Chapter 595 - 535: The Cruel Reality

Chapter 595: Chapter 535: The Cruel Reality

One year, two years, three years...

Ten years, twenty years, thirty years...

After the twenty-year seclusion to break through to the Middle Stage of the Golden Core Realm, this seclusion, by its sheer length, had once again broken Chu Mu’s personal record.

The door to the Secluded Meditation Chamber had remained tightly shut for over thirty years, showing not the slightest sign of movement.

Inside the Flying Boat’s cabin, Wangcai lay before the door, listlessly toying with a Storage Bag. It tossed the palm-sized bag back and forth between its paws, having the time of its life.

Just then, as if it had suddenly sensed something, Wangcai scrambled to its feet and stared at the door that had been sealed for decades.

At that very moment, the faint, fluorescent glow of the Array Prohibition on the door dimmed, and the door slowly swung open.

"AWOO!"

Wangcai let out a cry and shot forward, wagging its tail. It darted around Chu Mu, who had just appeared in the doorway, wild with excitement.

A smile appeared on Chu Mu’s face. The loneliness from decades of secluded Cultivation seemed to dissipate in that instant.

He ruffled Wangcai’s head and glanced back at the room. As with every seclusion before, it was a complete mess.

This time was no exception.

After decades in seclusion, the consumption of Elixirs alone was a terrifying, astronomical figure.

If he hadn’t used his Pill and Artifact Dual Proficiency to amass a fortune after advancing to the Golden Core Realm, gathering a vast quantity of Spiritual Materials and Objects, he never would have been able to sustain nearly sixty years of consecutive seclusion.

Even so, his years of accumulated Elixirs, along with the vast majority of his Spiritual Materials and Objects for Alchemy, had been completely depleted several years ago.

In exchange for this mountain of resources and the passage of decades, he had gained a slow, day-by-day increase in his Cultivation.

This daily growth was reflected with indisputable clarity on his Light Curtain Panel.

On the Light Curtain Panel, the Skill Level value for the Great Sun Scripture had once again leaped forward.

The fortuitous encounter of refining the Cyan Lotus Earth Core Flame had allowed him to suddenly cross nearly half the distance through the Middle Stage of Golden Core. This time, decades of secluded Cultivation and a mountain of resources had pushed that progress steadily forward by another large chunk.

He was about eighty to ninety percent there—one foot through the door.

The Late Stage of Golden Core was no longer a distant prospect.

Chu Mu estimated that if he had sufficient resources, another ten years or so of seclusion should be enough to touch the threshold of the Late Stage of Golden Core.

However, achieving a natural, seamless breakthrough this time would likely be a bit difficult.

After all, on the path of Cultivation, once one reached the Golden Core Realm, simply accumulating Magical Power was only one major component of the process.

Other aspects were just as important, such as nourishing the Immortal Golden Core, further fusing his Essence, Qi, and Spirit, and even his comprehension of Cultivation itself...

It had all become an integrated whole.

Furthermore, the leap in his Cultivation from the Energy feedback of refining the Cyan Lotus Earth Core Flame was immediately followed by decades of Cultivation fueled by a mountain of Elixirs. The transition between the two was far too compact.

His Cultivation needed to be stabilized. And no matter how minimal the Erysipelas from the Immortal Spirit Pills was, its accumulation over decades would inevitably result in significant negative erosion.

A ten-thousand-foot tower rises from level ground. On the path of Cultivation, a stable foundation directly determined one’s future in Immortal Dao Cultivation.

All of these issues needed to be resolved before breaking through to the Late Stage of Golden Core.

Otherwise, it would create a vicious cycle, effectively severing his own Immortal Path.

Chu Mu waved his hand, and the piles of depleted Spirit Stones and empty Jade Bottles in the room vanished into a Storage Talisman.

As usual, with a flick of his finger, the Storage Talisman shattered. The discarded items, along with the collapsing space of the Storage Mansion, were annihilated in the ensuing Spatial Turbulence.

Only then did Chu Mu turn to the still-excited Wangcai. A quick scan of its aura confirmed his expectations.

With its Celestial Tier Bloodline and an abundance of resources, Wangcai’s Cultivation Progress was even faster than his own.

By now, Wangcai was more than halfway through the Tier Three Middle Stage. If he hadn’t had the fortuitous encounter with the Cyan Lotus Earth Core Flame, his own rate of progress would likely have been slower than Wangcai’s.

’Talent...’

Chu Mu shook his head with a smile, but a moment later, he couldn’t help but feel a bit wistful.

Talent was preordained by the heavens. To him, the issue of his Spirit Root Talent was a fishbone stuck in his throat.

If the problem of his Spirit Root Talent wasn’t solved, it meant that everything he had achieved was ultimately just a beautiful illusion, one that could shatter at any moment.

After all, the higher his Cultivation became, the fewer and rarer the resources that could aid him would be.

This was already becoming apparent now that he was in the Golden Core Realm.

Without exception, everything he needed was exceedingly rare.

It was just that his fame for Pill and Artifact Dual Proficiency and the immense wealth he had amassed had masked this reality.

Take the massive quantity of Elixirs he had consumed during his decades of seclusion. No other Cultivator, not even the Core Disciples of major powers, could possibly afford such extravagance.

Back on the Demon Suppression Islands, he had witnessed countless Golden Core Cultivators risk their lives for just a few bottles of Elixirs or a few hundred Upper Grade Spirit Stones.

That was the common reality.

He was merely an exception.

But how long could this exception last?

In the Cultivation Immortal Realm, resources were finite.

High Tier Cultivators were also exceedingly rare.

The Vast Sea Demon Beasts were numberless, but how many Tier Four Demon Beasts could there possibly be?

The Great Chu Cultivators were countless, but how many Nascent Soul Great Powers existed among them?

One day, when the resources he could obtain were no longer enough to compensate for the flaws in his Spirit Root Talent, his Immortal Dao Cultivation would inevitably grind to a halt.

With his inferior Spirit Root Talent and without enough resources to support him...

He still clearly remembered how, back in his early days on the Path to Immortality, just reaching the Qi Cultivation First Layer had felt like a hopeless, arduous struggle. What chance did he have now in the Golden Core Realm, let alone in the higher realms he yearned for?

For him, a lack of abundant resources was essentially a dead end on the Immortal Dao!

It was a basic equation.

Until the flaw in his Spirit Root Talent was resolved, this equation would always exist, a thorn in his heart, waiting for the day it would finally, fully manifest.

At this thought, the flicker of joy from his great leap in Cultivation vanished completely, and an inextinguishable gloom once again settled over his heart.

It was as if every step forward he took now wasn’t in pursuit of a higher realm on the Immortal Dao, but a rush toward that desperate reality.

A beautiful illusion whose only end... was collapse.

’I can only hope...’

Chu Mu took a deep breath, forcing down the roiling gloom in his heart.

Reality was cruel. All he could do was try everything in his power to avert it before it came to pass.

He had no other choice.

...