Chapter 102 – Do You Even Understand the Value of an Epiphany?
by spirapira【In this wondrous state of epiphany, your mind became extraordinarily pure. Problems that had previously eluded you now resolved themselves as if wisdom had been poured directly into your skull, clearing away all mental blockages.】
【Under the blessing of this epiphany state, your entire being became immersed in the cultivation of elemental force. You forgot about time, forgot about eating and sleeping. Your mastery over elemental force advanced by leaps and bounds with each passing day!】
【Three days later, you finally emerged slowly from this wondrous state of epiphany, astonished by the changes that had occurred within you.】
【The good news: your mastery of elemental force had reached the second stage — elemental force Entwinement!】
【The bad news: because you had spent three consecutive days in your epiphany state without tending to your Spirit-Gathering Flowers, all ten-plus immature specimens had withered and died…】
Su Xing felt a wave of embarrassment wash over him at the sight of this.
“Good heavens, I didn’t expect this Spontaneous Epiphany to be this powerful! Just three days of epiphany, and it directly advanced my elemental force operation to the second stage! At a normal cultivation pace, it would take at least thirty years to reach the second stage, wouldn’t it?”
“By that calculation, a single day of epiphany is equivalent to ten years of hard practice!”
The corners of Su Xing’s mouth curled upward uncontrollably. He had finally figured it out.
This Spontaneous Epiphany was a “lottery-type talent” — normally it was just a hidden talent sitting dormant, but once it happened to activate, Su Xing would hit the jackpot. It was essentially like winning the lottery.
“I just wonder how powerful the elemental force Entwinement stage actually is?”
A glint of curiosity appeared in Su Xing’s eyes as he continued the simulation.
【Having successfully advanced your elemental force to the second stage, your confidence swelled to unprecedented levels. Using the Great Xia Military’s specially designed strength-training machines, you discovered that your strength while channeling elemental force had approached eight million jin!】
【Such terrifying raw power was something Heavenly King-stage Class Users could never hope to achieve. And so you made a bold decision — you challenged the Martial Emperor-stage powerhouse Lu Yuanwu, wanting to test whether your strength had reached the Martial Emperor level.】
【Lu Yuanwu proceeded to press you into the ground and thoroughly mop the floor with you. The facts made it clear: though your strength had improved enormously, a vast chasm still separated you from a veteran Martial Emperor-stage powerhouse like Lu Yuanwu.】
【You asked Lu Yuanwu what level your strength actually placed you at. Lu Yuanwu told you that with your current power, you could be considered invincible among Heavenly King-stage fighters — but against anyone at the Martial Emperor level, victory remained impossible.】
【You found this hard to believe and asked him why the gap was so enormous.】
【Lu Yuanwu told you that for a Martial Emperor-stage powerhouse, killing a Heavenly King-stage fighter was as simple as crushing an ant. When you could do the same, you would have reached the threshold of the Martial Emperor stage.】
【Your unprecedentedly inflated ego was shattered, because you knew that although you could defeat Heavenly King-stage Class Users, you were far from being able to kill them instantly.】
【And so, learning from the bitter experience, you redoubled your cultivation efforts!】
【Year Fourteen: You became completely absorbed in cultivation. You could feel your physical strength growing ever more powerful, taking a solid step toward Primordial Martial Realm, Grand Perfection!】
【Year Fifteen: Luo Shuying’s homeland suffered a massive invasion by foreign races. Tens of thousands of Spirit Clan members perished in battle. Several thousand of Luo Shuying’s Spirit Clan compatriots fled as refugees and arrived on Earth.】
Su Xing gave a slight nod at this and murmured:
“Initially, Luo Shuying’s home world was destroyed as early as Year Eight, but now it held out all the way until Year Fifteen. That shows just how much the Mind-Condensing Pills boosted the Spirit Clan — they managed to hold on for seven more years.”
After a pause, Su Xing sighed:
“Ah, but the gap between Martial Emperor and Heavenly King is really that enormous? Even after learning how to use elemental force, I still can’t defeat a Martial Emperor-stage powerhouse…”
“And a Martial Emperor-stage Class User is roughly equivalent to an established Spirit Transformation cultivator… By that calculation, I’m still far from being able to beat Old Dog Zong in a one-on-one fight!”
“It seems I’ll have to wait until my Qi Refinement cultivation also reaches Nascent Soul Stage, Grand Perfection. With both Qi Refinement and Body Tempering at full perfection, maybe I’d stand a chance against a Martial Emperor-stage powerhouse?”
