Chapter 161 – Talent: Formation Dao Prodigy, Talent Prize Pool Mechanism (5k)
by spirapira“Let me first see how much simulation energy this week’s goods are actually worth.”
A thought stirred in Su Xing’s mind as he took out the storage ring Jin Congxue had given him.
【Ding! White-quality equipment detected. Total energy value: 7.38 million points…】
【Ding! Large quantity of energy-rich materials detected. Total energy value: 8.97 million points…】
【Ding! Large quantity of energy-rich ore detected. Total energy value: 13.04 million points…】
Su Xing did a quick calculation. This week’s goods provided a total of 29.39 million simulation energy!
Of that, the exotic metals alone were worth 13.09 million energy points!
Nearly half the total!
“Good heavens, exotic metals really are the ideal substance for providing simulation energy!”
Su Xing exclaimed in admiration.
The exotic metals in the storage ring were almost entirely first-order exotic metals.
One kilogram was worth roughly 20 simulation energy points, meaning one ton equaled about 20,000 points!
The Tarot Trading Company currently had contracts for two dungeon mining zones capable of extracting exotic metals, meaning they could mine 650 tons of exotic metal per week! It sounded like a lot, but exotic metals had high density, so in physical terms it wasn’t that much.
Most importantly, this source of simulation energy was stable.
And the costs were extremely low — all Su Xing needed to pay was the annual contract fees for the two dungeons and the wages for hired workers.
Moreover, these two exotic metal mining zones had enough reserves to last Su Xing a full twenty years of extraction!
“Hiss~ When you look at it this way, exotic metals really are the main source of simulation energy!”
“Perhaps I should have a word with Jin Congxue… find a way to acquire even more exotic metals in the future, and that would mean even more simulation energy!”
Su Xing thought to himself, then turned his gaze to the simulation panel.
“The mining zone dungeons aren’t urgent for now. What matters is that it’s time to start a new round of simulation!”
On the afternoon of July 15th, New Era 2024, Su Xing punctually initiated his forty-fifth simulation.
“Begin simulation!”
【Ding! This simulation consumes 4,500 energy points. Remaining energy: 198.47 million points. Remaining simulation attempts: unlimited.】
【Simulation begins!】
【Drawing a green talent costs 1,000 energy points. Blue talent costs 10,000 energy points. Drawing a purple talent costs 100,000 energy points. Do you wish to draw?】
Su Xing didn’t hesitate and silently declared:
“Draw a purple talent!”
【Congratulations! You have obtained the purple talent: Formation Dao Prodigy!】
“Hm? Formation Dao?”
Su Xing was mildly puzzled as he looked at the simulation panel.
【Formation Dao Prodigy】: Purple talent. Your comprehension of the Formation Dao far surpasses that of ordinary people, making it much easier for you to become a respected Formation Dao master.
After reading the new talent, Su Xing couldn’t help but grumble:
“Well then, so it’s going to be alchemy, artificing, formations, and talismans — the full spread? At this point, I’m only missing a talisman dao genius talent, right?”
Su Xing couldn’t help but complain. The simulator’s talents were clearly pushing him toward becoming an all-around genius.
While there was nothing wrong with that per se, what Su Xing needed most right now was to raise his cultivation level.
He could always learn these secondary disciplines later, once his cultivation was high enough or when the need arose.
“Hmm, unsurprisingly I didn’t draw a purple spirit root talent… Looks like this time I’ll need to find a way to gather more spirit liquid.”
“As for this Formation Dao talent, I’ll store it in the talent pool for now!”
With a thought, Su Xing opened the simulation panel before him.
The text that normally appeared on the simulation screen had transformed into a retro-styled prize machine.
This prize machine was the pool function unlocked during the second simulator upgrade.
The specific mechanic was that Su Xing needed to spend a certain number of points to enter prize pools of different tiers.
For example, to draw white talents, each attempt cost 100 simulation energy points.
The draw targets were white talents that Su Xing had previously obtained but hadn’t brought out of the simulation.
Drawing green talents cost 1,000 points, blue cost 10,000, purple talents cost 100,000…
According to the simulator’s explanation, once Su Xing entered the purple pool, the probability of drawing any given purple talent was equal.
Su Xing currently had only a little over ten talents in his purple talent pool, meaning that even with bad luck, it would only take about a million or so energy to draw any specific one.
That was reasonably generous.
After drawing a previously obtained talent, Su Xing could designate it as a talent selection for his next simulation.
This way, after the simulation ended, he could choose to bring that talent out.
“However, none of these stored talents seem to have an immediate use right now. I’ll designate one when the time is right.”
