While Arthur was slowly coming to terms with everything that had changed after he had advanced to an Early Spirit Nucleus, Jian and Qin headed out of their house with dejected expressions on their faces. At this point, one might wonder why they were dejected. Well, surprisingly, it had something to do with Arthur’s advancement.

During the time he was unconscious, he basically disappeared… well, to the couple at least.

Surprisingly, the effects of [Spirit Aura], although passive, had deactivated while Arthur was unconscious. With that in mind, when the couple noticed that the density of qi around the shrine of their supposed god dropped down, they looked at each other with worry and fear in their eyes. After all, from their perspective, it seemed like the God of Spirit Slag had become angry at them.

Was it because they decided to sell the Spirit Slag the budding spirit vein was producing for their own benefit? Was it because they decided to start cultivating near the shrine as the qi there was denser than the qi in their natural surroundings? Or was it because…

They stopped praying?

After reaching that conclusion, they fervently prayed to the God of Spirit Slag, asking for the god’s forgiveness and mercy, telling the god that they were not selling off the Spirit Slag the budding spirit vein was producing for their own selfish needs. In fact, their prayer, which usually lasted around half an hour or so back then, was extended to a couple of hours because of this.

Unfortunately, after a couple of days of long and fervent praying, the God of Spirit Slag did not even give them a single response, causing them to become despondent as they wondered if the god had forsaken them.

And so, when they noticed that the density of qi around the shrine had returned to how it previously was once they headed outside in hopes the god had forgiven them, it was no surprise that the couple hastily kneeled to the ground and sang praises of the God of Spirit Slag.

In less than a minute, their opinion regarding the God of Spirit Slag had become positive once more, thinking that the god wanted to remind them that the god’s benevolence always came with something in exchange. In this case, that something in exchange was the temporary disappearance of the budding spirit vein’s presence.

In any case, they were glad that the budding spirit vein was back. Not only were they glad from the standpoint of their beliefs, but also from the standpoint of their personal improvement. As to why personal improvement was involved, once they were done praising the God of Spirit Slag and reciting their usual prayer, they surprisingly sat cross-legged near the shrine, intending to absorb the qi near the shrine to increase their cultivation.

As to why they decided to start increasing their cultivation once more, that was better saved for another time.

Nevertheless, as the couple were focusing on their cultivation as they still kept on with their daily routines, Arthur looked at the stat screen in front of him, coming to the conclusion that he had to focus on upgrading Qi Purity first. After all, not only did it increase the yield of each conversion he did, it also increased the range and duration of [Spirit Sense], the qi density of [Spirit Aura], as well as a few other things.

Recalling that certain time he had amassed a decent amount of points before advancing to an Early Spirit Nucleus, he remembered that he had already calculated the pattern to the increasing cost of Qi Purity, which involved slightly complicated math. With that in mind, he wondered if it would be better for him to amass a great amount of System Points before spending it all on Qi Purity, or generate a decent amount of System Points to upgrade Qi Purity somewhat before making his next move there.

Unsurprisingly, he decided to opt for the latter, thinking that it would take less time for him overall to do what he needed if he did that. And so, with [Spirit Sense] back at full blast, he started converting qi into Spirit Slag once more, only stopping about four days and a few hours later in the middle of the night.

Looking at the decent pile of Spirit Slag in front of the bluish-white octahedron, Arthur unhesitatingly exchanged it for System Points, allowing a kilogram of Spirit Slag to appear on the surface as the system told him he had obtained 1000 System Points.

Soon after, he opened up the stat screen once more, allocating most of the System Points he had obtained from the conversion process onto Qi Purity. With just one action, his Qi Purity had greatly increased, reaching Tier 1, Grade 6.

Ding!

[Qi Purity] has been upgraded to Tier 1, Grade 6.

[Qi Conversion] now yields 220 grams of Inferior Spirit Slag.

