Chapter 1046 - 135: Breakthrough, Celestial Immortal Seventh Layer
Of course.
That's the theoretical value; in practice you have to keep re-indoctrinating them, turn them into Fanatic Believers, so there'll definitely be a transition period.
Ning Zheng didn't plan to dump all the trouble of founding a religion and constantly spreading doctrine onto Jiumu Qing.
He was going to hand it over to the blacksmiths, issue daily quests, and have them periodically go to various NPC towns to preach, so this big sandbox NPC map really did need to be built.
"Phew, I've handled things more or less. Time to go into seclusion and push my Celestial Immortal Realm cultivation up."
Ning Zheng decided to start the grind-fest, grinding the Painter and Xin Xichen into the dirt, along with Jiu Shui, who was secretly grinding somewhere he didn't know.
Since he couldn't take Jiumu Qing out with him, Ning Zheng pulled Jiumu Qing out of his own shadow, rooted him into the artificial Earth Vein, then switched identities and once again arrived at the Cave Mansion in the Immortal Realm.
Under the accustomed gaze of that beautiful receptionist, Ning Zheng walked into the Lower Grade Cave Mansion.
He sat down on the meditation cushion, lit the incense burner, spread his palm open, and began tallying up this harvest.
100 million Upper Grade Immortal Stones.
Before he left, he'd thrown a full 50 million Upper Grade Immortal Stones at Jiumu Qing and Jiucai Rong to use for development and operations in all aspects.
After all, spending resources to raise them was obviously necessary.
The ores and Magical Treasure resources in the tomb world might be plentiful, but after all those years, the energy in that tomb had long since dried up.
It needed Immortal Stones to replenish the energy of the tomb-world that had run dry.
Don't think 50 million is a lot—once you spread it out over each ancient Sect, each Sect only gets a few hundred Upper Grade Immortal Stones, barely enough to cover expenses for a short period.
It's like, 10 million in your own pocket sounds huge, but throw it into a company feeding a few hundred people and it doesn't even feel enough to pay basic salaries for a few months, let alone launch projects.
But this money of mine has to be spent!
The tomb world will be the main base of my Sword Casting Manor; those game maps outside, all those Sects...
In the future they'll be the map zones of the online-game sandbox; even Sect apprenticeship systems, mountain villages with all kinds of NPCs, all have to exist—that's the only way to form what the blacksmiths call a serious, proper "online game" world.
Thickening the world with Immortal Qi is inevitable!
Invest in the blacksmiths, invest in the attached military forces, and only then can I get bigger returns.
"Raising a world costs money. No wonder those True Immortal forces all cry about being broke."
Ning Zheng sighed.
As for the remaining 50 million Immortal Stones, Ning Zheng planned to take out 20 million and make another 200 doll Dharma Aspect clones at Early Period Human Immortal Realm.
Yep—100,000 Upper Grade Immortal Stones just to get one lowest Low Level, most kidney-deficient doll Human Immortal Dharma Aspect with practically no energy inside.
Ning Zheng's energy grade was way too high; even if his Dharma Aspect was only at newly entered Human Immortal Level, it still cost way more than a normal Human Immortal.
A full 100,000 Upper Grade Immortal Stones—enough to make an average Celestial Immortal's jaw drop.
With 30 million left in his pocket, Ning Zheng planned to use it right here in the Cave Mansion to break through.
For other Cultivators, the energy cost for breaking through is the smallest part of the spending, because the intervals between their breakthroughs are long.
But for Ning Zheng, it was a bit money-burning!
Because he was in a hurry and could only throw money in to pile up energy.
"Previously, it took at most tens of billions of Qi Fortune to break one Celestial Immortal Realm layer. The Qi Fortune Value in my pocket was already enough to chain-break several Celestial Immortal realms, but I didn't break through. In the end it all came down to not having Immortal Stones."
"If you have Qi Fortune but no energy, what are you supposed to break through with?"
"Now I've got thirty million Upper Grade Immortal Stones. Wonder how many layers I can break through? I should be able to enter High Tier Celestial Immortal by now."
Ning Zheng's expression twisted into heartache.
