My Clones Can Cultivate

Chapter 85

A loud bang echoed throughout the old man’s room as a figure could be seen being sent directly through the roof. Liyu crashed onto the marble ground and rolled for a few seconds before he finally managed to catch himself.

He could still hear the old man cursing; it seemed that he had truly pissed the old man off, but what exactly had he done? After all, he had answered every single one of the old man’s questions as honestly as he could, and what did he get in return?

Not only was he not believed by the old man, but he was also directly sent flying out of the infirmary with a rather painful punch. Liyu had to admit that, despite the fact that he was certain the old man had pulled back his punch, it was still incredibly strong and powerful, making Liyu feel weary and weak.

Maybe it shouldn’t even be that shocking; shocking or not, the old man was still a Bronze Core cultivator and possessed the power to crush the current Liyu if he truly wanted to. Liyu sighed as he rubbed his aching cheek before standing up.

He would spare the old man this time, or at least that was what he kept telling himself; he wasn’t going to beat the old man up for his transgression because, after all, the old man had treated him. Of course, Liyu was just being delusional now; there was absolutely no way he could beat the old man, and he was merely trying not to let the beating he had just received get to his head and ruin his pride.

After a while of internally complaining and convincing himself that he would surely get back at the old man for this someday, Liyu finally stood up and left for the cultivation chambers.

Since he didn’t actually know the way there... after all, the last time the clan lord had simply teleported him there... he first had to go and meet the clan lord. The old dude also looked rather concerned about him, asking why he had suddenly lost consciousness.

Cultivation could sometimes be exhausting, but it didn’t normally drain one’s energy; instead, it gathered energy. The only reason many cultivators stopped during cultivation was none other than the fact that it drained their mental energy; someone with a rather weak mental fortitude would naturally have a difficult time cultivating for weeks on end.

But in Liyu’s case, it wasn’t just his mind that had been drained; both his body and mind had suffered complete exhaustion. After seeing the old man’s reaction to him telling the truth, Liyu could only imagine how the clan lord would react if he also heard the truth.

If he were to receive a punch from the clan lord, forget about merely having pain in his cheek; he was more than certain that he would be returning to the infirmary soon afterward. So, making what he believed to be the right decision, he quickly came up with a rather believable lie.

The clan lord pondered over it for a while before finally nodding, and he then handed Liyu a restoring pill so that he could recover his mental energy before continuing his cultivation once more. Liyu accepted it, and after learning where the cultivation chambers were located, he immediately headed there.

He was eager to test out his newly upgraded cultivation sutra. The fact that it had advanced from the lowest rank, the Bronze Rank, all the way to the highest rank, the Obsidian Rank, filled Liyu with tremendous expectations; he truly wanted to see just how much he had improved it and exactly how much faster his cultivation would become.

Soon, he arrived at a vast field where numerous miniature cultivation chambers were scattered across the area. The ones located around the outer region were built from white marble-like stone; from what the clan lord had explained, those chambers belonged to the lower-stage Qi cultivators.

Normally, those were the chambers that Liyu and the others were supposed to use, however, because the Selection Tournament was rapidly approaching, both the clan lord and the clan elders had decided that everyone participating in the tournament would instead cultivate inside the chambers reserved for the true experts, such as the elders and even the clan lord himself.

After passing by many of the cultivation chambers, whose blue lights were glowing brightly to signify that their occupants were currently cultivating, Liyu was slightly amazed.

Almost all of the hundred or so cultivation chambers appeared to be occupied; he had mostly seen only the Body Refinement disciples around the clan recently, but perhaps he really shouldn’t be that surprised.

After all, if all these people were cultivating using the Bronze Rank Foundation Breathing Sutra, then honestly, forget it; they would require an extremely long time just to advance... maybe months, maybe even years.

If they also had to gather one hundred thousand qi threads just to form a single qi bead as he did... although he highly doubted that was the case... but assuming they did, then it would probably take them around three months or so just to advance a single stage, perhaps even much longer.

