Chapter 225 – Comprehending the Essence of Strength, Body Integration Imminent!

Su Xing saw this and nodded slightly, murmuring:

“The path of puppetry varies enormously in the skill required for different types of puppets…”

“If combat isn’t needed — just puppets for daily alchemy and farming — the material requirements and crafting difficulty are extremely low…”

“And mass-producing these low-level puppets is solely for the purpose of obtaining more simulation energy…”

“After all, I’m about to break through to the Body Integration stage soon. I need to plan ahead for my future simulation energy needs.”

After a pause, Su Xing continued:

“In the last simulation, since I learned about the mysterious figure, perhaps I could leave Earth through them… and travel to the Three Thousand Worlds?”

The method Su Xing could think of for leaving Earth through the mysterious figure was to offer the spirit vein dragon as tribute.

“Perhaps it’s worth a try… after all, it’s merely a simulation.”

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

【You began attempting to mass-produce alchemy puppets. Thanks to your ample accumulated experience, you crafted two alchemy puppets in just one week.】

【For these puppets, you used Third Rank exotic metal throughout, carefully crafting the puppet cores and inscribing puppet inscriptions…】

【In one month’s time, you produced approximately ten alchemy puppets.】

【These ten puppets alone could produce an additional twenty thousand Fasting Pills per month for you.】

【You were quite satisfied with this, so for the time that followed, you divided your efforts between studying the Dao of Puppetry and striving to deepen your comprehension of the Essence of Strength.】

【Thus, another two years passed.】

【In the sixteenth year, on the day of Awakening of Insects, you went as usual into the mountains to observe the thunder and comprehend the Essence of Strength.】

【Your comprehension of the Essence of Strength advanced further, not far from reaching Minor Mastery.】

【Thus, another two years passed.】

【In the eighteenth year, your comprehension of the Dao of Puppetry successfully entered the Minor Mastery level.】

【Your skill in crafting alchemy puppets had become extremely refined, and through continuous modifications, the efficiency of puppet alchemy grew ever higher.】

【However, your comprehension of the Essence of Strength hit a bottleneck just short of entering Minor Mastery. You suspected that the purity of the Great Dao of Thunder contained within the spring thunder on the day of Awakening of Insects was insufficient, which was why your progress had slowed.】

【In the nineteenth year, you traveled to the Age of Immortals and Martial Arts dungeon, preparing to kill Perfected One Myriad Wood and seize the Spirit Vein Dragon.】

【You infiltrated the ruins of the Myriad Wood Sect and awakened the slumbering Perfected One Myriad Wood.】

【You and Perfected One Myriad Wood engaged in a great battle.】

【After dozens of exchanges, you employed the Essence of Strength. With your power multiplied several times over, you killed Perfected One Myriad Wood with a single punch.】

【You rescued the Spirit Vein Dragon.】

【After being freed, the Spirit Vein Dragon was extremely agitated and charged toward the exit of the Myriad Wood Sect ruins.】

【Seeing this, you were alarmed and tried to stop it, but you were a step too late.】

【The Spirit Vein Dragon’s aura spread to the outside world as it appeared within the Age of Immortals and Martial Arts dungeon.】

【You took out spirit liquid, trying to lure the Spirit Vein Dragon closer.】

【The Spirit Vein Dragon was grateful to you, but it was somewhat fearful of humans.】

【After much hesitation, the Spirit Vein Dragon came over and drank your spirit liquid.】

【Soon, the Spirit Vein Dragon succumbed to Spirit-Drunkenness, and you prepared to store it in your spirit field grotto-heaven.】

【However, at that moment, Protector Dragon’s voice suddenly rang out from the distance.】

【Protector Dragon was visibly agitated, but when he recognized you, his expression turned grim.】

【He declared that precious treasures belong to whoever has the power to claim them. Out of respect for you both being high-ranking members of the Advent Cult, he would spare your life as long as you handed over the Spirit Vein Dragon.】

【Naturally, you refused and moved first, storing the Spirit Vein Dragon in your spirit field grotto-heaven.】

【Protector Dragon’s face darkened, and battle was imminent.】

【You and Protector Dragon battled for dozens of exchanges. Thanks to your comprehension of the Essence of Strength, you managed to hold your own.】

【Seeing that he couldn’t take you down quickly, Protector Dragon let out a roar and transformed into his true dragon form.】

【In his true dragon form, Protector Dragon’s power reached the late Primordial Unity realm. Combined with his resilient dragon scales, he ranked among the strongest at the late Primordial Unity level.】

【Even with the Earth Sword and the Essence of Strength combined, you were still no match for him.】

【Left with no choice, you released the Spirit Vein Dragon, but at the same time you proposed a condition — the two of you would go together to meet the mysterious lord.】

【Protector Dragon stopped fighting upon hearing this, but he also made his own demand: the Spirit Vein Dragon would remain in his custody.】

【You rejected this inwardly, but had no choice but to agree.】

In the Real World, Su Xing saw this and sighed:

“It’s over… Protector Dragon is definitely going to steal it from right under my nose…”

“As expected, strength is everything!”

