Several things run through my mind as I take a leisurely walk over to my personal tower.

Foremost in my mental space is the next steps that I should take to secure my position, and protect me and those I care about.

I have a decent group here. People under contract to protect me and my secrets, allowing me to increase their strength to get even better at it.

A secure location, with the ability to gather large groups of spirit beasts to protect me. And without the need to feed and a constantly healing, growing body, never have to worry about a rebellion from them.

And finally, seniors that are watching out for me and keeping most strong cultivators away. Who are also under contract and looking for more people to add to it. Not only that, but committed because of the massive benefits that I bring to them.

There is one major gap in my defenses with powerful seniors, though.

The sect leaders.

Even with how strong Sister Nuan is, she’s still an Early Nascent Soul cultivator and, even more importantly, a member of the sect.

Eventually, I’m going to be brought before the sect leaders and expected to use my abilities for the sect. To explain how and where I got this and provide a reason that I won’t be essentially be enslaved to constantly do the sect’s bidding. Righteous sect or not, benefits are benefits for them.

I assume she’s hiding this information for as long as possible, but it’s only a matter of time.

… I should run my scan on how I can still keep my freedom.

…

..

.

It can’t be that simple?

… Right?

But it is.

My scan shows me an obvious method. One which I had accidentally laid the seeds of early on.

I received my power as a stated gift from an omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent being to survive in this world.

They’ll definitely be using truth-seeking methods with me. Assuming that my suspicions are correct about this being, I’ll at least be able to hold them off with the concept that the being is my master. Inferring that it would be terrible to take strong actions against me.

Adding to the fact that I had mysteriously come back to life and had such mind-boggling abilities and insights, it’ll be a clear and normal answer for cultivators.

Especially, depending on the way I frame it.

This mentally takes a huge weight off my shoulders.

In some ways, I’m a little excited for it to happen. There will be a lot of benefits incomings, if I do it right. But, also a massive number of dangers, if I’m wrong or if I do it wrong.

Either way, I should focus on the near term.

Like my cultivation.

Currently, my cultivation is still at the first level of Qi Condensation.

Of course, with my massive cultivation speed boosts from my healing constitution (stackable 100x boost from using a healing cultivation method and 100x boost from using healing abilities) and my 2 Orchid Heaven spirit root (3000x cultivation boost), I won’t be staying long at this level.

I’ve already optimized my spirit root to the highest level I can at this point, so any further increases will have to be done over time with my healing constitution.

So, for now, this is what I have.

With the amount of boosts I have; I’m so tempted to just soar through the levels quickly.

Going from the first level of Qi Condensation, all the way to Foundation Establishment in a day.

But what many of those cultivation stories didn’t talk about were the benefits of a variable foundation. If I move too fast through the ranks, I will miss out on exponential (not additional) benefits.

Adding to that is how I had built my body when I broke into the first rank. Faster and more qi. Stronger and more in control of it. Higher responsiveness and sensitivity. And many more minor, but stacking benefits.

These have costs. Many of which are mitigated and eliminated by my healing constitution, but are still there.

But I could turn all these into a further benefit, if I take more time at each level.

My cultivation base, with these variables, is like a balloon.

Most people have a normal balloon and try to pack as much air (condensing qi) into it, without breaking it. Geniuses or people with a solid body cultivation start, have a bigger balloon to fit more air into (middle dantian), or techniques/body qualities to pressurize more air in.

And, of course, the speed of this interaction is determined by their bonuses and spirit roots.

Because of the way I did this, I have an enormously large and strong balloon, along with tons of body qualities/techniques to fill it with.

However, unlike even the best geniuses, these benefits don’t just stop at the initial foundation.

Most peoples’ ‘balloons’ stop at a certain size and they come up with ways to pack more qi in. Their cultivation methods assist in this process, so it’s fits a certain curve.

My foundation grows with my healing abilities. Every time I reach a new level, the potential size of the balloon increases.

Of course, there is a theoretical size limit for every rank, where it will waste time to stay in it, for only a small benefit. That’s my window to move on.

Either way, this means that if the benefit is exponential, the longer I spend in each rank will lead to MUCH larger gains for future ones. And with my scan, I’ll be able to determine exactly when that is.

Adding to that, I already tell that the normal stopping point within Qi Condensation levels, being rank 9 Qi Condensation, isn’t the true ending for this realm. In fact, my scan tells me that the secret ending point for geniuses is rank 11.

I’ll be going beyond that.

But my goodness… this will be so painful later on.

The body was not meant to grow like this. Only with my healing constitution and aura, am I able to push through those limits.

At least it will help me get used to pain in some ways.

I’m not able to do the same for others, as they don’t have the healing constitution to remove negative conditions and keep positive ones; a distinction that lets me increase the size of my qi capacity and strength without constant downsides. I’d have to increase to a much higher level with my cultivation techniques to do such a thing for a person later… and early in the technique, they’d have to be at a low rank of Qi Condensation for it to work best.

Doing things like this will massively slow down my progression speed. If I try to go too fast with the ‘expansion’, it could ‘pop’. Which I could heal but would ruin the whole point of this.

Hmm… compared to Ai or Lin, I will lag behind them.

I suspect to see many of them reaching Foundation Establishment, by the time that I’m at Mid-Qi Condensation. But my effective qi should be massively higher.

By how much? I’ll just have to see.

But, compared to the normal and genius cultivators, we will move absurdly quick. Especially with all the additional things I’ll be throwing at them, and myself.

Either way, I’m definitely going to be cultivating for much of the day for the next week.

That should be enough to get me to…

…

Ah, shoot. Never mind.

I have to pick up the cultivation methods with Ai and Lin. The earlier I can get these and turn them into something usable for Gong and the personal group, the better.

Not only that, but I should start condensing my knowledge in different areas to make a better lesson plan for others.

No need for me to do everything after all.

And there are a ton of other promises I’ve made.

… Sigh.

So much to do.