As I feel Ren Qingquan is getting too absorbed in talking with Fatty, I reminded him about the main goal of his visit.
[Host, remember your main goal for this visit. Please go near someone trying to break through. System is currently unable to do detailed scanning due to the distance.]
'I almost forgot.' Ren Qingquan talked to fatty about his goal this time. "Brother Zhang, I mainly came here to rent the room used to break through."
With a shocked face, Fatty Zhang replied. "What? Brother Ren, are you already at the completion of the Qi Refining Stage?!"
"Indeed. I already achieved it several days ago." Seeing fatty's even more surprised face, he continued "I am here to try how effective the room is at helping someone to breakthrough, so I can better prepare myself."
When I saw Ren Qingquan's arrogant face, I truly wished to slap him. Doesn't he know how to keep his secret? Why is he blabbering about his abnormal cultivation speed?
Fatty Zhang quickly congratulated Ren Qingquan when he heard it. Then, he started talking about the cultivation room used to break through. "Brother Ren, the cultivation room used for breakthrough is a bit different from normal cultivation room. Not only does it have a spirit gathering formation used to gather natural spirit qi, the wall on that room is created using special materials that help to block spirit qi inside the room from dispersing."
After introducing the room, he talked about the price, "Renting them will require 10 sect contributions or 10 low grade spirit stones per hour. Do you have any money to pay for it? Otherwise, let me lend you some spirit stones?"
As if realizing something, Fatty Zhang continued while holding a stone from his inner pocket. "Because I have just started my job and haven't received any salary, I can only lend you 20 spirit stones I got from my master though."
When I saw the stone in Fatty Zhang's hand, I found out they are exactly the same as the stones obtained from Lackey A's corpse.
Ren Qingquan also realized it as I saw him rummaging through his uniform's inner pocket, while asking me to pull those spirit stones from [Storage]. 'System, help me take 10 spirit stones I picked up from Lackey A.'
Releasing 10 pieces of low grade spirit stones to Ren Qingquan's hand. He pulled his hand from his inner pocket while grabbing all 10 stones and showed them to Fatty Zhang.
Ren Qingquan shows the spirit stones in his hand toward Fatty Zhang while saying. "There is no need. I already have it."
I saw Fatty Zhang clapping his hand upon seeing the spirit stones at Ren Qingquan's hand. "As expected of brother Ren, he has already gathered so many spirit stones!"
Hearing Fatty praising Ren Qingquan again and again, I rolled my eyes. It looks like a fatty is someone who rarely uses his brain.
While taking a circular jade green token with the number 1 written in it, Fatty Zhang said. "Brother Ren, here is the key to your breakthrough room. The jade green color means you can use it on any empty room on the fifth floor. The one hour timer will only start when you place the key into the room's core formation. Don't forget to pull the jade token and return it here. I apologize, I can't follow you because I still have work to do."
Ren Qingquan waved his hand as he said. "No worries. I will go on my own."
When he finally entered the pagoda, I immediately did a more detailed scan on everything. Just the data I gained from the first floor alone is incredibly amazing.
Whether it is the spirit gathering formation Fatty Zhang mentioned before, the defensive formation used, the data about energy circulation from those people cultivating, and many other things.
From seeing those people cultivating, I finally concluded something about spirit roots and natural ambient spirit qi. That is, cultivators can only absorb ambient spirit qi from the same element as their spirit root.
A fire root cultivator can only absorb fire elements spirit qi. While five element spirit roots cultivators like Ren Qingquan can absorb five types of spirit qi.
Of course, there are exceptions from the rule above. For example, every cultivator I met is capable of absorbing the spirit within spirit stones and from unknown pills. Which made me decide to call the spirit qi inside them a neutral element spirit qi.
Although I already guessed all this when the peoples attached with Lv 1 Subsystems are cultivating. But, due to the [Scan]'s low level, the details are a bit blurry so I am still a bit doubtful. Now that I think about it, I seriously need to think about upgrading my other skills instead.
By the way, absorbing spirit qi isn't the same as refining them. So, having more spirit root is still worse than having less. Because, refining took much more time compared to merely absorbing them.
