Chapter 38 – The Human Race Shall Perish!

【But you did not choose to break through to Golden Core directly. Instead, you chose to continue suppressing your cultivation, because you sensed that the quality of spiritual energy within your body could still be further refined.】

【Year thirteen. The Essence Nurturing Grass you had previously planted had matured once again, and you continued refining Essence Nurturing Pills.】

【You spent three months refining over a hundred Essence Nurturing Pills.】

【You handed over all two thousand surplus Organ Tempering Pills you had accumulated over the years to Lu Yuanwu ahead of schedule, then told everyone not to disturb you.】

【After completing all preparations, you entered the Blessed Spirit Field.】

【Year fourteen. Six full months had passed since you began your secluded cultivation. You sat inside the thatched hut, surrounded by dense spiritual energy that flowed into your body in a steady, gentle stream like trickling water.】

【Inside your body, spiritual energy flowed like an endless brook, coursing through your meridians. Each pass felt as warm and comfortable as sunlight.】

【The spiritual energy within you was continuously compressed and refined. Day after day, month after month, you sat there like a stone, as if the entire world had nothing to do with you. All your attention was immersed in the ceaseless torrent of spiritual energy.】

【You understood that this was the critical step from Foundation Establishment to Golden Core — the moment when all your efforts would finally bear fruit.】

【By now you had been in seclusion for several months. Throughout those months you neither ate nor drank. Though your body was exhausted, your spirit grew ever more vigorous. You gritted your teeth and persisted, continuously guiding the spiritual energy as it scoured and tempered your meridians.】

【Finally, on a clear and sunny morning, a flash of inspiration struck — you sensed that your breakthrough was imminent.】

【Immediately after, a faint golden radiance burst from your body, shooting straight into the sky and illuminating the entire Blessed Spirit Field.】

【It was as if spring thunder had erupted within your mind, as if a bamboo shoot had suddenly pierced through the earth. A profound and mysterious sensation exploded outward, surging straight to the seat of your consciousness. It was the power of Golden Core. After more than a decade of effort, you had finally achieved the Golden Core realm.】

Su Xing clenched both fists at the sight of this, murmuring as if in a dream:

“Just like that… the Golden Core realm?”

How did that saying go again — swallow a single golden core, and my fate is mine alone, not heaven’s to decide!

As soon as this simulation ended, if Su Xing paid enough resources, he could immediately achieve the Golden Core stage!

Suppressing the excitement surging in his heart, Su Xing continued the simulation.

【You became a proud Golden Core cultivator, and your strength increased dramatically.】

【Your seclusion ended, and you returned to the real world. The upper echelons of Great Xia’s military were overjoyed upon learning of your emergence, and they sought you out immediately.】

【The one who came to meet with you was still Jin Congxue’s grandfather, Lu Yuanwu. He appeared to be in a somber mood.】

【Your heart lurched, and you hurriedly asked him what was wrong.】

【Lu Yuanwu told you that the frontline situation was dire. Demon-Sealing Pass could be breached at any moment. Even Jin Congxue had been severely wounded. Moreover, the healing potions produced from the dungeons were growing scarcer by the day, and the frontline warriors no longer had enough to sustain themselves.】

【You fell silent upon hearing this. You knew that less than a year remained before the great beast’s assault would destroy all of Great Xia. Yet you still wanted to try — to see whether your efforts could delay the fall of Demon-Sealing Pass.】

【Because based on your experience from previous simulations, Demon-Sealing Pass should have already fallen by year fourteen. The reason the frontline had managed to hold out an extra year or so this time was likely because of the massive supply of pills you had provided to the human race over the years.】

【Over more than a decade, you had refined over ten thousand Organ Tempering Pills and helped the human race produce nearly two thousand Grandmaster-stage Class Users. While Grandmaster-stage Class Users were not the pinnacle of combat power, they were absolutely the backbone of the Demon-Sealing Pass frontlines.】

【You knew that with your strength, defeating the powerful demon beasts was virtually impossible. Even though you had broken through to Golden Core, the gap remained immense.】

【Therefore, you decided to take a different approach — refine even more pills and create more powerful fighters for the human race!】

Su Xing nodded slightly at this. His primary objectives in this simulation had essentially been achieved.

Although his Body Tempering cultivation hadn’t broken through to the Organ Tempering realm, reaching Golden Core was already an unexpected windfall.

As for the remaining year or so, it wasn’t enough time for him to attempt further breakthroughs or learn new pill formulas.

On the other hand, trying to see whether his efforts could change or delay the extinction of the human race would be a worthwhile experiment.

Su Xing made his decision and continued the simulation.

【You first gave Lu Yuanwu a list of herbs, telling him to provide as much as he could. You told him you were capable of refining a medicinal pill called the Healing Pill, which could rapidly heal severe injuries sustained by Master-stage Class Users, and even slowly mend the wounds of Grandmaster-stage Class Users.】

【Lu Yuanwu was stunned. He candidly explained that while the healing potions from dungeons could instantly restore injuries, they were only effective on lower-ranked Class Users. For Master-stage Class Users, those potions were far less effective. As for Grandmaster-stage Class Users, unless rare high-grade healing potions were used, recovery was nearly impossible.】

【Your words rekindled hope in Lu Yuanwu. He threw his full support behind you, swiftly arranging for his subordinates to provide you with mountains of medicinal ingredients.】

【Looking at the herbs before you, you began to work your craft in earnest. Since you were already a Golden Core cultivator and had gained an initial mastery of the art of pill refining, producing Healing Pills — an unranked pill — was child’s play for you.】

【You found a special metal produced from dungeons that could withstand the extreme temperatures of Separation Fire, and hired a master blacksmith to custom-forge over a dozen pill furnaces.】

【You began refining Healing Pills. Your pill refining speed was extraordinary, and you could operate multiple furnaces simultaneously. In a single two-hour period, you could produce five batches of Healing Pills.】

【You spent one month refining over ten thousand Healing Pills. These Healing Pills flooded the frontlines, greatly alleviating the pressure on the frontline Class Users.】

【Year fifteen. Despite your tireless efforts, which delayed the fall of Demon-Sealing Pass by over a month, the overwhelming disparity in strength ultimately proved insurmountable. Casualties among Demon-Sealing Pass’s Class Users grew ever more severe, and in the end, the pass was breached.】

【One day, Lu Yuanwu came to find you. He had lost an arm at Demon-Sealing Pass, and he looked as though he had aged more than ten years.】

【He told you that the moment of humanity’s extinction was not far off. And this was not merely because Demon-Sealing Pass had fallen — it was because the human race’s top-tier fighters had been killed one after another in battle.】

【You fell silent. Looking at the weathered and haggard Lu Yuanwu, your emotions were complicated. You asked him whether there was any way to defeat those demon beasts.】

【Lu Yuanwu gave a pale, weary smile at your question. He said: unless a miracle occurred — no, unless the human race gave birth to a powerhouse at the level of a True God.】