Isn't this just cheating?

Alex was curently waiting outside his father's bedroom while he waited for his mother to give birth. He had been there for a couple minutes but he didn't expect the birth to be fast in the first place, but he did start to get worried after the first hour passed, and his worry only grew after the second. But just before the third hour could pass, he got a system notification.

[Host of the [Parasite hoste] status has been removed.]

All of a sudden he felt like the air was lead, and his heart was on the floor below him. There where two ways for him to lose a host, his purposely disconnecting the host, and the host dying. And he had not disconnected his mother. For a moment he hoped one of the old maids had died of all age, but as the doors to his father's room opend, and he say the red sheets, once white, around his mother. He knew she was gone.

The next month's where a blur, his would be sibling died during the birth, his body to week to survive, and his mother had died because of strain. His one year birthday came and went without any of the warmth it should of had as everyone was still in morning, and it was only 2 months after his birthday that things gained a glimpse of their previous way. Curently Alex was in the training grounds with his second mother, about to advance to marrow refining.

In the times since he had started blood refining to now, he had completely refined his blood a total of 7.6 million times. The prosess of advancing was rather simple, use his inner qi, which he had gained control after compleatly refining his blood the first time, and use it to 'connect' his blood and marrow with his inner qi. His second mother was supposed to help him advance and keep him safe, but as soon as he initiated the break through, his blood and marrow practecly threw themselves at each other and his inner qi was almost yanked in-between them without his controll. While blood refining was just about cleaning and enhancing the blood, in marrow refinement, he had to clean and enhance his marrow before 'washing' it with his blood so it would start to produce enhanced blood. For refrance bone refining was useing the enhanced marrow to 'temper' the cleaned bone. But he hadn't gotten to that point yet, he wasent even read to start cleaning his marrow.

The [black tiger breathing method] was as bad for marrow refining as it was for blood refining, it required the user to flow their inner qi in a set pattern, mimicking the tigers breathing. That pattern was ment to cause the blood to wash the marrow while also purifying it, but all it managed to do was send the fresh impurities from the marrow into the blood while still having the same problems as blood refining, effectively downgrading the blood before messing hours the marrow.

Honestly, he was shocked it could even make it to organ refinement if this was how the rest of the method functioned, it basicly ruined your body infavor of not needing to activly train. At this point he had half a mind to fix it and give it to his family, obviously not as much as his own technique but it would be a way to give himself some value.

'Sigh, might as well get to fixing it.' First things first, reworking how it cleaned the marrow. He already had a head start with this from blood refining, all he needed to do was find out the core mechanics of the originals inner qi flow and apply that to his modified version, once he had that he could recreate it to work properly.

After that was the marrow washing. he planned to keep some of the original functions, but also to change them. For one, the idea of useing the blood to clean the marrow was just bad, it had to go. But he would keep the inner qi pattern for washing the marrow as it had sligtly better efficiency then brute forcing it, obviously he would be perfecting that pattern to. secondly, it's method of washing the marrow was effectively 'force it to produce the new blood by flooding it to the point of saturation' and while this did work, it didn't work well. So, instead he acclimatise the marrow to the better blood and once it was used to the better virsion, it would start to make it on its ow., this would be slower, but much more efficient, and with his incredibly pure blood it wouldn't take long anyway.

'Alright, might as well start I guess. Hopefully i'll be able to get a few refinments before i start cultivating.' By now Alex already had the body of a 12 year old, but they where holding off starting his cultivation just in case there where any unforeseen problems, so he would be starting in 6 months.

Breaking down the breathing into its base components he was shocked at haw inefficient that really where. It was like useing a nuclear reactor to power a microwave useing lead wires to transfer the power. He wasent jokeing, you where ment turn a large amount of inner qi into a small amount under the pretext of 'compressing it for greater power', that was a lie. all you where doing was useing a lot of inner qi to squeeze a small amount into a smaller space, which just destroyed the inner qi that didn't fit.

A proper way to do it would be squeeze a small amount into a slightly smaller space, before quickly making it rotate as fast as you could, the rotation woukd hold the inner qi together while drawing in more to properly condence, once a certain amount was put into a small enough space, press down on all sides to turn the inner qi from a gass like state to a kind of liquid, then repeat for a more viscous liquid.

