Re-entering the Red Lotus Demon Cavern Dungeon, Collecting Exotic Metal Ore (5k)

After a round of explanations, Su Xing finally realized he’d made a huge blunder, and couldn’t help feeling rather embarrassed.

He quickly changed the subject:

“Ahem, Sister Xue, how’s business at the Tarot Society been lately? Is there anything you need my help with?”

The moment work was brought up, Jin Congxue’s attention was instantly diverted.

“Business at the Tarot Society has been decent lately… Following your instructions, I’ve concentrated more manpower on harvesting white-tier equipment and mining exotic metals…”

Jin Congxue paused for a moment, then said with a hint of worry:

“But the employees working just the six exotic metal dungeons alone number in the thousands… That’s quite a substantial expenditure every month…”

“And our merchant association’s main source of income is still the Beauty-Preserving Pills. The customer base for those has basically reached saturation now, and sales aren’t as strong as before, so our cash flow has been a bit tight…”

Su Xing nodded slightly after hearing this.

He provided several thousand Beauty-Preserving Pills per week, which came out to twenty or thirty thousand per month.

On top of that, a single Beauty-Preserving Pill could maintain one’s appearance for one to three months.

Some wealthy women had even stockpiled dozens of pills, so the market was indeed somewhat oversaturated.

After thinking it over, Su Xing said:

“I can refine a premium version of the Beauty-Preserving Pill that can maintain one’s appearance for a year, or even three years!”

“Not only can it preserve your appearance, it can even make you look over ten years younger! I’ll hand the pills over to you afterward — they should bring in quite a lot of revenue…”

What Su Xing had been refining all along was the budget version of the Beauty-Preserving Pill.

He’d been using ordinary ginseng.

But now, a large batch of ten-year spirit ginseng had matured in Su Xing’s spirit field. If he used those for refinement, they would be more than sufficient to produce genuine Beauty-Preserving Pills.

The potency would be incomparably superior to the budget version — for mortals, it would be no different from an immortal elixir!

Jin Congxue’s eyes brightened after hearing this, clearly very interested.

“Ten years younger… maintaining one’s appearance for one to three years?”

“Hss~ If such pills truly exist, they’d be worth a fortune — the price could easily be ten times or even dozens of times higher!”

“However… with these premium Beauty-Preserving Pills, we can’t sell them on a large scale like before. We need to use hunger marketing!”

Jin Congxue truly deserved her reputation as a formidable businesswoman. She quickly devised several plans for selling the Beauty-Preserving Pills.

Su Xing was quite satisfied with what he saw. With Jin Congxue’s help, he had complete confidence in the Tarot Society’s development.

After pondering for a moment, Jin Congxue added:

“Boss~ I’ve also been thinking about expanding into overseas markets lately… America, Yellow Island Nation, and the other six nations and twelve domains would surely all be eager to get their hands on Beauty-Preserving Pills!”

“The domestic market is saturated, but the international market is still a vast blue ocean!”

Su Xing nodded slightly after hearing this:

“I’ll leave all of that to you. If any issues come up, just discuss them with me…”

After finishing their business discussion, Su Xing skillfully made a roundabout route. After scanning the area with his divine sense, he returned to the dormitory and entered the spirit field blessed land.

The new week’s goods had been converted into simulation energy, worth over ninety million again.

With that, Su Xing’s energy reserves returned to the 150 million range.

On the afternoon of September 9th, New Era 2024, Su Xing punctually initiated a new round of simulation.

“Begin simulation!”

【Ding! This simulation consumes 5,200 energy points. Remaining energy: 150,160,000 points. Remaining simulation attempts: unlimited.】

【Simulation begins!】

【Drawing a blue talent costs 10,000 energy points. Drawing a purple talent costs 100,000 energy points. Would you like to draw?】

“Draw a purple talent!”

Su Xing silently chanted.

【Ding! Congratulations, you have obtained the purple talent: I’m Definitely Not the Rain God!】

【I’m Definitely Not the Rain God】: Purple talent. Whenever you sing loudly and the number of spectators exceeds ten thousand, the probability of rainfall in that area within seven days is one hundred percent. (Pretty please~ Go hold a concert in the desert!)

