Guild Wars-Novel

Draco and Eva continued to cultivate like this. Even though they had experienced an epiphany on where next to take their power, they still had to fully understand this system before trying anything funny.

Draco had already studied the makeup of all the Qi Stones in this world, from impure to 9th grade, and could now replicate them with Refinement. This was the first step, but Draco and Eva were not in a rush.

This Martial Spirits World should be the gimmick for the fourth set of floors, so up until the 40th floors, and they were only on the 34th. They would likely encounter more of this world in later floors, so they stuck to what they should do now.

They focused on observing their Martial Spirits and trying to understand how they converted Qi into Dragon/Phoenix Qi. With Control Tier 5, Draco and Eva could see into the atomic realm, so they were able to catch something of the process.

Alas, it was similar to watching your high school math teacher spazz on his blackboard, writing NASA-level calculations like he was on drugs. You could certainly SEE the equations, but it didn't mean your mind would comprehend them.

This was the conundrum Draco and Eva found themselves in. As such, the best they could do was record it into their memories as much as they could, in case they found someone who could decipher it for them.

The Evil Duo initially thought that with their talent and their usage of only 9th grade Qi Stones, they would be like lightning when cultivating. The truth was the opposite, but they were rather slow for their tastes.

This floor's deadline was 3 months, and they had spent the first week or so discussing theory and learning about cultivation, the first three days of the second week were spent preparing and doing misc stuff and the last 4 days of the second week were spent recovering the Origin Essence of the Martial Spirits.

Now that they were full, theoretically, Draco and Eva should be blazing through the ranks. However, another week had passed, and they had both only reached the 7th level of the Muscle Tempering Realm.

However, despite this, they did not stop. After all, they knew the exact reason why they were moving so slow, despite using the best resources and having the best talent.

In truth, we all kind of expected it. Draco and Eva were too talented, having Martial Spirits that were way above the grade of the norm. The Martial Spirits that the Evil Duo was mainly cultivating now were even at the 13th grade.

Not to mention their bloodlines and powerful bodies that were fortified by their Rank 3 stats.

You know the law of the cultivation world. With great talent, comes great hardship with resources. What a commoner would use to blaze through the entirety of the Human Stage would only send a talent to its the 3rd major realm.

Nevertheless, the world was fair.

Both parties used the same amount of energy, so barring skill and experience, when both fought, their power would be the same.

This was the so-called 'punching above one's grade'.

It sounded majestic and unique in stories, but it was actually something basic and obvious.

Party A used 100 9th grade Qi Stones to hit the Sublimation Realm (7th) whereas Party B used 100 9th grade Qi Stones to hit the Qi Condensation Realm (6th).

Party A has a 7th grade Martial Spirit whereas Party B has an 11th grade Martial Spirit. Within the same realm, Party B would naturally dominate Party A.

Yet in battle, Party B would not only manage to keep up with Party A, who on paper would have the advantage in cultivation, but would seemingly be able to be suppressing them. Those clever had already seen through the trick, aware that Party A and Party B had technically consumed the same amount of overall energy.

It didn't matter if the energy didn't take Party B as high, because Party B's base power and output had been higher, and demanded more energy at the same level than Party A, who had lower power and output.

Two examples here;

One, if you put a normal Sedan against a Bugatti and filled them with the same amount of petrol, the Sedan would be full, and the Bugatti would be at a quarter tank.

The cars would then have a marathon, both taking off at full speed on a straight road to see which one would last longer. The Bugatti, reaching its top speed would turn into a blur, leaving the weeping Sedan behind to eat shit.

By the time the Bugatti emptied its tank, it would have created a huge gap. It would then proceed to die and enter car heaven…

The sedan would trudge along with a fuller tank, eventually reaching around where the Bugatti stopped and would then stop itself, either slightly behind the Bugatti, at par with it, or, in the best-case scenario, slightly ahead.

Different engines, different tanks, but the same amount of fuel. Yet the overall distance traveled was about the same.

The second example would be two towers.

One would be constructed using finer materials and better workmanship, but had the same amount of resources as the other on the opposite side.

As such, the finer tower would end up shorter than the opposite tower which had used average resources and less carefully built, yet it would be more stocky since it had been refined with a second layer.

When the undead came marching in and the two tower owners - wizards - began striking them down, their towers would likely collapse at the same time, assuming the same amount of damage would deal with them per second.

