The Hundred-Storehouse Immortal Art involved carving teleportation magic arrays inside the body, then activating them with spirit stones whenever needed to retrieve whatever one required.
Its drawbacks were obvious: it had a limited range and consumed spirit stones.
Actually cultivating it also required engraving the teleportation arrays inside the body, which demanded considerable technical skill. Food Immortal had only taught Mo Caihuan the Hundred-Storehouse Immortal Art because he had recognized her talent for studying arrays. Without that talent, he would never even have mentioned it.
Despite its drawbacks, Mo Caihuan still decided to cultivate it. Her mastery of arrays needed further improvement, however, or she would be unable to miniaturize an array and integrate it with her stomach.
With a goal established, all that remained was patient study.
Mo Caihuan did not study alone. She also taught her students mathematics, physics, and chemistry, cultivating more talented people to conduct research together.
The transformations performed by arrays also followed the principles of mathematics, physics, and chemistry; mortals could simply calculate only smaller orders of magnitude. Take formulas for speed, for example: calculating the speed of sound already meant dealing with something very fast for mortals. Cultivators, however, could move at the speed of light. Faced with numbers on that scale, mortals could not work their abacuses fast enough.
Those enormous orders of magnitude exceeded their capacity for calculation, leaving experience as their only recourse. Cultivators had also attempted to quantify things, but the numbers were simply too large. After the Foundation Establishment stage, the figures ballooned dramatically.
Mo Caihuan thought that any cultivation realm tied to combat strength was bound to suffer from inflation. Everyone wanted to quantify combat strength with numbers. At first, a combat strength of 500,000 was already formidable, but before long, it became 24 billion, or even higher... If that inflation continued, the numbers humans commonly used would no longer suffice.
Cultivators' numerical values worked exactly that way, constantly ballooning. Unable to keep up with the calculations, cultivators relied on experience to judge things instead. Close enough would do.
With a value of fifty, being off by one or two made a substantial difference. But with five hundred million, being off by one or two hundred was no great problem. Experience had a margin of error, but so be it. The inflation of the figures already allowed those tiny discrepancies to be ignored.
At the qi refining stage, cultivators had to cast spells cautiously, accounting for every tiny detail. Their magic power had to circulate along fixed routes; even the slightest deviation could cause a spell to collapse. By the Nascent Soul stage, they could release hundreds of spells with a wave of the hand. Their vastly increased magic power could flood those routes to saturation, leaving minor discrepancies without consequence.
The weaker one was, the more every tiny detail mattered.
Mortals were weak, so they had to calculate down to the decimal places.
Cultivators had considered quantification too, but the inflation of the figures rendered calculation meaningless. Rather than fuss over every detail, they might as well cast spells through sheer saturation.
What cultivators had discarded held enormous significance for mortals.
Seeing Mo Caihuan temper her body while also researching arrays, Food Immortal could not help saying, "You're too greedy. Arrays alone are enough to occupy a cultivator for a lifetime, yet you're tempering your body and researching them at the same time. You're biting off more than you can chew! I think you should give up body tempering. Surely you've noticed the problem with your body by now?"
"I know. Ever since I broke through the bottleneck, absorbing low-grade spirit stones has yielded very little benefit. That's precisely why I need to develop an array to convert life force."
"You're only equivalent to someone at the qi refining stage, and it's already this difficult. Have you considered how you'll improve once you reach the Foundation Establishment stage?"
Breaking through her previous bottleneck had been equivalent to entering the qi refining stage. That was merely the beginning, yet it was already so difficult, to say nothing of the later stages. Body tempering would only grow harder.
Food Immortal continued his earnest persuasion. "Girl, I can see that you have considerable talent for arrays. Giving up body tempering and concentrating your energy on magic arrays would be the wise choice. Body tempering truly lies beyond what human effort can accomplish."
Mo Caihuan, however, had her own considerations. In another twenty years, the righteous and demonic factions would go to war again. The Covering Moon Sect would almost certainly flee, and she would seize that opportunity to raise the banner of revolt and unite as much of the Heavenly South as possible. She would inevitably face cultivators then, so she still needed combat strength.
"I won't give up body tempering. It's difficult at first and easier later. If I give up simply because it's difficult, I'll never succeed," Mo Caihuan said firmly.
"They say that someone who achieves mastery in body tempering can withstand a Nascent Soul cultivator head-on, but that's only hearsay. In my era, I never saw anyone achieve that mastery. Reaching a level comparable to a golden core already required tremendous perseverance, but that was as far as anyone got." Food Immortal said seriously, "Everything I've told you is the truth."
