First Entry into the Void Realm, Failing to Achieve Perfection (Second Update, Seeking Monthly Tickets)

Chapter 186: First Entry into the Void Realm, Failing to Achieve Perfection (Second Update, Seeking Monthly Tickets~)

Seeing this, Su Xing felt a surge of nervousness.

The final year—could his alchemy of Void-Refining Pills break through to Mastery-level?

After all, only by reaching Mastery-level skill could he refine premium Void-Refining Pills, meeting Su Xing’s requirements for attempting to step into the Void Return stage.

His gaze turned to the simulation panel.

【After Demon-Sealing Pass was destroyed, you once again attempted to refine Void-Refining Pills.】

【But the heavens do not always bend to one’s will. Ten consecutive attempts all failed to produce a premium Void-Refining Pill.】

【You glanced at the several ordinary-quality Void-Refining Pills in your hand, hesitating over whether to attempt a breakthrough directly.】

【But the time left to you was running short.】

【In the end, you decided to take the gamble!】

【You entered the spirit field grotto-heaven, prepared all the spirit stones and spirit liquid you had accumulated, and began frantically condensing spiritual energy.】

【After three days and three nights, you felt as though your body was a balloon about to burst, the spiritual energy nearly tearing you apart.】

【But the more critical the moment, the calmer your mind became.】

【You sat cross-legged with your eyes tightly shut, pushing your divine sense to its absolute limit…】

【After several hours, you finally sensed that your divine sense seemed to have touched upon a special space you had never contacted before.】

【This space was incomparably vast, existing between illusion and reality… only divine sense could perceive it, but the physical body could not reach it!】

【You understood in your heart—this was the Void Realm!】

【At the same time, you quickly opened your eyes and swallowed a Void-Refining Pill.】

【The Void-Refining Pill dissolved the instant it entered your mouth. Your body showed no changes, but you sensed a subtle transformation in your divine sense.】

【At this moment, your divine sense stood at the threshold of the Void Realm, seized by an impulse to enter!】

Seeing this, Su Xing felt a rush of elation.

“So after maintaining divine sense at its limit, you can perceive the Void Realm? This world… actually has a Void Realm!”

“But if taking a Void-Refining Pill is enough to attempt entry into the Void Realm… then what’s the difference between a premium Void-Refining Pill and an ordinary one?”

Su Xing was somewhat puzzled.

Regardless, attempting the Void Return breakthrough in this simulation was the right choice.

Even if he failed, the text left behind would provide Su Xing with valuable insight for his next breakthrough attempt.

His gaze returned to the simulation panel.

【Your divine sense lingered outside the Void Realm, and you could feel the Void Realm’s rejection of you.】

【You understood that this was because you had not yet broken through to the Void Return stage. If you could force your way into the Void Realm, you would become a Void Return stage cultivator!】

【And so you struggled to marshal your divine sense, condensing and concentrating it into a single point, striving to break open a small crack in the barrier of the Void Realm to enter.】

【You tried again and again, failed again and again.】

【But you were tenacious and unyielding—each failure only drove you to try once more…】

【After what felt like an eternity… the barrier of the Void Realm before you finally ceased its rejection. A tiny crack appeared before your divine sense.】

【You seized the opportunity and plunged into the crack…】

【After you entered, the crack in the Void Realm’s barrier slowly healed shut.】

【You had successfully entered the Void Realm!】

【Upon entering the Void Realm, your divine sense perceived everything around you.】

【Yet here, there seemed to be nothing at all…】

【No flowers, no grass, no trees… not even soil or moisture!】

【It was like an incomparably vast vacuum…】

【True to its name, all you could see was endless nothingness.】

【And within this infinite void, all you could sense was desolation… as though this space had been without life for a very, very long time…】

【Just then! The endless heights above your head began to shift…】

【It was no longer pure nothingness—something like dark clouds had gathered, spreading across the sky!】

【You were curious about where these clouds had come from, but the situation was already beyond your control.】

【Boom! Boom! Boom!】

【The dark clouds began to converge, and terrifying lightning started to coalesce.】

【It suddenly struck you—this was exactly what Shennong Youtian had once mentioned: lightning specifically targeting divine sense!】

【This was the divine sense baptism that every cultivator who entered the Void Realm had to endure.】

【CRACK! A bolt of lightning struck your divine sense with unerring precision.】

【Simultaneously, you felt your divine sense wracked with indescribable agony…】

【The pain felt through divine sense far exceeded any physical torment.】

【But you gritted your teeth and endured. You could feel your divine sense growing stronger with every passing moment…】

【Ten thousand zhang… twelve thousand zhang… thirteen thousand zhang… fifteen thousand zhang!】

