Chapter 305 - 294: Late Stage Consolidation

Chapter 305: Chapter 294: Late Stage Consolidation

After his breakthrough, Li Yuan did not leave the mine tunnel. Instead, he sat cross-legged in the natural cavern until dawn.

Spiritual Power slowly circulated through his meridians, one cycle after another. He wasn’t intentionally cultivating, but rather sensing the changes brought by the late-stage Foundation Establishment.

The change in his Dantian’s capacity was quite direct.

During the breakthrough, the walls of his Dantian had been forcibly expanded. The liquid Spiritual Power inside was now nearly thirty percent greater than during the mid stage, yet the feeling of fullness in his Dantian was more comfortable than it had been at the end of the mid stage. It was like moving from a room that was nearly full to a much larger one.

Li Yuan raised his hand, and a small Fireball coalesced at his fingertip.

The Fireball spun twice on his fingertip before he crushed it.

It was still the most basic Fireball Technique, and the Spiritual Power consumption hadn’t changed, but the density and compression of the Spiritual Power when cast were a notch higher than in the mid stage. The resulting Fireball, though smaller, contained a more condensed heat within.

The increase in the magic’s power didn’t come from any refinement of the magic itself, but from an upgrade in the fundamental quality of his Spiritual Power. With Spiritual Power that was purer and more condensed, the upper limit of the same magic naturally rose.

After finishing his inspection, Li Yuan stood up from the cavern and equipped the Gathering Essence Pill.

The panel popped up at that moment.

[Condition for making Gathering Essence & Unifying Qi (Green) permanent has been met]

[Make permanent?]

Li Yuan confirmed.

[Gathering Essence & Unifying Qi (Green) has become a permanent trait]

The change was very gentle.

Unlike the pressure that radiated from bone to skin when making a Body Refining trait permanent, making Gathering Essence & Unifying Qi permanent felt more like the fundamental efficiency of his Spiritual Power circulation had been quietly raised a level.

Li Yuan tried circulating his energy for one cycle.

The speed of his Spiritual Power growth had indeed quickened. On top of the three traits—Flawless Spiritual Power, Pure Spiritual Power, and Spiritual Power Condensation—Gathering Essence & Unifying Qi was now stacked on. After completing a single cycle, the increase of Spiritual Power in his Dantian was another notch higher.

A fifty-percent boost to cultivation speed wasn’t the most outrageous effect for a single trait, but the stacking effect was undeniable. With several cultivation-type traits stacked together, Li Yuan’s current rate of Spiritual Power growth had reached a truly absurd level.

The other effect allowed him to voluntarily consume Qi Blood to enhance his Spiritual Power growth.

Li Yuan gave it a try.

With a thought, his body’s Qi Blood flowed along a special pathway toward the Spiritual Power circulation circuit. Where the Qi Blood and Spiritual Power met, a warm propulsive force was generated. At that moment, the growth rate of Spiritual Power in his Dantian rose another notch.

The cost was the consumption of his Qi Blood.

The consumption rate wasn’t fast, but with continuous use, his Qi Blood would gradually decrease. The conversion ratio was slightly better than Three Origins Return to One, but the problem was the slower conversion speed.

Thanks to the support of various traits, Li Yuan’s Qi Blood recovery rate wasn’t slow either. As long as he didn’t consume it at a high intensity for a long time, he could maintain his Qi Blood in a state of dynamic equilibrium.

He could activate it at a low level during daily cultivation and push it to its maximum in a critical moment.

Li Yuan stopped the Qi Blood consumption. After confirming there was nothing amiss with his body, he walked back to his stone house along the mine tunnel.

By the time he returned to the stone house, the sky was already bright.

Li Yuan sat at the table and took the beast-skin scroll of the Ancient Divine Sense Secret Technique from his storage bag.

He hadn’t equipped it since buying it. Now that he had some free time, he could finally get to it.

He placed the scroll on the table and reached out to touch it.

The panel popped up.

[Equippable item detected: Ancient Divine Sense Secret Technique (Complete)]

[Equipped Trait Preview: Divine Split Multitasking (Blue)]

[Effect: After splitting the Divine Sense, you can perfectly distinguish between primary and secondary threads, preventing Divine Soul confusion.]

[Permanence Condition Preview: Simultaneously maintain three or more independent Divine Sense Lines in continuous operation for one hundred shichen.]

Li Yuan confirmed to equip.

[Equipped: Ancient Divine Sense Secret Technique (Complete)]

[Divine Split Multitasking (Blue) is now active]

The corresponding knowledge flooded his mind, and Li Yuan instantly mastered the technique.

Li Yuan tried to use the technique, and his Divine Sense perception underwent a change he had never experienced before.

