Chapter 59 – Spirit Chickens and Peak-Level Alchemy

The Level 10 Beast Tongue talent had performed far beyond Su Xing’s expectations in this simulation.

First and foremost, during Su Xing’s moment of crisis, it had granted him the ability to communicate with the venomous insects, turning a dire situation around.

Secondly, being able to communicate with the spirit chickens allowed Su Xing to better breed them, improving the quality of their eggs and chicken soup.

In the future, Su Xing could even use this ability to cultivate more useful spirit beasts.

This kind of talent was something you could only stumble upon by chance. If he missed it now, who knew how long he’d have to wait before getting another opportunity.

As for cultivation level, Su Xing’s advancement in this simulation had been limited—it wasn’t something he absolutely had to choose.

After Su Xing made his selections, a system notification chimed in his ears.

【Ding! You have chosen to bring out the complete version of the Eternal Spring Art, spending 500,000 energy points. Remaining energy: 193,000 points.】

【Ding! You have chosen to bring out the blue talent Level 10 Beast Tongue, spending 100,000 energy points. Remaining energy: 93,000 points.】

At the same time, a complete ancient tome appeared in Su Xing’s hands—the full version of the Eternal Spring Art.

Su Xing sighed with some emotion. “The first half of the technique was only worth a mere three thousand energy points, but a technique capable of cultivating all the way to the Void Return stage is valued at five hundred thousand energy points.”

Perhaps in the simulator’s eyes, an incomplete technique that could only reach the Golden Core stage wasn’t worth much—after all, at most it could only produce a Golden Core cultivator.

But being able to reach the Void Return stage was an entirely different matter.

Of course, Su Xing suspected that a large portion of those five hundred thousand energy points was also because the Eternal Spring Art was a component of some even more powerful technique, which was why it held such value.

Su Xing carefully read through the Eternal Spring Art from cover to cover and, sure enough, discovered cultivation formulas for stages beyond the Nascent Soul stage in the second half.

Besides the cultivation formulas, Su Xing also found some cultivation experiences annotated by predecessors—insights left behind by cultivators of the Eternal Spring Sect from times past.

Su Xing immediately felt as though he’d found a treasure. These cultivation experiences were of immense value to him.

Up until now, Su Xing had relied entirely on his own trial and error when cultivating. The experiences recorded in this manual would not only make his cultivation far smoother but also help him avoid many detours.

“So that’s how it is—during the Qi Refinement and Foundation Establishment stages, one must pay attention to expanding the dantian. Only then can a proper foundation be laid for the Golden Core stage, allowing one to condense a higher-grade Golden Core.”

Su Xing sighed softly. The notes described in detail various methods for expanding the dantian, but since Su Xing hadn’t known about them before, his cultivation during the Golden Core stage might be somewhat slower as a result.

“However, it’s not as if there’s no way to compensate. According to these notes, by investing greater effort and time to directly elevate the Golden Core’s quality to the upper grade, one’s cultivation speed will also see a significant boost…”

Su Xing fell into thought, studying the cultivation experiences recorded in the ancient tome over and over, cross-referencing them with everything he’d gained from his own practice these past days. He felt he was benefiting enormously.

After a long while, Su Xing finally snapped out of his contemplation. A look of confidence appeared in his eyes as he said:

“As long as I can master every piece of experience recorded in this book, my cultivation speed might increase by another third!”

A third faster—that was no small figure. It could potentially save Su Xing several simulation runs in the future.

Su Xing carefully put away the ancient tome, then began to contemplate the second reward he’d extracted: the Level 10 Beast Tongue talent.

After sensing it carefully for quite some time, Su Xing couldn’t detect anything different. Just as he was growing puzzled, he suddenly heard a voice coming from the distance.

“Brother Chicken! Can you spare some Spirit rice for me… I don’t need much, just two and a half grains!”

Su Xing froze for a moment upon hearing the voice, then looked toward its source. He soon noticed that in the chicken farm he’d fenced off, several spirit chickens wore ingratiating expressions, apparently hoping to get a few extra grains of Spirit rice.

