After inspecting his body for a while, Shen concluded system upgrades had only one issue: they were too general.

His Rainfall Cultivation Method developed his body in a certain way, linked to the secrets of the Laws of Water present in the Concept of the Rainfall. However, the system had just made him more agile without caring for it.

It was like ordering a statue of a fire dragon, with its beautiful red scales and breathing fire, but getting a grey figure breathing nothing instead. Both were dragons, and their power was terrifying, but they were not the same.

The good news was that he could change that. It would've been a problem if the system had given his body some affinity, but the general growth let him just put an affinity where there was none.

Maybe that was the issue with C-rank stats. If his theory was correct, C-rank meant getting insight into a Law. His next cultivation realm, Ethereal Harmonization, the same his father had had, was also reached by getting such an insight. Of course, his father had been at the peak of that realm for hundreds of years, so Shen would be nowhere near the man after entering it.

Anyway, he was confident that merely reaching that realm would change his body in such a way that the system wouldn't be able to grow his stats generically—not without terrible consequences. Shen was currently in the Fate Origin realm, but his Path would be set after that. The maxim of him being his Path and his Path being him would grow even truer, more intimate, and there would be no space for anything not specifically tailored for his Path.

But that was something for the future. Right now, Shen could save a lot of time upgrading his stats via the system. He estimated he would need at least six months to cultivate from E- to E even if the environment was as heavily saturated with qi as the Alliance made it. From E to E+ should take much longer, at least three years. Using the discounted prices of the Pioneer Tutorial was the best thing he could do with his AP at the moment.

"Upgrade strength all the way to E+ and resistance to E," Shen said.

| Purchased: Strength Up (E) | -16,000 AP

| Purchased: Strength Up (E+) | -32,000 AP

| Purchased: Resistance Up (E) | -16,000 AP

| Remaining AP: 109,202 AP

He didn't upgrade his resistance further because he still hoped to reach D-rank and would need the AP.

His muscles spammed and seemed to move under his skin, which started shedding, new one growing beneath the old and pushing the latter out of his body. There was no pain, but it was positively uncomfortable.

Shen's muscles had grown too big last time, so now he tested willing himself to become more compact. A big body didn't suit his fighting style, which had a lot of focus on dodging.

It worked. After almost ten minutes, the process finished, and his muscles were a little smaller. Not much, but it was noticeable if you were looking for it. His height didn't seem to decrease, but it helped with his reach, so he hadn't tried to grow smaller.

With that out of the way, he started cultivating to sync his body with his cultivation method.

The earth trembled so much it might be an earthquake. Shen opened his eyes to see a system message and a carnage.

Tutorial - Final Stage - Final Boss

You haven't defeated the final boss in 12 hours.

It will now go on the offensive.

The golem moved way faster than something of that size should, going toward the closest person at a rapid speed and crushing them. Most were stomped, but some were kicked. Humankind didn't last more than a minute after it went on the offensive.

It was a war weapon, after all.

When everyone was dead, the golem returned to the center as fast as he had gotten away from there. He had crushed some floating steps just by moving, and new ones rose from the ground.

Tutorial - Final Stage - Final Boss

There will be a new attempt at killing the final boss in ten seconds.

Do you want to join?

"No," Shen said and went back to his cultivation.

One month. For one month, he would do nothing but cultivate. That was how long it would take to put his body back in sync with his cultivation method.

The Hurricane Martial Arts required Water-based cultivation to complement his Wind-based martial techniques, so his body's attribute was important. But the crucial part was that his Rainfall Cultivation Method had been categorized as a B- by the system. He would need it to grow his stats after the system could no longer do it, and he hoped the method would last at least up to B-rank.

So, Shen wanted to make sure everything was as it should be now. He didn't even want to risk leaving his body too long with the generic changes created by the system just in case. Who knows, that might make him permanently incompatible with his cultivation method.

Fortunately, he could use that month for more than just adapting his body. Putting it back on track meant cultivating, which meant he would keep saturating it with qi. That would assist him with being able to withstand qi for longer.

Thanks to the multitasking ability of his E-rank, something he severely underutilized, he could even meditate on other things while doing that.

Shen wasn't worried about the final boss dying during that month. It was simply too strong.

He cultivated.

A few weeks later, Shen noticed that his core could hold more qi.

The more he focused on absorbing qi into his core to then saturate his body with it, the more his core expanded. Also, the more the runes etched on the core's walls grew more potent.

He had never understood everything the runes did. He knew they absorbed qi from the surroundings automatically and made it his. Now, he learned they also somehow compressed his qi.

Just by cultivating, his passive qi absorption increased, and he became able to hold more qi in his core—as the core grew bigger and the qi more compressed.

Shen had no idea how that worked, but it made sense that it would happen, as he needed the extra qi.

The more Shen advanced as a cultivator, the more he realized he knew next to nothing about it. The knowledge he had memorized as a Keeper-in-training was indeed just Foundational Knowledge. A proper Keeper of Knowledge with decades or even centuries of experience—including first-hand cultivation experience—would undoubtedly know much more and be better prepared to regrow a clan from nothing. Yet, they had been training him, a cripple, for the position.

The magnitude of what his father had done for him in making him the next Keeper of Knowledge only now truly dawned on him.

