Infinite Potential System

-Your Regeneration Talent has triggered a side effect: +1 Age

-Your Regeneration Talent has triggered a side effect: +1 Age

William's vision was filled with more and more notifications, his eyes turning to the Status Menu. Every fifteen seconds, the number next to his age would go up by one, meaning he would lose four years for every minute spent during the S-Rank Chaos upgrade.

Even the Time Element had only taken 30 years or so of lifespan, this was too much!

William blamed himself for choosing to upgrade the Elements in order of difficulty. In truth, he should have upgraded the Chaos Element first, since it would only have as strong an effect on him as the power of his other Elements.

If his Time Element was still A-Rank, his suffering wouldn't have lasted as long, and if the Death Element was still B-Rank, it might not have been able to breach his Hard Skin as easily.

His decision had cost him over a hundred years of lifespan at least, and he might even die of old age at this rate!

No! I won't die of old age after coming so far! William turned serious as he did his best to focus on shutting out the pain of the Elemental attacks. His time-slowing ability was constantly triggered by the Chaos upgrade, so William was able to rapidly think of a solution.

Once the pain had been completely shut from his mind, the puddle of blood known as William did its best to use up some of his Cultivation Base.

It was a difficult task, since William didn't truly understand how his Dantian could still exist when he was in such a state, but he was eventually able to trace his own Spirit Qi to a Dantian that had been scattered across the ground and had yet to reform.

Despite its broken state, it seemed the Dantian would perform like normal as long as it was recovered. It seemed to be another effect of the Regeneration Talent, which had clearly stated that William could recover from almost any injury.

I don't have to fully reform it, just call a little bit of Spirit Qi to reach the peak. I can do this!

Blood Puddle William concentrated with Soul Strength to form a wisp of consciousness that pieced together the Dantian and protected it from the Elemental Domains. His Soul Strength wasn't that strong compared to peak Cultivators, but it could hold its own for a few seconds against the S-Rank Elements.

A few seconds was all William needed, protecting the Dantian just long enough for the Regeneration Talent to form it halfway.

William pooled his Spirit Qi into reaching the peak, then immediately started the Tribulation. His age had reached 235 years, and the Chaos upgrade didn't seem anywhere near ending. There was no time to think about what the World would think of the Tribulation.

William's only thoughts were on saving himself!

I can't disperse it anyway, but my body... or blood... should be strong enough to deal with it! William hoped as he tried to look to the sky, but to no avail.

His Vision Talent was too low-level, and it couldn't see above him at such a vertical angle. When William tried to upgrade the Talent, the System notified him that another was still ongoing, so it wouldn't be possible for the time being.

He could only hope that the Tribulation ended quickly.

A text box appeared in William's mind while he felt a violent shaking from the Heavenly Lightning. It wasn't striking William's body directly, but the Tier 6 Array from above him. Even though the Arrays didn't help much, it seemed that Tier 6 Arrays had some resistance to Heavenly Lightning.

-How...

How? What do you mean, System? William didn't expect a response at this time.

-How... can it be so easy?

The System's response seemed pained, and the message typed out very slowly. It seemed that upgrading the Chaos Element to S-Rank was a difficult task, and piling on the Tribulation probably didn't help.

He also knew that the System was supposed to upgrade again with this current batch of upgrades, so there were actually three simultaneous events drawing the System's attention.

William watched in his mind as the System typed out another message very slowly, one that gave William a foreboding feeling.

Multiple Tribulation Lightning Bolts struck his body, likely after breaking through the Tier 6 Array, but his pain resistance was very high and he was more focused on the System to notice.

-All System functions other than the current upgrade and urgent notifications will temporarily shut down. Expect a delay in Potential Point awards...

The text box disappeared, and William felt a slight change, as if a part of his existence had temporarily disconnected from him. The Regeneration and other Talents remained and the Chaos Element upgrade continued, but there was only one message in his mind, and the Status window was no longer available.

How old am I? William frantically scanned his recent memory.

237! William counted out the years as each notification appeared.

238, 239, 240... 250...

The Heavenly Lightning struck William's body a dozen more times, increasing in strength with each passing moment. The frequency of the aging notifications increased, shortening the interval to fourteen seconds. It was only a one second difference, but to William every second mattered.

260... 270... 280...

The Chaos upgrade was still going strong, but William could feel that the Heavenly Tribulation had struck him over a thousand times, and the strength had quadrupled since its start. It must be over soon, right?

But as William's age reached 290 years, he started to lose hope. The Heavenly Lightning had jumped to six times strength, and the notifications happened every 11 seconds now.

292, 293, 294, 295...

The notification that was supposed to come every eleven seconds stopped for four seconds, reverting to its original 15 second message.

296, 297...

An incredibly heavy Lightning Bolt struck down from the sky, obliterating the puddle of blood that was William into a thick red mist that dispersed into the environment.

The Chaos Element upgrade paused, having lost the target of its wrath. The other Elements started to float away, finding themselves free from William's shackles that bound them.

-Your Regeneration Talent has triggered a side effect: +1 Age

-Warning, Host has one year left to live.

299...

But then their enemy returned, and they became fierce once again. The blood mist had collected into a few puddles of blood, and energy from the World was covering the blood as it was infused into William.

The enraged Chaos Element committed its own self to attacking William, but it couldn't break through the World's energy in a short amount of time. William's body was able to

-Your Regeneration Talent has triggered a side effect: +1 Age

I'm still alive... which means... I succeeded?

William was now a Core Formation Cultivator, which meant that his lifespan had increased. This was the reason why he had worked so hard to reform his Dantian, but the risk was worth it!

The aging notifications continued for another fifteen minutes or so, but they had reduced in frequency since the ending of the Tribulation. It seemed that William's body had become a bit stronger, and the Regeneration Talent didn't have to work as hard to keep up.