Chapter 136 – The Fear Gate: What Is Su Xing’s Greatest Terror?

Chapter 136 – The Fear Gate: What Is Su Xing’s Greatest Terror?

“Impossible! Absolutely impossible! How could I be such a shameless scoundrel?”

Watching his simulated self living the high life, Su Xing was so furious his teeth itched.

“Good lord, so this is how you handle your mortal world tempering? You’ve really figured out how to have a good time!”

Su Xing wished he could activate an immersive simulation right then and there to take over.

“Ah, forget it… let me just see how effective this mortal world tempering actually is.”

After some hesitation, Su Xing turned his gaze back to the simulation panel.

【After several months of passionate entanglement with Luo Shuying, your lower back strength -3, resistance to beautiful women +10.】

【But you still felt it wasn’t enough, so you went to see Wang Qingxuan…】

Su Xing: “…”

【After a year of such repeated tempering, you believed your resistance to lustful thoughts was sufficient, so you formally prepared for seclusion to break through the Lust Gate!】

【You consumed two Illumination Pills, sat cross-legged before the grass hut, merged your consciousness with your Nascent Soul, and gradually sank your mind into it.】

【Soon, your consciousness drifted far away. When you next awoke, you found yourself on Earth from your previous life.】

【It seemed as though everything had been a dream. In this life, you were a playboy, spending every day immersed in the company of beautiful women, moving between them like a fish in water.】

【You wasted your days, drinking and indulging in pleasure. Blissfully Lost.】

【And so, ten years passed.】

【One day, while looking at your girlfriend of two weeks and preparing to break up with her, you suddenly noticed something familiar about her face. In a flash, everything came rushing back…】

【Because the girlfriend before your eyes looked exactly like Jin Congxue.】

【Memories flooded into your mind like a tidal wave. You quickly realized you were in a simulation — you were passing through the Lust Gate, one of the five tribulations!】

【The moment you realized this, you successfully broke free from the illusion and returned to the real world.】

【When you returned to the real world, you discovered that a full month had passed.】

【But the ten years of memories from the illusion were etched into your mind as though you had truly lived them, and your mental state had improved.】

【Congratulations on successfully breaking through one of the five Spirit Transformation tribulations — the Lust Gate!】

Seeing this, a look of confusion flashed through Su Xing’s eyes.

“That’s it? The Lust Gate, one of the five Spirit Transformation tribulations — it doesn’t seem that hard!”

“And… the key to passing was realizing I was in a simulation?”

Su Xing’s eyes held a hint of puzzlement.

From the simple text of the simulation alone, it was hard for Su Xing to imagine what he had experienced inside the Lust Gate.

“Well… passing is passing. If the first tribulation was this easy, the others shouldn’t be too difficult either, right?”

“Strange, the difficulty doesn’t match what the ancient texts described. Could it be… that I’m a genius?”

Su Xing felt a surge of excitement and turned his gaze to the simulation panel.

The second of the five tribulations was the Gate of Fear!

“So, what is my greatest fear?”

Su Xing fell into thought.

【After passing the Lust Gate, although you spent ten years in the illusion, only one month had passed in the real world.】

【In that one month, the real world had not changed at all. Everything outside remained as it was.】

【You began preparing for the upcoming second tribulation, the Fear Gate, but after much deliberation, you couldn’t think of anything you were particularly afraid of. So you decided to begin the Fear Gate trial.】

【In the seventh year, you chose an auspicious day, merged your consciousness, and activated the Fear Gate.】

【The Fear Gate was vastly different from the Lust Gate. You entered a void of nothingness, unable to perceive the passage of time or even sense your own existence…】

【When you next awoke, you found yourself back in the real world. It seemed you had successfully broken through the Fear Gate.】

【Everything was exactly the same as before.】

【Over the following year, you proceeded to break through the remaining three tribulations in succession and achieved Spirit Transformation!】

【After entering Spirit Transformation, everything went smoothly. You effortlessly killed Old Dog Zong and claimed the inheritance he left behind.】

【After absorbing this inheritance, your strength surged dramatically. In a mere ten years, you reached the peak of the Spirit Transformation stage!】