Su Xing murmured, then formally prepared for the simulation.
His gaze turned to the simulation panel.
【In the spirit field blessed land, you became aware that you were in a simulation.】
【You immediately set about arranging a spirit-gathering formation to accelerate the accumulation of spirit liquid.】
【One week later, the spirit field blessed land began producing spirit liquid.】
【The quantity was modest — less than 150 drops per day — but you cherished every bit of it.】
【With a thousand drops of spirit liquid coming in each week, little by little it added up. In one year, that would be over 50,000 drops. You were quite satisfied.】
【You planned to join the Advent Cult as soon as possible, so you concealed your aura, disguised your appearance, and headed to Shuangqing City in Southwest Province.】
【You were in luck and quickly discovered Old Dog Zong.】
【After a series of maneuvers, you successfully joined the Advent Cult and used Life-Sustaining Pills to trade with Old Dog Zong for a considerable quantity of medicinal herbs.】
【After joining the Advent Cult, you maintained a low profile and contacted Luo Shuying, obtaining a large batch of spirit medicines from her.】
【Afterward, you cultivated in a steady, methodical fashion while collecting the spirit liquid produced by the spirit field.】
【You once showed Old Dog Zong a small vial of spirit liquid (roughly 10,000 drops), and his eyes nearly popped out of his head.】
【Clearly, from his reaction, you understood just how precious spirit liquid was in this era.】
【Old Dog Zong expressed willingness to trade divine ability techniques for the spirit liquid in your possession. You were somewhat tempted and asked what techniques he could offer.】
【Old Dog Zong produced techniques such as “Soul-Seizing Art,” “Venomheart Art,” “Blood Sacrifice Art,” and other malicious methods.】
【These techniques were not only low in grade with significant side effects, but their methods were extremely vicious, often requiring the sacrifice of living souls.】
【You naturally had no interest in such spells, but you knew Old Dog Zong would never sincerely trade with you or reveal his most prized possessions, so you could only let the matter drop.】
Seeing this, Su Xing shook his head slightly and snorted coldly:
“You wretched Old Dog Zong, you actually wanted me to become a demonic cultivator like you? Truly vile!”
“But it doesn’t matter if you won’t trade now… Once this young master slaughters you, all those treasures and techniques on your person will be mine!”
Su Xing felt it didn’t matter whether he traded with Old Dog Zong or not.
Once he killed him in reality, everything in Old Dog Zong’s storage artifact would eventually belong to Su Xing.
“But the value of spirit liquid really is unexpectedly high… If I truly find the cultivation world someday, in this era of scarce spiritual energy, spirit liquid could probably be exchanged for quite a few treasures!”
Su Xing thought this to himself, then turned his gaze back to the simulation panel.
【Your trade with Old Dog Zong fell through. You both secretly coveted each other’s treasures, yet on the surface you maintained a cordial facade, as though you were dear old friends of many years.】
【Over the next year, you spent most of your time cultivating in the spirit field blessed land — sometimes studying the Thousand Blazing Flame Art, sometimes refining your control over spiritual power, and other times refining pills.】
【During this year, you managed to collect nearly 50,000 drops of spirit liquid.】
【You stored them in specially crafted small jade vials, each containing 10,000 drops of spirit liquid — approximately fifty milliliters.】
【In the second year, your mastery of the earth-grade technique Thousand Blazing Flame Art broke through to the second layer.】
【At the same time, you refined large quantities of pills, and most of the spirit medicines in the Advent Cult’s treasury had been quietly pocketed by you.】
【Deciding the time was ripe, you took Luo Shuying and defected from the Advent Cult.】
【You contacted Xia’s military directly. With the pills in your possession and your personal strength, you held an extremely high position within Xia’s military.】
【The Advent Cult may have wanted to hunt you down, but they simply lacked the means to do so.】
【When the city gate catches fire, the fish in the moat suffer. Old Dog Zong became the scapegoat and began fleeing for his life.】
【Year three. Over the course of a year, you refined tens of thousands of pills, adding over ten thousand Grandmaster-stage powerhouses to Great Xia.】
【That same year, your mastery of the Thousand Blazing Flame Art advanced to the third layer.】 【This year, the spirit liquid in your possession approached one hundred and fifty thousand drops, but you didn’t use a single one, storing every last drop.】
【Each day, aside from spending one hour collecting spirit liquid, you devoted the rest of your time to cultivating elemental force and practicing the Thousand Blazing Flame Art.】
【This left you with several hours of free time, so you decided to expand your Spirit-Gathering Flower operation to harvest even more spirit liquid.】
