Cultivation Kill

Around the campfire.

Shen Zige and Qin Jie sat on one side, while the hooded man sat on the other.

The hooded man lit the firewood pile with a small fireball.

"How did you manage to condense your spirit?" Qin Jie felt that the hooded man wasn't that dangerous, and slowly lowered her guard.

"Do you know why Earthlings are more likely to successfully condense their spirits?" the hooded man asked rhetorically.

"I don't know," Qin Jie shook her head.

"You know?" Shen Zige asked in return, a vague guess in his mind, unsure if it was correct. "Is it related to the game?"

“Correct, you’re really smart, much smarter than me!” the hooded man said. “If it weren’t for the help I have, it might have taken me a while to realize this.”

The two men listened intently by the campfire, waiting for the hooded man to explain.

“Divine power is mental energy, and its most concrete manifestation is control and guidance,” the hooded man said. “Think about the games you play on Earth. The characters in the games are controlled by the players. When playing games, the players’ minds unconsciously focus on the characters they are playing, wanting to control the characters to move up, down, left, right, or jump, or use various skills. This is a method of training divine power. Of course, there are other methods, but the effects are not as significant as playing games!”

“Yes, controlling spiritual power with divine sense is similar to controlling a character in a game,” Shen Zige said. “Does the locals say that at least half of us Earthlings can successfully condense spiritual energy, and more than half of us who play games can do the same? If that’s the reasoning, then it makes sense.”

“Not everyone who plays games has a strong spiritual sense,” the hooded man said. “Those who play games for little time, or who are very bad at it, will find it very difficult to condense their spiritual energy.”

“It’s also possible that being bad at games is just due to slow reflexes or not understanding the rules,” Shen Zige retorted to the hooded man. “It’s not that I have poor mental control. Many games on Earth rely on hand controls, while divine sense doesn’t rely on hands at all.”

“Of course, such cases exist, but they are only a very small minority,” the hooded man said. “We Earth transmigrators must make use of our divine sense advantage to improve our strength as much as possible. The stronger our divine sense, the less time we need to control the circulation of spiritual energy, and the faster our cultivation speed will be.”

"You should be able to sense your own cultivation speed," Shen Zige said. "How long will it take you to reach the Great Perfection of the Spirit Condensation Realm?"

“The speed of cultivation depends on various factors,” the hooded man said. “If I do nothing but meditate and cultivate, it might take me about twenty years.”

Shen Zige thought to herself that she could reach the Great Perfection of Spirit Condensation after meditating for fifteen years, so it seemed that her divine sense was a little stronger than that of the hooded man.

The eyesight of a Spirit Condensation cultivator is much better than that of an ordinary person. Observing Shen Zige's expression, the hooded man immediately said, "Don't think that meditating for twenty years to reach the Great Perfection of Spirit Condensation is bad! I've read a lot of books these past few days. You should know that more than half of Spirit Condensation cultivators never reach the Great Perfection in their entire lives and stop at the Spirit Condensation stage!"

"Anyone who meditates and cultivates for less than thirty years to reach perfection is considered a genius cultivator. People from cultivation families start cultivating as early as five years old. And that's just pure meditation. If you meditate with spirit stones, the speed can double. That means someone with my talent could reach perfection in ten years and break through to the Foundation Establishment stage! In cultivation families, someone with my talent could reach the Foundation Establishment stage at fifteen. What does reaching the Foundation Establishment stage at fifteen mean? One in ten thousand among cultivators!"

Shen Zige thought to himself that if he could cultivate twice as fast by holding spirit stones, he could reach the Great Perfection of Spirit Condensation in seven and a half years. No wonder spirit stones are hard currency.

"There are also some rare and precious materials and cultivation caves that can accelerate cultivation speed," the hooded man said. "The Star Realm Company's headquarters in the Bamboo Kingdom has cultivation rooms, but the rent is a bit expensive. Cultivating there is three times faster than meditating outside. If I can rent it indefinitely, I can reach the Foundation Establishment stage in three years!"