【Next, you entered Demon-Sealing Pass, where your formidable strength allowed you to continuously slay demon clan members, even killing legendary demon beasts, harvesting a massive amount of blood essence.】

【In just five years, you cultivated your Body Tempering to Divine Power Realm Perfection!】

【Then, the heavens seemed to smile upon you, child of fortune that you were.】

【You unexpectedly received word that Great Xia had discovered a mysterious cultivation dungeon, so you entered the dungeon to explore.】

【Half a year later, you emerged from the dungeon with tremendous gains — countless spirit stones, cultivation techniques. Within just a few years, you broke through once more and entered the Void Return realm!】

【Everything seemed to be developing in a favorable direction…】

【After entering the Void Return realm, in pursuit of the path to even higher realms, you activated the Azure Cloud Sect token and entered the world where your master Qingyunzi resided.】

【Qingyunzi was extraordinarily impressed by you. You received his legacy, and in less than ten years, you broke through once again, becoming a mighty Integration-stage cultivator!】

【After entering the Integration stage, you returned to the real world. At that moment, the human race was facing extinction, and you stepped forward!】

【You propped up Great Xia as it teetered on the brink, single-handedly routing countless foreign races at Demon-Sealing Pass.】

【Alone, you secured a hundred years of fortune for the human race. The world seemed to return to peace, and demon beasts became nothing more than legends among Class Users.】

【And within that century, you successfully broke through to the Mahayana stage and ultimately achieved immortality.】

【Just as you were riding high with ambition, the entire sky darkened. A colossal beast that blotted out the sun appeared before you, and countless demons crawled out from the Abyss.】

【It seemed the foreign races had never left. They had simply been waiting in silence for their opportunity.】

【But you regarded them with contempt. Now an immortal, you believed yourself invincible in this world.】

【Yet no matter what divine abilities or magical power you unleashed, you could not harm even a single hair on the colossal beast before you…】

【You became truly terrified. Could it be that even achieving immortality was not enough to drive back the foreign races?】

【Suddenly, a thought echoed in your mind: When you realize that no amount of effort can change the outcome, will you still persevere?】

【You chose to give up, and fear consumed you…】

【The colossal beast swallowed you whole. Drowning in terror, you died inside the belly of the beast…】

【You died!】

【Ding — due to failing to sever the fear tribulation, your primordial spirit has shattered… This simulation has ended!】

Su Xing froze for a moment when he saw this.

“What the hell? So everything that just happened… was all inside an illusion after all?”

“My greatest fear… comes from this?”

Su Xing furrowed his brow slightly.

Midway through the simulation, he had already sensed something was off.

Because everything had gone far too smoothly. It wasn’t until the simulation ended that Su Xing had his epiphany.

“I knew it… becoming an immortal in a single simulation would have been way too easy…”

“So it was all fake! I had merely fallen into the illusion of the Fear Gate, and everything that followed was conjured from my deepest fears and delusions?”

Su Xing was somewhat shaken. Without having personally experienced the Fear Gate, it was hard to imagine how it all unfolded.

“So the key is to realize you’re inside the illusion, then banish the delusions in your heart and face them head-on — only then can you pass?”

Through these two simulations, Su Xing had grasped the key to breaking through.

He turned his gaze to this simulation’s rewards.

【Blessed by Fortune】: Purple talent, priced at 1,000,000 energy points.

【Six Years of Alchemy Experience】: Alchemy insights, includes partial Nascent Soul Tempering Pill (Mastery-level), priced at 1,000,000 energy.

【Half-Step Spirit Transformation (Fear Gate)】: Cultivation and mental state insights. Upon purchase, you will directly break through the Lust Gate and gain the memories and experience of attempting the Fear Gate, priced at 3,000,000 energy.

Su Xing frowned slightly. Because of the failed breakthrough, the reward options left for him this time were rather few.

“Tch, only three rewards — well, at least it saves me the trouble of choosing!”

Su Xing thought to himself.

“I’ll take the Blessed by Fortune talent and the Half-Step Spirit Transformation cultivation!”

