Chapter 97 – Immersive Simulation Ends, A Bountiful Harvest!

After hearing this notification, Su Xing hurriedly said:

“Wait, I’m renewing!”

Gritting his teeth, Su Xing said:

“Give me another ten hours of immersive simulation time!”

【Ding! You have successfully used immersive simulation. Consumed 1,000,000 energy points. Simulation time: 10 hours. Remaining energy: 8,090,888 points!】

Spending a million energy in one go to exchange for ten hours of immersive simulation time made Su Xing’s heart ache.

“Damn, that’s a million energy! I hope exploring this Luotian Assembly dungeon will be worth the price of admission…”

Su Xing muttered briefly, then began wandering around the Luotian Assembly grounds.

“Greetings, Senior Brother Luo!”

“Greetings, Senior Uncle Luo!”

As Su Xing walked along, many disciples passing through the sect greeted him.

Su Xing’s memories contained no information about these people, but out of courtesy, he nodded and smiled in acknowledgment.

“It seems the Nascent Soul stage carries quite a high status within the Luotian Sect!”

Su Xing shook his head slightly and quickly reconsidered:

“No, it should be because this body broke through to the Nascent Soul stage before the age of a hundred, combined with the Nine-Revolution Golden Core and the body tempering of the Primordial Martial Realm. That’s why I’m treated with such respect within the sect.”

Su Xing estimated that Luo Xiaochuan, at the Nascent Soul stage, was probably considered a star disciple within the sect, perhaps not far from being a direct disciple.

After all, a Nascent Soul cultivator was qualified to take on disciples and teach within the sect, so Su Xing’s seniority wasn’t low either.

The Luotian Sect’s territory was vast — the sect grounds alone rivaled the size of a city, to say nothing of their domain, which was probably more expansive than all of Earth combined.

After wandering for a while, Su Xing discovered that apart from possessing many precious natural treasures, the mountain gate didn’t hold anything that particularly interested him.

But these natural treasures could be seen and touched, yet couldn’t be taken out! What good was just looking at them?

“Damn, don’t tell me this million energy was wasted?”

Su Xing grumbled. This trip of his was just like Granny Liu visiting the Grand View Garden — apart from being humbled, he didn’t seem to have gained any real benefits.

Just as Su Xing was idly wandering about, he suddenly realized he had arrived before a magnificent building.

Su Xing looked at the large characters inscribed upon the palace and murmured: “The Scripture Pavilion?”

“Hiss… Isn’t this the place in fantasy novels where they keep cultivation technique manuals?”

Su Xing’s eyes lit up. He silently memorized the Scripture Pavilion’s location, then made his way toward it.

Just as Su Xing was about to enter the Scripture Pavilion, a hunched elderly woman appeared before him. After glancing at him, she said:

“Please present your disciple token!”

Su Xing promptly presented the token at his waist.

The elderly woman nodded and said:

“Inner sect disciple Luo Xiaochuan — you may access up to the second floor of the Scripture Pavilion.”

Su Xing quickly entered the first floor of the Scripture Pavilion, where he saw mountains of books piled high.

Row upon row of books were arranged on shelves, the tallest of which exceeded ten meters in height. The number of shelves stretched endlessly beyond sight.

“Holy crap, just how many books are there in here?”

Su Xing’s eyes went wide. After a moment of amazement, he eagerly headed toward the bookshelves.

“Fire-attribute technique section, earth-attribute technique section…”

“Secret arts section… autobiographies and legends section… cultivation common knowledge section… cultivation world classified records section… body tempering section… alchemy section…”

As Su Xing surveyed the area, every type of technique had been meticulously categorized.

Su Xing first headed to the fire-attribute technique section, since his spirit root was a Wood-Fire Dual True Spirit Root.

He currently only cultivated a wood-attribute technique, so logically he should be able to cultivate a fire-attribute technique as well.

“Tsk tsk, so cultivation techniques in the cultivation world are also divided into four grades — Heaven, Earth, Profound, and Yellow? The first floor only contains the lowest-grade Yellow-tier techniques…”

“And Yellow-tier techniques can only be cultivated up to the Golden Core at most. Seems like they wouldn’t be of much use to me…”

Without much deliberation, Su Xing proceeded to the second floor.

