Chapter 57 – A Narrow Escape

Chapter 57 – A Narrow Escape

【Inside the alchemy furnace, darkness surrounded you on all sides. You could feel the temperature continuing to rise, your entire body unbearably hot and stifling.】

【From outside the furnace came Grand Protector Zong’s sinister laughter. He told you that he intended to refine you into an unprecedented pill of supreme nourishment, one that would help him break through to the Void Return realm.】

【You said nothing, but your mind raced for a way out. As long as you were inside this furnace, if you could enter the Blessed Spirit Field, you would surely escape the old dog’s torment.】

【Unfortunately, entering the Blessed Spirit Field required spiritual energy to activate, and every last drop of spiritual energy in your body had been sealed. There was simply no way to enter.】

【Your storage ring had long since been taken by Grand Protector Zong. You didn’t have a single spirit stone to reconstitute your spiritual energy.】

【You seemed to have reached a dead end, with nothing to do but wait as time slowly passed, until the day you were refined into a pill.】

【After an unknown amount of time, you awoke from unconsciousness. Faintly, you could still hear Grand Protector Zong’s voice nearby. It seemed he didn’t trust the process enough to leave, so he stood guard beside the furnace at all times, afraid that something might go wrong during the refinement.】

【Days passed one by one. Refining you into a pill apparently required a long process, and during this time, Grand Protector Zong grew bored. He began talking to himself.】

【From his murmuring, you learned that you would need to be refined for seven times seven—forty-nine days—before you would become a pill.】

【You breathed a sigh of relief. This meant you still had a chance to escape.】

【Over the following days, you repeatedly attempted to break through the seal on your dantian, trying to reconstitute your spiritual energy. But without a single wisp of spiritual energy in this world, you simply could not.】

【Several more days passed. From Grand Protector Zong’s ramblings, you learned that today was the seventh day of your refinement.】

【You also learned that Grand Protector Zong came from a cultivation world dungeon—he was a native of that dungeon’s world. However, that world had already entered the Dharma-Ending Era, with no possibility whatsoever of further advancement in cultivation.】

【Grand Protector Zong had once consumed a pill called the Yellow Springs Pill, which could put the user into a deep slumber, thereby extending their lifespan. It wasn’t until a hundred years ago that the Advent Cult found him and roused him from his sleep. In order to achieve immortality, Grand Protector Zong chose to join the Advent Cult.】

【Grand Protector Zong said his remaining lifespan was nearly spent. Only by refining you into a pill of supreme nourishment could he extend his years and buy enough time to find a cultivation world.】

Su Xing stared at this for a long while in silence. In the latter half of this simulation, though his experiences had been miserable, he had obtained an unprecedented amount of information.

First, Grand Protector Zong’s origins were now clear—he truly did come from a cultivation world, one that had already entered the Dharma-Ending Era.

Su Xing recalled the information about cultivation dungeons he had obtained in a previous simulation.

“This Grand Protector Zong must have come from the dungeon codenamed ‘Dharma-Ending Era.’ He cultivates the Eternal Spring Art, so he must be from the sect called the Eternal Spring Sect!”

“But this old dog Zong is actually a Spirit Transformation stage cultivator, and his lifespan is nearly spent—doesn’t that mean he’s lived for almost a thousand years?”

Nascent Soul cultivators live five hundred years; Spirit Transformation cultivators live a thousand!

This old dog had joined the Advent Cult a hundred years ago. Beyond his formidable strength, the mysterious and unpredictable methods of a cultivator were likely his greatest trump card.

“As expected, Grand Protector Zong is absolutely not someone to be trifled with. In future simulations, I must never join the Zealot Faction again.”

Su Xing murmured while stroking his chin, though he also harbored some doubts.

In several previous simulations, he had also encountered Grand Protector Zong. Why hadn’t Grand Protector Zong imprisoned and tortured him then? After all, Grand Protector Zong also cultivated the Eternal Spring Art—he should have seen through Su Xing’s secrets immediately.

A sudden flash of insight struck Su Xing:

“Perhaps it was Protector Shadow who shielded me? After all, Protector Shadow’s strength is equally unfathomable—she might not be any weaker than Grand Protector Zong…” “Back then I joined the Transhuman Faction, so naturally Protector Shadow would protect me… That old dog Zong might have negotiated with Protector Shadow, but she ultimately chose to keep me safe. In the end, the old dog was wary of Protector Shadow, so he didn’t dare make a move!”

“Yes, that must be it! As for Protector Shadow’s reason for protecting me—perhaps she felt I was younger and had more potential, or that I aligned with her ideals? So she took a favorable view of me…”

Su Xing stroked his chin. This simulation had yielded so much information that his thoughts were somewhat jumbled for the moment.

Su Xing shook his head and continued the simulation.

【Day twenty-one. Your body had begun to gradually dissolve, showing signs of transforming into a pill. This made you realize that if you didn’t escape this furnace soon, you might truly be refined into a pill!】

【But you had absolutely no strength to resist. You couldn’t muster even a shred of energy, and outside, a Spirit Transformation stage old dog kept watch over you.】

【Just as you were on the verge of despair, Grand Protector Zong lifted a small corner of the furnace lid and tossed in several stalks of spirit herbs.】

【You were momentarily dumbfounded. Using a person to refine pills was one thing, but Grand Protector Zong had actually thrown in spirit herbs as well. The man had clearly never watched Journey to the West.】

【Several verdant green spirit herbs scattered around your body. Though you could barely move at this point, you desperately wriggled toward the herbs with everything you had.】

【You were less than a meter from the herbs, but that meter might as well have been an impassable chasm. Using your head as a pivot, you gave everything you had, spending over an hour to painstakingly inch your way to the herbs.】

【You could smell the alluring fragrance of the spirit herbs and feel the abundant spiritual energy they contained.】

【Without a moment’s hesitation, you opened your mouth wide and swallowed one of the herbs whole. Then you frantically circulated your cultivation art, trying to recover even the faintest trace of spiritual energy within your body.】

【You succeeded. After several hours of effort, a sliver of spiritual energy finally returned to your body.】

【Without hesitation, you activated the Blessed Spirit Field. Your entire body vanished from the spot in an instant.】

【Arriving in the Blessed Spirit Field, your anxious heart finally settled. No matter how powerful that old dog Zong was, he couldn’t possibly cross through space to reach you inside the field.】

Su Xing let out a breath of relief at this and muttered:

“Damn, this simulation was way too brutal! I nearly got refined into a Human Pill… As expected, I can’t afford to reveal my strength. Playing it safe is what matters most!”

Su Xing’s thoughts churned. He had originally believed that after breaking through to Organ Refining Realm, Ninth Layer, with real combat power comparable to a master-tier Class User, he could already be considered a minor powerhouse.

But he hadn’t expected the world to be this treacherous. With his current strength, he could barely protect himself.

“As expected, school is the safest place… Until I have absolute strength, I must never venture out and take risks!”

Su Xing muttered to himself.

Then he continued the simulation.

【Though Grand Protector Zong couldn’t enter the field, you could already imagine the scene of him flying into a rage upon discovering your disappearance. But by the same token, you had no way to return to the real world either…】

【Because you knew that the moment you went back, Grand Protector Zong, who stood guard, would seize you immediately. For the time being, the situation had reached a stalemate.】