The Body Refinement stages were easier to blaze through but were far more painful. Unlike Qi Cultivation where absorbed energy was stored in the Spirit Root itself, Body Refinement had the energy spread out into your flesh.
When spread into your flesh, it doesn't just sit there but does exactly what it's called, refining your body. Your flesh is destroyed and recreated using the energy you absorbed, perfected bit by bit as you cultivated.
Here, your mileage may vary. If your cultivation was slow, you suffered pain in small bits but over a long period of time. If your cultivation was fast, you suffered a huge amount of pain in a short time and were done with it.
For the fellows here, it was really mild since their Constitution stats were too high to fee;l such a thing. Only if their cultivation reached higher stages would they likely feel it.
It took them all just a day to blaze through to the peak of Mortal Flesh which also had 10 sub-stages that equated level 1 to level 10 of the True Supreme System's levels.
After that though, we had to talk about how cultivation benefited the cultivator. After all, there was no point gathering Qi or refining the body if it didn't benefit you somehow, right?
Of course, the best and most efficient way to display this was by talking about how cultivation affected one's stats.
For Qi Cultivation, your main stat was naturally your Magic. Your sub-stat was Willpower and these two increased in tandem. As your cultivation increased, depending on the quality of your spirit root, its element, and some external factors, your Magic and Willpower increased exponentially.
For Body Refinement, your main stat was obviously Constitution. Your sub-stat was Power and these two increased in tandem. As your stages increased, depending on the quality of the spirit root, its element, and external factors, your Constitution and Power increased greatly.
The key here was how much it was increased on average. This had to do with race, so using the human race's basic range, you could see an increase of 1 point in Intellect and Willpower with every 2 levels of Qi Condensation and every level of Foundation Establishment.
Likewise, there was an increase of 1 point in Constitution and Power with every 2 levels of Mortal Flesh and every level of Body Foundation.
So if you started with 10 points, you should reach 25 points by the time you hit peak Foundation Establishment, which was 5 points higher than the human standard.
And this was why Pan was rated as a stronger continent than Fallon, because at every stage, a cultivator's average stats surpassed those on Fallon or those of other systems by a significant amount.
Of course, the price for this came in other fields that would appear later on in their cultivation journey.
Whatever the case, the interesting thing was that despite having such high stats, everyone unilaterally experienced the stat increases they were supposed to enjoy. So for the Branded Servants, it was;
[Name: Darius Stone Race: Ancestor Dragon (Fledgling) Stage: Adept Jobs: Itemancer, Magus.
HP: 2,250,000/2,250,000 (3,375,000 HP Surplus) MP: 61,500/61,500 (215,250 MP Surplus) STA: 61,500/61,500
Level: 41 Experience: 5%
Power: 1,505 (1500) Speed: 1,000 Constitution: 1,505 (1500)
Magic: 1,505 (1500) Will: 1,205 (1200) Luck: 880
AP: 5,450 SP: 5450.]
[Name: Gunner Race: Half-Human, Half-Giant (Royal Blood) Stage: Adept Jobs: Vanguard, Anti-mage.
HP: 2,250,000/2,250,000 MP: 4,592/4,592 STA: 61,500/61,500
Level: 41 Experience: 0%
Power: 1,505 (1500) Speed: 800 Constitution: 1,505 (1500)
Magic: 117 (112) Will: 2,305 (2300) Luck: 100
AP: 5,450 SP: 8,145 (2,655).]
[Name: Xieliartorsobotar Staonroefuso Race: Elf (Royal Blood) Stage: Adept Jobs: Cleric, Divine Maiden.
HP: 11,500/11,500 MP: 82,000/82,000 STA: 4,715/4,715
Level: 41 Experience: 0%
Power: 105 (100) Speed: 780 Constitution: 120 (115)
Magic: 2,005 (2000) Will: 6,705 (6700) Luck: 1,000
AP: 5,450 SP: 8,090 (2,640).]
[Name: Luna Stone Race: Moon Elf (Progenitor) Stage: Journeyman Jobs: Moon Walker, Dark Predator.
HP: 7,500,000/7,500,000 (1,000,000) MP: 3200/3200 (650) STA: 80,000/80,000 (19,000)
Level: 32 Experience: 33%
Power: 3005 (3000) Speed: 3000 Constitution: 2505 (2500)
Magic: 1005 (1000) Will: 1005 (1000) Luck: 1000.
AP: 5555 (105) SP: 10,191 (4741)]
As one could see, they had gained the full 5 points in each stat. Since their Spirit Roots were perfect and they had passed through the various grades, this was normal.
If they had lesser Spirit Roots, rather than anything, they might not even gain a single stat point at the various stages they were supposed to, and this formed the gap in power between talented cultivators and average ones.
As it were, a week had passed, and looking over the side of the airship, the formerly barren and rocky mountain range was completely unrecognizable. In the central valley was a vast palace that spread over a large expanse of the land.
On the various mountain peaks around, there were sub-palaces that were built with different styles according to what Darius envisioned, with each of them representing a different element.
Not only that, but the environment of their mountains had been terraformed to fit that element, with the blue one having lakes, a waterfall as well as even a small sea, the fire one having a caldera with lava as well as flaming caves, and the purple one having low gravity as well as items of heavy mass with now low weight.
It was a cultivation paradise, but this was only the first step. These mountain peaks and palaces were in the inner area. A huge wall marked with elite runes and arrays separated this paradise from the outside.
Outside, in a total 360-degree radius were hundreds of buildings like shops, inns, hotels, plots, residences and the like that were empty and waiting for tenants. This was the outer area of the future sect where sales would happen and where the mortals they raised would live.
Looking at the development, Darius nodded with satisfaction.
Gunner walked over and glanced down as well. He turned to Darius and asked.
"Are you going to be a nice fellow and recruit those from the continent in order to increase their quality of life and give them new hope, or are you just going to manufacture your own mortals and immortals and then raise them like cattle?"
Darius glanced at Gunner with a smile. "You know the answer, why recruit when I can create?"
Gunner nodded and moved back. "Let me know when it's time for us to resume cultivating the next stages."
He plopped over near Darius's seat, right on the deck, and began sleeping. Darius could only chuckle at this half-giant's casual nature and then look back down.
He then instructed Miranda to release the first-generation mortals and cultivators. For now, this group headed into the main palace down from the airship as they had been produced and brought from Fallon.
In the main palace was a large Faraday cage-like room with runes for time dilation, and as you could expect, these soulless mortals began reproducing like crazy and then spitting out babies.
They were then collected by maid bots with special runes that made them manufactured by time dilation - so they looked like they were moving at super speed to those who were time dilated - and brought into another room.
There, they were tested for Spirit Roots. The babies with Spirit Roots were taken into a separate time-dilated room and raised until they were 6 years old. After that, they were removed from time dilation and shipped to the various side palace based on their element.
They were now forced by trainerbots to practice the cultivation of Qi and Body simultaneously from age 6 until they grew up in real-time.
As for those babies without Spirit Roots, they were taken into another time dilation room and trained in how to be a good mortal for business, farming, or any activity by a trainerbot until they were 20 years old.
Then they were spat out and assigned to a home in the outer section and a job based on their training. They would then focus on their job and gather income for the sect without keeping anything for themselves, surviving through sect welfare.
They would also give birth but their children would either be taken away to cultivate if they had spirit roots or continue their parent's job and live through welfare to the end of time.
The cultivators Darius trained would reach their peak level and then form one aspect of his army to take over Pan and then begin conflict with Houto in the first step.
As for the second step and after, it was too early to discuss this since it was not relevant yet.
