Chapter 80 - Advancements
His eyes snapped open.
Golden and blue eyes’ gaze blazed with new radiance, dual-colored light literally radiating from his pupils.
Around him, the air itself seemed to shimmer with faint heat and cold dancing together in hypnotic patterns for a few seconds.
He exhaled slowly, and his breath emerged as visible mist, neither fully hot nor fully cold.
"Fuuuh..." he breathed. "That was... whatever. Hell, how do I explain that."
He flexed his fingers, watching as small flames and frost danced across his skin.
His cultivation had advanced slightly. His body had evolved a lot and his soul had been fortified more.
[Congratulations host for advancing to Mid Beginner Stage of Soul Cultivation]
[Congratulations host for advancing to Peak Beginner Stage of Soul Cultivation]
[Congratulations host for advancing to Low Advance Stage of Soul Cultivation]
[Congratulations host for advancing to Mid Advance Stage of Soul Cultivation]
[Host has done something unprecedented again! Leveling up an entire realm of soul cultivation!]
[A new third soul spiritual body has been formed.]
Cale’s eyes widened at the cascade of notifications like emails.
"Heh, that’s a lot of messages now. Isn’t there some function to disable the screens...? Sigh, thank god it doesn’t speak."
Despite his irritation with the spam, excitement thrummed through his veins. He could feel the changes cascading through his body, hundreds of new nodes opening simultaneously.
To put it in normal terms, it was like upgrading from a potato PC to a high-end gaming computer. His spiritual capacity had just multiplied exponentially too.
’Well, give me the rewards then.’
[Reward: Explosion Talisman]
’Oh, good... explosives are always welcome. Hehe.’
[Unlocked Ancient Dragon Ancestor’s Bloodline]
He froze completely at this message.
How long had he wondered what happened to his dragonic bloodline? He expected to get it back as a reward eventually, but this message said "unlocked," not "rewarded."
"Hmm... so was my ancestral bloodline that difficult to adapt to? Or did the continuous body transformations make it problematic to already use it? Something like- I should have started with a common body?" He shook his head. "Sigh, I’ll never know."
Still, a progenitor level bloodline since birth, was probably one of his best gains in both lives. Though he still couldn’t make full use of it, this time he will.
[Host’s soul level is perfect to open sword intent.]
He smiled. Sword intent wasn’t some energy type—it was an understanding. Will infused into blade techniques through comprehension of yourself, your weapon, and your opponent. Its effectiveness fluctuated wildly depending on depth of understanding. The more intimate your connection to swordsmanship, the greater the intent’s power.
[Ten Poison Immunity Physique Obtained]
’Hmm, poison immunity? Well... that’s good, I guess? As long as it’s low-tier poison, I won’t be affected at all. Given that I just consumed a Rank 7 elixir, that’s obvious.’
[Host can now absorb flames of different kinds to enhance Chaos Flames]
"Ohh... that’s quite interesting. Like feeding my flames supplements to strengthen themselves, huh? Wait..." Realization struck. "So if I fight a high-level flame user for even a minute, will their flames be absorbed and integrated too?"
The potential was insane if he could just keep on increasing its level.
As if acknowledging his question:
[Yes, host can improve flames by coming into contact with external flames. The more diverse flames encountered, the greater the enhancement.]
"Heheheh, this is fucking crazy... damn, is this because my ancestors formed contracts with dragons? And I possess the potential to form contracts myself... although I don’t know where I’d find a dragon here."
[New Technique Mental Attack Unlocked.]
[Earth Escape Technique: Can travel through earth for maximum 5 seconds. Only usable when sufficient land exists below to cover both initial and final points. Both points must be connected via continuous earth.]
’An escape technique? Good—running away is always the best strategy when facing superior opponents. Its the Joestar way! And unlike Dash, it has no use limit and doesn’t restrict me to solo escape. I can carry others with me across distance too.’
[New Footwork Technique Created: Drifting Moon Steps]
[A defensive footwork technique. Every step shifts host slightly sideways, causing attacks to continuously miss by inches. An Illusory technique.]
[The Footwork technique has been merged into Myriad Battle Flow of Heaven and Earth]
His expression twisted with exasperation. "H-huh?? Oii, wait... did you just fucking eat it before I even had the chance to use it? You greedy sucker!... Sigh, I hope you give better results now that you’ve devoured it..."
This wasn’t the first time this had happened. Many of his newly acquired low-level or even mid-tier techniques would get absorbed the instant he received them. Some high-grade ones took longer, but they too eventually fell victim to his ever-hungry cultivation method.
Though the system always profited him—he didn’t need to learn hundreds of separate techniques, and his arsenal continuously evolved rather than expanding.
In basic terms it was like upgrading his phone’s operating system every few days.
[Congratulations! Host’s Demonic Nature has been Formed!]
’About time, huh...’
