After finishing your guidance, you rode out of the city and arrived at He'an Town.
You ignored the town chief's recruitment, entered the mountains alone, and found that giant tiger.
The purpose of this battle was not to boil its bones into soup to nourish your Foundation. After all, such a Foundation made up for through acquired means could only be brought back by choosing Martial Cultivation. Your main goal was to test the strength of this Fierce Tiger King.
Back then, you had only been a Second-rate Martial Artist. Even six against one had nearly ended in total annihilation. Now that you had stepped into the First-Rate realm, were you supposed to fear one little tiger?
The Fierce Tiger King possessed a ferocious aura. In terms of sheer size, it was absolutely comparable to a First-rate Martial Artist with Vital Energy Infused into Bone. Yet compared to a true First-rate Martial Artist, it was not only clumsy in movement but also had no techniques to speak of.
In a head-on clash, even you would not have been its match. But as long as you deflected its force properly, even a Second-rate Martial Artist could circle around it for a while.
You fought with some difficulty. Back then there had been six people; without anyone else to distract the Fierce Tiger King, every strike it made was with full force. A single pounce or claw swipe could knock down a great tree.
You seized the opportunity, using Force Qi to blind its eyes and tear open its mouth. Then, with a sliding tackle, you slipped beneath the tiger's belly. Your long blade flashed upward, disemboweling it.
"What Fierce Tiger King? I killed it with one sliding tackle."
You dragged the giant tiger's corpse back to He'an Town and had the restaurant chef prepare a feast. This time, you almost had the tiger meat banquet and tiger bone soup all to yourself, leaving the scraps for the restaurant.
You strode away and returned safely to East Forest City.
Da Qing 288. You heard that a "Supreme Martial Saint" had made a move in Qingcheng, wiping out the Wu Kingdom's vast army with a single slap before drifting away. For a time, countless martial artists headed to Qingcheng to pay homage to the "Martial Saint's" palm print.
There were even rumors that several reclusive old monsters from various sects had emerged from seclusion because of this, silently circling Qingcheng's outskirts several times.
Da Qing 289. The two kingdoms declared a truce.
This year, your Extreme Viscera Enhancement progress finally neared perfection. You were about to begin the final step for a First-rate Martial Artist: Vital Energy Infused into Bone!
Da Qing 290. A chivalrous thief calling himself the "Shadowless Guest" arrived in East Forest City. He displayed First-Rate strength, specializing in stealing the wealth of the city's rich households before distributing it among beggars and poor families.
Several prominent city households asked you to intervene, but you could not be bothered. Though you had now become part of the Privileged Class, leaving aside the fact that the Shadowless Guest had not committed any heinous crimes and mostly targeted aristocratic families with bad reputations, the silver he took was no more than a drop in the bucket...
The real point was this: You wanted a martial artist like me to offend another martial artist for your aristocratic families? Have you figured out which side my backside is sitting on?
In the 291st year of the Great Qing, you carefully used Force Qi to temper your bones every day. Fortunately, you had strengthened your internal organs beforehand. Otherwise, tempering them for five minutes each day might have made you cough blood.
After Extreme Viscera Enhancement, the time extended to three hours!
(Though your Force Qi ran dry after two and a half hours.)
Da Qing 293. You were thirty-eight years old, Foundation 152%.
The progress of Vital Energy Infused into Bone was exceedingly slow. Fortunately, after the Flowing River Technique reached perfection, its extra boost to Force Qi happened to have a miraculous effect on this. In merely four years, your progress reached twenty percent.
Over these four years, the rate at which your total Force Qi and its quality increased was eight times that of the previous twenty years! Though Talent Aptitude played a part, it also proved just how terrifying the gap was!
If, at the start of the simulation, your Force Qi quality's combined value had been 100 points, then four years ago it had been 150 points. Over twenty years, it had risen by half again.
But now, it was around 230 points! (The intensity of your Force Qi had not risen much; the main increase was in total volume, making you far more enduring in battle.)
You had entered a period of rapid growth in strength. Though Force Qi was not all of a martial artist's strength, it unquestionably accounted for a huge portion of it!
"Only when Force Qi enters the bones can one be considered a true First-rate Martial Artist!" You could not help sighing. As your strength rose, you adjusted your standards for looking down on others accordingly.
Looking at it this way, compared to when one had just entered the First-Rate realm, the limit of a First-rate Martial Artist could differ by several times in Force Qi quality alone!
Da Qing 295. You were enjoying fine food at a restaurant when you heard a man and woman talking nearby.
"Brother Yulang, hehe, following you is still so much more carefree. It is far more interesting than that rigid Chu Family."
"Hahaha, little sister Xian'er, there are still countless splendid sights in this world. Your brother will take you to see them all one by one."
At first, you only listened casually and mocked the lovey-dovey couple in your heart. But as you kept listening, you realized something seemed off and began searching through the deepest layers of your old memories.
After a long while, just as the young couple was about to leave the restaurant, you finally remembered where you had seen them—or rather, where you had heard of them.
At the end of the second simulation, Song Yulang had abducted Chu Xian'er, the Chu Family's young lady. At the time, you had been the Chu Family Guard Captain, and your assigned task had been to bring Chu Xian'er back.
Yet the two had truly loved each other. Chu Xian'er secretly came to resent you, and after you successfully brought her back to the Chu Family, she poisoned you to death!
"This is the grudge of a life! If it were not for you, you vicious woman, then by the end of the second simulation, my Martial Cultivation might have reached First-Rate. If my luck had been a little better and that inhuman demon had not killed me, Martial Master and Grandmaster would not have been mere dreams!"
Yun Shou nodded in agreement. Though after three simulations, his main body had only just entered the First-Rate realm.
He possessed an overpowered cheat meant for the later stages: Foundation Amplification. His Foundation rose by 1% every year, and his cultivation speed would grow faster and faster.
Moreover, judging from the scant information revealed by the Simulator, his Foundation Amplification seemed different from that of other martial geniuses.
If other martial geniuses had twice the Foundation of ordinary people, then their combat power and cultivation speed would also be twice as great. Yet their lifespans did not seem particularly outstanding. The Simulator had once mentioned that even a Grandmaster only lived one Kun Jiazi—one hundred and fifty years.
To become a Grandmaster, one's Foundation had to be at least twice that of an ordinary person, right?
Yet the simulated you had looked noticeably younger at fifty because of your higher Foundation. This Foundation Amplification also carried a slight effect of extending your lifespan!
A martial genius's Foundation, twice that of an ordinary person, might only manifest in martial prowess. If they never practiced martial arts in this life, then upon reaching a hundred, they would still grow old and die as they should.
But with your 200% Foundation, while it was impossible for you to live to two hundred without cultivating, living to one hundred twenty, one hundred thirty, or even longer was possible!
Therefore, if the simulated you kept living, then upon reaching one hundred, two hundred, with your Foundation continuously stacking up, continuously extending your lifespan and increasing your Talent Aptitude, becoming a Grandmaster in one leap through a single simulation would not be a dream!
"Make your move, other me. Consider it revenge for another other you!"
Before you continue