Chapter 268 – Finally Entering Tribulation Crossing Stage, Heart Refinement Trial Complete! (10,000 words, 2-in-1)

Chapter 268 – Finally Entering Tribulation Crossing Stage, Heart Refinement Trial Complete! (10,000 words, 2-in-1)

“Gold talent, Seven-Aperture Exquisite Heart?”

Su Xing was stunned for a moment. The first thing that came to mind upon seeing this talent was the legendary “Bigan’s” Seven-Aperture Exquisite Heart.

“Legend has it that Bigan’s Seven-Aperture Exquisite Heart could see through illusions and perceive all things in the world… Could it be that my gold talent has a similar effect?”

Su Xing stroked his chin, his gaze turning to the talent description.

【Seven-Aperture Exquisite Heart】: Gold talent. You can multitask and draw inferences across disciplines. While cultivating one art, other arts also receive bonuses, and the efficiency of the Hundred Arts of Immortal Cultivation is significantly improved…

“Hm? This talent…”

Su Xing raised an eyebrow. The effect of the Seven-Aperture Exquisite Heart seemed rather different from what he had imagined.

“I recall that I once obtained the Dual Focus talent, which doubled my pill refinement efficiency. Could this Seven-Aperture Exquisite Heart have a similar effect?”

Thinking of this, Su Xing’s eyes immediately lit up.

If that were truly the case, it would be of tremendous help to him!

Pill refinement, talisman crafting, array formation, artifact forging, puppet crafting… the efficiency of all these would be greatly improved!

“I’ll have to test it to know the specific effects!”

Su Xing’s heart was filled with anticipation as his gaze turned to the simulation panel.

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

【You completed your trade with Lu Yuanwu as agreed, and nothing unexpected occurred.】

【After returning to the spirit field grotto-heaven, you began testing the effects of your new talent.】

【You first attempted pill refinement, and discovered that your pill refinement efficiency had doubled once again!】

【With the Seven-Aperture Exquisite Heart’s enhancement, you could simultaneously operate four pill furnaces at once. For low-grade pills like Fasting Pills, you could refine over ten thousand in a single week!】

【Even for pills like Essence Nurturing Pills and Organ Tempering Pills, you could produce four to five thousand per week…】

【However, for high-grade pills, the efficiency was much lower, as you only had a single furnace capable of supporting high-grade pill refinement.】

【After testing the Seven-Aperture Exquisite Heart’s bonus to pill refinement, you moved on to crafting talismans.】

【You were surprised to discover that your talisman crafting skills had improved considerably. Seventh-rank talismans could be crafted smoothly, and you could even barely manage eighth-rank talismans…】

【Moreover, your talisman crafting speed had nearly doubled…】

【You then proceeded to test array formation and puppet crafting…】

【After a month of continuous testing, you gained a comprehensive understanding of the Seven-Aperture Exquisite Heart talent!】

【In summary, it was a powerful talent that enhanced the Hundred Arts of Immortal Cultivation!】

【Not only could it improve skill proficiency, but it also significantly boosted efficiency… the improvement ranged from roughly fifty percent to over double.】

【With this new talent, your puppet crafting speed improved dramatically!】

【In just one week, you could craft three mining puppets!】

【You were quite satisfied with this. Over the next ten days, you accumulated Great Wisdom state bonuses and headed to the Luo Tian dungeon…】

“Use immersive simulation…”

【Ding…】

After emerging from the Luo Tian dungeon, Su Xing let out a long breath, a smile on his face.

“The new talent is unexpectedly useful! It even slightly boosts the learning speed for the Dao of Puppetry!”

“It seems I’ll need to slightly modify my plans for this simulation!”

Su Xing rubbed his chin.

His original plan had been to pass the Heart Refinement Trial and collect sufficient resources.

But now it seemed that this talent’s bonuses were too significant—especially the boost to productivity.

Such a practical talent was something Su Xing couldn’t afford to miss.

“So, for this round, I won’t rush to collect resources. First, I’ll pass the Heart Refinement Trial and bring out this talent!”

Su Xing sighed softly.

“Indeed, talents are the true engine of productivity!”

His gaze turned to the simulation panel.

