Chapter 140 – Breaking Through the Five Barriers, Achieving Spirit Transformation Stage! (5000 words)

Chapter 138 – Breaking Through the Five Barriers, Achieving Spirit Transformation Stage! (5000 words)

【At a chance banquet, you discovered that this nation’s apples were sweet and tart, perfectly suited to your taste.】

【And so you issued a decree, commanding every citizen of this nation—from elders of sixty down to children of ten—to do only one thing: produce apples exclusively for you!】

【Clearly, this was an unreasonable command.】

【But as the king of the mightiest empire in this world, no one dared defy you!】

【That small nation of merely five hundred thousand people had no choice but to comply!】

【However, just three years after this decree was issued, the nation’s economy began to collapse and its order descended into chaos. A country of five hundred thousand people could not possibly survive by growing apples alone.】

【And so, war broke out… A new regime overthrew the old emperor, and they refused to provide you with any more apples.】

【You were furious. No one dared to defy your will!】

【So you ordered an army of five hundred thousand to march forth, personally leading the campaign to conquer this nation!】

【Predictably, a small country of just five hundred thousand people could not resist your army of five hundred thousand soldiers!】

【Wherever your warhorses and fierce generals passed… not a blade of grass survived!】

【You stood upon this nation’s soil, gazing at the scenes of devastation around you—the women who had lost their husbands, the elderly who had lost their sons, the infants who had lost their fathers…】

【You suddenly felt a pang of sorrow…】

【You began to wonder: merely because of your personal whims, a single command had brought ruin to an entire nation’s families. Was it truly worth it?】

【You began to feel remorse, to regret your decree, to question your own arrogance…】

【The moment you realized all of this, you became aware that you were within an illusion.】

【Everything around you dissolved into smoke, and you returned to the Blessed Spirit Field.】

【Congratulations! You have broken through the Pride Barrier!】

“At last—the fourth of the Spirit Transformation five barriers, the Pride Barrier, has been cleared… Now only the final barrier remains: the Wrath Barrier!”

Su Xing’s heart stirred with excitement.

Breaking through all five Spirit Transformation barriers was truly a miraculous feat.

Throughout the ages, among countless powerful cultivators, only the most elite handful had ever managed it—and every one of them had been a cultivator wholly devoted to the pursuit of the Dao.

According to the information Su Xing had obtained from the Luotian Assembly instance, breaking through all five Spirit Transformation barriers was equivalent to preparing rich, fertile soil in advance for the birth of an immortal seed—opening a gate to the heavens on the path to immortality.

Su Xing had been quite curious about what this so-called opportunity for immortality actually was.

But now, having broken through four barriers in succession, a vague theory had begun to form in his mind.

“This so-called opportunity for immortality is probably the act of seeing through the five emotions of life—lust, fear, greed, pride, and wrath… This isn’t simply about preserving one’s immortal nature while extinguishing human desires; it’s a form of enlightenment regarding the Dao…”

“The path of cultivation is inherently long. Rolling through the mortal world, one will inevitably encounter countless people and events. Whether one can maintain the original heart of seeking the Dao amid this endless mortal dust—that is the true inner prerequisite for pursuing the fate of immortality!”

Su Xing sighed softly in his heart, and his mental state underwent another small elevation.

He could sense that the five Spirit Transformation barriers were indeed not something one was required to challenge.

Strictly speaking, these five barriers should collectively be called the “Heart Tempering Barriers,” meant to refine the original heart of those who walk the path of cultivation.

Perhaps many cultivators at the Mahayana stage, on the verge of unlocking the secret of immortality, would face this tribulation.

Yet Su Xing, still only at the Nascent Soul stage, had already experienced all of this ahead of time. For him, it was naturally of great benefit—at the very least, he would be far better prepared when the time came to face the Immortal Tribulation.

“Well then, only this final Wrath Barrier remains. Let me see just how terrifying the barrier of anger truly is.”

Su Xing’s mood was slightly excited. Immortality was still rather distant from him.

But as long as he broke through the Wrath Barrier and achieved Spirit Transformation, that milestone was right within his grasp!

His gaze turned to the simulator panel.

