999 Dead Paths, Reaching the Real Realm!

"There's even a failed extraction?!"

Chen Yi, who was outside the simulation, couldn't help but stand up to watch; this was the first time he had encountered such a situation.

Fortunately, a line of small print in one corner of the simulation screen explained the reason.

[Due to the current environment, the flow of time is inconsistent with the River of Time, making it impossible to extract entries.]

"Understood..."

This is a mechanism to prevent bugs from occurring.

Everyone knows about the Time Chamber of the Xiaoyao God.

He spends one day inside and a year outside.

It would be a huge waste to try and draw entries in the Time Chamber.

Similarly, what if there were a Time Chamber where you could spend a year inside and a day outside?

That would allow you to extract more keywords than in normal times.

Therefore, drawing more or less is not allowed.

"That means the Ascension Path isn't the Real Realm, but lies between the real and the illusory? Speaking of which, it's a bit like the Snake Path in the Lao Kong. That Green Term from before can come in handy."

It's not enough to just look at what has already happened; Chen Yi needs to think about what he might encounter in the coming year.

After all, the simulated self cannot actively adjust the entries.

Appropriate foresight is necessary.

"Once we reach the Real Realm, the situation will be unclear. We'll definitely have to play it safe and figure things out. We'll have to ' Disguise as a Pig to Eat the Tiger ' as well. I suppose our peak cultivation in the Void Realm shouldn't be too bad in the Real Realm, right? We can't be too conspicuous."

Chen Yi returned to the days of simulated micro-management.

[You selected yes.]

[You replaced "Bad News from the Martial Artist Community" with "Running Playlist".]

You replaced "Phantom of Civil War" with "Disguise as a Pig to Eat the Tiger".

"A year has passed! It's still not over! The scenery around me hasn't changed at all! If I hadn't taken steps, I would have thought I was standing still!"

[You've really triggered road rage.]

Anyone would be frustrated.

[After running for a year, looking back, the scenery is still exactly the same.]

[The Great Wall winds its way through the landscape, with beacon towers placed at intervals.]

[Furthermore, you discover that you cannot stop on any stretch of road between the beacon towers.]

[Once you stop, a tremendous force will propel you all the way to a dozen or so beacon towers!]

[If you run in the opposite direction and stop in the middle, you won't experience this thrust.]

This seems to indirectly confirm that you were running in the right direction.

These beacon towers seem to be for people to rest on.

"I wonder where the Sword Master and the others have gone. Could it be that we've all ended up running down this road? That would be ridiculous!"

[After changing to the "Running Playlist," you decide to try it out.]

"I need to listen to music, but where am I supposed to get a music player? Old Wan!"

"Boss! I'll go through fire and water!"

[Ever since you forged the Myriad Souls Banner into Super Immortal Artifact artifact, it now obeys your every command.]

["Sing."]

"Boss, I can't sing."

"It's not like I'm asking you to participate in 'The Human World's Got Talent,' and you can't even sing properly?"

["Well, I'll give it a try, cough cough..."]

"You're blushing like a bubble teapot..."

[The Banner of Myriad Souls Banner roars forth.]

["♫Mom and Dad go to work, I go to kindergarten..."]

["How did you manage to turn a children's song into a funeral song...?"]

[The Myriad Souls Banner is unreliable; you'll have to do it yourself.]

[You were singing as you ran.]

["♫The long road ahead is with you~~Bringing courage and warmth~"]

["♫Seeking self and true feelings~~Choose a place to stop and consider it home~"]

["♫ Throw yourself into the eternal fire of fate~~ How can one measure the gains and losses..."]

[This song feels surprisingly fitting for this time and place.]

[Fourth year, age twenty-eight.]

[Extracting terms...]

[Extraction failed!]

[Should we adjust the entry?]

[whether]

[You chose no.]

[Looking at the Nebula of entries that wouldn't display properly, you cursed in frustration.]

["Damn it! How long is this road?! Isn't this stopping me from drawing entries?!"]

[As you run, you suddenly realize that, as far as the eye can see, the suspended Great Wall has split into two!]

"Something's changed. Are we nearing the finish line?"

[You ran away, singing.]

[His face clearly showed impatience, anger, and frustration, yet he was singing a cheerful song, which seemed very contradictory.]

You have come to a three-way intersection.

[The three roads are exactly the same, but on the beacon towers on the left and right, there is a stone tablet with the characters "life" and "death" inscribed on it respectively.]

"Life or death, do I have to choose?"

[You've thought about it.]

[You try to leave some traces on the beacon tower, but find it's completely impossible.]

[This Great Wall looks like it's built of stone, but even with your Martial God Realm cultivation, you couldn't budge it at all.]

"If I can't do it, then no one else can either. I'm even wondering if the Great Demon and the others left any marks, so we can all walk the same path and meet at the summit."

[Now there's no one to refer to; I have to make the decision myself.]

["Life, death, humph! A mix of reality and illusion, reality and illusion—who writes the answer in the question? Life is death, death is life! I choose the path of death!"]

[Shortly afterward.]

[The same three-way intersection appears.]

"I'll choose the dead end!"

[After some time.]

"I'll choose the path of death!"

"Dead end!"

"Die all the way to the end!!"

[Fifth year, age twenty-nine.]

[Extracting terms...]

[Extraction failed!]

[Should we adjust the entry?]

[whether]

[You chose no.]

This is the nine hundred and ninety-ninth time you've stood before the Path of Life and Death.

[Thanks to your Eidetic Memory, you remember the exact number of times.]

"[Seeing that you're about to choose the 'path of death' again," said the Myriad Souls Banner.]

"Dude, how about we choose the 'live' option? What if we choose the 'live' option and pass the level directly?"

"What you say makes sense, but I just don't believe it!"

"Damn, my buddy's gone crazy!"

[When you step onto the 999th beacon tower bearing the character "death".]

[A sudden feeling of weightlessness came from beneath my feet.]

Everything around them suddenly disappeared!

[At this moment, you are oblivious and numb, as if you are asleep, without even a dream.]

[When you "wake up" from your dream, you find yourself standing on a pile of regularly shaped stones.]

[The surrounding land was brownish-yellow, with trees in the distance, blue sky and white clouds, and a gentle breeze.]

["Is this the Real Realm? It looks no different from the Void Realm..."]

[You're going to use your Divine Sense to probe the distance.]

"Huh? Where's my Divine Sense?"

[The Divine Sense you've used countless times in the Void Realm has vanished without a trace, as if you've never possessed this ability before.]

"Wait, I... I'm flying!"

You took a leap, only to fall headfirst into the air.

"The ability to fly is gone too!"

[You look down and realize that the pile of stones at your feet isn't just rocks, it's crystals! A massive amount of top-grade crystals that the Wang Family gave you!]

[However, the Heaven and Earth Essence within the crystal has all vanished, leaving only a pile of ordinary stones.]