Chapter 98 – The Terrifying Misfortune Talent, A Walking Nuclear Weapon!

【Gradually, you discovered that the pills you refined didn’t actually carry a misfortune attribute. The truly unlucky one was you yourself — wherever you went, the people around you would become unlucky.】

【And so you stayed within the Advent Cult with even greater peace of mind, hoping to bring your misfortune upon them.】

【In the fourth year, you continued tempering your body daily and began refining Mind-Condensing Pills.】

【That year, two more Elder-level figures of the Advent Cult died.】

【In the fifth year, thanks to having sufficient blood essence and emulating the Witch Clan’s body tempering methods, your Body Tempering cultivation successfully broke through to the third layer of the Primordial Martial Realm.】

【That year, a Protector-level figure of the Advent Cult died.】

【In the sixth year, you continued refining Mind-Condensing Pills. Over the course of the year, you refined over a hundred batches, successfully producing nearly three hundred pills. You felt your technique was improving steadily.】

【That year, two Protectors led several Elders on a covert assassination mission targeting human Advent members at Demon-Sealing Pass, but they were mistaken for enemies by the foreign races. All the Protectors and Elders who participated in the mission were killed. Old Dog Zong was severely injured, but thanks to his abundance of life-saving trump cards, he narrowly escaped disaster and barely preserved his life.】

Su Xing nearly burst out laughing when he saw this. Carrying the misfortune talent, he was practically a walking nuclear weapon!

“Good lord, I’ve been sitting inside the Advent Cult doing absolutely nothing, and nearly half their Protectors and Elders are already dead! If I stay a bit longer, won’t the entire Advent Cult be finished?”

“The only pity is that Old Dog Zong actually escaped with his life. That bastard really is cautious!”

Su Xing sighed and continued the simulation.

【In the seventh year, your technique for refining Mind-Condensing Pills improved further. You handed all several hundred Mind-Condensing Pills you had refined over to Luo Shuying, hoping to boost the strength of her and her clansmen.】

【Luo Shuying happily accepted and expressed her desire to treat you to a meal as thanks. You hastily declined, afraid your misfortune would spread to Luo Shuying.】

【That year, only one Elder of the Advent Cult died.】

【In the eighth year, your Body Tempering cultivation advanced further, and you became a fourth-layer Primordial Martial Realm cultivator.】

【Whenever you had nothing to do, you would stroll back and forth in front of Old Dog Zong’s residence, hoping to continue spreading your misfortune to him.】

【In the ninth year, your Mind-Condensing Pill refinement technique improved once again. Your success rate for refining Mind-Condensing Pills had reached nearly fifty percent, and you successfully mastered the Minor Mastery-level technique for Mind-Condensing Pill refinement.】

【That same year, Old Dog Zong suffered a cultivation deviation during his training, coughed up three jin of blood, and nearly died on the spot.】

“Holy crap, is Old Dog Zong’s life really that tenacious? He coughed up three jin of blood and still didn’t die?!”

Su Xing’s eyes went wide as he silently prayed to curse Old Dog Zong to death so he could inherit the man’s fortune.

“Keep at it. The moment Old Dog Zong croaks, I’ll seize every last bit of his wealth. Killing without leaving a trace!”

Su Xing continued the simulation.

【In the tenth year, you spent the entire year refining Mind-Condensing Pills, using up the very last piece of Condensing Wood.】

【In the eleventh year, you began attempting to refine the mid-grade pill Tortoise Breath Pill. The Tortoise Breath Pill was an enhanced version of the Breath-Concealing Pill. Legend had it that after consuming a supreme-grade Tortoise Breath Pill, even a Mahayana-stage cultivator would be unable to see through one’s true cultivation. You believed this pill was perfectly suited for someone as cautious as yourself, so you began refining it.】

【Refining the Tortoise Breath Pill required a special ingredient called Tortoise Spirit Stone, said to be formed from the fossilized shell of a thousand-year-old demonic beast tortoise after its death.】

【You asked Luo Shuying to help you search the Advent Cult’s treasury for this ingredient, but unfortunately no Tortoise Spirit Stone was found.】

【Left with no choice, you contacted the Great Xia Military, hoping they could help you locate some Tortoise Spirit Stone.】

【To your pleasant surprise, several months later, Lu Yuanwu actually brought you a considerable amount of Tortoise Spirit Stone. And so you began refining the Tortoise Breath Pill.】

【You spent an entire year and successfully learned the basics of Tortoise Breath Pill refinement. Although the pills you refined were poor in quality and their effects fell short of what the formula described, they were already sufficient to conceal your aura from a veteran Spirit Transformation cultivator like Old Dog Zong.】

