Multiverse Skill System

Page 84

Uncle Nine's lips twitched upon hearing this. This is what you call low talent? It wasn't just a few days, but only one day! This talent is far superior to those so-called geniuses. Compared to Yi Shuihan, even geniuses become mediocre. Yi Shuihan can no longer be described as a genius; he's practically a monster.

Well, actually, Yi Shuihan's talent wasn't as high as Uncle Jiu thought. It's just that Yi Shuihan himself was a strong person. Although he didn't learn from the same system, once you understand one method, you understand all methods. There were always things he could learn from. With Black Iron Nine Stars' control, drawing a talisman was a piece of cake for him.

Ignoring Yi Shuihan's pretense, Uncle Nine carefully examined the zombie's body, then formed several complex hand seals and struck at the zombie.

"This is troublesome. This zombie has grown to the point where it's about to awaken its intelligence. Even burning it might not kill it," Uncle Nine muttered, but Ren Fa, who was standing next to him, overheard his words.

Upon hearing that even fire couldn't kill it, Ren Fa asked in a panic, "What can we do? Is there any other way?"

This time, Ren Fa never said anything about not burning again. His father was afraid of fire, and compared to his own life, he would even accept his father being burned to ashes.

Besides, they're already dead, so burning them isn't a bad idea.

Uncle Nine didn't beat around the bush and said directly, "I need to check the information first; there's no good solution for now."

"Does it have to be so complicated? It's just killing a zombie! One punch is all it takes."

Yi Shuihan crossed his arms, not taking the matter seriously.

"Don't talk big! Uncle Jiu said the zombies are powerful, they can't even be burned to death by fire, and you can take them down with one punch?" Tingting looked at Yi Shuihan with suspicion, her expression showing great disbelief. If Yi Shuihan wasn't Ren Fa's savior, she probably would have thought he was just a big talker.

Ren Fa had some confidence in Yi Shuihan and said hesitantly, "If Young Master Yi can help, that would be wonderful."

"Uncle Jiu, what do you think?"

"Then let Young Master Yi give it a try. If you don't believe me, I'll think of another way."

"Master, master!"

At this point, the servants of several households finally arrived late.

"Hmph, get out of here, you're all useless. You can't even defend against a zombie."

Ren was furious. If it weren't for the more important matter of dealing with the zombies, he might have started a denunciation meeting.

Yi Shuihan watched this with a sense of bewilderment. If a zombie could be blocked so easily, would it still be called a zombie?

After moving the zombie outside, Ren Fa and the others looked at Yi Shuihan with curiosity in their eyes, wondering what Yi Shuihan would do next. Would he really use his fists?

Yi Shuihan walked up to the zombie, about to punch it and blast it to smithereens, but then suddenly remembered something and stopped.

"Is it not possible? Otherwise, let's just forget about it."

"No, I want to ask, if we smash him to pieces, will the corpse poison in his body spread into the air?"

"Uh, that seems to be the case. Or, how about we think of another way?"

"No need, watch me."

Without throwing a punch, to everyone's astonishment, Yi Shuihan approached the zombie, grabbed its hand, and with a forceful pull, tore the zombie's hand off as easily as tearing clothes.

Then, following the same method, the zombie was transformed into a human stump in a short time, and it was a human stump without a head.

"It can still move?" Yi Shuihan stared in disbelief at the zombie body writhing on the ground.

Fortunately, Yi Shuihan could also see that this was just the zombie's last instinct. The zombie was truly dead this time and would soon be unable to move again.

"For research, the limbs are enough; this head isn't enough." Yi Shuihan glanced at the head still covered with talismans, then, to everyone's astonishment, he stomped down.

The zombie's head was smashed into pieces of flesh, making everyone feel disgusted.

Chapter 218, Formal Cultivation

"It was actually resolved so easily. This zombie body was like an infant in his hands. Just how powerful is he?" The person who knew zombies best was naturally Uncle Nine. After watching Yi Shuihan's series of actions, he was in a state of extreme shock.

"Is this the end?"

"He really did it!"

Ren Fa mustered his courage and walked to Yi Shuihan's side. Looking at the mangled body on the ground, he didn't know what to feel. Since there was no longer any threat, he remembered that this was his father, and felt a sense of loss.