While I am busy with my thoughts, Ren Qingquan has already arrived at the fifth floor. Focusing my attention on him, I sent him a message.
[Host, please walk nearby the room used by others to break through. The nearer the better, because the system can do a more thorough 'Scan'.]
Following my suggestion, Ren Qingquan moved suspiciously from one door to another. The way he moved is incredibly suspicious. If someone from our previous world saw him moving like that, he might get beaten up and suspected to be a robber.
I also activated my [Scan] and stored any data about breaking through. After two hours passed, I finally gathered enough information to conclude how cultivators advanced their cultivation from Qi Refining to Foundation Building.
It is actually quite easy. One just needs to gather the refined spirit they have toward the dantian once again and condense it around the wall of their dantian. To condense it, they need to use absorbed spirit qi to give it the necessary push by pressing the refined spirit qi. Just like a hydraulic press machine. But instead of water it used absorbed spirit qi.
That is where the breakthrough room comes into play. Because after the absorbed spirit qi pressed the refined spirit qi into the wall, it would scatter and return to the world. Those cultivators need to reabsorb them before using it to press the refined spirit once more.
Breakthrough room can keep the spirit qi from leaving the room and dispersing into the world. Which makes it easier to absorb. Of course they still need sufficient mental power to absorb those spirits once again.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
The main difficulties for Ren Qingquan lies in the amount of refined spirit he has.
He must continuously condense all five strands of spirit qi in a single sitting until they turn into a solid wall. If he stops midway, his hard work will come to waste and the refined spirit will return to its initial state. Also, if he is too slow at smashing those refined spirit qi, it might cause his dantian to crack or even explode due to pressure.
But, that isn't too important, as I existed to help him. Ren Qingquan can just break the bottleneck to the next stage by smashing a lot of money- I mean, points.
He just needs to spend points to continuously purchase absorbed spirit qi or use [Transfer] so I can send the recently dispersed spirit back into his dantian. I don't believe even after I carry him, he will still fail in breaking through.
With the basic idea in mind and doing several simulations using [Calculate], I am already prepared to help Ren Qingquan breakthrough to the next cultivation stage.
[Host system has found a way to help you achieve your breakthrough. System recommends the host to enter an empty breakthrough room.]
'Ehh? I need to enter a breakthrough room? I thought you could make me breakthrough with a click.' I am extremely speechless when I hear what he says.
[System is not a miracle worker and so still needs to follow the world's rules. Anyway, host, just enter a room and you should've broken through within a hour. ]
Following my suggestion, Ren Qingquan entered an empty cultivation room used for breakthroughs. Placing the jade token Fatty gave him into a depression at the center of the room, it fit in perfectly. How it fit into the depression with a *click* Sound is the wet dream of people with OCD.
I sensed the defensive formation in this room activated and blocked the exit using an opaque energy barrier. Next, the spirit gathering formation turned on and the spirit within Ren Qingquan's room increased greatly.
Compared to the normal spirit density inside the Pure Wave Sect, which is already two times higher than the island Ren Qingquan visited before. The room with spirit gathering formation activated once again increased the density of spirit qi by 5 times compared to the spirit qi density in Pure Wave Sect.
Asking Ren Qingquan to sit in the middle of the room, just slightly behind the depression where that jade token is placed. I activated [Calculate] and first helped him to understand the step required to breakthrough. Then, I notified him about the activation of the automatic spirit qi refill function.
[Ding! Activating automatic spirit qi refill function. Host, please start gathering the spirit qi inside your body toward your dantian]
With my notification as the mark, I activated [Scan] to check Ren Qingquan's energy circulation. Currently, he already started gathering spirit qi into his dantian. Seeing his inefficient way of gathering those spirit qi, I frowned and chose to lend my [Calculate].
[Ding! Activating [Calculate] to help the host choose the most efficient way to break through.]
Because he is currently focused on breaking through, he can't see the new message I sent. But, it seems he still feels it as Ren Qingquan slowly changed how he gathered spirit qi and followed the most effective meridian paths.