【An idea struck you, and you decided to secretly hide inside Old Dog Zong’s residence.】

【You consumed Tortoise Breath Pills daily to ensure your aura wouldn’t be detected by Old Dog Zong, and this actually managed to fool him completely.】

【Old Dog Zong’s luck grew worse and worse. You even watched him trip over his own feet while walking down the road, falling flat on his face.】

【Old Dog Zong frequently had nightmares at night, looking utterly haggard and dispirited, completely devoid of the dignity a Spirit Transformation cultivator once commanded.】

【You were overjoyed and prepared to fan the flames further, hoping to make Old Dog Zong drop dead once and for all.】

【In the twelfth year, your cultivation successfully broke through to the fifth layer of the Primordial Martial Realm.】

【One day, while hiding under Old Dog Zong’s bed, you overheard him muttering to himself that he had been hexed. Old Dog Zong therefore planned to flee far away and escape this strange curse.】

【The next day, Old Dog Zong left the Advent Cult and went to an unknown location.】

【That same year, the homeland world of Luo Shuying’s people was breached by foreign races. Several thousand members of the Spirit Clan came to Earth as refugees.】

“Holy crap, Old Dog Zong is way too shameless! He actually just up and ran?!”

Su Xing slapped his thigh in frustration when he saw this. He had been so close — just a little more and he could have made Old Dog Zong die from sheer bad luck. But this Old Dog Zong was even more cautious than he had imagined!

“Still, I’ve nearly run the Advent Cult into the ground, so there’s no rush.”

Su Xing continued the simulation.

【In the thirteenth year, over the years, tens of thousands of Grandmaster-stage powerhouses had emerged within the Great Xia Military, along with several hundred Heavenly King-stage powerhouses. All of them had arisen thanks to the endless supply of pills you had been providing.】

【The Advent Cult should have been aware of this and launched a thorough investigation, but their strength had been so severely depleted over the years that they simply couldn’t afford to concern themselves with it. As a result, you were never suspected or investigated.】

【That year, you continued cultivating and refining pills as always, as if everything happening in the outside world had nothing to do with you.】

【In the fourteenth year, the Advent Cult suffered yet another catastrophe. All of their remaining Protectors and Elders were killed in battle.】

【That same year, internal conflict erupted within the Advent Cult. The leader of the Transhuman Faction and the leader of the Zealot Faction came to blows. Unexpectedly, the Zealot Faction leader’s hand slipped, and he killed the Transhuman Faction leader — a Legendary-stage powerhouse — on the spot. In an instant, the entire Advent Cult fractured from within, teetering on the brink of total collapse.】

Su Xing was instantly delighted when he saw this. The Advent Cult faction leaders — those were the true bigshots of the cult, Legendary-stage powerhouses.

And just like that, one was killed due to internal conflict?

“This… the misfortune talent is way too overpowered, isn’t it?” Su Xing was somewhat shocked. If only this misfortune could keep following the Advent Cult forever.

Unfortunately, the talent’s side effects were too severe. With Su Xing’s fragile constitution, he absolutely couldn’t withstand them! What if his own terrible luck got him killed?

Dying in a simulation was one thing, but in reality, Su Xing only had one life!

“So, should I actually bring this misfortune talent out or not?”

Su Xing fell into deep thought.

“Forget it, let me finish the simulation first. If I keep agonizing over this, my indecisiveness is going to drive me crazy…”

Su Xing turned his gaze back to the simulation panel.

【In the fifteenth year, the Advent Cult’s overall strength had deteriorated drastically. Tens of thousands of its followers had suffered devastating casualties, leaving only a handful of faction leaders as bare commanders without troops. The Advent Cult’s influence over humanity had been greatly diminished.】

【That same year, you and Luo Shuying raided the Advent Cult’s treasury, but were unluckily discovered by the treasury’s guardian, Protector Dragon. Luo Shuying broke through to Legendary-stage in the heat of battle, and the two of you narrowly escaped with your lives.】

【After defecting from the Advent Cult, you and Luo Shuying planned to join the Great Xia Military, but you feared your talent would bring misfortune upon the entire military. So you could only find a place to live in seclusion.】

【You continued cultivating as usual and refined pills for the Great Xia Military, while also obtaining a sufficient supply of Demonic Beast Blood Essence.】

【In the sixteenth year, your cultivation broke through further, and you became a sixth-layer Primordial Martial Realm cultivator.】

【In the seventeenth year, you improved upon the Fasting Pill formula you had previously developed, adding trace amounts of demonic beast flesh to the Fasting Pill. The pill’s effectiveness was dramatically enhanced — even a Grandmaster-stage Class User could fast for three months after taking one without feeling hungry.】

