Chapter 228 – Bringing Out Cultivation Feedback, Finally Entering Body Integration Stage!

“As expected, the spirit vein dragon appeared on the reward list too… but this price?”

“Damn it, this is just to let me window-shop, right!”

Su Xing complained madly in his heart.

Five million origin energy… equivalent to five trillion simulation energy!

This price was even five times more expensive than the Fusang Divine Tree branch from before!

Of course, this didn’t mean the spirit vein dragon was more precious than the Fusang Divine Tree branch.

After all, the Fusang Tree was an innate spirit treasure born from heaven and earth. Theoretically speaking, its rank was even somewhat higher than the Spirit Vein Dragon’s.

But what Su Xing had obtained was merely a branch, and a burnt one at that.

What truly held value were the Great Dao laws contained within the Fusang Divine Tree branch.

But in terms of value… it still fell short of the spirit vein dragon.

“Tsk tsk, what exactly is this simulator’s origin?”

“It can actually… even replicate a supreme treasure like the spirit vein dragon! Hiss… but with this price, it’s best to just look!”

Su Xing shook his head lightly.

Though he desperately craved the spirit vein dragon, faced with that staggering price, Su Xing could only gaze across the ocean and sigh.

Su Xing turned his gaze to the Body Integration stage cultivation option, and a look of pleasant surprise appeared in his eyes as he murmured:

“A Body Integration breakthrough only costs 500 million energy per sub-realm!?”

“That’s… half of what I originally imagined!”

Su Xing felt a surge of pleasant surprise.

In his original estimation, each sub-realm of the Body Integration stage should also follow the tenfold pattern—meaning one billion energy per sub-realm advancement.

That meant going from Void Return Great Perfection to Body Integration Perfection would require 10 billion energy!

Adding in the Primordial Unity realm breakthrough… that would be 20 billion.

This had given Su Xing a prolonged bout of energy anxiety, making him afraid to waste even the slightest bit.

But now, with each sub-realm requiring only 500 million energy, breaking through both Body Tempering and Qi Refinement to the next realm’s Perfection would total only 10 billion—instantly halved.

“Not bad… calculating it this way, the energy needed for future breakthroughs will be much less!”

“Combined with the puppets producing Fasting Pills and acquiring exotic metal mining zones… perhaps within two or three months, I could save up the five billion needed for Body Integration Perfection!”

Su Xing’s expression was one of delight.

“However… during the breakthrough in the simulation earlier, it seemed like the blood moon noticed me?”

“Though it didn’t cause any interference, it’s better to be cautious!”

Su Xing furrowed his brow slightly. Being watched by any unknown existence was not something he wished to see.

After deliberating for a while, Su Xing began disguising his appearance, concealing his aura, and shielding his heavenly secrets.

When evening fell, Su Xing took sword flight and arrived inside the Age of Immortals and Martial Arts dungeon.

“Compared to Earth, perhaps breaking through inside the Age of Immortals and Martial Arts dungeon would be more concealed?”

Su Xing murmured.

He hadn’t yet visited the Myriad Wood Sect ruins in reality, and had no plans to do so for now.

If he needed spirit stones or spirit medicines, he could simply retrieve them during simulations without wasting much time.

After pondering for a moment, Su Xing entered the Five Elements Sect ruins.

When he had previously killed the Five Elements Master, Su Xing had deliberately refrained from destroying the formations here, keeping this place as a hidden base.

After all, the Five Elements Sect ruins’ formation array had a specially designed backdoor that shielded one’s aura—for Su Xing, it was a natural hiding spot.

After entering the ruins’ formation, Su Xing then entered the spirit field grotto-heaven.

With this double layer of insurance, Su Xing’s mind settled considerably.

“No, still not enough! I need to set up another formation to shield heavenly secrets!”

Su Xing muttered, then following the records in the Eight Trigrams Divination Art, he arranged a “Heavenly Secrets Shielding Formation.”

After completing all of this, Su Xing performed another divination for himself.

The hexagram read auspicious, and only then did Su Xing say with peace of mind:

“I choose Body Integration stage cultivation and micro spirit-gathering formation comprehension!”

As his words fell, the simulator’s notification sounded in his ears.

【You have successfully brought out Integration Stage, First Layer cultivation. Cost: 500 million energy. Remaining energy: 1,912,630,000 points.】

【You have successfully brought out Micro Spirit-Gathering Formation (Minor Accomplishment). Cost: 300 million energy. Remaining energy: 1,612,630,000 points.】

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

First came the continuous surge of his aura.