【After leaving the Luo Tian dungeon, you went to meet Luo Shuying.】

【Under Luo Shuying’s guidance, you successfully joined the Advent Cult.】

【After joining the Advent Cult, you began preparing for a smooth passage through the Heart Refinement Trial.】

【Although you had previously passed the five trials of Spirit Transformation and possessed a resilient heart, being ever cautious, you chose to refine the Illusory Heart Mystic Pill.】

【The Illusory Heart Mystic Pill is a ninth-grade pill whose primary effect is to calm the mind, maintain clarity of the spiritual platform, and prevent qi deviation.】

【Previous cultivators discovered that the Illusory Heart Mystic Pill had outstanding effects during the Tribulation Crossing “Heart Refinement Trial,” increasing the chance of success by over ten percent upon consumption!】

【The primary ingredients for refining the Illusory Heart Mystic Pill are Jade Bone Snow Ginseng, Condensing Wood… Illusory Heart Grass, and Snow Lotus Flower.】

【You already possessed the Jade Bone Snow Ginseng and Condensing Wood, and you had long since planted the Snow Lotus Flower seeds, awaiting harvest.】

【Snow Lotus Flowers must be planted in extremely cold regions, and their growth cycle spans a full hundred years.】

【Fortunately, with the Descendant of Shennong talent enhancement and wood-attributed spiritual energy to accelerate growth, they could mature in perhaps just over ten years…】

【And so, you began traveling between the Advent Cult and the far northern lands.】

【You planted Snow Lotus Flowers in the far north, setting up spiritual arrays and protective restrictions to ensure over a hundred Snow Lotus Flowers would mature successfully.】

【Thereafter, each week you traveled tens of thousands of li by sword flight to the far north to accelerate the Snow Lotus Flowers’ growth.】

【Seven years passed quickly.】

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

【In the eighth year, you eliminated Old Dog Dragon and quietly awaited Blood Three’s arrival.】

【In the eleventh year, Blood Three arrived on Earth. You presented the spirit vein dragon and obtained a transit pass.】

【Upon meeting Blood Three, you had considered using the Gift of Roses talent to transfer “I Can’t Be the Only Unlucky One” onto him.】

【However, when you had previously transferred a talent, even the Earthly Immortal realm Gold Coin Demon King had vaguely sensed it. As a Golden Immortal, Blood Three’s perception might be even more acute.】

【There was a very high chance he would discover you had tampered with him, and at that point, your death would be certain.】

【Moreover, a Golden Immortal would surely have studied the Dao of causality and fate. Once he noticed a change in his fortune, there would be no good outcome for you…】

【After Blood Three departed, you continued tending to the Snow Lotus Flowers as before.】

【This year, the Snow Lotus Flowers were nearly mature. You estimated that within five years at most, you could harvest all hundred plants.】

【In the thirteenth year, you made a trip to the Beast Taming World dungeon, slaying Legendary demon beasts and Demon Emperors, which extended Earth’s remaining fortune by several years.】

【In the sixteenth year, you successfully harvested the Snow Lotus Flowers.】

【At this point, three of the four primary ingredients for refining the Illusory Heart Mystic Pill had been gathered.】

【Only the Illusory Heart Grass remained unaccounted for.】

【You knew that finding this medicinal herb on Earth would be impossible, so you prepared to venture into the Three Thousand Worlds.】

【You headed to the Slaughter Battlefield, walking toward the direction of Red Moon.】

【You presented your transit pass and entered that anomalous subspace…】

Su Xing’s heart stirred upon seeing this, and he silently intoned:

“Use immersive simulation, duration thirty days!”

【Ding…】

As the simulator’s notification tone faded, Su Xing appeared within the anomalous subspace.

Summoning his Protective Sword Aura, Su Xing gazed at the spatial turbulence before him and murmured:

“In this immersive simulation, I’ll comprehend spatial origin all the way to Perfection in one go!”

With those words, Su Xing plunged alone into the spatial turbulence…

Time passed moment by moment.

On the twenty-eighth day of the immersive simulation, Su Xing finally took another step forward, achieving Perfection level mastery of spatial origin!

“Next up… it’s time to attempt comprehending the embryonic form of the Great Dao…”

Su Xing gazed at the void turbulence before him, as if trying to capture the shadow of the Great Dao of Space’s embryonic form from within those wisps of void.

With the Spirit Awakening Pill’s enhancement, Su Xing’s comprehension was greatly heightened.

But unfortunately, comprehending the profound spatial Dao so easily was clearly not possible.

The immersive simulation ended soon after, and Su Xing returned to reality.

“What a shame… Given my current situation, I have absolutely no clue how to comprehend the Great Dao of Space…”

Su Xing sighed, looking at the wisp of spatial origin swirling around his hand.

A thought struck him, and Su Xing took out several storage rings, wanting to see what improvements Perfection-level spatial origin would bring.

Moments later, the test was complete, and a trace of pleasant surprise appeared on Su Xing’s face.

“Not bad! The covered space has surged directly to five hundred cubic meters!”

Su Xing felt somewhat excited.

Five hundred cubic meters meant that Su Xing could bring virtually all of his accumulated wealth with him.