【In just a few breaths, the range of your divine sense had increased by fifty percent!】

【This was equivalent to decades of painstaking cultivation…】

【After weathering that bolt of lightning, you felt your divine sense had become far more resilient.】

【Then the second bolt of lightning came crashing down.】

【This bolt was even more powerful than the last!】

【You struggled and gritted your teeth, but ultimately held on.】

【And the range of your divine sense surged once more.】

【Fifteen thousand zhang… eighteen thousand zhang… twenty thousand zhang!】

【In just a few breaths, your divine sense had grown by another five thousand zhang, reaching twenty thousand zhang!】

【Compared to before you entered the Void Realm, your divine sense had doubled in strength.】

【Just as you thought it was all over…】

【A third bolt of lightning slowly coalesced, preparing to descend.】

【But by now, your divine sense was utterly depleted—there was almost no chance of surviving this bolt.】

【Just when you thought you were about to fail… you suddenly sensed your divine sense rapidly recovering.】

【You realized—this was the effect of the Void-Refining Pill!】

【In the span of just a few breaths, your divine sense recovered to most of its capacity.】

【At the same time, you began enduring the agony of the incoming lightning bolt.】

【The lightning enveloped your divine sense, nearly causing you to black out…】

【Yet the Void-Refining Pill’s effects fully manifested—not only did it restore your divine sense, it also greatly reduced the pain inflicted by the lightning.】

【After a long while…】

【When you survived this bolt of divine sense lightning, you felt your divine sense leap to a new level in the span of a few breaths…】

【Twenty thousand zhang… twenty-three thousand zhang… twenty-six thousand zhang!】

【Though temporarily weakened, your divine sense was more resilient than ever before!】

【At the same time, you felt the Void-Refining Pill’s medicinal effects rapidly fading, and the lightning tribulation in the sky dissipated along with it…】

【Your divine sense ultimately settled at twenty-six thousand zhang. Though far stronger than before… you couldn’t shake the feeling that it fell short of Perfection…】

【After the lightning tribulation dissipated, you attempted to explore this vast and boundless Void Realm.】

【But after your divine sense wandered through the Void Realm for several days, you failed to detect the divine sense of even a single other cultivator.】

【Just as you were about to withdraw, you suddenly detected a divine sense approaching from the southwest.】

【You were shocked—there actually were other cultivators in this Void Realm!】

【Knowing that the dissipation of divine sense in the Void Realm would not result in death, you steeled your courage and approached that divine sense.】

【Soon, you encountered a mass of gray divine sense.】

【This divine sense seemed quite astonished. He introduced himself as Daoist Dragon and asked which cultivation world you had awakened from.】

【He said he had wandered this Void Realm for a thousand years, yet you were the only Void Return stage cultivator he had ever encountered.】

【You did not know Daoist Dragon’s background, yet you vaguely felt something familiar about him.】

【You gave Daoist Dragon a few perfunctory responses. By now, your divine sense had been wandering the Void Realm for days and was quite fatigued, so you temporarily withdrew from the Void Realm.】

【In the spirit field grotto-heaven, as your divine sense broke through, your cultivation realm rapidly ascended as well!】

【You naturally and effortlessly broke through to become a Void Return stage cultivator, your spiritual energy density more than doubling from before…】

Seeing this, Su Xing felt both elated and somewhat wistful.

“Twenty-six thousand zhang of divine sense… that really is astounding…”

“But it still didn’t reach Perfection—was that because of the Void-Refining Pill’s quality?”

Su Xing estimated that the lightning tribulation upon first entering the Void Realm served not only to test a cultivator’s strength and realm.

More importantly, it strengthened the cultivator’s soul and divine sense!

“What a pity. If I’d had a premium Void-Refining Pill, perhaps my divine sense could have grown even stronger…”

Su Xing sighed. What did bring him joy, however, was that this world truly did have a Void Realm!

The Void Realm offered tremendous benefits for enhancing a cultivator’s divine sense—naturally, Su Xing hoped for its existence. But at the same time, the emptiness and desolation within the Void Realm was likely because this world had not seen a cultivator at or above the Void Return stage for a very, very long time.

“But… who is this Daoist Dragon? Why do I feel a faint sense of familiarity?”

Su Xing suddenly thought of that old dragon from the Advent Cult!

“Hiss~ This Daoist Dragon—could he actually be Protector Dragon of the Advent Cult?”

Su Xing came to a sudden realization. In this world, aside from Old Dog Zong, the only other living cultivator Su Xing had ever encountered was Protector Dragon.

And Old Dog Zong was merely at the peak of Spirit Transformation—naturally unable to enter the Void Realm.