The commotion from this realm breakthrough was greater than any before!

Su Xing hastily closed his eyes and restrained his aura, guarding his consciousness as he adjusted his qi.

Then, Su Xing’s presence began to skyrocket!

The spiritual energy within his body, already flowing like a great river, began to converge and surge even more violently…

In merely a few dozen breaths, Su Xing’s spiritual energy reached a critical threshold.

In the next instant, he successfully broke through to Body Integration stage cultivation!

The cultivation feedback brought by the simulator felt so natural, without the slightest hint of an unstable foundation.

And as Su Xing’s presence continued to climb and his cultivation successfully broke through to the Body Integration stage, the skies above the entire Age of Immortals and Martial Arts dungeon began to show signs of anomalies.

Centered on the Five Elements Sect ruins, within a hundred-li radius, thunder rolled through the high atmosphere, and what seemed like swimming dragons flickered within the dark clouds…

These were the heavenly anomalies that accompanied a powerful cultivator’s breakthrough!

If an ordinary cultivator broke through to the Body Integration stage, these anomalies would certainly descend upon them, and everyone within a thousand-li radius could sense the cultivator’s breakthrough location.

But Su Xing’s cultivation was obtained through simulator feedback, which inherently blocked the vast majority of heavenly secrets and anomalies.

Combined with the triple protection of the ruins’ formation, the spirit field grotto-heaven, and the Heavenly Secrets Shielding Formation, the anomalies only existed for a few breaths.

Soon the thunder in the high skies gradually dispersed, and it wouldn’t expose Su Xing’s location in the slightest.

After his cultivation broke through to the Body Integration stage, Su Xing closed his eyes to rest and adjusted himself for a quarter of an hour before slowly rising.

“So this… is what a Body Integration stage cultivator feels like?”

Su Xing murmured, a trace of excitement faintly visible in his eyes.

With a thought, a vortex of spiritual energy appeared in Su Xing’s hand.

In almost an instant, the power of the Spirit Burst in Su Xing’s hand surpassed the maximum power limit of his former Void Return stage.

Su Xing merely tested it briefly before letting the Spirit Burst dissipate.

After carefully sensing and comprehending for a while, Su Xing nodded with satisfaction and said:

“Not bad. After reaching the Body Integration stage, the total amount of spiritual energy in my body has tripled!”

“More crucially… I can now channel the forces of heaven and earth, vastly amplifying the power of techniques and supernatural arts!”

Su Xing could feel that his comprehension of heaven and earth’s power, of Origin Force, far surpassed what it had been before.

This was because when a cultivator broke through from the Void Return stage to the Body Integration stage, they would undergo a baptism that strengthened their understanding of heaven, earth, and Origin Force.

To further improve, one would need to carefully contemplate and comprehend during the Body Integration stage in order to maximize the channeling of heaven and earth’s power.

After sensing the improvement in his cultivation, Su Xing began recalling the memories regarding the micro spirit-gathering formation in his mind.

After carefully contemplating for a long while, an unusual gleam flashed through Su Xing’s eyes.

“This Five Elements Master truly was a rare genius!”

“The micro spirit-gathering formation integrates Talismans, formation arrays, spiritual energy, divine soul, and other Daos into one… it can truly be called unprecedented and unrepeatable!”

Su Xing didn’t know to what extent the Five Elements Master had researched the Five Elements Spirit-Gathering Formation in his time.

But based solely on Su Xing’s current comprehension of the Five Elements Spirit-Gathering Formation, inscribing a fifth-rank excellent-quality micro spirit-gathering formation could increase cultivation speed by more than fifty percent!

And this was a fifty-percent increase on top of a mutated Heavenly Spirit Root—that was nothing short of terrifying!

“If I wanted to, I could inscribe the micro spirit-gathering formation right now… but the Five Elements Sect ruins aren’t a place to linger. I need to leave quickly!”

Su Xing murmured, then took sword flight and swiftly left the Age of Immortals and Martial Arts dungeon.

Several hours later, Su Xing reappeared in the Capital Academy Dormitory and entered the spirit field grotto-heaven.

“The sooner the micro spirit-gathering formation is inscribed, the better!”

“I can inscribe it on my body right now…”

After deliberating briefly, Su Xing began attempting the inscription of the micro spirit-gathering formation.

Spirit brush, spirit ink…

His divine soul attuned to the flow of spiritual energy within his body, and then with swift, fluid strokes like dragons and serpents, he inscribed a fifth-rank excellent-quality micro spirit-gathering formation upon the skin of his dantian.

