Chapter 113: Cao Xuan’s Plan, the Six Great Sacred Lands as the First Choice

Ever since he broke through from the Qi Refining stage to the Foundation Establishment stage, Cao Xuan understood that in the world of cultivation, every realm is a world unto itself. He thought back to the novels he had read in his previous life, where the likes of "Exalted Han" would remain stuck at the Core Formation stage for centuries in the Chaotic Star Seas.

In this world, the Six Great Sacred Lands were the most transcendent of all sects. Even the Central Plains' Azure Cloud Sect—which, to Cao Xuan and his peers, appeared as a terrifyingly powerful faction where Core Formation masters were as common as stray dogs and Nascent Soul experts roamed freely—was merely considered a second-rate sect. Since the Six Great Sacred Lands required one to reach the Nascent Soul stage within a century as a prerequisite for entry, it was certain that the path would be anything but simple.

Possessing the "Simp System," Cao Xuan naturally would not belittle himself or believe that he could not reach the pinnacle of the Immortal Dao. However, he needed time and... the right fairies.

Indeed, Cao Xuan had discovered that the choice of fairy was crucial. While both offered a 50x return, Ye Caixuan had even triggered critical hits, whereas Xing Mengfan had failed to produce a single critical hit over the past few days. Cao Xuan realized that the multiplier was sometimes just a quantity, but the critical hit was the key.

For instance, if he gifted a Foundation Establishment-stage Spirit Recovery Pill to Xing Mengfan, the 50x rebate would turn one pill into fifty. But if he gifted it to the Junior Grandmaster Xian Xiangqiu, the 3000x rebate would yield 3,000 pills. While 1 becoming 3,000 represented a vast amount of spirit stones in terms of wealth, Cao Xuan—who possessed the mastery of the "True Interpretation of Alchemy"—could refine top-quality Spirit Recovery Pills himself. To him, the quantity was just a number.

"Sigh, the rebates are uncontrollable, and the draws depend on luck," he muttered. "But one thing is certain: I cannot miss out on high-multiplier fairies, and the more fairies, the better. On one hand, I build affinity to accumulate ten-pulls; on the other, I trigger rebates repeatedly to gamble for critical hits, hoping for rare treasures."

Cao Xuan’s goals were clear, though he lacked confidence in whether he could truly achieve the Nascent Soul stage in a century or the Spirit Severing stage in a millennium. "Forget it, I’ll take it one step at a time. If the Sacred Lands really hold those century or millennium assessments, I’ll just leave!"

The Central Plains was a grand stage; if you had talent, you belonged there. For the Cao Xuan of the past, if he hadn't broken through to the fourth layer of Qi Refining and passed the outer disciple assessment of the Yun Prefecture's Azure Cloud Sect, he would never have attained his current peak Foundation Establishment cultivation.

Whether it was the fairies he met—Li Yao, Yu Wan, Chen Qianru, and others—or the basic cultivation pills like Qi Gathering Pills, Qi Condensing Powders, and Spirit Recovery Pills he used for gifting, everything was built upon the foundation of his time at the Yun Prefecture's Azure Cloud Sect. Thus, for Cao Xuan, getting into the Six Great Sacred Lands would be ideal, but if it failed, staying in the Central Plains' Azure Cloud Sect would be a sufficient fallback.

What he said earlier about Core Formation masters being as common as dogs was no joke. Bai Tianxiang, with her 80x multiplier at the mid-stage Core Formation, was not even considered a genius within the Central Plains' Azure Cloud Sect. If Yu Wan were to break through to the mid-stage Core Formation, her unique "Butterfly Dagger" trait would leave Bai Tianxiang in the dust. Conversely, if fairies like Li Zhiyun, Ye Caixuan, or Xing Mengfan broke through to the Core Formation stage, their lack of unique traits and their spiritual root limitations meant they would likely only see a 10x improvement, moving from 50x to 60x—still inferior to Bai Tianxiang.

Cao Xuan was restraining himself. Being in a strange place, he had several times seen high-multiplier targets fly overhead and almost couldn't resist shouting, "Fairy, please stay!" If not for the limitations of his vision, he would have seen the likes of Sword Immortal Qingyin of the Six Great Sacred Lands or Liu Ruyan of the Jade Maiden Sect through the light screens of the Azure Cloud Dharma Assembly; seeing them would have likely caused him a heart attack due to their astronomical multipliers.

Truth be told, Cao Xuan had yet to gift anything to a female cultivator with over a 100x multiplier, so he did not know if a qualitative change would occur. However, he had a faint intuition that once he crossed the 100x threshold, something extraordinary would happen. Critical hits would naturally yield good items, but perhaps after quantitative change led to qualitative change, something even better might emerge. After all, even in the cultivation world, there was the standard of 100 low-grade spirit stones exchanging for a single mid-grade one. If there were no qualitative change, he would be devastated to gift a single pill to Junior Grandmaster Xian Xiangqiu only to receive 3,000 back.

"If I use this Azure Cloud Cloud-Mist Cavern to break through to the Core Formation stage and enter one of the Six Great Sacred Lands, that gives me nearly eighty years to 'simp'... ahem, to invest in female cultivators to gain resources and improve myself!"

Thinking of how Bai Tianxiang's first-forged earth-grade spiritual root was far from enough—with eight more forges to go, not to mention the nine-forged heaven-grade or the flawless spiritual roots—he sighed, "Top-grade spiritual roots don't seem to be enough. If only I had a chance to max out my aptitude!"

Cao Xuan was just brainstorming for now, as he had no idea how the Ziyang Sword Sect’s Sword-Washing Pool could enhance sword-based spiritual roots. "I suppose I need to refine more Spirit-Washing Pills. The fairies in the Central Plains have very high multipliers; perhaps I can trigger a critical hit for a higher-grade pill or formula to improve my aptitude!"

"However, the fairies in the Central Plains have at least a first-forged earth-grade spiritual root, and the Spirit-Washing Pill can only refine roots to the top-grade; it won't be of much use to them." If he gifted them, it would be like giving them a "vase"—something with more symbolic than practical value—making the chance of a critical hit vanishingly small.

Although Cao Xuan couldn't control the critical hits, he knew that stirring a female cultivator’s emotions was a good way to trigger them. To do that, the gift had to exceed their expectations and surprise them. To them, a Spirit-Washing Pill was nothing more than a candy—at most, a slight cooling sensation for their roots.

"At least it's a method. I'll start by working in that direction!" Cao Xuan realized how important aptitude was; the quality of one's spiritual root determined whether cultivation would yield twice the result with half the effort. He didn't lack cultivation resources—he could always farm them from the fairies—but improving his aptitude determined whether he could move faster and go further.

As Cao Xuan pondered, the four sect masters took the opportunity to tour the Central Plains' Azure Cloud Sect, gaining an intuitive sense of the grandeur and prosperity of the Central Plains. They weren't avoiding their own disciples' matches; rather, the Azure Cloud Dharma Assembly consisted of chaotic battles during the half-month leading up to the top-100 contention, and those who weren't participating had no qualifications to enter the arena. Even if they did, the floating platforms were so high that even those on the ground could barely see the duels, let alone the masters.

Thus, until the top-100 battles began, they could only stay in the guest quarters or areas accessible via their identity tokens. Fortunately, Bai Tianxiang couldn't watch the assembly either, so she acted as a guide, showing the "junior nephews" of the four masters the sights of a second-rate power in the Central Plains.

Li Zhiyun sighed, "Sigh, I didn't have a concept of it before, but now I just hope little Meng doesn't push herself too hard. It doesn't matter if she doesn't make it into the top hundred!"