"I'm sorry, I misunderstood you just now. You're really amazing."

Tingting's eyes were filled with curiosity and inquiry, as if she wanted to see through Yi Shuihan. Everything that happened today was too bizarre. She had never believed in ghosts and gods, but this time she actually saw her grandfather turn into a zombie and come back to kill her father. It completely overturned her previous worldview.

During this process, Yi Shuihan was undoubtedly the focus of her attention. At their first meeting, Yi Shuihan saved her father when she was about to despair, which made her feel quite good about him. When her father and everyone else were helpless in dealing with the zombies, Yi Shuihan easily solved the problem. Although the process was violent, it undoubtedly demonstrated his strength. In particular, his calm and composed expression, as if he had everything under control, made Tingting feel very fascinated.

What's this feeling? I suddenly want to keep looking at his face, and I feel so safe and secure when I'm with him. Could it be that I'm in love?

At the prime of her youth, she met Yi Shuihan, a man of great strength, handsome appearance, and who had saved her life; it was impossible for her not to fall for him.

If Yi Shuihan were to cooperate in pursuing her at this time, Tingting would probably be completely under his control within a few days.

However, Yi Shuihan had no intention of having anything happen with Tingting at the moment, so he simply nodded slightly to indicate that he had heard.

"What should we do with the rest? If we just leave it like this, the corpse energy on his body will spread, and the people around him will be affected to some extent," Yi Shuihan said.

"Uncle Jiu, what do you think we should do?" Ren Fa still trusted Uncle Jiu quite a bit.

"We can find a good grave and bury him deep enough so that there won't be any problems. If it's inconvenient for Master Ren to handle, you can leave it to me," Uncle Nine suggested.

"Then I'll have to trouble you, Uncle Jiu," Ren Fa thought for a moment and agreed.

After declining Ren Fa's offer to stay, Yi Shuihan and Uncle Jiu returned to the mortuary with the remnants of the zombie.

During the journey, Yi Shuihan suddenly said, "I've recently become quite interested in zombies. Before we find the tomb, could I study them?"

Uncle Nine was taken aback, finding Yi Shuihan's idea amusing. Then he thought back to when he was first learning Taoist arts, wasn't he also very interested in all of this, wishing he could devote all his time to it?

"If that's how you think, of course I won't disagree. Go ahead and do it!"

After speaking, Uncle Nine hesitated for a moment before finally asking the question he had wanted to ask for a long time: "Are you even human?"

"Of course I'm human. Did you think I was some kind of ghost or monster?" Yi Shuihan said with a wry smile, knowing that Uncle Jiu was shocked by his strength.

"If you want to know why I can run so fast, be so strong, and even zombies are no match for me, then I can only say that I already said before that I am a martial artist, and an incredibly powerful one at that. Do you think I'm joking?"

"But I've never heard of a martial artist being this strong?" Uncle Nine still couldn't believe it. After all, while cultivating Taoism, he also practiced martial arts. He considered himself to be at least an intermediate level, even though he wasn't a master. But even so, he could only fight a few people at most, maybe ten at a time.

"I'm different from ordinary martial artists. In short, you have to believe that I'm still a human being." Yi Shuihan didn't know how to explain, so he just said vaguely.

"Could it be because of a fortuitous encounter?" Uncle Nine suddenly remembered the dragon blood that Yi Shuihan had taken out, as well as the wonder of that portable space, and attributed it all to a fortuitous encounter. He had also experienced the effects of the dragon blood. After using the dragon blood, he could feel that his body had become nearly twice as strong. If there was enough dragon blood, it was not impossible for Yi Shuihan's body to be strengthened to the point of being even stronger than a zombie.

"I guess so!" she readily admitted.

Uncle Nine doesn't seem to have been affected by the dragon blood. Logically speaking, his strength shouldn't have reached Black Iron 5-star. Could it be because of his cultivation of Qi?

Or perhaps the dragon blood intake was too small, resulting in minimal changes that were not noticeable?

Suddenly remembering the limitations of the dragon blood, Yi Shuihan secretly glanced at Uncle Nine, but did not notice any particular change in him.

