Chapter 9 – A Cultivation Dungeon: Azure Cloud Spirit Fields
by spirapiraSu Xing took a deep breath. He had already had a premonition about this.
And now he was ninety percent certain—the version of him inside the simulator truly did act according to his real-world intentions.
Su Xing continued the simulation.
【This year, due to your low cultivation level, your graduation was delayed.】
【You had anticipated this. You devoted all your energy to making money.】
【You borrowed a large sum from your good brother Yu Yan, and established an equipment shop in Capital City, specializing in selling gear to low-rank Class Users.】
【Because you had a modest reputation within the school and high credibility, many new students were willing to buy your equipment.】
【You ran dungeons to help new students level up while reselling low-rank equipment on the side. In just three years, you made a fortune.】
【In the fifth year, your net worth surpassed one billion. Your equipment business was no longer limited to Capital City. You founded the Tarot Society, opening shops across Great Xia, with a particular focus on Jinling City in Jiangnan Province.】
【You ordered your subordinates to search everywhere for information about spirit stones, but there was no news.】
【One day, Wang Qingxuan found you.】
【She brought you the Half of the Eternal Spring Art. You told her you didn’t need this half of the technique—you wanted her to help you find the second half of the Eternal Spring Art.】
【Though puzzled, Wang Qingxuan agreed.】
【After one night, Wang Qingxuan vanished again. You didn’t ask too many questions and continued focusing on making money and growing stronger.】
【Thanks to your benevolent appearance and sterling reputation in the business world, you landed several large contracts in succession, and your net worth quickly doubled.】
【You were expelled from Capital Vocational Academy, but you weren’t upset. You devoted yourself wholeheartedly to expanding your business.】
【In the seventh year, you felt a premonition in your heart, knowing that your younger sister would be heading to the Demon-Sealing Pass dungeon.】
【Knowing you couldn’t prevent it from happening, you chose to return to your hometown and spent a month carefully accompanying your parents and Su Nian’an.】
【A month later, you attended Su Nian’an’s funeral. Your heart was filled with sorrow.】
【After the funeral, you returned to Capital City and continued running your business.】
【One day, you received word that a certain Grandmaster-stage powerhouse in Jinling City possessed a type of treasure known as spirit stones.】
Here it was!
Su Xing’s excitement surged when he saw this. These spirit stones were the key to whether he could cultivate immortality!
【You rushed to Jinling City overnight to meet this Grandmaster powerhouse.】
【This Grandmaster was a devout Buddhist. She took a liking to you and hoped to have a deeper exchange with you.】
【You glanced at her face. Though nearly forty, she had maintained herself exceptionally well, looking only about thirty—quite charming.】
【You stayed in Jinling City for seven days. She and you became close friends who could talk about anything. You learned her name was Jin Congxue.】
【You learned she had three spirit stones in her possession. You offered three hundred million to buy them.】
【But she shook her head, saying that since you were friends, she’d give you the friendship price of thirty million.】
【You obtained the spirit stones from Jin Congxue. Thrilled, you returned to your residence and began channeling your cultivation technique to absorb the spirit stones.】
【You successfully drew a wisp of spiritual energy from the spirit stones. You were ecstatic—this proved you truly could cultivate immortality!】
【Over the next three days, you absorbed half a spirit stone and discovered your cultivation had broken through to Qi Refinement Second Layer!】
【Fighting back your yearning, you kept the remaining two and a half spirit stones and chose not to continue cultivating.】
Su Xing clenched his fists in excitement after reading the simulation data.
Success! Now he had a spirit root, spirit stones, and a cultivation technique. He could finally cultivate successfully!
Su Xing could hardly wait to bring the spirit stones out of the simulation, but he patiently chose to continue.
【Overjoyed by your cultivation breakthrough, you sought out Jin Congxue again and asked her how she had obtained these spirit stones.】
【Jin Congxue held nothing back. She told you the spirit stones were something she had obtained six years ago, from a dungeon called “Azure Cloud Spirit Fields.”】
【At the time, she had entered the dungeon and helped an old man farm for a week, receiving a bag of spirit rice and three spirit stones in return.】
Spirit fields, spirit rice, spirit stones…
Su Xing’s eyes went wide. Without a doubt, the dungeon Jin Congxue had entered was absolutely a dungeon related to “cultivation.”
“There are cultivation-type dungeons… Of course, it all makes sense now!”
Su Xing finally understood where the technique and spirit stones had come from—they originated from those cultivation dungeons!
However, cultivation-type dungeons were certainly extremely high-level. He had absolutely no way to access them right now.
Su Xing patiently continued reading.
【You realized how important this dungeon was to you and excitedly asked Jin Congxue where it was located.】
【Jin Congxue shook her head slightly, saying that the Azure Cloud Spirit Fields dungeon had long since closed, and that she was the only Class User who had ever entered it.】
【Jin Congxue said that the NPC old man inside the dungeon had told her she lacked cultivation talent—otherwise, she could have received an even greater opportunity.】
【Hearing this, you were beside yourself with excitement. You urgently asked Jin Congxue exactly when and where she had entered that dungeon!】
【Jin Congxue thought for a moment. She said it was in late November of New Era year 2023. She had stumbled upon the dungeon outside the western walls of Jinling City. The dungeon had only existed for seven days.】
Su Xing froze when he saw this. He glanced at the time on his phone.
New Era year 2023, October 7th, 2:31 PM.
“Hiss—”
Su Xing drew in a sharp breath. This meant that in the real world, the dungeon called “Azure Cloud Spirit Fields” had not yet opened—and he still had a chance to enter that cultivation dungeon!
“No rush… There’s still over a month before that dungeon opens. The most important thing right now is to improve my strength during this time!”
Through Jin Congxue, Su Xing had learned that obtaining greater opportunities in that dungeon required cultivation talent—in other words, a spirit root.
What a coincidence.
Su Xing happened to possess the innate talent called “Spirit Root Bearer”!
All he needed to do was head to Jinling City by mid-November!
【You continued your equipment reselling business as always, and established the Tarot Society’s second base of operations in Jinling City.】
【While managing the shop, you never neglected your investigation into the whereabouts of more spirit stones.】
【Unfortunately, you obtained no further leads on spirit stones. However, through Jin Congxue’s connections, you gained access to more networking resources, and the equipment shop’s business grew better and better.】
【Three more years passed. You became a well-known tycoon in Jinling City. Thanks to Jin Congxue’s influence, even Grandmaster-stage Class Users treated you with considerable courtesy.】
【That year, Fatty Yu died. You attended his funeral.】
【Another year passed. Because you had anticipated market fluctuations in advance, you stockpiled a large quantity of medicinal items and made an enormous fortune. Your net worth reached five hundred billion.】
【One day, Jin Congxue came to find you. She seemed somewhat anxious.】
【Jin Congxue told you she had been conscripted. The pressure on the front lines was growing. She had to go to Demon-Sealing Pass.】
Su Xing was completely stunned when he saw this. Demon-Sealing Pass again!
That place seemed like a curse.
His little sister Su Nian’an, his good brother Yu Yan… and now even Jin Congxue had to go to Demon-Sealing Pass?
【You didn’t want her to go to Demon-Sealing Pass. She told you she had no choice—it was the duty of every Class User at Grandmaster-stage or above.】
【You turned to asking her about intelligence regarding Demon-Sealing Pass.】