Chapter 604 - 330: Steady Progress, Endless Abyss

"It’s pure envy. Su Chen achieved Twin Divine Dawns and remains safe under the Bronze Sect’s protection. But the cause of his transformation, the Profound Celestial Instrument, has attracted far too much attention."

Standing by the window, Li Qing said with displeasure, "Let whoever wants to come, come. We can just let them into the Profound Celestial Instrument. Once they find out they can’t transform, they’ll naturally give up on the idea."

"If only it were that simple," Lu Huai said, shaking his head in resignation. "They aren’t fools. Su Chen is the only one to succeed in all these years, so they know the usual methods won’t work."

"They suspect we have another method, or that Su Chen has something special about him. They won’t just enter casually."

Lu Huai shook his head and asked, "What does the Ancient King say? Do I need to return to the Sect?"

Li Qing’s brows knitted together. She shook her head. "No need. We’ve had the Profound Celestial Instrument in our possession for so long and never found anything unusual about it. Even if we took it back now, I’m afraid it would be just like before."

"Part of the cause lies with Su Chen. We can’t figure it out on our own. It seems you’ll still have to take the Profound Celestial Instrument to the Royal Court."

"Mm," Lu Huai replied, not surprised.

"However, now that it’s confirmed the Profound Celestial Instrument plays a crucial role, the Ancient King raised the price a bit. The Hanhai Emperor is somewhat displeased, so the Royal Court might send more people."

As Li Qing spoke, her gaze wavered. This kind of last-minute price gouging was never a respectable move.

But Lu Huai didn’t seem to mind. Thinking about the string of messages on his communication device, his headache grew worse. "Why now of all times? The Spirit of Sun is within reach, and no one wants to miss out."

Li Qing frowned. "Wishful thinking. The Ancient Kings will be participating. What good would it do them even if they transformed into Divine Dawns?"

"You can’t put it that way." Lu Huai, however, could understand. "There’s a world of difference between not being chosen and not being qualified. But let’s not talk about that. When is the Ancient King going to the Lost Flame?"

"Mm," Li Qing mused. "It will still be some time. The materials mentioned by the Sun haven’t been fully prepared yet. And it seems the Bronze Ancient King doesn’t plan on going."

"The Flame Fire threat hasn’t been completely resolved?" Lu Huai realized, then it dawned on him. "Right. After all, there’s still the Dark Sun period every day. That Ancient King probably can’t leave for too long."

"If he can’t go, he’ll have a hard time learning about any unexpected situations at the Lost Flame right away."

Li Qing was completely unconcerned. "That’s something for the Bronze Sect to worry about."

......

"This is an Earth Core."

On the Floating Island, Su Chen took the latest collected material from Wei Fan’s hands.

"The last two items are on their way. They should arrive in two months at the earliest, three at the latest," Wei Fan estimated.

"No rush." Su Chen waved his hand, but inwardly, he couldn’t help but feel impressed. ’The power of the Bronze Sect is truly terrifying. It’s only been a short while, and they’ve almost gathered everything.’

After seeing Wei Fan off, Su Chen opened his status panel and took a look. ’In two or three months, all the materials will be gathered.’

’I could try going to the Creation Copper Heart first to complete these two time-consuming requirements. By then, the remaining materials should have arrived too. The timing would be perfect.’

After a quick calculation, Su Chen decided not to stubbornly wait for all the materials before going to the Creation Copper Heart. The other requirements could be worked on in parallel.

After tidying up a bit, he headed for the Creation Copper Heart. He was already very familiar with the place. He greeted Brother Ku upon entering, but the other man merely lifted an eyelid, too lazy to even acknowledge him.

"Welcome, Sir Su Chen. How may I assist you?" As soon as he stepped inside, the Copper Spirit’s voice rang out as usual.

"Simulate the environment of the Unresting Abyss for me," Su Chen stated his request.

He already knew what this Unresting Abyss was. It was an extremely unique geological environment where the internal gravity was in a constant state of fluctuation.

It was also composed of a mineral called "Unresting Stone," which constantly drained the Physical Strength of any life form within it. The burden of just moving around inside was immense.

Furthermore, his class requirements stated that he couldn’t use external items or ability assistance, which meant he had to endure it with his body alone.

