Chapter 43 – Refining Spirit Nurturing Pills, The Cult’s Treasury!

【Refining the Spirit Nurturing Pill was not much more difficult than the Essence Nurturing Pill, and your alchemy skills were far beyond what they once were, so you quickly grasped the basics of refining Spirit Nurturing Pills.】

【Another three months passed. During this time, you attempted to refine over a hundred batches of Spirit Nurturing Pills, but only twenty batches successfully formed pills. Afterward, you painstakingly studied the Spirit Nurturing Pill, and your technique gradually matured.】

【Year Seven. You had been a member of the Advent Cult for over a year now. Throughout this time, you appeared to be diligently refining pills for the Advent Cult, but in reality you were using the cult’s resources to improve your own alchemy.】

【Thanks to an abundant supply of medicinal ingredients, you had consumed Essence Nurturing Pills almost without interruption over the past year. Hundreds of Essence Nurturing Pills made your spiritual energy even more condensed, and you felt your strength had grown by more than half compared to before.】

【But what helped you the most were the Spirit Nurturing Pills. You could feel your spiritual consciousness continuously strengthening. Although it had not yet reached the point of being able to condense into tangible form, you could now easily perform internal visualization, and your grasp of the spiritual energy, meridians, and dantian within your body far surpassed what it had been before.】

【Of course, the most critical thing was that as your spiritual consciousness grew stronger, your alchemy advanced rapidly as well. Your control over the heat and timing of pill refinement became ever more exquisite.】

Su Xing nodded with satisfaction at this. Refining Spirit Nurturing Pills to strengthen his spiritual consciousness could in turn enhance his alchemy; and further improvements in alchemy would allow Su Xing to refine more and higher-quality Spirit Nurturing Pills. This way, he had entered a positive feedback loop.

The abundant supply of Essence Nurturing Pills had also made Su Xing’s spiritual energy more condensed and his Golden Core more perfect. Perhaps Su Xing was not far from achieving a superior-grade Golden Core?

Moreover, what surprised Su Xing was that the Advent Cult’s mastery of spiritual medicines and the cultivation world clearly far exceeded that of the Great Xia Military. They had been an enormous help in advancing his cultivation.

On the surface, Su Xing was working for the Advent Cult, but in reality, the Advent Cult was providing Su Xing with free cultivation resources!

“I just wonder—besides these spiritual medicines, does the Advent Cult have resources like spirit stones?”

Su Xing felt a slight craving in his heart. Normally he was reluctant to use spirit stones for cultivation, because the number of spirit stones in his possession had never been large, and using them would leave him without enough spirit stones during simulations.

But even so, Su Xing still consumed a small number of spirit stones when refining pills.

Over the past month or so, Su Xing’s spirit stone count had dropped below one thousand, and he had no way to replenish them. If his spirit stones were completely exhausted in the future, Su Xing would truly be unable to take a single step forward.

“The spirit stones I have should last me another year or year and a half… if I’m frugal, maybe a bit over a year. But before they run out, I absolutely must find another source of spirit stones.”

Su Xing thought this, then continued the simulation.

【One day, after you delivered a new batch of two hundred Organ Tempering Pills, Protector Shadow sought you out again. His words were full of unstinting praise for you, saying outright that you had the potential to become a leading figure of the Advent Cult’s new generation.】

【Protector Shadow announced before hundreds of cult members that you had become the Eighteenth Elder of the Advent Cult, and bestowed upon you the title ‘Medicine.’ The other members of the cult all respectfully addressed you as Elder Medicine.】

【After becoming an Elder of the Advent Cult, your authority expanded considerably compared to before. Not only did you have the right to establish a dedicated team, but you also gained the qualification to access the cult’s treasury!】

【You asked the Elder you had previously met to transfer Wang Qingxuan to your command. You were riding high, and the other Elders held you in great respect, so they naturally agreed to this trivial request.】

【With Wang Qingxuan’s help, you handled things with even greater ease. Wang Qingxuan not only secretly helped you investigate the Advent Cult’s overall strength, but also made your life more fulfilling.】

【After completing your monthly pill-refining quota, you brought Wang Qingxuan along to explore the Advent Cult’s treasury.】

Su Xing’s expression turned strange when he saw this. He had actually become an Elder of the Advent Cult, and they were calling him Elder Medicine, of all things?

At the same time, Su Xing was also quite astonished. He knew that the Elder he had encountered before was at least at Heavenly King-stage strength, and he himself was the Eighteenth Elder…

This meant that the entire Advent Cult had at least seventeen powerhouses at the Heavenly King level!

Not to mention the Protectors who ranked above the Elders—they were likely Martial Emperor-level powerhouses!

There were only a few hundred Martial Emperor-stage powerhouses in all of Great Xia, yet the Advent Cult possessed such experts. This further proved that the cult was absolutely not to be underestimated.

Of course, what interested Su Xing most at this moment was the so-called Advent Cult treasury.

“The cult’s treasury… could the second half of the Eternal Spring Art be inside?”

A glimmer of longing stirred in Su Xing’s heart as he continued simulating downward.

【The cult’s treasury was accessible only to members of Elder rank or above, and entry required being accompanied by a Protector.】

【Under Protector Shadow’s guidance, you entered the location of the cult’s treasury. To your surprise, this so-called treasury did not appear to exist in the real world, but rather within a special dungeon instance.】

Su Xing’s heart stirred at this. Building the treasury inside a special dungeon instance—that was incredibly bold.

After all, dungeon instances carried the risk of disappearing. If the instance vanished one day, wouldn’t the Advent Cult’s entire treasury be lost with nothing to show for it?

Su Xing wanted to see with his own eyes what this so-called cult treasury actually looked like.

So with a thought, he said:

“I want to exchange for one hour of immersive simulation!”

【Ding. You will spend 100,000 points for a one-hour immersive simulation. Remaining points: 693,000.】

The simulator’s voice sounded in Su Xing’s ears.

Su Xing felt his vision shift, and he arrived in an unfamiliar place.

This place was clearly outdoors—mountains lush with greenery, crystal-clear waters, layered peaks stretching into the distance, and occasionally rabbits, wild deer, and other creatures could be seen dashing through the mountain forests.

This was obviously not the real world, because with the advancement of technology in the real world, there were virtually no areas left on the entire Earth with nature this perfectly preserved.

Beside Su Xing stood several companions wearing masks and draped in long robes that concealed them completely.

One of them, with a petite figure, Su Xing recognized at a single glance—it was Wang Qingxuan.

“Elder Medicine, what’s the matter?”

A black-robed figure walking ahead turned back and asked. The voice was magnetic and androgynous, making it impossible to tell whether the speaker was male or female.

Su Xing had just entered the simulator and was momentarily caught off guard by the sudden question, but he quickly recovered.

He said with a smile:

“I was just thinking—the scenery in this dungeon instance really is beautiful! You can’t see views like this in the real world anymore!”

Upon hearing Su Xing’s words, a note of pleasant surprise entered Protector Shadow’s voice as he asked curiously:

“Could it be that Elder Medicine also wishes to join our Transhuman Faction?”

Su Xing was puzzled. What was the Transhuman Faction? Was this an internal division of power within the Advent Cult?

So Su Xing asked:

“Protector Shadow, what exactly is the Transhuman Faction?”