Chapter 172: The Fairy Tells an Old Tale
Chapter 172: The Fairy Tells an Old Tale
After dealing with the four Big Flies, Li Si’s territory finally settled into silence.
The three Veteran Deities and Demons left without a word, clearly believing Li Si was no longer worth the effort. This was their final intervention.
To get them to act again, Li Si would need to accumulate enough Fortune of Heaven and Earth first.
However, the future looked grim.
Even with Li Si’s current territory, population, and growth in cultivation GDP exceeding ten percent a year, his net annual profit only amounted to ten portions of Golden Fate.
In other words, it would take him ten years to gather one portion of the purple Fortune of Heaven and Earth.
But considering Li Si’s extravagant spending habits, this single portion of Fortune was nowhere near enough.
After all, even that Demonic Dragon refused to work for Li Si without pay—let alone these three.
What a shame!
Still, these three Veteran Deities and Demons agreed to intervene once more, free of charge, if another Big Fly appeared. Just once, though.
Li Si understood this. He’d been troubled by his own heavy spending of Fortune recently.
But regret was pointless. The eight hundred portions of Fortune were merely under his management—part of fiscal allocations—and couldn’t be pocketed.
He could only use them as approved.
Luckily, he had personal funds.
His current wealth consisted of:
• 463 portions of Purple Qi Luck (Fortune of Heaven and Earth), stored in the Fate Forge.
• 50,001 portions of Purple Firewood.
• 21,000 portions of Golden Firewood.
• 0 Cyan Firewood (though 215 portions were held in the bank).
• 0 White Firewood; 0 White Fortune.
• 0 Black Firewood.
• 600 million portions of Gray Firewood.
Overall… a bit meager.
This made Li Si slightly anxious about the future.
On the bright side, over the past six months, he’d dedicated six hours daily to cultivation and another six to alchemy and miscellaneous tasks.
He’d advanced his progress in five major cultivation arts to 20% mastery of their fifth layers:
• Heaven-Turning Scripture
• Scripture of Praying to Heaven
• Scripture of Heaven Mending
• Jade Tome of Creation
• Spiritual Essence Scripture
Meanwhile, he’d pushed the sixth layer of the Lamp-Lighting Void-Crossing Scripture to 22%.
Progressing all these arts simultaneously was highly demanding—even frightening. Though supported by the Fate Forge, Li Si had been stretched thin since reaching the Nascent Soul Realm across the board.
That changed after he broke through the fifth layer of the Lamp-Lighting Void-Crossing Scripture. His superpowered spirit allowed him to master all six arts with ease, without conflict.
His cultivation speed even increased slightly.
This made Li Si curious: Didn’t this mean spirit cultivators were best suited for true cultivation arts?
Shouldn’t spirit cultivation be the stronger system then? Why did true cultivators dominate them?
It seemed like a contradiction.
So he ran an experiment on Zhang San. He included Zhang San’s two sons, daughter-in-law, and one disciple in the test group.
Currently, Zhang San had reached the Lamp Lighting realm; the other four were at the Spirit Journey realm.
A Divine Decree descended, and Zhang San began cultivating the Heaven-Turning Scripture while the others each practiced a different true cultivation art, as ordered by Li Si for three months straight.
During this period, Li Si stopped pill-making and crafting Protective Jade. He focused entirely on the Lamp-Lighting Void-Crossing Scripture—he was part of the experiment too.
Three months passed in a blink.
Li Si opened his eyes, his expression peculiar. He’d cultivated tirelessly for twelve hours a day without rest or food. Yet his progress in the sixth layer of the Lamp-Lighting Void-Crossing Scripture showed nearly zero growth.
All that effort for nothing.
Any improvement was negligible—a fraction beyond the decimal point.
This proved one thing: The higher your spirit cultivation realm, the harder it is to progress through self-cultivation. Without Spirit Nourishing Pills, Li Si might never advance in this art again.
He then checked Zhang San and his group’s progress.
Indeed, they’d been rapid.
In three months, Zhang San mastered the Heaven-Turning Scripture to the fourth layer—reaching the Golden Core realm.
The other four reached the Foundation Building realm at the third layer.
This speed seemed impressive at first glance.
But when Li Si examined their data, he noticed their progress initially skyrocketed before hitting a wall.
Specifically, their spirit cultivation level must be one realm higher than their true cultivation; otherwise, cultivation stalled instantly.
Li Si ordered Zhang San’s group to abandon true cultivation and return to the Lamp-Lighting Void-Crossing Scripture.
Analyzing both sets of data, Li Si contemplated and guessed the root cause behind the ancient rift between true cultivators and spirit cultivators.
If he was right, spirit cultivation arts offered many perks but demanded immense resources to advance beyond the Lamp Lighting realm.
And this cost was astronomical. Using himself as reference: Though he had three million Radish Exuviae, once he reserved portions for Dream-Passing Spirit Pills and the freedom-boosting elixirs, the remaining just barely covered his full mastery of the Lamp-Lighting Void-Crossing Scripture’s sixth layer.
Based on this, Li Si even suspected that during the cultivation world’s golden age millennia ago, how many spirit cultivators could’ve truly broken through to the World Salvation stage?
And if any did, how many?
