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[ Age: 1 year, 254 days. ]

I woke from my slumber and extended my spiritual senses to gain awareness of my surroundings.

This was now part of my routine and I had become so accustomed to it that it felt mostly automatic.

First, as I woke up, I would extend my senses to their limit. Though I had a passive perception radius, I could only gain detailed information on things within or just slightly beyond my radius if I directed my sentience to it. This, and moreso with distance, was very exhausting. I became aware that this effort and my capacity to exert it was limited. Thisfatiguewould affect the speed at which I could cultivate Qi.

[ Cultivation Speed:4 Qi/day.Efficiency:3%]

This was not very fast, even now as I was fully rested. Back then, thesupport moduleinformed me that my cultivation target was at a whopping3000Qi. And that was only to reach theMidQi Refining realm.

That would take overtwo years.

I knew intrinsically that, even though I could spend that much time to cultivate my spirit to theMidQi Refining realm, the next stage would take even longer. Because the basicbreathingmethod I used to cultivate Qi even though I do not actuallybreathedid not have a bottleneck at theLateQi Refining period, the next stage would be thePeakQi Refining realm, and then I could form a foundation.

Even if I had to guess conservatively, I think it would take me longer thanfifty yearsto build my foundation and extend my lifespan.

I would only die of old age six times over before I built my foundation. No big deal.

Thebadnews werent that bad.

I knew that as my cultivation stage progressed that I would be able to cultivate faster. I also knew that as my body cultivation progressed I would be able to use it to cultivate Qi as well. Icouldalso purchase a Cultivation Method from theexchange.

But really, all of these things aside, the best method to increase the speed was to raise the efficiency.

After careful deliberations, which took a month, more or less, I decided to invest mySoul Pointsinto obtaining the entry-level manuals for Alchemy, Refining and Arrays. These manuals granted me aInsightwhich, after absorbing it, increased myDaoof these topics.

While the Alchemy and Refining manuals did not teach me much about things that were relevant to my situation like medicinal herb properties and gathering techniques, or the algorithmic methods of balancing a refinement process there were a few mentions of basic cultivation pills I could consume to increase my cultivation directly. However, I cannoteatorswallow, so I disregarded the idea. I also did not have the medicinal plants I needed, or a cauldron to make them pills in.

However, theArraymanual suggested various methods and arrangements of Qi flow mostly through objects calledflagsto improve theoverallefficiency of my cultivation speed, by improving the ambient Qi.

I had two other methods available to me to improve my cultivation speed. The most obvious choice was to obtain the [Flight] talent and find some other place where the Qi is far more concentrated and would directly improve my cultivation speed.

I decided not to because I was not yet in a hurry and I enjoyed the hospitality of the demonic ape society. Wukong had finally come around to his senses and began bringing me living sacrifices which I gladly accepted. This would become a ritual that took place every four to five days, and my body cultivation had progressed steadily. From the initial two years it would have normally taken, I had already reached the apex of theBlood Compressionstage.

In order to achieve this, Wukong had brought various captured demonic beasts foxes, wolves, snakes and even bears and fed my appetite for evolution on a regular basis. Most of these creatures were in the Early to Late Qi Refining stages, but two of them, most notably, were in the Early Foundation Establishment. Wukong did not return from these trips unharmed, even with his profound cultivation base.

These two offerings considerably increased my cultivation progress, and gave me around90Blood Pointseach.

I also learned that I could absorb their demonic cores, which directly improved my cultivation base by a small amount, and also gave meSoul Points. This is how I finally learned where mySoul Pointscame from. I had been, apparently, consuming these before my sentience had formed.

Lastly, and most uselessly, a way to increase my cultivation speed considerably was to directly burn my lifespan in order to achieve it. This was out of the question.

My lifespan was a precious resource that I could not just waste on an inefficient cultivation method.

I had made other advances in this time, which I consider far more important. The reason why my routine was to extend my senses to their limit, despite this affecting the speed at which I could cultivate, was because I could train them by doing so.

[Soul Perception] -GradeD -Rank89

When my rank and Grade improved fromEtoDit nearly doubled my perception radius. The last improvement was at Rank 50, so I am hopeful that I would gain another improvement at Rank 100. The more I could see the better.

With my current meager perception radius of around25 meters, I was as good as blind, even though I could see everything in that radius in all directions which was useful.

So this had been the first step of my routine and the one I had put most of my effort in within the last seventy days or so.

The next step was to absorb theInsightswhich I had gained, but I had unfortunately completely exhausted this resource in my last awakening cycle. I considered obtaining more manuals suitable for my cultivation level, but decided against it. I knew that I could obtainInsightsthrough the practical approach as well, and at the moment, I was not so interested in Alchemy or Refining.

Finally, with my diminishing consciousness I would actively cultivate my body, compressing my vitality down and absorbing the surrounding Qi in order to progress my cultivation.

[EarlyVessel Refining progress:98.1% ]

One more feeding cycle and I would break through to theVessel Hardeningstage. For the first time in my existence, as far as I could remember, I felt excitement.

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