【After breaking through the Pride Barrier, you felt subtle changes occurring in your body once again.】

【Beyond your deepened perception of the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, the most significant change was the elevation of your mental state.】

【You chose not to immediately challenge the final barrier. Instead, you rested for several months, adjusting your condition.】

【In the seventeenth year, Luo Shuying’s homeland was invaded on a massive scale by foreign races.】

【Thousands of Spirit Clan members were left homeless, fleeing as refugees to Earth, where they fought against the demon beasts at Demon-Sealing Pass.】

【From Luo Shuying, from these thousands of Spirit Clan refugees, you sensed a trace of confusion and helplessness, as well as a deeper anger.】

【Moved by these feelings, you immediately entered the Blessed Spirit Field to begin secluded cultivation and attempt your breakthrough!】

【You calmed your mind and sank into your Nascent Soul, your spiritual consciousness drifting into the distance…】

【When you next awoke, you found yourself in an unfamiliar environment, all previous memories forgotten.】

【The five Spirit Transformation barriers grew progressively more severe in their memory suppression and more difficult to break through.】

【In this scenario, you were a prodigious esports player who rose to fame at a young age. At just sixteen years old, you had fought your way into the finals of the Global Championship.】

【You became the hope of countless esports fans across the nation. People had sky-high expectations for you. But in the finals, your team was crushed by your opponents due to a vast gap in skill.】

【Upon returning home, you were met with endless mockery and ridicule. Overnight, you went from being the genius esports prodigy to a universally reviled weakling.】

【You were a player easily swayed by emotion. Amid the endless torrent of abuse, you grew angry—and became even more susceptible to your emotions.】

【This caused both your performance and mental state to plummet. Gradually, you sank into despair.】

【Your days became a monotonous line between two points: training and the bar.】

【Prolonged alcohol consumption dulled your reflexes until they were worse than an ordinary person’s.】

【Your skill deteriorated rapidly. The coaches and teammates who had once believed in you now regarded you with cold indifference. Left with no choice, you were forced into retirement.】

【A lingering anger burned in your heart. You believed your true ability was better than this, but you had no options left. You could never return to that battlefield.】

【Having dropped out of school early, you couldn’t find work. In the end, you could only hole up on a small platform as a minor game streamer.】

【Flaming teammates in-game and cursing at viewers in chat became your norm. Before long, the platform blacklisted you.】

【Years passed like this. You watched as former teammates and newly emerged talents repeatedly lifted the championship trophy that you had once yearned for so deeply.】

【You envied them, you were jealous of them, and at the same time, your heart was filled with a trace of regret.】

【You attempted a comeback, but only the lowest-tier teams would take you. And your aging self could not create miracles on this battlefield without gunfire.】

【You retired once more. Approaching thirty, full of confusion and rage, you began to loathe everything around you, to rage against anything that didn’t go your way.】

【Amid the endless tide of insults, you had long since grown numb. Using the modest savings you had accumulated from your streaming years, you managed to get married and have a child.】

【And for the sake of your child’s formula money, even though you endured abuse every day, you continued streaming. Gradually, you grew accustomed to wearing that false mask.】

【And so you lived out the rest of your life…】

【Congratulations! You have broken through the Wrath Barrier!】

The simulator’s voice echoed in Su Xing’s mind.

Su Xing was momentarily stunned, a flash of confusion crossing his eyes.

“Strange—in that last illusion, I never seemed to realize it was an illusion. How did I still manage to break through?”

Su Xing reflected carefully, recalling the conditions that had triggered his breakthrough each previous time.

After a long while, a glimmer of understanding dawned.

“So it’s not about seeing through the illusion… but about not being controlled by your emotions within the illusion? Or rather… understanding the true nature of these delusions?”

Su Xing shook his head slightly. The true nature of the five Spirit Transformation barriers seemed even more enigmatic to him now.

“Perhaps I should go to the Luotian Assembly and ask what these five Spirit Transformation barriers truly signify.”

“If I still can’t find out, I suppose I won’t learn the secret hidden within until I actually face the Immortal Tribulation…”

Regardless, having broken through all five Spirit Transformation barriers, Su Xing had officially taken a monumental step toward the Spirit Transformation stage. All that remained now was to break through into Spirit Transformation itself!