"I know," Mo Caihuan said. "But I have my own plans. Please don't interfere, Senior."
"Turn a deaf ear to your elders, and trouble will be waiting right before your eyes. You're on your own." Food Immortal fell silent.
Mo Caihuan continued at her own pace.
Once the Life Magic Array was complete, Mo Caihuan placed ten spirit stones into it and sat cross-legged in its center, letting life force pour into her body. Following the cultivation method for the indestructible body that Food Immortal had described, she channeled that power into her cells, stimulating their proliferation and increasing her body's density.
Immortal cultivation defied heaven. Once its limits were broken, a body of flesh and blood would begin to change.
She decided to use the proliferating cells to form a short-range teleportation array in her stomach. Whenever she needed it, she could activate it simply by swallowing a crystal.
Once it was activated, she could retrieve whatever she needed. The Hundred-Storehouse Immortal Art was no ordinary teleportation magic array, and naturally had its own special characteristics. Ordinary teleportation gates connected one destination to another, but the gates of the Hundred-Storehouse Immortal Art connected one to many: a single gate could link to a hundred storehouses.
And so time passed, minute by minute, second by second.
Han Li had already played the hero rescuing the beauty and saved Chen Qiaoqian. He then participated in the Blood-Colored Trial, where, with the help of the ink flood dragon's sac, he took a female Core Formation cultivator's virginity despite being only at the qi refining stage. A Qi Refining cultivator making a Core Formation cultivator bleed like that was truly unprecedented and would never be repeated.
After finally obtaining twenty rare medicinal herbs from the forbidden grounds, he hoped to exchange them for two Foundation Establishment Pills. Instead, Li Huayuan forcibly took him as a disciple and claimed half the herbs, leaving him with only one Foundation Establishment Pill.
Helpless, he could only cheat again, using his cheat item, the Little Green Bottle, to nourish medicinal herbs and refine Foundation Establishment Pills himself.
Han Li's path to Foundation Establishment was full of twists and turns. His pseudo-spiritual root required vast resources. Someone with good talent needed only one Foundation Establishment Pill, while someone with poor talent had to eat them like meals.
At thirty, Mo Caihuan put forward theories such as dialectics and the theory of contradictions, further increasing her influence.
The Whale-Jiao Society already controlled half the Yue Kingdom. Many loyal ministers advised the emperor to strike and destroy it, but he was wholly devoted to immortal cultivation and paid them no heed.
The emperor's thinking was simple: once he succeeded in reaching Core Formation, he could crush the Whale-Jiao Society with a flick of his fingers. It posed no threat whatsoever. Cultivation mattered most; he could not afford distractions.
The ministers were powerless. The perceptive among them had already realized that the Yue Kingdom was heading for a change of dynasty. With an emperor so muddleheaded, the kingdom would cease to be a kingdom. In many cities, the authorities' words already carried no weight. Everyone followed only the Whale-Jiao Society's arrangements.
Even the authorities had to watch the Whale-Jiao Society's expression before conducting their business. They could no longer collect those oppressive levies and miscellaneous taxes, and the court had run out of money. Unfortunately, the emperor's attitude remained: I won't listen, I won't listen-it's just a tortoise chanting scriptures.
A loyal minister said in anguish, "Your Majesty, by being so careless and allowing the Whale-Jiao Society to grow, are you not effectively granting them self-rule? The court can no longer collect taxes in many places. Of the Thirteen Provinces, eight show signs of rebellion, and all their taxes have been taken by the Whale-Jiao Society. Its territories are exempt from agricultural taxes, and it has reformed the tax system, collecting only once a year and allowing payments in currency instead of goods to buy the people's hearts. Your Majesty, three generations of my family have served the Yue Kingdom. Today, I am willing to dash myself to death before these palace gates if it will make Your Majesty take this seriously."
With that, the gray-bearded old man dashed himself to death against the palace gates before the guards could stop him.
When the emperor learned of it, he merely said indifferently, "Give Beloved Minister Wen a grand burial and confer first rank upon him." Inwardly, he was deeply displeased. He would soon reach Core Formation. He needed only a few more Foundation Establishment cultivators as blood sacrifices; once he absorbed their blood essence, he could break through. Then the Whale-Jiao Society and Mo Caihuan alike would be nothing but clay chickens and earthen dogs.
These ministers really are looking for trouble where none exists. Do they think I don't know what they know? I have a solution, so there's no need to hurry. Old Man Wen really was a case of the emperor remaining calm while the eunuch frets. Once I reach Core Formation, everything will be taken care of.
The Whale-Jiao Society grew ever stronger. It had already reformed the tax system, replacing agricultural taxes with commercial taxes.