“If I were stronger than Protector Dragon, why would I need to put up with this? I could just crush him outright! And go see the mysterious figure on my own…”

Su Xing shook his head slightly, but he didn’t know how to contact the mysterious figure.

When it came down to it, he still had to go through Protector Dragon to reach the mysterious figure, to find a way to leave Earth and enter the Three Thousand Worlds.

“As expected, Protector Dragon won’t keep his word…”

“It seems that leaving Earth through the Advent Cult’s channels is impossible this time… Oh well. For the remaining time, I’ll focus on comprehending the Essence of Strength!”

Su Xing sighed and turned his gaze to the simulation panel.

【In the twentieth year, you continued as always, comprehending the Essence of Strength on each year’s day of Awakening of Insects.】

【At the same time, you asked Protector Dragon when the mysterious lord would come.】

【As expected, Protector Dragon always changed the subject, unwilling to discuss the matter with you.】

【Though you harbored resentment toward Protector Dragon, there was nothing you could do.】

【So you could only devote yourself even more diligently to comprehending the Essence of Strength and refining the Dao of Puppetry.】

【Thus, another three years passed.】

【In the twenty-third year, you sought out Protector Dragon once more, but he had vanished without a trace.】

【You went to the Advent Cult’s treasury, and sure enough, it had been swept completely clean.】

【You traveled to the Blood Demon Realm — the blood pools and everything else within the Blood Demon Sect had all been taken away…】

【You knew that Protector Dragon had contacted the mysterious figure and left Earth.】

【You had anticipated this, and simply devoted yourself even harder to cultivation.】

【In the twenty-fifth year, Demon-Sealing Pass was destroyed, and humanity teetered on the brink.】

【One day, the Amalgamated Beast descended and swallowed the entirety of Great Xia in a single gulp.】

【You gazed upon the sky-blotting Amalgamated Beast, calm in your heart. You had been waiting for this day for a long time.】

【At this point, you were just one final step away from achieving Minor Mastery of the Essence of Strength!】

【As long as you entered the belly of the Amalgamated Beast, you could attempt to advance your comprehension of the Essence of Strength to the Minor Mastery level.】

Su Xing saw this and nodded slightly:

“Oh well. The Three Thousand Worlds might not even have a place that could enhance my comprehension of Origin Force…”

“On the other hand, the Amalgamated Beast’s stomach space is practically a natural training ground for me.”

“This time, I must cultivate the Essence of Strength to Minor Mastery! In the next simulation… I’ll be able to attempt breaking through to the Body Integration stage!”

A hint of anticipation stirred in Su Xing’s heart as he turned his gaze to the simulation panel.

【You raised your Protective Hardened Qi and entered the belly of the Amalgamated Beast.】

【Mountains, continents, rivers, oceans… everything gradually dissolved within the stomach space of the Amalgamated Beast, ultimately reduced to nothingness.】

【With your extraordinarily powerful body and Protective Hardened Qi, you withstood the tremendous gravitational forces.】

【Soon, within the stomach space of the Amalgamated Beast, world fragments began to collide, and vast regions of thunder appeared before you.】

【Without hesitation, you stepped into the thunder region.】

【Above your head, rolling thunder flashed and lightning radiated in all directions… Terrifying bolts of thunder streaked past you, occasionally striking your Protective Hardened Qi.】

【But you felt no concern. Despite the thunderous roars outside, your heart remained still as water. You simply observed the Great Dao of Thunder in silent contemplation.】

【Thus, several hours passed…】

【After observing several small thunder regions, you felt your comprehension of the Essence of Strength growing ever clearer.】

【Without hesitation, you entered a medium-sized thunder region…】

【An unknown amount of time later, when you opened your eyes again, a flash of lightning gleamed within them.】

【Your comprehension of the Essence of Strength had finally reached the Minor Mastery level!】

【With a thought, you activated the Essence of Strength. You felt your body’s power instantly multiply more than tenfold, and the duration extended from just a few breaths to approximately one minute.】

【You were thrilled by the tremendous boost the Essence of Strength provided.】

【But you didn’t let your guard down. Instead, you continued observing the Essence of Strength within the surrounding thunder.】

【An unknown amount of time passed… You traversed dozens of thunder regions, until no new thunder regions formed…】

【All you could see was an expanse of nothingness and terrifying spatial turbulence…】

【You were torn to pieces by the spatial turbulence, and your soul was annihilated…】

【You died!】

【Ding, this simulation has ended!】

After the simulation ended, Su Xing let out a long breath of relief, a smile spreading across his face.

