Others Level Up, but I Pursue Cultivation!

Su Xing saw this and was taken aback, then excitedly slapped his thigh, muttering:

"That's right, the success rate and quality of alchemy might not be because of my alchemy skills! Maybe the problem lies with this flame!"

"As the saying goes, 'To do a good job, one must first sharpen one's tools,' this Li Fire is still at the entry level, the temperature might not be high enough, so naturally, it's difficult to refine mid-grade elixirs!"

Su Xing clearly remembered that when he first acquired the Li Fire Alchemy, the ancient text stated that the Li Fire Alchemy was divided into two parts: Li Fire and Alchemy.

Alchemy was the main body, while Li Fire was just a type of flame suitable for refining elixirs, able to better refine elixirs.

Since Su Xing first acquired the Li Fire Alchemy, he had always neglected the improvement of the Li Fire Technique. Now it was time to enhance his control over Li Fire.

Su Xing had an idea in his mind, and so he continued the simulation.

[You realized that the failure in refining the Soul Condensing Pills was because of the flame, the entry-level Li Fire Technique's temperature was not sufficient to refine mid-grade elixirs.]

[So you began to think of ways to enhance the power of the Li Fire Technique. You took out the ancient text of Li Fire Alchemy and started practicing according to the introduction in the Li Fire chapter.]

[According to the introduction in the Li Fire chapter, the inspiration for the Li Fire Technique's cultivation came from one of the Four Divine Fires, the Southern Bright Li Fire. Although its power couldn't be compared with the real Southern Bright Li Fire, it was still a top-tier immortal technique in the cultivation world.]

[The cultivation of Li Fire required some degree of Divine Sense. After entering the beginner level, in order to further improve, at least the Divine Sense needed to reach the Five Senses Realm and have a range of fifty feet.]

[You were very fortunate to have just met this requirement and began to practice the Li Fire Technique diligently.]

[In the fifth year, the power of your Li Fire Technique improved slightly but was still at the entry level.]

[In the sixth year, you practiced the Li Fire Technique day in and day out, spending eight hours every day. The use of the Li Fire Technique consumed a lot of spiritual power and spiritual energy. Fortunately, you had reached the Nascent Soul Stage and could use Li Fire continuously for eight hours, after which you needed to recover your internal spiritual power.]

[In the seventh year, you felt that as you practiced the Li Fire Technique, the spiritual energy in the Spirit Field Blessed Land began to thin gradually, and the amount of spiritual energy had decreased by a third.]

[Fortunately, you had planted the Gathering Spirit Flowers early. The three Gathering Spirit Flowers worked hard every day to replenish the spiritual energy, slightly alleviating the speed of consumption.]

[In the eighth year, you had become quite proficient in controlling the Li Fire Technique. Within ten feet, you could make the Li Fire Technique appear anywhere with a single thought.]

[But you knew this was not the limit of the Li Fire Technique. According to the ancient text, when the Li Fire Technique was cultivated to great achievement, it could be classified as a divine skill, capable of burning rivers and sea.]

[The mark of successfully cultivating the Li Fire Technique to minor achievement included three standards: the first was proficiency in control, able to produce fire with a single thought.]

[The second was a broad range; within the fifty feet range of Divine Sense, it all fell within the attack range of the Li Fire Technique.]

[The third was astonishing power, mundane objects would combust upon contact.]

[Your years of practice had only brought the Li Fire Technique to meet the first standard of minor achievement. So next, you planned to focus on improving the range and power of the Li Fire Technique.]

[You spent half a year, practicing eight hours daily, to expand the effective range of the Li Fire Technique. With your constant hard work and diligent practice, the farthest distance the Li Fire Technique could leave your body was now fifteen feet.]

[In the ninth year, you continued to practice the Li Fire Technique. After a year, the Li Fire Technique could successfully release within twenty-five feet.]

[This year, the Shadow Protector's homeworld was attacked by giant beasts. Despite the many elixirs you had previously provided to the Shadow Protector, her world still couldn't withstand the beast's onslaught.]