"By the way, Uncle Jiu, I'm moving out tomorrow. Qiu Sheng knows where I'm staying. You're welcome to come visit anytime, Uncle Jiu. Of course, I'll still come over every day to nag you these next few days."

Given Yi Shuihan's speed, living in the mortuary and his own home was actually just a matter of walking a few more steps.

Over the next few days, Yi Shuihan read the Taoist books he had obtained from Uncle Jiu while also studying the zombie's body, living a carefree and leisurely life.

"It's time to begin formal training."

After studying for several days, Yi Shuihan finally decided to officially begin his cultivation. This cultivation was not like the rough physical training in the One Piece world; one wrong move and he would suffer from demonic possession. Therefore, Yi Shuihan waited until he had thoroughly studied the method before starting his cultivation.

According to the basic cultivation method given by Uncle Nine, this cultivation of Tao, or more accurately, the cultivation of immortality, is divided into four stages from the beginning to the end of becoming an immortal: refining essence into qi, refining qi into spirit, refining spirit into emptiness, and refining emptiness into the Tao. Simply put, it is the four realms of refining qi, transforming spirit, returning to emptiness, and merging with the Tao. After merging with the Tao, one becomes an immortal. The realms after becoming an immortal are not recorded in the basic cultivation method.

The realm of immortals is too far beyond Yi Shuihan's reach, so it doesn't have much impact on him now. According to Yi Shuihan's estimation, his current strength of 9 stars in Black Iron is equivalent to just entering the Qi Refining and Spirit Transformation stage in terms of immortal cultivation. Of course, Yi Shuihan estimates that his strength is relatively strong among those who have reached the Spirit Transformation stage, but he doesn't know how it compares to those who have reached the Void Return stage.

Chapter 219, First-Class Legal Source

Cultivating immortality emphasizes absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth for one's own use. Therefore, the environment for cultivation is extremely important. Cultivating in places with abundant spiritual energy is twice as effective with half the effort, while cultivating in places with scarce spiritual energy is half as effective with twice the effort.

The world of Mr. Zombie is currently in the Dharma-ending Age, with only one-tenth of the spiritual energy of heaven and earth remaining. Cultivation is extremely difficult, and even just entering the gate requires exceptional talent and unwavering perseverance to succeed.

Don't you see, Uncle Nine has been cultivating for most of his life, and he is only at the Qi Refining stage now, not even at the late stage of Qi Refining. At most, Uncle Nine is at the peak of the early stage of Qi Refining. As for his two disciples, Wen Cai and Qiu Sheng, they are still hovering on the threshold of Qi Refining. They haven't even formally entered the sect yet, so it's no wonder they are so weak.

"The spiritual energy of heaven and earth seems to be the same as that of the world of One Piece." With his eyes closed, Yi Shuihan could easily sense the spiritual energy between heaven and earth. However, compared with the world of One Piece, the concentration of this spiritual energy was like the difference between a small river and the ocean, pitifully thin.

It seems that the spiritual energy is more concentrated in the deep mountains and forests. Should I hide in the mountains and become a wild man?

Forget it, the ascetic lifestyle isn't really for me. If I really became a savage, the image would be too beautiful. I'll think about it later.

Having cleared his mind of distractions, Yi Shuihan began the first step of his cultivation as described in the basic mental techniques, generating energy in his dantian.

The source of Dharma is the foundation of everything. It is a source condensed from the essence, energy, and spirit of the human body. Only by condensing the source of Dharma can one formally step into the threshold of cultivation and absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to strengthen oneself.

The source of Dharma is also divided into levels, from low to high into five grades. The first grade is the best, and the fifth grade is the worst. Only those who have condensed a source of Dharma of the third grade or above are qualified to cultivate into immortals. If one condenses a source of Dharma of the fifth grade, without any extraordinary encounters in their life, they can at most reach the peak of Qi Refining and cannot become a deity. If one condenses a source of Dharma of the fourth grade, they cannot break through to the Dao Integration stage.

In fact, Uncle Nine, as a genius of the Maoshan Sect who appears only once in a hundred years, has only condensed a third-grade Dharma Source, barely qualifying him to become an immortal. It is only because of the current scarcity of spiritual energy in the world that he has been stuck at the peak of the early stage of Qi Refining. If he were placed in a place with abundant spiritual energy to cultivate, he would have broken through to the Nascent Soul stage by now.

