While Others are Leveling Up, I Alone Will Cultivate Until Mahayana Before Making My Move
Chapter 88: Chapter 88 Li Fire Technique Cultivation, Exploring the Great Xia Treasury (Seeking First Subscription, Third Update!)

Su Xing stared in shock before excitedly slapping his thigh and muttering:

"That's right, the success rate and quality of alchemy don't have to be poor because my alchemy skills are bad! Perhaps the reason lies in the flame itself!"

"As the saying goes, 'The workman must first sharpen his tools if he is to do his work well,' this Li Fire is still at the beginner level; its temperature is perhaps wholly insufficient. Naturally, it would be difficult to concoct mid-grade elixirs!"

It was clear in Su Xing's memory that when he first acquired the Li Fire Alchemy, the ancient tome had stated that the Li Fire Alchemy was divided into two parts: the Li Fire and the alchemy technique itself.

The alchemy technique was the main part, while the Li Fire was just one type of flame suitable for alchemy, capable of better concocting elixirs.

Since Su Xing first obtained the Li Fire Alchemy, he had always neglected to enhance the Li Fire Technique; it was time to improve his control over it.

With a plan in mind, he proceeded with the simulation.

[You realize that the failure in concocting Soul Condensing Pills stems from the flame, as the beginner-level Li Fire Technique's temperature is insufficient to concoct mid-grade elixirs.]

[Thus, you start replaceing ways to increase the power of the Li Fire Technique. You take out the ancient tome on Li Fire Alchemy and, following the guide described in the chapter about Li Fire, you begin your training.]

[According to the tome, the training of Li Fire Technique is inspired by one of the four divine flames, the Southern Vermillion Bird's Li Fire. Although it is incomparable in power to the true Southern Vermillion Bird's Li Fire, it is still considered a top-notch Immortal Technique in the Cultivation World.]

[The cultivation of Li Fire requires certain abilities related to Divine Sense. To advance further after entry-level, one needs to reach the Five Senses Realm in Divine Sense and have a range of fifty Zhang.]

[You are fortunate to have already met these requirements and begin to cultivate the Li Fire Technique diligently.]

[In the fifth year, your Li Fire Technique gains a bit more power, but it remains at the beginner level.]

[In the sixth year, you spend eight hours each day, day after day, training in the Li Fire Technique, which consumes a lot of Spiritual Power and Spiritual Energy. Thankfully, as a Nascent Soul Stage cultivator, you can sustain the use of Li Fire for a full eight hours before needing to recover your internal Spiritual Power.]

[In the seventh year, you feel the Spiritual Energy within the Spirit Field Blessed Land thinning due to your cultivation of the Li Fire Technique, decreasing by one-third.]

[Fortunately, you had planted Gathering Spirit Flowers early on. The three Gathering Spirit Flowers tirelessly replenish the Spiritual Energy each day, which slightly eases the speed of its consumption.]

[In the eighth year, your mastery over the Li Fire Technique has become so adept that with a mere thought, you can make it appear anywhere within a ten Zhang radius.]

[But you know this isn't the limit of the Li Fire Technique. According to the ancient tome, when the Li Fire Technique is cultivated to a high level, it can be considered a Divine Skill with the power to burn rivers and build seas.]

[The indicators of a minor achievement in the Li Fire Technique are threefold: first, it is easy to deploy with a single thought, instantly forming fire.]

[Second, it has an extremely wide range, within fifty Zhang wherever the Divine Sense covers, all fall within the attack range of Li Fire Technique.]

[Third, its power is astonishing, and ordinary worldly materials will ignite upon contact.]

[Despite several years of cultivation, you have only managed to accomplish the first criterion for the minor achievement of Li Fire Technique, and hence, you plan to focus on enhancing its range and power next.]

[You spend half a year training eight hours daily to expand the effective range of the Li Fire Technique. With your continuous hard work and diligent cultivation, the furthest you can project the Li Fire Technique from your body is now fifteen Zhang.]

[In the ninth year, your cultivation of the Li Fire Technique continues. After spending a year, you can now successfully project it to a distance of twenty-five Zhang from your body.]

[During the year, Shadow Protector's homeland was attacked by a colossal beast. Even though you had previously supplied her with many elixirs, her world still couldn't withstand the beast's assault.]

