... alright.
That's a lot of shit to process.
I'll defer considering how to break through into the Inner World for later, so I just shove the last part of the whole ordeal to the back of my mind, focusing on the first one. And, from it, on one very specific aspect:
[Your next 'Cultivation Method'-type creation is guaranteed to trigger 'Dao Inspiration'][Dao Inspiration -- infuses a singular, perfect Dao Trace into the art]
This is now twice I've been rewarded for waiting to do something I was gonna do anyway, the first time being when I didn't immediately upgrade Heart-Stitching Art. I don't like that the system is encouraging me to procrastinate, but maybe it really is just a coincidence.
... maybe.
I'm not actually sure what 'Dao Trace' entails, but we'll see soon enough.
The next most impressive thing is likely the fancy new ring I got; on the surface, it looked no different than my other spatial rings, aside from perhaps looking a bit older. Its surface had a dull, purple hue to it, and the inner portion was quite some ways smoother and more fitting against my finger than the other ones, but it was basically impossible to notice without a deep scrutiny.
Even the insides, aside from being about four times more spacious than any of my other rings, were remarkably simple: a cube with worn-down stone walls and no light to speak of. But it supported life.
Though most would have likely jumped to the ideas of sneaking people in by hiding them in the ring, or keeping the kids inside so they can jump and surprise anyone who attacks me, my first thought immediately went to... fresh food. As in, I can stuff a bunch of cows and pigs and chicken in there, and have permanent access to fresh meat.
In one corner I can also start raising some potatoes and some tomatoes and some cumin, and maybe a small corner for a cherry tree or something, and--alright, I'll stop there as I think I'm starting to sound a wee bit insane.
Ultimately, though, the biggest boon came from the massive increase of max points per art. Honestly, I didn't expect it; at most I thought it'd go up to 500, but when I saw 1000, I could weep. Not that it would unlock me to do any damn thing I please, but it would unlock so many possibilities that I will actually start running out of points once again.
Most everything else was 'merely' passive upgrades whose effects I'll have to slowly see. Well, aside from the upgraded Sage physique; it simply meant that my new Disciples, if I want them to, could quickly catch up to to some degree with the rest. That 'some' is kind of cheeky, as I could still learn from my Disciples to gain their comprehension, which I could then transfer to the new kids.
More and more it seems that the system was 'designed' with a sect in mind rather than a small gathering of kids that I've got. This alone would create a massive feedback loop, but I can't abuse it nearly as much as I'd like.
I dismissed all the windows despite there being a few more things of note; instead, I reached out with my hand and twisted my fingers. At the same time, about four feet from me, space itself twisted like somebody folding a napkin, though it flattened immediately after.
It's difficult to put into words my understanding of Dao of Space as it's sort of like asking a native speaker to explain why certain things are the way they are in their language despite them never studying it at a high level. For instance, I know that I can manipulate threads of Qi through my fingers to bind them to isolated points of space that can be bent and contorted, thus creating effects like the one just now, but I have no idea the actual how behind it.
Well, no, I know some of it. It's unsurprisingly kind of similar to the way I understood 'spacetime' back on Earth, if perhaps with a small twist. Spacetime is a set of dimensions that can be visibly manipulated, where the degree of manipulation projects effects from it. For instance, theoretically, I know exactly what to do to create a black hole--I simply have to repeatedly find those malleable points and twist them further and further toward a center, folding spacetime into infinite density.
Theoretically.
Not only would I run out of Qi within about six seconds of trying, but I cannot even maintain an ordinary discordance of spacetime for longer than a couple of seconds.
One day, perhaps...
The reason my mind went there is because of those two black holes that exist on the periphery. What if I could master Dao of Spacetime to such a degree that I could reverse them somehow? Or move them away? Obviously, it's a pipe dream. Men and women far smarter and more talented than me have walked down this path, yet those remain. It means that it's either outright impossible, or that the requirements are some incomprehensibly difficult, it may as well be outright impossible.
Anyway, that's enough distractions.
There's one thing that I now have to do which is create a new and improved variant of Enduring Eternity that will somehow be useful to everyone. Well, not everyone. Rayce and Long Tao won't be using it I'm pretty sure, but it still can't be too specific. Now that I had the 1000 points cushion, creating more specialized variants is actually possible, but with the 5000 one, I'll be creating a new bedrock, so to speak.
I pulled up the creator's window and boy-oh-boy was I doubly overwhelmed once more. Not only were there more options, there was a whole-ass new category that wasn't there before: Dao Inheritance.
For some very affordable points, the cheapest being only a few tens of... millions... I could create an art that inherits Dao imbuement of the existing, ancient arts and methods.
[Dao Inheritance of Thousandfold Void Sutra][Cost: 6,000,000,000][The required category is 'Movement Art'; imbues the art with a complete, functional Dao of Space, making it so that the movement art can never be blocked, the cultivator can never be locked in an array, and so that they can live between dimensions for short bursts of time. Additionally, automatically allows for long-distance travel as well as dimensional crossing of the worlds. Movement Art will not cost any Qi to use]
Wouldn't it be quite majestic to have a movement art with that? Hey system, can you give me just six billion points?
... figures.
Since I could afford jack from it, I just ignored it and focused on the beginning, selecting the category of Cultivation Method, which opened up a new function that wasn't there before either.
[Parent Method: does this method inherit from an existing one?]
I pressed 'Yes' and added Enduring Eternity as the option, which reshuffled the window considerably. It was actually quite streamlined, sort of the difference between a bad UI where you have to go into command console to do anything versus a set of windows that just make you choose from preexisting options.
... I'm actually not sure it's better, but I am quite sure I can trust the system.
For the most part.
I think.
Welp, let's see what this is about.