Cultivating immortality is for the purpose of longevity. In the early stage of Qi cultivation, one is less prone to illness and lives a relatively long life compared to ordinary people, generally reaching 80 years old is not a problem. In the middle stage of Qi cultivation, one can gain an additional 20 years of lifespan, living up to 100 years. In the late stage of Qi cultivation, one can live up to the human limit of 150 years old.

As for breaking through Qi Refining and reaching the Divine Transformation stage, that is the true beginning of transcending ordinary mortals and evolving into a higher level of life form. Once one breaks through to the Divine Transformation stage, even if it is only the early stage, one's lifespan will increase to 300 years. In the middle stage, it will be 400 years, and in the late stage, it will be 500 years, which can be considered as truly immortal.

Upon reaching the Void Returning stage, it becomes even more extraordinary. The initial lifespan is 1000 years, and one can live up to 2000 years. After achieving Dao Integration, one can have a lifespan of up to 5000 years, which is simply defying the heavens.

Yi Shuihan currently has a lifespan of one thousand years, which is roughly the same as someone who has just broken through to the Void Returning Realm. It can be considered that his lifespan has exceeded his realm.

To Yi Shuihan's delight, his lifespan would not be limited by the cultivation process, even though he already possessed a lifespan of a thousand years. During the Qi Refining stage, which involved pushing the limits of the human body, his lifespan would not increase further. However, once he reached the Nascent Soul stage, his lifespan would increase again.

Because his foundation is stronger than that of ordinary people, the lifespan he gains when he reaches the Nascent Soul stage might not be a few hundred years, but several thousand years. In this way, he has a huge advantage over others.

With such a foundation, Yi Shuihan even believed that he might be able to break through and become an immortal even if he cultivated in the Dharma-ending World of Mr. Zombie.

Condensing the Origin might be extremely difficult for others, requiring them to proceed with extreme caution at every step. Just managing to condense it is already a feat, let alone guaranteeing any level. However, Yi Shuihan is completely different. He is not an ordinary person, but a Black Iron 9-star expert who has long since perfected control over himself.

Therefore, Yi Shuihan felt very relaxed when condensing the source, and even had the spare energy to control the condensation of the source to be more perfect, and could correct any problems in time.

With such a significant advantage, even a fifth-grade Dharma Source Yi Shuihan cannot guarantee it, but a grade three or higher is certain.

An hour later, the condensation of the Dharma Source finally ended. A tiny Dharma Source, as small as a grain of rice, lay quietly in Yi Shuihan's dantian, radiating endless light and making the dantian shine brightly.

"It's actually first-class." After checking the source of the magic, Yi Shuihan smiled. A fifth-class source of magic was the highest level, the first class.

The reason why the first-class is the best is not only because it is easier to cultivate and break through bottlenecks, but also because the first-class Dharma Source can generate its own unique supernatural power. This supernatural power is like the innate supernatural power of a demon beast. It is not only extremely powerful, but also consumes very little energy. It is equivalent to having an incomparably powerful means that ordinary cultivators have.

This self-generated supernatural power has another advantage: it will gradually increase with one's cultivation level and will never become outdated.

The introduction to the basic cultivation methods mentions several supernatural abilities that might arise from first-class Dharma sources, such as Dharma Body of Heaven and Earth, Samadhi True Fire, Three Heads and Six Arms, and Five Elements Escape Technique.

"I wonder what kind of supernatural powers I will develop? I'm really looking forward to it!" Supernatural powers are not something that are created at the moment of condensation and origination, but rather they will only be fully formed when one breaks through to the Void Returning stage. To be able to wield them as easily as one's own arm, one must wait until one reaches the Dao Integration stage.

After being excited for a while, Yi Shuihan realized that it was already dawn. Thinking that his current state was not suitable to continue, he took out the food from his personal space and began to enjoy it.

The seeds of the foundation have been sown; the next step is to slowly nurture them to blossom, sprout, and finally bear fruit. This process is undoubtedly lengthy, but Yi Shuihan will not give up and will strive towards this goal, believing that one day he will achieve it.

