Chapter 422 – A Treasure Land Even Great Firmament Golden Immortals Dream Of: Grand Grotto-Heaven Complete!
by spirapiraChapter 422 – A Treasure Land Even Great Firmament Golden Immortals Dream Of: Grand Grotto-Heaven Complete!
In the Real World, Su Xing saw this and gave a slight nod.
“Formation Dao seventeenth order — that’s certainly worth using one immersive simulation…”
“If I keep using simulation exchanges for comprehension, it would waste time and the cost would be exorbitant…”
“A hundred years of immersive simulation should be enough for me to raise my Formation Dao to the seventeenth order!”
With this thought, Su Xing silently intoned:
“Use immersive simulation, duration one hundred years…”
【Ding… remaining origin energy: 1,164,456 points…】
As the Chime faded, Su Xing’s consciousness entered the simulated world.
…
Within the Luotian Realm, Su Xing held up a thick ancient tome — it was the Detailed Exposition of Celestial Secrets Formation Dao, written by the Celestial Secrets Pavilion Master himself.
After merely skimming through a portion, Su Xing was already deeply moved:
“When it comes to the Formation Dao in this world, if the Celestial Secrets Pavilion Master claimed second place, I’m afraid no one would dare claim first…”
Su Xing was already a sixteenth-order Formation Dao Paragon, yet simply reading the insights the Celestial Secrets Pavilion Master had written in this ancient tome left him profoundly enlightened.
This showed just how enormous the gap remained between Su Xing’s Formation Dao and the level of the Celestial Secrets Pavilion Master.
“Then, let the formal study of the Formation Dao begin!”
Su Xing brewed a cup of Dao-Enlightenment Tea, activating the comprehension boost of his transcendent state.
He took out an array of formation materials and began laying formations while simultaneously studying the Celestial Secrets Pavilion Master’s detailed exposition on the Formation Dao.
Just like that, thirty-six years passed in the blink of an eye.
…
On this day, Su Xing took out pre-prepared formation materials and with a wave of his hand, laid down a massive Breath-Concealing Formation large enough to cover an entire city.
“A fifteenth-order Celestial Origin Breath-Concealing Formation, and it only took a few breaths to set up…”
“In thirty-six years, my Formation Dao comprehension has improved enormously… but it still seems like there’s some distance before I can lay a seventeenth-order spirit-gathering formation.”
Su Xing shook his head slightly.
In thirty-six years, Su Xing had consumed roughly two cups of Dao-Enlightenment Tea.
Counting the bonuses from the Dao-Enlightenment Tea, Wisdom in Foolishness, Late Bloomer, and other enhancements, one year of Su Xing’s comprehension was equivalent to two thousand years for an ordinary cultivator.
Thirty-six years of time was equivalent to seventy-two thousand years of Formation Dao study.
Even so, Su Xing was still one step away from being able to lay a seventeenth-order spirit-gathering formation.
“The myriad Daos of this world truly do grow more difficult the further one progresses… This single step is enough to block the bitter cultivation of countless cultivators!”
“Fortunately, for me, any foundation that requires time to accumulate is no obstacle…”
At present, he still had two cups of Dao-Enlightenment Tea remaining, ten Dao-Hearing Pills, and one Spontaneous Epiphany.
With abundant trump cards, Su Xing was fully capable of pushing himself to the level of a seventeenth-order Formation Dao Paragon.
Thinking this, Su Xing brewed another fresh pot of Dao-Enlightenment Tea and resumed his study.
…
When the hundred-year immersive simulation ended, Su Xing returned to reality.
Recalling the memories in his mind, Su Xing nodded slightly with satisfaction:
“Formation Dao Paragon, at the level capable of laying a seventeenth-order spirit-gathering formation — I’ve finally reached it!”
With a thought, Su Xing waved his hand and the pre-prepared spirit brush and talisman ink danced through the air.
Immediately after, a palm-sized micro spirit-gathering formation appeared in Su Xing’s hand.
“A ninth-order micro spirit-gathering formation… I managed to master it as a byproduct during my study…”
After replacing the original micro spirit-gathering formation with this newly laid ninth-order one, Su Xing could clearly feel that his spiritual energy absorption speed had increased considerably.