Resources of all kinds, useful magical treasures, and so on…

The only regret was that storage rings couldn’t hold living things. If he wanted to bring the spirit vein dragon out to the Three Thousand Worlds, he would need to be able to completely encompass the entire grotto-heaven blessed land…

“From Origin Force to Dao comprehension… Once I gain some insight into the Great Dao of Space, it should be possible, right?”

“This time, the objective is to find Illusory Heart Grass, refine the Illusory Heart Mystic Pill… and successfully pass the Heart Refinement Trial!”

So Su Xing thought, as his gaze returned to the simulation panel.

【Passing through the world passage, you arrived in the northern part of the Hundred Thousand Mountains in the Lesser Azure Cloud Realm.】

【You could keenly sense that your period of unconsciousness this time was much shorter than before. You were uninjured, though your spiritual energy was still somewhat disordered.】

【After tidying yourself up briefly, you headed to White Emperor City.】

【You resided in White Emperor City for one year, during which you gathered information about Illusory Heart Grass.】

【Unfortunately, Illusory Heart Grass was exceedingly rare, and you found nothing.】

【In the seventeenth year, you visited the Celestial Secrets Pavilion and sold intelligence about the Blood Moon and the Advent Cult to the young woman of the Celestial Secrets Pavilion.】

【You purchased intelligence related to Illusory Heart Grass.】

【You learned that this spirit herb was extremely scarce—virtually impossible to find in the Lesser Azure Cloud Realm. In the past century, there had been no reports of Illusory Heart Grass appearing in the Lesser Azure Cloud Realm. Left with no choice, you could only give up.】

【You prepared to head to the Azure Cloud Sect to search for information on Illusory Heart Grass…】

Su Xing nodded slightly upon seeing this.

“The Azure Cloud Sect definitely has Illusory Heart Grass… They might even have finished Illusory Heart Mystic Pills!”

“It’s just a shame… If that’s the case, the simulation duration will be greatly reduced…”

Su Xing shook his head. He had originally thought he could refine it himself, but had miscalculated, not realizing how difficult Illusory Heart Grass was to find.

In the end, all the earlier preparation had been somewhat wasted…

“Well, so be it. I’ll just make another trip to the Azure Cloud Sect!”

His gaze turned to the simulation panel.

【Left with no choice, you could only prepare to head to the Azure Cloud Sect.】

【You first took an airship to Lesser Azure Cloud City.】

【After waiting in the city for about a year, the Azure Cloud Sect’s enrollment officially began.】

【In the eighteenth year, after the enrollment ceremony concluded, you met True Immortal Danfire.】

【Upon learning your identity, True Immortal Danfire was very respectful toward you and indicated that you could accompany him to the Azure Cloud Sect in two years.】

【You naturally agreed, and so you settled in Lesser Azure Cloud City, quietly waiting.】

【In the twentieth year, you traveled with True Immortal Danfire aboard a flying vessel and arrived at the Azure Cloud Realm.】

【The Azure Cloud Sect, majestic as an immortal palace, stood amidst steep mountain ridges. Even from a great distance, the sight stirred your heart.】

【You joined the Azure Cloud Sect and received the treatment of a second-generation direct disciple.】

【At this time, Fire Cloud Golden Immortal and Fairy Ziling were not in seclusion, and you received generous welcoming gifts from them both.】

【Another year passed.】

【In the twenty-first year, you contacted Fairy Ziling and sold a thousand Spirit-Gathering Flowers, earning one million sect contribution points.】

【You prepared to purchase the Illusory Heart Mystic Pill from the sect.】

【But you unexpectedly learned that this pill was extremely rare, and since it was of great benefit to Tribulation Crossing stage cultivators, it was often reserved in advance by sect disciples. If you wanted to exchange for one now, you would need to wait one hundred and fifty years…】

【As a second-generation disciple, you could certainly use your status to pressure others, but that would not align with your Dao heart.】

【Fortunately, the sect still had Illusory Heart Grass in stock. So you purchased over a hundred stalks of Illusory Heart Grass, preparing to refine the pill yourself.】

Su Xing was somewhat surprised upon seeing this. Even a sect like the Azure Cloud Sect could run short of Illusory Heart Mystic Pills?

But upon careful reflection, it was certainly plausible.

“After all, there are many disciples within the Azure Cloud Sect, and the Illusory Heart Mystic Pill is difficult to refine, yet extremely important to Tribulation Crossing stage disciples… I’m afraid everyone wants to exchange for one, to increase their chances of breaking through the Heart Refinement Trial…”

Su Xing thought for a moment and muttered:

“Given the Azure Cloud Sect’s size, the number of cultivators crossing tribulation each year is probably somewhere between eight hundred and a thousand… naturally one would have to wait.”

