Chapter 90 – Separation Fire Art Reaches Minor Mastery, Incinerating All Things of the Mortal World (Requesting First Subscriptions, Fourth Update!)

Chapter 90 – Separation Fire Art Reaches Minor Mastery, Incinerating All Things of the Mortal World (Requesting First Subscriptions, Fourth Update!)

Su Xing clearly remembered that in previous simulations, he had come across several pieces of intelligence.

Unfortunately, the Luotian Assembly dungeon had already closed at that time.

But in the real world, there were still less than three years before the Luotian Assembly dungeon would close, which meant Su Xing had plenty of time to explore it.

As for the Dharma-Ending Era dungeon, Su Xing wanted to explore that too, but it would carry some risk.

With Su Xing’s steady (cowardly) personality, he would naturally wait until his strength grew a bit more before exploring.

“Perhaps it would be safer to wait until I’ve cultivated to Nascent Soul Stage, Grand Perfection, or reached the peak of the Primordial Martial Realm before exploring? After all, the resources within the Advent Cult are already sufficient for me to raise my strength…”

Su Xing thought this to himself, then continued the simulation.

【Year Sixteen: You never left your dwelling, practicing the Separation Fire Art every day, making rapid progress in your cultivation of the technique.】

【Year Seventeen: Your mastery of the Separation Fire Art’s power rose to another level. You felt gratified, sensing that Minor Mastery of the Separation Fire Art was not far away.】

【Year Eighteen: You advanced even further, wielding the Separation Fire Art as naturally as moving your own arm. Even objects of pure gold would melt into liquid metal in mere moments under the Separation Fire’s scorching heat. But you understood in your heart that the Separation Fire Art was still quite far from being able to incinerate all things of the mortal world.】

【Year Nineteen: The power of the Separation Fire Art had reached a level that even startled you. A palm-sized gold brick would melt in the blink of an eye upon contact with the Separation Fire. Even tungsten, a metal with an extremely high melting point, would melt within seconds of touching the Separation Fire Art.】

【Year Twenty: You placed a piece of first-order exotic metal under the Separation Fire to burn. In merely dozens of seconds, the first-order exotic metal melted into liquid.】

【You understood clearly in your heart — as of today, your mastery of the Separation Fire Art had finally crossed into the realm of Minor Mastery.】

【Year Twenty-One: The apocalypse had not yet arrived, and the giant beasts had still not descended, but the situation at Demon-Sealing Pass had grown increasingly dire.】

【Over these years, facing the endless tide of demonic beasts, tens of thousands of Grandmaster-stage Class Users had perished at Demon-Sealing Pass, and most of the Heavenly King-stage powerhouses had been lost as well. You understood that humanity could not hold on for more than a few more years.】

【You decided to seize what little time remained and make an attempt.】

【Year Twenty-Two: You began refining Mind-Condensing Pills. Because your mastery of the Separation Fire Art had risen to the Minor Mastery level, refining mid-grade pills was no longer as difficult as before.】

【You spent a year refining over a hundred batches of Mind-Condensing Pills, successfully producing nearly a hundred pills, with only a few dozen being substandard Mind-Condensing Pills. You understood that you had finally achieved a basic mastery of Mind-Condensing Pill refinement.】

【You consumed several normal-quality Mind-Condensing Pills, and your divine sense surged by thirty three meters within just a few days. You marveled at the potency of the Mind-Condensing Pills. The only regret was that this type of pill’s effectiveness would gradually diminish with repeated consumption — divine sense could not grow without limit.】

【Year Twenty-Three: Several extraordinarily powerful aberrant beasts joined forces and launched a simultaneous assault on Demon-Sealing Pass. Demon-Sealing Pass suffered catastrophic losses in an instant — hundreds of thousands of compatriots perished, and the pass was breached within a single day. Only a few Martial Emperor-stage powerhouses managed to escape with their lives.】

【With the fall of Demon-Sealing Pass, you understood that humanity’s extinction was only days away. You prepared to begin consuming Primordial Martial Pills to see if you could break through to the Primordial Martial Realm.】

【You had already broken through to the peak of Organ Tempering over twenty years ago, but all these years you had been focused on alchemy and improving the Separation Fire Art, somewhat neglecting the enhancement of your physical strength. As for whether you could successfully break through to the Primordial Martial Realm, you had no confidence.】

【You took out a Primordial Martial Pill of slightly milder potency. After a moment’s hesitation, you swallowed it.】