Before long, on the second floor, Su Xing discovered a fire-attribute technique called the Blazing Flame Art. This technique was Profound-tier and could be cultivated up to the Void Return stage at most.

“Not bad. This Blazing Flame Art ranks among the top in terms of power for fire-attribute techniques, and it can even help enhance one’s mastery over flames. It’s perfectly suited for me!”

Su Xing attempted to cultivate the Blazing Flame Art.

Several hours passed quickly, and Su Xing gave up somewhat helplessly.

“A Profound-tier technique isn’t something you can memorize in a short time. Beyond the written text, there are specialized spiritual energy circulation diagrams that are quite complex. To memorize everything would take at least several days…”

Su Xing sighed. His Eternal Spring Art was the same — beyond the basic text, there were also circulation route diagrams. If he hadn’t obtained the original cultivation manual, even a hand-copied version would carry the risk of incorrectly reproducing the circulation routes.

And if the routes were wrong, cultivation could lead to qi deviation, which would make the whole endeavor counterproductive.

Su Xing reluctantly returned the Blazing Flame Art to its place, already forming a plan in his mind.

“Perhaps after I obtain a memory-related talent in the future, or after using immersive simulation six or seven more times, I might barely be able to memorize this technique…”

Su Xing sighed. If he were to brute-force memorizing a technique through sheer repetition of immersive simulations…

Even simulating for twenty-four hours at a time, costing 2.4 million points each, fully memorizing a single Profound-tier technique would require at least tens of millions in energy expenditure.

Clearly, that would be far more trouble than it was worth.

“Looking at it this way, the Eternal Spring Art should also be classified as a Profound-tier technique…” Su Xing nodded slightly, then walked away from the technique section.

“Time is limited. There’s no time to memorize techniques, but I can check out the cultivation world common knowledge texts first…”

Su Xing spent several more hours heading to the cultivation world common knowledge section, reading through some records about general cultivation world knowledge.

However, time was limited, and he could only skim through the basics.

Seeing that time was almost up, Su Xing gritted his teeth and said to the simulator:

“Renew for another eleven hours of immersive simulation time.”

【Ding! You have successfully used immersive simulation. Consumed 1,100,000 energy points. Simulation time: 11 hours. Remaining energy: 6,990,888 points!】

Su Xing’s heart ached. Although he wasn’t short on simulation energy at the moment, spending it this recklessly wasn’t sustainable!

For a single Luotian Assembly dungeon run, Su Xing had maxed out his immersive simulation duration, simulating for a full 24 hours at a total cost of 2,400,000 energy points.

Of course, it was all worth it.

Setting aside the fact that the Spirit-Gathering Flower cultivation method alone was worth this much energy, coming to the Luotian Assembly dungeon and reading all these cultivation world common knowledge texts had significantly expanded Su Xing’s understanding of the cultivation world. These were all subtle, gradual benefits.

“Whew, still eleven hours left. Where should I go next?”

Su Xing had never realized he was such an avid reader. Even during his college entrance exams, he’d never spent 24 hours straight camped out in a library.

“Perhaps I should check out the body tempering section…”

After brief consideration, Su Xing felt that his body tempering had been entirely self-taught through crude methods — relying on eating and training, without any formal body tempering techniques whatsoever. Everything had been achieved purely through various pills, Demonic Beast Blood Essence, and the accumulation of his own innate talents.

The fact that Su Xing had reached the Primordial Martial Realm through such unrefined methods could truly be called a miracle.

Soon, Su Xing arrived at the body tempering section. Rather than rushing to find body tempering techniques, he first read a foundational body tempering book titled 《Introduction to Body Tempering for Cultivators》.

The very first line of the book’s opening chapter read: “Those without great perseverance must not pursue body tempering!”

The book detailed the suffering involved in body tempering. Compared to Qi Refinement, body tempering cultivators were more primal and better at enduring the tedious grinding of their physical forms.

“Huh? Body tempering cultivators originated from the cultivation methods of the ancient witch tribes. Through refinement and continuous transmission over the ages, the modern body tempering cultivators came to be…”

Su Xing was taken aback. This was a secret he had never heard before — body tempering cultivators traced their origins to the ancient witch tribes!

“I wonder if these witch tribes are the same system as the witch tribes from the mythology of my previous life?”

