Chapter 244 – A Gold Talent Involving Karma: Gift of Roses! (Second Update, Monthly Tickets Please)

“I drew a gold talent!”

Su Xing’s heart stirred as his gaze fell upon the talent description.

【Gift of Roses】: Gold talent. You may select a talent you do not need (including ones previously drawn) and forcibly gift it to a target, compulsorily entangling yourself in a karmic relationship with them. Gift roses to others, and the fragrance lingers on your hands.

Su Xing studied the newly drawn talent and fell into deep thought.

“Giving my own talent away to a target by force… is this really a gold talent?”

At first glance, Su Xing felt this talent was utterly useless to him.

But he quickly recalled two strange talents he had drawn before — “Human Nuclear Bomb” and “I Can’t Be the Only Unlucky One”!

“If I gifted those two talents to a target, that could actually be quite something!”

Su Xing stroked his chin thoughtfully.

“Besides that, some talents that have minor uses but are useless to me — perhaps I could give those to people close to me? Like body tempering talents… or spirit root talents?”

Su Xing rubbed his chin.

But what truly piqued Su Xing’s interest was the phrase in the talent description: “compulsorily entangling yourself in a karmic relationship with the target.”

The concept of karma was profound and mysterious.

Su Xing currently only understood the Dao of Divination, and had yet to glimpse the Great Dao of Karma.

But Su Xing also knew that with karma, every cause must have its effect.

If Su Xing gifted a talent to a target, it meant the target would owe Su Xing a debt of “karma.”

At some point in the future, regardless of whether the other party was willing or not, they would have to repay this karmic debt.

Furthermore, when Su Xing performed divinations, if the target of his divination shared a karmic entanglement with him, the divination results would be even more precise…

“Looking at it this way… this actually seems like quite a good talent!”

Su Xing figured this was likely a support-type talent, and since it was a gold-quality talent that he had drawn with great difficulty, he naturally couldn’t waste it.

“The exact effects of the talent aren’t clear… perhaps I can try it out during a simulation?”

Su Xing murmured, his gaze shifting to the simulation panel.

【In the spirit field grotto-heaven, you became aware that you were in a simulation.】

【You left the spirit field grotto-heaven and went to trade with Lu Yuanwu. The trade went smoothly, without any unexpected incidents.】

【You found time to visit Jin Congxue.】

【You attempted to gift your former talent, Wood-Fire Dual True Spirit Root, to Jin Congxue.】

【You succeeded. You sensed that a subtle change seemed to occur within Jin Congxue’s body, meaning she could now cultivate spiritual energy and had the aptitude to become a cultivator.】

【At the same time, you faintly felt invisible threads of karma intertwining between you and Jin Congxue. Your karmic connection with her had grown tighter.】

【You observed for several days and found no side effects from this karmic connection.】

【So you stopped paying attention to it and went to the Luotian Assembly dungeon as usual.】

……

【You used immersive simulation. Your comprehension of the Dao of Puppetry deepened further.】

【Through Luo Shuying’s introduction, you joined the Advent Cult.】

【You became a Protector and gained a large group of adoring followers.】

【Over the next two years, you diligently refined pills.】

【You exhausted all of the Advent Cult’s herbs, refining 250,000 Essence Nurturing Pills and Organ Tempering Pills.】

【In between, you found time to visit the Luotian Assembly dungeon.】

【In the third year, you did not hand the pills over to Xia’s military, but instead kept them for your own use.】

【But 250,000 pills were not enough to satisfy your appetite.】

【So you continued cultivating spirit herbs in the spirit field grotto-heaven. With the Descendant of Shennong talent’s enhancement, the herbs matured rapidly.】

【And so, another three years passed.】

【In the sixth year, the Essence Nurturing Grass and Yellow Immortal Essence in the spirit field matured one after another. Every so often, you refined over a thousand pills and stored them away.】

【In the seventh year, you schemed to eliminate the Transhuman Faction’s leader and took their place.】

【In the eighth year, you traveled to the Myriad Wood Sect ruins and retrieved that branch of the innate Fusang Divine Tree.】

【That same year, you killed Old Dog Dragon.】

【Over the next three years, you took advantage of your position within the Advent Cult to refine pills daily. Your pill stockpile gradually reached 300,000.】

【In the eleventh year, Blood Three arrived on Earth. You presented the pitch-black branch and obtained both a transit pass and Blood Three’s trust.】

In the Real World, Su Xing paused when he saw this.

“This simulation is mainly about getting my hands on more pills, but counting this week’s goods and one thousand tons of exotic metal, I only have about three billion simulation energy… roughly enough to exchange for 300,000 pills.”

“Any more would be a waste…”

After a brief pause, Su Xing continued:

“So the next question is whether I should stay on Earth or head into that valley.”

According to the intelligence Su Xing had gathered, Earth might be connected to some enormous ancient secret related to Luo Tian.