He’d already anticipated this. It had happened in his previous life too, it was the reason he’d eventually joined the demonic cult. This was something he had pretty much expected, given his insatiable hunger for combat in both lives. Although in past life, all he wanted to was to survive.
Demonic cultivation was simple yet impossibly difficult: freedom.
Do whatever you want, but never lose sight of your goals. Each goal should involve growth—strength, power, wealth, lust, literally anything. The cultivator required an endless drive, an infinite hunger for expansion.
There were even subcategories like sword demons, sex demons, blood demons, corpse demons, and countless others.
Demonic nature was the easiest threshold to cross, yet the hardest to maintain long. Most people avoided it deliberately because deviation from your core goal gave you heart demons like continuous backlash, Amnesia, cultivation bottlenecks, Mental disintegration and many others, even curses.
But Cale remained true to his objectives.
First was to survive as long as possible, hell gaining immortality would be even better.
Second, to grow stronger and surround himself with people he ’wanted’ to live with. Not ’loved’ though, he doubted he has ever felt that level of affection toward anyone.
[Demonic Energy has been merged into Origin Essence]
[Due to demonic nature, host’s attacks will compound. Every connecting blow adds an additional 2% damage.]
’Ohh, an increasing buff. Hehe...’
[Cultivation Speed Multiplier: 5x]
[Creation: Tier 1 → Tier 3]
[Host’s creations and refinements will be 5% more effective than normal]
"Hmm, I should start selling my products, right? That would solve money and resource problems simultaneously. Let’s do that when I return."
[Origin Essence: Lvl.20 → Lvl.32]
[Time Limit for Inner Sanctum has increased to 8 hours]
[Rewarded: 3 Pages of Book of Endless Refinement]
"Good, good..."
[Due to host’s high comprehension, host can now form Laws, Paths, and Dao Nature]
Cale’s eyes widened. "Isn’t this... too early for that? Or are my combat abilities that advanced huh? I understand that high comprehension and analytical ability unlocks these things and not your cultivation stage, but you can’t just gift me..."
He started to continue, but the system interrupted:
[Warning! The system cannot grant comprehension of Laws, Paths, and Dao Nature]
’Phew, thank god... else I wouldn’t even know where your abilities end.’
[Host’s Concept Nature has been Formed]
[Individual Concept Path: Ink Sword Intent → Ink Sword Domain → Ink Sword Law → Ink Dao → Dao of the Painted World]
Cale tilted his head, contemplating. "Hmm, so this is my ’artistic’ concept. But why isn’t it fire? With all my flame-related abilities, I expected my intent to align with fire... but ink, huh? I’ve never met anyone with such a concept."
Though he’d witnessed a cultivator with lust-based concepts before, and that cultivator’s end was quite pathetic. Imagine dying since all your energy was consumed when having sex with a succubus.
Ink was arguably superior compared to that one...
Still, ink didn’t fall under attacking-type concepts. It was likely utility or shadow type. Used for assassins or alchemists.
’Sigh, aren’t I an alchemist too...? Maybe that’s why. Perhaps the heavens recognize my refinement techniques as superior to my combat skills. Hehe.’
[Host has only unlocked the first phase: Ink Sword Intent of Cultivation Concept]
He considered this carefully.
"What exactly is the difference then? I have the concept of ink, but I can observe, learn, understand, and use concepts from others through combat or comprehending treasures. I’m certainly not the only one who does this right? people attempt comprehending new Laws and Paths constantly. Dao paths are another matter though..."
[Main Concept is the innate, fundamental concept unique to a cultivator, serving as the root of their cultivation and shaping how they perceive and understand reality.]
[Unlike Laws, Daos, or Paths, it is not merely something one comprehends and replicates, but the foundation from which understanding develops. A cultivator may form countless Laws, Daos, Intents, and Paths, but their Main Concept remains the core connecting and defining them.]
[For host, Ink is your Main Concept, while Sword Intent, Laws, Daos, and Paths are expressions or branches of deeper understanding gained through various comprehensions and epiphanies.]
[Main Concept and inherent intent will always manifest stronger compared to other concepts comprehended externally.]
He nodded slowly, understanding the distinction. "Hmm, I kind of understand what you mean... wait, why are you being so chatty these days?"
[...]
His eyes narrowed. ’You’re not answering now, huh. I’ve already suspected you’re some kind of AI bot... no, rather you possess consciousness but not like a living being’s consciousness...’
After thinking, a new thought came up.
’Should I try creating a body for you? Is that even possible...? I can possibly make a body somehow, but integrating your consciousness into it while granting emotions and sentience? That’s... well, challenging to say the least. But it’s a goal for me now. Let’s meet someday so you can finally explain your origins.’
He paused,
’Somehow, I know the system I got changed during that "update." You’re not the same anymore—or maybe I’m just noticing it now.’