“But refining them myself works too!”

“If it were the old me, I probably couldn’t refine ninth-rank pills, but now that I have the Seven-Aperture Exquisite Heart’s enhancement, perhaps I can refine supreme-quality ninth-rank pills…”

Su Xing thought this and turned his gaze to the simulation panel.

【After obtaining the Illusory Heart Grass, you have now gathered all the herbs needed to refine the Illusory Heart Mystic Pill.】

【Thanks to over twenty years of gradual accumulation, your Great Wisdom state enhancement can now last approximately one year.】

【You decide to spend four double-hours each day, meticulously refining one furnace of Illusory Heart Mystic Pills…】

【In the first month, you refined eighteen furnaces of Illusory Heart Mystic Pills. Without question, all of them failed.】

【But you became far more familiar with the Illusory Heart Mystic Pill’s medicinal properties and refinement steps, and you felt your pill-refining skills improving rapidly.】

【In the second month, you continued refining fifteen furnaces of Illusory Heart Mystic Pills. All failed, and you summarized the lessons learned.】

【In the third month, you refined ten furnaces of Illusory Heart Mystic Pills and succeeded with one. You felt yourself gradually grasping the knack.】

【In the fourth month, you refined seven furnaces of Illusory Heart Mystic Pills and succeeded with two. You had finally gained a basic understanding of refining the Illusory Heart Mystic Pill.】

【After four consecutive months of refining pills, you felt your alchemy skills had improved considerably, so you prepared to fully digest these pill-refining insights before continuing.】

【Thus, one year passed.】

【In the twenty-second year, you purchased a large quantity of new Illusory Heart Grass and Snow Lotus Flowers and continued your preparations.】

【You spent three months refining over twenty furnaces of Illusory Heart Mystic Pills, feeling your progress accelerating rapidly, already approaching the Minor Mastery level.】

【In the twenty-third year, you refined forty furnaces of Illusory Heart Mystic Pills and finally reached Minor Mastery-level comprehension of the pill.】

【At this point, you could refine normal-quality Illusory Heart Mystic Pills, but you were still unsatisfied. If you could obtain supreme-quality Illusory Heart Mystic Pills—】

【—they could increase your chances of passing the Heart Refinement Trial by fifteen percent!】

Su Xing saw this and sighed:

“Sigh, fifteen percent probability—that’s not low!”

“An ordinary cultivator would fight tooth and nail just for five percent more…”

Su Xing pondered for a moment.

The Heart Refinement Trial was among the more difficult of the six trials of Immortal Transformation.

An ordinary cultivator’s success rate for heart refinement was only about forty to fifty percent.

If they failed, even after a century of cultivating one’s temperament, the success rate for a second attempt would be halved.

But Su Xing had undergone the five trials of Spirit Transformation early during the Spirit Transformation stage, tempering his willpower to be unyielding as iron, so his success rate was around eighty percent.

Adding a supreme-quality Illusory Heart Mystic Pill, the success rate would be approximately ninety-five percent.

“A ninety-five percent chance… still carries the risk of failure!”

Su Xing rubbed his chin and muttered:

“If push comes to shove, I’ll just prepare several supreme-quality Illusory Heart Mystic Pills. That should give me a ninety-nine percent chance, right?”

Su Xing cautiously reckoned that five or six supreme-quality Illusory Heart Mystic Pills would give him a decent chance.

Of course, ordinary cultivators wouldn’t be so wasteful, since only the first Illusory Heart Mystic Pill had the best effect. The second pill’s effect was only a tenth of the first, diminishing further with each subsequent pill…

“If it really comes down to it, I’ll just have to sacrifice this simulation opportunity…”

Su Xing felt that a ninety-nine percent chance was worth gambling on!

With this thought, Su Xing turned his gaze to the simulation panel.

【In the twenty-fourth year, you continued refining Illusory Heart Mystic Pills, successfully producing eleven pills, none of which were supreme quality.】

【Your proficiency with Illusory Heart Mystic Pills improved slightly…】

【In the twenty-fifth year, you produced thirteen pills, none of supreme quality. Your alchemy skills improved slightly…】

【Thus, another five years passed.】

【In the thirtieth year, your success rate for refining Illusory Heart Mystic Pills had reached over ninety percent, and you were not far from achieving Major Mastery of this pill.】

【In the thirty-third year, you refined thirty-seven Illusory Heart Mystic Pills and successfully produced eleven supreme-quality Illusory Heart Mystic Pills!】

【Your refinement skill for the Illusory Heart Mystic Pill reached Mastery-level!】

【At this point, you had completed your preparations for the Heart Refinement Trial.】

【But to be safe, you sought Fairy Ziling’s advice on how to pass the Heart Refinement Trial.】

【Fairy Ziling told you that she had a special constitution and never suffered from heart demon tribulations during heart refinement, so she had no relevant experience to share…】

In the Real World, Su Xing rolled his eyes upon seeing this and said:

“What the hell, something this ridiculous actually exists?”

