Finished dealing with the rest of the world and leaving them to focus on understanding the answers the System gave, Herman himself decided to go through a list of priorities for the Immortal World. He grabbed a pen and a notebook, fully immersed in writing and vocalizing the words on paper. It wasn't any sort of immortal spell or weird things like that, rather it was a 'to do' list for when one would ascend to the next realm, however not applicable for earthlings.

  After another four to five hours of writing and reading aloud, he tore apart the paper and burned it into nothingness using Spiritual Qi.

  "With that, it can be considered paying off my debt to you. I am sorry but from here on out, I cannot allow you to keep spying on me."

  With a slight intention of will, an invisible string was cut and his body fell to the ground while writhing in pain. The spasms stopped after about half an hour and Herman dragged his weak body under the shower. The link between him and his 'benefactor' was cut due to them already arriving in the Immortal World, while he would be able to only after these two days pass.

  Also, he had his own agenda and that couldn't be shared with anyone else for the time being.

  "System, has the show been open for perusing? Can I access it?"

  That meant that, while he couldn't open his Inventory and equip the Level 1 items he got as a reward, he could still buy stuff that would be deposited in it. Once he ascended, he would be able to gain access to them fully. The important thing was to set the roadwork in advance.

  He first checked his attribute panel and was relieved to see the increase. While it's true that the Heaven Ascending Steele and the Warring Drums were dangerous for newbies, it was indeed an opportunity if one knew how to grab it.

  The Steele would further cleanse and unblock the circulation pathways while also enlarging the meridians. The result would be a much higher Perception and Absorption. The drums also played an important role in removing impurities out of the body. Even if the acupoint opening process did that, it cleared impurities found only on the skin in specific areas. The reverberations of the drums coursed through the entirety of one's body, therefore forcing a much better removal.

  "And once the impurities in one's blood, marrow, bones, and muscles get removed... this happens!"

  While his various attributes increased big time, there was also a terrifying change. First off, he received a boost of 100 points in Life Essence, Strength, and Dexterity. The bigger boost was to his Vitality where he got a big chunk of 200 at once. The cleansing process was helpful to the body, therefore why it benefited the most. His Fortune went up the moment when he climbed on top of the Steele and reached the 1001st step, gaining a bit 24 points at once. Many tried to figure it out, but there are only theories about this stat point being something that only games can explain. It was a chance of hitting the enemy with a critical strike, while it was also the providence one's soul had, or better put, the amount of luck.

  "If one is unlucky, they can wander all he/she wants in the Immortal World, yet not come across even a strand of Spiritual Grass. Fortune is an attribute that is almost impossible to increase unless one has fortuitous encounters. For example, if you were to wander in a realm and come across the tomb of an Immortal Venerable (although that's impossible), the System will award you an increase in points. It's difficult to say if that's because your luck wasn't properly calibrated before and the System is adjusting its value, or if by receiving the extra points, your luck increases in the long run..."

  While the main attributes and the Fortune were an amazing haul, he was happier about the 100 points in Perception and the 10 in Absorption. He would've been running around the villa all day long while singing if that would've been all, however, there was another addition to the panel. Or better put, it wasn't an addition but a slight modification made to Efficiency and Qi Absorption.

  "To suddenly go from the same amount per every five minutes to getting it only after one hour, it must be because of the unsealing process was started. If the Immortal World wanted to unseal such a big piece of territory in the Heavens, they had to use Qi to do it. That means a beyond-average decrease in the Qi's density all across the realm. It's the same on Earth. If one was to take away 90% of available oxygen humans could breathe, with the remaining 10%, people would have a hard time living."

  The only difference was that in this case, the cultivation process would be slowed down quite a bit. There were, of course, ways around it. Such as buying manuals and techniques focusing on Perception and Absorption. The only problem was that there were only two ways of getting them while in the Immortal World: one was to buy them with SJ and the second was to gain them through contributions in a sect that provides them as the fifth skill.

  Herman could feel a migraine forming due to the new things in play, making a mess of his original plan.

  "It seems like there's no other way around it. System, bring up the Immortal Market's interface."

  With a simple look and he felt so sick he could throw up. In his last life, he toiled like a slave to buy the trash sold on the market, only to find out later on that more than 80% of the things sold on the first level were trash that newbies shouldn't spend money on. Take the pills for example! One could easily gain those from the sect they belong to, but also through adventuring in the 20 sealed realms inside the Immortal World.

  "It was much easier to just fight against fallen Immortals or wounded beast cultivators and take their belongings. Cruel, but that's how life will be from now on..."

  Reputation tokens were only for rich cultivators, the pills formulas are good... well some of them at least, and he needed to buy the Level 1 Alchemy Furnance and the Level 1 Cauldron. The Silk Casket was a gift used to woo girls, so it was good but it could be earned as well from other venues and finally the treasure maps. As much as Herman wanted, with his pitiful savings of 12.500 Spirit Stones, just a look through it would make him poor.

  "*Sigh* System, I want to purchase the Level 1 Alchemy Furnance, the Level 1 Cauldron, the Level 1 Strength-enhancing Pill formula, the Level 1 Bone-refining Pill formula, the Level 1 Soul-extracting Pill formula and finally the Level 1 Soul-gathering Pill formula..."

  "Urgh... it physically hurts to become a pauper once more. Now I need 836 more for the Alchemy Room plans and another 1.000 for my first entry in the Cultivation Room of the sect I'll join... which I haven't decided on yet... *Sigh* Let's see the Sutras Hall next. System, do your thing..."

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  "Who says money doesn't make one strong... With enough currency, you can get all ten pieces of the four basic skills and breeze through anyone under the Nascent Soul realm..."

  Well, Herman could've easily bought the available skills, however, it wasn't a good idea to do so early on. If a Qi Gathering realm cultivator suddenly gets all the skills, yes, his attributes would increase at a rapid pace, yet in exchange for quite the loss. Even the worst of the skills available to buy were designed for Foundation realm cultivators and higher. If one was to learn them faster than their intended purpose, the number of attribute points gained would be far lower than the one gained if at a higher realm.

  "It all has to do with the body's Primordial Qi saturation. Originally, if I could've reached the Foundation realm within two-three months and waited around one more, it would've been sufficient. Now that the Qi is less concentrated, it will probably be at least a year before I can learn any attribute enhancing skills."

  One could argue that since Herman decided to go for speed instead of strength, he should just gather all the attributes he can and challenge the Array of Heavens. That wouldn't be smart at all, since waiting for that extra year would net him at least another 250-500 points per each main attribute.

  Since there was no way to ascend within the first year and he already had quite the headstart, there was no need to rush and ruin his foundation with cheap tricks.

  "And that's that! System, bring up the Top Up interface."

  "I figured as much. With the need to wait almost one thousand years before being able to sell my proprieties for Spirit Jade, I am thankful for the 129.566SJ I have left. With that being said and given that I have no way to buy stuff from the Reputation Hall, for the time being, there's one thing left to do... System, bring up the Spirit Jade Hall interface."

  "Eh!? System, why aren't you bringing up the other floors of the Spirit Jade Hall!?"

  "*Cough**Cough* One needs to spend that much just to have access to higher levels!? As expected from a greedy f*cker like you... But the two titles of Inspector and Censor should be available for purchase, right?"

  Seeing the System go in salesmen-mode, Herman was speechless. If the System would be reincarnated into a human being, it would be an absolute Scrooge, yet a quite skillful salesman. There was no way around it and he was going to buy... well, all of them! From what he remembered, each one had quite a several advantages over the competition.

  It was time to figure out how many.

  "System, explain each perk!"

  "Well... f*ck it! I want to buy all of them!"