[You console Shadow Protector and tell her that she can consider Blue Star as her hometown.]

[You and Shadow Protector begin to discuss the possibility of defecting from the Descending Sect and start devising ways to steal Spiritual Medicine treasures from the sect's treasury.]

[In the tenth year, your control over the range of the Li Fire Technique has improved to thirty-five Zhang.]

[Within the same year, you and Shadow Protector defect from the Descending Sect. Before leaving, you do not forget to take with you most of the Spiritual Medicines from the sect's treasury.]

[You join the Great Xia Military with Shadow Protector and donate a total of two hundred thousand elixirs that you have accumulated over the years to the Great Xia Military.]

[With your help, in just half a year, Great Xia Country gains forty thousand new Grandmaster Level powerhouses. The main force at Demon-Subduing Pass increases several times over.]

[For this reason, you are granted first-class treatment, your authority in the military equal to that of a five-star general; the soldiers of the Great Xia Military see you as a national hero.]

[Learning from the experience of being ambushed by Damned Zong, you select one Martial Emperor Level powerhouse and three Heavenly King Level powerhouses as personal protectors, which greatly eases your mind.]

[After joining the Great Xia Country, Luo Shuying proposes her idea; she wishes to lead a team to annihilate the Descending Sect because they had colluded with the Foreign Race over the years, causing great losses to the Human Race.]

[You agree with Luo Shuying's plan and, using your authority, you deploy three Martial Emperor powerhouses, ten Heavenly King Level powerhouses, and over a hundred Grandmaster Level powerhouses to form a force specifically targeting the Descending Sect.]

[Thanks to Luo Shuying's assistance, you have a clear understanding of the Descending Sect's hideouts and personnel deployment. In just one year, the sect suffers heavy losses, with the execution of several Protector Level powerhouses, more than a dozen Elders, and hundreds of sect members.]

[The only regret is that Damned Zong seems to be hidden somewhere, as he was not among the slaughtered protectors.]

[As long as Damned Zong remains at large, you sleep uneasily every night, since a Cultivator's ability to disguise their appearance is mysterious and unpredictable, and even top professionals may not detect any clues.]

"Whenever a professional with an unfamiliar face passes by you, you instinctively back away several feet, while your gaze makes the other person's heart tremble in fear."

Su Xing saw this and curled the corner of his mouth, unable to suppress a comment in his heart.

"Hey, hey, hey, is there a mistake here? Was I really that timid in the simulation? No, that's not right, I seem to be even more timid in the real world..."

Su Xing soon acknowledged his true nature. Isn't the essence of humanity always from the heart?

Su Xing continued the simulation.

"Luo Shuying continued to lead the Great Xia powerhouses to exterminate the Descending Sect, until the leader of the fanatical faction within the Descending Sect took action. Only then did Luo Shuying give up the continued siege."

"However, this year-long siege resulted in heavy losses for the Descending Sect, with their strength nearly halved."

"Luo Shuying resigned from the task of exterminating the Descending Sect and stayed by your side. With Luo Shuying's protection, you felt much more at ease and continued to diligently practice the Li Fire Technique."

"In the eleventh year, you continued to practice the Li Fire Technique. Within one year, the range of your Li Fire Technique had reached forty-five zhang. You were not far from reaching the standard of fifty zhang."

"This year, you expended a lot of effort to select a group of veteran Grandmaster level professionals, offering them four thousand Dragon Spirit Pills and nearly three thousand Origin Martial Pills."

"The Grandmaster level professionals did not disappoint, and the majority successfully advanced to the Heavenly King level, resulting in over five hundred new Heavenly King level professionals in the Great Xia Country."

"This influx of power bolstered the strength of the Human Race at Demon-Subduing Pass to an unprecedented level. You became the unrivaled figure of the moment in Great Xia Country and were hailed as the future hope of the Human Race."

"In the twelfth year, you devoted yourself to practicing the Li Fire Technique. After five years, the range of your Li Fire Technique finally reached the standard of initial success, and you prepared to enhance its power."

"The thirteenth year, increasing the power of the Li Fire Technique proved more difficult than you had imagined because it meant that more Spiritual Power was needed.

The Spiritual Energy within the Spirit Field Blessed Land had become increasingly thin, and only by placing more than a thousand Spirit Stones into the Spirit Gathering Array could you continue to maintain the Spiritual Energy of the Blessed Land."