“A special constitution… that just eliminates one of the Five Trials of Becoming Immortal? Isn’t that way too much of an advantage?!”

Su Xing shook his head, feeling somewhat helpless.

“Oh well, then I’ll just go for it!”

His gaze turned to the simulation panel.

【After bidding farewell to Fairy Ziling, you announced your seclusion.】

【You returned to your cave dwelling, spending your days tending flowers and planting herbs, cultivating your temperament…】

【In the thirty-fourth year, on a certain day, you performed a divination. The hexagram showed great fortune, so you made a decisive move and prepared for the Heart Refinement Trial!】

【You sat cross-legged within your cave dwelling, your mind clear as a mirror, your entire being entering a state of spiritual clarity.】

【You took out a handful of supreme-quality Illusory Heart Mystic Pills and swallowed them.】

【Your mental state gradually calmed. In that instant, your spiritual awareness and six senses expanded endlessly… your thoughts drifted further and further away.】

【Your consciousness gradually dissipated…】

【When you opened your eyes again, you had lost all your memories.】

【…】

【You curiously examined everything around you, only to discover that all objects had become enormous. This filled your heart with fear.】

【Just as you were about to speak, the sound of crying reached your ears…】

【You realized that the things around you hadn’t grown larger—you had grown smaller… You had become a baby!】

【In this life, you were born into a poor farming family during a time of war and widespread suffering…】

【Fortunately, the family had three mu of good farmland, so life was passable.】

【As you gradually grew older, you learned that the family had six members.】

【Besides your parents, you had three older sisters.】

【You were the youngest in the family, yet the most doted upon. Even in an era where meat was almost impossible to come by, your father would still travel over ten li to trade grain at the landlord’s house for two liang of lard.】

【The days passed one by one like this. Though poor, you wore new clothes every New Year, and ate lard once or twice a month.】

【In contrast, there was your old mother whose clothes were patched upon patched, and your three sisters whose stomachs hadn’t seen a drop of oil in months.】

【But your family bore this gladly, because you represented the family’s hope.】

【When you were six years old, your eldest sister turned fourteen and was married off to an honest man in the neighboring village. Her dowry was two old hens.】

【You didn’t understand what marriage meant. You only knew that from now on, seeing your eldest sister would require walking over ten li, and you wouldn’t see her more than a few times a year.】

【When you were eight years old, your second sister also reached the age of marriage.】

【Your second sister was pretty, and she married a schoolteacher in his thirties who lived at the village entrance.】

【This schoolteacher had reportedly passed the xiucai examination over ten years ago, but had never passed the provincial examination nor taken a wife.】

【This brother-in-law of yours, who spoke in an overly literary manner, seemed difficult to get along with. Moreover, his family was quite poor. When your second sister married him, she brought back no dowry—in fact, she even brought along several newly made cotton quilts.】

【But your parents were overjoyed, because now you could begin learning to read…】

【Your teacher was, naturally, your second brother-in-law.】

【He often took a thin switch to your backside, for offenses as trivial as using the pages of your paper books to wipe your bottom.】

【To you, these were trivial matters…】

【You didn’t love studying, but you particularly loved teasing the neighbor’s Big Yellow.】

【Big Yellow was a dog—scrawny yet fierce, wagging its tail only for you.】

【Though you didn’t love studying, you seemed very clever. After reading the contents of a book just a few times, you could recite it from memory.】

【When you were twelve years old, your second brother-in-law made a rare visit to your home. He had always somewhat looked down on families of poor children.】

【Your second brother-in-law told your parents that you were very gifted—the most intelligent student he had ever seen.】

【If you could go to the city to take the xiucai examination, you might actually pass!】

【But your family was poor. Your mother had been left with a chronic illness from her pregnancy with you and could no longer do hard labor.】

【That year, your third sister was married off. She married far away to the county seat, apparently becoming a concubine in a landlord’s household.】

【You had seen that landlord squire before—fat-headed with large ears, his words dripping with contempt.】

【With your third sister’s marriage, the family gained an old ox and several strings of copper coins.】

【By then you were twelve years old and clever enough to know… this money came from selling your sister.】

【So you had a huge argument with your parents, refusing to take the xiucai examination. All you wanted was for your third sister to come home…】

【Later, your second brother-in-law took you on a journey of over ten li on foot, then by cart, to the county seat.】