Su Xing curled his lip at the new talent and muttered:

“Well damn, another conceptual talent? A forced rain-summoning talent, huh… But this thing doesn’t seem very useful!”

Su Xing shook his head slightly, unable to think of an appropriate use case for this talent at the moment.

His gaze turned to the simulation panel.

【In the spirit field grotto-heaven, you become aware that you are in a simulation.】

【You spend a few days in Capital City, then set out for the northern frontier region of Great Xia.】

【You disguise yourself and conceal your aura, cast the Technique to Shield from Heavenly Divination upon yourself, and fly via sword flight at an altitude of tens of thousands of meters.】

【Half a shichen later, you arrive at Mayi City in Northwest Province.】

【Following the information in your memory, you quickly locate a heavily guarded dungeon — the Red Lotus Demon Cavern!】

【With a minor application of magic, you successfully evade the Class Users standing guard and enter the Red Lotus Demon Cavern dungeon.】

Seeing this, Su Xing nodded slightly:

“During a previous simulation, I found a small high-grade exotic metal mining zone inside this Red Lotus Demon Cavern dungeon…”

“I wonder just how much exotic metal this dungeon actually contains?”

Su Xing fell into thought. His simulation energy was severely insufficient at the moment, and if he couldn’t find new means of obtaining simulation energy…

Relying solely on the less-than-one-hundred-million weekly energy supply definitely wouldn’t be enough for his upcoming cultivation needs.

Therefore, Su Xing had set his sights on this Red Lotus Demon Cavern dungeon he’d discovered previously.

Perhaps this mining dungeon would give Su Xing a pleasant surprise?

But to be safe, Su Xing planned to run a preliminary simulation this time to see if there were any risks.

With that thought, Su Xing silently chanted:

“Activate immersive simulation function, duration: 24 hours!”

【Ding! You have successfully activated immersive simulation. Cost: 2,400,000 energy points. Remaining energy: 147,660,000 points.】

As the simulator’s notification faded, Su Xing’s vision shifted and transformed.

The next second, Su Xing appeared in an unfamiliar environment.

The temperature in the air had shot up by over fifty degrees, reaching nearly eighty degrees Celsius.

Su Xing frowned slightly, feeling the waves of heat radiating through the air.

Of course, this level of temperature had absolutely no effect on Su Xing.

“So this… is the Red Lotus Demon Cavern dungeon?”

Su Xing surveyed his surroundings. The rocks all around had turned crimson from the extreme heat, and placing a hand on them still felt scorching.

The space inside the cavern wasn’t large — barely enough for Su Xing alone.

Looking ahead, he saw that beneath his feet was a seemingly bottomless cavern that appeared to plunge straight toward the earth’s core.

“According to the text descriptions from previous simulations… deep within the Red Lotus Demon Cavern dungeon, there should be a flame demon. After defeating it and going even deeper… I should be able to find that exotic metal mining zone.”

Su Xing mulled it over. His purpose in using immersive simulation to explore this time was to rehearse in advance for his eventual real-world exploration.

Su Xing hesitated no longer. With a thought, he activated his primordial energy armor and Protective Hardened Qi simultaneously, encasing himself in their protection.

“Well then… let’s explore the depths.”

Su Xing channeled his spiritual energy and rapidly flew downward into the cavern below.

The deeper the cavern went, the higher the surrounding temperature rose.

After roughly ten-odd minutes, Su Xing estimated he had already descended to a depth of several dozen kilometers underground.

By now, the surrounding temperature had climbed from the original eighty or ninety degrees to over five hundred degrees.

“This Red Lotus Demon Cavern really is bottomless…”

Su Xing frowned slightly and picked up speed, continuing deeper.

Another hour or so passed, and Su Xing estimated he was now at least several hundred kilometers from the surface.

