Spirit Foundation Realm, Stage 9!

William walked to the village bank with Lucky and was stopped by the guards.

"Who are you, and why are you here?" One of the guards asked.

"William, here to exchange for a cultivation technique." William replied.

"Which one and what stages do you need?"

"What do you have?"

"Nine Revolution Absorption, Spirit Gathering Scripture, Earth Spirit Gathering, Great Flame Spirit Gathering, and Winding Whirlpool Absorption."

"Anything that reaches the spirit condensation realm?"

"None."

"Then just give me the fourth to ninth stages of the nine revolution absorption."

"390 copper coins."

William handed over four silver coins.

"Right, I'll also need three gold coins."

The guard looked shocked.

"Gold coins!?"

William frowned.

"You don't have any?"

"We only have one." The guard quickly regained his composure.

"Then one is fine."

"100 silver coins or 10,000 copper coins."

William handed the guard 100 silver coins.

"Wait one moment."

The other guard went inside the building, and came out a minute later.

"Here you go."

They handed the books and coin to William, and he placed them in his spacial ring.

"Bye."

William walked home, picking Lucky up and carrying it in his arms. When he arrived at his house, he opened the door and set Lucky down. Then, he sat on his bed and took out the cultivation manuals.

"System, scan these."

"Affirmative."

William took a deep breath.

"System, raise my cultivation to the 9th stage of the spirit foundation realm."

"This will cost 390 SP. Confirm?"

"Yes."

"Raising your cultivation."

William felt a radiant glow surround him, and his body started to absorb the energy around him automatically. This energy continuously circulated in his body in a strange pattern, as if he was cultivating.

Just sitting there, William could feel his cultivation rising. A few moments later, the energy finally stopped circulating.

"Achievement completed: Reach peak of the spirit condensation realm. 100 SP awarded."

William smiled, felling his new strength.

'System, show me my status panel.'

______________________________________

[William Reynolds]

[SP: 484]

[Cultivation Technique: Nine Revolution Absorption]

[Cultivation Level: Spirit Foundation Realm- Stage 9] [+]

[Spiritual Force: 90/90]

[Strength: 29 (20+9)] [+]

[Speed: 29 (20+9)] [+]

[Agility: 29 (20+9)] [+]

[Spirit 29 (20+9)] [+]

[Will: 29 (20+9)] [+]

[Techniques Learned:]

[Farming (Novice)] [Cooking (Novice)] [Beast Taming (Initiation)] [Illusory Sword (Experienced)] [Sword Control Scripture (Experienced)] [Fleeting Cloud Movement Technique (Experienced)

_______________________________________

The first thing William noticed was his stats.

"There can't be many spirt foundation realm cultivators stronger than me." William smiled as he looked at his maxed-out stats.

"Actually, there are quite a few." The system interrupted him.

"What?" William frowned. "I maxed out my stats and my cultivation technique has reached its limit. At most, they would have better combat techniques, right?"

"Wrong. You must remember that the children of big clans will all be extremely gifted in cultivation, and they will get any resources they could ever need. From a young age, their bodies and mind will have been tempered with countless treasures beyond your imagination. Plus you have to remember that a stronger body and bloodline increases your stat limit. Some of these people might even have a stat limit at 40 even in the spirit foundation realm."

"Also, their cultivation techniques are far better than yours. Your current only adds one point to every stat right now, but some cultivation techniques might add three points to every stat, making them much stronger than you."

William was stunned.

"How is that fair! I have to cultivate and try my best just to reach the limits of this realm, but they get it fed to them and they're still going to be stronger than me!?!"

"Life isn't fair. And don't compare yourself to them. You have me. Even if you cultivate a technique, that doesn't mean you can't use another one. It just means you have restart your cultivation. With my help, it'll just be a matter of paying some SP."

William sighed.

"Your right. In the end, I have a system. There's no way I'll be worse off than them."

He opened his inventory to take a look.

"Okay, so I currently have three slots unlocked. So far, I've filled them with a silver coin, a gold coin, and a spirit stone. The gold coin is constantly getting collected by the system and being sold, so I'm getting some money even without doing anything. f I get another slot and put a gold coin in it, I could also get the system to collect and sell it, effectively doubling my money gain." William thought out loud and created a plan.

"System, how much would it cost to add another slot?

"50 SP."

"Purchase it. And put this gold coin inside."

"Affirmative."

William stored the gold coin away after seeing it appear in the slot.

"And make sure to collect it whenever its cooldown is over and sell it."

"Affirmative."

