บท 80: Grinding For Foundry
Job Changed
Job: Cultivator
As I learned I spread my aura sense as far in every direction as I could. The power of heaven and earth waited always in the background. With a call it came to me yin and yang energies opposites forever struggling against each other. Their violent reaction is the power I took, and all cultivators take. My aura acted like a filter ripping away the useless bits that won't become my qi. Drops of the finished product fell into qi sea.
"Wrong! Apprentice why are you using aura sense to feel for the power of heaven and earth. Do you doubt its location?" Meng Fang said.
I grumbled and pulled back my senses. "How am is supposed to pull in the power of heaven and earth without touching it?" I yelled back.
"If we were at the monastery, I'd make you clean latrines for a century for raising your voice. You're lucky I've been tempered by my humble living." Meng Fang yelled.
This master and apprentice nonsense came about after asking him for a few pointers. "Well, what am I doing wrong?" I asked in a quieter voice.
The undead pill master huffed. "Everything! But asking you to fix your every flaw after they've been ingrained is expecting too much from a Laowai." Meng Fang smiled. "We'll break one flaw at a time until you're as natural as one of my nephews." Meng Fang said.
I nodded slowly and began withdrawing my aura sense. "This feels wrong." I said.
"Yes, after having such a vast detection system in place closing it off must be daunting. But that system is best used guiding your cultivation. Stretching that system slows reaction time." He rubbed his bald face. "You must have instinctual spread it further as you grew in power." Meng Fang said.
I nodded slowly. "It's saved my life a few times." I said.
"Now it will help you stop your body from destroying itself. Focus, draw back your consciousness power and focus only on yourself." Meng Fang said.
I pulled back a vast seas of data networking. The vast network of information passed through my aura sense and my AI mind. Nodes of qi were established within my aura sense acting as network towers. They passed information back and forth to my AI mind and allowed me to make background calculations without overloading my mortal or qi mind. It felt odd.
With every meter I pulled back the signals between my aura sense and my AI mind bounced faster. Data had less distance to travel and signals reached their destination faster. Already, I knew more about my general area than I did before. This felt right my reaction time elevated as I forced my aura sense into a smaller area.
My eyes widened at the implications. Two Kilometers was the rang of my aura sense. Most of that information had to be filtered through. Useless information like falling leaves, the bark on trees, the number of dust mites in a room, and other trivial matters would lessen. I could already feel my RAM space clearing. It was like I'd been forced to work in a room covered in piles of old furniture stacked upon each other. In a sense I had just tossed out and burned the old furniture.
Slowly, my aura sense drew itself back to a single kilometer, then five hundred meters, two hundred fifty meters, and finally a hundred meters. I'd hit a wall, my aura sense refused to retreat any further. The constant overwork of my systems settled into relaxing subroutines. A smile spread across my face and I let out a sigh of relief.
My data traffic had been like a chronic illness. I'd grown used to it.
Unfortunately, I couldn't draw my aura sense back any further. Still, I felt better stronger.
All around us, I felt the rooms. Not all the information was immediately available. My aura sense was used to stretching far. I'd gotten lazy with it and it would take time to draw it in further.
"Did you manage to pull it to this room?" Meng Fang asked and I shook my head. "Did you manage to pull it into the surrounding rooms?" I shook my head. "Well, where does it end?"
"A hundred meters in every direction." I said.
Meng Fang turned his head to the side. "You should be dead. The human mind shouldn't be able to process that much information. Not at the refinery stage. How many meters were you able to draw it back to?" The undead asked with a sigh.
"I drew it back one thousand nine hundred meters." I said.
Meng Fang opened his mouth, closed it, pulled a cigarette out of his lab coat, and lit it. "Good job next step. Don't ever let your aura sense stretch beyond a hundred meters until you reach the ascended realm." Before I could ask, he raised his hand and flicked his cig. "No don't worry about the ascended realm there are only seven ascended on the planet. No, I don't know their names. Trust me when you get strong enough it becomes obvious their around." Meng Fang said.
I nodded my head slowly. "Well then master what's the next step?" I asked.
"Before you can even dream of stepping into the next realm you have to establish the automation portion of refinery. This is why drawing in your aura sense is necessary. Most cultivators get the wrong idea and try to establish this while their aura sense is spread out to the ends of the earth. Cleaning the puddles, they leave behind is why I left the monastery."
He took another draft from his cig and scattered the ashes on the floor. "Your aura sense is your territory. The more compact the better. With it you can defend against enemy spells. The idea is to bring your aura sense to a meter radius to your qi sea. By condensing it to your skin for short periods of time your aura will automatically break unfriendly spells." Meng Fang said.
"Focus on your qi throw a few strings of aura out and spin your aura. Stretch the strings to the end of your aura sense and start spinning. Make them no larger than a hair and phantasmal. The only thing their after is the power of heaven and earth." Meng Fang said.
They felt weird. Using strings bypassed the need to use consciousness power to guide the power of heaven and earth to my qi see. I could control my own qi even when it wasn't in my body. A call from my consciousness drew the qi into my qi sea.
