Chapter 133 – Triggering Epiphany, Infant Tempering Pill Complete! (Second Update)
by spirapira【In response to Old Dog Zong’s inquiries, you kept your mouth shut and said nothing.】
【But this only made Old Dog Zong even more certain that you must have used the body-seizing technique.】
【Old Dog Zong proposed trading a Blessed by Fortune technique in exchange for your body-seizing technique.】
【But how could you possibly know any body-seizing technique? So you continued staring at him with a cold, icy expression, remaining silent.】
【Left with no choice, Old Dog Zong settled for the next best thing, expressing his willingness to trade treasures for the Life-Sustaining Pills in your possession. He even offered to introduce you to a powerful and mysterious organization.】
Su Xing was briefly stunned when he saw this. He finally understood why Old Dog Zong had come looking for him.
So it was all about extending his lifespan!?
“Thinking about it carefully, Old Dog Zong has lived for over two thousand years. Even though he took the Yellow Springs Pill and slept for over a thousand of those years, he probably doesn’t have many years left to live… That’s why he’s looking to buy longevity-extending pills, isn’t it?”
“However, this is actually a good opportunity to infiltrate the Advent Cult. This way, I won’t need to drag Junior Sister Wang Qingxuan into it…”
Su Xing let out a soft sigh. For Wang Qingxuan, joining the Advent Cult might not be a good thing.
If Su Xing could join through other channels, that would naturally be for the best.
With that thought, Su Xing turned his gaze to the simulation panel.
【You agreed to Old Dog Zong’s request, trading two Life-Sustaining Pills for a considerable number of precious spirit herbs from him.】
【Afterward, you followed Old Dog Zong and joined the Advent Cult.】
【Upon first entering the Advent Cult, your formidable strength stunned the assembled Elders. Combined with Old Dog Zong’s endorsement, you quickly earned the trust of the Advent Cult’s upper echelon. Despite having just joined, you were immediately installed as an Elder-level figure.】
【The Advent Cult indicated that if you performed well, you were guaranteed a promotion to Protector-level, which would come with even greater benefits.】
【But you couldn’t have cared less about any of that. Your only concern was how to clean out every last herb in the Advent Cult’s treasury.】
【So you secretly contacted Luo Shuying. At first, Luo Shuying was hostile toward you, believing you to be one of Old Dog Zong’s faction.】
【But once you revealed everything to her and spoke the secret code phrase, Luo Shuying finally believed you.】
【Having gained Luo Shuying’s trust, you employed the same old tricks, getting her to help you acquire the spirit herbs from the treasury.】
【After successfully obtaining the spirit herbs, you began refining pills.】
【You started with the Mind-Condensing Pill. In just half a year, you refined several thousand Mind-Condensing Pills. After giving a portion to Luo Shuying, you consumed the remainder to work on strengthening your spiritual sense.】
【During this half year, you were outwardly on brotherly terms with Old Dog Zong, while secretly maintaining contact with Luo Shuying and considering when would be the best time to kill the old dog.】
【In the second year, thanks to your abundant supply of Mind-Condensing Pills, your spiritual sense strength surged dramatically, expanding to a full two hundred zhang!】
【At the same time, you began refining Essence Nurturing Pills, Primordial Martial Pills, and other pills in advance as preparation.】
【In the third year, with Luo Shuying’s help, you had nearly emptied the treasury of its herbs. You decided the time was ripe — it was time to defect from the Advent Cult!】
【And so, you picked an auspicious day. Before leaving, you even treated Old Dog Zong to a farewell dinner. The very next day, you took Luo Shuying and defected to the Great Xia Military.】
【The Great Xia Military was initially suspicious of you. After all, you had previously wiped out the Black Dragon Trading Company and then turned around and joined the enemy Advent Cult — that made it hard to earn trust.】
【But when you produced one hundred thousand pills, the Great Xia Military became thoroughly convinced, and even hailed you as a hero of the human race!】
【Soon, every major faction in Great Xia learned of your return, but none dared offend you, for you were now a high-ranking member of the Great Xia Military!】
【In this land of Great Xia, no matter how powerful a faction might be, all must submit to the nation, for the military — which commanded the greatest number of powerful warriors — was the uncrowned king!】
【And so these factions rushed to send you gifts and offer their apologies, but you had no interest in any of it.】
【At the same time, upon learning that you and Luo Shuying had defected, the Advent Cult immediately issued a bounty, mobilizing the entire cult to hunt you both down.】
【As for Grand Protector Zong, because he had previously recommended you, he was punished by association — stripped of trust and hunted by the Advent Cult as well.】
Su Xing couldn’t help but laugh when he saw this.
“Well, well! Didn’t expect I’d screw over Old Dog Zong one more time on the way out!”
“Tsk tsk, so in the future I can get Old Dog Zong to introduce me into the Advent Cult… Not a bad deal at all!”
Su Xing thought with dark amusement, then turned his gaze back to the simulation panel.