“Not bad — my cultivation speed has increased by roughly fifty percent… Now I just need the Grand Grotto-Heaven to be successfully established, and my future Golden Immortal cultivation will proceed without obstruction!”
Su Xing’s habit was to plan ahead. Although he didn’t currently have enough energy, that was only temporary. There was never anything wrong with preparing what was needed for cultivation in advance.
“The goal of this simulation has been successfully achieved. For the remaining time, I’ll plant some more Spirit-Gathering Flowers and then attempt to establish the Grand Grotto-Heaven!”
As Su Xing thought this, his gaze turned to the simulation panel.
【Year 350: You emerged from seclusion in the Luotian Realm.】
【A hundred years of immersive simulation within the Luotian Realm corresponded to merely three years passing in the outside world…】
【Next, you planted Spirit-Gathering Flowers within the Luotian Realm and prepared to gather materials for the Grand Grotto-Heaven’s construction.】
【Another fifty years passed…】
【Year 400: The spirit field grotto-heaven you carry with you now contained over one million Spirit-Gathering Flowers.】
【Although the number was enormous, it was still insufficient for the upgrade to a Grand Grotto-Heaven.】
【So over the next hundred years, you continued cultivating Spirit-Gathering Flowers.】
【Year 500: In your spirit field grotto-heaven, the number of Spirit-Gathering Flowers had reached three million!】
【Three million Spirit-Gathering Flowers sounds like a lot, but for a spirit field grotto-heaven spanning eight thousand li (4,000 km), it was already quite remarkable just to maintain blessed land-level spiritual energy throughout the entire domain.】
【So next, you began developing your spirit field grotto-heaven, selecting a ten-li (5 km)-wide mountain valley to fashion into your personal cave dwelling.】
【From the feng shui layout of the cave dwelling to the range of the spirit-gathering formation, you crafted everything by hand, striving to ensure sufficient spiritual energy within the dwelling.】
【Around this cave dwelling’s mountain valley, you planted over a million Spirit-Gathering Flowers, and under the guidance of the spirit-gathering formation, gathered the spiritual energy they produced.】
【Using the power of space, you transported a small mountain a hundred zhang (333 m) tall, then carved channels and planted spiritual herbs.】
【Under the Water-Gathering Formation’s effect, a mountain stream filled with spirit liquid flowed gently down from the mountaintop…】
【Within the valley, you specially carved out a pond for the Spirit Vein Dragon. After thousands of years of recovery, the Spirit Vein Dragon’s injuries had long since healed, and it continuously released spiritual energy without end.】
【The quality of the cave dwelling improved further…】
【Thus, after a hundred years of painstaking effort, you had finally perfectly crafted a cave dwelling most suited to yourself.】
【From the artifact refinement chamber and pill refinement chamber to the formation workshop, areas rich in spiritual energy were specifically designated for cultivation.】
【This cave dwelling could provide you with tens of thousands of drops of supreme-grade spirit liquid each day…】
【However, after waiting for a long time, as the spiritual energy within the cave dwelling gradually climbed, still no immortal liquid was born.】
In the Real World, Su Xing frowned slightly at this.
“How can this be? Still no immortal liquid… This means the cave dwelling is still stuck at the supreme-grade grotto-heaven level… It still hasn’t reached the Grand Grotto-Heaven level!”
“No matter how much supreme-grade spirit liquid is produced, without immortal liquid being born, there can be no qualitative transformation…”
Su Xing carefully reviewed everything he had done during the simulation — the cave dwelling’s layout — searching for any possible oversight.
But no matter how Su Xing analyzed it, everything that could be done had already been done to perfection.
“Could it be… that a Grand Grotto-Heaven truly cannot be created in this world?”
Su Xing found this hard to accept.
If it was possible for a Grand Grotto-Heaven to come into existence in this world, then Su Xing could certainly build one.
Setting everything else aside, just those three million Spirit-Gathering Flowers — apart from Su Xing, no other power in the entire world could produce such a quantity.
