Time ceased to have meaning inside the fog bank of Iron Cloud Mountain.
For the outside world, days were passing. The news cycle churned with stories of the "Masked Expert," the BSA's new recruitment drive, and the strange, miraculous recovery of a certain elderly couple in the southern suburbs.
For Lin Hao, there was only the Grind.
He moved through the days like a ghost. He spent his mornings running the perimeter, his Phantom Step evolving from a blur into a near-teleportation, leaving afterimages that lingered for full seconds. He spent his afternoons in the basement, subjecting his body to crushing weights, his Vajra Body turning his skin into a living, golden alloy that dented steel.
And at night, he watched the numbers.
[Day 13] [Daily Gain: 204,800 UP] [Total Balance: 719,330 UP]
He spent 130 UP to boost the world. The curve grew.
[Day 14] [Daily Gain: 409,600 UP] [Total Balance: 1,538,800 UP]
He was now a millionaire in points. He spent 140 UP. The curve steepened.
[Day 15] [Daily Gain: 819,200 UP] [Total Balance: 3,177,080 UP]
Three million.
He sat in the center of the underground vault, the silence absolute. He was vibrating with unspent capital. He could buy entire sects' worth of manuals. He could upgrade his dog to a localized natural disaster.
But he didn't. He sat still, watching the clock.
23:58... 23:59...
00:00
The timer he had been staring at for a week finally hit zero.
[Weekly Cultivation Upgrade: UNLOCKED.] [Quota: 1/1 Available.]
Lin Hao stood up. The waiting was over.
He opened the [Self Upgrade] tab.
[Cultivation: Level 8: Meridian Opening] [Upgrade: Level 9: The Perfect Foundation (Peak Houtian)]? [Cost: 1,000 UP]
The cost was laughable. One thousand points. He made that in two minutes of passive generation now.
But the significance was heavy. Level 9 was the end of the road for mortals. It was the theoretical limit of the human body before it had to evolve into something else.
"Confirm," he commanded.
[Deducting 1,000 UP. 3,176,080 UP Remaining.]
He braced himself for pain. He expected the bone-crushing agony of Level 7 or the meridian-tearing explosion of Level 8.
But there was no pain.
CLICK.
The sound came from inside his soul. It was the sound of a solved puzzle.
The scattered, roaring energy of his Meridian Opening stage suddenly calmed. The "Iron Skin" on his surface, the "Forged Bones" in his frame, the "Fortified Viscera" in his core, they all synchronized.
His Qi didn't just flow; it permeated.
It soaked into every cell, every hair follicle, every strand of DNA. The separation between "body" and "energy" vanished. He wasn't a human holding Qi anymore. He was a vessel made of Qi.
He took a breath.
The air in the vault rushed into his lungs, and he felt the oxygen bind instantly with his blood, processed with 100% efficiency. He felt the gravity of the earth pulling on him, and his body naturally adjusted its density to neutralize the weight.
He clenched his fist. There was no resistance. No lag.
This was Level 9. The Perfect Foundation.
"I am full," he whispered.
He felt complete. He felt powerful. He felt ready to ascend.
He immediately looked back at the interface. He wanted to break through. He wanted to cross the threshold into the Xiantian (Pre-Natal) Realm, the realm of true cultivators, of flight, of longevity.
[Upgrade: Realm 1: Qi Gathering (Layer 1)]?
He pressed the button.
BZ-Z-ZT.
A harsh, red warning flashed across his vision, jarring him out of his euphoria.
[ERROR: ENVIRONMENTAL RESTRICTION.] [Upgrade LOCKED.] [Reason: Ambient Mana Density Insufficient.] [Requirement: MIDDLE SPIRITUAL PLANE.]
Lin Hao froze.
He read it again.
[REQUIRES MIDDLE SPIRITUAL PLANE.]
The realization hit him like a bucket of ice water.
He had hit the ceiling. Not his ceiling. The World's ceiling.
Earth was a "Low Spiritual Plane." The air here was too thin, too poor in spiritual energy to support a Qi Gathering existence. A Realm 1 cultivator trying to exist here would be like a deep-sea fish brought to the surface, they would suffocate.
He couldn't upgrade. No matter how many points he had, he couldn't become a Xiantian cultivator on Earth.
Unless he changed Earth.
He navigated to the [World Upgrade] tab.
He scrolled past the daily 0.01% boosts. He looked at the bottom of the list, at the button he had ignored because it seemed so far away.
[World Upgrade: Planar Ascension (Middle Spiritual Plane)] [Effect: Increases Global Base Reiki Density by 10,000%. Unlocks Xiantian Realm limits. Unlocks Spirit-Grade Flora/Fauna globally.]
[Cost: 10,000,000 UP]
He looked at the number. Ten million.
He looked at his balance.
[Upgrade Points (UP): 3,176,080]
He was short. He was nearly seven million points short.
He did the mental math of his exponential curve.
Day 16 (Tomorrow): ~1.6M gain. Total ~4.7M. Day 17: ~3.2M gain. Total ~7.9M. Day 18: ~6.4M gain. Total ~14.3M.
Three days.
He just needed three more days of peace. Three days of silence. Three days to let the math do its work.
But as he stood there, trapped in his perfect Level 9 body, looking at the red LOCKED text, Lin Hao felt a chill.
The System had never let him coast for free. Every major upgrade had been preceded by a crisis.
He walked to the elevator.
"Three days," he whispered. "Please... just give me three days."
But he knew, deep down, that the world wasn't that kind.