…but of course, we must first talk about the downsides of such techniques.

The Sumeru Mountain Law required a minimum Earth-Grade Earth Element Spirit Root to be able to get started in it. This was a steep barrier that blocked many aspiring cultivators who had suffered to gather this much sect merits, leaving them feeling despair as they could only pick something with lighter requirements.

The Void Limitless Sutra's limitation was already stated, needing either a void/space element spirit root or a void-related physique. This was redundant for Li Ling as the Tai Xu Mysterious Method could give him the versatility of the void element apart from ascension in realm.

The Soul Splitting Divine Art had too many limitations to count. Firstly, one had to have a strong soul to be able to split many copies, or you might only end up splitting one clone, which was basically useless for the kind of 'hack' effect this cultivation technique brought when you re-fused the separate souls.

But if you already had a strong soul, why cultivate this method? A strong soul basically meant that the fourth and fifth realm of qi cultivation would be a cakewalk for you, so why risk it? Secondly, if one of your various clones were killed, that was a permanent loss of your total soul forever.

Yes, it was intimidating to see the protagonist suffer to kill that young genius enemy then faint in relief, only for the last bits of the scene to switch to a dark cave where an ancient fellow opened his eyes and mutters, 'so someone killed my clone?'.

But inasmuch as it was so, it also meant that such a person's path was ruined, especially if they used an art that required all souls to come together. Luckily, the Soul Splitting Divine Art did have a leeway, only needing at least 50% of all soul clones to come back for re-fusion.

The Pure Yang Supreme Truth's only barrier of entry was to be a male with your virginity intact. However, its flaw also came from there, because it required the cultivator to maintain their virginity to retain their immense combat power, which Li Ling, who was not an indifferent and unfeeling fellow, despised.

There were very few joys about being a man versus being a woman, and the escapades of one's along with their junior brother down there made up a solid half of them. To shut that off, why not take the extra step and just cut it off and practice the Sunflower Manual too on top?

Not to mention, it made dealing with such fellows easy. If a cultivator of the Pure Yang Supreme Truth came and Li Ling somehow couldn't beat him, he could just transform into his female self and use his Yin Yang Reversal to make the fellow break his own power base.

Hmm… no, that sounded weird somehow.

Anyway, the issue with the One Line Chaos Art was that it required one to have at least a top-grade spirit root of the five elements. So no, none of the 'lucky' situations where the five-elements mixed spirit root was actually the golden key to cultivate a top-tier art… a trash spirit root was just that, condemned to mediocrity.

Li Ling could assure you of that.

Of course, these limitations meant nothing to him, and in the case of the One Line Chaos Art, could even mean that the Infinite Slaughter System might generate a top-grade five-element spirit root combo for him on the spot, changing his base talent from trash to amazing!

So why was Li Ling hesitating? Was it because of the merits? Did he fear losing them?

Nonsense, sect merits could always be earned! There will always be wars of annihilation going on, or he could even take individual sect tasks from the Seeking Blood Wing with high payouts and high difficulties to amass them again.

Li Ling knew this, so it wasn't the sect merits he was worried about. Rather, it was the Slaughter Point cost of these methods, which was something he could only speculate about.

Ah, but no matter how amazing his 'cheat' and 'golden finger', it still had some of its own basic rules to follow. One of them was that the more amazing and powerful the art, the higher the price paid to advance it.

A good example was the Foundation Establishment climb he had gone through. According to the Infinite Slaughter System's methodology, it should take a total of 550 Slaughter Points to go from Qi Refinement level 10 to Foundation Establishment level 10 for an average technique.

Yet Li Ling had factually paid a total of 825 Slaughter Points, and that was not even factoring the extra for the Sage Race Mental Cultivation Method which was consumed to boost his spirit sense each level. This was because the Solaris Azure Meditation Mantra had some advantages and extra requirements that the Infinite Slaughter System had to fill in, necessitating a higher cost.

Per his calculations, a floor-level Core Formation technique should cost a total of 5,500 Slaughter Points to advance from Foundation Establishment level 10 to Core Formation level 10. However, if he was to take any of these 'tyrant-level' cultivation techniques, it was likely just breaking through to Core Formation level 1 could cost more than that amount, especially since he lacked many of the qualifications.

And finally, but most crucially, Li Ling hesitated for the same reason that any modern young person did when they entered the corporate workforce. Unlike the older generation who believed in spending years in a system to rise to the top, modern workers believed in parallel jumping, moving from company to company while accumulating experience and qualifications while also getting better offers and salaries.

It wasn't that today's youngsters were greedy and disloyal, lacking the ability to commit to a single faction, but because they were too smart to be caught trapped within that single system.

Look at how the Six Paths Demon Sect sold these techniques. Given how hard sect merits have been to earn—even without the previous merit ban—you would think that a price tag of 2,000 Blood Credits should get you the entire technique, but no, that was just the Core Formation chapter of it.

For the Nascent Soul chapter, it would have its own—much higher—price tag when you gained qualifications to access it.

And therein lay the problem, the necessity of 'qualifications'.

This was fine if it was arbitrated by an impartial entity, but no, it was managed by humans at the top of the various layers, especially the middle and upper layer of the sect.

The necessary 'qualifications' to get the next level of the technique you've subscribed to were completely in their control, and if they were wary of you, countless excuses or tricks could be set up to block your path forward.

Look at the six Hall Masters. Because they were at the bottom layer, they could only use force to try and stifle Li Ling's growth. If Li Ling won the tournament later this year and advanced to the middle layer, the Dao Integration Sect elders would wield far greater power than these Six Paths Hall Masters at the same level, allowing them to use less overt methods to hinder him.

For example, saying that they were worried that he was cultivating too fast and needed to stabilize his mentality, using someone to bring up a false claim he was a spy to waste time, or blocking his ability to redeem in the backend and claiming that it was a 'server issue'.

So if he, Li Ling, redeemed any of these techniques, he would be limiting himself to the Six Paths Demon Sect's system, which was not ideal for someone like him whose only loyalty was to himself. It was fine for the Blood Asura Descent; he had always known this limitation and so his craving for power in body cultivation was never high.

But he couldn't sell his qi cultivation too, unless he had a backup.

And indeed, Li Ling did.

Closing his eyes, he operated the Asura Blood Token to redeem the One Line Chaos Art from the Whispering Blood Wing, watching with a bleeding heart as his quarter of a million that was just earned by completely exposing himself—and around 30% of his secrets—to the world was swallowed up.

He also spent the base 5,000 Blood Credit cost to buy the Core Formation chapter of the Blood Asura Descent, which meant that he had already gathered the necessary mantras for the entire third realm in both disciplines, which would allow him to reach the peak of the Qi Path.

Soon, a torrent of complicated and complex information was downloaded to his brain through the token that passed it through his spirit sense, causing Li Ling to enter a state that seemed akin to enlightenment. Based on the volume and complexity of the One Line Chaos Art, the third realm chapter of the Blood Asura Descent was like comparing CERN-level quantum calculations with fourth-grade algebra.

It wasn't until well into the next day that Li Ling opened his eyes, a deep light of shock and interest in them!

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