How to Choose Your Treasure

A Permanent Choice at Character Creation

Before your cultivation journey begins, Destiny of Immortal asks you to bond with one of two Treasures of Creation (造化至宝). This choice is irreversible for the playthrough — you cannot swap mid-game. Both treasures support the complete Luocha Island arc from Qi Refining through Soul Transformation with all endings accessible. The choice shapes how you grow, not what story you see.

Early Access offers Shiling Pearl (噬灵珠) and Shennong Cauldron (神农鼎). This guide compares them across playstyle, power curve, difficulty interaction, and player profile fit.

Shiling Pearl — Predation and Knowledge

The pearl enables the demon-cultivation fantasy: kill cultivators, strip their knowledge, steal their equipment.

• Soul Search (搜魂): Extract gongfa and spells from defeated NPCs directly into your collection
• Divine Thief (神偷): Steal equipment, pills, and treasures — accelerated by talent pick at Chaos Pearl activation
• Spirit Devouring: Convert kills into cultivatable energy for faster realm progression

Power curve: fast early spike via stolen Xuan-grade techniques, then steady growth through continued predation. See Soul Search & Steal guide.

Shennong Cauldron — Infrastructure and Alchemy

The cauldron opens a portable pocket realm with spirit fields and mineral veins.

• Herb farming: Plant and harvest alchemy materials on in-game schedules
• Harvest acceleration: Spirit stones speed crop cycles
• Pill self-sufficiency: Diverse recipes manage shared pill resistance better than loot-only paths

Power curve: slower early technique access, stronger mid-to-late sustain through pill production. Ideal for Heavenly Foundation pill stockpiling.

Head-to-Head Comparison

Factor	Shiling Pearl	Shennong Cauldron
Technique access	Fast via soul search	Slow via NPC learning/quests
Pill supply	Steal or buy	Craft from pocket realm
Spirit stone use	Soul search and theft activation	Harvest acceleration
NPC relations	Degrades with theft	Neutral — no theft penalty
Difficulty scaling	Hell punishes theft severely	Hell benefits from pill sustain
Language barrier	Soul search compensates partially	Requires wiki/alchemy knowledge
Best element synergy	Metal burst, Water speed	Wood sustain, Earth defense

Who Should Choose Shiling Pearl

• Players who want aggressive cross-realm clears and technique variety fast
• Non-Chinese speakers using OCR tools — soul search provides in-game guidance
• Metal and Water builds stealing Xuan-grade techniques from Foundation cultivators
• Demon-route roleplay with accepted social consequences
• Players comfortable with F8 save-scumming before every theft

Who Should Choose Shennong Cauldron

• Heavenly Foundation planners needing nine pills plus combat elixirs
• Wood and Earth builds leveraging alchemy for sustain
• Players who prefer steady resource accumulation over risky theft
• Hell difficulty runs where pill sustain matters more than burst theft
• Second playthroughs where you already know technique locations from pearl runs

What Treasure Choice Does NOT Affect

Both treasures access:

• All Luocha Island story branches and endings
• All cultivation realms through Soul Transformation
• All map routes (Shanyin, Wuyin Sea, Luoyun Mountains)
• Reincarnation Shop unlocks after any ending

Treasure choice affects mechanical path, not narrative gates. See Treasures of Creation system and Creation Artifacts items guide for ability details.

Decision Flowchart

Answer these three questions at character creation:

1. Will you use OCR tools? If yes and you lack Chinese reading ability, lean Shiling Pearl for soul search guidance. If you read Chinese fluently, either treasure works.
2. Do you plan Heavenly Foundation on this run? If yes, Shennong Cauldron simplifies pill stockpiling. If you accept Human Path for speed, Shiling Pearl accelerates combat power.
3. What difficulty? Hell difficulty punishes pearl theft severely — cauldron sustain becomes more attractive. Normal difficulty makes pearl theft manageable with F8 discipline.

When still uncertain after three questions, default to Shiling Pearl on Normal difficulty for the most forgiving first EA experience. Switch to Shennong Cauldron on your second playthrough when you understand alchemy recipes and technique locations from the first run.

Spirit Stone Budgeting by Treasure

Both treasures compete for the same spirit stone income from combat, quests, and bounty boards. Early EA pacing assumes multiple activations per in-game year:

• Pearl users: Budget stones for soul search before Liu Bohu, theft operations on Jiang Peipei, and spirit devouring sessions during farming loops. Running dry before boss soul search loses Golden Spirit Swift Sky Art access.
• Cauldron users: Budget stones for harvest acceleration each crop cycle and breakthrough pill crafting batches. Under-investing in field acceleration delays Heavenly pill stockpiles past your age deadline.

Neither treasure eliminates the need for overworld spirit stone farming. Both paths buy from merchants when theft or crafting gaps appear — particularly Blood Pressure Pills before Shanyin Pass.

Second Playthrough Considerations

After your first ending unlocks the Reincarnation Shop, consider swapping treasures for achievement variety. A pearl first run teaches technique locations; a cauldron second run efficiently clears alchemy achievements and tests whether pill self-sufficiency changes your Chapter 3 pacing. Creation Points farming rewards breadth across both paths.