But now, the rank 3 armament has become a part of his foundation, so his power has become 10 (Spell) × 22 (Armament Power) × 1 (Life Seed Power) × 5 (Mountain Karma), which is 1,100.
Compared to the power of 5,500 units that he possessed at the peak of the second mortal coil, his peak power has fallen greatly. It has fallen by five times to be exact.
The normal power for someone at the peak of the second mortal coil is 10 (Spell) × 11 (Internal Energy QLTY), which is 110. When they advance to the third mortal coil, their power becomes 10 (Spell) × 11 (Internal Energy QLTY) × 1 (Life Seed Power).
Their Life Seed Power is the amount of power that they gain when they convert their potential to power. This power is the percentage of host technique mastery multiplied by the quantity of life seeds.
In his case, his foundation power is currently 10% of 2 life seeds, which is 0.2. But instead of trying and failing to use the two life seeds he has, it is better to just use one life seed as his source of power, so his life seed power is 100% of 1 life seed, which is 1.
Up to this point, he is a normal cultivator at the third mortal coil. But he is not a normal cultivator at the third mortal coil. He is a disciple of the Blood Skull sect, so he has an extra source of power called the Armament Power.
The armament combines both the power of one's internal energy and life force, which effectively doubles power when it is used instead of just using internal energy like normal cultivators.
Normal cultivators will use the quality of internal energy to power their spells, and it has a power of 11 units. But armaments combine 11 units of internal energy and 11 of life force to create the Armament Power, which is at 22.
This is why the power of disciples of the Blood Skull sect at the third mortal coil is 10 (Spell) × 22 (Armament Power) × 1 (Life Seed Power), which is 220 units. But there is more power for him because of the Mountain Sitting Dao.
Because of the enhancement from Mountain Karma, his power is increased by a further five times. This increases his power from 220 to 1,100 units.
If he wants to increase that power, he has to increase the enhancement of the Mountain Karma divine ability or the Life Seed Power. Until then, he is stuck with 1,100 units.
1,100 units of power is five times smaller than what he gained at his peak, but it comes with an advantage that he didn't have in the past. In fact, one might say that it comes with two advantages.
The first advantage is that he doesn't need to use up his internal energy or life energy to gain the boost from armament anymore.
The boost from his armament, or the Armament Power, is now like the boost from Mountain Karma. It is completely passive and all-present.
In the past, the power from his armament was a great burden to him. His body needed to be strong enough to carry it, his mind needed to be durable enough to control it, and he had to have three types of energy—mental energy, life energy, and internal energy—to use it.
But that is not the case anymore. His armament has become a part of his body, so he doesn't need to expend any energy to enhance himself with it.
In fact, he will need to activate the shut-off of the enhancement from his armament, and it is not a pleasant thing to do.
The kind of boost from his foundation is why cultivators at the third mortal coil don't need to actively burn their life force in order to enhance their strength. It was why Elder Calcetti was surprised that he could carry the Golden Bow without using life force when it was gifted to Arthur.
This is just one of the advantages he gained from his current situation. The second advantage, and the main reason he became weaker even though he created his foundation with a rank 3 armament, is that the limited raw power that he gained from the rank 3 armament when it was an external source of power has now become potential for him to achieve something greater.
He used to be able to achieve a power of 5,500 units with a rank 3 armament. But he gave up all of that power so that he could achieve a Life Seed Power of 1,024 in the future.
When he reaches the tenth transformation of the third mortal and has a 100% mastery of his host techniques, his Life Seed Power will be 100% of 1,024 life seeds. That will bring even the power of a normal cultivator from 110 units to 112,640 units.
A disciple of the Blood Skull sect can get twice that value, while he can get ten times the value because of the boost from Mountain Karma. Even so, it is an increase in power of 1,024 times.
In his opinion, he believes that it is worth it to sacrifice five times his current power in order to gain 1,024 times his power in the future. It is a trade that he is willing to make any day.
He has made that trade now. What he needs to do to get his reward is to put in the work.
Aside from cultivating to increase the quantity of life seeds he has within his body, the other thing he can do is master the host technique.
In his case, he might have a shortcut to master the host technique because he designed terminals into his foundation.
He is not sure that the terminals will be able to work the way he wanted, but he hoped that they would work because if they could work, he wouldn't have to labor to increase the mastery of the host technique.