Moreover, it was being targeted by the alien races and the Blood Moon.

Therefore, unless Su Xing possessed the strength to deal with the Advent Cult and the Blood Moon, Earth was doomed to destruction no matter what.

What Su Xing could do was defeat several waves of enemies and temporarily extend Earth’s time, thereby extending his simulation time.

With Su Xing’s current strength, he could extend it by about forty years at most…

That period of time was enough for Su Xing to advance several layers in cultivation.

“But this time, staying on Earth would probably end the same way as before… it would be better to head to the valley ahead of schedule. Perhaps I can find an opportunity to escape to the Hundred Thousand Mountains!”

Su Xing had currently cultivated the Eight Trigrams Divination Art to Perfection, and the National Fortune Chapter was also approaching Minor Mastery. Thus, Su Xing had some confidence that he could escape from Blood Ninety-Nine’s grasp.

Once he could flee into the core of the Hundred Thousand Mountains, even if the probability was extremely low, Su Xing would still have a chance of escaping!

“Since that’s the case, let’s head to the Three Thousand Worlds as soon as possible!”

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

【In the twelfth year, your cultivation advanced to the Peak of Body Integration stage second layer.】

【You began consuming mid-grade spirit liquid for cultivation, and your progress advanced by leaps and bounds…】

【And so, two years passed.】

【In the fourteenth year, you exhausted 900,000 drops of mid-grade spirit liquid, bringing your cultivation to the Peak of the third layer of Body Integration stage.】

【You then took out one million drops of low-grade spirit liquid, preparing to break through to mid-stage Body Integration in one go!】

【In the fifteenth year, you successfully broke through to the fourth layer of Body Integration stage.】

【That same year, you began planning your departure from Earth.】

【You first refined Spirit Awakening Pills and accumulated a month’s worth of Great Wisdom state bonuses, preparing to make the most of your remaining time before leaving Earth.】

In the Real World, Su Xing saw this and silently intoned:

“Activate immersive simulation function, duration 30 days!”

【Ding. You have successfully activated the immersive simulation function. 72 million energy points consumed. Remaining energy: 934,580,000 points…】

As the simulator’s notification faded, Su Xing appeared within the simulation.

At this moment, Su Xing held two jade slips recording talisman crafting techniques — his study objectives for this session.

One jade slip contained the 《Encyclopedia of Basic Talismans》, recording Rank One through Rank Four talismans, with the highest being Rank Four talismans whose power was comparable to a Nascent Soul stage cultivator.

The other jade slip contained the 《Encyclopedia of Five Elements Talismans》. This was a talisman manual Su Xing had obtained from the Five Elements Sect ruins, recording talismans up to Rank Eight, with the highest being comparable to the Mahayana stage.

“The Dao of Talismans can give the weak the ability to fight above their rank… studying it is always worthwhile!”

Su Xing murmured.

Then, activating his Great Wisdom state bonus and consuming a Spirit Awakening Pill, Su Xing began studying the Encyclopedia of Basic Talismans.

In the blink of an eye, ten days passed.

In just ten days, Su Xing had learned all talismans from Rank One through Rank Four.

Of course, with the Spirit Awakening Pill’s enhancement, ten days of comprehension was equivalent to over three years!

Additionally, Su Xing had previously set up micro spirit-gathering formations, which had already given him a foundation in talisman crafting. This made his comprehension of the Dao of Talismans swift.

In another blink, twenty more days passed. The immersive simulation ended, and Su Xing returned to reality.

Slowly opening his eyes, Su Xing nodded with satisfaction.

“Not bad… in just a single immersive simulation, I’ve learned Rank One through Rank Five talismans — over three hundred varieties of talisman crafting!”

“I’ve even mastered several types of Rank Six offensive talismans, each comparable to a single strike from a Void Return cultivator!”

Su Xing was quite pleased with this. Thirty days of immersive simulation was equivalent to ten years of dedicated talisman research.

Yet in merely ten years, he had learned Rank One through Rank Five talismans plus several Rank Six talismans — that speed was nothing short of remarkable!

The reason it was so fast was threefold. First, Su Xing possessed the Talisman Expert talent, which made his talisman learning several times faster than ordinary people.

Second, Su Xing’s cultivation and divine sense had already reached the threshold for crafting Rank Eight talismans, so crafting these lower-rank talismans was effortless by comparison.

Lastly, the micro spirit-gathering formation Su Xing had previously studied involved aspects of the Dao of Talismans, so learning now was essentially reviewing — naturally, his progress was rapid.

“Not bad… now that I’ve learned to craft Rank One through Rank Five talismans, I can prepare some for Jin Congxue, Fatty Yu, Wang Qingxuan, and my little sister… at the very least, these could save their lives!”

“Of course, these talismans are probably even more valuable than pills! Perhaps I can craft some to sell, which would also earn me plenty of needed resources to exchange for energy!”

Su Xing nodded slightly. On his attribute panel, the Dao of Talismans had already reached the Minor Mastery level.