[You comforted the Shadow Protector and told her she could consider Blue Star as her home.]

[You and the Shadow Protector began to discuss the matter of defecting from the Descending Sect and started planning to steal the spiritual medicines and treasures from the sect's vault.]

[In the tenth year, you raised the range of control of the Li Fire Technique to thirty-five feet.]

[In the same year, you defected from the Descending Sect with the Shadow Protector. Before leaving, you didn't forget to take most of the spiritual medicines from the Descending Sect's vault.]

[You joined the Great Xia Military with the Shadow Protector and gave them a total of two hundred thousand elixirs accumulated over the years.]

[With your help, the Great Xia Country gained forty thousand grandmaster-level experts within half a year. The main forces at the Demon-Subduing Pass multiplied several times in a short period.]

[You were thus granted first-class treatment, equivalent to a five-star general in the military, and regarded as a national hero by the Great Xia Military.]

[Drawing on your experience of being sneak attacked by damned Zong last time, you selected a Martial Emperor level expert and three Heavenly King level experts to protect you closely, which made you much more at ease.]

[After joining the Great Xia Country, Luo Shuying proposed her idea. She hoped to lead a team to eliminate the Descending Sect, as the Descending Sect had been colluding with foreign races over the years, causing significant losses to the human race.]

[You agreed with Luo Shuying's idea and used your authority to deploy three Martial Emperor level experts, ten Heavenly King level experts, and over a hundred grandmaster-level experts to form a specialized task force aimed at eliminating the Descending Sect.]

[With Luo Shuying's help, you had a clear understanding of the Descending Sect's strongholds and personnel arrangements. Within a year, the Descending Sect suffered heavy losses, with several protector-level experts, over ten elders, and hundreds of followers killed.]

[The only regret was that damned Zong was nowhere to be found among the executed protectors.]

[As long as damned Zong was alive, you couldn't sleep well. After all, the camouflage techniques of cultivators were mysterious and unpredictable, and even top profession users couldn't necessarily discern them.]

[Whenever a stranger profession user passed by, you instinctively distanced yourself and stared at the person, making them feel uneasy.]

Su Xing saw this and smirked, unable to resist commenting in his heart.

"Hey, what's the deal? Am I really this timid in the simulation? No, I think I'm even more timid in the real world..."

Su Xing quickly realized his nature, understanding that the essence of being human was mindfulness.

Su Xing continued the simulation.

[Luo Shuying continued to lead the Great Xia experts to eradicate the Descending Sect, until the leader of the sect's fanatical faction took action, at which point Luo Shuying gave up the pursuit.]

[However, the year-long eradication campaign inflicted severe losses on the Descending Sect, cutting their strength in half.]

[Luo Shuying resigned from the task of eliminating the Descending Sect and stayed by your side. With Luo Shuying's protection, you felt much more secure and continued to diligently practice the Li Fire Technique.]

[In the eleventh year, you continued to practice the Li Fire Technique. Within a year, the control range of your Li Fire Technique reached forty-five feet, not far from the fifty feet standard.]

[That year, you spent a lot of effort selecting a group of veteran grandmaster-level profession users, giving them four thousand Dragon Spirit Pills and nearly three thousand Origin Martial Pills to consume.]

[These grandmaster-level profession users lived up to expectations, with most successfully advancing to Heavenly King level experts. In no time, Great Xia Country gained over five hundred new Heavenly King level profession users.]

[This influx of power into the Demon-Subduing Pass made the human race's strength there unprecedentedly strong. You became a prominent figure in the Great Xia Country, hailed as the nation's future hope.]

[In the twelfth year, you focused on diligently practicing the Li Fire Technique. Over five years, the range of your Li Fire Technique finally reached the minor achievement standard. You then planned to enhance the power of the Li Fire Technique.]

[In the thirteenth year, improving the power of the Li Fire Technique proved more challenging than you had imagined. Enhancing its power required more spiritual power, and the spiritual energy in the Spirit Field Blessed Land was becoming increasingly scarce.

