Simulation of the Ancient Era

As Zhou Yu made his choice, the simulation began.

[You are born.]

[You wail loudly at birth; you are merely an ordinary infant.]

[You find that you can easily understand the language spoken by those around you. You assume you have traveled back to an ancient society, until you see your father casually tossing boulders several zhang high and your mother cooking prey that resembles a monster with one hand. Only then do you realize something is wrong.]

[You are born into the "Youcang Clan." Your parents name you Zhou Yu. You are very unaccustomed to this new name and find it quite foolish, but you gradually accept reality.]

[At age one, you can already run and jump. You have gained much understanding of this world; it is a world where immortals exist, and mortals are divided into the Houtian and Xiantian levels. The more you learn, the more certain you are that you have traveled into the world of the Desolate Era.]

[Your parents are both Xiantian lifeforms, and your clan is extremely powerful; it is said there is a Celestial Immortal ancestor.]

[At age three, you are sent to the library pavilion by the clan to choose a cultivation method. Following your parents' advice, you find the relatively easy body-refining method, the Sun Worship Chart, and the Mountain and Water Origin Art, which is excellent for building a foundation. At the same time, you discover a manual titled Creation Lotus Scripture. The introduction states that it was created by Goddess Nuwa, the mother of the human race, and that the first generation of human sages all practiced this method to rise above the myriad races. However, the difficulty of this manual is unimaginably high; ordinary people rarely achieve anything with it.]

[You now choose: 1. Sun Worship Chart, 2. Creation Lotus Scripture.]

It seems I have traveled to the Three Realms this time, Zhou Yu quickly realized. Could it be that other chaos worlds also have a Goddess Nuwa?

As for the Creation Lotus Scripture, since it was created by Goddess Nuwa, this body-refining manual should be like the Crimson Brightness Nine Heavens Diagram—a technique capable of forging the purest God and Devil body, one that truly offers hope of surviving the Empyrean God Tribulation.

Its difficulty goes without saying; it might even be harder than the Crimson Brightness Nine Heavens Diagram.

However—

"Choice two." Zhou Yu chose two without hesitation.

If he wants to become a Empyrean God or even a True God in the future, his foundation must be solid.

At this moment, memories flooded in, and the simulation continued.

[You ultimately choose the Creation Lotus Scripture. Your parents are very dissatisfied when they find out, but since you have already made your choice, they have no choice but to support your cultivation.]

[Your soul is naturally powerful, so the initial step of entering the Creation Lotus Scripture does not stump you. You begin practicing this body-refining method while also entering the clan school to learn combat techniques.]

[You gradually discover something is wrong. According to the master teaching you, there are countless ferocious Demon Race outside the clan. For your clan to survive on this land, you must be united and constantly produce strong individuals to have any hope of contending with the Demon Race. This seems quite unbelievable for a clan with a Celestial Immortal ancestor. You suspect you may have traveled to a special world dominated by the Demon Race.]

[Your talent is decent, and coupled with your practice of the Creation Lotus Scripture, your strength gradually becomes top-tier among your peers as you grow older.]

[At age 10, you reach the Houtian perfection, but you cannot find any hope of breaking through. You do not take this to heart at the time.]

[At age 12, you begin to panic a little.]

[At age 15, many of your peers whose strength was inferior to yours earlier begin to break through to the Xiantian level. They have completely surpassed you.]

[At this point, you feel somewhat lost. You begin to consider whether to give up body-refining and focus your energy on the Qi-refining path. You now choose: 1. Persist, 2. Give up.]

"One." Zhou Yu made his choice.

[You grit your teeth and persist, searching for a breakthrough opportunity every day.]

[At age 17, your talent 'Heaven Rewards Diligence' takes effect, and you break through to the Xiantian level.]

[Having achieved the Xiantian level by practicing the Creation Lotus Scripture, you are immediately different. Your combat power is comparable to a late-stage Xiantian body-refiner, and your vitality is comparable to a peak Xiantian body-refiner. Your strength is far ahead of your peers.]

