Marrow Refinement Stage, Technique Rankings

"Very nice," I said with a content expression. "It's more than double what I received when I broke through to the Flesh Refinement Realm. And as expected, lighting up these Inner Array Nodes has actively increased my Energy stat. This means that it's enlarging my Innate Energy Sea, subsequently improving my Maximum Innate Energy amount."

However, as much as I loved reveling in my achievements, I had to resume my cultivation and improve my strength even further.

Yet, within the first few seconds, I realized something that made me reconsider what I should be doing right now…

"To reach the next stage, it'll take ten times longer than all the previous stages combined," I said, double-checking to verify that this information was correct. "Yep, it's true… This means that achieving the Marrow Refinement Stage in a short period will be highly implausible."

This also meant that my original plan of racing to the peak of the Body Refinement Realm in one go was tossed straight out the window!

Oh well, I guess it's back to taking cultivation talent from all the loyal members of my family. If those powerful lasses from earlier cross paths with me again, I'll also steal some Affinity Orbs from them as well.

With everything decided, I rose from my cultivation mat and exited my room. After which, I strolled throughout most of the mansion, found anyone cultivating, and stalked them until they dropped my Orbs.

This, of course, created some more rather unsavory rumors about me.

But did I care?

Nope, I had no f*cks to give!

When I became all-powerful, the opinions of a bunch of nobodies wouldn't matter a single bit anyway. What they thought of me meant about as much to me as what negative effects could come to be as a result of my actions for future generations.

I wouldn't be alive by that point. What did it have to do with me?

— 2 hours later —

It had been about eight hours since I began my first cultivation session. Now, I was back on my cultivation mat, making good use of all the Affinity Attribute Orbs I had snatched up in the past couple of hours.

Though, the only reason I was cultivating again so soon was that I had reached a point in my Affinity Attribute Orb acquisition where barely anything dropped anymore. Even the well-known geniuses of the family had nothing left to give me after I secretly robbed them so many times.

This was due to a limit I had when it came to the number of times I could force an Attribute Orb to drop. This limit was different for every person I stalked—some had higher limits, some had lower limits—but that didn't mean much when I was robbing everyone of everything they were worth.

Furthermore, after I passed the 1000 Affinity stat mark, the values on the Attribute Orbs I saw drop were severely reduced. It went from the occasional double digits to never surpassing the single digits.

It was made abundantly obvious that I had to venture out into the world to find more superior Attribute Orbs. But to do that, I required strength. For even if my family's status was there to support me in name, I would eventually come across a group that didn't give a sh*t what my last name was.

Next thing you know, I'm lying as a corpse in some alley with all my organs missing and my butthole violated!

This was not what I wanted! Not at all!

To avoid this somewhat probable outcome, I cultivated with everything I had. Day in and day out. I only took breaks when I needed to perform my mortal duties; otherwise, it was the cultivation grind 24/7, baby.

— 14 days later —

Two weeks had flown by in a flash. And with my persistence, tolerance to pain, and grindset mindset, I managed to advance to the Marrow Refinement Realm!

Although I had yet to achieve the peak of the stage, I still believed that I had accomplished one hell of a feat.

Two weeks to jump from the Skin Refinement Stage to the Marrow Refinement Stage—if anyone else knew of this, their eyes would bulge out of their sockets. But considering how much pain had to be experienced to accomplish this, it made a lot more sense.

Plus, I may or may not have had my Affinity Attribute at a point that the System had termed to be of the 'Earth-talent' level.

In this world, there were ranks for both one's cultivation talent and the techniques or martial skills they practiced. These ranks were the same for all of these things and were classified as follows:

1- Mortal

2- Yellow

3- Black

4- Earth

5- Sky

6- Heaven

7- ???

8- ????

9- ???????

There were said to be ranks beyond the Heaven Rank, but within the Elemental Nations and even the surrounding regions, such ranks were more myth than reality. Hell, even the Sky and Heaven Ranks were rarer than a shiny OG Charizard card.

This was also why the |Extreme Madman's Inner Array| was such an enigma of a technique. It was very, very, very tough to cultivate while in the Body Refinement Realm, and because it couldn't be cultivated after one advanced past the Body Refinement Realm, its value was reduced to less than most Earth-rank techniques.

It was to the extent that one could find and purchase |Extreme Madman's Inner Array| even outside the Major Sects and Families. This was unprecedented for a Sky-rank technique, let alone one at the very peak of the Sky-rank.

"At this rate," I said, calculating, "it'll take approximately three to four weeks to reach the pinnacle of the Marrow Refinement Realm. And unless there's some divine pill I can get my hands on, there's nothing I can do to speed the process up—"

*Bam!*