Chapter 455 – A Hidden Black Hand? Su Xing’s Test!
by spirapiraChapter 455 – A Hidden Black Hand? Su Xing’s Test!
It took Su Xing quite a while before he managed to free himself from that creeping sense of dread.
“Regardless of whether such an existence is real or not… increasing my strength is an absolute necessity!”
“Only with sufficient power will I have a better chance of dealing with whatever comes…”
“For now, let me check the rewards from this simulation!”
Su Xing took a deep breath and turned his gaze toward the reward list.
【Thousand Illusions】: Red talent. Price: 100 origin energy.
【Spirit Realm 50,000 Li (25,000 km)】: Spirit Domain metamorphosis, reaching the Spirit Realm level. Within the Spirit Realm’s range, the power of supernatural arts and spatial Dao is massively enhanced. The Spirit Realm gradually evolves toward a real world. Price: 500,000 origin energy.
【Golden Immortal Eighth Stage late-phase cultivation】: Price: 10,000,000 origin energy.
【Great Shaman Body Forging Art cultivation results】: Great Shaman Body Forging Art, Sixth Layer Major Mastery. Primordial Energy Tree at six zhang (19.98 m) six chi (2 m). Primordial energy flows endlessly. Price: 5,000,000 origin energy!
【Alchemy insights】: One hundred years of alchemy experience. Price: 100,000 origin energy.
Su Xing glanced over the rewards from this simulation. Apart from the alchemy insights, he wanted every single one of them.
But the origin energy he currently had on hand was only 15,060,975 points… At best, after extracting both Body Tempering and Qi Refinement cultivation, Su Xing would have virtually nothing left.
“But the cultivation is absolutely essential to extract!”
Su Xing didn’t hesitate and chose to extract his Qi Refinement and Body Tempering cultivation along with the new red talent first.
As for the Spirit Realm comprehension… that would have to wait.
The Chime of the simulator sounded in his ears.
【Ding! Congratulations on extracting your Golden Immortal cultivation… Remaining origin energy: 5,060,975 points…】
【Congratulations on extracting your Great Shaman Body Forging Art cultivation results… Remaining origin energy: 60,975 points…】
【Congratulations on extracting the red talent Thousand Illusions… Remaining origin energy: 60,865 points…】
As three consecutive chimes rang out, Su Xing’s aura surged explosively once more!
His cultivation realm successfully broke through from Peak Golden Immortal Seventh Stage into Golden Immortal Eighth Stage, then continued climbing all the way to the late phase of the eighth stage.
The mana within his body had grown nearly twenty percent thicker.
His Primordial Energy Tree, previously at five zhang (16.65 m) six chi (2 m), had also grown to six zhang (19.98 m) six chi (2 m), granting Su Xing another considerable boost to both his primordial energy and physical body.
On his simulation panel, a new red talent appeared — Thousand Illusions!
After spending a moment adapting to his increased strength, Su Xing turned his thoughts back to planning his next steps.
“With just over sixty thousand origin energy left… that’s definitely not enough!”
“But I still have two simulation attempts remaining — that should be enough to push me to Peak Golden Immortal!”
“I absolutely must obtain every last Star Stone at the Star Assembly… but before that, there are some problems I need to deal with!”
A thought flickered through Su Xing’s mind, and instantly the positions of several Advent Cult operatives lurking throughout the Star Realm, as well as several alien gods, became crystal clear to him.
“The moment I show my face at the Star Assembly, these Advent Cult operatives will definitely report the intelligence back to Blood Four…”
“So I need to eliminate the problems first… Based on the simulation, Blood Four will mobilize and head to the Star Realm to investigate in roughly half a year to a year.”
“But by then, I’ll have long since departed…”
“From previous simulations, I know that the Advent Cult’s senior operatives possess something similar to life tablets — whether I kill them or not, the Cult will be informed…”
Su Xing pondered carefully.
