Chapter 172: Source Power Consumption

Bei'an County.

Ma Suxuan looked at the scenery by the window and let out a sigh of relief.

Regardless of the outcome, the matters here were finally settled; it was time to return to the Prefecture to report, and to settle scores with those fellows who had been secretly tripping her up!

"Ling Yun, have you considered it? Are you returning to the Prefecture or not?"

She turned her head to look at the silent Meng Lingyun before her.

"Although I won't be asking for your opinion on this matter, it would be better if you were willing; after all, a forced melon is not sweet."

Meng Lingyun spoke in a deep voice upon hearing this.

"If I leave, what will happen to Bei'an City? The Yin energy outside the city is still somewhat abnormal; if another mutation occurs, what should be done?"

"You don't need to worry about that. I have already spoken to that deity named 'You'; he will secretly protect the city, and his cultivation is far higher than yours—isn't that better than you?"

"You must think carefully about your own future! Staying in such a small place without opportunities for cultivation, you will be unable to advance to the Innate Level. Without a future, do you really want to grow old and die alone?"

Meng Lingyun fell into silence again.

He had to admit that this was indeed the truth.

The appearance of that deity had also stripped away his last shred of pretense; guarding Bei'an City and Bei'an County—there were others who could do it better than him, and they had higher cultivation!

"Then what about my adopted son, Meng Hao?"

"Just bring him along; he should wake up today."

"Then I must bring Li Heng; he has to agree to it."

He spoke again.

With Li Heng's natural talent, he must absolutely not be confined to such a small place.

"Rest assured, I already spoke to him about this long ago; he agrees and does not object, unlike you, who are so stubborn."

Ma Suxuan smiled slightly.

At this moment, Li Heng was staying in his own courtyard, taking stock of his gains from this period.

First was the Source Power.

Originally, because he had spent 1,000 points of Source Power to upgrade the Identification Function, only 8,975 points remained. However, during the trip to Beiguo County, he had killed the Black Mountain and the tree demon, and in the struggle with that Jinpeng, he had been affected by some Weird things in the city, also gaining scattered amounts of Source Power.

The total amount of Source Power had reached as much as 9,500.

He had also figured out the Source Power consumed at each stage of the Innate Level.

Upgrading techniques and manifesting items.

Improving from a zero foundation.

Small Second Heaven, which is the Standard Innate Realm, is 1,000 points of Source Power; Strong Innate is 3,000 points; Great Innate is 5,000 points; and Taiyuan is 8,000 points.

Except for Taiyuan, other stages increase by 2,000 points. But Taiyuan requires an increase of 3,000 points, clearly because the Taiyuan realm begins to involve a qualitative transformation.

As for consuming 10,000 points of Source Power.

That would likely be the Dharma Aspect Realm!

From this, one could also see that although Li Heng currently had a lot of Source Power, it was not enough to spend when spread out evenly; after all, he did not cultivate just one technique.

However, he did not regret this point.

The foundation built by cultivating a single technique was simply too monotonous and fragile. It was better to build an eternal foundation with multiple techniques; a ten-thousand-foot tower rises from the ground, and if the foundation has problems, the tower will not be secure.

Fortunately, this Source Power consumption could also be accumulated.

For example, for a technique at the Small Second Heaven stage to advance to Strong Innate, one only needed to add 2,000 points on top of the 1,000-point base, reaching a cumulative 3,000 points to perform the upgrade.

If this technique had never been cultivated before and Li Heng was completely at zero foundation, then the full 3,000 points of Source Power would be needed.

Upgrading techniques or manifesting items were both like this.

The Taiyuan Scripture, Pure Yang Classic Fragment, and Martial Canon on his person all belonged to the Small Second Heaven level of techniques, while the Three Flowers Record, he estimated, should be Great Innate. As for the two Dharma Aspects, the Great Sun Dharma Aspect belonged to Small Second Heaven, and the Earth Dharma Image was still below Innate as it had not been upgraded.

However, the progress of the Earth Dharma Image's Visualization, under the hard work of his Shinto clone and the improvement of Li Heng's main body's realm, had already reached 40%; he estimated that reaching 50% would allow it, like the Great Sun Dharma Aspect, to break through its own critical point and consume 1,000 points of Source Power to upgrade to Small Second Heaven.

And calculating according to the accumulated Source Power.

The Source Power he had accumulated.

Could expand the upper limit of the upgrade and point-adding function to the Dharma Aspect, and then consume his own Qi and Blood to push the techniques to the Dharma Aspect as well.

However, he would not choose to do so; if his own cultivation could not keep up, no matter how fast the improvement was, it would be in vain. Even if the technique broke through to the Dharma Aspect, he himself would not be able to advance. Furthermore, the Qi and Blood consumption for upgrading to the Dharma Aspect level was absolutely very high, not something the current him could pay.

As for the Great Sun Dharma Aspect? The progress was not high enough yet.

Although he had seen that brilliant Great Sun again before, which caused his Great Sun Visualization progress to soar to 60% and also corrected some errors in the Great Sun Visualization Diagram.

But he estimated that if the progress did not reach 100% and he did not thoroughly comprehend the true meaning of that Great Sun Visualization Diagram, he would not be able to advance to the Dharma Aspect. Unless he had a lot of Source Power to burn, throwing a large amount of Source Power at it, he could directly rely on a vague imagination to upgrade to the Dharma Aspect realm.

This diagram should belong to the Dharma Aspect level of things.

Furthermore, this belonged to the behavior of a gambler who would lose everything.

