Era of Mist

Chapter 130: Chapter 129: Allocation Choice

A thought struck Shi Tiexin, and he asked, ”How are the Cultivation Realms categorized in the interface?”

”The classification of Cultivation Realms has actually been a matter of public consensus for a long time; it’s just that most Cultivators can’t accurately pinpoint their own level. The interface, however, lays it out simply and clearly. The levels are divided into Unqualified, Qualified, Good, Excellent, Profound, Extreme, and Perfect—a total of seven major tiers.”

Shi Tiexin nodded inwardly. This classification method was basically the same as his vision system’s. The only difference was that the interface listed Extreme as a separate tier, while his vision system had casually disregarded it.

Little Dog continued to explain, ”The boost to your basic attributes is related to the tier you achieve in each layer of your Fundamental Heart Skill. The specifics are too complicated, so I’ll just give you the gist. If you reach Qualified in all four layers, you get one point. All Good gets you two points, all Excellent gets three, all Profound gets four, and all Extreme gets six.”

Shi Tiexin nodded again and again. ’So that’s how it is. There really is a difference.’ He then asked his most pressing question, ”What about all Perfect?”

’Since I didn’t take a wrong step at the beginning, there’s no way I’m giving up now.’

Si Chongtian threw up his hands. ”That I don’t know. I haven’t done it myself, so I can’t make any guarantees. But supposedly, reaching the Perfect Realm in everything gives you the most points—way more than all Extreme. But man, it’s just too difficult. Achieving all Perfect is just too hard.”

Shi Tiexin was surprised. ”It’s that hard even for you?”

’I know Little Dog comes from an impressive family. I don’t have access to the details, but they must be one of the more prominent families in Tumu Castle. Even he can’t achieve all Perfect?’

”It’s just as hard for everyone! If you want to achieve Perfect, you need Celestial Golden Light. But Tumu Castle is only so big. How much Celestial Golden Light can there possibly be? Only a few of the official exams give out a decent amount. Plus, the higher you cultivate, the more Golden Light you need to break through the ’Perfect Wall.’ A lot of people start out ambitious, aiming for all Perfect, but they eventually get stuck.”

Little Dog looked a bit resigned. After all, who wouldn’t want to be perfect? ”I don’t know about the inner solar system or the big metropolises, but here, at least, everyone has to start thinking about how they want to specialize their points by the third Basic Layer.”

A question suddenly occurred to Shi Tiexin. ”Why not just take it slow? You’re not that old, are you? If you waited a couple more years and entered more competitions, couldn’t you just farm points?”

”It’s not that easy. Point farming is explicitly forbidden. To maintain the integrity of the competitions, the various organizing committees have issued tons of regulations restricting entry conditions. Otherwise, if everyone was just farming points, the competitions would lose all credibility, and they wouldn’t be granted any Celestial Golden Light.”

Shi Tiexin understood. ’Just as I thought. It’s more or less what I guessed.’ The Saint Rules, carved into the Great Dao by the Saints themselves, were largely responsible for the current state of affairs where everyone strove to improve. ’If it weren’t for the Saint Rules, the Suffocating Generation would probably be even more suffocating.’

From this perspective, Shi Tiexin had to sincerely admire the great deeds of the Saints. Whether it was the Origin Saint, the Scientific Saint, or the Saint of Space-Time, their actions were monumental achievements for their era, with benefits that would last for ages. The title ’Saint’ was truly no empty flattery.

”Actually, it’s not that there aren’t other ways, but they’re all theoretical and, in practice, far too difficult.” Si Chongtian perked up. ”Did you know? Because the competition rules and regulations are so numerous and complex, especially in the big cities where the requirements are a real headache, they’ve actually given rise to a new profession: the Golden Light Hunting Dog.”

”Golden Light Hunting Dog?” Shi Tiexin asked, curious. ”Don’t tell me they can compete in your place to get Celestial Golden Light?”

’If that were true, then people at the bottom would never have a chance to rise up.’

”Competing by proxy is definitely a no-go; it’s just not feasible. The so-called Golden Light Hunting Dogs are actually a group of people who are masters of all the competition rules, entry requirements, and even the loopholes in the system. They’ll create a customized competition schedule based on your specific circumstances. If you follow that schedule, you can, in theory, obtain the maximum amount of Celestial Golden Light.”

’Oh, so they’re like a group of career planners.’ But Shi Tiexin’s heart grew heavy. ’The rich not only have more resources and opportunities, they even have specialists to strategize how they acquire Celestial Golden Light. Someone like me, going it alone, is at a huge disadvantage from the very start.’

”But, these Golden Light Hunting Dogs aren’t all reliable. A lot of them are just charlatans, or they set up a bunch of traps in their services. In short, you have to be careful around them.”

Little Dog and Shi Tiexin chatted for a bit longer, which clarified many things for Shi Tiexin. Shi Tiexin thanked Little Dog Egg, and they agreed to head to work together later. Then, he saw him out.

Alone again in his room, Shi Tiexin looked out at Mu Yuan District under the deep Night, mulling things over for a long time.

Finally, he decided to put his first point into Chemistry.

’Why not Biology? Has my interest in Protein Auntie waned?’

’Of course not! How could it possibly wane... No, no, I was never interested in Protein Auntie in the first place!’

He was putting the point into Chemistry to get the attribute that boosted qi-vein growth.

Looking at all four of his subjects, which were crying out to be fed points, he knew every attribute was useful. However, the top priority was passing the Small County Exam. Natural History’s ’Speculation’ attribute was good, but completely useless for the exam, so that was out. The remaining three subjects would all have an immediate effect, but Shi Tiexin believed the first attribute to upgrade had to be his qi-veins.

After watching the short girl’s fight, Shi Tiexin felt that her main disadvantage was her slow qi recovery speed. If her layer of light hadn’t collapsed over such a large area, leaving her unable to replenish it, the outcome of her fight with Gao Shaoling would have been anyone’s guess.

Shi Tiexin suspected the Small County Exam would be a similar high-intensity battle of attrition. In a fight like that, you either needed to be like the short girl and go for quick, instant kills to conserve energy, or you needed to have superior endurance and recovery.

His own Excellent-tier Basic Fist Arts had nowhere near the lethality of the short girl’s Ancient Snake Form Fist, so upgrading his qi-veins had to come first.

As for whether this decision was right or wrong, or if it was the optimal solution, Shi Tiexin had no one to discuss it with. He had no way to explain where his Celestial Golden Light came from, so he could never, ever speak of it.

’Since I can’t discuss it with anyone, I’ll just have to trust my own judgment.’

’Now that I’ve made my decision, there’s no looking back.’

Shi Tiexin took a deep breath. With a single thought, a brilliant ray of golden light shot out from the phantom award certificate, and the Chemistry progress bar immediately erupted in a boundless radiance.

Shi Tiexin stared intently at the remaining amount on the certificate, hoping the breakthrough in Chemistry would be cheap.

The Perfect Wall continuously crumbled and broke through, while the Celestial Golden Light was steadily consumed.

Finally, with a great RUMBLE, the progress bar for the first layer of Basic Chemistry vanished completely, condensing into a single, crystalline star. The Star of Chemistry flew up into the Qingming, joining the other two stars there.