Su Xing wasn’t certain what level his true strength placed him at, but more cultivation could only be a good thing.
So Su Xing continued the simulation.
【Year Sixteen: By consuming Beast Emperor Flesh Essence daily, your strength rose rapidly. This year, your cultivation finally took a solid step forward — you became a Primordial Martial Realm, Grand Perfection cultivator!】
【With your breakthrough achieved, your ego inflated once more, and you challenged Lu Yuanwu again. Lu Yuanwu once again pressed you into the ground and mopped the floor with you.】
【You asked Lu Yuanwu how your strength measured up. Lu Yuanwu replied with a cocky smirk that to him, you were merely a slightly bigger ant.】
【Hearing this dealt you a massive blow. You channeled your grief and frustration into motivation, hoping to break through to the Divine Power Realm.】
【Year Seventeen: You trained day and night. Your physical body grew ever more refined, and your strength increased considerably compared to a year ago. Greatly encouraged, you continued pushing forward with your cultivation.】
【Year Eighteen: Your cultivation growth began to slow, but you were still making progress. Believing that heaven rewards diligence, you trained even harder.】
【Year Nineteen: Your cultivation remained stuck at Primordial Martial Realm, Grand Perfection. You began praying for another epiphany state, hoping to break through to the Divine Power Realm in one fell swoop.】
【Year Twenty: The epiphany never came. You began searching for alternatives, pinning your hopes on a pill called the Divine Power Pill, hoping it could help you break through.】
【But you encountered the biggest obstacle of all — even across all of Great Xia and the Advent Cult’s treasury combined, the primary ingredient for refining the Divine Power Pill could not be found: the Divine Power Vine!】
【The Divine Power Vine is an extremely rare medicinal herb that requires a hundred years of cultivation before it can be used in alchemy. You eventually discovered a few Divine Power Vine seeds among the apprenticeship gifts Qingyunzi had left for you, but it was already too late to plant them. You had no choice but to set the idea aside for now.】
【Year Twenty-One: Your cultivation remained stuck at Primordial Martial Realm, Grand Perfection, progressing at a crawl. You devoted more of your energy to comprehending and applying elemental force.】
【Year Twenty-Two: Your command of elemental force became increasingly instinctive. You could now wrap elemental force around any part of your body, dramatically increasing your defensive power and physical hardness.】
【Year Twenty-Three: Your cultivation stagnated. You continued painstakingly refining your use of elemental force.】
【Year Twenty-Four: Your elemental force intensity reached yet another level. Your bitter training had not been in vain.】
【Year Twenty-Five: The foreign races assembled a massive army and attacked Demon-Sealing Pass. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers defending the pass held out for months, but in the end, the fortress fell and its defenders perished. Demon-Sealing Pass was finally breached!】
【That same year, a gargantuan beast that blotted out the sky descended upon the real world and swallowed the entirety of Great Xia in a single gulp.】
【You were swallowed into the beast’s belly. You died!】
【Your talent Die With Eyes Open activates…】
【Ding! This simulation has ended!】
After the simulation concluded, Su Xing fell into deep thought.
“As expected, breaking through from the Primordial Martial Realm to the Divine Power Realm isn’t easy at all. And my current cultivation is already at Primordial Martial Realm, Seventh Layer — I’ll soon be facing that very same bottleneck…”
“To overcome it, there are only two methods. First, another breakthrough in Body Tempering talent! A purple-grade Body Tempering talent might accelerate my Body Tempering speed and give me a better shot at breaking through to the Divine Power Realm…”
“But pulling a purple-grade Body Tempering talent is pure luck! With bad luck, I might go dozens of simulations without getting one. I can’t pin my hopes on that!”
Su Xing took a deep breath and murmured:
“So the safest approach is still to refine the Divine Power Pill. With the pill’s power, combined with the Beast Emperor Flesh Essence and the King of Gluttons talent, I might be able to break through to the Divine Power Realm…”
“But to refine the Divine Power Pill, I first need to cultivate the Divine Power Vine. And the Divine Power Vine needs a hundred years to mature. Even with my Plant Affinity talent, it would probably still take twenty to thirty years, right?”
“And even after growing the Divine Power Vine, that’s only the first step. I’d still need to master the refining method for the Divine Power Pill, which is another enormous challenge…”
At this thought, Su Xing felt another headache coming on. The road to breaking through to the Divine Power Realm still seemed very long indeed.