The entire process lasted several hours.

After the formation was complete, Su Xing wiped the sweat from his forehead. Without any surprises, it was a success.

“Tsk tsk, the micro spirit-gathering formation may be called a formation, but it leans more toward Talismans… it’s rather like a tattoo, actually…”

Su Xing chuckled lightly and put his clothes back on over his dantian.

From the outside, there was no visible difference whatsoever.

But Su Xing could sense that the flow of spiritual energy at his dantian was much faster than before.

Without Su Xing needing to actively cultivate, the spiritual energy within the spirit field grotto-heaven automatically burrowed into his body, transforming into pure cultivation.

The entire process was smooth and effortless, requiring nothing from Su Xing at all.

“Tsk tsk… idle cultivation alone is already comparable to a True Spirit Root cultivator grinding away day and night…”

“At this rate, I could probably gain nearly half a realm’s worth of cultivation in a single simulation without doing anything at all…”

Su Xing nodded with satisfaction.

“If I need a more advanced micro spirit-gathering formation later, I can just erase it with special methods and lay a new one… quite convenient!”

After sensing the changes in the spirit-gathering formation for a while, Su Xing moved on to the tasks for the new week.

No longer refining pills—instead, he was crafting exotic metal puppets.

In six and a half days, Su Xing produced two more puppets specifically designed for pill refinement.

He named them Pill Three and Pill Four.

Su Xing now possessed four pill-refining puppets in total, designated Pill One through Pill Four.

On average, each puppet could refine an additional five hundred Fasting Pills per week for Su Xing.

Four puppets meant two thousand Fasting Pills.

Meanwhile, the eight living-dead puppets Su Xing had previously obtained from Old Dog Zong were responsible for pill refinement, spirit cultivation, and even training the other puppets in pill-making.

“Now, all these puppets combined can produce close to four thousand Fasting Pills per week for me!”

“That speed… isn’t much slower than if I were refining them myself!”

Su Xing nodded with satisfaction.

As the number of pill-refining puppets continued to grow, the weekly output of Fasting Pills would increase rapidly.

Roughly speaking, each week brought two more puppets, adding another thousand Fasting Pills to production.

“Unfortunately, these puppets still can’t refine higher-grade pills for now… but after future modifications, perhaps even pills like the Essence Nurturing Pill could be entrusted to them!”

Su Xing was very optimistic about the potential of the Dao of Puppetry.

After finishing his work, Su Xing prepared to head out to the Villa district.

With practiced ease, he applied his disguise, concealed his aura, and shielded his heavenly secrets. Before long, Su Xing met with Jin Congxue.

Jin Congxue was dressed like a refined intellectual today—a light purple sweater paired with frameless glasses on her face, looking quite alluring.

The two sat facing each other, chatting as they ate.

Jin Congxue glanced at Su Xing, a hint of curiosity in her voice:

“Su Xing, how come I feel like… you’re somehow different from the last time I saw you?”

Hearing Jin Congxue’s words, Su Xing smiled faintly but didn’t answer.

Breaking through from the Void Return stage to the Body Integration stage was a major leap in realm.

Before reaching the immortal realms, every breakthrough involved Shedding Impurities and Cleansing Marrow, purging some of the body’s impurities.

After such a significant breakthrough, Su Xing’s temperament and presence had naturally shifted slightly.

This subtle change was something only those extremely familiar with him could notice.

It was something even the Technique to Shield from Heavenly Divination couldn’t mask.

Mm… all in all, he’d become even more captivating!

After a moment’s thought, Su Xing changed the subject:

“By the way, Xue-jie, how’s that matter I asked you about before coming along?”

The moment they turned to business, Jin Congxue’s expression became serious as she nodded:

“Those people you asked me to look after?”

“Well, your good brother Yu Yan is still at Demon-Sealing Pass… I can’t really meddle in military affairs.”

“However, I’ve been providing him quite a bit of support in the name of the Jin Commerce Group this whole time… including that bottle of pills you asked me to pass along—I’ve already given it to him.”

“I’d say his strength now probably ranks among the top fighters within the Grandmaster level… and in the next two or three years, it’s entirely possible he could break through to Heavenly King!”

Hearing Jin Congxue’s words, Su Xing nodded with satisfaction.

Yu Yan had been an enormous help to him before. The two were as close as brothers, and Su Xing would never forget that bond.

But everyone had their own path to walk.

All Su Xing could do was help from behind the scenes as much as possible.

In the next several years, Demon-Sealing Pass wouldn’t face any major upheavals.

