Chapter 9: Settlement and Talents

The illusory text zipped by, finally coming to a stop at the line: [Simulation Ended].

Zhou Qing stared at it blankly, his mind racing with a million different thoughts. 

During this simulation, he had lived through a total of 62 years, from boyhood to old age. It was in fact an entire lifetime.

Especially in his later years, as his vitality faded and the pill toxins began to take their toll. 

Outside the simulation, all Zhou Qing might see were a few lines of text. Inside, however, it was a living, breathing reality. 

Just as he was lost in thought, the illusory text, which had been frozen in place, began shifting once again.

[Please choose one of the following inheritances:]

[1: Your peak cultivation, realm, skills, techniques, and memories from the simulation]

[2: One treasure that belonged to you in the simulation]

Without a second thought, Zhou Qing locked his eyes onto the first option. 

In the simulation, nearly every spirit stone he had earned had been spent on cultivation resources. He hadn’t acquired any particularly valuable treasures. The only thing of note was the alchemy furnace, worth a little over a hundred spirit stones.

It wasn’t even close to comparing with the first option.

My cultivation at my peak…

Once cultivators entered their later years, every aspect of their abilities declined.

Their cultivation level. Their skills.

Take two cultivators at the fifth layer of Qi Refinement, for example. One is forty years old and in the prime of life.

The other is eighty, frail and nearing the end of his years.

The younger cultivator would obviously be stronger.

So the “peak” mentioned in the option referred to the point in the simulation when Zhou Qing had been at his absolute strongest.

Zhou Qing stared at the screen for a moment before making his choice.

“Option One.”

Whoosh!

In an instant, he felt qi begin to gather out of nowhere within his dantian, rapidly growing stronger.

First Layer of Qi Refinement.

Second Layer of Qi Refinement.

Third Layer of Qi Refinement.

….

At that exact moment, sixty-two years’ worth of simulated memories flooded into his mind like a crashing wave.

Despite the sudden influx of memories, Zhou Qing’s emotions remained unaffected.

Every memory played through his mind like scenes from a movie.

He could recall every detail perfectly, but he never felt as though he had personally lived through any of it.

What he had inherited were memories alone, stripped of all emotion.

A few dozen breaths later, Zhou Qing finally opened his eyes.

A faint spiritual pressure began to gather around him.

“So this is what the fifth layer of Qi Refinement feels like?”

A smile spread across his face.

In the simulation, not long after reaching the fifth layer of Qi Refinement, he had entered his twilight years.

His vitality had already begun to fade.

But now?

Zhou Qing was only sixteen.

Sixteen was the age when one’s Qi and Blood were at their peak.

A sixteen-year-old at the fifth layer of Qi Refination?

And cultivation wasn’t the only thing he had inherited. He had also gained all of the knowledge, skill, and experience he had accumulated in alchemy.

At this moment, Zhou Qing was not only a fifth-layer Qi Refinement cultivator, but also a mid-grade alchemist.

The latter status was far more prestigious than the former.

Reaching the fifth layer of Qi Refinement was something even a cultivator with low-grade spiritual roots could potentially achieve through decades of hard work.

But becoming a mid-grade alchemist?

Without a master’s guidance, reaching that level was extraordinarily difficult.

In the simulation, if Zhou Qing hadn’t spent decades studying under Master Yun, following him day after day, Master Yun would never have entrusted him with his personal alchemy notes.

And without those notes, Zhou Qing could never have become a mid-grade alchemist.

…

His cultivation and alchemy skills were not the full extent of his gains.

In fact, there was another reward that rivaled both of them, perhaps even surpassed them.

His memories.

More specifically, his precise knowledge of the major events that would unfold over the next 62 years.

For example, twenty years from now, a hidden realm would emerge not far from Wushan Market.

This hidden realm sparked fierce competition among Qi Refinement cultivators, with even late-stage Qi Refinement experts fighting and killing each other over it.