【Ding — detected that your talent slots are full. You may spend 1,000,000 energy to expand a third additional talent slot. Expand?】

“A million? Sure enough, it’s gone up tenfold again… but I can still afford it!”

Su Xing thought:

“Expand the additional talent slot!”

Then, a notification chimed in his ears.

【Ding — congratulations on successfully expanding your additional talent slot. Cost: 1,000,000 energy. Remaining energy: 43,880,000 points.】

【You have successfully extracted the talent Blessed by Fortune. Cost: 1,000,000 energy. Remaining energy: 42,880,000 points.】

【You have successfully extracted the Half-Step Spirit Transformation (Fear Gate) cultivation. Cost: 3,000,000 energy. Remaining energy: 39,880,000 points.】

As the simulator’s notifications faded, two streams of energy surged into Su Xing’s body.

Immediately after, subtle changes occurred within Su Xing’s body. His grasp of the surrounding spiritual energy between heaven and earth seemed far more effortless — a simple breath could draw in vast quantities of spiritual energy.

And that wasn’t all!

This was Su Xing’s most extraordinary realm breakthrough yet!

Because in addition to the advancement in cultivation, a flood of memory fragments also poured into Su Xing’s mind.

They were everything he had witnessed during the Lust Gate and Fear Gate!

Su Xing closed his eyes and began to digest the memory fragments in his mind.

The first set of memories — from the playboy who had drifted between flowers, every scene from those ten years surged into Su Xing’s mind as though he had lived through them himself.

In the end, Su Xing saw through the illusion and gained an improvement in his mental state.

Looking at everything in those memories, Su Xing had quite the feast for his eyes.

However, the second set of memories was far less pleasant.

In this set, Su Xing had swept through everything in the first half, achieving immortality like a child of fortune.

But when Su Xing had given his absolute best and still failed, that sense of powerlessness, that fear and dread — he felt it all as if it were his own.

Su Xing kept his eyes closed for a long time. When he finally opened them, two teardrops slid from the corners of his eyes.

Only after experiencing the Fear Gate firsthand did he realize just how terrifying it was to confront your deepest fears.

It was like someone terrified of snakes waking up to find themselves in a snake pit, surrounded by venomous serpents and pythons — that utter helplessness, that primal terror…

After a long silence, Su Xing spoke, his voice tinged with a weathered weariness:

“The five Spirit Transformation tribulations… so that’s what they are. Facing the truest parts of yourself within an illusion, breaking through to your true self, and thereby attaining Spirit Transformation…”

Su Xing felt fortunate. Were it not for his simulator — which was essentially a cheat code for the five tribulations — passing them would have been immensely difficult.

“No wonder so many brilliant geniuses in the cultivation world have fallen at the foot of these five Spirit Transformation tribulations. Of a hundred people with the potential for a perfect Nascent Soul formation, ninety-nine probably can’t make it through…”

“And once you fail, the only thing that awaits you is death!”

“Fortunately, I have the simulator. I can simulate again and again, starting over each time. Passing these five tribulations is only a matter of time for me!”

For Su Xing, after digesting these insights —

Not only did he now have confidence in breaking through the Fear Gate, he was even more assured about the three tribulations that would follow!

“I’ll aim to break through more tribulations in the next simulation and reach the Spirit Transformation stage as soon as possible!”

Su Xing clenched both fists, brimming with motivation.

After the simulation ended, Su Xing resumed his routine of refining pills.

One week later, six thousand pills were complete!

Afterward, Su Xing made a trip to the villa. Jin Congxue was away on a business trip this week, so Su Xing simply picked up the new week’s goods and returned to the Blessed Spirit Field.

This batch of goods was still worth roughly fifteen million in energy.

“Tch tch, fifteen million energy coming in every week — feels pretty great!”

The corner of Su Xing’s mouth curved upward slightly.

On May 27th, 2024, Su Xing punctually launched his thirty-eighth simulation.

“This time, I will definitely break through the Fear Gate!”

Having fully digested the insights from his last simulation, Su Xing was brimming with confidence as he turned his gaze to the simulation panel.

“Begin simulation!”