And if Yu Yan could break through to Heavenly King during that time, he’d be a formidable force in his own right—more than capable of protecting himself.

Just as Su Xing was lost in thought, Jin Congxue continued:

“And then there’s your little sweetheart~ Wang Qingxuan, right?”

“That girl has decent talent and potential… She happened to submit her resume to the Tarot Trading Company, so I recruited her into one of the Tarot Society’s dungeon farming teams. She’s already at squad leader level.”

“It’s not exactly wealth and glory, but it’s safe. I had people look out for her…”

“Besides, the farming team’s compensation is quite good—more than enough to support her steady growth for a long time to come.”

Hearing Jin Congxue’s words, Su Xing nodded slightly.

His interactions with Wang Qingxuan in reality had never been many, and as the gap in their strength grew ever wider, the two rarely crossed paths anymore.

Being safe under Su Xing’s watch and living well—that was already the best outcome.

“And then there’s what you asked me to look into before… your sister…”

At this point, a peculiar look crossed Jin Congxue’s face.

“Your sister seems to have a rather special status… She was specially recruited by Great Xia’s military into some kind of unit. It’s a logistics-related unit with extremely high clearance—even I couldn’t dig too deep…”

After a pause, Jin Congxue said:

“Your sister seems to have… also awakened a hidden class? But the specific class… I couldn’t find out.”

Hearing Jin Congxue’s words, Su Xing looked puzzled.

In his earlier simulations, his sister had also been an existence on par with Grandmaster-level figures, and it did seem like she’d been mentioned as some kind of specially recruited national genius.

But Su Xing had been so focused on improving himself that he’d never paid much attention.

After carefully searching his memories, Su Xing said with some uncertainty:

“That girl never told me what her specific class was either… Every time I asked, she’d hem and haw about it…”

“But if I recall correctly, her class seems to have something to do with swords?”

Su Xing scratched his head, deciding to figure out Su Xiaomei’s development path in a future simulation when he had time.

In previous simulations, all Su Xing could guarantee was the safety of his family—Su Nian’an, his parents, and the rest.

But against those terrifying foreign races, cults… or the Amalgamated Beast.

Su Xing’s family, and indeed the entire human race, could offer him very little help…

Without even realizing it, Su Xing had already walked to the very forefront of the fight against the foreign races!

The only one he could rely on, it seemed, was himself alone…

Before long, Su Xing’s meeting with Jin Congxue came to an end.

Su Xing returned to the spirit field grotto-heaven with the new week’s goods.

The simulation energy came to just over 150 million as usual, bringing Su Xing’s total simulation energy to 1,767,630,000 points.

On December 30th, 2024 of the New Era, Su Xing punctually began a new round of simulation.

“Begin simulation!”

【Ding! This simulation consumes 6,800 energy points. Remaining energy: 1,767,630,000 points. Remaining simulations: unlimited.】

【Simulation begins!】

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

Su Xing gazed at the simulation text before him and murmured:

“This time, I’ve already broken through to the Body Integration stage. I should be able to fight Old Dog Dragon!”

“But to be safe, bringing out the Dragonslayer talent would give me the best odds!”

With that thought, Su Xing willed the Talent Lottery Pool interface into being.

The familiar purple tiger lottery machine appeared, its interior filled with rolling spheres.

Su Xing didn’t hesitate. He spent 100,000 energy and began drawing.

【Ding! You have drawn the purple talent The Cold-Faced Emperor… Would you like to select this talent for the simulation?】

“No…”

【Ding! You have drawn the purple talent I’m Background Extra A…】

【Ding…】

A string of notification chimes rang in Su Xing’s ears.

After several dozen attempts, Su Xing finally obtained his target for this round—the purple talent, Dragonslayer!

【Dragonslayer】: You are the natural bane of dragonkind. All creatures bearing dragon bloodlines will feel involuntary fear upon seeing you. All damage you deal to dragon-type creatures is increased by fifty percent!

“A fifty percent damage boost… combined with my Body Integration stage cultivation, even a late-stage Body Integration cultivator might not be my match!”

Su Xing rubbed his chin.

Based on information gathered from previous simulations, Old Dog Dragon’s realm and strength should be at the mid-stage of the Primordial Unity realm. Relying on the raw power of the Dragon Race’s true form, he was probably comparable to a late-stage Body Integration cultivator.

“But… in that simulation, the gap between Old Dog Dragon and me was enormous. I may not have forced out all of his true strength…”

“If Old Dog Dragon still has cards up his sleeve… the outcome would be hard to predict…”