Regardless of whether he dealt with these Advent Cult operatives, as long as he took the Star Stones, it would attract the attention of both the Advent Cult and the alien races.
Therefore, striking first was undoubtedly the right move!
This way, the Advent Cult operatives lurking in the Star Realm would report back later, buying him more time.
His mind made up, Su Xing hesitated no further.
He gently extended both hands and tore at the void. A spatial passage appeared before him.
The next second, Su Xing materialized beside one of the Advent Cult operatives.
There was no suspense whatsoever — an instant kill.
In mere moments, Su Xing had slaughtered all three Advent Cult operatives along with every last alien entity.
Having finished, Su Xing returned to the Purple Star Tribe and took stock of his gains.
“Huh… the Advent Cult operatives were surprisingly wealthy?”
Su Xing’s eyes gleamed.
One of the operatives had been close to Golden Immortal level, while the other two were both Mystic Immortals.
After converting all the resources from their storage rings into simulation energy, Su Xing gained nearly five million more origin energy!
Then there were the alien beings lurking in the Star Realm. The corpse of one alien True God provided Su Xing with approximately one hundred thousand origin energy.
The corpses of two third-rank deities provided him with close to two million origin energy!
With that, Su Xing’s origin energy total reached seven million points once again!
Rather than rushing to the Star Assembly, Su Xing first chose to extract the Spirit Realm comprehension.
【Ding! Congratulations on extracting Spirit Realm 50,000 Li (25,000 km). Cost: 550,000 origin energy… Remaining origin energy: 6,653,567 points…】
As the chime faded, Su Xing’s Spirit Realm expanded by another small margin.
“Alright… the hidden threats in the Star Realm have been more or less dealt with…”
“Next, it’s time to head to the Star Assembly and collect the Star Stones!”
Su Xing murmured.
Following that, Su Xing proceeded to the Star Assembly in his capacity as Lord of the Stars, collecting all the Star Stones contributed by the various tribes.
It had been roughly half a year since Su Xing last collected Star Stones.
In that time, several hundred more tribes from across the Star Realm had come to attend the Assembly, providing Su Xing with a full thirty million origin energy!
With that, Su Xing’s origin energy temporarily reached the forty-million threshold.
“Forty million origin energy… two simulation attempts remaining…”
“After this batch of energy is collected, the Star Realm won’t be able to provide large quantities of origin energy again for quite some time…”
Su Xing murmured.
“So when my strength reaches the Peak Golden Immortal bottleneck… that will also be the time for the lesser demon deities to make their move!”
A subtle gleam flickered in Su Xing’s eyes.
“And then there’s that potential hidden threat in reality… The future keeps shifting — what’s the real reason behind it?”
“I can only hope it’s not the worst-case scenario I’ve been imagining…”
Su Xing took a deep breath, turned his gaze to the simulation panel, and silently intoned:
“Begin simulation!”
【Simulation #165 initiated. Current remaining origin energy: 40,327,892 points… Remaining simulation attempts: 1.】
【Simulation begins!】
【Drawing a talent costs 1 origin energy. Draw?】
“Yes!”
【Ding! Congratulations on drawing the gold talent ‘Background Extra A.’ Next draw probability: gold talent 80%, red talent 20%…】
【background extra a】: Gold talent. An enhanced version of the “I’m background extra a” talent. Drastically diminishes the bearer’s presence — a conceptual background extra who simply won’t be noticed. (This talent is only effective against targets below half-saint level. Against targets whose power exceeds the conceptual threshold, the talent has no effect.)
“A gold-tier background extra a talent!?”
Su Xing’s eyes lit up when he saw the newly drawn talent.
The previous “I’m background extra a” talent had already produced terrifyingly potent effects.
And now, the background extra a that Su Xing had drawn was a gold-tier talent — one could only imagine how powerful it would be!