“Ah, forget it! I should focus on what’s in front of me first — let me pick my simulation rewards…”
Su Xing sighed and turned his attention to this simulation’s rewards.
【Spontaneous Epiphany】: Purple talent. Price: 1,000,000 energy points.
【Primordial Martial Realm, Grand Perfection】: Body Tempering cultivation. Price: 3,000,000 energy points.
【Twenty-Five Years of Alchemy Experience】: Alchemy insights. Price: 500,000 energy points.
【Beast Emperor Flesh Essence, 10 Jin】: The concentrated essence of a Beast Emperor’s body, containing vast quantities of life energy. Price: 10,000,000 energy points.
【Spirit-Gathering Flowers x30 (Mature)】: Price: 3,000,000 energy points.
【Primordial Energy Cultivation Results】: Contains insights and achievements from elemental force cultivation. Selecting this grants Entwinement-level (Stage Two) elemental force directly. Price: 10,000,000 energy points.
Looking at the simulation rewards before him, Su Xing didn’t hesitate long before making his choices.
“I’ll take the purple talent Spontaneous Epiphany, and this simulation’s Primordial Energy Cultivation Results!”
The purple talent selection required no explanation — Spontaneous Epiphany was practically a divine ability. Once triggered, a single day of cultivation was worth ten years! Su Xing’s expectations for this talent weren’t even that high — just trigger it once per simulation, that’s all he asked.
As long as it triggered even once, Su Xing would come out massively ahead!
As for Su Xing’s second choice, the Primordial Energy Cultivation Results —
It was simply because elemental force cultivation was far too time-consuming. Counting Su Xing’s twenty years of training plus the three days of epiphany, the total effective cultivation time exceeded fifty years!
That meant Su Xing had spent a full fifty years just to cultivate his elemental force to the second stage, Entwinement level!
If he didn’t select it this time, and failed to get an epiphany next time, he’d suffer a huge loss.
As for the Spirit-Gathering Flowers and Primordial Martial Realm Grand Perfection cultivation — those were things Su Xing could obtain as long as he was willing to invest the time. There was no rush to select them now.
After Su Xing made his choices, the simulator’s notification chime soon sounded in his ears.
【Ding! Detected that your current talent slots are full. Expanding a second additional talent slot requires 100,000 simulation energy points. Expand?】
【You may also choose to replace one of your currently held talents, which requires 100,000 simulation energy points. Replace?】
Su Xing’s mouth twitched when he heard this. Damn it — didn’t it only cost 10,000 simulation energy points last time? How come expanding a talent slot now costs a hundred thousand?
While 100,000 energy wasn’t much for Su Xing, at this rate, the third additional talent slot would probably cost a million!
Still, since replacing a talent also cost 100,000 energy points, he might as well just expand another talent slot instead.
“I choose to expand the additional talent slot!”
【Ding! You have chosen to expand one additional talent slot. Cost: 100,000 energy points. Remaining energy: 34,801,666 points.】
【You have chosen to bring out the purple talent Spontaneous Epiphany. Cost: 1,000,000 energy points. Remaining energy: 33,801,666 points.】
【You have chosen to bring out Primordial Energy Cultivation Results. Cost: 10,000,000 energy points. Remaining energy: 23,801,666 points.】
Watching the rapidly plummeting numbers on the simulation panel, a pained expression crept across Su Xing’s face.
“Ugh, this simulation really bled me dry. Nearly twenty million energy gone… At this rate, no amount of energy would be enough!”
But Su Xing understood that the massive expenditure this time was entirely because of cultivating elemental force. Including the cost of the immersive simulation from earlier, that one aspect alone had cost him close to twenty million.
“Sigh, I just hope the improvement from this elemental force is worth eighteen million energy!”
As Su Xing finalized his choices, two streams of mysterious energy soon descended upon him.
The purple glow representing the Spontaneous Epiphany talent settled onto Su Xing’s body before quickly fading from sight.
Immediately after, a torrent of memories related to elemental force cultivation flooded Su Xing’s mind. As the memories poured in, his mastery over elemental force skyrocketed.
No — it wasn’t merely an influx of memories! The quantity and intensity of elemental force within Su Xing’s body had also multiplied several times over in that single instant!
After a long while, Su Xing opened his eyes. His expression was one of shock as he gazed at the elemental force coating his hands and murmured:
“Entwinement-level mastery of elemental force… actually provides this terrifying of a boost?”