[Qi Conversion] now yields 70 grams of Spirit Slag.

[Spirit Sense] can now create a basic sensory field spanning 2.1 kilometers, lasting for 2 hours and 50 minutes before disappearing.

[Spirit Aura] now boosts qi density by 51%.

The limit of [Spirit Analysis] has been increased to the 6th Stage of the fifth cultivation realm.

After reading through all of the notifications he had received, he was left with 85 System Points. For some reason, he had an urge to convert a bit of Inferior Spirit Slag to turn the 5 into a 0. However, with the amount of time needed for him to really do that, he thought he was better off using that time continuing to convert qi into Spirit Slag.

And convert qi into Spirit Slag, he did.

Thanks to him upgrading Qi Purity to Tier 1, Grade 6, it only took about half a day to amass enough Spirit Slag to upgrade Qi Purity to the peak of Tier 1. Indeed, he had decided to upgrade Qi Purity once more rather than focus on other things.

Ding!

Would you like to exchange 1.3 kilograms of Spirit Slag for 1300 System Points?

“Yes.”

Ding!

You have exchanged 1.3 kilograms of Spirit Slag for 1300 System Points.

Looking at the faint smattering of Spirit Slag near the bluish-white octahedron left from the conversion process for a bit, he opened up his stat screen yet again, still slightly irked at the fact that the number at the end was a 5. Nevertheless, he placed that irrational anger to the back of his head for now and spent all of it on Qi Purity, upgrading it to…

Ding!

[Qi Purity] has been upgraded to Tier 1, Grade 9.

[Qi Conversion] now yields 300 grams of Inferior Spirit Slag.

[Qi Conversion] now yields 100 grams of Spirit Slag.

[Spirit Sense] can now create a basic sensory field spanning 2.5 kilometers, lasting for 3 hours and 30 minutes before disappearing.

[Spirit Aura] now boosts qi density by 60%.

The limit of [Spirit Analysis] has been increased to the Peak Stage of the fifth cultivation realm.

At this point, Arthur could not help but feel mentally satisfied to have upgraded Qi Purity to the peak of Tier 1, even though such a choice was already long overdue. On top of that, as an added bonus, although the range of his [Spirit Sense] only extended up to 2.5 kilometers, that was only considering the portion where he could sense everything in great detail. If he was fine with forgoing clarity, then that range was increased by 10 times.

Surprisingly, he could now barely make out where he was generally in, noticing the blurry walls of a small town situated to the west of the couple’s house.

Of course, the effects of Arthur’s upgrading spree did not go unnoticed to the couple. Not only did they notice that they now had a few kilograms of high-grade Spirit Slag ready to be sold, but they also noticed that the qi around the shrine was denser than it was a few days ago, making them sing praises to the God of Spirit Slag as they showed their devout belief towards the god yet again.

Satisfied with the great improvement Qi Purity brought to him after it was upgraded to the peak of Tier 1, Arthur wondered if he should go ahead and upgrade Qi Purity to Tier 2. After all, from what he could see through his stat screen, the cost to upgrade it to Tier 2, Grade 0 was 1000 System Points. In other words, he only had to activate [Qi Conversion] 10 times in a row to do so.

While pondering over it, he also thought about [Qi Conversion]. More specifically, the time it took for one conversion to occur. Thinking about it, he would save a great deal of time in the long run if he upgraded [Qi Conversion] to Level 20, reducing the time it took for him to convert qi into Spirit Slag down to just 15 minutes.

“Hmm… should I go with [Qi Conversion]… or should I go with Qi Purity?” he muttered to himself. “Upgrading [Qi Conversion] to Level 20 would only take 9 hours, while upgrading Qi Purity to Tier 2, Grade 0 takes 10…”

Realizing what he had just said, he went silent for a bit, wanting nothing more than to slap himself in the face if he could. With a light sigh, he activated [Qi Conversion], telling himself, “[Qi Conversion], it is.”