A Perfect Demon of his caliber needed several hundred times the resources of the weakest same-tier Celestial Immortal to break through.
Just look at Wan Luanfeng.
Why do the Saint Children fight?
Because even an Immortal Venerate force can only afford to raise one person of this level per generation.
Because raising one True Immortal Sect Leader with Immortal Venerate-level potential could instead raise several hundred garbage True Immortals to sit on industries everywhere.
But no one will cultivate trash whose potential has an obvious ceiling. In an Extraordinary world, you win by quality—one person suppresses thousands of troops.
Everyone will cultivate the one, not a thousand Celestial Soldiers.
So each generation can only raise one Sect Leader successor—even Immortal Venerate forces cry poverty.
Of course, someone like True Immortal Mo Mei with her Beast Taming Style also burns money badly. Doesn't matter whether they're strong or weak, she keeps ten huge households at home.
"Seclusion, seclusion—don't overthink."
Ning Zheng calmed himself and started his breakthrough.
Sure enough, once he started breaking through the later Celestial Immortal realms, the difficulty ramped up.
Gold, 10 billion.
Water, 20 billion.
Wood, 30 billion.
Fire, 40 billion.
Earth, 50 billion.
With each Celestial Immortal Realm, the further you go in the cycle, the harder it gets.
And Ning Zheng thereby passed through one Enlightenment dream after another, roaming countless worlds in those long dreams, breaking Realm after Realm.
But fortunately, his previous long dreams had given him plenty of experiences and foundation, making his subsequent breakthroughs relatively easier.
"Celestial Immortal, Seventh Layer."
"I've already walked the full Yin Yang Five Elements cycle."
"All that's left are the Three Flowers on the Top—body, life, soul—three great cycles."
Ning Zheng felt his completely empty purse; the thirty million Upper Grade Immortal Stones in his pocket were gone—every last bit spent.
But that was within expectations.
Even his junkiest Dharma Aspect Clone costs 100,000; the main body breaking several Realms in a row at that price is perfectly normal.
"I'm broke. The 100 million Upper Grade Immortal Stones I just scammed are all gone."
Ning Zheng took a deep breath, his expression extremely complicated. He really was poor—terribly poor. Turns out the idea that he was rich was just an illusion.
He walked out of the Cave Mansion and looked at the beautiful Immortal receptionist.
The beauty at the front desk couldn't help saying, "You finally stayed in seclusion properly once. Not bad."
This time, Ning Zheng had spent over a thousand years in seclusion.
With one day equaling a hundred years, more than ten days had passed outside.
Not exactly long, but in this receptionist's eyes it seemed much more normal.
Ning Zheng ignored her. Suddenly he saw, emerging from a distant Cave Mansion, a Painter Celestial Immortal greeting his companions, heading out together.
His gaze suddenly grew heavy. "Even this place has been infiltrated?"
This number of Painters... isn't it a bit too many?
Can the Painter himself really paint that much?
Or did the Painter, after Immortal-Becoming, also specialize his Embers like Ning Zheng did, turning them into Painting Embers?
Just like Ning Zheng's Shadow Embers, pairing them with his own Divine Techniques?
Ning Zheng gave that Painter a deep look, then turned and left:
"A great calamity is coming. That bastard Painter really thinks they can't find him—he spreads a virus, brings disaster to the Immortal Realm, then plans to quietly slip away?"
"Could it be he's been roving all over, and after bringing Eternal to the Immortal Realm, he also found a tomb and hid himself in it?"
Whatever the case, Ning Zheng had to be more on guard.
More than ten days had passed; he didn't know how well his automated Human Immortal blacksmith army had drilled. If he really got the chance...
This Fourth Calamity army would definitely have to launch a formal strike at the Immortal Realm, looting in the chaos.
Let those Immortal Realm folks experience the brick-hauling art of these insane players, so he could grab another few hundred million Upper Grade Immortal Stones from outside and develop Sword Casting Manor.
Murder and arson bring golden belts.
Turn into bandits robbing the Immortal Realm's money, while openly selling war matériel—Golden Cores—making war profits while robbing, and only then might he quickly achieve a leap in class.