With the increase in attribute points, just his strength alone had gone up by 100 points. Normally, it would take leveling up to 50 to gain that many free attribute points!

This was a huge breakthrough. Once he successfully completed his spiritual cultivation, Renault would undoubtedly be unbeatable among others at the same level. While others struggled through years of cultivation, Renault would easily surpass them.

Renault's advantage of having merged with the game system made him incredibly powerful.

He opened his attribute panel, looking at his stats with sheer amazement.

**Character:** Renault  

**Level:** 9 (89%) Giant Spirit Divine Core  

**Strength:** 110  

**Constitution:** 81  

**Agility:** 26  

**Speed:** 31  

**Spiritual Power:** 20  

**Element:** Fire, Earth  

**Spiritual Cultivation Level:** Initial Stage of Opening the Spiritual Path  

**Attack Power:** 1100  

**Mana:** 200  

**Defense:** 810  

**Movement Speed:** 310  

**Skill:** Giant Spirit Divine Fist (Consumes 1000 MP, doubles strength-based attack power)

Renault was utterly shocked. After the body cleansing, he had obtained the **Giant Spirit Divine Core**, and his attributes had increased to a terrifying level. This was like a game-breaking bug! The **Giant Spirit Divine Fist** skill was particularly powerful, doubling his physical attack power.

The downside, though, was that the MP cost was way too high, and he currently didn’t have enough mana to use such a powerful punch.

Now Renault was faced with a perplexing problem: although he had reached the **Initial Stage of Opening the Spiritual Path**, each stage of spiritual cultivation was divided into five sub-stages: initial, middle, advanced, peak, and breakthrough.

Every five levels marked a breakthrough point in cultivation. For instance, after reaching level 6 in the game, completing a quest would advance you to the initial stage of spiritual cultivation. Once you reached level 7, you could complete another quest to advance to the middle stage of cultivation, and so on. When reaching level 10, completing a quest would allow you to break through to the final stage before reaching the next major milestone at level 11.

Spiritual cultivation and character levels were closely synchronized in *Demonic God*, so leveling up wasn’t always an easy feat.

Now, Renault was at level 9. According to the usual rules, he should have been able to advance to the **Advanced Stage of Opening the Spiritual Path** by completing a corresponding task.

However, the key issue now was that Renault was in a real world—there were no NPCs to assign quests! Did this mean Renault’s cultivation would be stuck here?

Just as Renault was deeply troubled, the system’s notification sound rang out. 

“Player Renault has reached level 5. You may now choose a spiritual sect. Upon joining a sect, you will be able to take on spiritual cultivation tasks.”

Renault was confused. Could it be that the system had already arranged everything for him? If he joined a sect, he could begin spiritual cultivation quests?

That didn’t seem possible. No matter how powerful the *Demonic God* system was, it couldn’t control the entire world of demonic gods, right?

For now, he didn’t want to think too much about it. He decided to follow the system's guidance. After all, who else could he trust but the system? In this unfamiliar world, the *Demonic God* system was the only thing he felt comfortable relying on.

Renault realized that his top priority was to join a sect. He was currently within a large sect, **Tianji Sect**, but he wasn’t a disciple. He was just a lowly woodcutter-slave without any status.

He needed to find a way to become a disciple of **Tianji Sect**. Only then would he have the opportunity to take on spiritual cultivation tasks.

Every six years, **Tianji Sect** held a selection process for youths to join as outer disciples. The younger the spiritual cultivator, the better.

All youths between the ages of 10 and 15 had a chance to participate in the sect’s once-every-six-years selection competition.

Renault had been brought into the sect six years ago, but due to his poor constitution and lack of spiritual energy, he had been deemed a waste and relegated to the woodshed.

But now, six years later, Renault was no longer the same person.

Although he was slightly over the age limit, if he could get a letter of recommendation from an elder of the sect, he would be able to participate in the outer disciple selection competition in three days.

Luckily, there was still time. If he missed this opportunity, who knew when he’d get another chance to join the sect?

However, given Renault’s lowly status as a woodcutter-slave, why would an elder write him a letter of recommendation?

Suddenly, from his memories, Renault recalled that the elder who had initially saved him from the village was also the one who had brought him to **Tianji Sect**. When the elder discovered Renault was a waste, he felt pity for him and would visit him once a year.

This year, the elder had already visited Renault and had given him a paper crane, saying that if he ever needed anything, he could release the paper crane, and the elder would come to help him with one request.

Why the elder had been so kind to the previous Renault, he couldn’t recall. But that didn’t matter now. What mattered was getting to see the elder.

Renault took out the paper crane and tore it in half.

As soon as it was torn, a milky-white light emerged from the crane, forming a small glowing paper crane.

The crane flapped its wings and then disappeared from sight.

After releasing the crane, Renault sat in the woodshed, waiting for the elder to arrive.

The woodshed, after all, was where Renault had been living. No one had come looking for him while he had been away, and for a simple reason.

The disciple who had beaten Renault to death had clearly given orders not to disturb him, so naturally, no one bothered to find this lowly sect slave. After all, if a slave died, it didn’t really matter.

Not long after the crane was released, a middle-aged man, appearing to be around forty years old, arrived at the woodshed. Despite his youthful appearance, his actual age was closer to sixty or seventy.

The middle-aged man stood outside the woodshed, riding a massive sword about two palms wide. The sword floated in the air, emitting a faint blue glow.

“**Qinggang Sword**, one of the types of flying swords. Its quality is decent,” Renault murmured to himself. But back in the game, such flying swords wouldn’t have even caught his attention.

Renault knew that the man before him was **Elder Lu**, the elder who had brought Renault to **Tianji Sect**. He didn’t know much about him, only that he was one of the elders of the sect.

Renault stepped out of the woodshed and bowed politely. “This junior greets Elder Lu.”

Elder Lu glanced at Renault and waved his hand, forming a two-finger gesture as white light glowed at his fingertips. “Return to sheath.”

The **Qinggang Sword** instantly transformed into a streak of blue light, returning to the scabbard on Elder Lu’s back.