【The Primordial Martial Pill entered your stomach and formed a warm current within your body. This warm current continuously released energy, nourishing your physical form. You felt your body growing ever stronger, seemingly about to break through some ultimate limit, filling your heart with excitement.】

【Just as you thought you were finally about to break through to the Primordial Martial Realm, the warm current within your body suddenly destabilized. The energy expanded violently, and the tremendous force was more than your body could withstand. A familiar premonition rose in your heart.】

【Your body began to turn scalding hot and red. Blood streamed from all seven orifices. With a thunderous boom, your entire body exploded into a mass of flesh and blood in midair.】

【Ding! You have died!】

【Your talent Die With Eyes Open activates. Your eyeballs stare blankly at the ground covered in your own flesh and blood.】

【Ding! This simulation has ended!】

Su Xing’s whole mood soured at the sight. He ranted furiously:

“What the hell, again?! Is there no end to this… I’m an alchemist, and I got killed by my own damn pills again?!”

“This is literally the old joke — first I tried literature, failed the exams for three years; then I took up martial arts, shot an arrow at the drill ground, hit the drum officer, and got kicked out; so I studied medicine, achieved some success, wrote my own prescription, took it, and died!”

Dark lines appeared on Su Xing’s forehead. He had originally been somewhat confident about breaking through to the Primordial Martial Realm — after all, this time he had the dual talent bonuses of Innate Divine Strength and King of Gluttons. His physical power should have been considerably stronger than an ordinary Organ Tempering cultivator, so why had his body still exploded?

“So the physical gap between the Primordial Martial Realm and the Organ Tempering realm is really that enormous? The Primordial Martial Pill is meant for Primordial Martial Realm cultivators to enhance their cultivation, so it’s simply too much for an Organ Tempering cultivator to handle?”

Su Xing pondered for a while, then murmured:

“Right now, the spiritual energy in the blessed land is insufficient. Breaking through to Nascent Soul Grand Perfection or even the Spirit Transformation stage in a short time isn’t realistic… If I want to keep getting stronger, improving my divine sense and body tempering cultivation is the only path forward.”

“Just because the Primordial Martial Pill made my body explode this time doesn’t mean it will happen every time… After all, in this simulation I spent too much time on the Separation Fire Art. With the King of Gluttons talent, perhaps in the next simulation I can push my physical strength even further?”

Su Xing fell into deep thought. The practical combat ability of body tempering cultivation was actually thirty percent stronger than Qi Refinement.

“In this simulation, the apocalypse was delayed by another three years — that’s quite a pleasant surprise. If we calculate it that way, each future simulation will have over twenty years of cultivation time, which essentially doubles the efficiency…”

“The reason the giant beasts’ arrival was pushed back by three years, aside from humanity’s increased strength, is probably also related to wiping out the Advent Cult. After all, the Advent Cult was essentially the claws of the foreign races. Destroying the Advent Cult effectively weakened the foreign races’ influence on the real world.”

Su Xing summarized this simulation, hoping to do better in future ones.

“Lastly, the exploration of cultivation-related dungeons needs to be put on the agenda. Perhaps once my cultivation breaks through to the Primordial Martial Realm, I can give it a try.”

After confirming three times that he hadn’t overlooked anything, Su Xing turned his gaze to this simulation’s rewards.

【King of Gluttons】: Blue talent, priced at 100,000 energy points. 【Organ Refining Realm, Grand Perfection】: Body tempering cultivation, 100,000 energy points.

【Twenty-Three Years of Alchemy Experience】: Alchemy insights, including lower-grade pill Primordial Martial Pill (Minor Mastery), priced at 500,000 energy.

【Divine Sense, 275 Meter (Five Senses Realm)】: At this realm, divine sense functions like the five senses — like eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body — allowing you to perceive every subtle movement within two hundred and seventy five meters of your surroundings. Priced at 300,000 simulation energy.

【Separation Fire Art (Minor Mastery)】: A divine technique created by a great power after observing the divine beast Vermilion Bird. It can be gentle or fierce — at its peak it can boil rivers and seas, and at its mildest it can serve as an alchemy flame. It is a rare and invaluable divine technique in the cultivation world. Minor Mastery-level insights, priced at 1,000,000 energy points.

After seeing the rewards, Su Xing fell into deep thought.

“The King of Gluttons talent is an absolute must-pick. After all, this thing essentially raises the upper limit of my physical body — it’s definitely a rare and invaluable talent.”

“As for the alchemy experience and the Minor Mastery Separation Fire Art…”

Su Xing didn’t agonize over it for long. He silently declared in his mind:

“I choose the talent King of Gluttons, and Minor Mastery Separation Fire Art!”

