After ten days in the Inner World, they reach their physical limits of how many demonic beasts they can kill. That number is around four hundred. Beyond this, it is impossible for them to progress. Their physical and spiritual bodies simply cannot generate enough energy to accomplish this task.

For Foundation Establishment cultivators, their limit should’ve been around three hundred demonic beasts, but by applying some twisted sense of game theory and logic, they can extend this number to four hundred.

When Lan Xiaohui runs out of energy, rather than waste what little she has left on dodging, she gives up her body parts if it means she can save enough stamina for at least one more strike. In a way, I understand why she chooses this painful option instead of self-preservation.

Yu Shun is most likely now a Core Formation cultivator. Assuming that her battle with him will be a straightforward affair is simply naive. In that battle, she may have to risk her life — and possibly give up her limbs — in order to deal the fatal blow that will sever her connection to her past.

Wu Yulan, on the other hand, might be slightly different. I am not certain if it is because she knows she cannot die or because her surprising battle lust lingers quite close to mental derangement, but when she chooses her place to die, she picks the most spectacular method of self-destruction.

When my owner’s companion only has enough energy remaining for one more strike, she appears in the midst of the largest pack of demonic beasts and kills as many as she can before she is ground to dust.

I approve heavily of this.

Even my sentient core sings Wu Yulan’s praises.

Maybe it is because, in my past life, I was so indoctrinated into the policies of scorched earth and mutually assured destruction, but I prefer to think it is because I can appreciate the beauty of a bloodthirsty sword.

And Wu Yulan, when in the default combat mode, is very bloodthirsty.

But the progress of their swordsmanship no longer interests me. Whether they manage to kill one hundred monsters over their limit, or even complete this challenge, doesn’t have any true meaning. At this stage, it is merely a fluke or an unlikely incident. Certainly, if the demonic beasts appeared and moved in a certain fashion there could be a possibility for them to complete this challenge — and there certainly might be a new skill to be learned by forcing the beasts to appear and move in this fashion through strategy — but it would not be repeatable.

Simply put, they have achieved the limit of what they can achieve with their swordsmanship in the Foundation Establishment realm. Perhaps if they spent years perfecting their blades in this challenge, there would still be some improvement.

I could think of a few ways: They could improve the efficiency of their ability to generate sword Qi, the potency of their Qi, optimized meridian circuits, and, most importantly, combat breathing.

That last one might be the most important to them. With their Sword Domains deployed and using martial arts that are really not intended to be used by Foundation Establishment cultivators, their Qi expenditure is downright absurd. It is only because of their extraordinary breathing methods that they can sustain this intense exertion for this long.

Lan Xiaohui’s Emptiness Prana makes her devour hundreds of liters of air every minute. Normally, outside of the Inner World, I would help her and use my own Qi to assist her generation process, but within this world, I may as well just be an ordinary divine-grade slab of metal and jade in her hands.

Wu Yulan’s own breathing method is enough to match Lan Xiaohui’s consumption and generation — perhaps her method is even a grade higher — though I don’t know what her method is or who taught it to her.

No, at this stage, my focus and interest lie in determining how this Inner World operates. I withdraw my consciousness from the [Killing Field] and instead observe the entirety of this faux-sect within my Inner World.

It occurs to me that this [Killing Field] is likely not a training formation, but rather a work formation. After all, it turns combat data into energy — likely liberating it from the souls of things I have devoured — and even awards Inner World Tokens for doing so.

Without a doubt, every entity in this Inner World is quite powerful because of this formation and others like it, but that is most likely only in the sense that such difficult work builds the group of muscles required to perform the work more efficiently.

It is like a blade that gets sharper the more it is used, but sharpness is not the only factor that matters when it comes to blades. Length matters, taper, shape and form, sturdiness, and so on. A formation that only sharpens the figurative blade is not truly a good training platform.

Not that I mind, of course. I expect the two to continue being patrons of my [Killing Field] formation for quite a while longer because the energy they generate is enough to make up for the absurd time-dilation settings they are using.

At this time, I am just barely generating a net positive influx of energy, at around 100,000 Inner World Energy per cycle — still quite a bit less than what it used to be. However, once they are Core Formation cultivators and they can do twice as much with half the effort, I expect to see a sharp increase in my economy.

However, at some point, it might be prudent to identify or prepare the proper training facilities for their progress. There are two reasons behind this: I cannot allow them to die — they are critical to my own progress — and I need them to become a class of skilled workforce when it comes to generating Inner World Energy.

Therefore, for the rest of the day, I sit back and watch this island of a faux-sect float above the nothingness, following the patterns of energy as they are released from the [Killing Field] and churned into something usable by the Inner World.

Perhaps the energy of this world comes from my [World Eater] talent, and the entities in here are transforming that Qi into useful energy. It seems like a convenient explanation, but ultimately unsatisfactory. My [World Eater] cannot possibly satisfy this world’s energy requirements by operating at 10% efficiency.

The energy gathers beneath the Sect Hall and then flows outwards, through the ground, into the various buildings and divisions within this small area. Regrettably, I do not find any points within this energy network that I could modify or optimize — they already exist in a perfect state.

If I am to improve my Inner World, then it is not necessarily the infrastructure that needs modifications, but rather the workforce itself. However, to improve the workforce, some additional infrastructure may be necessary.

I scan the Inner World with my mind, looking in every place at once until I find who I am looking for.

Sun Zhen.

In the last cycle, he won the Second Layer challenge by clearing 56 floors.

I did not think that the cultivators here would be beyond the Foundation Establishment realm, but now that I look closely at Sun Zhen, I can see that he is nearly at the peak of Core Formation. Just a bit more, and he will reach the point where he would have to prepare himself for breaking through to the next realm.

Sun Zhen has golden-blond hair and clear blue eyes. Unlike most others here, he wears gold armor and has two treasure swords sheathed on his hip.

I reach out with my mind to query the sliver of consciousness that animates this entity, and it responds immediately.

Sun Zhen

Class V Entity

7* rank