With his recovery rate now at 4 points of qi per hour, well… 3 points per hour since one point would always go towards replenishing [Spirit Sense], it only took half a day for Arthur to refill his storage, finally back at full capacity as he went ahead and used [Qi Conversion] three times in a row, reminding to pace himself as he aimed for a sort of equilibrium.

Naturally, while waiting for his qi to return to full capacity, he had learned a lot of stuff from the couple regarding their perception of him. Surprisingly, the two now wholeheartedly believed that the God of Spirit Slag truly existed, making them wonder as to why such a god would act so kind to them. Was it because they settled down near their shrine and kept them company? Or was it because the god needed people to spread its teachings of how Spirit Slag is the best thing in the world?

Of course, none of those were the right answer. The right answer was because Arthur wanted to complete his system quest as fast as possible. Listening to them a bit more as the moon was high up in the sky, he heard them talk about deciding to pray daily in front of the pile of Inferior Spirit Slag. According to them, they wanted to obtain the ‘blessings’ of the god they believed in, to which Arthur did not mind entertaining to a certain extent.

Other than information related to him, he had also obtained a certain piece of information from the couple that the past Arthur would definitely love to have… after being traumatized, of course. As to what he had found out, he told himself that it would be better if he just placed it in the back of his head and forgot he had ever heard it or seen it. Though, one thought still lingered in his mind even though he tried to forget it.

‘To think their tastes were that extreme… cultivators are definitely on a whole other level.’

After that, he continued to activate [Qi Conversion] three times in a row every hour, amassing a total of 4 kilograms of Inferior Spirit Slag by the time the couple that had gotten out of bed and ate their breakfast. While they were still in their homes, Arthur went ahead and exchanged the Inferior Spirit Slag for points, gaining 40 of them.

Sometime later, the two of them made their way towards the pile of Inferior Spirit Slag, which the two looked at with a hint of surprise as the pile had gotten somewhat bigger since yesterday. At this point, the total weight of the pile would probably be around 30 kilograms by now, way more than what the couple would realistically use in their lifetime.

Nevertheless, they kneeled in front of the pile as they started their prayer, surprisingly reciting one that seemed like it would come from an actual religion of sorts. As he could not help but think how ingenious they were, Arthur waited for them to reach a certain point in their prayer before activating [Spirit Aura: Infusion].

His target? Obviously, it was Jian.

Whoosh!

Just as the couple had finished the first verse of their prayer, which was actually long, considering that they took over 10 minutes to finish reciting it, Jian instantly felt a surge of qi enter his body once more as he could not help but become giddy. After all, this surge of qi only meant one thing to him.

The God of Spirit Slag was blessing him!

Hastily sitting cross-legged as he tried to become comfortable once more, he went ahead and assimilated the qi he had received into his system, transforming it into essence as he slowly but surely progressed towards the next stage of Essence Gathering.

However, before he could even finish assimilating all of the qi he had received from the god, he received yet another batch of qi! At this point, he could not help but have a shocked expression on his face, inwardly asking himself, ‘Has the god taken a liking to me?’

Unfortunately for Jian, Arthur only chose him because he would save 4 points of qi if he was the recipient of the skill. Then again, he would never know that.

Of course, after hearing her husband become silent again, Qin eventually opened her eyes, seeing that Jian was in a meditative state once again. Now that she had experienced the blessing of the god, she knew that he had been given qi that would aid him in his cultivation. Normally, they would be done assimilating the qi in 10 minutes or so, experiencing a decent increase in their progress. But for some reason, her husband had already been doing this for 30 minutes now.

Whoosh!

Yet another wave of energy was sent to Jian just as the second batch of qi was close to being fully assimilated in his body. Eventually, he had filled every nook and cranny in his body with essence, prompting him to use the remaining qi towards breaking through to the next stage.

With that, Qin watched her husband as his aura gradually got stronger, quickly intensifying in pressure before eventually settling down after a minute or so. Nevertheless, from the aura her husband was currently exuding, it seemed that the god had favored Jian for now. However, she was not disappointed, instead very elated at the god’s favor.

Why? Because her husband had broken through to the 5th Stage of Essence Gathering!

As Jian slowly opened his eyes, gradually acclimating to the newfound powers brought by the higher stage, Qin lunged towards him all of a sudden and gave him a hug as she congratulated him on his breakthrough. Letting out a chuckle, the two of them savored the moment for a bit before continuing their prayer, adding a few sentences that thanked the god for allowing Jian to break through to the next stage.

Well, at this point, Arthur did not care about any of that. After all, he had something more important to focus on.

Ding!

You have completed the quest [System Quest: The Makings of a True Spirit Vein (2)]

You have received 300 System Points.

“I can finally upgrade Qi Purity!” said Arthur with great glee. With Tier 1 Qi Purity, a lot of things would undergo an upgrade, with the most prominent upgrade among them being the fact that he would now be able to convert his qi into Spirit Slag!

With great excitement, he went ahead and commanded the system to upgrade Qi Purity to Tier 1, Grade 0.

Ding!

Would you like to upgrade [Qi Purity]? This will cost 100 System Points.

“Hell yeah!”

Whoosh!

Just as he had agreed to the prompt, a massive change happened to the landscape in Arthur’s mind. For one, the bluish-white cube from before now gained more faces, taking on a slightly more complex shape than before. From what Arthur could remember, the cube now took on the shape of an… octahedron? Well, at the very least, it now definitely looked more like that diamond crystal thing on top of people’s heads from that one simulation game.

As for the ground, it had finally taken on a solid white color as he now felt there was actual solid ground in his mind. It was definitely a weird experience for Arthur, but as his mental acuity was greatly boosted thanks to this single upgrade, he could not help but feel like the ground was an indicator of his mental acuity.

With that in mind, he could not help but think, ‘So eventually, once I reach an incredibly high level of mental acuity, will this world turn into a complex landscape?’

Although he could not help but wonder as to how that would happen, he definitely thought that it would be pretty cool if it turned out that way.

Ding!

[Qi Purity] has been upgraded to Tier 1, Grade 0.

[Qi Conversion] now yields 120 grams of Inferior Spirit Slag.

[Qi Conversion] now yields 10 grams of Spirit Slag.

[Spirit Sense] can now create a basic sensory field spanning 600 meters, lasting an hour before disappearing.

[Spirit Aura] now boosts qi density by 16.5%

The limit of [Spirit Analysis] has been increased to the 1st Stage of the fourth cultivation realm.

Unsurprisingly, as Qi Purity affected almost all of the skills Arthur currently had in his arsenal, a string of notifications also came along with the upgrade. Within seconds, Arthur quickly noticed that the upgrade to Qi Purity now increased his yield of Inferior Spirit Slag by 20 grams instead of 10. The same also went for [Spirit Sense], with the upgrade expanding the field’s range by 100 meters while its duration increased by 10 minutes.

In short, now that his Qi Purity was at Tier 1, the effects of the upgrade now doubled.

“It seems the system won’t use the actual name of the cultivation realm unless I’ve obtained the necessary knowledge for it,” Arthur said as he looked at the notification related to [Spirit Analysis]. Previously, the limit for the skill was the Peak Stage of Essence Condensing. Now, even though it followed the same format as before, it instead said the fourth cultivation realm rather than the actual name of the realm.

In any case, even though all of the notifications brought a decent amount of excitement for him, another notification soon appeared which elicited another feeling from him. A feeling of…

Confusion.

Ding!

With [Qi Purity] meeting the minimum requirements, you have unlocked the Spirit Receptor Module.