By this point, the area was utterly dark and devoid of light. Only the extreme temperatures of one to two thousand degrees Celsius remained. No ordinary living creature could survive here.

Along the way, Su Xing had actually encountered some special monsters that thrived in these extreme temperatures.

Most of these monsters were at the Grandmaster stage. Su Xing only needed to lightly channel his primordial energy to dispatch them with ease.

“Already several hundred kilometers from the surface… just how deep does this Red Lotus Demon Cavern go?”

Su Xing sighed. Could it be that this demon cavern extended a full thousand kilometers underground?

Su Xing’s speed increased further, and any ordinary monsters he encountered along the way were killed instantly.

Several hours later, Su Xing noticed the space growing increasingly spacious, and the surrounding temperature had reached a staggering three thousand degrees Celsius.

A faint glow emanated from special minerals embedded in the stone walls.

Su Xing slowed down slightly and extended his divine sense outward like a tide.

Sure enough, several thousand meters away, he detected the presence of a monster with an extraordinarily powerful aura.

“That… is the flame demon?”

Su Xing was momentarily stunned.

Through his divine sense, the flame demon’s appearance bore some resemblance to the hell demons of Western mythology.

Two horns sprouted from its head. Its body was composed of magma. Twin balls of roaring flame burned within its eye sockets.

It stood a full ten meters tall, and an evil aura radiated from every inch of its body.

“Judging by its aura… this flame demon is indeed at Peak Martial Emperor strength…”

Su Xing frowned slightly. He felt the Red Lotus Demon Cavern dungeon’s environment was far too harsh for ordinary Class Users.

“Thousands of degrees in temperature, an oxygen-thin environment… In a place like this, even Grandmaster-stage Class Users probably couldn’t survive…”

An uneasy premonition crept over Su Xing.

Such a hostile environment meant low-level Class Users couldn’t enter, which also meant Su Xing had no way to bring in large numbers of workers to mine the ore.

He couldn’t exactly hire Heavenly King-stage powerhouses to mine ore, could he?

That… didn’t seem very realistic.

“Oh well… Let me deal with this flame demon first. I’ll figure out the exotic metal ore mining situation afterward…”

With a thought, Su Xing shot toward the flame demon at high speed.

“ROAR ROAR ROAR~”

As if sensing Su Xing’s rapidly approaching aura, the flame demon roared at him while beating its chest with both fists, as though proclaiming its territorial sovereignty…

However!

Su Xing acted as though he hadn’t even noticed. After closing in on the flame demon, he directly wrapped Elemental Force Entwinement around both fists.

No fancy tricks whatsoever!

A single terrifying punch!

BOOM!

A force of millions of tons slammed directly into the flame demon’s chest.

The two blazing flames within the flame demon’s eye sockets slowly died out…

With just a single punch, the Peak Martial Emperor flame demon was dead!

“Whew~”

“With my current strength combined with Elemental Force Entwinement… no one below Legendary can withstand even a single punch!”

The corner of Su Xing’s mouth curved upward slightly. He then rapidly spread out his divine sense, wanting to scan the surroundings for any hidden enemies.

After confirming there were no enemies, Su Xing entered the flame demon’s lair and, sure enough, discovered a cave several zhang wide with a bottomless depth.

“This cave… it should lead to the magma pool, right?”

Su Xing murmured.

In his previous simulation, he had bathed in this magma pool, hoping to use it to break through his limits, but unfortunately had not succeeded.

And that Exotic Metal Ore deposit was located near the magma pool.

Su Xing’s heart stirred, and he walked toward the magma cavern.

As Su Xing drew closer to the magma layer, the surrounding temperature rose sharply.

It quickly soared to over five thousand degrees Celsius.

Su Xing’s brow furrowed even tighter. At such extreme temperatures, no Class User below Heavenly King-stage could survive.

Soon, Su Xing arrived at the magma layer.

This was a relatively open, flat rocky area.

Before him lay a magma pool radiating intense heat, and beside the magma pool were many black rocks.

Mixed within the rocks were some crimson-red, peculiar ores.

It was unmistakably exotic metal!