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

【After breaking through all five Spirit Transformation barriers, you exited the illusion and sat cross-legged upon the grass, feeling the flow of spiritual energy around you. Your mind was more tranquil than it had ever been.】

【Your eyes seemed to undergo some mysterious change — you could now see the patterns of spiritual energy flow with the naked eye.】

【With a mere thought, you could feel the spiritual energy around you rejoicing at your presence. The spiritual energy within your body became even more stable, as though a narrow bridge had been built between you and the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.】

【A thought stirred in your mind, and Separation Fire appeared in your palm. You tried unleashing Separation Fire at full power, rapidly consuming the spiritual energy within your body.】

【But the surrounding spiritual energy also rushed madly into your body, swiftly replenishing your spiritual power consumption.】

【After experimenting for a long time, you discovered that your speed of absorbing spiritual energy had more than doubled. You could even commune with the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to enhance the power of your supernatural techniques!】

【After breaking through the Five Spirit Transformation Barriers, you felt a trace of fatigue. At this point, you could break through to the Spirit Transformation stage at any time.】

【But to be safe, you decided to play it steady.】

【You rested and adjusted for several months, bringing your physical condition to its peak.】

【Then, you entered the Blessed Spirit Field, preparing to break through to the Spirit Transformation stage!】

【You took out your remaining spirit stones and placed them around your body to prevent a failed breakthrough due to insufficient spiritual energy.】

【Your mind was clear as a mirror as you formally began the breakthrough.】

【Around your body, the spiritual energy diffused in the air appeared as tiny glowing points under your primordial spirit’s perception. Under your guidance, they flowed one by one into the Nascent Soul within your dantian.】

【The originally dormant golden figure, stimulated by the influx of spiritual energy, began to gradually awaken.】

【Slowly, more and more spiritual energy surged into the Nascent Soul within your dantian.】

【The golden figure, bathed in spiritual energy, began to undergo physical changes.】

【From an infant to a child, then to a youth… finally, the golden figure’s appearance looked as though it had been cast from the same mold as you, only shrunk down countless times.】

【As the golden figure in your dantian transformed, you felt your spiritual sense undergo a sublime elevation at that very moment!】

【A thousand zhang… fifteen hundred zhang… two thousand zhang!】

【The range and intensity of your spiritual sense underwent earth-shaking changes in that instant.】

【But because you were currently inside the Blessed Spirit Field, you couldn’t tell exactly what level your spiritual sense had reached.】

【Soon, however, the changes within your dantian drew your attention.】

【As spiritual energy continued to pour in, the small figure in your dantian became increasingly lifelike. Its five features grew distinct, though its eyes remained tightly shut, as if it possessed no self-awareness.】

【A thought stirred in your mind, and you infused a wisp of your primordial spirit into the golden figure.】

【At that moment, the golden figure’s eyes slowly opened, revealing pale golden irises. The figure still possessed no self-awareness, yet it was connected to your thoughts.】

【After repeated experimentation, you quickly discovered the differences between the golden figure and the Nascent Soul.】

【You could house your primordial spirit within it. When facing danger, even if your physical body was destroyed, as long as your spiritual sense remained intact, you would still live on in this world. If you found a suitable body, you could perhaps be reborn in a borrowed shell.】

Su Xing raised an eyebrow at this and muttered:

“So that’s how it works. Back then, when Old Dog Zong’s physical body was destroyed but his primordial spirit survived, he must have stored his primordial spirit in the Spirit Transformation figure within his dantian!”

“So this figure is essentially a cultivator’s second life! As long as the primordial spirit isn’t extinguished and their lifespan hasn’t run out, they won’t easily perish!”

Nascent Soul cultivators, though they had cultivated spiritual sense and possessed a primordial spirit, had only a rudimentary form of it.

Only upon truly breaking through to the Spirit Transformation stage would one’s spiritual sense and primordial spirit undergo a qualitative metamorphosis!

His gaze turned to the simulation panel.

【The wonders of the primordial spirit extended beyond mere immortality of the spirit and preservation of life.】

【After the primordial spirit took shape, your comprehension of heaven and earth rose to another level. The faster channeling of spiritual energy even slightly increased your cultivation speed.】

【When the golden figure opened its eyes, you felt the surrounding spiritual energy rush into your body like a flood being swallowed whole.】

【At such a terrifying rate, the spiritual energy in the Blessed Spirit Field was nearly drained dry.】

【Fortunately, you had taken out many spirit stones in advance and set up a spirit-gathering formation, so the spiritual energy in the blessed land was barely sufficient.】

【Even so, your body continued to absorb madly like a black hole.】

【As spiritual energy poured in, you felt your spiritual power grow ever more dense and abundant.】

【What had been a small stream of spiritual energy now transformed into a surging, torrential river — your total spiritual energy nearly doubled in an instant!】

【A faint fragrance emanated from your body — a sign that your spiritual power was overflowing, a harbinger of a realm breakthrough!】

【At that very moment, you seized the opportunity and desperately compressed the spiritual energy within your body!】

【The spiritual energy in your body boiled like water on a rolling boil, and thunderous rumbling echoed through your mind!】

【Accompanied by a burst of pure fragrance, you broke through!】

【Congratulations — you have become a Spirit Transformation stage cultivator!】

Seeing this, Su Xing excitedly clenched his fists.