So this Daoist Dragon—Su Xing was over ninety percent certain it was Protector Dragon!

“As expected, do all Void Return stage cultivators enjoy wandering the Primordial Void…”

Su Xing nodded slightly. Because the Void Realm contained the “spirits of the Primordial Void,” Void Return stage cultivators all liked to strengthen their divine sense and enhance their power within it.

“In any case, an ordinary-quality Void-Refining Pill can help me break through to the Void Return stage… but my divine sense would have certain deficiencies, falling short of Perfection…”

With this thought, Su Xing hesitated no further.

After this simulation, Su Xing should be able to obtain the Void Return stage cultivation reward option.

But Su Xing didn’t plan to choose it. Instead, he would wait until the next simulation, refine a premium Void-Refining Pill, and only then attempt the breakthrough!

“In this simulation, my Void-Refining Pill refinement was already approaching Mastery-level… In the next simulation, I’ll definitely reach Major Mastery!”

Su Xing didn’t mind waiting one more simulation’s worth of time. Pushing every realm as close to perfection as possible was the only way he could walk further along the path of cultivation…

With that thought, Su Xing turned his gaze to the simulation panel.

【After your realm breakthrough, you remained in the real world for several more months.】

【One day, a colossal beast descended upon reality, swallowing the entire nation of Great Xia in a single gulp.】

【You activated your Protective Hardened Qi, relying on the powerful physique of a Void Return cultivator to withstand the suction of the beast’s stomach.】

【You ventured deeper, standing just outside the thunder zone, wanting to see what would happen if you remained in the space of the beast’s stomach.】

【After an unknown period of time, the thunder zone that had previously clashed frequently gradually dissipated. This void began to spawn countless chaotic spatial turbulences.】

【These spatial turbulences were extremely terrifying. Merely approaching them filled you with a sense of dread.】

【You struggled to dodge these spatial turbulences, but in the end, you were torn to shreds by the turbulent flow…】

【Your soul drifted among the spatial turbulences, gradually losing consciousness…】

【You died!】

【Ding! This simulation has ended!】

After the simulation ended, Su Xing gazed at the final lines of text, deep in thought.

“Perhaps I could shift my approach?”

“Since I can’t defeat the demon race… what if I could survive inside the beast’s stomach—that peculiar space? Maybe that could work too?”

At this thought, Su Xing’s eyes lit up.

If he truly could survive inside the colossal beast’s stomach, it would essentially extend the simulation time.

The only problem was that the environment inside the beast’s stomach was far too terrifying—Su Xing’s current strength wasn’t enough to survive.

Perhaps once his cultivation reached an extremely advanced realm, he could give it a try?

“This time, I’ve more or less achieved my goal.”

“Not only has my pill-refining technique improved dramatically, with the Void-Refining Pill approaching Major Mastery…”

“I also took the opportunity to briefly explore the Void Realm! Though I didn’t obtain any particularly useful information, I did encounter Protector Dragon…”

Su Xing was fairly satisfied with this simulation’s results. He turned his gaze to the simulation panel’s rewards.

【Self-Help Guru】: Purple talent, priced at 1,000,000 energy points.

【Twenty-Five Years of Alchemy Experience】: Alchemy insights, containing comprehension of the Rebirth Pill (Perfection) and Void-Refining Pill (Minor Mastery), priced at 10,000,000 energy.

【Void Return Stage, First Layer】: First entry into the Void Realm, achieving Void Return stage, but the tempering of divine sense by the Void Divine Thunder was slightly flawed, and spiritual power enhancement did not reach its maximum. Priced at 100,000,000 energy.

【Divine Sense, 89.1 Kilometers】: Achieved Void Return, broke into the Void Realm and underwent tempering by the divine thunder, greatly expanding divine sense, but with slight flaws—not yet reaching Perfection. Priced at 170,000,000 energy. (Note: After selecting this reward, the initial tempering by Void Divine Thunder can no longer be undergone.).

Compared to before, what Su Xing did in this simulation was quite straightforward—refine pills, find a way to break through to Void Return stage.

Therefore the reward options were also relatively simple.

Su Xing had no trouble deciding on this round’s rewards.

The Self-Help Guru talent was something Su Xing had been wanting to prepare for a while, mainly because it would make him far more composed when facing Luo Shuying.

Moreover, this talent was genuinely absurdly powerful—during simulations, Su Xing could produce unexpectedly useful effects with it.

“I’ll take the Twenty-Five Years of Alchemy Experience and the Self-Help Guru talent!”

Su Xing gazed somewhat wistfully at the cultivation rewards.

But then he caught himself.