Meanwhile, a strutting, chest-puffed rooster had a look of undisguised contempt in its eyes as it said casually: “Little punk, it’s not that your Brother Chicken doesn’t want to share—it’s that you lot aren’t putting in the effort! This world runs on survival of the fittest. I’m stronger than you, so naturally I get more Spirit rice…”

Hearing Brother Chicken’s words, the other scrawny spirit chickens immediately trembled with fear.

Su Xing witnessed the entire scene, dark lines forming on his forehead.

“So that’s why the spirit chickens’ evolution has been slowing down lately—turns out there’s a bad apple among the flock! You dare call yourself Brother Chicken? This is messing with my spirit chicken breeding program!”

“Looks like we’re having an extra dish tonight—a serving of spirit chicken soup…”

Su Xing didn’t hesitate. He grabbed a knife and went straight for Brother Chicken with murderous intent.

Knife raised, knife dropped, blood drained, feathers plucked… the entire process was smooth and seamless.

Su Xing sipped his spirit chicken soup while addressing the remaining spirit chickens:

“You are all equal! There’s no such thing as ‘Brother Chicken’ this or ‘Brother Chicken’ that. Anyone who dares prevent other chickens from evolving is my enemy!”

These spirit chickens, having just witnessed their strongest member fail to cause so much as a ripple in Su Xing’s hands—at most earning him a satisfied burp—were now trembling from head to toe.

“Ah! There is only one Brother Chicken in this world, and that is our great master! I, Little Punk, swear to defend Brother Chicken with my life from this day forward!”

Watching the flock of spirit chickens pledge their loyalty, dark lines once again appeared on Su Xing’s forehead.

Great, now I’ve become Brother Chicken?

Su Xing pursed his lips, but over these past several months, his spirit chicken breeding program had actually progressed at a decent pace.

By now, the Second-Generation Spirit Chickens had already begun maturing. These spirit chickens provided Su Xing with a steady supply of spirit chicken eggs each day—anywhere from several dozen at minimum to fifty or sixty at most.

Su Xing had so many spirit chicken eggs that he couldn’t even finish eating them all. Moreover, these spirit chicken eggs were even more effective than Spirit rice, continuously nourishing Su Xing’s physical body—and all he needed to invest was some Spirit rice.

Over the following week, Su Xing carried on as usual and refined three hundred Beauty-Preserving Pills. But beyond the Beauty-Preserving Pills, in a Flash of Inspiration, he also refined some budget versions of healing pills and Essence Nurturing Pills to keep on hand for emergencies.

Without spirit herbs of sufficient age, Su Xing was completely unable to refine Organ Tempering Pills. Even the healing pills and Essence Nurturing Pills he made had only a tenth of their normal potency.

But even so, the Essence Nurturing Pills were precious medicines capable of directly boosting a cultivator’s spiritual energy—and even a Class User’s mental attributes.

However, after some experimentation, Su Xing found that the budget Essence Nurturing Pills lost all effectiveness after consuming several dozen of them. The improvement they offered was quite limited and couldn’t compare to genuine Essence Nurturing Pills, which could continuously strengthen a cultivator’s spiritual energy.

Still, the budget version had the advantage of using cheap, readily available materials and a simple refinement process. Su Xing could produce several hundred of them in a single day.

After developing the budget version of the Essence Nurturing Pill, Su Xing was surprised to discover that in his skill panel, his mastery of Essence Nurturing Pill refinement had risen from Great Accomplishment to Peak level.

This came as a pleasant surprise. Among all the alchemy techniques he currently possessed, two types of pills had now reached Peak mastery.

They were the Beauty-Preserving Pill and the Essence Nurturing Pill.

Without exception, both were pills that Su Xing had personally improved upon, developing new versions through his own modifications.

“Could it be that advancing an alchemy technique to Peak level requires not just mastering the original principles of pill refinement, but also developing one’s own understanding—and even making personal improvements?”