Ye Feng was one of the greatest beneficiaries of that opportunity. Thanks to the treasures he obtained there, he rose from the third layer of Qi Refinement to the ninth layer in just a little over thirty years.

In the simulation, however, Zhou Qing had been weak and lacked the backing of any powerful faction.

Even thinking about competing for that secret realm would have been suicidal.

But in the next simulation, he could start planning for it well in advance.

There was also the crisis that would unfold more than forty years later.

Because Wushan Market failed to produce a successor Foundation Establishment cultivator, rumors eventually spread throughout the marketplace.

In the end, panic took hold. Large numbers of cultivators fled, selling off their properties and assets within the market at rock-bottom prices.

During the final two years of the simulation, Zhou Qing had been tortured by pill toxins every waking moment. The pain was so intense that death would have been a relief.

The only reason he endured it wasn’t because he feared dying.

It was because he wanted to learn Wushan Market’s ultimate fate.

Would the rumors prove true? Had Market Lord Ouyang really failed to cultivate a Foundation Establishment successor, causing the marketplace to collapse after his death?

Or would some unexpected turning point change everything?

A thoughtful look crossed Zhou Qing’s face as he recalled the crucial piece of information he had uncovered near the end of the simulation.

Market Lord Ouyang had eventually appeared, accompanied by a newly advanced female Foundation Establishment cultivator whom no one had seen before, and together they had eliminated the bandit cultivators operating around Wushan Market.

The conclusion was obvious.

That unfamiliar Foundation Establishment cultivator was the successor Ouyang had personally trained.

Otherwise, he would never have brought her along to help purge the surrounding rogue cultivators.

A campaign to eliminate bandits meant restoring order and rebuilding confidence in the marketplace. Ouyang would only take such action if a new Foundation Establishment heir was already in place.

And with that female cultivator ready to succeed him, even if Ouyang were to die the very next day, Wushan Market would quickly stabilize once again.

That piece of intelligence was incredibly valuable.

…

The illusory text shifted once more.

[Calculating the results of this simulation…]

[For most of your life, you devoted yourself to the path of alchemy.]

[In the end, you died after pill toxins invaded your organs.]

[You have awakened a White-Rank Talent: Pill Toxin Nemesis]

[Pill Toxin Nemesis: Your body gains resistance to pill toxins. Most pill toxins will be unable to accumulate within your body.]

“A White-Rank Talent?”

Zhou Qing’s eyebrows rose slightly.

Talents were special rewards granted at the end of each simulation, determined by the experiences and accomplishments of that particular run.

They were divided into five ranks:

White, Green, Purple, Gold, and Rainbow.

Each rank was vastly more powerful than the last, and naturally, higher-ranked Talents could only be obtained through increasingly difficult simulations.

Pill Toxin Nemesis…

After a brief moment of thought, Zhou Qing understood just how valuable this Talent was.

Everyone knew that cultivators relied heavily on medicinal pills to advance their cultivation.

But there was an old saying: every medicine carries some poison.

Even high-quality pills contained pill toxins. They simply contained less of them.

Consume enough pills, and those toxins would inevitably build up over time.

Once the accumulation became severe, the result would be exactly what Zhou Qing had experienced in the simulation’s final years.

Not only had his lifespan been cut short by more than a decade, but he had also endured constant torment from pill toxicity, suffering a fate worse than death.

With this Talent, however, that risk could be greatly reduced.

In other words, in future simulations, as long as he didn’t do anything stupid, even if he continued taking low-grade pills, he was unlikely to end up being tortured by pill toxicity the way he had before.

Of course, as a mid-grade alchemist, Zhou Qing had no intention of taking waste pills anyway.

Waste pills not only contained excessive amounts of pill toxins, but their medicinal effects were also far inferior.

The only reason he had relied on them in the simulation was because he hadn’t had any other choice.

So even a White-Rank Talent can be this useful…

A spark of excitement flared up inside Zhou Qing.

If that’s the case, what kind of heaven-defying abilities would Green-, Purple-, Gold-, or even Rainbow-Rank Talents possess?