His gaze returned to the simulation panel.

【You hid five hundred Spirit-Gathering Flower seeds and the Azure Cloud Token inside your body, then headed to the Slaughter Battlefield, preparing to leave Earth.】

【You walked toward the red moon. Eventually, you presented your transit pass, avoided a battle with the Slaughter Apostle, and stepped into the strange spatial rift.】

【Passing through the void corridor, violent spatial fluctuations tore at your body, and your consciousness gradually faded into darkness.】

【When you awakened again, you found yourself in a dilapidated room.】

【Your belongings had vanished, but fortunately, you had only sustained minor injuries. With just a week of recuperation, you would fully recover.】

【As your Body Tempering cultivation grew more advanced, the injuries you sustained grew fewer and fewer. You estimated that after reaching Major Mastery in Body Tempering, you would suffer only slight injuries that wouldn’t affect your combat ability.】

【After recovering from your injuries, you began searching for a way to earn spirit stones in the valley.】

【You ultimately chose to work as a brothel guard again, because it not only paid well but also gave you access to the intelligence you needed.】

【Because you arrived in the valley earlier this time, there were still two and a half years until the next blood seedling tournament.】

【The merchant in the valley at this time was not the Old Fourth Song or Old Fifth Song you were familiar with, but rather an old man named Old Second Song!】

【With a brief divination, you discovered that Old Second Song was actually a Mahayana stage cultivator with extraordinarily high cultivation.】

【You began planning your escape from the valley.】

【According to your plan, escaping the valley required a high-rank spirit sword to ensure you could fight your way out.】

【High-rank speed talismans were also indispensable, to ensure you had enough speed to reach the valley’s core more quickly.】

【To achieve all this, you began accumulating spirit stones.】

【Relying on your considerable cultivation, you robbed several “freeloaders.” After extracting spirit stones from them, you rented a mansion and set up defensive formations.】

【Out of caution, this time you only planted two hundred Spirit-Gathering Flowers, keeping the remaining seeds hidden inside your body.】

【Two and a half years slowly passed…】

【In the seventeenth year, the new blood seedling tournament officially began!】

【In this blood seedling tournament, you concealed your strength, only displaying mid-stage Body Integration cultivation.】

【Even so, over a hundred Void Return stage cultivators died at your hands, along with several dozen Body Integration stage cultivators.】

【With a total score of two hundred points, you successfully failed to qualify for a blood seedling slot in the tournament.】

【But this was exactly your plan. You claimed all of these cultivators’ storage bags for yourself and sold everything useless inside them.】

【Murder and arson pave the way to wealth. You quickly amassed over ten million spirit stones.】

【This was nearly the entire fortune of a Mahayana stage cultivator.】

【You used these spirit stones to purchase a high-grade spirit sword. This high-grade spirit sword’s enhancement to your power nearly rivaled the Blackice sword.】

【With it, you could truly unleash combat power approaching that of mid-stage Mahayana!】

【In the valley, weapons were priced several times higher than outside. This single spirit sword alone cost you nearly ten million spirit stones.】

【With your spirit stones spent, you used Spirit-Gathering Flowers as payment, bartering for three Rank Eight talismans and five Rank Seven talismans.】

【These few talismans alone cost you over a hundred Spirit-Gathering Flowers.】

【You silently cursed Old Second Song for being so ruthless with his pricing, but could only accept it.】

【Of the Rank Eight talismans, one was primarily offensive, one was primarily for trapping formations, and one was primarily for speed.】

【The five Rank Seven talismans were all for boosting movement speed.】

【After obtaining treasures that could enhance your combat power, your resources and spirit stones were nearly depleted.】

【But you were in no rush to flee the valley. Instead, you continued observing the valley’s guard forces.】

【Through your observation, you discovered that the passage out of the valley was still guarded by Mahayana stage cultivators in rotating shifts.】

【The two weakest guards were both early-stage Mahayana, which gave you greater hope of escaping the valley!】

【But you did not rush to flee. Instead, you continued staying in the valley, preparing to participate in the next blood seedling tournament.】

【And so, three years passed.】

【In the twentieth year, you participated in the new blood seedling tournament. In this tournament, you performed brilliantly.】

【You killed over two hundred Void Return cultivators, and nearly a hundred Body Integration stage cultivators as well.】

【You deliberately controlled your score so that it still wasn’t enough to earn a blood seedling slot.】

【But this massive haul of plunder instantly netted you twenty to thirty million more spirit stones.】

【You prepared to use this fortune for your final purchases.】

【You acquired two Rank Eight speed talismans, along with several treasures capable of concealing your presence…】

【What satisfied you most was procuring a Rank Eight Aura-Concealing Stone. This stone could work in conjunction with the Eight Trigrams Divination Art to further enhance the effect of shielding your karmic secrets!】

【After completing all of this, you began preparing to escape from the valley…】