“Finally, my comprehension of the Essence of Strength has successfully advanced to Minor Mastery!”

“Adding in the Essence of Speed comprehension brought by reaching Perfection in Earth Sword… I can now attempt to break through to the Body Integration stage!”

Anticipation stirred in Su Xing’s heart as his gaze turned to the simulation rewards.

【Peerless Spearmanship】: Purple talent. Price: 1,000,000 energy points.

【Twenty Years of Alchemy Experience】: After redemption, existing alchemy insights will increase by a small margin. Price: 2,000,000 energy.

【Essence of Strength Comprehension (Minor Accomplishment)】: The Essence of Strength is a fundamental building block of many Great Daos. After claiming, enhances comprehension of the Essence of Strength. Price: 500,000,000 energy.

【Dao of Puppetry (Minor Accomplishment)】: Having received Ghost Granny’s true teachings, your mastery of crafting human puppets and construct puppets has reached an advanced level. Especially skilled in crafting medicinal puppets. After claiming, greatly enhances comprehension of the Dao of Puppetry. Price: 200,000,000 energy.

There was naturally nothing to hesitate about with this simulation’s rewards.

Su Xing declared without hesitation:

“I choose to bring out the Essence of Strength Comprehension and the Dao of Puppetry…”

As his words fell, the simulator’s notification chimed in Su Xing’s ears.

【You have successfully brought out Essence of Strength Comprehension (Minor Accomplishment). Cost: 500,000,000 energy. Remaining energy: 2,463,430,000 points.】

【You have successfully brought out Dao of Puppetry (Minor Accomplishment). Cost: 200,000,000 energy. Remaining energy: 2,263,430,000 points.】

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

The first thing Su Xing sensed was the massive improvement in his comprehension of the Essence of Strength.

Within Su Xing’s body, a new type of mysterious energy called Origin Force had appeared.

This power was distinct from spiritual energy, and also different from primordial force.

It existed between the tangible and intangible—clearly present, yet elusive and difficult to grasp, possessing an allure that captivated the mind.

With a thought, Su Xing slightly activated the Essence of Strength within his body.

In just an instant, Su Xing’s strength increased by a full tenfold!

“Hiss… so this is the terror of the Dao of Origins?”

“An incomprehensibly terrifying enhancement to raw power… if one could later touch upon the Great Dao, how much more terrifying would that be?”

Su Xing was deeply satisfied.

“The Essence of Strength and the Essence of Speed are fundamental building blocks that compose many Great Daos…”

“Now that I’ve comprehended both, my future comprehension of the Great Dao will be much faster!”

“So then, I can now formally attempt to break through to the Body Integration stage!”

Su Xing already had plans for his next simulation.

He then turned to sense and digest the other stream of memories within his body.

These were the skills of the Dao of Puppetry that Su Xing had learned during the simulation.

They encompassed the crafting and manipulation of construct puppets and human puppets… puppet inscriptions, soul imprints, and many other aspects…

This knowledge had originally existed in Su Xing’s mind—it was what Ghost Granny had taught him.

But due to the lack of practical experience, Su Xing previously couldn’t actually forge a puppet.

Now, however, Su Xing even had a feeling.

He could craft several construct puppets with his bare hands!

“Every construct puppet is an alchemy tool, representing more efficient acquisition of exotic metals… and that means massive amounts of energy!”

Su Xing murmured.

Without a doubt, the most cost-effective way for Su Xing to obtain simulation energy now was no longer refining pills himself.

It was making alchemy puppets!

“With my current puppet-crafting skills, I can produce two alchemy puppets in a week…”

“And two puppets can bring me roughly five thousand Fasting Pills per month…”

“Making eight or nine puppets a month, I can refine over forty thousand Fasting Pills!”

“In just one or two months, the puppets’ alchemy efficiency will completely surpass mine! And the further along we go… the more cost-effective the puppets become!”