"Even so, you could only practice the Li Fire Technique for four hours per day because spending more time would excessively deplete the Spiritual Energy of the Spirit Field Blessed Land."

"Your progress in increasing the power of the Li Fire Technique was slow, but you continued to steadily make advancements. You settled down and immersed yourself in your deep practice."

"The good news was that, due to the reduced practice time each day, you began allocating time to explore the Great Xia treasure vaults, hoping to discover special Spirit Plants like the Gathering Spirit Flower."

"With your current identity, you could freely explore any treasure vault in the Great Xia Country."

"However, there were numerous treasure vaults within the Great Xia Country, a total of seven, each hidden in a city with one of the top educational institutions."

"You came to the Kyoto treasure vault and spent a month to explore most of the vast array of items and materials within the huge vault. You found that the Great Xia treasure vaults did not categorize items like Spirit Plants in detail. The vast majority of the items were equipment, tools, and potions commonly used by professionals; you even saw piles of exotic metals."

"After a month of excavation, you finally discovered a small amount of Spiritual Medicine, a batch of Essence-Nourishing Herbs, and a small quantity of Golden Celestial Essence, which came from the rare Cultivation instances.

You refined these materials into Essence-Nourishing Pills and Organ Refining Pills, resulting in several hundred more Grandmaster level professionals in the Great Xia Country."

Su Xing frowned slightly upon seeing this, puzzled in his mind.

Why did the foundation of the entire Great Xia Country seem weaker than the Descending Sect? The strength of Great Xia Country should obviously be more formidable...

But then Su Xing realized something and muttered,

"The Great Xia Country is full of professionals, who naturally value equipment, tools, and other special items produced from instances. However, their exploration of items needed by Cultivators is very limited because these items are not of great use to them, and the few instances that do exist have too low of a yield, hence the situation."

"But the Descending Sect is different. With centuries of heritage, many of its followers come from indigenous people of other worlds (instances), who are naturally more sensitive to the heaven-sent treasures that increase strength, thus accumulating so many Spiritual Medicine tools."

"Moreover, the Descending Sect has that guy Damned Zong. Perhaps it was the pillaging of a sect within an instance that brought them so many medicinal herbs?"

"Coupled with their collusion with the Foreign Race, the Descending Sect must have gained quite a lot of benefits..."

Having understood this, Su Xing continued the simulation.

"Then, you spent half a year searching the other six treasure vaults of the Great Xia Country, but you still couldn't replace the seeds of the Gathering Spirit Flower. However, you found quite a few other Spiritual Medicines, particularly a one zhang long Condensing Spirit Wood, much to your delight."

"You refined the newly found medicinal materials into Essence-Nourishing Pills, Dragon Spirit Pills, and other Elixirs, adding another batch of Grandmaster level and Heavenly King level powerhouses to the Great Xia Country."

"In the fourteenth year, after one year of practice, the power of your Li Fire Technique had clearly improved a notch from before, but it still fell far short of the goal described in the ancient texts, where all ordinary materials would burn upon contact."

"During the fifteenth year, you continued your day and night practice of the Li Fire Technique and, in your spare time, focused on gathering intelligence from the Cultivation World."

"You learned that over the past thousand years, Great Xia explored thirty-seven suspected cultivation-oriented instances. The vast majority of these instances had disappeared, with only seven remaining in the world, including those few cultivation instances you had previously learned about."

"Although most of the cultivation instances had vanished, much documentation was left behind, some of which contained rumors about the mysterious disappearance of Spiritual Energy in the Cultivation World. "

"There were various theories—some claimed it was a cataclysm of heaven and earth, others a disconnect between the heavens and the land. What caught your interest was that the Luo Tian Grand Assembly seemed to be related to the dissipation of the Spiritual Energy, and descriptions of Cultivators were also found in the documentation of instances from the era of the Dharma's decline."

Su Xing felt a surge of excitement upon reaching this point in his exploration. He had finally learned more about the rumors surrounding the dissipation of Spiritual Energy in the Cultivation World, using the power of the nation.

"Whether these rumors of the great catastrophe of heaven and earth, the disconnect between heavens and the land, are true or not, I can't verify them. However, the Luo Tian Grand Assembly instance might be worth exploring when the time comes..."