Su Xing furrowed his brow slightly, feeling that some of the cultivation world’s legends seemed to share connections with the myths and legends of his previous life.

Su Xing continued reading.

“A body tempering cultivator may choose one technique to cultivate. However, unlike Qi Refinement cultivators, once a technique is chosen, it cannot be changed for life. Therefore, the quality of a body tempering cultivator’s technique is of paramount importance!”

“If one lacks a superior body tempering technique, it is better to use no technique at all and rely solely on the most primitive methods of improving one’s physique…”

Su Xing spent an hour or two finishing this foundational book on body tempering cultivators.

He was surprised to discover that there were actually two types of body tempering cultivators. The first type cultivated through body tempering techniques — the main advantage of this approach was speed, with cultivation speed being over ten times that of body tempering cultivators without techniques. The downside was that the technique couldn’t be changed, and choosing a low-tier body tempering technique would limit one’s ultimate achievement and cultivation potential. It was an approach that was highly dependent on the quality of the technique.

The second type of body tempering cultivator emulated the ancient witch tribes, relying on one’s innate body tempering talent and precious natural treasures to strengthen the body, requiring long years of tempering. The disadvantage of this method was its slow speed, but the advantage was a higher ceiling, and once a suitable technique was found, one could switch to technique-based cultivation at any time.

“Looking at it this way, I should be the second type of body tempering cultivator — like a piece of raw, uncut jade…”

A thought stirred in Su Xing’s mind as he murmured:

“If I don’t have a superior body tempering technique, it really is better to just train the crude way!”

Su Xing quickly discovered that the method of body tempering that emulated the ancient witch tribes also had ways to improve efficiency.

“Consume the blood and flesh essence of demonic beasts, supplement with medicinal pills, and cultivation speed will multiply. Furthermore, by emulating the ancient witch tribe’s body tempering methods, body tempering speed can be dramatically increased!”

Su Xing’s eyes lit up, and he hurriedly memorized the witch tribe body tempering methods recorded in the book.

The method wasn’t difficult — it was merely a set of conventional strength-training exercises, constantly hammering the body. But when combined with several specific movements, body tempering speed could be dramatically increased!

“This is exactly what I need!”

Su Xing grinned from ear to ear. He spent several more hours memorizing the witch tribe body tempering movements and some commonly used dietary methods.

After completing all of this, less than one hour remained.

Su Xing used his remaining time to open an ancient text titled 《Detailed Guide to Primordial Energy Application》.

This book primarily discussed how to better utilize primordial energy, and even covered how to increase primordial energy’s potency.

Unfortunately, Su Xing didn’t have enough time. After only a cursory reading, his immersive simulation time had already ended.

“What a shame. If I’d had enough time, I might have been able to figure out primordial energy cultivation as well.”

Su Xing sighed. Time was insufficient — he would have to wait until his next simulation.

As the scenery before his eyes shifted and transformed, Su Xing’s consciousness returned to the real world.

In Su Xing’s perception, an entire day had passed, but in the real world, less than a minute had gone by. Su Xing took several sips of cool spring water before fully recovering from the immersive simulation.

“This immersive simulation was an absolute jackpot!”

Su Xing was delighted. Although he’d spent over two million energy, he had obtained the Spirit-Gathering Flower cultivation method, gained knowledge of cultivation world common sense, and even discovered a better approach to body tempering.

This knowledge and information was absolutely worth the price!

Thinking of this, Su Xing chuckled bitterly:

“Looks like immersive simulation is going to be a major expense with every future simulation run! At this rate, I’m still short on energy!”

Su Xing sighed and turned his gaze back to the simulation interface.

【You emerged from the Luotian Assembly dungeon feeling greatly enriched. Without pausing to rest, you hurried back to the Advent Cult.】

【With your return, the entire Advent Cult began experiencing misfortune once again. One of the Advent Cult’s Protector-level powerhouses met an unexpected end during a mission in a dungeon, dying far from home.】

【This was the first death of a Protector-level powerhouse in the Advent Cult in decades, but no one connected the incident to you.】

【In the days that followed, you continued to stay holed up in the Advent Cult, refining pills and cultivating daily. Occasionally, you ventured out to deliver refined pills to the Great Xia Military in exchange for sufficient Blood Essence for your training.】