Chapter 29: Almost pity

Sitting in the lotus position, Kael felt every bit of the stolen cultivation, attributes, and proficiencies pour into his dantian, a warm current gathering low in his belly.

The first thing he did, naturally, was convert all of it into spear prowess. At least for now, he had no interest whatsoever in Wind Qi or Sword Qi.

In the next instant, everything inside him began to change.

Decades of spear training flooded his mind, memories that weren’t his own slotting into place as if they had always been there.

Every thrust, every flourish, every rhythmic breath—all of it etched itself into his muscles like old scars, teaching his body movements it had never once performed. His fingers twitched against his knees, itching to close around a spear that wasn’t there.

At the same time, his cultivation exploded, dragging his spiritual root along with it. Qi tore through his meridians in a scalding rush, and sweat broke out across his back within seconds.

His level leaped to the fourth layer of the Qi Foundation Realm. Then the fifth. Sixth. Seventh. Eighth. It didn’t stop there either, the torrent still surging even after it hit the ninth.

The quality of his spiritual root skyrocketed too, jumping straight to Rank D+—just one step away from Rank C, a level that would already be enough to place him among the sect’s greatest talents.

Then Kael’s eyes fluttered. A pained groan slipped through his clenched teeth, and the veins along his neck stood out like cords.

He pressed a hand to his dantian. Excruciating pain radiated from it, as if something inside him were trying to break down a door locked from the inside, pounding and shoving without pause.

His cultivation had reached the peak of the Qi Foundation Realm, but it showed no sign of advancing toward the Golden Core Realm. Quite the contrary.

It had simply stopped progressing entirely.

"This is..." Kael’s eyes widened, even as he fought to keep the pain coursing through his body under control.

There were levels within levels, even among the layers of a single cultivation realm.

When someone advanced to the Qi Origin Realm or the Qi Formation Realm, these divisions never showed themselves. In the Qi Foundation Realm, however, things were different.

There were nine levels of foundation in total.

A Broken Foundation meant an advancement that had all but failed. A cultivator with one would never progress within the Qi Foundation Realm.

A Half-Step Foundation let a cultivator reach the peak of the realm, but forming a Golden Core would be impossible.

A Complete Foundation was the bare minimum for any chance at the Golden Core Realm. Fewer than thirty percent of Qi Foundation cultivators ever got this far.

Above the Complete Foundation came the High-Level Foundation. Then the Earth Foundation, the Golden Foundation, the Immortal Foundation, the Great Dao Foundation, and, at the very top, the Celestial Foundation.

Until that moment, Kael had possessed only a Complete Foundation, and that was something that could usually only be changed with miraculous elixirs.

Now, however, with a single push, his foundation smashed through that limit and climbed to the high level.

So that was what the pounding in his dantian had been. Not his cultivation trying to force its way into the next realm, but his foundation being remade.

The torrent of Qi kept flooding in without end, and the foundation core grew denser and firmer by the second, as if invisible hands were packing it tight.

"Ah... will it go past the high level?" he wondered silently, eyes gleaming with anticipation.

Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.

His foundation reached the peak of the high level and then stagnated completely, grinding to a halt like a gear that refused to turn.

The pounding faded soon after, leaving behind a deep, heavy warmth that spread through his whole abdomen. Where the core had once been dark and clouded, it now shone a pure, intense white, and it had more than doubled in size inside his dantian.

Still, Kael was more than satisfied.

He was certain all of that had come from a single week of cultivation stolen from that celestial genius.

If that was the result of one week... what would happen if he managed to steal an entire year?

If he put off forming a Golden Core for a while, he could easily raise his foundation to the Golden level, perhaps even to the legendary Immortal Foundation.

As for the Great Dao and Celestial Foundations, those were practically legends. In the entire history of the Gray Peaks Continent, there was no record of any foundation above the Immortal level.

And even Immortal Foundations were so rare that, in tens of thousands of years of history, only three had ever been documented.

He could already feel his mind working far faster than before, his thoughts lining up with a clarity he had never known.

His body, for its part, hummed with a terrifying power, at least ten times greater than his old self’s. Even sitting still, he could feel it in the coiled tension of his shoulders and the slow, heavy thud of his heartbeat.

If he were to fight his old self at that very moment, Kael was fully confident he would kill him with a single slap.

Considering everything he had stolen, he could only feel pity for Lucien Purewind.

Well... almost pity.

With a long sigh, he forced himself to his feet. His knees popped as they unfolded, and he rolled his shoulders once before letting his gaze drift to his status screen.

[Name: Kael Ashen

Age: 20

Cultivation: Ninth Layer of the Qi Foundation Realm (High-Level Foundation)

Race: Human

Spiritual Roots: Spear Spiritual Roots (Rank D+)

Talent: Above Average

Qi: 2,000/2,000

Strength: 671

Agility: 752

Intelligence: 716

Vitality: 800

Martial Potential: 75

Soul Potential: 75]

Truly...

Kael figured a cultivator at his level should have base attributes of around five hundred, on average. His were far above that!

He knew an absurd leap like that couldn’t have come from Lucien alone. The only plausible explanation he could come up with was the celestial cuckold.

And that was after just one week of cultivation and training!

With a broad smile spreading across his lips, Kael turned his gaze to the four mysterious boxes he had received.