【In the eighteenth year, another year of diligent cultivation. Your strength steadily increased, but as your Body Tempering cultivation continued to rise, you found that Demon King-level blood essence was becoming less and less effective for you.】

【You attempted to request Demon Emperor-level blood essence from the Great Xia Military, but such essence was exceedingly rare. However, given your status and standing, a Legendary-stage general stationed at Demon-Sealing Pass was willing to keep an eye out for you. If the opportunity arose, he would provide you with Demon Emperor-level blood essence.】

【In the nineteenth year, your daily consumption of Demon King blood essence had increased to five jin, Spirit rice to twenty jin, and you were also regularly consuming Primordial Martial Pills. Your Body Tempering cultivation continued to grow steadily.】

【In the twentieth year, you still hadn’t obtained Demon Emperor-level blood essence, but thanks to the King of Gluttons talent, your Body Tempering cultivation continued its steady growth. You could feel that you were getting ever closer to breaking through to the seventh layer of the Primordial Martial Realm.】

【In the twenty-first year, you successfully broke through to the seventh layer of the Primordial Martial Realm.】

【That same year, the situation at Demon-Sealing Pass deteriorated drastically. The two faction leaders of the Advent Cult personally took action, coordinating with foreign races to launch a surprise attack on Demon-Sealing Pass. Overnight, hundreds of Heavenly King-stage powerhouses perished, and two Legendary-stage powerhouses fell in battle.】

Su Xing frowned slightly when he saw this and muttered, “Is the Advent Cult trying to drag everyone down with them? The entire cult is practically on the verge of extinction, but they still have a few top-tier powerhouses left. I didn’t expect them to fight like cornered animals!”

Su Xing sighed. This was something he hadn’t anticipated.

He had originally thought that the near-annihilation of the Advent Cult this time would have delayed the apocalypse by several more years. He hadn’t expected it to instead plunge Demon-Sealing Pass into crisis.

“Wait… could it be that my bad luck affected the Great Xia Military too?”

Su Xing suddenly thought of this possibility. Although in the simulation he had already tried his best to minimize contact with the Great Xia Military, misfortune was bound to have some spillover effect.

“This talent really is hard to control!”

Su Xing sighed. If he could control this misfortune talent at will, it would be the ultimate weapon. What a pity that he couldn’t.

Su Xing continued the simulation.

【In the twenty-second year, the battles between humans and demonic beasts at Demon-Sealing Pass grew increasingly fierce. Martial Emperor-stage Class Users began falling in battle with alarming frequency, and you finally obtained a piece of Demon Emperor blood essence as you had wished.】

【You consumed the Demon Emperor blood essence and felt as though your entire body was brimming with so much energy it was about to explode. Fortunately, your physical body was tough enough, and your King of Gluttons talent furiously helped you digest the Demon Emperor blood essence.】

【With the aid of the Demon Emperor blood essence, your cultivation advanced by leaps and bounds. If you could consume this blood essence daily, you would be able to break through your current realm in one to two years at most.】

【But unfortunately, you didn’t have enough time to continue cultivating. Under the relentless onslaught of demonic beasts, Demon-Sealing Pass fell, and the entire human race was in mortal danger.】

【That same year, the colossal beast descended upon the real world and swallowed the entire nation of Great Xia in a single gulp.】

【You died!】

【Your talent Die With Eyes Open activated. You saw nothing but darkness…】

【Ding! This simulation has ended!】

After the simulation ended, Su Xing’s brow was tightly furrowed. He had never expected the apocalypse to arrive even a few days earlier this time.

“Sigh, oh well. At least it’s only a couple of years’ difference… What I gained from this simulation is already more than enough!”

Su Xing let out a sigh.

The greatest harvest from this simulation still came from the Luotian Assembly dungeon — the memories Su Xing had brought back from the immersive simulation.

“Holy crap, it just hit me — what if my three Spirit-Gathering Flowers are all male or all female? Wouldn’t that mean they can’t reproduce?”

Su Xing’s expression turned grim as he hurriedly checked the sex of his three Spirit-Gathering Flowers.

Fortunately, Su Xing discovered small yellow specks on the pistil of one of the flowers.

“Thank goodness — two male Spirit-Gathering Flowers and one female. They can absolutely cross-pollinate and reproduce!”

Su Xing breathed a sigh of relief.

With the biggest concern about the Spirit-Gathering Flowers resolved, Su Xing fell into deep thought once more.

“Whether or not to pick this misfortune talent… it really is a tough call!”