My Simulated Road to Immortality

Chapter 53 - 53: 53: Calamity Befalls on the Cultivator

“Bottleneck? Heavenly Calamity?” Li Fan was leafing through the “Cultivation Mixed Record”, brows furrowed slightly.

Since his return from the Ten Thousand Immortals Island a few days ago, he hadn’t stopped cultivating for even a moment.

He had hoped to seize the moment and break through to the final stage of energy refining.

But even though he felt like he was close to breaking through, no matter how tightly he gripped it, he always felt he was missing an inch.

This seemingly minor shortfall, however, always seemed insurmountable, like a heavenly moat lying ahead of Li Fan.

After leafing through the “Cultivation Mixed Record” , Li Fan finally confirmed that he had indeed hit a bottleneck.

In the ancient times of cultivation, there was also talk of such cultivation bottlenecks.

In the process of cultivation, one’s cultivation might get stuck at a certain point, unable to make any progress.

Today, in the Immortal Cultivation World, the impact of these bottlenecks on cultivators is even greater.

Once in the mid-stage of energy refining, every cultivator will inevitably encounter bottlenecks with each slight realm they try to breakthrough.

This kind of bottleneck cannot be broken through with mere laborious training alone.

One has to find the opportunity that their instinct has been sensing, and then take advantage of it to break through successfully.

This opportunity could be seeing a painting or sipping a cup of tea.

It could also be an insight that comes suddenly, or a bolt of inspiration during a life or death struggle.

It could also be a casual remark by someone else, or the careful guidance from a senior.

In short, there are no rules to follow, one can only trust in the “heavenly number” that’s fated to come.

The existence of this bottleneck doubtlessly suppresses the speed of cultivators’ progress in a significant way.

Just like a calamity bestowed by the heavens, it obstructs their cultivation.

Therefore, cultivators have also given it another name – Heavenly Calamity.

In summary, the Heavenly Calamity has now descended onto Li Fan.

It has dashed his short term plans for breakthrough.

Having been sitting in the Great Array for a few days, Li Fan didn’t feel the opportunity for breakthrough was nearby at all.

Knowing that he can’t push this matter in a short time, he did not become impatient. He temporarily put down the “The Minor Water Expansion

Technique”, and started training for “The Golden Seal of the Jade Realm of a Thousand Mechanisms”.

“The Golden Seal of the Jade Realm of a Thousand Mechanisms” has five levels, which corresponded to the five major realms: Innate, Refining Energy, Foundation establishment, Gold Core, and Nascent Soul during the ancient times.

The Innate realm is a rather unique existence within some of the sects during the ancient times.

The particular emphasis is to expel all the impure energy one is tainted with after birth and return to the pure state of the Innate.

These sects believed that starting cultivation from the Innate realm would allow one to comprehend the Heavenly Dao more easily.

Whether it is the speed of cultivation or its limit, it would far exceed that of ordinary cultivators.

The Heavenly Machine Sect is one such sect that advocates beginning all cultivation from the Innate.

However, ever since the new techniques replaced the ancient ones, cultivators no longer strive for unity with the heavens.

Therefore, no one talks about returning to the Innate anymore.

But the most basic aspect of “The Golden Seal of the Jade Realm of a Thousand Mechanisms” is the Innate realm.

Therefore, what Li Fan has to do is use refining energy to represent being Innate and complete his first layer of training.

Generally speaking, substituting a higher realm tor a lower one usually goes smoothly, and training tends to be quite easy.

However, things that involve differences between the ancient and the modern cultivation systems are not quite as simple.

Especially since Li Fan was only a beginner who hasn’t been training for many years and seriously lacked the necessary knowledge.

This was why he spent a significant amount of time just to get started.

And this was even with the aid of the Liuli pill, which increased his comprehension.

Now, after Li Fan’s cultivation of “The Minor Water Expansion Technique” hit a bottleneck, he began to cultivate the second layer of “The Golden Seal of the Jade Realm of a Thousand Mechanisms”.

He planned to cultivate both techniques to the mid-stage of energy refining and see if this could help him break through the bottleneck.

After all, this is an era where techniques are highly prized, and ordinary cultivators who can cultivate multiple techniques as he does are rare indeed.

