After being healed by the system, Ren Qingquan actually started to think about escaping this battle. But, thinking he actually lost in a battle against something only one realm above him even though he has a cheat, Ren Qingchen feels unwilling.

and so, he proceeded to pull out the last dagger and attacked the leopard while thinking about a way to break through this deadlocked battle. Occasionally he attacked the leopard using that dagger, while the other time he attacked it with Tiger Subduing Palm.

'Argggg. My Tiger Subduing palm could do nothing against it! Even if I created a new attack skill, I doubt it could do much damage due to our difference in realm.'

Finally, Ren Qingquan chose to open a system shop and bet his luck on some useful items.

'Open system shop'

[Daily shop (refreshed at 23:24:56)

Clothes, 1 point. Description: normal clothes.

Sunlight, 1 point. description: blinding light, contains some heat.

Pickled cucumber, 1 point. Description: a lot of pickled cucumbers. Comes in a jar.

Loincloths, 1 point. Description: a dozen new loincloths.

Permanent shop:

Vital Energy, 2 points.

Poison, 20 points.

1 Kg Unknown Metal, 2 points.

Blood and flesh energy, 1 point.

Grass and flowers, 1 point.

Wolf, 10 points.]

Ren Qingquan is speechless when he sees the items sold in the system shop. But, at least there is something that might be useful in it. With that, Ren Qingquan asked the system about several things.

'System, does the sunlight I purchased stored in system space?'

[Yes.]

'Then, could you help me control the way that light is released? Like its intensity, shape, and direction.'

[It is possible to do that using calculate.]

'Then, I will buy 100 point's worth of sunlight.'

[Ding! Host spent 100 points to purchase sunlight.]

'System, once I say the command, try to send that sunlight in a small line directly toward the leopard's eyes.'

Ren Qingquan purchased those lights in hope of blinding the leopard for a moment before releasing his metal plate and sending his last dagger toward that leopard. As for the reason he purchased 100 point's worth. Ren Qingquan wasn't sure how strong the light required to blind a Martial Saint leopard is.

Although that conversation seems like it has been going on for a long time. Nevermind, it actually does take place for a long time. During that whole thing, Ren Qingquan also got hit twice but was healed by the system soon after.

When the leopard came near him. He immediately released the sunlight stored in system storage.

'release'

With that, two small threads of light entered his view and soon arrived near the leopard. While he is preparing to release both the metal plate and throw his last dagger toward the soon blinded leopard. The light arrived exactly at its eyes and soon pierced right through the leopard's head.

Wait, Pierced?

Ren Qingquan: ⊙_⊙

System : ⊙_⊙

After that light, the leopard still moved forward for several meters due to momentum before falling with a plop sound. With that, Ren Qingquan's first serious fight ended in an anticlimactic way.

Upon relaxing from the battle, he is speechless as he remembered the description of Sunlight.

Description: blinding light, contains some heat.

Focused on the part that says it contains some heat. Ren Qingquan doesn't know what he should say. His attempt at creating a light to blind enemies during the fight, actually ends up causing him to summon a laser beam instead.

'Well, whatever. A win is a win nevertheless.'

Following that thought, Ren Qingquan used [Devour] on the corpse of that leopard and gained more than 300 points. Which is slightly more than the two Martial Saint ferocious beast corpses he devoured previously. Curious about the difference, he asked the system about it.

[Ding! The corpse host recently killed still contains some remnant soul which makes the point gained by devouring it to double.]

'So, [Devour] could also collect souls?'

[Yes.]

After satisfying his curiosity, he proceeds to pick up the heart left from using [Devour]. Then, Ren Qingquan continued his inspection around the mountain. Luckily that Leopard is the only Martial Saint Beast in this mountain. Killing all the ferocious beasts he met, Ren Qingquan then started to activate [Devour] and swallow the mountain.

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Before evening, he had already finished devouring the mountain. As this mountain is located even closer to the core compared to the previous one, although its size is smaller, the amount of points gained from this mountain is slightly more than the previous one. Including the leftover points from that battle, the points gained from devouring ferocious beasts, and points from devouring this mountain. Ren Qingquan's current point reached a staggering 2500.

Learning from his mistake, Ren Qingquan first spent his point to upgrade [Scan] and increase his map's detection range. At least with this, he could take the initiative to attack or escape.

[Ding! Do you wish to upgrade the range of 'Scan'? Within a 1000 meter radius, every 1 meter increase requires 1 point. And from 1000 to 10 000 meter radius will require 10 points for every 1 meter.]

'Yes, upgrade it to 1000 meters.'

[Scan has been upgraded.]

Opening the system map, Ren Qingquan could see its range has greatly increased. With the ability to detect something 1 kilometer away, it should be enough for now.

'Also, system. Upgrade my [Storage]'

[Ding! Do you wish to upgrade the space of 'Storage'? Within 100 cubic meters, every 1 cubic meter increase requires 1 point. And from 100 to 1000 cubic meters it will require 10 points for every 1 cubic meter.]

'Yes, Upgrade it to 100 cubic.'

