Slow Progress, but Self-Strengthening

[In this world of martial arts, there is no such concept as "vital energy dissipation." Even if you skip training for days, your martial cultivation will hardly regress.]

[However, the issue of foundation does exist. If your foundation potential is insufficient, it won't cause you to drop in rank, but it will drastically slow down your training speed!]

[If the previous simulation had ended with you returning as a Grandmaster, then for the first sixty to seventy years of this simulation, you would have had zero room for improvement! You would have had to wait for your foundation to catch up over time.]

[For now, it's fine—you have at least some progress, and it will gradually accelerate as time passes. You know you are the representative type of martial artist who blooms late.]

[Da Qing 273, "Flowing River Technique" reaches Major Accomplishment depth. Talent Aptitude affects your leveling speed but not your martial arts progression—these two are on entirely different tracks.]

[Your combat power receives an additional boost. You feel that if you were to participate in that competition again, you could improve your ranking by two places.]

[Mhm, defeating those two Second-rate Martial Artists who stand above you.]

[Da Qing 274, the Red Leaf Gang in East Forest City wants to acknowledge you as their boss, making you their protector. In return, they offer a monthly tribute without requiring any work from you.]

[After you ask what they actually do, you immediately break the legs of several messengers, then storm their newly established headquarters and shatter dozens more legs.]

[You free seven or eight children they had kidnapped from somewhere.]

[Da Qing 275, you excitedly notice that your training speed has finally seen a clear increase. Extreme Viscera Enhancement progress reaches forty percent.]

[Da Qing 276, another Young Talents Grand Competition. You are twenty-one years old and head to the Hundred Stone Forest to participate.]

[This competition is hosted by Yangyao Gate, a powerful sect that not only has Grandmasters but is even rumored to harbor a Supreme Grandmaster. However, that Supreme Grandmaster has not emerged from seclusion in over twenty years.]

[Once martial artists reach the Grandmaster realm, they seem to rarely walk the world, all entering a state of seclusion. Grandmasters, on the other hand, still appear before people from time to time.]

[At this competition, you see a few familiar faces, and many still remember you. They look forward to your performance.]

[You claim thirteenth place!]

[Because this competition only has thirteen First-rate Martial Artists in total. One of them was severely injured in a previous fight, so you defeated him...]

[There is also an outrageous Second-rate Martial Artist who, aside from the injured one and the mediocre you, actually suppresses another First-rate Expert, ranking eleventh.]

[You have indeed improved compared to five years ago, but the extent of your progress makes some people sigh: too little! They all believe that breaking through to First-rate Martial Artist at sixteen greatly damaged your potential.]

[You don't care about their opinions. The next simulation will prove everything.]

[If not, then let the simulation after that prove it!]

[You collect your reward. To your annoyance, Yangyao Gate is stingier than Meteor Sect. For ranks eleven to twenty, they only allow you to choose one Advanced Martial Art, missing one Combat Technique.]

[You return to East Forest City and continue your leisurely training life.]

[Da Qing 278, you are twenty-three. Foundation 137%, Extreme Viscera Enhancement progress nearing fifty percent.]

[That same year, you hear that Meteor Sect has produced a new Grandmaster. You recall seeing him seven years ago—he seemed to be the Martial Master maintaining order at the competition.]

[Da Qing 281, the black gangs that have risen in East Forest City over the years are all wiped out one by one by a "mysterious expert," drastically reducing the city's crime rate but also cutting into your pocket money income.]

[Fortunately, since ten years ago, when news of your participation in that Young Talents Grand Competition spread, the City Lord has frequently invited you to banquets. You are now a big shot in East Forest City who can hold a conversation with anyone.]

[Da Qing 282, a band of bandits arrives outside East Forest City, settling in the mountains dozens of li away and robbing passing merchants.]

[The City Lord of East Forest City dispatches hundreds of soldiers into the mountains, but they are no match for the bandit group. These are no ordinary bandits—they are king... they are bandits with martial arts skills!]

[On an open plain, with troops spread out for a head-on clash, disregarding morale, even five hundred Second-rate Martial Artists might not be able to defeat ten thousand soldiers.]

[But in complex terrain—cities, forests, mountains—a single Second-rate Martial Artist can slowly kill over a hundred soldiers one by one, even a hundred Third-rate soldiers!]

[Every single bandit in that group is a Third-rate Martial Artist, nearly a hundred in total, including multiple Second-rate Martial Artists. Their leader is highly likely a First-rate Martial Artist!]

[This force, roaming the mountains, exceeds East Forest City's ability to handle. Realizing he cannot take them down, the City Lord first seeks help from the city's martial arts experts.]

[He comes to you first, then the head of a martial arts academy in the city (a First-rate), but is refused—only a Second-rate disciple is sent. He searches everywhere else.]

[In the end, only two First-rate Martial Artists (including you) are willing to act, along with fourteen Second-rate Martial Artists and thirty Third-rate Martial Artists, tasked with supporting the First-rate and Second-rate fighters, sharing the pressure of encirclement, and searching for the bandits' lair.]

[Right now, your Extreme Viscera Enhancement progress is just over sixty percent. While it has no direct impact on combat power, it subtly improves all aspects of your abilities.]

[Additionally, your vital energy has been growing steadily—this is your most direct means of increasing combat power aside from foundation. Compared to thirteen years ago when the simulation began, your total vital energy has increased by over thirty percent, and its intensity has also risen slightly.]

(Vital energy grows very slowly because the "Extreme Viscera Enhancement" stage of martial arts does not increase vital energy—this is hard-earned through training.)

(It's like an ordinary person in reality who can't practice martial arts and won't grow stronger, but they can still work out. It's just that working out is far slower than martial arts training, with a much lower ceiling.)

(Once you reach the final stage of First-rate Martial Artist—Bone-Reinforcing Vital Energy—your vital energy will increase several times faster than during the viscera enhancement phase.)

[Combined with your healthy adult physique, you are confident you can easily beat the Qing He Gang's leader, Xu Ruohai, into a dog.]

[Add in your 141% foundation and the boost from the Advanced Martial Art "Flowing River Technique," and you are certain that unless you encounter a genius First-rate from the "Young Talents Grand Competition," ordinary First-rate Martial Artists who broke through in their thirties or forties won't be your match in the same realm.]

[So you plan to show off your strength and crush that bandit group (if you can't, you can always run).]

Yun Shou sighs: "With all these conditions attached, how pathetic."

The version of himself in the simulation is desperately trying to prove he is unmatched in the same realm (excluding geniuses).

But in truth, he is merely mediocre—middle-tier in the world of First-rate Martial Artists, perhaps even below average.

"Next time won't be like this, but I can't guarantee it—it all depends on you."