For the first time in a long time my qi sea deepened. My body shook from the effort and I continued to cultivate. Swirling strings ripped away the power of heaven and earth and the laws of diffusion filled in the area as I cultivated. As my aura spun my qi sea continued to deepen.
"The goal of Refinery is to create the purest qi possible for the Foundry realm. A cultivator can only be called a pill master after they've reached the Dao Master Realm. Only after mastering several Dao can a Dao Master reach the demi ascended realm. It was the Dao of discovery that led me astray. It was the one I couldn't master. If I ever get my cultivation back perhaps, I'll try the Dao of teaching. To reach the Foundry realm you must craft a machine. I must be from your consciousness power. Once you've condensed the volume of your qi sea into solid mass, you'll have reached Foundry."
Ping!
Cultivation Breakthrough
Cultivation: Refinery stage 6
My qi sea expanded, and my levies rose. Using Meng Fang's advice, I began to construct my machine. Over the sea I built, and app shaped like a nuclear reactor. It was only the beginning of its construct but already I could feel a rightness from it. There was something about nuclear power that I loved. It was plentiful, clean for the environment, and if built right it was safe. Code I'd taken from the Affen and bits of my original code went into the design. My AI mind rapidly scanned through hundreds of blueprints. At the end of the day, I wasn't diffusing qi. Still, I worked heard to craft the best machine I could.
Ping!
Cultivation Breakthrough
Cultivation: Refinery stage 7
Ping!
Cultivation Breakthrough
Cultivation: Refinery stage 8
Aura sense battered against my control. It wanted to expand even while I drew it in with all my might. My newly crafted machine began to crumble while I fought my bad habit. Blood filled my mouth and I spat it out. This was getting worse. My entire qi sea trembled waves of raw power threatened to smash me to pieces.
I snapped open a bottle of bone strengthening pills and tossed them back. They coated my bones with something that resisted the rattling from my qi sea. Power continued to erupt from my body. My muscles spasmed and cramped. Aura erupted around my body in multiple shades of red, black, white, and gold. The cells in my body started bursting trying to contain the power. Still, I continued to cultivate.
Ping!
Cultivation Breakthrough
Cultivation: Refinery stage 9
My qi sea expanded deeper and deeper as more qi filled my body. This was always possible. Others were much further along than me. There were humans at many stages above me. Were there knights like that? I didn't know where I stood in this world at all.
I had the power but not the techniques. Without Meng Fang I would have went decades or centuries without discovering my own weaknesses. My last attempt at this had left me a broken puddle on a floor. With a scream I felt a might crack and my qi sea expanded again.
Ping!
Cultivation Breakthrough
Cultivation: Refinery stage 10
I felt full to the point of overflowing. Qi filled me and I lost it just as quickly. This was it wasn't it? I'd reached the peak of Refinery. This stage had always been about preparing for the next stage.
"Your right where you need to be. Focus on the image of your foundry and push for the breakthrough. Remember the purer your qi the stronger the Foundry. The more compressing the Foundry the more daunting the Core realm expert.
The fire generated from my consciousness power lit my Foundry's smokestack. Machines within began their work. My qi sea began to flow with a purposeful current supplied by the influx of qi. Turbines moved and pressures were exerted by powerful machines built with the certainty of coding. They were made of steel that was everything steel could be. Aura burst from my body thicker and more powerful than ever before.
A multitude of colors emerged from my aura. They never settled on a single shade or color to a brick. Bits and pieces of my aura gold, black, white, and red. Every brick was a swirl of my auras. I used many different spells, and my qi didn't mind. I felt better than I had in a long time. The bricks stack in a massive space. More power than I'd ever felt before radiated from my Foundry.
Ping!
Cultivation Breakthrough
Cultivation: Foundry stage 1
I opened my eyes to see Meng Fang toss his cigarette away. "I don't know if it will be enough. You've been lucky to fight enemies who don't know a thing about cultivation. We should get a move on I'm sure the first boss is going to be tough." Meng Fang said.
"Why is my cultivation halting here? Can't I rise higher?" I asked.
Meng Fang snorted. "You're such a Laowai. You crossed through your bottle neck and hit another one. The firs stage of Foundry is a worse bottle neck. Stacking more qi won't help you. The only way to move forward is to master your aura. Only combat can help you there." Meng Fang said.
"Well, it's a good thing combat is what we're heading." I said.
Cultivator lvl100 +1 END +1 Con +1 PER
Perks:
Factory – +10% increase to aura x refinery level.
Meditation – +10% qi absorption when using a breathing technique.
Ladder Climber – +1% chance to reach the next stage per attempt
Prodigy – +5% learning speed to Cultivation techniques.
Martial White – +25% White spell effects applied by touch
Star Child – +15% Learning Speed to Cultivation Techniques
Yang Novice – +25% learning speed all yang techniques
Master's Apprentice – +25% learning speed from a master.
Art Holy – +50 Martial Technique DMG to Demon Cultivators
Disciple – +50% cultivation speed in a sect.
Jacob lvl20 Black Galaxy Noah
HP: 1600 165,280
AP: 1600 281,920
Cultivation: Foundry stage 1
Attributes
Constitution 341
Endurance, 382
Strength 251
Dexterity 241
Agility 282
Intelligence 584
Perception 498
Luck 193
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