At the end of the day, it was a question of cost. It had taken Su Xing nearly twenty years of cultivation in the simulation to barely achieve Minor Mastery of the Separation Fire Art. If he didn’t select it now, he’d have to waste time on it again in the next simulation. Better to just take it directly.

Moreover, with Minor Mastery Separation Fire Art, Su Xing would find learning new pills much easier.

The simulator’s notification chimed in Su Xing’s ears.

【Your talent slots are full. You may spend 10,000 simulation energy to expand one additional talent slot, or spend 100,000 energy to designate and replace a specific talent!】

What the hell — expanding a talent slot only costs 10,000 energy, but a designated replacement costs 100,000? Did he even need to think about it?

Su Xing rolled his eyes and muttered:

“I choose to expand one additional talent slot!”

【Congratulations! You have obtained one additional talent slot. 10,000 energy consumed. Remaining simulation energy: 1,491,888 points.】

【You have chosen to extract the blue talent King of Gluttons. 100,000 energy consumed. Remaining energy: 1,391,888 points.】

【You have chosen to extract Separation Fire Art (Minor Mastery). 1,000,000 energy consumed. Remaining energy: 391,888 points.】

Notification chimes sounded in Su Xing’s ears, and simultaneously, two streams of mysterious energy flowed into his body.

Su Xing first felt a flood of memories related to cultivating the Separation Fire Art pour into his mind — scenes of himself in the simulation, practicing the Separation Fire Art day after day for twenty years without rest.

After digesting the memories, Su Xing sensed that his Separation Fire Art had undergone some kind of profound transformation.

Su Xing willed it, and a palm-sized flame appeared in his hand. Compared to the pale red Separation Fire from before, the Minor Mastery Separation Fire appeared far deeper and more vivid in color, radiating an intimidating heat.

Su Xing retrieved a blue-quality piece of equipment from his storage ring. Blue-quality equipment was extremely sturdy in composition — even an ordinary Gold-stage Class User would have difficulty destroying it.

Su Xing willed the Separation Fire to touch the blue equipment. In merely a few seconds, the blue-quality chestplate melted into liquid.

“Good lord, the Separation Fire’s power is even greater than I imagined…”

Su Xing was thrilled. If he used the Separation Fire as an offensive weapon, even a Master-stage Class User would likely be killed instantly, and a Grandmaster-stage Class User’s body absolutely could not withstand it either.

“Heh heh, I finally have a proper offensive technique!”

Su Xing was overjoyed. While the Separation Fire Art couldn’t quite be called a divine technique at its current level, it was absolutely a formidable offensive method. If converted to a Class User’s skill rating, it would have to be at least an S-rank skill, right?

After mastering the Separation Fire Art, Su Xing — having just entered the Nascent Soul stage — could be considered unrivaled among all Grandmaster-stage opponents. If his body tempering cultivation could further advance to the Primordial Martial Realm, even an ordinary Heavenly King-stage Class User might not be Su Xing’s match, despite the enormous gap between the Grandmaster and Heavenly King stages.

“I can’t let this blue equipment go to waste — it’s all energy!”

Su Xing muttered to himself. True to his waste-nothing, penny-pinching principles, he absorbed the melted blue equipment and converted it into energy, gaining four hundred simulation energy points.

Su Xing looked at the Separation Fire in his palm and tried touching his other hand to the flame. A gentle warmth met his fingertips — not the slightest hint of pain.

“Incredible. What a miraculous flame — its power is so devastating, yet it doesn’t harm its master at all.”

Su Xing sighed in admiration. Like a child with a new toy, he played with the Separation Fire for a while before reluctantly putting it away.

“But this Minor Mastery Separation Fire really drains spiritual energy. It’s only been half a shichen, and I’ve already consumed a tenth of my spiritual energy… And that’s without even releasing the Separation Fire Art at full power. If I went all out, my spiritual energy reserves wouldn’t last at all!”

Su Xing sighed inwardly. With ordinary techniques, Su Xing could use them for an entire day without exhausting his spiritual energy. But the Separation Fire Art had extraordinary origins and devastating power, so naturally its consumption was greater.

“But it’s worth it. With the Separation Fire Art, not only can I defend myself, but in simulations I’ll be able to refine higher-grade pills as well.”

Only then did Su Xing notice the hunger gnawing at his stomach, which had been protesting nonstop.

“Tsk tsk, this King of Gluttons really is a foodie talent! If I didn’t have a few acres of farmland at home, I really wouldn’t be able to afford to eat!”