Su Xing slowly approached the rocks, reached out to touch them, then said with a slight frown:

“This exotic metal is actually mixed in with other ores… Doesn’t that mean it would need to be refined before it can become pure exotic metal?”

Su Xing thought to himself that this was somewhat of a miscalculation.

In these enormous rocks several meters tall, the proportion of red exotic metal was probably only three to five percent.

If he wanted to purify it into exotic metal, who knew how long it would take…

Su Xing was somewhat disappointed. The Exotic Metal Ore needed to be refined and purified to be fully obtained.

And Class Users below Heavenly King-stage couldn’t enter the depths of this demon cavern, which meant they couldn’t refine and purify the exotic metal either.

The situation… seemed to have reached an unsolvable impasse.

“Wait… who said it needs to be purified before it can be converted into simulation energy?”

Su Xing suddenly had an epiphany.

His simulator absorbed all substances containing energy — it wasn’t limited to only absorbing pure exotic metal.

This meant Su Xing could simply absorb the exotic metal along with the surrounding rock altogether!

“That’s right! I can just absorb this entire chunk of rock directly… no refining needed!”

“It’s just that I’m currently inside a simulation, so I can’t use the simulator’s abilities…”

“But I can mine out all these ores containing exotic metal first!”

Su Xing was a man of action. He drew the Blackice sword, coated it with elemental force, and began attempting to mine.

The Blackice sword cut through these massive rocks as if slicing through tofu.

Su Xing cut them into standard cubes, each one meter in length, width, and height, and stored them inside the spirit field grotto-heaven.

Each block of ore was exactly one cubic meter.

After more than ten hours of labor, Su Xing had successfully mined close to one thousand cubic meters of ore, all of which he stored inside the spirit field grotto-heaven.

“Next, I just need to see how much energy this batch of exotic metal-bearing rock is worth…”

The corner of Su Xing’s mouth curved upward slightly.

As for the method of assessment, it was simple. Although Su Xing couldn’t use the ability to absorb matter and convert it into energy while inside a simulation, once the simulation ended, he just needed to check how much energy this batch of ore was worth, then subtract the markup the black-hearted middleman took, and that would be the true energy value contained in this batch of ore.

Soon, the simulation time ended, and Su Xing returned to the real world.

“A full one thousand cubic meters of rock mixed with exotic metal — it should be worth quite a lot of energy, right?”

Su Xing stroked his chin and murmured.

His gaze turned to the simulation panel.

【You obtained a total of one thousand cubic meters of exotic metal-bearing ore in the Red Lotus Demon Cavern.】

【The next day, you left the Red Lotus Demon Cavern instance and returned to Capital City.】

【Over the following period, you continued refining pills and practicing the Sword-Controlling Technique daily.】

【One month later, you set out for Shuangqing City.】

【You disguised your appearance and concealed your aura, then shielded your heavenly secrets, ensuring Old Dog Zong could not sense your threat to him.】

【You suppressed your divine sense and swept through Shuangqing City brazenly, attempting to lure out Old Dog Zong.】

【Finally, three days later, Old Dog Zong came to find you.】

“At last, Old Dog Zong! Before killing you in the real world, I’d better rehearse it in simulation first…”

Seeing this, Su Xing’s heart stirred, and he silently recited: “Use the immersive simulation function, duration: one hour!”

【Ding! You have successfully used immersive simulation. Cost: 100,000 energy points. Remaining energy: 147,560,000 points.】

The reason Su Xing used the immersive simulation function again was, naturally, because he had set his mind on killing Old Dog Zong.

And to kill Old Dog Zong in reality, Su Xing — ever cautious — wanted to rehearse it in simulation first.

The next second, the scenery before Su Xing’s eyes shifted, and he appeared in a wilderness area.

“Senior! May I ask which cultivation world you hail from?”

Behind Su Xing, an old man in black robes spoke in a raspy voice.

His tone carried a respectful deference toward Su Xing.

“This… is Old Dog Zong?”

Su Xing’s heart stirred as he looked at Old Dog Zong.

