Chapter 39: Cost Control and the Evil God’s Corner

“It was time to master Palm Thunder and Thunder-Summoning Curse.”

Li Si thought to himself. Before, to save as much Fate as possible, he planned to learn and master them slowly. But last night’s battle made him realize he lacked strong attack Dao Techniques.

Actually, he did have attack Dao Techniques. Demon Slaying Thorn was one, and it was a high-level Dao Technique with great power. Last night, that Golden Core Devil was taken down by him using just ten Demon Slaying Thorns combined with Heart Cleansing Curse. If Ji Chang, Xu Shen, and Jiang Ying knew, they would probably be scared out of their wits.

Because Demon Slaying Thorn was really the most common Dao Technique. But after Li Si enhanced it to the extreme, its power reached what the Old Madam called the Half-Step Divine Ability level.

Didn’t the Old Madam focus resources on Xu Shen because Xu Shen had already slain his Inner Demon, his will tempered like steel, impervious to all evils, and his Dao Heart Purity?

This Dao Heart Purity allowed Xu Shen to cultivate some ordinary Dao Techniques to their utmost limit, achieving the Half-Step Divine Ability effect.

But for Li Si, he only thought: I am so weak, I am too weak, I am so pitiful. I was once pressed and beaten by the enemy for a full second…

So now, learning from this painful lesson, even if it wasted some Fate, he had to master Palm Thunder and Thunder-Summoning Curse.

Currently, because his Bloodline and Bone Evolution Progress was already 31%, the cost to master these two Dao Techniques was 18 portions of Gray Fortune each.

He refined 3600 portions of Gray Fate Fuel at once, obtaining 36 portions of Fate, which were spent instantly.

“Initially mastered Dao Technique Palm Thunder. Required 80 points of Magic Power to release. Effective range one hundred meters. When used on an enemy target, it could cause massive thunder damage. If the target was an evil demon, evil entity, or ghost, the damage was doubled.”

“Initially mastered Dao Technique Thunder-Summoning Curse. Required 80 points of Magic Power to release. Formed a thunder-summoning aura that chased the target for 3 seconds. Within ten zhang around the target, it randomly summoned 1 to 3 thunderbolts to randomly attack the enemy target.”

—

These high-level Dao Techniques were different. They initially required 80 points of Magic Power. Li Si clicked his tongue in admiration, then without hesitation continued to enhance them.

But this time, the enhancement cost also increased. Enhancing once required 10 portions of Gray Fortune. If he wanted to enhance both Dao Techniques to the extreme, he would need at least 140 portions of Gray Fortune. That would directly take one-third of his savings.

Li Si hesitated. It wasn’t that he was unwilling, but he was thinking: if these two high-level Dao Techniques were really enhanced to the extreme, even if they weren’t Divine Abilities, could he release them with his current cultivation?

Don’t forget the primary Divine Ability Heart Cleansing Curse he enhanced before. It was now shelved and couldn’t be used at all.

“I’ll enhance each three times.”

Li Si chose to be cautious. He then refined another 6000 portions of Gray Fate Fuel. Damn it, added to the previous amount, the profit from diligently farming Little Mushrooms for two days was gone.

I felt so sad.

But after the enhancement was complete, he couldn’t help but exclaim: So worth it!

“Proficiently mastered Dao Technique Palm Thunder. Required 320 points of Magic Power to release. Effective range one hundred meters. When used on an enemy target, it caused basic thunder damage plus 300% additional thunder damage. If the target was a demon, evil entity, or ghost, the damage was doubled. After killing the target, it automatically exempted 50% of the Alienation Contamination Degree.”

“Proficiently mastered Dao Technique Thunder-Summoning Curse. Required 320 points of Magic Power to release. Effective range one hundred meters. When used on an enemy target within this range, it formed a thunder-summoning aura that chased the target for three seconds. Within ten zhang around the target, it randomly summoned 3 to 9 thunderbolts to randomly attack the target. Note: While in the thunder-summoning aura state, releasing the Dao Technique Palm Thunder required no aiming, had 100% hit rate, and had a chance to cause a wide-area thunder attack lasting 3 seconds.”

—

It was like accidentally discovering a new world. Li Si’s mood was extremely excited. Really, he always thought these two Dao Techniques were separate and operated independently. Who would have thought that after triple enhancement, they turned into a combo.

Needless to say, during battle, first cast the thunder-summoning aura on the enemy. Actually, the hit rate of the random thunderbolts was a bit annoying. But if followed up with a Palm Thunder, then it was awesome. 100% hit rate! The master no longer needed to worry about me missing the enemy!

Especially since there was a chance to cause a wide-area thunder attack. Hehehe, wasn’t this the AOE that the masses loved?

Li Si couldn’t help wanting to enhance them further, but in the end, he held back. Because the Magic Power consumption of these two Dao Techniques was too high. Although he could recover Magic Power by consuming Gray Fortune, did he really think this method could solve everything and provide unlimited Magic Power?

Accumulating resources should always involve both increasing income and reducing expenditure.

Moreover, with the current power of Palm Thunder + Thunder-Summoning Curse, even Evil God Cultists could be taken out in one set. More would be overkill.

“Save resources, start with me, start now.”

Li Si thought solemnly.

Then he started patrolling further away. Well, having lost so many resources just now, he needed to recoup them.

Work hard! Strive!

For a while, Li Si, who had replenished his Mind-cleansing Aura, activated his Disaster Warding Aura, and finally opened his Evil-Warding Aura, was like a Hungry Ghost in heat, chasing and killing various Anomalous Weeds and Alien Trees all over the hillside, howling.