【At your third brother-in-law the squire’s estate, you saw your third sister, whom you hadn’t seen in a long time.】

【But the third sister who had always been the family’s cheerful ray of sunshine, no matter how hard times got, now spent her days in tears.】

【From your second brother-in-law, you learned that your third sister’s life was miserable. Though technically a concubine, she did the work of a servant girl and was beaten and scolded by the squire’s first wife.】

【Your second brother-in-law told you that if you passed the juren examination, they wouldn’t dare beat and scold your third sister anymore!】

【You believed him!】

【And so you threw yourself into studying for the first time—for the sake of your family!】

【Every day you rose at the crack of dawn to go to your second brother-in-law’s schoolhouse, returning home only after the sun had set.】

【Because lamp oil was expensive, you could only go to sleep once the sun went down.】

【Your talent was astonishing. In just half a year, you had thoroughly mastered every one of the several hundred books in your second brother-in-law’s collection!】

【Your knowledge had even surpassed your second brother-in-law’s. You felt you were ready to take the juren examination!】

【But your second brother-in-law said you were not ready!】

【He told you to go to the county seat to read more books and apprentice yourself to the county magistrate…】

【To fund your education in the county seat, your parents sold the old ox.】

【The day they sold the ox, you saw your father weep. It was the first time in your entire life.】

【After scraping together everything the family had, you earned the chance to study in the county seat.】

【With no place to stay, you could only temporarily lodge at your third brother-in-law’s estate, which earned your third sister several more beatings and scoldings!】

【You took all of this in and swore that you would pass the juren examination and give your family a better life!】

【Thus, two years passed…】

【At the age of fifteen, you sat for the xiucai examination.】

【A mere xiucai examination was naturally no challenge for you.】

【You placed first in the xiucai examination, becoming the top scholar…】

【The following spring, you sat for the juren examination.】

【You passed—but only placed second…】

【First place went to the county magistrate’s youngest son. You didn’t understand—his writing was clearly worse than yours, and he’d read fewer books. How could he have scored higher?】

【But it didn’t matter. After passing the juren examination, your family’s circumstances changed completely!】

【You made a special trip to your third brother-in-law’s estate. The man who had once been so high and mighty toward you was now showering you with warmth and fawning words…】

【Your third sister, who hadn’t had new clothes in three years, finally had a decent outfit!】

【You received financial support from the county, and your family moved from the village into a proper residence in the county seat.】

【Even your second brother-in-law, who had always worn a stern expression around you, was now moved to tears of gratification.】

【He told you that the lifelong aspiration he had never fulfilled was finally realized through you!】

【After passing the juren examination, your parents no longer worked the fields and instead began arranging marriage meetings for you.】

【You were good-looking and stood seven chi tall. The county’s matchmakers wore grooves into your doorstep…】

【But your ambitions lay elsewhere!】

【Because you knew that if you could pass the jinshi examination, you could bring your eldest sister and second brother-in-law’s family back home to see you!】

【So you studied even harder, pushed yourself even further…】

【Thus, another four years passed.】

【At the age of twenty, you traveled to the capital for the imperial examination…】

【Several months later, you were informed that you had passed the jinshi examination!】

【And not just that—you placed first. You were the zhuangyuan!】

【The county magistrate’s son who once overshadowed you failed to pass the imperial examination for three consecutive years.】

【You reveled triumphantly in your vindication. The county magistrate, who had always been courteous to you, now even seemed somewhat humble in your presence…】

【A few more months passed, and you learned that you had been granted the opportunity to travel to the capital for an audience with the Emperor…】

【The Emperor greatly admired your talent and wished to marry his princess to you.】

【You took one look at the princess — a hundred and sixty pounds no matter how you measured her — and politely declined.】

【The Emperor was furious at this, and so despite being the top scholar, you could only return to the county to serve as a mere county magistrate…】

【Every official in court looked at you with pitying eyes.】

【But you were not saddened in the least — you even felt this was for the better!】

【Because you already knew that this Emperor was incompetent and tyrannical. The people everywhere could barely feed themselves, wars broke out constantly — perhaps returning to the provinces was the wiser choice.】

【At twenty-one, you returned home in glory.】

【A top scholar from this county — the first in hundreds of years!】

【That day, countless people came to pay their respects…】

【Mature beyond your years, you simply accepted their gifts and cultivated good relations with the locals.】

【You brought your eldest and second sister’s families to the county seat and purchased homes for them.】

【This way, you could all see each other every month.】

【In your twenty-second year, you married.】

【Your wife was the daughter of a wealthy merchant in the city — only sixteen, fair-skinned and beautiful, from a family worth a fortune…】

