After getting a nagging feeling at the back of his mind that he had become too engrossed in reading the new piece of knowledge he had bought, it was only then did Arthur find out that a day had inadvertently passed.

Even though he knew very well that a long amount of time would pass while he read through this information, such as when he read the previous two pieces of knowledge he had bought back then, he never thought an entire day would unknowingly pass by while he was filling up his mind with more information. Of course, knowing very well that he wasn’t even done finishing [The Intermediate Realms of Cultivation] yet, he was certain that another day would pass by if he aimed to finish it to the end. Even two more days wasn’t out of the realm of possibility.

With that in mind, he could not help but inwardly let out a sigh of relief, thanking the nagging feeling at the back of his mind… only to wonder soon after why realizing how much time has passed after he was finished reading the information he had bought was bad. After all, if more time would pass, that meant more Spirit Slag would be produced, which in turn meant more System Points for him to spend.

“Ah, whatever,” he muttered to himself, deciding to forget the matter as there was not much harm in stopping his reading session halfway. On top of that, with one conversion only taking 15 minutes, the amount of Spirit Slag he had amassed after a day would definitely amount to a lot for him. “In any case, I should probably look at what other pieces of information I could buy from the Knowledge Module once I’m done upgrading some more stuff. It’s a good way to pass the time.”

“Ehem. Aren’t you forgetting something?” a voice said all of a sudden, prompting Arthur to instantly recall that there was actually another way for him to pass the time other than [Spirit Sense] and the Knowledge Module. Yet for some reason, after he had automated the conversion process… he forgot about it.

“Am I?” Not wanting to admit he had forgotten the existence of Sisa for a bit, Arthur replied with a slightly awkward chuckle. “It would be great if you could give me a refresher.”

“You want a refresher? Sure, I’ll give you one,” said Sisa, her tone somewhat cold. “Two words. Me.”

“Wait… isn’t that just one word?” Arthur continued to feign ignorance as he replied. “Anyways, what about you did I forget?”

“What about me? Well, let me make it simple for you,” Sisa replied.

“You forgot me.”

“After you used your [Spirit Sense] for a couple of hours, rather than deciding to talk with me to pass the time, you instead decided to open up the Knowledge Module and read through the information available for you,” she continued. “It’s not like there’s a problem with that or anything, but the fact that you directly went and opened the Knowledge Module without even asking me if I wanted to talk with you… kind of hurts.”

Seeing a side of Sisa that he had never seen before, someone he had come to know as his assistant and guide in this new world he was reborn in, it was quite surprising for him to find out that she also had emotion.Of course, it’s not like he thought she had no emotions. After all, he could hear it from the way she talked. It’s just that he never thought of her emotions as something more than an embellishment to make the system assistant feel more lifelike.

It was only now did it occur to him that there was probably more to the assistant he had come to know as Sisa. Perhaps she was also a human in her past life, just like he was. But instead of being reborn as a spirit vein or the like, she was instead reborn as an assistant of a system… which was owned by someone who was reborn as a spirit vein.

Either way, he had a feeling as to why she was cold to him. A feeling he came to know after being reborn as a spirit vein.

‘If I don’t talk to her, then it’s no surprise that she would feel alone. I could busy myself with tasks like upgrading stuff, converting qi, or using [Spirit Sense]. However, she can’t do that. She can’t do anything else other than see what I’m doing… or talk to me,’ he thought to himself.

With that, Arthur was about to say sorry to her, only to find the words stuck in his non-existent throat as he instead felt like it was better to beat around the bush, saying, “Well, you know… we only have a limited amount of things to talk about before we eventually run out of topics. I just wanted to save our conversations for another time…”

But eventually, Arthur gave in and said the words he was sure Sisa wanted to hear.

“Sorry, I forgot.”

After those words, Sisa let out a long sigh, a sigh not only filled with disappointment towards Arthur, but also a sense of relief. Soon after, she murmured, “As long as you understand.”

“I’ll make sure to remind myself to tell you what I’m going to do more often,” Arthur said in response. “Plus, if you want to take the initiative in asking me some stuff or making small talk, go for it. A conversation isn’t one-way, after all.”

“I… kind of forgot about that,” replied Sisa, prompting a light yet awkward chuckle to come from her not long after.

