preparing for the next step

'ughhhhhh, I feel terrible' was Jie's first thought after waking up properly

'system can confidently say that host has eaten enough food to satisfy a heavens court, which is to say too much'

'shut you leech, you think i didn't already grasp that'

the system didnt respond so jie just got up and stretched a little trying to offset the general terrible feeling in his body

once he was done with that (the effectiveness was minimal at best) he hobbled over to his study desk chair and took a deep breath

'goddamnit this body sucks so much ass'

after a few minutes, he looked at his desk and noticed a fairly dusty book

his old diary

he grabbed it and skimmed the few pages that were filled out which consisted of a small childs ramblings about his day

'man to think that i never maintained a diary haha..... oh the scholars would skin me alive if they knew, although i suppose there would be none left after the entire disaster that was the end..., come to think of it did anyone actually know the cause and all the effects of the end'

pondering that line of thought jie grabbed a quill from its inkstand and started drawing 2 diagrams, both of them having a big circle in the middle with roots stretching out from the circle and he wrote 2 different things

causes of the end

effects of the end

the causes page was left mostly blank save for a few minor suspicions that even jie thought were bogus, but hey, when trying to stop the end you have to explore every possible avenue

the effects pages however was filled up a bit with entries like

qi flux

dying earth

realm degradation and destruction

dao vanishing

higher relam death(those of a high realm were met with death when the end started)

jie scratched his chin

while all the effects would make sense if they happened one after the other, that didnt happen, all these effects happened at once

jie tried writing down a few possible leads that could lead to these effects but quickly scratched them out

in the end all jie could do was sigh and get up from the table, while regretting how he lived his past life

'to think that i had lived with so much power yet so blind'

hie walked out of his room and to the dining hall where there was no end to the delicacies laid out on the table

jie just took a handful of items in a plate and left to his room

dining at his study table, he combed his mind for anymore possible leads, maybe one of the shendao cults, or the demon worshipers, maybe one of the righteous sects went too far

by the time jie was done with his breakfast he had just 2 peices of info to add to the causes side of the book

must have been an huge organisation

or

an immortal

'dear founder, are these really the only leads i have after an entire lifetime living in that world' jie thought shame filling his being

'system can-'

'No'

'Alrighty then'

jie kept on combing his mind, trying to find a single potential lead

he found none

'dear founder....., might as well try and comprehend that manual then'

he then, once more, combed his mind for the techniques he was looking for

once he found it he quickly began writing in a separate page in his diary the contents of the techniques, after all constantly checking his mind for the techniques would get tiring real fast

once he was done writing and quadra checking he wrote down everything correctly he bagan reading through it

the techniques he was reading was very aptly called

perfect foundation

the foundation realm was basically tempering your meridians to make sure they could properly circulate qi through the body and into the danitan

this perfect foundation would allow for optimal qi intake while also allowing for elemental qi of both the primal the supreme categories without any need for artifacts or other items that are normally necessary

of course with such great ups, the downs are a lot depper than most others

firstly the time and resources taken basically make it so that you would have to be a top talent in the divine realm in order to cultivate at the same rate as a person with little talent cultivating an normal technique

also heavenly tribulation would be a lot stronger, but that was subjective considering the recent methods of capitalising on it

theres also the fact that it practically singles you out, making you a big target if you dont moderate it properly, by which it means that if ya cultivate it like a normal person would, ie: very slowly, it will make you emit power many stages above you which will basically be a death sentence due to how many beasts you would pull in and how much torture those higher up would put you through for the knowledge of the techniques that caused it

overall a very skill and luck based cultivation technique with disastrous consequences if the user fails to meet its standards

and yet it was the only option jie had if he wanted enough power to make a difference, afterall you need to understand the origin to understand the branches

a sigh escaped his lips as he slumped down his chair

'theres an immortals grave near to mono sect along with a key to shrine of thunder, but thats way too far from my reach right now, and none of the other ruins have anything that would help my cultivation soooo.....'

as he sank deeper into his memories and thoughts, jie realised why this technique was reserved for those in the divine realm

'if host wishes it the system can-'

'leech.'

'well then forgive the systems language but F*ck you host'

'yeah screw ya too'

getting back on track jie sat up and stared down at the manual, then he started glaring at it as if it had killed his dog if he had one, then he looked at it pitifully like a beggar looks at the lord of a city

'...'

'...'

'if the host is mentally troubled then-'

'i know how it looks so shut it.'

the system didnt just vacate his mind like the other times he dismissed it, but rather stayed in his mind, seemingly observing his movements

well it was of no matter to him

a few seconds of doing different looks jie began writing a few notes

'if i may-'

'you may not, leech'

a few minutes went by with him writing the notes when he felt something pass through his mind

'leech i swear'

'host will have to forgive the system for making sure they are mentally sane, so far the conclusion is no'

jie just tugged at the string in his soul

the system got the message and stopped the scan

jie looked down on his book

'this is going to take a while'

jie steeled himself and took up his brush once more