This was easer said then done however. inner qi, At least in the earlier stages of body forging, was effectively just strong life energy that you could control. You produced a certain amount of it over time, and would produce more the stronger your body, but it was still a limited amount. Plus, actually condensing inner qi into a more solid form was extremely stressful on the body as it put a large amount of stress onto it.

'System, please create a trait that increases my bodies production of inner qi, a separate trait that once I reach my maximum amount of inner qi, it stores it in a separate space, one more trait that coverts the overflow of qi into a higher form, and lastly, a trait that causes my body to produce the highest form of stored inner qi automatically.'

[Traits [enhanced inner qi production], [inner qi storage], [inner qi refinery] and [innate inner qi production upgrade] will cost 5,000, 6,000, 8,000 and 10,000 exchange point respectively for a total cost of 29,000 exchange points. Host curently has 31,260 exhcange points. Do you wish to proceed?]

'Yes'

[Exchanging... damaged exchange system has caused the price of total exchange to inceace. Curent exchange points insufficient. Fusing traits to lower cost. exchange points insufficient. Fusing existing traits with simaler effects to lower cost. Exchange possable. Traits needed for fusion, [jade bones], [perfect marrow], [perfect neural network], [marble skin], [steel muscles], [five beast organs], [dragon tendons], [earthly blood], [biomass storage], [satiated] and [Fed by mother]. All listed traits effects will be retained or possibly upgraded. Do you wish to continue in exchange for trait [inate being]?]

'Well, that kinda sucks. At least my status window will be slimed down a bit, and it's not like I'm loosing anything, it's just be harder to upgrade those traits in the future. Fine, continue with exchange.]

[Exchanging... trait [inate being] gained. [Inate being: this is supposed to be a trait belonging to only those born of heaven and earth, with neither a mother of father, but a strange interference has cause this trait to be forcefully added to the being [redacted] against heavens will. Retains all special effects of fused traits. massivly enhances all fused traits basic effects. Massivly enhances all phiscal aspects. Massivly enhances all talents. Massivly enhances inner qi production. Massivly enhances all forms of regeneration. Massivly enhances stat growth, power, and decreases cost. No need for active eating or drinking. Automatically stored excess inner qi for later use. automatically condences stored inner qi. Basic inner qi production is upgraded to highest quality stored inner qi. Trait will evolve once cultivation is started.]

'Well, fuck. It's just better huh. I'm not gonna complain about that. What's, y window look like now?'

[Name: Alex

Titles: [transcendent physique holder]

Cultivation: mortal

Body forging: marrow refining(0%) [black tiger breathing method: modified

stats:

Strength: 15  (10+50%)

Speed: 15  (10+50%)

Dexterity: 15  (10+50%)

Constitution: 15  (10+50%)

Intelligence: 15  (10+50%)

Vitality: 15  (10+50%)

Spirit: 9  (6+50%)

Resistance: 9  (6+50%)

Traits: [fetus] [untainted] [pure heart and clean mind] [Parasite] [being nurtured by mother] [enhanced amniotic cycle] [transcendent phisque] [inate being]

Status effects: [biomass storage] [eaten clean demon meat] [eaten Qi fruit]

Spells: none

Techniques: [fetal breath] [foundation creation] [base building] [soul visualisation] [forge of 108 divine meridians] [earth's blessing] [Adonis] [chrysalis]

System skills: [Beast taming]

Equipment: none

Exchange points: 150]

'Well damn. I knew going to marrow refining would up my stats, but not that much. To be fair, some of this has to be from [inate being]. But damn, I'm considerd stronger then a fully grown adult Huh? Nice. How high would my stats be if I had a fully grown body?'

[Hosts curent stats are half of their adult version.once hosts phisical state reaches the age 18 they will be increased to 75% their true state and once hosts phisical state reaches 21 their stats will reach their true state.]

'That's a pretty big decrease, it's understandable though. I just don't have the same muscle mass or size as an adult. My curent stats are already pretty impressive considering I still have the body of a kid. Oh well, back to work.