【In your twenty-third year, the previous county magistrate stepped down, and you received an imperial decree appointing you as the new county magistrate.】

【You were very pleased about this, as it meant you wouldn’t have to be separated from your family…】

【And so, another seven years passed.】

【In your thirtieth year, wars raged everywhere across the land. It was the twilight of the dynasty — calamities bred monsters…】

【Peasant uprisings in the south, foreign invasions from the north.】

【The rotting dynasty could no longer sustain its rule…】

【Fortunately, you had prepared well in advance. Over these years, you had been secretly recruiting soldiers and amassing forces, quietly building an elite force of two thousand men.】

【When news of the old Emperor’s death spread, rebellion erupted everywhere… and you were among the rebels!】

【Your father-in-law was a very shrewd merchant. He believed you were destined for greatness and threw his full support behind you.】

【At this time, wars raged across the land, the people could barely survive, and no one had enough to eat.】

【It was no exaggeration to say that as long as they could get a meal, any able-bodied man would fight to the death for you!】

【And so, in just a year or two, you used money and grain to recruit a militia of twenty thousand.】

【By now, the foreign invaders had already reached the Capital City.】

【You planned to conquer from south to north, charging all the way northward… with the ultimate goal of rescuing the throne!】

【You advanced triumphantly, crushing peasant rebellions along the way.】

【The uprisings in the surrounding provinces were quelled by you in just two or three short years.】

【Your forces grew steadily larger, and your green recruits transformed into hardened veterans!】

【In just two or three years, your army had swelled to over fifty thousand, and you had become a major regional warlord!】

【At this point, there were still three feudal kings in the south who had declared independence with their own armies. Your goal was to defeat them one by one.】

【But each of them had ample forces, dozens of cities under their command, and armies several times the size of yours.】

【This gave you quite the headache — you could only bide your time and build your strength…】

【But fate seemed to favor you above all others.】

【In your thirty-sixth year, two of the feudal kings died of illness one after another, and their forces were greatly diminished…】

【You seized the opportunity to lead your armies in attack, and in just three short years, you breached their cities one after another!】

【By your fortieth year, you controlled over a hundred cities and commanded a hundred thousand troops!】

【You marched against the last remaining feudal king…】

【In the end, after a bloody campaign, you became the uncrowned king of the south!】

【At forty-three, you held dominion over everything south of the Long River, gazing toward the capital in the distance, with eighty thousand elite soldiers at your command!】

【The following year, you received word that the northern foreigners had massacred the imperial family — not one of the thousand-plus people in the palace survived!】

【You knew — the moment had come!】

【And so, you personally led your army on a northern expedition, marching eighty thousand elite soldiers toward the Capital City in a mighty procession!】

【With your forces at full strength, you had but one objective!】

【To establish a new dynasty!】

【You led your army in a surprise attack on the Capital City. Along the way, city gates opened before you, and you met no resistance.】

【But bandits were rampant and order had collapsed everywhere — you could not bear to leave things as they were…】

【Then you received word that the foreigners had already withdrawn from the Capital City and returned to the northern grasslands, leaving only a few thousand soldiers to garrison the capital.】

【You knew this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!】

【So you immediately decided to have the bulk of your forces maintain order in each city along the way, advancing toward the capital at normal marching speed.】

【While you personally led five thousand elite cavalry in a surprise assault on the capital, aiming to recapture the Capital City in a single stroke!】

【The cavalry rode day and night…】

【Yet even so, by the time they reached the Capital City, half a month had already passed.】

【Along the way, the five thousand elite cavalry had been reduced to just over four thousand…】

【And both men and horses were utterly exhausted!】

【But when you saw the foreign banners planted outside the Capital City, you knew this was your final gamble!】

【And so, you immediately ordered your troops to rest on the spot for half a day before launching the assault!】

【Cavalry assaulting city walls was inherently difficult…】

【But your soldiers had followed you to victory in battle after battle, and their elite morale was not something three to five thousand old and feeble garrison troops could withstand!】

【After a full day of siege, the city fell!】

【Of the five thousand elite troops, fewer than three thousand remained…】

【But you had fought your way into the royal capital!】

【You had reclaimed the ancient capital that had been in foreign hands for over a decade…】

【In that moment, your heart surged with heroic pride!】

【But three days later… the dark shadows massing outside the Capital City dealt you a devastating blow!】

【It turned out you had fallen into a trap!】

【The foreigners had never returned to the grasslands. They had merely been hiding several hundred li north of the Capital City, waiting for you to enter the city so they could catch you like a turtle in a jar!】

【By the time you realized this, it was already too late…】

【Two hundred thousand soldiers, including a hundred thousand cavalry, bore down upon the Capital City…】