Making a mental note to make amends with her later, Arthur focused his attention towards the pile of Spirit Slag that had been accumulating for the past day or so. Unexpectedly, at the very moment he laid his non-existent eyes upon it, he could not help but utter…

“Damn. That shit’s huge. Literally.”

With [Qi Conversion] running on auto for a day thanks to the Knowledge Module, plus a few more hours thanks to some other stuff he did before becoming engrossed in reading, Arthur had unexpectedly amassed a total of 11.1 kilograms of Spirit Slag. Including the Spirit Slag he had exchanged in order to buy [The Intermediate Realms of Cultivation], all in all, he had produced 11.6 kilograms of Spirit Slag.

Compared to the other piles of Spirit Slag and Inferior Spirit Slag he had produced before, this one took the cake for being the biggest pile he had amassed before being exchanged for System Points. In fact, it was about twice as big as the largest pile he had amassed before this one.

Hence, when he was given the prompt to exchange this pile for System Points, a tone of slight hesitation in exchanging it could be heard in his voice as he replied, “Yes.”

Ding!

You have exchanged 11.1 kilograms of Spirit Slag for 11,100 System Points.

As he watched his System Points go up to the five digits, Arthur went ahead and did what he first planned to do with the points after he had amassed a large amount of it.

Ding!

[Qi Recovery Rate] has been upgraded to recover 10 points of qi every hour.

Adding on the percentage increase brought by the upgrades from the Spirit Receptor Module, he was now able to recover 16 points of qi every hour, allowing him to maintain an equilibrium with [Qi Conversion] as long as the duration did not go under 4 minutes or so.

With 2050 System Points spent on upgrading Qi Recovery Rate, he was left with over 9000 points to spare. Wondering what he could do next with such an absurd amount, it was at this moment that he remembered that there was a module he could gain access to if he upgraded the Spirit Receptor Module to the peak of Tier 5.

Naturally, once that thought surfaced in his mind, he spent 2500 of it to upgrade the Spirit Receptor Module to the peak of Tier 4, increasing the percentage boost from 60% to 95%. In turn, that increased his recovery rate to 19.5 points per hour, or just a little bit above 3 minutes per [Qi Conversion] if he aimed for equilibrium.

Because of this decision, he now had access to Tier 5 of the Spirit Receptor Module, which was called Receptor Expansion. Though, once he saw the price of the next tier, he decided he was better off postponing the purchase to a later time.

“750 System Points per level… 30 levels in total… yeah… I’ll save that for later,” he muttered to himself as he quickly forgot about the matter, quickly thinking about what he could use the remaining 7000 or so System Points on a few seconds later.

“Hmm…” As he thought about it, two possible ideas popped up in his mind. Then again to him, both of the ideas were good, although one of the two focused on his wellbeing rather than his overall progress. Being stuck at a crossroads as to whether he should focus on progress or wellbeing, he eventually decided to ask for Sisa’s opinion.

“What do you think I should spend my remaining System Points on? Skills? Or [Qi Conversion]?” Arthur asked, to which Sisa quickly replied, “I’m sure you know my answer to that.” Unsurprisingly, her response was still slightly awkward thanks to the happenings a while earlier.

“Had a feeling you’d say that,” Arthur said in response, ignoring the awkwardness of Sisa’s reply as he spent 1000 System Points to upgrade Qi Purity to Tier 2, Grade 0.

Ding!

[Qi Purity] has been upgraded to Tier 2, Grade 0.

[Qi Conversion] now yields 330 grams of Inferior Spirit Slag.

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

[Spirit Sense] can now create a basic sensory field spanning 2.65 kilometers, lasting for 3 hours and 45 minutes before disappearing.

[Spirit Aura] now boosts qi density by 63%.

The limit of [Spirit Analysis] has been increased to the 1st Stage of the Stellar Foundation Realm.

“Cool. The system applied the knowledge as soon as I learned it,” Arthur could not help but say as he quickly focused his attention on another part of the system.

Ding!

Would you like to upgrade [Qi Conversion]? This will cost you 3000 System Points.

“Yep.”

Ding!

[Qi Conversion] has been upgraded to Level 21.

You can now convert qi into Inferior Spirit Slag in 55 seconds.

You can now convert qi into Spirit Slag in 10 minutes.

You can now convert qi into Superior Spirit Slag.

“…”

“…”

“…”

“I had a feeling this would happen.”