"As you wish." The Copper Spirit’s voice faded, and the surrounding space transformed. The Obsidian Land spread out in all directions. At first, it was as smooth as a mirror, but it soon began to crack and heave, revealing sharp edges and intersecting ravines.

The moment his feet touched the ground, Su Chen felt his body sink. The entire land seemed to come alive, gripping him tightly. An immense gravitational force, many times stronger than normal, pressed down on him as if he were carrying a great mountain.

He instinctively straightened his spine but immediately staggered backward. The moment he tried to resist, the gravity vanished, replaced by an extreme lightness that caused him to suddenly lose his balance.

His body swayed. Just as Su Chen regained his footing, he felt himself sink again. Having learned his lesson, he didn’t try to fight it this time, letting the irregular gravity have its way.

’The unstable gravity puts too much strain on the body...’

In just a few moments, he understood just how difficult it was to survive here.

Moreover, a strange suction force came from under his feet, absorbing the vitality from his cells. Every action he took, even every thought, seemed much heavier here than in the outside world.

’This is definitely not easy,’ Su Chen thought. Reading about it was one thing, but experiencing it firsthand was far more profound.

He could handle this normal state, but he also had to accelerate the environmental simulation. Otherwise, the one-year-in-residence requirement would be far too long for him.

After adapting for a short while, Su Chen had the Copper Spirit accelerate the environment. However, as soon as the speed was raised to about five times the normal rate, he started to find it unbearable.

The gravity shifts were too fast. In low gravity, his muscles would surge beneath his skin, blue veins bulging along his arms. Then, the next wave of high gravity would slam them back down, sinking them deep into his flesh.

Thrashing, twitching, and convulsing under these conditions consumed a terrifying amount of his energy.

’Finishing this in a month might have been too optimistic,’ Su Chen thought with a sense of helplessness. He temporarily lowered the simulation’s speed, allowing his body to gradually adapt to the environment first.

At the same time, he began to explore the boundaries of the "no external items or ability assistance" requirement.

’I can’t use external items for assistance, but eating should be fine, right? If I don’t eat, I’ll starve to death.’

Su Chen experimented by having the Copper Spirit prepare various foods and gradually figured out the rules.

Food needed for normal survival did not, in fact, count as an external item. However, there was a vague limit. If he ate too much and exceeded that amount,

the "continuous living" requirement would fail, and he would have to start over.

However, his Gourmet class was also at play. He couldn’t use its ability to store extra nutrients, but its inherent digestive power was still active, allowing him to extract the maximum nutritional value from a limited amount of food.

Through his experiments, Su Chen gradually came to an understanding. ’The restriction on "abilities" refers to active ones. There are many passive abilities I can’t control, so they aren’t counted against the requirement.’

’This also means my abilities that reduce Physical Strength consumption are already working. Otherwise, I probably couldn’t have even withstood the five-times environmental speed.’

After a few days of continuous optimization, Su Chen could raise the environmental speed to a maximum of eight times the normal rate. At this speed, he could maintain a balance between his Physical Strength consumption and recovery, preventing the situation from becoming too difficult.

But soon, he reduced the speed back to seven times. He needed to reserve some Physical Strength for his class development.

Class development consumed Physical Strength, but it didn’t affect the completion of the requirement.

However, in the Unresting Abyss, he couldn’t develop his class nonstop. He had to rest every few days. After a few more days of experimentation, he had completely adapted to this new way of life.

’A balance has been reached,’ Su Chen thought, opening his eyes. He then issued another command: "Copper Spirit, simulate the healthy and damaged states of at least a thousand different things in succession."

"As you wish..." As the voice faded, on the Obsidian Land, a pink flower stalk suddenly shot out from a crack in the stone. It grew at a visible rate, its cicada-wing-thin petals unfurling layer by layer in an instant.

It bloomed for no more than a breath before the edges of its petals showed scorched brown spots. Its roots snapped inch by inch within the stone, and its corolla drooped lifelessly.

Then came another, completely different plant. This process repeated over and over. It was a requirement for the Healing Sage class, which only required him to observe for three hours a day—perfectly doubling as his rest time.

"Not bad."

Feeling that not a single moment of his time was being wasted, Su Chen was quite satisfied.