The memory made his heart ache. He was always fighting, distracted, worried about something else, ignoring that pain. Realizing that the old man had done much more to him than he had noticed while the old man was around... it made the pain worse.

The depths of such fatherly care... Shen was not worthy of it.

He cultivated while thinking of his father.

Shen concluded his Path lacked two Concepts.

It needed a Concept from the Laws of Water because his martial arts required it. He felt it would be stupid to cultivate using a Water-based method yet not have a matching Concept of his Path.

It also needed something to give him explosiveness. His power was currently only about speed and precision. He was lacking an extra punch, something to push his attacks an extra mile towards raw, undiluted destruction. There would be times when no matter how much he tried, he wouldn't be able to go through someone's defenses. When that happened, he wanted to have a way to brute-force his way through—almost like someone with a blunt weapon, like a mace.

He could theoretically take some Concept from Water that filled both jobs, but he also felt he should add a different Law. Spear was his Path's foundation, and three Laws would support it, Wind, Water, and another. It felt right that way, even if it was strange to think of something supporting a foundation.

Boundlessness, another Concept from the Laws of the Spear, would become almost tertiary. It would push everything else to greater heights but rarely be used directly, except for speed or getting out of a bind.

It was as if the foundational Spear would sprout three different secondary Laws. As those Laws grew, not only would they take the Spear from the soil, but also from the very air they breathed—Boundlessness—giving them extra vitality.

Shen had once called his Path the Path of the Spear. Though he had outgrown it, the name hadn't been entirely wrong.

He had almost added the Concept of the Flow to his Path back in the eighth stage. He had refused because it hadn't been what he needed at the time, but now he thought it would fit his fighting style well. It would also help deliver the explosiveness at the end.

Shen was using a Water-based cultivation method and had already touched on the Concept of the Flow before, so he managed to do it again while cultivating. It was the first Concept he added to his Path like that, and it felt very different.

To Flow in combat was to constantly move without ever being stopped, to become a formless stream, to follow the hidden rhythm of battle. To Flow in his cultivation method was to find the best way his qi should take to reach his entire body in the most effective way possible.

Shen was already moving qi in a set pattern, the one determined by his cultivation method, but Flow whispered to him tiny modifications that would make things better. He listened, and his cultivation smoothed out. He also felt his cultivation method resonate with the Concept originating from Water, and the qi somehow started saturating his body better.

Water did that, Shen realized. It filled containers whole. It was absorbed.

It wasn't something he was doing; he wasn't making his qi Flow-attributed. That extra efficacy came straight from his cultivation method, maybe the pattern he used. Either way, he was glad to have touched on that Concept.

His qi Flowed throughout his body, and Shen flowed with it.

Shen's peaceful, long cultivation let his mind relax, and with that, he got insights on his Concepts that he had been too close to notice. It was like how he had got a better grasp on them when he realized his will had to rule his Path rather than be led by it. Some things could be better perceived when you looked at them from a distance.

War, Combat, and Sharpness improved the most. As he had told Alicia, he used them all the time, and they would step ahead further than the others. They got as far as Zephyr was, and then some.

Shen realized another analogy that fit the situation just fine. While he was wielding his spear, he couldn't reforge it. He needed to leave the battle and let go of the weapon for the blacksmith to do his job. Likewise, he needed to relax entirely to improve his understanding of his foundational Concepts.

Of course, Shen could also improve his understanding of them while fighting. He needed both to progress. It was just that he was noticing for the first time that resting and meditating on things—for much longer than he had until now—was also essential for his Path.

War improved his strategies, ability to think ahead, and awareness of his surroundings. Combat made him even more effective in a fight. Sharpness would cut better.

Zephyr also improved, but not as much, and Boundlessness was all but stuck.

Flow was a new Concept, so while it benefited from being used on his cultivation method, he hadn't previous experiences to meditate on and let it improve.

After everything settled down, Shen took the time to decide on his next Concept, the final one of his Path.

It had to be related to explosions, shock waves, or raw force.

The Laws of Fire could have that, but Fire burned Wind and opposed Water. Though he was sure it could lead to some synergy, Shen felt that wasn't the way he wanted to go. He had enough on his plate already without the need to juggle a Law that didn't perfectly fit his Path.

Moreover, while the Spear was the foundation of his Path, Water was the foundation of his cultivation. If he didn't balance things perfectly, instead of explosive steam, he would end up extinguishing his attack power or evaporating his base strength. He would rather not do that.

Lightning also came to mind. A high discharge would lead to something akin to explosions, and Lightning was known for its destructive power. It was just what he needed.

He could theoretically use a Concept coming from a Law of a blunt weapon. His foundational Concepts let him use any Concept in his spear. Yet, it felt wrong to him to use, for instance, a Concept from the Law of Mace into his spear.

It looked like he would go with Lightning then, or maybe something he wasn't thinking about now. The Concept itself remained to be determined, but he was sure he wouldn't get enlightened about it in here. Even his insights on Flow had only been possible because he had connected to it in action before.

The Path of Feng Shen was a Path of action. He had just noticed the importance of calm meditation to solidify his gains, but it didn't change that he took the significant steps in movement, not sitting down.

About one month after he started cultivating, when the system asked him if he wanted to join the next fight, he said yes.