“Perhaps I’m still missing some critical element?”
“No, it seems I need to go to the Celestial Secrets Pavilion and find the answer…”
Su Xing felt that the birth of immortal liquid in a Grand Grotto-Heaven was probably not so simple — it couldn’t be achieved through the pure accumulation of spiritual energy alone.
Perhaps there were records within the Celestial Secrets Pavilion regarding the principles behind the formation of a Grand Grotto-Heaven.
With this thought, Su Xing’s gaze turned to the simulation panel.
【In search of the principles behind the Grand Grotto-Heaven’s creation, you traveled to the Celestial Secrets Pavilion.】
【After paying a sum of contribution points, you entered the Scripture Pavilion within the Celestial Secrets Pavilion — the most comprehensive treasure vault of ancient texts and cultivation techniques in all the Three Thousand Worlds.】
【After searching through this Scripture Pavilion for a long time, you finally found information on how to construct a Grand Grotto-Heaven.】
【A Grand Grotto-Heaven is something born of innate creation. To artificially construct one, in addition to needing sufficient spiritual energy supply, the most crucial requirement is a supreme treasure to anchor the grotto-heaven.】
【At minimum, a supreme-grade innate spirit treasure is needed as the grotto-heaven’s core anchor for construction to proceed.】
【For other cultivators, this might be as difficult as ascending to the heavens, but for you, it was effortless.】
【You returned to the spirit field grotto-heaven and silently awakened the Luotian Mirror within your body, then placed a projection of the Luotian Mirror within the cave dwelling’s mountain valley.】
【Under the anchoring power of a primordial chaos treasure’s projection, the entire cave dwelling underwent earth-shaking transformations in mere moments.】
【As if a core had been injected, the entire cave dwelling began operating at a frenetic pace.】
【The spiritual energy in the air became visibly several times denser. Within the ten-li (5 km) radius of the cave dwelling, cultivators would feel incomparably comfortable — it was like a paradise among mortals.】
【You finally understood what a Grand Grotto-Heaven truly was… This was absolutely a cave dwelling that any cultivator — even immortals — would dream of possessing.】
【Within this Grand Grotto-Heaven, you could feel your cultivation speed increase by roughly several fold.】
【At the same time, each day the Water-Gathering Formation within the cave dwelling would produce over a thousand drops of alluring immortal liquid.】
【This immortal liquid contained energy a hundredfold greater than supreme-grade spirit liquid, was easier to absorb, and held immense benefits for immortals.】
【After consuming merely a thousand drops of immortal liquid, your previously mostly depleted magical power was fully restored. This immortal liquid was not only an excellent elixir for cultivation, but also a treasure for restoring magical power during combat.】
【With this, you now possessed a cultivation cave dwelling that even Great Firmament Golden Immortals dreamed of in this era — a Grand Grotto-Heaven!】
In the Real World, a flash of excitement passed through Su Xing’s eyes as he saw this.
“So that’s how it is — you need a supreme treasure as an anchor to construct a complete Grand Grotto-Heaven…”
Su Xing blinked. It had truly come without any effort at all.
Even a supreme-grade innate treasure might not have an anchoring effect as good as the Luotian Mirror’s projection, right?
After all, while innate treasures were rare in the world, there were still several hundred of them.
But primordial chaos treasures like the Luotian Mirror — in all the Three Thousand Worlds, there were only a mere three.
What excited Su Xing the most was the cultivation speed boost the Grand Grotto-Heaven provided.
“Within the Grand Grotto-Heaven, the spiritual energy is at least ten times that of a supreme-grade grotto-heaven… Cultivation speed will also increase several fold.”
“And with a daily production of a thousand drops of immortal liquid, where a single drop is equivalent to at least a hundred drops of supreme-grade spirit liquid… that means the daily output is equivalent to a hundred thousand drops of supreme-grade spirit liquid!”
Su Xing had just thought this when he shook his head slightly.
The preciousness of immortal liquid was far beyond what supreme-grade spirit liquid could compare to.
Immortal liquid was easier to absorb and its spiritual energy was pure and refined. Golden Immortal cultivators could absorb it directly, converting it very easily into their own cultivation and magical power.