【You planted five hundred Spirit-Gathering Flower seeds. Just tending to these seeds alone consumed several hours of your day.】
【Any more than that would interfere with your cultivation.】
【Year four. Your mastery of elemental force achieved a minor breakthrough, approaching the level of external projection.】
【The spiritual energy armor wrapped around your body grew ever more solid, and the elemental force within you grew ever more abundant.】
【This year, your spirit liquid count reached two hundred thousand drops!】
【Year five. The five hundred Spirit-Gathering Flowers you planted all matured, slightly increasing the spiritual energy within the spirit field grotto-heaven.】
【Your weekly spirit liquid harvest reached approximately eleven hundred drops. Over the course of a year, you harvested nearly sixty thousand drops of spirit liquid.】
【You planted another five hundred Spirit-Gathering Flowers, awaiting their next maturation in two years.】
【Year six. Your mastery of the earth-grade technique Thousand Blazing Flame Art achieved a breakthrough, successfully advancing to the fourth layer!】
【Unfortunately, your mastery of elemental force remained firmly stuck at the Entwinement level Great Perfection. You desperately wanted to break through further.】
【This year, you collected nearly sixty thousand more drops of spirit liquid, bringing your total to three hundred and sixty thousand drops!】
【Year seven. Your second batch of planted Spirit-Gathering Flowers matured, once again slightly increasing the spiritual energy content within the spirit field grotto-heaven.】
【This year you harvested sixty-three thousand drops of spirit liquid!】
【You skillfully planted a new batch of Spirit-Gathering Flower seeds.】
【Year eight. You harvested sixty-three thousand drops of spirit liquid, bringing your total to nearly four hundred and ninety thousand drops.】
【Year nine. A new batch of Spirit-Gathering Flowers matured, making the spiritual energy within your spirit field blessed land ever more abundant.】
【This year your spirit liquid harvest increased again, reaching sixty-four thousand drops.】
【You also noticed that despite the ever-growing number of Spirit-Gathering Flowers, while the spiritual energy in the spirit field blessed land was also increasing, it was becoming very difficult to break through a certain bottleneck.】
【It seemed to be perpetually stuck at the elementary grotto-heaven level. Without a major change, this spirit field grotto-heaven would be hard-pressed to undergo a transformation.】
【So you stopped planting Spirit-Gathering Flowers and instead focused solely on collecting spirit liquid, devoting more energy to cultivating your technique and elemental force.】
Su Xing nodded slightly at this.
While Spirit-Gathering Flowers were a natural wonder, their ability to enhance the spiritual energy of a given space was not limitless.
Unless the number of Spirit-Gathering Flowers was truly staggering — like the Luotian Sect’s collection of one hundred and twenty-nine thousand six hundred flowers.
Such an enormous quantity might be enough to trigger a qualitative change, elevating the spirit field grotto-heaven to a higher level.
Alternatively, setting up a large-scale spirit-gathering formation paired with high-grade spirit veins might also dramatically enhance the quality of spiritual energy, thereby raising the spirit field grotto-heaven’s level.
“Still, those conditions are a bit too demanding for me right now… The main issue is not having enough simulation energy!”
Su Xing sighed and murmured:
“But producing over sixty thousand drops of spirit liquid a year is already sufficient. If I had any more, I probably wouldn’t have enough simulation energy to redeem it all anyway…”
His gaze turned to the simulation panel.
【Year ten. The spirit liquid you accumulated over these ten years totaled a full six hundred and ten thousand drops. You stored them in small jade vials, carefully placing them in boxes.】
【Watching the number of jade vials steadily increase filled your heart with a deep sense of accomplishment.】
【Year eleven. Your mastery of elemental force grew ever more refined. You felt that you were not far from reaching the third level of elemental force — the External Projection level.】
【That same year, your spirit liquid count reached six hundred and seventy thousand drops!】
【Year twelve. On a calm afternoon, after finishing your meal, you practiced elemental force as usual.】
【You wrapped elemental force around every inch of your skin, continuously experiencing its wondrous applications.】
【Suddenly, you felt the shackles that had long plagued you silently fall away. Your mastery of elemental force advanced naturally to the third level — External Projection!】
Su Xing let out a long breath of relief at this and murmured:
“Finally, elemental force broke through to the third level… From the Peak of Elemental Force Entwinement to External Projection… Without the aid of epiphany, natural cultivation takes twelve years?”
Su Xing nodded slightly.
This speed wasn’t particularly fast, but it was within his psychological expectations.