Of course, Brother Zombies would dine on magical flesh while the wizards screamed in agony at having their skin ripped off bite by bite, but that was just life, eh?

So what was Draco and Eva's drag? Well, the fact of the matter was that the Martial Spirits cultivated like this.

Of 100% of the Qi they sucked in per second, 50% would be used to fortify the Martial Spirit itself, 30% would be converted to Dragon/Phoenix Qi and deposited in the dantian, and 20% would be used to refine the musculature of their users' using Dragon/Phoenix Qi.

In other words, only that last 20% was actually used to raise their cultivation level. 50% was used to make the Martial Spirits stronger and sturdier, which was fine on its own.

The reason was because… well, think about it. Draco and Eva's Martial Spirits being able to spit out 1000 gobs of Origin Essence was amazing, right?

But what if… they could spit out more?

That was the nature of the Dragon Ascension Chant and the Phoenix Rebirth Mantra. At every major realm, the users would be baptized by their Martial Spirits' Origin Essence.

For that the Martial Spirit itself had to be strengthened and fortified so that at every realm it could shoot out more - at least double what it could before - assuming the user could take it.

As soon as Draco and Eva reached the 1st level of the Tendon Refining Realm, they would undergo another round of power-ups. This would also affect their external bloodline and reduce the cost while increasing the output.

If nothing else, this boon alone made it worthwhile that they didn't rashly destroy the Tower and decided to continue climbing.

As for that 30%, it was going into increasing their foundation as cultivators. After all, the whole stint with Martial Spirits was only unique to this world. When it came to cultivation, the main thing was gathering Spirit Qi into the body and refining it using the cultivation method to become one's innate power.

Things like Martial Spirits were unique gimmicks that made the process a bit different, but all roads lead to Rome in the end. By the Integration Realm, one and their Martial Spirit would be one, and the Martial Spirit certainly was the source of power.

However, this technique they were using was Immortal/Legendary Rank. How could something that equated to the Grandmaster level be simple?

So what it did was line their dantian with Qi, using it to expand, fortify, cleanse and prepare the dantian for the 6th realm, Qi Condensation. It was only once they entered the Mortal Stage that the Qi they absorbed would enter their dantians, which was the first realm of cultivation almost everywhere else.

Here, the first 5 major realms, all the Qi you aboard fortifies your body thoroughly. By the 6th realm, the average cultivator of the Martial Spirit could contest with body cultivators of the middle ranks.

So the Human Stage of cultivation was doing Body Cultivation and the Mortal Stage was doing Qi Cultivation, whereas other worlds would have their people do either Qi or Body Cultivation, advising against doing both (protagonists not included).

It was a smart cultivation system, a way to get the best of both worlds. It would never work without Martial Spirits acting as a crutch, so other worlds could not copy this.

In other words, should cultivators of this world ascend to the Immortal Stage, they would quickly become their own dominating force combat-wise.

Alas, having been cut off from the upper realms while the land had been conquered and the cake shared, ascending now would only lead to troubles.

However, that was not Draco and Eva's problem. Right now, they marveled at their Cultivation Methods, because it wanted to do both at the same time. While fortifying their Martial Spirit, it also fortified their dantians - which was meant for Qi Cultivation and then worked on the body how it should during the body stages.

From the explanation of the Cultivation Methods, when they reached Qi Condensation, 50% will still fortify their Martial Spirits, but now 30% would go to cleansing their entire body, removing any impurities, healing any sequelae, and making sure that it was ready for integration.

So the slow cultivation was on purpose, to build a solid and unshakable foundation. It was no wonder why the Dragon and Phoenix Ancestors of every generation were the strongest in the world.

On Draco and Eva, it was quite something else. After about 3 days, they eventually reached the 10th level of the Muscle Tempering Realm and were preparing to break through to the Tendon Refining Realm.

The Dragon and Phoenix Ancestor stopped their cultivations to monitor their disciples and make sure that everything was right. While Draco and the Dragon Ancestor bickered and rolled around on the floor fighting, the Phoenix Ancestor gently warned Eva about what to look out for and nagged her gently.

Eva received it warmly, starting to like her master.

As for Draco… well, he and his master were certainly getting closer since the boy was performing the Reverse Boston Crab on the old-timer, who was tapping out screaming for help while Draco roared with malicious laughter.

Soon, the noise died down, and the Evil Duo sat cross-legged as they channeled their cultivation methods.