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Benton felt more than a little disconcerted at the transformation he'd just finished. For one thing, he still lacked a body. For another, his Golden Core was now gone, having been incorporated into his new soul.

New. Soul.

Weird.

A box popped up.

New Soul creation successful. Congratulations, Host, you have achieved Nascent Soul minor realm one.

Aura creation in progress....

Gravity-based Concept selection recognized.

Gravity Aura created.

Body creation in process. Host has cultivated his Body to Gold Minor Realm Nine. Customization of benefits available at this time.

Would Host like to customize the benefits of Body

Cultivation?

That question was not unanticipated as he'd just gone through the same thing with Soul Cultivation.

"Yes, please."

Please allocate 100 Body Creation Points in the following categories:

Agility

Strength

Toughness

Vitality

Okay. The menu differed a bit from Body Cultivation Method Creation in that Ingredient Flexibility was not a choice, but that change made a lot of sense.

Benton's first thought was to evenly distribute the points across all four of the physical characteristics, but there was no reason for him to make a rushed, impulsive decision. For the moment, there didn't appear to be any pressing disaster he needed to stave off. Between Yuan Yaozu's presence and Benton simply advancing to Nascent Soul, most of his biggest security concerns were effectively mitigated.

He dug into each of the four options.

Agility was associated with control of his body and movement speed. Considering how much he favored being able to dodge blows and being faster than his opponent, he definitely wanted to devote a lot of resources to that category.

Strength, on the other hand, wasn't really his thing. He mainly fought at range. If he had to choose one of the four to completely neglect, it was that one.

Toughness impacted his ability to resist taking damage when he was hit. Prior to his last fight, he probably would have considered the category somewhat worthless as his goal was to dodge blows to the greatest extent possible. He was no longer playing in the minor leagues, though. Opponents at his level could and would land blows. He was almost definitely going to get hit again. Repeatedly. That category would never be his primary focus, but neither would he ignore it.

Finally, there was Vitality. It was similar to Toughness but was so, so different at the same time. Instead of resisting damage taken, it gave him a larger available pool of damage. To him, the crucial difference was that it would help keep him alive when subjected to the kinds of damage he wasn't sure that the other category protected him from. Take poison, for example. Did Toughness help with that? He didn't know. Vitality definitely would though.

Setting Strength at zero was an easy call, as was using fifty points for Agility. And since he favored Vitality over Toughness, he allocated thirty to the former and twenty to the latter.

Perfect.

He confirmed his choices.

Choices accepted.

Host, prepare for Body creation.

The most surprising thing yet happened next. A body appeared out of thin air, filling the robes that had been left empty. It was him but better. His muscles were more toned, and his skin shone with perfection. The biggest change, though, was his eyes. They glowed faintly with a red, almost purple, light.

Wow.

It wasn't the body appearing that surprised him, though. Nor having his new soul effectively sucked into its new home. No, the really surprising thing was that the process didn't hurt at all.

That was a first.

In fact, it was the opposite of painful. He felt good. Strong. Powerful. Healthy. Perfect.

Finally, he had made it to the Nascent Soul realm. To the best of his knowledge, there was no one on the entire continent at a higher realm than him. Higher in major realm anyway. His first order of business was to make sure that he was as powerful as possible.

"System, please increase my cultivation to the peak of Nascent Soul."

Choice accepted.

Host has reached Nascent Soul Minor Realm Nine.

Host has 1,443 Sect Points available.

There. Now, to the best of his knowledge, there was no one on the entire continent at a higher realm than him, and it had only taken him a total of seventy-two points to go from the peak of Golden Core to his current level.

There was one thing that bothering him, though.

"System, I don't understand why the Concept associated with my Aura matters. The Auras of the Cyclops and both my Nascent Soul opponents did the same thing, weakened my qi attacks. How did their qi aspect or Concept figure into things?"

Upon reaching Nascent Soul, a cultivator is automatically granted the equivalent of an Aura corresponding to one Concept at Small Success. All Auras at Small Success have similar effects, such as weakening attacks of enemies who are at a lower realm or a lower success with their aura. At higher success, Auras can be used in ways unique to their associated Concept. None of opponents Host fought appeared to have used techniques to strengthen their Auras.

Benton was utterly flabbergasted by that response. His Knowledge of Nascent Soul Cultivation technique had been vague on several details, including how Auras actually worked. He'd never heard of a technique to strengthen them. Either the sects were keeping the existence of such a closely held secret, or they didn't know about the techniques. If the latter, he'd just discovered a gigantic advantage he and his people would possess over everyone else.

He couldn't wait to discuss the subject with his newest disciple.

"System, please advance my Gravity Aura technique to Mastery."

Choice accepted.

Host has reached Gravity Aura - Mastery.

Host has 1,419 Sect Points available.

Knowledge of how to use his Aura flooded his mind. Instead of a static thing that simply increased defense like his opponents had welded, Benton's Aura was a scalpel. A weapon. If he faced a Nascent Soul with an Aura only at Small Success, they'd find themselves suppressed just like he had been as a Golden Core. But the application was more useful than that. He could flex his Aura to increase or decrease Gravity around him. The minute control he possessed over the element was astounding.

His next fight against a Nascent Soul would be fun indeed. They weren't going to know what hit them. And he wasn't even finished with his power up yet!

It was tempting, oh so tempting, to go ahead and purchase multiple Auras. He wasn't sure, however, how Aura would interact with each other, and though the technique had granted him knowledge, he wouldn't be comfortable until he'd had time to test it. Buying more Auras could wait until at least he had a chance to spar with Yuan Yaozu.