[Storage has been upgraded.]

'This time I will stop focusing on steel and other metals. I will also add soil, stones, and anything heavy in general inside the metal plate and use it to smash things. With a bigger plate, it should be enough to smash strong ferocious beasts even if it has the ability to run quickly.'

Yep, that is right, Ren Qingquan hasn't really learned his lessons and increased his martial arts skill like other normal people and instead still wishes to cheat.

With all that upgrades, Ren Qingquan opened his system panel once again.

[Name: Ren Qingquan

Realm: Ninth Stage Martial Grandmaster

Point: 1507

Technique: Body Tempering (Martial Saint)

Skills: Tiger Subduing Palm(Middle),

Agile Step (Perfection), Iron Cloth (Low).

System function: Devour, Shop, Scan, Library, Map (1000 meter radius.), Calculate, System Storage (100 cubic meters).]

With his leftover points, he chooses to spend another 1000 points to purchase 500 vital energy and look for a safe place to turn it into spirit qi. As for the other 507 points, he kept it as an emergency fund to be used in battle to save his life.

Running while looking at the system map, Ren Qingquan finally found a suitable cave next to a cliff. Beating the Martial Master bear with his Tiger Subduing Palm, he proceeds to close the cave mouth using his now 10x10 meter metal plate filled with soil.

Reading the manual in Body Tempering Technique used to transform vital energy into spirit qi, Ren Qingquan followed it several times.

Should he say the system actually gained consciousness as it actually includes the part to generate spirit qi when he chose to learn Body Tempering Technique previously.

Following the movement in that technique, Ren Qingquan gathered 500 vital energies that had dispersed throughout his body. Circulating those blood energies following a certain rhythm, he slowly makes them gather toward his lower dantian. At least that is what the Body Tempering Technique called it.

When all 500 vital energy gathered toward his lower dantian at the same time, it suddenly transformed into another energy that made him feel connected to nature.

'System, did I succeed?'

Although he is sure he will actually succeed, Ren Qingquan still questioned the system.

[Yes. Congratulations to the host for gaining spirit qi!]

'Holy shiet! Spiritual Qi! But, system. Why don't I feel any increase in strength? Shouldn't I gain some massive boost in strength upon entering a realm equal to Martial Saint?'

[That problem comes due to Body Tempering Technique's incompleteness as it only has the section up to creating spirit qi and doesn't contain any section regarding using spirit qi to increase your realm. So in terms of the martial arts realm, it could be said you are currently in the Pseudo Martial Saint realm.]

'Won't it make this technique rubbish? Afterall, it is only limited to the Pseudo Martial Saint realm.'

[Of course not, although the Body Tempering Technique doesn't contain a realm increasing part. But, the spirit qi it generated is real and could be used on those seemingly useless immortal knowledge like formation, talisman, weapon refining, etc. Also, the system could help the host deduct the next section of the technique. But the system wouldn't be responsible if that technique somehow had side effects like causing its user to explode, as currently the system lacks related knowledge.]

Ren Qingquan focused on the first part of the system's explanation and ignored the second part as he is already excited to try making some formation or talisman. Making full use of the system, he just asked the system to help him select suitable knowledge.

[System recommended the Mud Restrain Formation as it doesn't require special material and could be crafted using grass and stones as its material.]

Although the name sounds pretty weak, he is still extremely curious about the effect of a formation.

'System, I want to learn it.'

[Do you wish to spend 100 points to learn Mud Restrain Formation?]

'System, are you ripping me off. Are you saying this nonsense is actually of similar difficulty as Body Tempering Technique?

[If you think the system is ripping you off, you could learn it on your own, host. The system doesn't force you to purchase it. Using your brain occasionally is also a good thing to keep it from withering.]

'Hmph. Then I will learn it on my own.'

(* ಠ益ಠ )

And so, Ren Qingquan went and learned that formation himself. His effort lasted for a whole one hour before he gave up in frustration.

The Mud Restraining Formation, although it has a weak name and probably weak effect, requires stupidly hard effort to build. After he tried to read other formation skills by thinking he might get inspiration from those. He realized that the system might have not duped him.

Compared to other formations, the only advantage of Mud Restrain Formation is the cost of building it. It merely requires stone grass and spirit qi. And that is when the advantage ends.

To craft this formation, one must have knowledge in Geomancy, search for suitable grass as it requires five leaves of any kind. Engrave some rune like thing in stone which would change depending on the difference in the selected area's feng shui. There is also a need to understand a formula.

'I am here to try an immortal cultivator's means and not learning for some exam. Why the hell do I need to stress myself over this thing again.'

And so, Ren Qingquan chose to throw his towel with his pride wrapped in it as he finally asked the system to help him learn the formation.

'System, I want to learn Mud restraint Formation.'

[Ding! Spent 100 points to learn Mud Restrain Formation.]

'Alright! Let's see just how powerful such a complicated formation is! But before that, let's sleep first. I don't want to always sleep late like in my previous life.'

The next day, Ren Qingquan immediately leaves the cave and looks for suitable prey to be used as a target for his formation.