[In the 97th year, sixty years had passed since you completed the Prison-Suppressing Divine Body technique. Yet in all this time, you never once touched it again. Instead, your focus was entirely devoted to alchemy and cultivation.]
[Your efforts bore fruit. You have become a fifth-level top-grade alchemist, refining every pill recipe within your storage space. Not only have you practiced each formula, but you also succeeded in producing top-grade pills without exception.]
[During these years, your cultivation steadily climbed, and now you stand at the peak of the Foundation-Building Realm. Just then, a mechanical sound rang out in your ears.]
[Ding! The Foundation Enhancement Guide talent is triggered. The host may select one of the following paths.]
[¹ Condense 1 to 3 Elixir Patterns: Human Foundation.]
[² Condense 4 to 6 Elixir Patterns: Xuan Foundation (capable of reaching Integration/Fusion stage).]
[³ Condense 7 to 8 Elixir Patterns: Earth Foundation.]
[⁴ Condense 9 Elixir Patterns: Heaven Foundation.]
[⁵ Condense 10 Elixir Patterns and utilize a Yin-Yang source: Supreme Foundation.]
[Upon discovering what was required to condense a Supreme Foundation, joy surged within you. By sheer fortune, in the last sixty years of Combat Ranking System rewards, even though you did not obtain heaven-defying treasures or supreme techniques, you gained two crucial items: the Secret Method of Elixir Pattern Condensation and a Yin-Yang Fruit. The rest of your rewards had long since been refined into pills.]
[As you contemplated the process, a question stirred within your mind: Must the limit be ten Elixir Patterns? Is it truly impossible to condense more?]
[After careful thought, you decided to attempt the impossible. After all, there was no loss in trying, only the possibility of gaining more.]
[Thus, in this very year, you began condensing Elixir Patterns. Progress was slow, painstaking even, but you found it reasonable. If it were truly easy to form Elixir Patterns, then no one in the Golden Elixir Realm would ever be considered trash. At the very least, every cultivator would form an Earth Foundation of six to eight Patterns. Such rarity was proof enough of its difficulty.]
[Resolved, you buried yourself in seclusion, pouring every breath and every thought into condensing Elixir Patterns. You did not leave your mountain for the rest of the decades.]
[By the 162nd year, you finally succeeded in condensing nine Elixir Patterns. Around this time, you noticed that the spiritual energy of the Eastern Wilderness began to recover. Cultivation speed subtly increased, hinting at the revival of ancient vitality.]
[By the 185th year, the tenth Elixir Pattern had formed. Emboldened, you attempted the impossible—an eleventh Pattern. At the same time, you realized the recovery of heaven and earth's spiritual energy had reached a terrifying pace. Cultivation speed doubled, then tripled, as if the very world was awakening from slumber.]
[Encouraged by this phenomenon, you believed that condensing further Elixir Patterns might truly be possible.]
[Yet in the 230th year, after decades of persistence, you failed to condense the eleventh Pattern. You concluded that your aptitude was insufficient. Thus, you turned to the Marrow-Cleansing Technique, using it to slowly refine and strengthen your talent.]
[By the 246th year, the Combat Ranking System rewarded you with Master of Alchemy.]
[Master of Alchemy: Allows the host to refine any elixir up to the 7th rank, provided the necessary materials are available.]
[In an instant, a torrent of alchemical knowledge surged into your mind. You mastered every experience of a seventh-rank alchemist along the Immortal Path, your theoretical knowledge expanding to a vast and unfathomable depth.]
[The following year, in the 247th year, you received another reward: the Root-Bone Flower.]
[Root-Bone Flower: A mystical herb that can enhance the aptitude of both Martial and Immortal cultivators in a qualitative leap.]
[At the sight of it, your thoughts immediately turned to the Root-Strengthening Pill, a fifth-grade pill whose main ingredient was the Root-Bone Flower. The auxiliary materials were hardly an issue, for your storage already contained most of them as rewards from the system.]
[As for the few ingredients you lacked, you resolved to purchase them outside. After all, seclusion had given you all that it could. You had already reached the limit of your cultivation within these mountains. The next step required improving your talent in order to strive for the eleventh Elixir Pattern.]
[Moreover, during your long seclusion, you had read every book seized from the Gu Family ancestor in the previous simulation. You gained a general understanding of this world and learned of the many Immortal Cities scattered across the Eastern Wilderness.]
[Of them, Tianhua City—closest to the Taiping Dynasty—was your chosen destination.]
[Thus, your long seclusion finally came to an end. After one hundred and fifty years of solitude, you descended your mountain and walked into the wider world once again.]