Su Xing nodded with satisfaction.

It was the equivalent of a factory originally using human labor to produce goods.

But then the factory transformed, no longer producing goods directly, and instead producing machines that could make the goods.

Although it would impact production efficiency in the short term.

In the long run, once there were enough machines, they would far surpass the speed of manual labor!

After all, no matter how fast Su Xing could refine pills, he was still just one person with limited capacity.

But Su Xing could produce a nearly unlimited number of puppets.

Su Xing wasted no time and immediately began experimenting with puppet production in the spirit field grotto-heaven.

“Good thing I kept some of the Third Rank and fourth-order exotic metals from before… enough for me to craft construct puppets!”

With that, Su Xing took out the exotic metals, activated the Separation Fire Technique, and began smelting humanoid puppets.

Su Xing’s standards for the puppets weren’t high—it didn’t matter if they looked ugly, as long as they could properly refine pills.

In just two days, Su Xing had forged two tin-skinned puppets roughly one meter tall, vaguely humanoid in shape.

After that, creating the puppet cores and puppet inscriptions took Su Xing a little over a day.

He fused the puppet inscriptions and cores into the bodies, then arranged wood-fire attribute spirit arrays and carved on talismans.

Finally, Su Xing engraved his own soul imprint into the puppet cores.

“Not bad, the work is done… just one last step!”

Su Xing took a deep breath and placed two low-grade spirit stones inside.

A single low-grade spirit stone was enough for a puppet to refine pills non-stop for three days.

“Hmm, I could also set up a formation to reduce the puppet’s spiritual energy consumption…”

Su Xing rubbed his chin and spent another half-day carving a spirit-conservation array inside the puppets.

In the end, the two puppets stood before Su Xing, having taken only five days to complete.

After activating the puppets, Su Xing issued his commands to the two constructs.

“You are… puppets dedicated to pill refining. I’ll name you Pill One and Pill Two…”

“Now, go follow Big One and the others to learn the Fasting Pill refinement process!”

Su Xing gave the order, and the two puppets promptly obeyed.

Though these low-level construct puppets lacked deep learning capabilities, they could imitate.

In just two days, the two construct puppets had learned the Fasting Pill refinement process.

Their initial efficiency at refining Fasting Pills wasn’t high, but through continuous imitation, the puppets would become faster and faster!

Su Xing nodded with satisfaction and murmured:

“Not bad. I can produce two construct puppets per week, and if I push it… I could even produce three!”

This week, Su Xing hadn’t refined any pills himself.

However, his previous eight puppets, including Big One and Little Beauty, had provided him with several thousand Fasting Pills.

These humanoid puppets were of even greater value, and their combat strength was nothing to scoff at.

For now, Su Xing had them handling pill refinement duties, but in the future, they could be used for combat, intelligence gathering, and other more advanced tasks.

The day came for Su Xing to meet with Jin Congxue.

Su Xing disguised his appearance, concealed his aura, and headed to the villa. After sharing a meal with Jin Congxue and completing their trade, he returned to the spirit field grotto-heaven.

This week’s goods still amounted to roughly 150,000,000 simulation energy.

With that, Su Xing’s simulation energy reached 2,418,430,000 points.

“Over two billion simulation energy might seem like a lot… but the cultivation ahead in the Body Integration stage requires even more energy!”

“I need to accumulate more simulation energy as quickly as possible, otherwise my cultivation breakthrough speed will only get slower…”

Su Xing murmured.

December 23rd, New Era 2024. Su Xing prepared to begin a new round of simulation.

“Begin simulation!”

【Ding! This simulation consumes 6,700 energy points. Remaining energy: 2,418,430,000 points. Remaining simulation attempts: unlimited.】

【Simulation begins!】

【Drawing a purple talent costs 100,000 energy points. Drawing a gold legendary talent costs 1,000,000 energy points. Do you wish to draw?】

Looking at the talent draw options before him, Su Xing hesitated slightly.

“With my current strength, even if I draw Dragonslayer, I might not be a match for Old Dog Dragon…”

“Better to break through to the Body Integration stage first, then decide…”

Thinking this, Su Xing silently declared:

“I choose to draw a gold legendary talent!”

【Ding, congratulations on obtaining the purple talent Chess Grandmaster. Probability of drawing a gold talent next time: 60%…】

【Chess Grandmaster】: Purple talent. Your talent for chess far surpasses ordinary people, and you excel at strategic planning. Chess, painting, and similar arts are all among the Hundred Arts of Immortal Cultivation…