Spirit liquid, on the other hand, even though it was already far more refined than ordinary spiritual energy and spirit stones, inevitably contained impurities. Cultivators above the Golden Immortal level, even when using supreme-grade spirit liquid for cultivation, still needed to filter out impurities.
This made cultivation considerably less effortless.
Therefore, even in ancient times, let alone trading a hundred drops of supreme-grade spirit liquid for one drop of immortal liquid — even at a thousand drops, cultivators might not be willing to make the exchange.
It was roughly the same disparity as between spirit stones and spirit liquid.
“Moreover, in this current era… there are probably fewer than five places in all the Three Thousand Worlds capable of producing immortal liquid, aren’t there?”
“Even some Great Firmament Golden Immortals may not have any means of obtaining immortal liquid…”
After a pause, Su Xing continued:
“Now that the immortal liquid and Grand Grotto-Heaven have been successfully completed… it’s time to test my cultivation speed!”
Su Xing wanted to see how long it would take to make progress at the Golden Immortal stage with his current cultivation speed.
His gaze turned to the simulation panel.
【Year 500: You successfully constructed a Grand Grotto-Heaven level cave dwelling within the spirit field grotto-heaven — something even Great Firmament Golden Immortals dream of.】
【Over the next hundred years, you entered closed-door cultivation within the Grand Grotto-Heaven. Aided by the Zhengyi Breath Absorption Art, your cultivation advanced by leaps and bounds.】
【With each day of cultivation, you could feel the accumulation of your magical power.】
【If the old you was like using a ladle to fill the sea of immortal power within you, then now, each cultivation session was like filling it with buckets — efficiency improved by more than several fold.】
【But the magical power of a Golden Immortal was truly unfathomably deep, and making progress was as difficult as ascending to the heavens.】
【For a Golden Immortal, breaking through one minor realm in several tens of thousands of years was already considered extremely fast.】
【Without fortuitous encounters or the aid of heavenly treasures, even a hundred thousand years might not be enough to break through.】
【But cultivating within the Grand Grotto-Heaven, combined with your own Ethereal Root and a cultivation aptitude that was already the world’s finest…】
【In merely two hundred years, you had already touched the threshold of Golden Immortal first layer mid-stage.】
【Year 700: While cultivating your magical power, you expanded your Spirit Domain range to nine thousand five hundred li (4,750 km), extremely close to the ten-thousand-li (5,000 km) mark.】
【You knew that time for cultivation was running short, so you redoubled your efforts to increase your magical power.】
【Thus, another hundred years passed…】
【Year 800: On a quiet afternoon, after completing a cycle of circulating your magical power, your cultivation successfully broke through to Golden Immortal first layer mid-stage.】
【In merely three hundred years, your cultivation had achieved a minor breakthrough.】
【That same year, your Spirit Domain range expanded to nine thousand nine hundred li (4,950 km)… just one step away from reaching ten thousand li (5,000 km) and ascending to the Spirit Realm.】
In the Real World, Su Xing nodded with satisfaction as he saw this.
“Three hundred years, from Golden Immortal first layer early stage to Golden Immortal first layer mid-stage — that speed is absolutely not slow!”
“What’s more, this was without the boost of a gold-tier Late Bloomer… With that enhancement, I could complete a minor breakthrough in under two hundred years.”
“From Golden Immortal first layer to Golden Immortal second layer, it would probably only take a mere six or seven hundred years…”
“This cultivation speed is even three-tenths faster than when I was at the Mystic Immortal stage!”
Compared to ordinary Golden Immortals who typically took fifty thousand to a hundred thousand years for a single realm breakthrough, the fact that Su Xing could guarantee at least one cultivation breakthrough per simulation was truly astonishing.
“And my Spirit Domain is not far from completing its breakthrough either…”
“Then for this simulation, let me try to comprehend the Spirit Realm!”
The corner of Su Xing’s mouth curved upward. He still remembered that the Mirror of The Void in the Celestial Secrets Pavilion still offered one more opportunity to increase his strength…