The difficulty of spirit ascent was dozens—if not hundreds—of times greater than true cultivation.
Look at the true system: They imitated heaven and earth, advancing to become True Immortals as long as they had spiritual energy and talent.
But how many spirit cultivators achieved True Immortality?
Probably none.
The Big Flies offered proof:
A true sect with just one True Immortal could squash a Big Fly instantly.
Even a few at the Great Ascension realm could prevent infestations.
Yet all spirit cultivation sects had been consumed by Big Flies or vanished.
“Confirming one last point will reveal the full truth,” Li Si concluded.
He teleported to his Quiet Room in Kaoshan City, burned incense, bathed, changed clothes, and sought an audience with Fairy Zhao.
Shortly after, Zhao Qingxie appeared, her expression cold as ice. She still resented their last encounter. But nine months later, her condition had clearly improved: All Soul Lamps were lit. Old Man Shendanzi hadn’t skimmed resources.
The prime reason, though, was the Mortal Realm’s unprecedented stability, which positively affected the frontlines alongside the Illusory Realm.
“What do you need?” Fairy Zhao asked icily, then softened her tone. “You’ve done well in the Mortal Realm. Befriending the Tribulation-Bearing Dragon was brilliant—not only is he assisting you, but he also brought three more recluse deities and demons over. Did you know Lingjingzi is now regretting his resistance so deeply he’s slamming his head against walls? Even Tianjizi and Chisongzi are scrambling to move their sects here.”
Li Si: Huh? The Old Dragon’s three friends… Sure, whatever you say, Fairy Leader.
“How is your grandmaster Qingping?” Zhao Qingxie inquired.
Li Si offered the Dusty Flying Sword. “Her Immortal Spirit is severely injured. It needs time to heal. This sword helps.”
Fairy Zhao held the sword, gazing tenderly at the weakened Qingpingzi within—no trace of the sword-dancing maiden remained. Her eyes dimmed. “So much hardship upon the path. All empty without Great Perfection. Sister, your fate has been too harsh… Long ago, the three of us—Qingping, Qingyi, and I—grew up together. Our Master dubbed us inner disciples, each eligible for the Jiuxuanzi title. But Sister Qingping won it.”
“Back then, young and hot-headed, I founded the Floating Cloud Sect instead. Sister Qingyi, ever steady, ascended to the Land of Infinite Vastness fifteen centuries ago. I wonder how she fares there…”
“Time flows like water; life is but duckweed. Unfathomable.” Fairy Zhao sighed once more and returned the sword. “You should keep this. Though you are the Calamity-Bearing Human King now, under the Old Dragon’s care, you’re safest. You must protect Grandmaster Qingping.”
“Speaking of… What was your query?” Suddenly recalling Li Si’s initial request, she shot him a sharp glance.
“Ahem. I wished to ask if the Soul Cultivation System can actually reach the True Immortal stage.”
“Why this question?” Fairy Zhao gave him a probing look, then nodded. “Yes. But the spirit path to immortality is a hundred—a thousand—times harder. Since recorded history, only one spirit cultivator ever achieved True Immortality and ascended to the Land of Infinitesimal.”
“After that, nada. Initially, spirit cultivators were secretly supported by sects to fend off Void Monsters. But anything below the Lamp Lighting/World Salvation level was meaningless. They were far too costly to train—often consuming one-third or half a sect’s resources per cultivator.”
“In that era of peace, Void Monsters were rare, surfacing only every few millennia. So even major sects like the Jiuxuan Spirit Sword Sect trained just one or two World Salvation spirit cultivators symbolically per thousand years. As time passed, resource allocation sparked friction between the Soul Cultivation System and True Cultivation System.”
“Spirit cultivators saw themselves as bulwarks against chaos; true cultivators prioritized Ascension to the Land of Infinite Vastness.”
“Here they diverged—but never violently. True cultivation sects covertly funded and protected spirit systems; high-level cultivators understood nuance. Rumors of mutual annihilation, true cultivators eradicating spirit ones, or spirit cultivators absconding to the Land of Infinitesimal were rampant. We could neither stop them nor cared to refute them.”
“Then… this split gave our enemies an opening. Three thousand years ago, all separated spirit practitioners—even the true cultivators secretly guarding them—vanished overnight. This stunned the world, fueling speculation. Sect leaders could only swallow their bitterness.”
“From then on, they frantically investigated but found nothing. Only a few weak spirit cultivators survived and were safeguarded. Sects rushed to train new ones… but reconstructing the systemic, self-sustaining Soul Cultivation heritage couldn’t be rushed.”
“And so… By the time the Devil Mushroom plague erupted a thousand years ago—sigh—we’d demolished the spirit barrier crucial for such crises. Self-inflicted doom!”
Fairy Zhao’s account was the most objective and factual—high-level intel unknown even to middling cultivators, let alone low-tier ones.
None of that mattered to Li Si. He only sought to confirm one thing: Advanced spirit cultivation demanded astronomical external resources. True pay-to-win territory!
“There’s… another matter,” Fairy Zhao hesitated. “Tianjizi and Shendanzi asked me to inquire if you might introduce them to the three recluse deities and demons via the Tribulation-Bearing Dragon. Any one will do.”