Advancing only one realm after cultivating for months, that was simply too inefficient.

Liyu sighed slightly. Should he perhaps give them the newly upgraded version? If he did, then they would have a much easier time breaking through, and the Li Clan would likely be able to produce many more Qi Gathering experts within just a year or so.

Liyu considered it for a moment before shaking his head; no, he was not doing that. No matter whether the way these people looked at him had changed now that he was strong, he still couldn’t forget all the pain and the scorn he had suffered from them.

The harsh words, the painful words they had all thrown at him; some had even gone as far as saying that he was better off dead. Liyu shook his head.

He must be feeling slightly sentimental toward them because of the original owner’s lingering emotions toward the clan, but he had far stronger emotions he was willing to let out than mere sentimentality toward those he perceived as enemies.

And those emotions were hatred and a little bit of glee; he owed them nothing. With that thought, his gaze turned cold as he walked past the white marble cultivation chambers and entered the inner part of the field, where the cultivation chambers were instead built from black marble rather than the white marble used for those outside.

Unlike the outer area, where there were several hundred cultivation chambers, this inner section contained only around thirty. Only a few of them had their placement orbs glowing blue; if he had to guess, Yuexin and the others were most likely cultivating inside those chambers.

He didn’t go to meet them, though; based on what he knew, they were all deeply engrossed in cultivation, and disturbing them now would serve no purpose. Instead, Liyu headed straight toward the largest cultivation chamber there... the one reserved for the clan lord himself.

Taking a seat, he summoned his system panel. Right where there had previously been no cultivation technique listed, there was now one: "Cultivation Technique: Foundation Breathing Sutra. Rank: Obsidian. Description: Absorbs 1 qi thread per second during cultivation."

Liyu’s eyes widened slightly in shock as he read the details: "What the hell... from 0.01 directly to 1?" Wasn’t that like a hundredfold increase in the amount of qi threads he could gather? Wait, wasn’t this a little too much?

Liyu was completely dumbfounded and baffled by what he was seeing; at best, he had expected the upgraded sutra to allow him to gather around 0.2 qi threads per second, but this... wasn’t this way too exaggerated?

"Hey, Sys. Tell me... what exactly is happening here?" Liyu couldn’t help but ask. The system answered after a few seconds had passed, which was a good sign; at least it meant the system was actually going to explain things instead of roasting him again.

"Host, based on Elder Jushong’s reaction earlier, I suppose you should already be able to tell that what you accomplished can only be described as heaven-defying in a sense. Increasing a cultivation sutra, combat technique, or defensive technique from one rank to another requires an enormous amount of effort, comprehension, and willpower."

"Even though the clan lord is already at the late stage of the Silver Core Realm... a difference in power between you two so vast that it can barely be compared... he would perhaps only be capable of improving the Foundation Breathing Sutra from the Bronze Rank to the Silver Rank after several months of continuous effort. And even then, the improvement granted to those who cultivate it would not be significant enough to make a truly massive difference."

"I believe that is one of the reasons he doesn’t even bother trying. Also remember this: if advancing a technique from Bronze Rank to Silver Rank requires that much effort and time, then advancing it from Silver Rank to Gold Rank would require two or three times as much effort. From Gold Rank to Emerald Rank would perhaps require more than seven times the effort, and from Emerald Rank to Obsidian Rank... that could easily require more than fifteen times the effort and time. So you should now understand that what you accomplished today is, to most cultivators, simply mind-blowing."

Liyu remained frozen in place for a long while, almost as if he had entered a trance. If what the system was saying was true, then perhaps it would have taken the clan lord years of repeated effort... maybe even decades... yet he himself had accomplished the very same thing within just a few hours.