"Hmm, let's set a short-term goal first: to become a Nascent Soul cultivator. My cultivation level needs to match my strength!"

As for your claim that Uncle Jiu has only reached the peak of the early stage of Qi Refining after so long of cultivation, and you want to become a Deity, it's not that easy. Haha, Uncle Jiu is Uncle Jiu, and Yi Shuihan is Yi Shuihan. He only has the ability to become a Deity. So what if the spiritual energy of heaven and earth is scarce? There will always be a way.

Chapter 220, 3 Days, Early Stage of Qi Refining

"Phew, no wonder the legendary cultivators would go into seclusion for months, years, and even hundreds or thousands of years. Time truly flies when you're cultivating," Yi Shuihan remarked.

Since condensing his source, Yi Shuihan has been eager to enter the early stage of Qi Refining. So, he hasn't been to Uncle Jiu's place for the past few days and has been staying at home like a shut-in. As a result, he got into a deep state of cultivation and stayed in that state for a full three days before finally coming out of it.

"This can't go on. Although I'm physically strong and can go three days without food or water without any problems, if it goes on for longer, like ten days or half a month, I might starve to death. The first cultivator in history to starve to death, just thinking about it makes me feel nauseous."

Before reaching the Nascent Soul stage in cultivation, the human body still needs to eat and cannot achieve abstinence from grains. Only after reaching the Nascent Soul stage can one absorb spiritual energy from heaven and earth and achieve the purpose of abstinence from grains. At that time, even in this Dharma-ending Age where spiritual energy is scarce, one can be guaranteed not to starve to death.

From the source of Dharma to the early stage of Qi Refining, it generally takes at least several months, or even a year, for an average person. This is based on the assumption that there is sufficient spiritual energy. Take Uncle Nine for example. It took him a full three years to go from the source of Dharma to the early stage of Qi Refining, and then another ten years to reach the peak of the early stage of Qi Refining. He has not broken through to this day.

Yi Shuihan has been cultivating for 3 days and has now completely entered the early stage of Qi Refining. Moreover, he is not just a beginner. He estimates that if he secludes himself for another half month, he will be able to try to break through to the middle stage of Qi Refining. If Uncle Jiu knew about this cultivation speed, he would be scared to death.

Of course, Yi Shuihan also knew that his cultivation speed was faster in the early stages. After all, the Qi Refining realm is closely related to one's physical condition. Yi Shuihan came from the One Piece world, where his body was nourished for so long. He even directly absorbed spiritual energy when cultivating Haki. This spiritual energy was stored in his body, but because he didn't have any techniques, it was never converted into magic power.

Yi Shuihan is now said to be cultivating, but in fact he has one less step than others, which is to absorb spiritual energy from heaven and earth. Others in the Qi Refining stage have to attract spiritual energy into their bodies first and then convert it, but he converts it directly, which is much faster.

How much spiritual energy does Yi Shuihan have in his body? Yi Shuihan doesn't know, but he feels that even if he cultivates to the early stage of Qi Refining, the spiritual energy conversion rate is only about one percent.

"In this way, when one cultivates to the Nascent Soul stage, one may not even need to worry about spiritual energy anymore!" Abundant spiritual energy is undoubtedly good news, allowing Yi Shuihan to temporarily avoid the pain of scarce spiritual energy in the Dharma-ending Age.

"Tuk Tuk Tuk"

Just as Yi Shuihan was about to eat something and then break through to the mid-stage of Qi Refining in one go, a knock sounded on the door.

"Brother Yi, is Brother Yi there? It's me, Qiusheng. My master and I have come to see you."

Uncle Nine and the others?

Yi Shuihan abandoned his thoughts of continuing his cultivation, walked to the door, and opened it.

"It's good to see you're alright. We hadn't heard from you for the past few days, and we thought something had happened!" Qiu Sheng said casually, but his eyes kept glancing inside the door. He had seen Yi Shuihan bring in a whole bunch of expensive things, but he hadn't seen what the house looked like after it was completely finished.

"Hehe, Brother Yi."

"Oh, Wencai is here too."

"Please come in, everyone. Don't be shy. I was just about to eat, so let's all have a meal together."

Yi Shuihan gave up his seat, and immediately an indescribable fragrance wafted out from inside.