“Finally broke through!”

“A Spirit Transformation cultivator! Now that’s what I call prestige!”

“Heh… mere Nascent Soul patriarchs? Not even worth a fight!”

For a moment, Su Xing stood with hands on his hips, his expression absolutely radiant.

Breaking through to Spirit Transformation was undoubtedly an enormous leap in power!

“Finally reached Spirit Transformation — so this simulation’s objective is basically complete. Next, I still need to push hard and raise my cultivation as much as possible!”

His gaze turned to the simulation panel.

【After breaking through to Spirit Transformation, your Qi Refinement power instantly doubled!】

【Even though you already possessed Divine Power Realm strength, after reaching Spirit Transformation in Qi Refinement, your overall combat power increased by over fifty percent.】

【You slowly rose to your feet and frowned slightly after sensing the surrounding spiritual energy.】

【The spiritual energy in the Blessed Spirit Field had become extraordinarily thin, and the eight hundred spirit stones you had arranged earlier had been completely drained of their spiritual power.】

【Even with the Spirit-Gathering Flowers, restoring the spiritual energy to its pre-breakthrough concentration would take at least a year.】

【You let out a soft sigh and returned to the real world.】

【With Qi Refinement cultivation temporarily unable to advance, you decided to rejoin Demon-Sealing Pass. By hunting Demon Emperors and obtaining their blood essence, you would raise your Body Tempering power!】

【Although the Great Xia Military disagreed with this decision — they believed that with your status, refining pills in the real world would be far more appropriate —】

【you knew your own strength. With Spirit Transformation in Qi Refinement and Divine Power Realm in Body Tempering, your effectiveness on the battlefield could rival that of a veteran Martial Emperor-stage powerhouse.】

【As long as it wasn’t a peak Demon Emperor or a Legendary-stage demon beast making a move, your life would not be in danger.】

【And so, without hesitation, you entered Demon-Sealing Pass.】

【By this time, the situation at Demon-Sealing Pass had grown increasingly dire. Every day, Heavenly King-stage Class Users fell in battle, and Martial Emperor-stage powerhouses died from time to time as well.】

【You knew that your strength alone could not change this outcome, so you threw yourself into hunting demon beasts with everything you had.】

【In just one week, no fewer than ten Demon Kings had died at your hands, and you even personally slew a demon beast at the early Demon Emperor level.】

【You claimed the Demon Emperor Blood Essence, cooked it, and feasted heartily. The essence energy entered your stomach and merged into every limb and bone, further strengthening your physical body.】

【Demon-Sealing Pass was absolutely a treasure trove for increasing your strength. The countless Demon Kings and Demon Emperors here could provide you with an endless supply of blood essence.】

【And the high-intensity combat allowed you to better digest this essence energy, converting it into your own power.】

【You fought valiantly at Demon-Sealing Pass, and in the blink of an eye, two years passed.】

【Year Nineteen. In these two years, no fewer than fifty Demon Emperors had fallen at your hands, and the number of Demon King-level beasts was beyond counting.】

【Your Body Tempering power had also advanced further during these two years, reaching Divine Power Realm Fourth Layer!】

【After breaking through to Divine Power Realm Fourth Layer, you could now digest five jin of Demon Emperor Blood Essence per day. This high-quality essence intake kept your strength climbing steadily.】

【Over these two years, the Blessed Spirit Field had also recovered to its previous state of abundant spiritual energy.】

【Unfortunately, you couldn’t cultivate at high intensity — you could only use the Blessed Spirit Field to replenish your spent spiritual energy.】

【Because a mere hundred-odd Spirit-Gathering Flowers could no longer sustain your prolonged cultivation. You had once tried cultivating for half a month, and the spiritual energy in the Blessed Spirit Field was more than half depleted in that time.】

【And the spirit stones you had previously accumulated were already exhausted. In the short term, advancing your Qi Refinement cultivation any further would be extremely difficult!】