Fifteen minutes later, Ren Qingquan's refined spirit qi has all gathered into the dantian. From [Anchor], I can feel his uncomfortable feeling as if something in his stomach is about to explode. Which is absolutely true, because I just sensed the guy next door got his dantian's wall cracked due to a failed breakthrough.
Due to the pressure from gathering too much spirit, Ren Qingquan's dantian wall is starting to crack. He then instinctively followed the step I taught him before and smashed the refined spirit qi using his absorbed spirit qi. When those refined spirits got smashed into the dantian's wall, the wall got strengthened and the crack healed.
This is where I must enter into action. Using [Storage], I immediately collected the spirit qi that is just dispersed from Ren Qingquan's body then transferred them into his dantian so he can continue smashing it toward the refined spirit qi.
Feeling the newly added spirit qi, Ren Qingquan continued to smash it to press the refined spirit qi into the wall of his dantian.
Just like that, half an hour passed and Ren Qingquan opened his eyes. Wiping my nonexistent sweat, I feel like a doctor that just helped a mother to give birth.
Ren Qingquan's breakthrough is a success and he is now a foundation building cultivator! While he is sensing the refined spirit qi that circulated from the wall of his dantian into his body, and feeling the increase in his strength. He accidentally released an extremely faint amount of mental power that barely interfered with my [Scan].
Ignoring those, I congratulated him.
[Congratulations for reaching the Foundation Building Stage! Hidden quest: Reach Foundation Building has been completed. You have been rewarded with 1000 points.]
Seeing my message, Ren Qingquan smiled and looked at his panel.
[Name: Ren Qingquan
Realm: Foundation Building 0/20
Absorbed Spirit Qi: 1/4 (Auto Refill OFF)
Point: 68.000
Profession: Formation master (Extremely Weak.)
Cultivation Method: Immortal Body Tempering (Immortal Ascension)
Magical Technique: Armaments Transformation (Perfection), Agile Step (Perfection), Body Hardening (Perfection), Super Duper ... Turtle Shell Technique (First Section), Turtle Divination Art (First Section)
System function: Devour, Shop, Scan, Library, Map (1000 meters radius), Calculate, System Storage (100 cubic meters), Sub system, Quest, Transfer (100 meter/points).]
The reward I sent him previously is just enough to offset the amount of energy used to activate [Transfer] to help him refill his spirit during his attempt at breaking through. Which makes the amount of points Ren Qingquan has to not change.
When he saw the amount of refined spirit required to reach the completion of the formation building stage, I heard Ren Qingquan thought. 'System, I want to buy 20 strands of refined spirit qi.'
When I heard him trying to purchase so many spirits at once, I asked him to rethink it.
[Ding! Are you sure you wish to spend 40.000 points to purchase 20 strands of refined spirit qi? System recommends the host to keep some points for emergency. ]
'Yes' Ren Qingquan answered before pausing for a moment. Thinking for a moment, he seemed to understand my concern and continued. 'Actually, I have thought about things thoroughly. My future main income will be coming from killing creatures and absorbing souls. The stronger I am, the safer and faster I can gather points.'
Hearing his reasoning, I nodded as it is quite logical. Guess my point hoarding illness relapsed just now, and I can't think rationally. So, I followed his plan and created 20 strands of refined spirit qi before sending them to Ren Qingquan.
[Ding! Successfully purchased 20 strands of spirit qi for 40.000 points.]
With this, his status panel is updated once again.
[Name: Ren Qingquan
Realm: Foundation Building 20/20 (Completion)
Absorbed Spirit Qi: 1/4 (Auto Refill OFF)
Point: 28.000
Profession: Formation master (Extremely Weak.)
Cultivation Method: Immortal Body Tempering (Immortal Ascension)
Magical Technique: Armaments Transformation (Perfection), Agile Step (Perfection), Body Hardening (Perfection), Super Duper ... Turtle Shell Technique (First Section), Turtle Divination Art (First Section)
System function: Devour, Shop, Scan, Library, Map (1000 meters radius), Calculate, System Storage (100 cubic meters), Sub system, Quest, Transfer (100 meter/points).]
One hour after placing the jade token into that depression, the spirit absorption array and defensive array turned off. Ren Qingquan then left the room and descended toward the pagoda's entrance