Liyu remained motionless for a while longer; then, a crazy smile slowly spread across his lips as he lowered his gaze toward his own hands. "Damn... that means... I really am the greatest genius." He looked up at the sky and laughed for a very, very long time:

"In all of existence... I am truly the Honoured One," Liyu declared with a wide grin. The system, of course, never failed to ruin his mood: "Host, stop laughing like a lunatic. Of course, the host is a lunatic, but you don’t need to wear that smile every single time."

Liyu didn’t respond; he simply continued laughing. The system sighed before speaking again: "Host, what you have accomplished might seem amazing... and, to be sincere, it is sincerely and completely amazing... but remember that you possess an unfair advantage over every other cultivator."

"Not only do you possess a Divine Grade spirit root that makes it far easier to interact with spiritual threads, something no cultivator in the Mortal Stages should be capable of doing... But you also possess a Divine Grade physique, one that grants you an enormous energy reserve while greatly enhancing both your mental and physical capabilities beyond what ordinary cultivators can achieve."

’However, your true ace is something else entirely: your Origin Eyes. Another Divine Grade ability that allows you to perceive, decipher, analyze, and reconstruct everything before you. Every flaw was revealed and thoroughly analyzed by those eyes."

Liyu gradually stopped laughing. Well, thinking about it, he indeed had many advantages working in his favor, but still, he was more than certain that he himself had also contributed greatly to his success; after all, he truly was a genius.

The system hated to admit it... it truly hated to... yet it couldn’t deny the truth. The speed at which Liyu’s mind processed everything the Origin Eyes displayed was simply astonishing; strictly speaking, he had accomplished something that, even if another person possessed every single one of his cheats, would still have taken them far longer to achieve.

Indeed, Liyu was a true genius... a psychopathic genius. Hearing the system actually admit that much made Liyu burst into another fit of laughter. Sincerely, he had never imagined the Origin Eyes could be this absurdly powerful, but now that he had personally experienced their capabilities firsthand, he was more than pleased with himself for obtaining them.

The system suddenly spoke again inside Liyu’s mind: "Hey, Host... listen up. If I were you, I would begin cultivating immediately. Don’t forget that just as your Divine Grade spirit root grants you tremendous advantages, it also comes with a fatal disadvantage: you may cultivate much faster than ordinary cultivators, but remember... if everyone else’s cultivation ceiling is like a one- or two-story building, yours is more like a skyscraper."

Hearing those words immediately wiped the smile from Liyu’s face because he knew the system was right; he required far more than ordinary cultivators to break through. Feeling slightly uneasy and burdened by a bad premonition, he couldn’t help but ask, "How many qi beads does a normal cultivator need to form a qi cluster?"

The system answered almost immediately: "For a normal Earth Grade cultivator, around three to five qi beads. For a Sky Grade cultivator... around five to ten.".Liyu couldn’t help but feel an itch in the back of his mind:

"What about someone with a Sacred Grade spirit root... like Yuexin?" he asked. The system remained silent for a moment before finally replying: "For someone like Yuexin, who possesses a Sacred Grade spirit root... I would estimate somewhere around eighty to ninety-nine qi beads."Liyu’s eyes twitched.

Didn’t that mean he would probably need over two hundred qi beads... or perhaps even more... just to form a single qi cluster? Liyu sighed, and after the system confirmed that such a possibility was indeed very likely, he immediately decided to begin cultivating. The sooner he started, the better.

He sat down cross-legged and entered a meditative state, then he activated the Obsidian Rank Foundation Breathing Sutra. Immediately, he felt streams of qi rushing through his meridians.

Just then, another system notification rang inside his mind: "Ding! Divine Grade Spirit Root boost has been applied. 100× cultivation speed increase. Current cultivation speed: 100 qi threads per second."

Another notification followed almost instantly: "Ding! Devouring Debt passive effect has been activated. Cultivation speed has been doubled. Current cultivation speed: 200 qi threads per second."

An overwhelming surge of revitalizing qi flooded through Liyu’s body, making him feel more alive than ever before. He couldn’t help but smile; his efforts had truly paid off.

He really was... a genius.