Done with that, William thought of what else he needed to do. Right now, his priority was to raise he cultivation to the spirit condensation realm. This would allow his stats to increase exponentially, quickly raising his strength. However, there were a few other things he could do. His current plan was to buy two more swords. One to hold in his left hand while Dusk Bringer was in his right, and one to make the nine swords he had in the air ten. This would bring him to twelve swords, the most he could use at one time.

He also wanted to buy a sword technique, something for combat with many variations, so that he wouldn't be stuck constantly using Illusory Sword, it being the only offensive technique he currently knew.

With this in mind, William was about to open the system's shop when he heard someone knocking on the door.

"William? You in there?"

Confused, William opened the door and peeked outside.

"Mr. Snider? Why are you here?" An old moan stood outside the door, leaning on a cane.

"The village chief wanted to meet you, so I showed him the way. I don't want to disturb you two, so I'll leave now."

As he spoke, Mr. Snider left and the village chief looked inside.

"May I come in?"

"Of course!"

William quickly bought a chair from the system shop and set in on the floor.

"Please, sit."

"Thank you."

The village chief sat down.

"Would you like some water? It's all I have right now."

The chief waved his arm.

"No need for such formalities. We need to talk."

Solemnly, William sat down on the side of his bed.

"What is it?"

"Every year, we take some children from the village who have cultivated and send them to the city to attend a cultivation school. I'm sure you've heard of this."

"I have."

"Well, I'm planning to send you along with some others to a school in three days. Normally, I would first tell this to your parents, but... you know. Anyway, I know you're mature enough to make the decision yourself."

"I'll go." This was exactly what William needed right now. As long as he could get into a cultivation school, he would have no need to worry about cultivation manuals anymore.

"Very well. We will set off towards Goldenrod city in three days."

"What tier city is it? What school will we be attending?"

"It's a tier two city. It conducts the entrance exam for many schools in other cities since it has a good place for an entrance exam. You'll go into a different school depending on your results."

"Where will the carriage be?"

"Just outside the village. The village bell will ring ten minutes before we depart."

"Okay. See you in 3 days."

William escorted the village chief out and closed the door. With this, his plans would be moved forward. He was originally going to the city himself at some point, but now he didn't need to bother.

"Well, I should prepare to leave."

Opening the shop, he navigated to the weapons section.

"Filter out everything that's not a sword."

After shortening the list, William scrolled down and searched for a good weapon to pair with Dusk Bringer.

"This looks good."

______________________________________

[Morning Glory]

[Price: 185 SP]

[Spirit Low Tier Weapon]

[A spirit low tier sword created by the casual hammering of a tier three blacksmith when they woke up. It is made using the flame revolving forging technique, and is made of stargold]

______________________________________

"Purchase [Morning Glory] for 185 SP?"

"Yes."

A golden sword appeared and William picked it up to inspect it. It was similar to Dusk Bringer, being nearly the same length. However, it was a bright golden color, clearly from the material it was made of. Its handguard had a small sun inscribed where it intersected with the blade and handle of the sword.

William held it in his left and brought out Dusk Bringer, holding it in his right.

"This is nice."

William swing the two swords experimentally. listening to them whoosh through the air. When he had tested enough, he put the swords away.

"System, find me a few battle techniques for two swords."

"Affirmative."

______________________________

...

[Sword Sea] [230 SP]

[Great Combination Sword Technique] [285 SP]

[Flame Cross] [305 SP]

[Park Family's Dual Sword Technique] [340 SP]

[Falling Autumn Swords] [485 SP]

...

______________________________

"Show me the Falling Autumn Swords."

______________________________

[Falling Autumn Swords]

[Price: 485 SP]

[Spirit Mid-Tier Combat Technique]

[A dual sword technique inspired by the falling leaves in autumn. This technique has 7 different forms.]

______________________________

"System, purchase this."

"You don't have enough SP."

William took out the gold coin and a stack of silver coins from his inventory.

"Sell this, and then buy it."

"Affirmative."

William caught the book that appeared in the air and opened it.

"System, how many SP do I have left?"

"3."

"...I'm poor again."

William calculated in his head. He still had three days. Every two and a half hours or so, he would get 99 SP from a gold coin being collected and sold. Since he had two, that meant he would get about 198 SP every two and a half hours. That was nearly 2000 SP a day. Plus, he still had the spirit stone that he could sell if he needed more money.

"Seems it wont take long to get that money back."

William put the manual for Falling Autumn Swords away for now and decided to wait until he got enough money to get about 30 seconds worth of the ultra comprehension boost.

Noticing that it was getting late, William decided to practice his techniques in the backyard for an hour before he went to bed.