【After your elemental force broke through to the External Projection level, you couldn’t wait to experience it firsthand.】
【You gathered your qi in your dantian and began controlling the two forces within your body — elemental force and spiritual power…】
【You kept your spiritual power contained within your body while layering elemental force over your body’s exterior, controlling them as they slowly extended away from your body.】
【In your perception, elemental force gradually spread from your fists, finally stopping at a point ten centimeters from your knuckles.】
【Though you had only just entered the External Projection level and your elemental force had barely left your body, you could already feel the tremendous power contained in this thin layer of externally projected elemental force.】
【You retrieved a block of fourth-order exotic metal and directed your elemental force to smash into it!】
【Boom! That seemingly effortless punch actually blasted the entire block of fourth-order exotic metal into powder!】
【You hadn’t even exerted any physical strength. This overwhelming destructive power came from elemental force alone!】
【Realization quickly dawned in your heart — if one’s elemental force cultivation grew powerful enough to extend several feet or even several zhang from the body, it would be the nightmare of every Qi Refinement cultivator!】
【Afterward, you attempted to wrap elemental force around Blackice, but having only just entered the External Projection level, you couldn’t yet control it freely.】
【To prevent the Blackice sword from being damaged, you could only pause your experiments, planning to try again once your mastery of elemental force became more refined.】
【Year thirteen. After your elemental force breakthrough, you devoted more attention to cultivating the Thousand Blazing Flame Art.】
【Over more than a decade, your comprehension of the Thousand Blazing Flame Art had rapidly deepened, approaching the fifth layer.】
【That same year, your total collected spirit liquid reached eight hundred thousand drops!】
【Year fourteen. The Thousand Blazing Flame Art naturally broke through as well, reaching the fifth layer.】
【After cultivating the Thousand Blazing Flame Art to the fifth layer, combined with the Separation Fire Technique, your speed of absorbing spiritual energy was even faster than the Eternal Spring Art.】
【So you adopted the Thousand Blazing Flame Art as your primary cultivation technique, slightly improving your cultivation speed.】
【Year fifteen. Though you had not used spirit liquid to aid your cultivation over these years, fifteen years of accumulation still pushed your cultivation forward a significant step from the seventh level of Spirit Transformation, putting you not far from the eighth level of Spirit Transformation.】
【Year sixteen. You continued diligently collecting spirit liquid every day. This year, your total spirit liquid surpassed one million drops!】
【Year seventeen. Your Qi Refinement cultivation advanced another step — you became an eighth-level Spirit Transformation cultivator!】
Su Xing frowned slightly at this and murmured:
“As expected, Spirit Transformation stage cultivation is even more difficult than I imagined… Especially the later stages of Spirit Transformation — progress is agonizingly slow!”
“Without the aid of spirit liquid, relying solely on natural cultivation, it actually takes a full seventeen years to break through a single realm?”
Su Xing knew this pace wasn’t exactly slow, but he still wasn’t satisfied.
“Fortunately, with spirit liquid to assist in the future, cultivation speed should improve further, right?”
Su Xing thought to himself, his gaze turning to the simulation panel.
【Year eighteen. Through your relentless daily cultivation, your mastery of the Thousand Blazing Flame Art had caught up to your mastery of the Eternal Spring Art, running neck and neck.】
【The advantage of a fire-attribute technique considerably enhanced the power of the Separation Fire Technique, further strengthening your offensive capabilities.】
【Year nineteen. Through years of diligent cultivation, your mastery of elemental force grew ever more refined.】
【You could now safely project elemental force and wrap it around a spirit sword, though you couldn’t maintain it for too long, as it consumed an enormous amount of your elemental force.】
【But externally attaching elemental force to spiritual energy still dramatically increased your combat strength!】
【The Sword Momentum comprehended through Human Sword Perfection, combined with elemental force attached to the spirit sword Blackice, became your most powerful offensive method.】
【When playing this trump card, your combat power increased by no less than thirty percent!】
【This increase in strength gave you tremendous confidence. You couldn’t wait to test whether you could defeat the puppet guarding the ancient tomb ruins.】
【But there were still a full six years remaining before the twenty-five-year deadline. If you were no match for the puppet, wouldn’t you be wasting this opportunity?】
【So you decided to play it safe for now — collecting enough spirit liquid first before going to challenge it would not be too late.】
【Year twenty. Your spirit liquid count reached an astonishing one million two hundred and fifty thousand drops.】
【That same year, you traveled to the Immortal Martial Era dungeon.】
【You didn’t plan to head directly to the ancient tomb ruins. Instead, you first visited the three great sects, obtaining the three jade fragments and their techniques.】