Seeing the new talent, Su Xing’s lips curled upward as he murmured:
“A pillow arrives just when you’re drowsy… It seems this time my plan can be executed even more perfectly!”
Su Xing narrowed his eyes.
The last few simulations had been highly unusual — the changes in the simulated future were growing more and more drastic, and the pace of alien invasion was accelerating!
Su Xing wasn’t even sure whether the cause of these changes was his real self or his simulated self.
To that end, Su Xing’s plan was to lay completely low throughout the next simulation — never exposing himself, never intervening in any war between the alien races and the human race — seeking only to preserve his own life.
Under these conditions, Su Xing wanted to see whether the timeline for the fall of the Azure Origin Domain and the Southern Barbarian Domain would still be moved up!
If it was still moved up, that would mean right now, in reality, the alien races had for some reason accelerated their pace of invading the Three Thousand Worlds!
And the most likely possibility was that some supremely powerful existence among the alien races had deduced that a “Su Xing” had appeared within the human race!
Or rather, this existence might not have directly observed Su Xing, but had instead sensed that a certain “variable” had emerged among the human race!
And had been compelled to accelerate the invasion of the Three Thousand Worlds!
“Then… let me see whether you truly exist…”
Su Xing narrowed his eyes, his gaze fixed on the simulation panel.
【Please select the target for Plus One talent augmentation…】
“I choose to augment the Late Bloomer talent…”
【In the spirit field grotto-heaven, you realized you are in a simulation!】
【You left the Star Realm, erased all traces of yourself, shielded the karmic secrets, and traveled to the Lesser Azure Cloud Realm after disguising your appearance and concealing your breath.】
【You rented a cave dwelling in White Emperor City in the Lesser Azure Cloud Realm for a period of thirty years.】
【Over the next thirty years, you cultivated peacefully in the Lesser Azure Cloud Realm without interfering with any future events.】
【Every ten years, you visited the Celestial Secrets Pavilion branch in White Emperor City to gather intelligence and learn about the state of the Three Thousand Worlds.】
【To your considerable surprise, the timeline for Earth’s destruction had been moved up yet again!】
【A mere two and a half years later… the entire Earth was destroyed, vanishing into the void.】
【And the alien races led by Red Moon erupted with terrifying force, launching a frenzied invasion of the Azure Origin Domain.】
【By merely the thirtieth year of the simulation, the situation in the Lesser Azure Cloud Realm had already intensified to a fever pitch.】
【Fortunately, with the Celestial Demon General’s avatar standing guard, the Lesser Azure Cloud Realm was not yet in danger of annihilation.】
【But the lesser chiliocosms surrounding the Lesser Azure Cloud Realm were not so fortunate…】
【In a mere thirty years, three lesser chiliocosms had been completely invaded, and dozens more minor worlds had been utterly massacred by the alien races.】
【In the fiftieth year of the simulation, you left the Lesser Azure Cloud Realm.】
【By your estimation, in this simulation, the Lesser Azure Cloud Realm would not survive beyond a hundred years…】
【After leaving the Lesser Azure Cloud Realm, you traveled to the second-largest world in the Azure Origin Domain — the Tianyuan Realm!】
【As a Greater World guarded by two Peak Supreme Unity cultivators, the Tianyuan Realm was temporarily at peace.】
In the Real World, Su Xing’s brow furrowed tightly as he read this.
“The thing I feared most… has actually come to pass!”
“In my previous simulations, I never paid much attention to the state of the Azure Origin Domain… but looking at it now, the premature fall of the Lesser Azure Origin Domain was foreshadowed long ago!”
“And in this simulation, I didn’t intervene at all… which means that in reality, there may truly be some existence out there accelerating the pace of the alien invasion of the Three Thousand Worlds!”
Su Xing drew a deep breath, but with only fifty years of data, he couldn’t be entirely certain.
“No need to rush… let’s keep watching!”
“This simulation, I might as well get a clearer picture of the future state of the Three Thousand Worlds!”