Upgrading to the Dharma Aspect realm would leave him penniless.

However, he was a bit curious now.

Although the Great Sun Visualization Diagram was just a miscellaneous picture for ordinary martial artists, meant only for viewing, even if one tried to visualize it, it would at most be for cultivating one's character. It would not be combined with a Visualization Divine Ability like his to obtain a qualitative improvement.

But it ultimately still belonged to the Dharma Aspect level of things.

Why would such a thing exist in a tiny Bei'an City?

Had a Dharma Aspect Realm expert existed here before?

He shook his head to suppress the distracting thoughts in his heart; whatever, he was leaving anyway, going to that so-called Prefecture. This Bei'an County region likely hid a great secret, but it was not something the current him could investigate; he would come back to investigate this matter after he became stronger in the future.

Furthermore, his own Shinto clone would not leave and was still staying at the Sanshan Gathering. There was also a Shinto avatar here in Bei'an City that could monitor the abnormal movements of Bei'an City in real time.

The original intention of creating clones.

Was precisely to let the clones sit in one place and assist him.

He pondered slightly in his heart.

He still intended to improve himself first; heading to the Prefecture, he would encounter more experts and geniuses, so he had to be fully prepared. Although he could not stake everything on using Source Power, he would use it in a balanced way, in line with the progress of his own cultivation.

For instance, first upgrade his Small Second Heaven level cultivation techniques to Great Innate.

Fortunately, he had the foresight earlier to create an upgrade and point-adding function; otherwise, if he had to use Source Power to improve every single technique, he would have been bled dry.

Burn four thousand points of Source Power.

The upgrade and point-adding function's upper limit expanded from Small Second Heaven to Great Innate, and more mysterious and complex patterns appeared on the Data Panel, emitting an unfathomable aura.

Four thousand points thrown away, and Li Heng didn't even blink.

No choice, he's rich!

He sensed the technique upgrade slightly more, calculating the Qi and Blood consumption required to push it to Great Innate, and was immediately taken aback. Good heavens, it actually cost him nearly eighty percent of his Qi and Blood.

One must know, he was now the Great Sun Sacred Body, and his explosive fist strength could even suppress Great Innate experts; his combat power was estimated to have reached the Great Innate level, yet it still required this much.

This was a rhythm meant to drain him dry!

However, this was also thanks to the Great Sun Sacred Body, as his Qi and Blood recovery speed was extremely fast; let him be drained, he would be drained for a while at most.

First, improve the Taiyuan Scripture.

After clicking the plus sign, the vast majority of his own Qi and Blood decreased from the level of Causality, and a long progress bar pulled out behind the Taiyuan Scripture, clearly in the process of an upgrade calculation.

Then, he was drained too.

Li Heng circulated the Great Sun Sacred Body, refining the surrounding Heaven and Earth Origin Qi to compensate for himself; he recovered quite quickly and continued to improve the subsequent techniques; the Martial Canon and Pure Yang Classic Fragment were handled with the same operation.

Of course, after being tossed about repeatedly so many times, even with his Great Sun Sacred Body, he couldn't quite take it, and nearly shook his life essence, suffering a severe injury to his Original Qi.

He shook his head.

It seems the improvement of the Three Flowers Record will have to wait a bit.

However, the Three Flowers Record was already at the Great Innate level, so it did not need to consume time for calculation like other techniques; it upgraded instantly upon upgrading, so there was no need to worry too much.

It's just whether this calculation process could be permanently shortened.

Could it even be calculated instantly?

He recalled a thought from before, expanded his mind to sense it, wanting to see how much Source Power was needed to realize such a function, and then he sensed at least a six-digit amount of Source Power...

Sorry, excuse me.

Li Heng fell into deep thought.

What is the principle behind this? It was clearly just sensing according to the lowest limit, yet it required so much Source Power? Could it be that time acceleration is needed to shorten the calculation process of the techniques?

Who are you looking down on? Think I'm poor, right? You ignore me today, but tomorrow I will make you unable to reach me; you just wait!

He gave a cold snort.

Pondering where there were more demons and Strange Monsters.

Slap!

The courtyard gate opened again.

Meng Lingyun strode in, his expression somewhat complex, and finally, he could only laugh and scold as he spoke.

"You brat, you actually backstabbed me!"

"Old man, how am I backstabbing you? Do you not want to return to the Prefecture? Do you still want to stay in this small place? Do you know how much I paid to help you?"

"But this is all following you to the Prefecture."

Li Heng smiled slightly and sighed earnestly.

"On this point, shouldn't you compensate me? Any technique, any divine weapon, you can bring them all out."

Meng Lingyun paused upon hearing this.

"You ran over to hold me accountable, and you actually want to rob me? If you robbed the wrong person, I am penniless; if I had any high-level techniques or divine weapons, would I still be staying here?"

He shook his head and laughed, then continued to speak.

"Meng Hao is about to wake up, are you going over to take a look?..."

Cold, shaking...

Meng Hao felt his body immersed in a dark ocean, drifting with the waves; only his consciousness perceived this, yet he could do nothing, eternally immersed within it.

It seemed like ten thousand years had passed, and it also seemed like only an instant.

Until light shone in the endless darkness, he could suddenly move; he opened his eyes abruptly, sat up abruptly, and looked at everything around him in a daze, until he saw clearly.

At the same time, he also saw the two people in front of him.

One was his foster father, Meng Lingyun.

And the other was that guy, Li Heng!

Li Heng looked at the waking Meng Hao and pondered slightly.

As expected, the bad luck on his body had changed.