Besides, he was starting to run low on Sect Points. Considering that it took a whopping five hundred to create a new Nascent Soul using the Trial Pagoda, he really wanted to leave a buffer of at least a thousand points. And he had more stuff to spend it on.

Getting to one thousand sect members with an Average Loyalty topping six point five didn't just allow him to increase his Spiritual Cultivation. He had three other types to max out.

"System, please advance Mind, Body, and Soul Cultivation to the peak of the next major respective realm."

Choices accepted.

Host has reached Expert - Minor Realm Nine.

Host has reached Platinum - Minor Realm Nine.

Host has reached Nirvana - Minor Realm Nine.

Host has 1,203 Sect Points available.

Man, those points were decreasing fast, but the tradeoff was that his power was shooting up just as quickly. Just considering Spiritual Cultivation, his realm was as high as, or higher than, anyone he was likely to come against.

Not only that, but he had a huge advantage in that his Aura was at Mastery. Added to that, he was now at the very peak he could reach in Mind, Body, and Soul Cultivation, a level that he doubted anyone on the continent could come close to reaching as he knew of no other factions that really dedicated themselves to types other than spiritual.

Sure, some of them dabbled. Almost all sects had some members who practiced Body Cultivation to one degree or another. The Swift Blizzard Sect was rumored to have Mind Cultivators. No one that he knew of, though, had techniques for cultivating the Soul, and he seriously doubted that any of them possessed the ability to advance to a realm in any one of the three types anywhere close to how high he'd risen.

All in all, he felt pretty darn good about himself. The next person or group of people who came against him or his sect was in for a rude awakening.

Feeling that confident and only having a couple hundred Sect Points to spare made him want to hold off on spending any more. After all, he didn't know what would be more effective—buying multiple Auras to Mastery or purchasing new Mind techniques or some combination of the two.

Of course, he was also expected another four hundred Sect Points in the near future as his new inductees learned how to cultivate, thereby officially reaching Qi Gathering minor realm one with one of his cultivation methods. The main reason he actually wanted to hold off on more purchases was that he had a far more interesting choice to make—spending the Perk Point he'd received for recruiting Yuan Yaozu as his disciple.

Welcome, Host, to the Perk Menu.

Host has 1 Perk Point available. Selecting any perk from the list below uses 1 Perk Point. Using additional Perk Points on the same perk increases the potency of the perk.

Please choose from the following list:

Auspicious Encounter

Advantageous Starting Location

Enhanced Body Cultivation Power

Enhanced Cultivation Power (2)

Enhanced Physical Senses

Enhanced Spiritual Senses (2)

Enhanced Technique Power

Five Equipment Points

Hide Cultivation (2)

Regeneration

As expected, the first two options were still crossed out, leaving him with eight choices remaining, and the selection he'd picked last time, Enhanced Cultivation Power, now had a two after it. Everything else was the same.

Of the potential choices, two were absolutely breezes to eliminate. The first was Enhanced Physical Senses. Spiritual sense was a hundred times more valuable to him than his five physical ones. Besides, techniques and improving himself through Body and Spiritual Cultivation made those aspects better anyway.

Five Equipment Points was also a no-brainer to get rid of. He barely used equipment at all and, if he wanted something in particular, he could either purchase it in Sixth Flawless Flowing City or make it himself.

After those easy ones, his task grew much harder, so he just went down the list, considering each one.

Enhanced Body Cultivation Power held a bit of temptation for him. After all, he'd dumped a lot of Sect Points into getting himself to the pinnacle that the System allowed him to reach in that regard. Any improvement would make that spend even more valuable. He really liked that it would make him harder to kill as well. The problem was that he wasn't focused on fighting using physical attributes, making it hard to spend a rare resource like a Perk Point on improving.

As he thought about enhancing his cultivation power again, he realized that he could eliminate it as an option. While more qi was always good, his advancement to Nascent Soul had seriously upgraded his capacity. Combined with the efficiency that arose from using his Concepts, he had a hard time believing he'd run out of qi in future battles.

Enhanced Spiritual Senses Two was a definite possibility. His main enemy, The Jade Chameleon Sect, favored illusion spells, and selecting that perk would help pierce those techniques.

Likewise, Enhanced Technique Power was a good option. Most of his attack and defense was centered around using techniques. Getting more power out of all of those would elevate his combat abilities hugely.

Hide Cultivation Two, at first, seemed like a good possibility, but for the immediate future, Benton expected to be at a higher realm than everyone he encountered. Unless he had expectations of going against Nihility cultivators or higher, the choice made no sense, so he mentally eliminated that one.

Finally came Regeneration, which turned out to follow a mental track almost exactly opposite of Hide Cultivation. At first blush, he almost discarded it as an option. The more he thought about it, though, the more attractive it became. As a Nascent Soul cultivator with Platinum Body Cultivation, he already had access to a decent regeneration, and that characteristic was in addition to being, in general, very difficult to kill. How much more difficult to kill would he be if he added System-provided Regeneration?

The end decision came down to Enhanced Technique Power and Regeneration, and again, he had a very tough time choosing between the two. The former would make literally every technique he used more powerful. The latter would accelerate his Regeneration by up to an order of magnitude.

He couldn't help but think of the male cultivator whose body had consisted of a head and upper torso only there right before the end. Even without the man being conscious, skin and bone and muscles had been steadily reforming. Given enough time, he would have reconstituted himself entirely.

Benton suspected that his body would have put itself together even faster than his opponent's. The thought of regrowing limbs as quick as they could be cut of was appealing. Very appealing.

The experience of nearly dying so many times in the last fight had effected Benton a lot. As long as he survived, the System would allow him to grow more powerful than anyone else. The trick was to survive.

He chose Regeneration.