Su Xing murmured, his gaze turning to the simulation panel.
【In the fiftieth year, after arriving in the Tianyuan Realm, you settled in Tianyuan City under a false identity and devoted yourself to cultivation.】
【In addition to your daily cultivation, you also began attempting to refine high-grade pills.】
【At this point, your alchemy skills had barely reached the Grandmaster level, allowing you to refine most eleventh and twelfth-rank immortal pills.】
【But this was still a considerable distance from being able to refine the Celestial Sun Soul-Forging Pill…】
【Fortunately, the inheritance within the Luotian Mirror was sufficient for you to study your way up to the Paragon level of alchemy.】
【Over the next fifty years, the situation in the Azure Origin Domain shifted unpredictably.】
【In those brief fifty years, over a dozen lesser chiliocosms were invaded, and the number of minor worlds lost was beyond counting.】
【In the one hundred and fifth year, you received intelligence from the Celestial Secrets Pavilion: the Lesser Azure Cloud Realm had fallen!】
【The Celestial Demon General’s avatar had erupted with power in its final moments, only to be personally struck down by Red Moon…】
【The momentum of the alien races grew ever more formidable, spreading like a vast net as they accelerated their invasion of the entire Azure Origin Domain.】
【Over the next hundred years, you remained in the Tianyuan Realm, observing the unfolding situation.】
【By the two hundredth year, nearly a quarter of all worlds within the Azure Origin Domain had been completely invaded.】
【The top powers within the Azure Origin Domain, as if only now waking up to the danger, established a cultivator alliance and began a full-scale resistance against the alien races.】
【But you knew it was far too late…】
【In this simulation, because you never traded with Qingyunzi, Qingyunzi would succumb to demonic corruption within three hundred years.】
【And in the entire Azure Origin Domain, apart from one aging Great Firmament Golden Immortal — Sea Emperor Daluo — there was no Great Firmament cultivator standing guard.】
【Sea Emperor Daluo was a Great Firmament Golden Immortal who had been in seclusion for a million years, his true body slumbering within the Azure Cloud Sect all along.】
【Now, with the Azure Origin Domain in dire straits, Sea Emperor Daluo had no choice but to emerge from seclusion to stabilize the situation.】
【But you knew all of this was merely futile…】
【In the two hundred and tenth year, rather than remaining in the Azure Origin Domain, you departed via the Endless Sea toward the Heavenly Secrets Domain.】
In the Real World, Su Xing frowned slightly as he read this.
“A true rout… the entire Azure Origin Domain is being devoured piece by piece by the alien races.”
“Even the sleeping Great Firmament Golden Immortal has been forced to come out of seclusion?”
Su Xing’s mind recalled the intelligence he had on Sea Emperor Daluo.
This Sea Emperor Daluo was also a Great Firmament Golden Immortal who had made his name in the ancient era.
His talent was nothing short of terrifying — he had achieved the Great Firmament fruit as a rogue cultivator.
He later became a supreme retainer of the Azure Cloud Sect, never needing to take action, always keeping a low profile in permanent seclusion.
But given the current state of the Azure Origin Domain, with Qingyunzi on the verge of demonic corruption and unable to exert his full strength, someone needed to step up.
At this moment, a Great Firmament Golden Immortal was needed to stabilize the situation, and Sea Emperor Daluo was the only option, reluctantly emerging from seclusion.
“Sea Emperor Daluo doesn’t seem to be particularly skilled in combat… but he is, after all, a veteran Great Firmament powerhouse who has lived for over a hundred million years.”
“His comprehension of the Great Dao must be considerable… the number of Daos he has advanced to the seventh realm should be more than one!”
Thinking this, Su Xing rubbed his chin and shook his head slightly:
“But with the Azure Origin Domain’s situation deteriorated to this extent… a single Great Firmament Golden Immortal isn’t enough to turn the tide…”
Su Xing knew that at this rate, the Azure Origin Domain’s defeat was merely a matter of time.