"Keep bragging!" Shen Zige said. "Even if you cultivate to the Great Perfection of Spirit Condensation in more than three years, you can't guarantee that you will succeed in Foundation Establishment. Moreover, in three years, you not only have to earn spirit stones, but you also have to go through three secret realms. There is a possibility that you will be killed by someone in one of the secret realms and then lose without even realizing it!"

"Can't you say something nice?" the hooded man replied. "When a mortal becomes a cultivator in the Spirit Condensation stage, they will have one chance to be resurrected in a secret realm. It's like insurance provided by the Star Realm Company. After all, their status is different. Even if they are still ants in the eyes of the Star Realm Company, they are at least ants with some value."

"Do you think the secret realm and the smartwatch are technology or magical artifacts?" Shen Zige asked. "Is there any chance of cracking them?"

At this moment, the smartwatch was still floating in his mind, like a fishbone stuck in his throat, and he desperately wanted to remove it!

“Even those who have reached the Core Formation stage can’t do anything,” the hooded man said. “Let alone someone like you or me who is at the first level of Spirit Condensation. If you’re afraid of dying, you can apply to become a low-level handyman at the Astral Company. That way you won’t have to enter the game’s secret realm. But once you apply, you’ll have to work for the Astral Company for the rest of your life, and there will be no holidays and the salary will be low.”

"Then we might as well go into the secret realm and play the immortal cultivation game," Shen Zige said. "Mortals can do it once every six months, and Spirit Condensation once a year. As long as you arrive at the secret realm on time, you can be free at other times."

"So don't think too highly of the Astral Corporation," the hooded man said. "Even if we are spirits, they only see us as lambs at the bottom of the hierarchy, and mortals are not even lambs, just grass to grow them!"

"I always thought time travel was like having a cheat code," Qin Jie said. "I never expected that half of me would die as soon as I arrived."

"Half dead is considered good treatment," the hooded man said. "I read in a book that if a local from the Myriad Nations wants to join the Star Realm Corporation, ordinary people have to enter a 100-person survival showdown, and only one winner will be chosen!"

"You've read so many books," Shen Zige said, "you must have bought them all with spirit stones you swindled, right? Why isn't there a wanted notice for you on the bulletin board?"

A couple of days ago, he asked Qin Jie to go to the bookstore to inquire, and found that books on cultivating immortality were extremely expensive, and they were even pirated basic common sense books!

"I'm just collecting unclaimed items," the hooded man argued. "Those I've tricked are all very stupid and will have a hard time passing the next secret realm game. Even if they pass by luck, it's very difficult for them to successfully condense their spirit stones! After they die, the spirit stones become unclaimed items, and I'm just picking them up in advance."

"Nonsense!" Qin Jie couldn't help but exclaim.

"Cultivating immortality requires wealth, companions, methods, and a suitable environment," the hooded man said. "Wealth comes first, so you must first learn how to earn spirit stones before you can cultivate immortality well."

"You know my brother?" Shen Zige suddenly asked.

The hooded man paused for a few seconds, then immediately said, "I don't know him."

"I understand." Shen Zige judged the correct answer from the other party's reaction and said, "You work for my brother's company. My brother took me to visit the company once, so you know me."

"Your brother and Shi Yuan's company has over five thousand employees, and you still think you can guess who I am?" the hooded man scoffed.

He had already assumed that Shen Zige had guessed correctly.

"I've been seen by fewer than two hundred people in tech companies, most of whom are senior executives. You must be one of those two hundred."

The hooded man stopped talking. Shen Zige's insight was too strong. He would make a mistake if he revealed any more clues. If he did, his identity would probably be deduced, and he wouldn't need to wear the hood and mask anymore!

"It's getting dark, go to sleep!"

The hooded man closed his eyes and soon began to snore.