn’t seem to match at all.
But Qi Suian didn’t care much. To him, the names were irrelevant anyway.
"Speaking of which, the armor value I can provide to the Tai Sui God now is greater than what it has on its own."
Qi Suian’s two attributes were both 3.1, which at this stage meant 31 x 2 points of armor.
Even with the 100% bonus from the artificial crystal-vein alloy, the Tai Sui God only had 19 x 2 points of armor value.
[You’re belittling the Tai Sui God’s armor value again. It’s been trying very hard.]
The AI Brain spoke up on the Tai Sui God’s behalf. It couldn’t be helped. Among the trio of troubled brothers—Qi Suian, the AI Brain, and the Tai Sui God—the one under the most pressure was the Tai Sui God.
It consumed the most resources, took the most vicious beatings, and fought the toughest battles with the lowest defenses.
It also carried the most debt. It was impossible to say it wasn’t having a hard time.
Qi Suian’s eye twitched. "It’s fine. Once I install a shield and some defensive modules for it, it can try even harder."
As a violator with the ’Death and Reforge’ ability, Qi Suian exploited even himself, let alone a suit of armor.
It was a good thing the Tai Sui God couldn’t talk. Otherwise, it would surely be forced to perform stand-up comedy to amuse him in its spare time.
The AI Brain was certainly capable of it, but its processing power was limited. How could Qi Suian let it waste resources on such a trivial task?
"Never mind whether the Tai Sui God is trying hard or not. First, calculate for me how long it will take to reach Pill Force Perfection."
After he had trimmed and optimized the Evil Ancient Martial Techniques into a growth path suitable for himself, he didn’t need to worry about subsequent breakthroughs. He just needed to perfect his force, break through, and repeat the cycle until he reached Tribulation Force.
This was because its bottlenecks were all related to directed evolution in the spiritual and psychological aspects, which had a very high threshold.
Qi Suian had simply deleted this aspect of directed evolution, so the threshold vanished, and naturally, there were no more bottlenecks.
Of course, this action also meant that Qi Suian could not obtain the core power of the Ancient Martial Techniques—those mysterious and profound forces.
For example, things like spiritual intimidation.
After saying this, Qi Suian began to release the structural limitations on his pineal gland.
Previously, he had used Xin Yi Fist and the special structure of the Pill Force realm to modify his own ability, Spiritual Enhancement.
However, because his own attributes were too low, he couldn’t withstand too much enhancement, so he had temporarily halted and restricted it.
It could only be released after his physique attribute reached 3 points.
To ensure his safety, Qi Suian waited until it reached 3.1 before releasing it.
As he released the restrictions, the amplification ratio of his Spiritual Enhancement ability began to rise bit by bit from 25%.
It only stopped after reaching an amplification strength of 50%.
’An S-rank ability, and the amplification is only 50%?’
Qi Suian looked at his Spiritual Enhancement; it had already changed from A-rank to S-rank.
He just rubbed his temples, feeling his brain swell up suddenly.
’I’ll need some time to adapt. And I can’t continue to strengthen this ability for a while. I need to improve my overall strength first.’
Having his Spiritual Power suddenly increase by half would require time to get used to, both for adaptation and for utilization.
If his ability had been S-rank from birth, he wouldn’t be worried. But his ability’s rank and enhancement were things he had acquired later on.
’As for SS-rank, the amplification would probably be even greater. Before my strength is up to par, even if it could evolve, I’d have to suppress it.’
Don’t just look at the 50%. From the pattern, it was clear that future ranks would at least double the effect.
From D-rank to A-rank, each level only added a 5% boost, but from A to S, it had doubled outright.
"The ability originally belongs to zombies, and I’m not a zombie, so it’s normal for there to be limitations," Qi Suian said softly.
Then, Qi Suian began to focus his attention on the Blood Moon Organization sample and the Low-level Poison Element Attachment Magic.
There was no need to focus on Ancient Martial Techniques anymore. He just had to follow the plan, and he would be able to reach Tribulation Force in a month at most.
Therefore, he needed a new channel to become stronger. The former was mainly for his virus talent, while the latter was an attempt to see if he could research Energy Convergence Technology from the Enchantment Array.
As for anything else, he really had nothing left on hand.
’With this S-rank Spiritual Enhancement ability, progress should be much faster.’
Qi Suian didn’t expect to succeed in a short time. After all, the ability itself had a clear evolutionary path; he just needed to meet the conditions to stimulate and enhance it.
It wasn’t like his virus talent, which required him to forge his own path forward and realize its potential himself.
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"Stop." Qin Sheng’s eyes snapped open as he ordered the massive convoy to halt.
"What’s wrong?" Xue Pingjun asked curiously.
"Don’t go any further. We’ll stay here. We move after I break through to Tribulation Force," Qin Sheng said in a low voice.
Just now, his Martial Dao intuition had been throbbing wildly, as if taking just one more step forward would mean encroaching on the territory of some terrifying existence.
"This... Then let’s find a..." Xue Pingjun started to say.
This time, however, Qin Sheng was uncharacteristically rude and cut her off directly.
"Fall back ten li and find a place to set up."
"I know we are only twenty kilometers away from the Mantle Sanctuary, practically at its doorstep."
"But we are not ready." Qin Sheng was certain the violator was in the Mantle Sanctuary. The only way was to kill them.
Although the others were confused, none of them objected.
"Why don’t we wait a bit longer, so you can stabilize your realm after breaking through?" Xue Pingjun didn’t ask why, instead offering him more than enough time.
Qin Sheng glanced at the timer on his compulsory mission, then shook his head and said, "There’s no need."
"Tribulation Force is different from the first five realms. As long as you overcome the mental tribulation to break through, the breakthrough is complete. There’s no need for stabilization."
"You’ll understand when you break through in the future," Qin Sheng said.
"But not everyone is like you, breaking through as easily as eating and drinking," Xue Pingjun said, her tone laced with exasperation.
Over the past three months, everyone had truly witnessed what it meant to be a genius. His growth rate was astounding.
In a short period, he had surpassed a whole host of veteran Ancient Martial Artists and could be called the greatest genius in the Ancient Martial Circle.
"You will be. The doomsday game is full of opportunities," Qin Sheng said with a smile.