“That’s right! What I need isn’t the technique for refining Void-Refining Pills—I just need a single premium Void-Refining Pill!”

“In that case, in my next simulation, as long as I successfully refine a premium Void-Refining Pill, I can attempt to break through to the Void Return stage and then bring out the cultivation reward!”

Su Xing’s eyes lit up.

Unlike the Divine Power Pill and other pills before it, the Void-Refining Pill was only useful for breaking through to Void Return and entering the Primordial Void Realm.

Su Xing had no need to master this pill’s refinement to an extremely advanced level.

With this realization, Su Xing felt a sudden surge of anticipation.

“If things go smoothly, by the next simulation, I should be able to directly achieve Void Return, right?”

At that moment, the simulator’s notification chimed in his ear.

【Ding! It has been detected that your talent slots are currently full. Would you like to spend 10,000,000 energy points to unlock an additional talent slot?】

Su Xing didn’t hesitate much upon hearing this. Ten million energy was nothing to him now.

“Spend ten million energy to unlock an additional talent slot!”

Su Xing intoned silently.

【Ding! You have spent 10,000,000 energy to unlock an additional talent slot. Remaining energy: 306,660,000 points…】

【You have successfully extracted the talent Self-Help Guru. Cost: 1,000,000 energy. Remaining energy: 305,660,000 points.】

【You have successfully extracted Twenty-Five Years of Alchemy Experience. Cost: 10,000,000 energy. Remaining energy: 295,660,000 points.】

As the notifications faded, two streams of mysterious power flowed into Su Xing’s body.

At the same time, numerous memory fragments appeared in Su Xing’s mind.

Memories of refining the Void-Refining Pill and the Rebirth Pill!

Su Xing gently closed his eyes and began digesting these memories.

When he opened them again, he had gained considerable expertise in refining both the Void-Refining Pill and the Rebirth Pill.

“As expected, my refinement of the Void-Refining Pill is already extremely close to Mastery-level. It shouldn’t take more than a few years in the next simulation to achieve a breakthrough.”

“As for the Rebirth Pill… apart from the Legendary-stage Rebirth Pill, which I can’t successfully refine because my Separation Fire Technique isn’t powerful enough, I’ve mastered everything else!”

Su Xing was very satisfied with this.

So his next goal was the Void Return stage!

With that thought, Su Xing was brimming with motivation.

And so, over the following week, Su Xing continued his steady routine of pill refining and spirit field farming.

One week later, Su Xing disguised his appearance and suppressed his aura, then went to the villa to meet Jin Congxue.

Jin Congxue was wearing a black dress today, with light makeup, though she looked somewhat haggard.

Su Xing was momentarily stunned and asked:

“Sis Xue, why do you look so exhausted? Didn’t you sleep well?”

Jin Congxue rolled her eyes at him and said:

“Hmph, it’s all your fault! You brought in such a massive batch of high-grade exotic metals… This isn’t some trivial matter!”

“You’ve had me working day and night supervising at the mine dungeon, not daring to leave for a moment…”

Jin Congxue yawned and continued:

“But this batch of exotic metals is already being purified at an accelerated pace. Two weeks at most and the refining will be done…”

“Oh, and the alchemy furnace made from fourth-order exotic metal that you wanted has been arranged too. I’ll give it to you together when the time comes~”

Hearing Jin Congxue’s words, Su Xing felt a pang of gratitude. She had clearly gone to considerable trouble for his sake.

“Thank you, Sis Xue!”

Su Xing said sincerely, then produced several Premium Beauty-Preserving Pills.

These were genuine Spirit Pills—capable of maintaining a youthful appearance for three years.

Su Xing handed the pills over, blinking as he said:

“Sis Xue… a gift for you. These are premium Beauty-Preserving Pills!”

“Take one every three years, and each pill guarantees three years of ageless beauty and renewed youth!”

Jin Congxue’s eyes immediately lit up. A single pill that could extend youthful beauty by three years—

For any woman, this was an irresistible temptation.

“Hmph, at least you brat still have some conscience!”

Jin Congxue smiled lightly, utterly charming.

Soon, after the two finished discussing business, Su Xing took the week’s goods and returned to the spirit field grotto-heaven.

Because the mine dungeon was simultaneously processing Su Xing’s high-grade exotic metals, this week’s goods were worth only a little over 50,000,000 simulation energy.

After absorbing the simulation energy, Su Xing’s total energy climbed back to 350,000,000 points.

Then, Su Xing prepared to launch a new round of simulation.

“This time, I must successfully achieve Perfection and break through to the Void Return stage!”

(Second update of the day—please vote with your monthly tickets~)