According to “The Golden Seal of the Jade Realm of a Thousand Mechanisms”, once the cultivation of the second layer is successful, one would be able to master the Divine Technique of “Machine Discerning”.

The so-called “Machine Discerning” refers to the ability to sense and discern the various Qi mechanisms in heaven and earth.

This is also the foundation of “The Golden Seal of the Jade Realm of a Thousand Mechanisms”.

Only by first discerning and sensing the Qi mechanism can one start the subsequent capturing and refining process.

The difficulty of practicing the second layer technique far exceeded Li Fan’s imagination.

If “The Minor Water Expansion Technique” can be said to tell you straightforwardly how to cultivate without a shred of superfluous words.

Then “The Golden Seal of the Jade Realm of a Thousand Mechanisms” is about hiding the way of cultivation in a pile of mystifying phrases, leaving it to you to contemplate and decipher.

What is more, it occasionally includes some insights into the Heavenly Dao and anecdotes about the ancient world of cultivation and the like.

All these various chaotic information mixed together, made Li Fan feel dizzy and his blood boiling.

After reading it all once, he seemed to understand. Yet, when he began to cultivate, he found out he basically understood nothing.

Luckily, Li Fan was not a person who would give up easily.

Even with great difficulties, Li Fan maintained his patience, studying and contemplating every single word and sentence.

Another year passed in Li Fan’s painstaking cultivation.

The cultivation of “The Golden Seal of the Jade Realm of a Thousand Mechanisms” hardly made any progress.

Li Fan did not feel discouraged.

During the second trip to Ten Thousand Immortals Island to collect the agency fee, he exchanged all 800 contribution points and 5 Taian Fruits accumulated over two years for some ancient cultivation experiences.

Afterward, Li Fan activated the auxiliary cultivation mode in the Tianxuan Realm.

He did not cultivate any techniques, but only read these experiences, comparing and verifying them with the experiences he had summed up over the past year.

As if being enlightened, all the difficulties that had perplexed him in the past were solved at this moment.

When he saw the exciting parts, Li Fan rejoiced and danced involuntarily.

At this moment, Li Fan had a bit understanding of what was meant by “if you learn the Dao in the morning, you may die without regret in the evening”.

The five-day period passed quickly.

With a new understanding, Li Fan hurried back to Taian Island and embarked on closed-door cultivation again.

The cultivation this time was truly incomparable to before.

All the obscure and difficult parts of the technique were all clarified, making the cultivation naturally unimpeded.

Li Fan quickly immersed his mind into it.

During cultivation, he lost track of time.

One day, a golden fog-like Spiritual Energy, completely different from the water attribute Spiritual Energy, suddenly appeared in Li Fan’s Dantian.

Li Fan suddenly opened his eyes, his face full of joy.

“The second layer of ‘The Golden Seal of the Jade Realm of a Thousand Mechanisms’, has finally been completed.” Li Fan breathed a sigh of relief.

As he stretched his stiff body, he glanced at the time and felt somewhat bewildered.

He hadn’t expected that this retreat had lasted a whole year.

In Li Fan’s senses, he merely felt as though he had just taken a nap.

Luckily, hard work always pays off.

With a thought in Li Fan’s heart, as the golden Spiritual Energy congealed in his eyes, he enacted “Discern Mechanism”.

“Let me see what the so-called Heaven and Earth Qi Mechanism really looks like.”, said Li Fan excitedly as he tried out his new Divine Technique.

He looked towards Taian Island.

But he saw a sight that made his heart palpitate.

A thick black death aura, like a densely spread out dark cloud, enveloped the entire Taian Island!

The dense death aura was almost tangible, rendering Taian Island, which was still in daylight, as eerie as the underworld!

Removing the technique and casting it again.

After looking several times, Li Fan confirmed that he was not mistaken.

“How could this be?” Li Fan was unsure and hesitant.

Suddenly, it seemed as if he finally remembered something. He hurriedly changed to the Water Mirror Technique and looked at his reflection in the mirror.

He saw,

In the mirror, the death aura gathered above Li Fan’s head was hundreds of times denser than that of the mortals on the island!