We ate at a dumpling buffet this time.
It is a bad idea.
The speed of Kiana's intake alone surpasses the production of cooked dumplings. She single-handedly disrupted the entire buffet to the point I chose not to match her pace.
Fortunately, we did not come into trouble. Heck, everyone admired Kiana's black-hole stomach. She ended up being placed into the "Hall of Fame" as the girl who ate a thousand dumplings within an hour.
If that wasn't enough, she dragged me to eat sponge cakes. An entire bakery's worth of spongecakes got sold out.
Tasting delicacies without gaining weight truly is one of the most sought-out cheats.
"Try these."
"Hum? I don't need glasses."
"It's not a normal visor."
Currently, we are back in the hotel room. I decided to test out the functions of Welt's spiritual artifacts.
The papers he sent are written out of an old-school typewriter. There's no way I will let them go digital with these things. Anti-Entropy's assets... Tesla's mechs, to be exact. They are stolen by Gray Serpent. The events of Hyperion's first ARC City visit covers that.
Kiana wore the black visors.
"Click the button on the right side."
"This?"
"Yeah."
The moment she clicked it, nothing changed.
"Try inputting your spiritual qi." I suggested.
She did as she is told.
The black visors got swept with a white light. It turned invisible.
"Oh? OH?!"
Underneath the complicated stealth function, the visors' glasses are illuminated by several lights. It is nothing short of sci-fi stuff.
"It has a built-in artificial intelligence connected to a small chip."
My spiritual consciousness swept through its user manual and got the gist of it.
"It can also detect signs of eruptions early on. It's similar to our spiritual consciousness."
I could not help but admire Welt Yang's work.
Originally, we faced a material problem when creating spiritual artifacts. The metals, ores, and substances of this world could not carry spiritual qi. That is attributed to [Spirituality], the conductiveness of spiritual qi onto something.
Earth's resources have none of that.
Welt Yang did not shy away from revealing his identity as a Herrscher. He revealed this during our fourth meeting. He then blatantly used his Herrscher Powers and tried to recreate one of the human-sized spiritual ores I got.
He failed.
His authority cannot replicate a spiritual ore, resulting in a nerfed version without spiritual qi. The honkai energy present within the recreated material alone conflicted with spiritual qi, too.
It could not "flow" at all.
This got solved by cutting off his control over the honkai energy, letting it be converted through [Two Phase Art].
Although, the problem about "spirituality" still existed.
That's when I came up with an auxiliary technique that transferred [Spirituality] from a spiritual ore into a mundane item. The amount of [Spirituality] transferred depended on the user's control. Its base form can allow transfer of 20% of the original [Spirituality].
It is absolutely useless at first glance. A late first grade spiritual ore will be downgraded to early first grade.
However, things are different with Welt's Herrscher Power.
He can directly produce a complicated material's structure AND engrave them with patterns of heaven and earth. Welt Yang skipped half of the refining process with it.
Once [Spirituality] is transferred, the created structure will circulate spiritual qi. The patterns of heaven and earth that are previously normal metal carvings will turn into mystical patterns.
At that point, I realized the horror of combining immortal cultivation with high-end technology, not to mention a Herrscher's Authority.
The possibilities are endless.
I got new artifact blueprints made of "high-end technology". Its complexity matches its exaggerated output. It's not wrong to assume that immortal cultivators can become outright sci-fi mechanics.
My Foundation Establishment spiritual consciousness swept on his devices. All of them contained functions on the same level as Peak Qi Refining Realm—spiritual consciousness, charged power, concealment, and so on. Do note that the spiritual qi they possessed are equivalent to middle first grade.
"Why does it have the same range as my spiritual consciousness before?"
Kiana was shocked. She must have seen the range of the visors' built-in spiritual consciousness.
"That's the product's specialty. You can experience spiritual consciousness without reaching the late stage. All you have to do is to circulate your spiritual qi on it."
"...The guns on these boxes are like this too?"
"Yeah."
"Okay!"
She took out one of the guns on the cases.
Unlike the visors, Kiana can only examine them using her spiritual consciousness. She became quiet for the time being.
"Fu…"
I exhaled and cleared up my mind. The agenda for today has to be done.
Throughout the past seven months, I managed to gather countless techniques. Some of them are artifact blueprints while some are alchemy recipes. Most of them are constituted with techniques.
From the five techniques quota a day, it went up to six after completing Qi Refining Late Stage. It went up to seven after completing the Qi Refining Peak Stage. Now that I reached the Foundation Establishment, it went up to ten techniques a day.
There are well over a thousand techniques inside my head along with hundreds of artifact blueprints and alchemy recipes.
I am a walking library in terms of immortal cultivation.
The greatest perk of being a walking library is the skyrocketing speed of my technique masteries. I feel like I am thirty percent through the Small Success of my techniques. Something that takes decades can be shortened in years.
Having hundreds of references does that.
It can go even faster.
I recalled a technique from six months ago.
Just like the [Toushen Manual] and any other talent raising techniques, there are ones for increasing comprehension.
The first one I came across is the simplest and most effective.
[Clear Apertures Tenth Heaven Guidance Manual].
Its esoteric (poetic) side described increasing the purity of apertures, which in most texts, are considered dirty. Apertures are the openings of the body, namely: eyes, mouth, nostrils, ears, and so on.
They are dirty but of significance as they connect the self to the world.
Its practical side shows how to increase one's connection to heaven and earth, thereby gaining godly comprehension.
Its sole requirement is Foundation Establishment Realm. It involves carving "Tao Patterns" into the metaphysical body—the soul.
Only Foundation Establishment cultivators can withstand it. This act itself pushes the soul into borderline injury. Each carving has to be stopped for a while to allow recovery. This process can be fastened with the help of spiritual materials related to the soul. The entire soul can be carved with these patterns upon reaching the Nascent Soul Realm.
As for the other techniques, they are veryunsuitable. It involved either forbidden techniques or higher realms. This is the best technique within the Nascent Soul Realm and below.
All of my thoughts remained still.
The moment I calmed down, I saw an endless void. It is the mental landscape formed by the [Blade Mantra], the [Eminence] mental state. An uneasy feeling appeared briefly before it was struck down by a sharp presence within me. It is my [Sword Nurturing Pagoda] at play.
At this point, I know this isn't the Discipline made by Aponia. There is something within me that makes me genuinely uneasy. My instincts tell me I am the problem, not the [Blade Mantra].
Anyways...
I had this idea. [Blade Mantra] puts its user to tranquility. I can use this state while carving the Tao Patterns.
My spiritual consciousness turned into a fine brush. The recitation of its formula (mantra) is completed in an instant. A strange force, similar to the mysterious spaces inside my dantian, appeared at the tip of my spiritual consciousness.
It rippled as soon as it touched my soul. A thin golden light appeared along with an unnoticeable burning pain.
The prelude to my self-torture began.