In just these few days, Li Si’s strength had improved so much that it was like seeing a new person after three days apart.

Well, actually, it was the same. The only difference was that the Aberrant Corruption from killing Anomalous Weeds and Alien Trees was suppressed to an extremely low level.

His Bloodline and Bone Evolution Progress suppressed 60%, and the Mind-cleansing Aura suppressed another 30%. Calculated, the actual Aberrant Corruption was minimal. Only the Magic Power consumption was a bit high.

Thus, Li Si realized that using Evil-Warding Aura to kill Anomalous Weeds was very efficient. But if he wanted to kill Alien Trees, it was better to use a weapon.

This way, killing was fast, Magic Power consumption was small, and plus he could exempt 90% of the Aberrant Corruption. This was the perfect state.

Thinking of this, Li Si took out the only ten-centimeter-long spearhead from his leather bag. This was the beginner weapon he had when he first crossed over, very commemorative.

After a brief thought, he formed a hand seal and slowly enchanted a Demon Slaying Thorn onto this spearhead.

Sealing a Dao Technique onto Talisman Paper was very difficult, but enchanting it onto a weapon was much easier. Especially if shelf life wasn’t considered, the success rate was 100%.

The difference was only whether the weapon could withstand the Dao Technique’s power.

So Li Si was also very careful now. Because if this spearhead couldn’t withstand it, this powerful Demon Slaying Thorn would directly explode.

But as he slowly completed the enchantment, the spearhead didn’t explode. Instead, three fiery red patterns appeared on it, like three blood grooves, startling to see.

“Obtained broken artifact Fiend-Piercing Spearhead. Description: This was a family heirloom artifact of a cultivation family. Most of its power had been corrupted by the Evil God’s power. Now it could only be used as an enchanted ordinary weapon. Usage count: 12/12.”

“Oh, it was actually a family heirloom.”

Li Si suddenly understood. He thought so, a starved camel is still bigger than a horse. No matter how much the Floating Cloud Sect had declined, it still had some heritage. Who would have thought that what he assumed was a beginner weapon, this broken spearhead, was actually an ancestral artifact.

Tsk tsk!

Maybe it was even the standard artifact for Floating Cloud Sect disciples.

At this time, Li Si cast an Artifact-Control Incantation. The spearhead spun and levitated, covered with a faint blue spiritual light. This was the connection between the Artifact-Control Incantation and him. But because this spearhead wasn’t considered a real artifact, controlling it felt somewhat stiff.

Not as smooth as controlling the Array Control Disk of the Five Tribulations of Lightning Method Array…

But Li Si’s current Artifact-Control Incantation had been enhanced seven times, giving it a huge advantage. So what if controlling it was a bit stiff? No problem, increase Magic Power output. If skill isn’t enough, we’ll make up for it with effort.

Locking onto an Alien Tree fifty meters away, he manipulated it. The Fiend-Piercing Spearhead shot out like a crazed boar, whistling, its speed instantly breaking 300 kilometers per hour, successfully passing by that Alien Tree…

If Li Si hadn’t stopped it in time, this thing would have rushed beyond the hundred-meter controllable range.

He wasn’t embarrassed, just found it really fun.

Because this thing was much more exciting than the Array Control Disk. Although the Array Control Disk was agile to control, it mostly followed fixed hand seals for release. Depending on the array eye deployment, it had its own trajectory. How could it be this free?

Heaven above, earth below, within a hundred meters, I go wherever I want!

For a while, Li Si enjoyed himself immensely and quickly found the knack.

“Whoosh!”

As a blue light flashed, a menacing Alien Tree was suddenly pierced. Regardless of whether it was a vital spot, the killing power of the Dao Technique Demon Slaying Thorn instantly activated. The Alien Tree was wrapped in a ball of flame, shrill screams sounded, and in an instant, it turned into a charred Remnant Exuviae.

Li Si didn’t pay attention at all. Where his eyes reached, his mind thought, his hand seals directed, the blue light arrived. The sounds of whooshing and piercing the air rose one after another. In less than a moment, all the Alien Trees around were wiped out clean.

A total of twelve Alien Trees. The effect of the Dao Technique Demon Slaying Thorn also dissipated.

With a casual gesture, the spearhead, once again black and ugly, returned to his hand.

“Releasing one Demon Slaying Thorn required 100 points of Magic Power. Using the Artifact-Control Incantation for three minutes total consumed 15 points of Magic Power. This was the total cost. And I killed twelve Alien Trees in total, obtaining 600 portions of Gray Fate Fuel.”

“Compare this to using Evil-Warding Aura. Releasing one Evil-Warding Curse required 100 points of Magic Power. And limited by attack range, I had to get within ten meters of the Alien Trees. But doing so would attract many more Alien Trees at once.”

“Basically, three Alien Trees could break one of my Evil-Warding Auras. If I wanted to kill twelve Alien Trees, I would need to release the Evil-Warding Curse at least four times consecutively. That meant I needed to consume 400 points of Magic Power to get 600 portions of Gray Fate Fuel.”

“Of course, the cost of these evil entities corrupting weapons and artifacts also had to be considered. But no matter what, reducing the cost by nearly three times was an indisputable fact.”

Li Si felt it was necessary for him to craft an artifact for himself in the near future.

With an artifact, even the Dao Technique enchantment step could be saved. Then the cost could be reduced by multiples again.

“As the saying goes, without ten times the profit, how dare you dig the Evil God’s corner? Do I, the Evil God, have no face to lose?”