Old Dog Zong’s appearance was utterly unremarkable, looking like an ordinary old man.

But Su Xing could tell at a glance that this was also a disguised appearance.

“Oh? You’re asking which cultivation world I come from?”

Su Xing didn’t answer directly, but responded with a question of his own.

Old Dog Zong’s heart immediately tensed — he seemed to detect something ominous in Su Xing’s tone.

But the Eight Trigrams Divination Art he had relied on for many years had not sent him any warning.

Old Dog Zong relaxed somewhat, then mustered his courage and said:

“Senior, presumably after the Great Severance of heaven and earth… you too slumbered for a long time, and are not very familiar with this world?”

“I awakened a century or two before you… I could serve as your guide!”

Old Dog Zong smiled, his tone growing even more deferential.

Because in Old Dog Zong’s eyes, Su Xing was a Void Return realm cultivator with incomparably powerful divine sense!

Seeing Old Dog Zong’s humble demeanor, Su Xing actually smiled.

The next second, he struck without warning!

Elemental Force Entwinement wrapped around both fists as millions of tons of force hammered directly into Old Dog Zong’s body.

BOOM!

The expression of shock was still frozen on Old Dog Zong’s face at the moment of death.

He seemed unable to comprehend why Su Xing had suddenly attacked, nor why the Eight Trigrams Divination Art he had relied on for a thousand years had failed to give him any advance warning.

Old Dog Zong’s body exploded on the spot, dissolving into a mist of blood that filled the sky.

Su Xing picked up Old Dog Zong’s storage artifact.

Then Old Dog Zong’s soul escaped his body and fled at high speed into the distance.

But Su Xing trapped it directly with the Separation Fire Technique.

Before death, Old Dog Zong’s soul still spoke in disbelief: “Senior, we don’t know each other, we have no grudge and no enmity… Why are you killing me?”

Su Xing let out a cold laugh and said:

“Heh, you don’t know me… but I’ve known you for quite a long time!”

With that, Su Xing wasted no more words and directly crushed Old Dog Zong’s soul.

And so, Old Dog Zong — body and soul — was utterly annihilated, vanishing from this world forever.

“Things… seem to have gone far too smoothly!”

Su Xing frowned slightly and opened the storage artifact. Only after confirming that all of Old Dog Zong’s treasures were inside did he relax.

“So, Old Dog Zong was really killed by me that easily?”

Su Xing still hadn’t fully processed it.

Just half a year ago, Old Dog Zong had been an insurmountable mountain looming over Su Xing.

He had tormented Su Xing, nearly refining him into a Human Pill.

Yet now, Su Xing had killed Old Dog Zong instantly with a single punch!

This was the gap created by absolute strength!

“Indeed, it went a little too smoothly…”

Su Xing was always cautious, and he couldn’t shake the feeling that some trap awaited him.

But then Su Xing shook his head.

“Well, it makes sense. I’ve been thinking about Old Dog Zong for quite some time now… I’ve run this simulation dozens of times. With me scheming and him unaware — wasn’t his death inevitable?”

Su Xing summarized his conclusions.

This time, his victory came from having a calculated plan against an unsuspecting opponent, striking when least expected.

Although Old Dog Zong was at the peak of Spirit Transformation, thousands of years of habit had made him overly reliant on his Eight Trigrams Divination Art for crisis warnings.

Yet he encountered someone as cunning as Su Xing, who had spent hundreds of years planning his death (within the simulator).

Su Xing had even rendered Old Dog Zong’s Eight Trigrams Divination Art ineffective — and only then was he finally able to kill him.

After killing Old Dog Zong, Su Xing didn’t linger. He prepared to depart by sword flight.

About half an hour later, Su Xing suddenly stopped high in the sky and flew toward a deep mountain.

At that moment, the surroundings were quiet. Only the occasional birdsong echoed through the mountains.

But Su Xing’s brow was tightly furrowed. He called out loudly to the seemingly empty surroundings:

“Since you’ve come all this way, why not show yourself?”