You could only place the remaining over a thousand Spirit Stones into the Spirit Gathering Array to maintain the spiritual energy in the Blessed Land.]

[Even so, you could only practice the Li Fire Technique for four hours a day, as practicing for too long would excessively deplete the spiritual energy in the Spirit Field Blessed Land.]

[Although the power of your Li Fire Technique improved slowly, it continued to progress. You calmed your mind and persistently practiced.]

[The good news was that with the reduction in daily practice time, you began to focus on exploring the Great Xia's Treasure Vault, hoping to find unique spirit plants like the Gathering Spirit Flower.]

[Given your current status, you could explore any treasure vault within the Great Xia Country freely.]

[However, the Great Xia Country had numerous treasure vaults, seven in total, each located in cities housing top academies.]

[You went to the Kyoto City Treasure Vault and spent a month exploring most of the tools and materials in this vast treasure vault. You discovered that the treasure vault lacked detailed classifications for spirit plants and other items; most of the items in the treasure vault were equipment, tools, and potions commonly used by profession users. You even saw piles of alien metal.]

[After a month's excavation, you finally found some spiritual medicines, a batch of Essence-Nourishing Herb and a small amount of Yellow Fairy Extract, obtained from rare cultivation replicas. You refined these herbs into Essence-Nourishing Pills and Organ Refining Pills, adding several hundred grandmaster-level profession users to the Great Xia Country.]

Su Xing saw this and frowned slightly, feeling puzzled in his heart.

Why did the foundation of the entire Great Xia Country seem weaker than the Descending Sect? The Great Xia Country should be stronger...

But then Su Xing understood, muttering:

"In the Great Xia Country, profession users naturally placed more importance on equipment, tools, and other special items from replicas, while the exploration of items needed by cultivators was very limited because they were not very useful to them. Additionally, the benefits from the rare replicas were too low, hence the situation."

"But the Descending Sect was different, with hundreds of years of heritage, many followers coming from other worlds (replicas) as natives. They were naturally more sensitive to Heaven and Earth Treasures that increased strength, hence accumulating so many spiritual medicines and tools."

"And with that damned Zong in the Descending Sect, perhaps he looted a sect in a replica, which is why he acquired so many medicinal materials?"

"Moreover, the Descending Sect's collusion with foreign races might have brought them many benefits as well..."

After Su Xing understood, he continued the simulation.

[You spent half a year searching the other six treasure vaults in the Great Xia Country, but still couldn't find the seeds of the Gathering Spirit Flower. However, you did find many other spiritual medicines, including a one-foot-long Condensing Spirit Wood, which delighted your heart.]

[You refined the newly found medicinal materials into Essence-Nourishing Pills, Dragon Spirit Pills, and so on, adding another batch of grandmaster-level and Heavenly King level experts to the Great Xia Country.]

[In the fourteenth year, after a year of practice, the power of your Li Fire Technique significantly improved, but it was still far from the target of burning mundane objects upon contact as stated in the ancient text.]

[In the fifteenth year, you continued to practice the Li Fire Technique day and night. In your spare time, you focused on gathering intelligence from the Cultivation World.]

[You learned that over thousands of years, the Great Xia had explored a total of thirty-seven suspected cultivation replicas, of which most had already disappeared. There were only seven cultivation replicas left in the world, including the few cultivation replicas you had previously heard about.]

[While most of these cultivation replicas had vanished, a lot of information had been left behind, including some rumors about the mysterious disappearance of spiritual energy in the Cultivation World.]

[These rumors were varied. Some said it was a great calamity of heaven and earth, others said it was heavens closing and earth sealing. What interested you was that the Luo Tian Convention seemed to be related to the disappearance of spiritual energy and the End of Dharma Era replicas seemed to mention cultivators as well.]

Su Xing read this with some excitement, as this time, he had finally used the nation's power to further understand some rumors about the disappearance of spiritual energy in the Cultivation World.

"Great calamity of heaven and earth, heavens closing and earth sealing, whether these rumors were true, I couldn't verify. However, the Luo Tian Convention replica might be worth exploring when I have time..."