【Yet you had only three thousand men to defend the walls!】

【Three thousand against two hundred thousand… your defeat was certain!】

【This was the most desperate battle of your entire life…】

【Years of battlefield experience allowed you to hold off two hundred thousand attackers with just three thousand elite soldiers for a full ten days!】

【But even so, the city eventually fell…】

【Your personal guards and your son urged you to break through the siege and escape…】

【But you knew that against a hundred thousand cavalry in pursuit, the chances of surviving were virtually zero…】

【Just then, thunder suddenly descended from a sky that had been clear and cloudless moments before…】

【Then fierce winds howled and thunder rolled across the heavens!】

【Countless meteors fell from beyond the sky, crashing directly into the enemy camps outside the Capital City.】

【In a mere quarter of an hour… fewer than one in a thousand of the two hundred thousand soldiers survived!】

【You had won!】

【This sudden meteor shower had saved you!】

【And helped you hold the city…】

【The citizens within the city were terrified by this celestial phenomenon, while the court officials proclaimed it to be the will of Heaven!】

【And you were the true chosen son of Heaven, blessed by destiny itself!】

【And so, that very day, riding the momentum of the meteor shower… you declared yourself Emperor!】

【Everyone was shaken by this heavenly phenomenon…】

【Only you, looking up beyond the thunderclouds that filled the sky, seemed to glimpse two figures locked in a battle of mystic arts…】

【Could it be that immortals truly existed in this world?】

【And so, for the next twenty years, you devoted yourself to seeking immortals, hoping to obtain even a sliver of eternal life…】

【In your sixty-eighth year, after a lifetime of war, you were bedridden and could no longer rise.】

【Yet in your heart, there had always been a dream of immortality…】

【That day, that scene of immortals battling in the sky… that meteor shower — it haunted you until the very end…】

【Lying upon your dragon-carved jade bed, you slowly closed your eyes, bringing an end to your magnificent and tumultuous life!】

【In the moments before death, your entire life flashed before your eyes…】

【You seemed to return to infancy… to those swaddling clothes in that impoverished household.】

【You seemed to remember everything…】

【A single tear traced down from the corner of your eye!】

【When you came to your senses again, you had returned to the spirit field grotto-heaven…】

【You knew — you were the cultivator Su Xing… and also that emperor born into poverty, who lived a tumultuous life, and spent his final years seeking immortality…】

【That mortal’s magnificent life, every scene from those bygone days… etched itself into your memory.】

【You sensed the vast chasm between the immortal and the mortal…】

【Within your body, the seed of immortal nature that had been planted long ago began to take root and sprout!】

【Congratulations — you have successfully passed the Heart Refinement Trial!】

In the Real World, Su Xing let out a long breath of relief when he read this.

The cold lines of text before his eyes made it hard for Su Xing to truly experience the emotions firsthand.

“So… that was the Heart Refinement Trial?”

Su Xing furrowed his brow slightly.

“It seems… I simply lived out a mortal’s entire life? Even as an emperor… I was still just a mortal!”

Su Xing was somewhat puzzled.

Even in the simulation, that life could be called one-in-a-million, blessed by fortune itself — but it was still just a mortal life!

The gap between that and an immortal was simply too vast!

“Wait… mortal and immortal? Could it be… the Heart Refinement Trial is meant to transform one’s mindset from mortal to immortal?!”

Su Xing seemed to have figured it out.

But whether things were truly as he supposed would have to wait until the simulation ended for verification…

“Tsk tsk, the Heart Refinement Trial was passed just like that?”

“It seems… it wasn’t that hard!”

Su Xing raised an eyebrow, in quite good spirits, and turned his gaze back to the simulation panel.

【After passing the Heart Refinement Trial, when you emerged from seclusion, you discovered that a full ten years had already passed!】

【In the forty-fifth year, you emerged from seclusion!】

【You had become a true Tribulation Crossing stage cultivator!】

【The Heart Refinement Trial is the most perilous of the five trials of Spirit Transformation. Failure would mean being reduced to a mere Loose Immortal…】

【Having passed the Heart Refinement Trial, you now possessed a transcendent state of mind and willpower… Under the Red Moon’s influence, you would perhaps no longer be affected!】

【But you also knew that Qingyunzi likely had fewer than ten years before emerging from seclusion.】

【And once Qingyunzi discovered your whereabouts, you would almost certainly face death…】

【So you hesitated no longer and immediately began preparations to leave this realm…】

【You traded with Fairy Ziling and departed the Azure Cloud Realm aboard a flying vessel.】

【Before leaving, you left a voice-recording jade slip for Fairy Ziling, containing your speculations about Qingyunzi’s attempt to sever the Three Corpses…】