“Over two hundred years into the simulation, Qingyunzi’s demonic corruption isn’t far off now…”
“Under these circumstances, I’d be safer in the Heavenly Secrets Domain…”
“But in this simulation, I don’t want to reveal my identity… infiltrating the Celestial Secrets Realm might be rather difficult…”
After a moment of deliberation, Su Xing decided that to gather intelligence more accurately, he would not go to the Celestial Secrets Pavilion to become an Elder and earn contributions this time — doing so would alter the future to some degree.
“If I remember correctly… the Canglang Realm is a good option!”
“In previous simulations, it wasn’t until eighteen hundred years later that the Canglang Realm was invaded…”
“As one of the top Greater Worlds in the Heavenly Secrets Domain, the Canglang Realm is relatively safe, and it’s close to the Celestial Secrets Realm, so gathering intelligence won’t be difficult either…”
With that decided, Su Xing hesitated no further.
He prepared to spend the remainder of this simulation cultivating peacefully in the Canglang Realm.
“With my current strength… even if Blood Three came after me personally, I could find a way to escape…”
“As long as it’s not the Great Firmament Golden Immortal Blood Two personally hunting me down, I should be able to survive.”
“Besides, with the background extra a talent… even Blood Two might not be able to find my trail… I’ll just cultivate in peace and watch the winds of change sweep across the Three Thousand Worlds!”
Su Xing thought to himself.
“But I shouldn’t waste the opportunity for immersive simulation…”
“Activate immersive simulation, duration one hundred years!”
【Ding… remaining origin energy: 40,291,392 points…】
…
Soon, the hundred-year immersive simulation ended, and Su Xing’s consciousness returned to reality.
“What a shame… because I didn’t trade with Qingyunzi this time, the amount of Dao-Enlightenment Tea and Dao-Hearing Pills I obtained was far too little…”
“The Great Dao of Speed reached fifth realm Peak, but there’s still some distance to the sixth realm…”
Su Xing wasn’t frustrated. At most, by the next simulation, the Great Dao of Speed would break through to the sixth realm.
Nowadays, advancing his Great Dao comprehension cost Su Xing very little.
A hundred-year immersive simulation amounted to nothing more than a few tens of thousands of origin energy plus a week of waiting.
What Su Xing currently lacked was origin energy, not simulation attempts.
With that thought, Su Xing turned his gaze to the simulation panel.
【In the two hundred and fiftieth year, you arrived in a Greater World of the Heavenly Secrets Domain — the Canglang Realm.】
【You assumed a false identity and cultivated in “Canglang City,” the largest cultivator city in the Canglang Realm, visiting the Celestial Secrets Pavilion every ten years to gather intelligence.】
【Thus, a hundred and fifty years passed in the blink of an eye!】
【In the four hundredth year, the first batch of Celestial Primordial Fruits ripened, and you began devoting more energy to advancing your body tempering cultivation.】
【In the five hundredth year, the Primordial Energy Tree within your body reached six zhang (19.98 m) and seven chi (2.33 m).】
【In the six hundredth year, you received intelligence that the demonically corrupted Qingyunzi had appeared in the Azure Origin Domain, indiscriminately slaughtering both alien and human cultivators alike.】
【In the seven hundredth year, your cultivation finally reached Peak Golden Immortal Eighth Stage, and you began preparations for a breakthrough.】
【In the eight hundredth year, the first great war between the Heavenly Secrets Domain and the alien races officially erupted. The Celestial Secrets Pavilion and the White Emperor Tower joined forces, calling upon righteous cultivators everywhere to fight together.】
【You chose not to join this battle… instead remaining in the Canglang Realm to cultivate, observing the winds of change from the sidelines.】
【Perhaps due to the background extra a talent, over the course of eight hundred years, you never once encountered an attack from the alien races or the Advent Cult…】