【Over the following period, you devoted yourself to pill refinement. After another two years, you had refined over a hundred thousand pills, including some Primordial Martial Pills and even Divine Power Pills!】
【You had added tens of thousands of Grandmaster-stage warriors to Great Xia, hundreds of Heavenly Kings, and even dozens of Martial Emperor-stage powerhouses!】
【For a time, every faction trembled in fear, terrified you might seek revenge, while the Great Xia Military valued you even more highly, attending to your moods and fulfilling virtually every request you made.】
【In the fifth year, aside from pill refinement, you spent each day cultivating and strengthening your spiritual sense.】
【That year, your spiritual sense range expanded to five hundred zhang — already equivalent to the peak spiritual sense range of an ordinary Nascent Soul cultivator!】
【In the sixth year, you ordered your subordinates to collect precious spirit herbs from the Great Xia treasury.】
【You used this batch of spirit herbs to refine yet more pills, further strengthening Great Xia’s power. At the same time, you obtained another piece of Condensing Wood, which you used to refine a considerable number of Mind-Condensing Pills.】
【In the seventh year, having exhausted most of the herbs in your possession, you were finally able to focus entirely on attempting to refine the Nascent Soul Tempering Pill!】
【Refining the Nascent Soul Tempering Pill was not particularly difficult. Among mid-grade pills, its refinement difficulty was actually slightly lower than the Divine Power Pill.】
【The only thing that gave you a headache was your limited supply of herbs — ten stalks of phoenix tail grass and thirty stalks of Snow Bone Jade Ginseng. Even with the most careful budgeting, these were only enough for at most fifty batches of Nascent Soul Tempering Pills.】
【In other words, you had to master the Nascent Soul Tempering Pill within fifty attempts!】
【This put enormous pressure on you. So you began endlessly simulating the refinement process in your mind, making absolutely sure you wouldn’t commit any avoidable mistakes before finally beginning.】
【You spent one day refining the first batch of Nascent Soul Tempering Pills. Unsurprisingly, you failed.】
【After the failure, you didn’t immediately attempt another batch. Instead, you spent three days carefully reflecting on every detail of the refinement process.】
【Only after confirming you had gained something from the reflection would you attempt the next batch.】
【You spent one month refining seven batches of Nascent Soul Tempering Pills. Without question, all seven batches failed, producing nothing but waste pills.】
【But your mindset remained calm. You knew that learning to refine a mid-grade pill wouldn’t come easily, and moreover, each attempt represented progress. So you steadied yourself and continued refining.】
【In the second month, you refined five batches of Nascent Soul Tempering Pills. All failures!】
【In the third month, you refined seven batches of Nascent Soul Tempering Pills. Unsurprisingly, all failures!】
【Over the following months, in addition to your daily cultivation, you maintained a fixed schedule of pill refinement. Though you never succeeded, your understanding of the Nascent Soul Tempering Pill advanced at breakneck speed.】
【Finally, bolstered by your Alchemy Prodigy talent, one day you successfully refined three Nascent Soul Tempering Pills. Your Nascent Soul Tempering Pill refinement technique had finally reached the introductory level!】
Su Xing breathed a sigh of relief when he saw this. As long as he’d gotten the basics down, everything else would follow.
This meant that learning the Nascent Soul Tempering Pill wasn’t all that difficult. If one attempt wasn’t enough, two or three simulations would surely be enough to master it.
With that thought, Su Xing looked at the simulation panel.
What he didn’t expect was that the next part of the simulation would give him a pleasant surprise!
【After achieving introductory mastery of Nascent Soul Tempering Pill refinement, you still had a fair amount of herbs remaining. So every so often, you would refine another batch, hoping to further improve your proficiency.】
【One day, while refining Nascent Soul Tempering Pills, an epiphany suddenly struck you. The process of pill refinement seemed to slow to infinity, and boundless inspiration flooded your mind — you had entered a state of epiphany!】
【When you realized what was happening, you were overjoyed. Seizing the boost from the epiphany state, you frantically pushed your Nascent Soul Tempering Pill refinement proficiency higher.】
【Unfortunately, this epiphany state didn’t last very long — only a single day.】
【But even so, your Nascent Soul Tempering Pill refinement proficiency had advanced by leaps and bounds, already reaching Minor Mastery-level — and just one step away from Mastery-level!】
【You gazed at the several round, jade-smooth Nascent Soul Tempering Pills before you, feeling the urge to consume them and condense a Perfect Nascent Soul.】
【In the end, you held back. Although these Nascent Soul Tempering Pills had been successfully refined, they were merely ordinary quality — not supreme-grade Nascent Soul Tempering Pills. You decided to play it safe and wait until you had refined supreme-grade Nascent Soul Tempering Pills before consuming them to advance.】
Su Xing was excited.
“Hot damn, a Spontaneous Epiphany already triggered?”
“Hell, what incredible luck! Just one simulation and the Nascent Soul Tempering Pill refinement technique is already near Mastery-level.”
Su Xing had originally thought it would take at least two or three simulations to master the Nascent Soul Tempering Pill, but given the current situation, perhaps in the next simulation, he’d be able to refine supreme-grade Nascent Soul Tempering Pills and attempt to condense a Perfect Nascent Soul!
“Tsk tsk, looks like I’ll be choosing the pill refinement technique from this simulation’s rewards. In that case, I might as well learn a few more lower-grade pills while I’m at it…”
Su Xing already had a plan in mind. He turned his gaze to the simulation panel.
【After triggering the epiphany effect with the Nascent Soul Tempering Pill, you knew that your primary task going forward was pill refinement.】
【So you spent each following day honing your alchemy skills.】
【That same year, your spiritual sense range grew to six hundred zhang!】
【In the eighth year, you further elevated your previously learned Mirror Pill refinement technique by more than a tier, advancing it to Mastery-level.】
【That same year, your Body Tempering cultivation achieved a breakthrough — you became a second-level Divine Power Realm cultivator.】
【In the ninth year, Jin Congxue helped you collect a considerable number of thousand-year herbs. You decided to work on improving your Life-Sustaining Pill technique.】
【You spent one year successfully advancing your Life-Sustaining Pill refinement technique to Mastery-level. You could now refine supreme-grade Life-Sustaining Pills.】
【The potency of a supreme-grade Life-Sustaining Pill was double that of an ordinary one, capable of extending life by six years — its efficacy nearly rivaling that of the Longevity Pill!】
【In the tenth year, your spiritual sense strength improved further still, reaching a coverage range of eight hundred zhang!】