It wasn’t that his Divine Sense had become stronger, but that it could now be split.

Previously, his Divine Sense was a single, solid block. Whether used for probing or controlling Spiritual Power, it could only focus on one direction or one task at a time. Now, with Divine Split Multitasking active, Li Yuan could clearly feel his Divine Sense was like a river divided into several tributaries, each capable of operating independently.

Thanks to the trait’s effect, the primary-secondary relationship between them was exceptionally clear.

The main thread remained in his control, and the branch threads wouldn’t interfere with the main one after being split off.

Li Yuan first tried splitting off one branch thread.

One became two.

The main thread controlled his body, while the branch thread extended his Divine Sense toward the Spirit Vein, latching onto the perception of the large-scale Spirit Vein.

The two threads operated simultaneously without any sense of confusion. The main thread handled his normal thoughts and movements, while the branch thread simultaneously laid out the complete picture of the Spirit Vein. The information from both sides flowed through their own channels without interference.

Li Yuan then split off a second branch thread.

One became three.

The third thread descended into his Dantian and began monitoring the circulation of his Spiritual Power.

The three threads ran in parallel, and everything was still clear.

Li Yuan was perfectly aware of what each thread was responsible for and what information it was receiving. There were no signs of Divine Soul confusion, nor any problem distinguishing the primary from the secondary.

The effect of Divine Split Multitasking was the real deal.

Without the support of the trait, the greatest fear after splitting one’s Divine Sense was the inability to distinguish between the primary and secondary threads.

A branch thread might suddenly usurp the main thread’s role, or information from multiple threads might get mixed up. In a mild case, this would lead to misjudgment; in a severe case, it could cause the Divine Soul to destabilize.

With this blue trait as a safety net, all these risks were eliminated.

Maintaining the state of three parallel threads, Li Yuan began a more practical task.

Alchemy.

He took out his Pill Furnace and a set of ingredients for the Vessel Continuation Pill, then lit the furnace.

The main thread controlled the Pill Fire and the medicinal liquid. This was the most mentally demanding part and had to remain dominant.

The first branch thread remained latched onto the Spirit Vein’s perception, continuously monitoring the dynamics of the mine, the Spirit Vein’s tributaries, and the market district.

The second branch thread maintained his regular perception, covering a thirty-zhang radius around the stone house to monitor if anyone was approaching.

Three tasks proceeded in sync.

[Ancient Divine Sense Secret Technique: Initiate (0/200)]

The Ancient Divine Sense Secret Technique had also reached the Initiate level.

As the Pill Fire burned in the furnace, the medicinal ingredients began to slowly melt. Li Yuan’s main thread focused all its attention on the furnace, watching every change in the medicinal liquid.

Meanwhile, the first branch thread relayed information from the Spirit Vein. The main vein was operating normally, the path of the tributary vein hadn’t changed after its shift, and the mine’s output was stable.

The second branch thread was also functioning properly. It was quiet outside the stone house. The nearest cultivator’s aura was over twenty zhang away—a Loose Cultivator who lived next door, meditating in his own house.

The three threads each performed their duty without interfering with one another.

The Vessel Continuation Pill was successfully refined.

Li Yuan put away the Pill Furnace, placed the two pills into a jade bottle, and then continued to maintain the three parallel threads without retracting the branches.

The permanence condition was to simultaneously maintain three or more independent Divine Sense Lines in continuous operation for one hundred shichen.

’Might as well start accumulating the time now.’

’One hundred shichen isn’t short, but it isn’t that long either. The key is that they have to be actively operating, not just split off and left idle.’

In the afternoon, Li Yuan went to the administration office.

The daily affairs of the market district still needed to be handled.

Transaction records, entry and exit logs, patrol schedules—all of these needed to be reviewed daily. Now, with Divine Split Multitasking, his efficiency in handling paperwork was much higher than before. One branch thread could be left to monitor the Spirit Vein, while another could be split off to help review documents and check data.

When he got to the patrol schedules and the Demon-Exploring Array records, Li Yuan’s attention lingered a little longer.

The mole was still on regular duty in the patrol team, showing no signs of abnormality.

Back in his stone house, Li Yuan sat cross-legged on a cattail hassock and switched the idle branch thread to monitor his Spiritual Power circulation, then began to cultivate.

This was his first official, high-efficiency cultivation session in the late-stage Foundation Establishment.

Flawless Spiritual Power, Pure Spiritual Power, Spiritual Power Condensation, Gathering Essence & Unifying Qi, and Spirit Vein Nurturing—five cultivation-type traits were active at the same time.

After one cycle of Spiritual Power through his meridians, the increase in Spiritual Power in his Dantian was nearly double what it had been during the mid stage.

Li Yuan closed his eyes and continued to circulate his power.