[Your performance attracts the attention of the clan. Although you are a bit older, you are still listed as a 'clan seed' for cultivation.]

[Your increased status within the clan allows you to access more books. You are full of curiosity about this world, so you begin reading many geographical and biographical records. Soon, you are dumbfounded: you did not travel to the Three Realms, but to the Pangu World before the Three Realms were formed. At this time, on the endless earth, the human race and the Demon Race are both extremely powerful, and they are the two major groups vying for hegemony.]

[You quickly accept the facts and continue to practice diligently.]

[At age 22, you reach the Xiantian perfection. Practicing the Creation Lotus Scripture gives you combat power comparable to a Zifu cultivator. The clan arranges a trial mission for you; you can choose to join a hunting team or go out alone. You now choose: 1. Join a hunting team, 2. Go out alone.]

Is this simulation actually the ancient era? Zhou Yu looked at the content of the simulation, feeling quite surprised.

Although the time of the previous simulation was even earlier than this, it was in a different chaos world.

I wonder what will happen if the simulation succeeds? Zhou Yu pondered, and he quickly made his choice.

He chose to join the "hunting team" directly.

Going out alone offers freedom, but without the blessing of luck, the mortality rate is too high. Zhou Yu knows clearly that what he needs to do in this simulation is to "stay low." As long as he lives long enough and keeps working hard, the "Heaven Rewards Diligence" talent will allow him to progress continuously.

[You choose to join the hunting team. Your performance in the team is mediocre, but you persist in spending your efforts on the Creation Lotus Scripture. At age 28, you miraculously break through to the Zifu level.]

[This breakthrough makes the clan value you even more. You are the only person in the clan in the last thousand years to achieve the Zifu level by practicing the Creation Lotus Scripture.]

[You continue to follow the hunting team for training. At age 38, you reach the Zifu perfection, but the threshold of Zifu to Wanxiang firmly traps you.]

[At age 39, you encounter a beautiful woman in the tribe, and your heart is stirred.]

[At age 42, you get married. You begin to feel satisfied with your current life, but you do not indulge; you still practice hard every day without stopping.]

[But the breakthrough from Zifu to Wanxiang is even harder than you imagined. At age 48, you fail to break through.]

[At age 58, you still fail to break through.]

[You once again doubt whether you can continue on this path. You think about giving up and focusing on the Qi-refining path. You now choose: 1. Persist, 2. Give up.]

It seems I really don't have the aptitude for God and Devil body-refining, Zhou Yu sighed. Initially, he had practiced both body-refining and Qi-refining, but he had eventually given up on the body-refining path.

If you can't break through, you can't break through; struggling is useless.

Of course, this time is different. Zhou Yu naturally chooses to "persist."

[You choose to persist.]

[Heaven Rewards Diligence. At age 72, you finally break the bottleneck and reach the Wanxiang level through the Creation Lotus Scripture.]

[Age 85, you reach the perfection of the Wanxiang stage. Your strength is already comparable to many Primordial Spirit Daoists, and you begin to lead a hunting party on your own.]

[With your help, your parents and wife all successfully break through to the Wanxiang level of the Qi Refinement path. Your family lives in harmony.]

[Age 100, you still have not broken through to the Primordial Spirit level. You no longer feel surprised by this, as you understand that breaking through is not so easy.]

[In the same year, an accident occurs. You lead your hunting party out to hunt, but when you return, the tribe has become a ruin. You search for your parents and wife like a madman, but you can no longer find any trace of them.]

[Two Celestial Immortals soon arrive. They tell you that this was a premeditated attack. Three Demon Immortals from the Demon Race took action. After the ancestor of your tribe fell, the tribe was wiped out by the Demon Race army.]

[You are devastated and filled with monstrous hatred. You swear to avenge your loved ones and your tribe.]

[At this moment, a Celestial Immortal tells you that if you want revenge, you can go to 'Yao Emperor City' in the north. Emperor Yao is a newly emerged mighty figure of the human race who is recruiting heavily to build an army. However, to join Emperor Yao's army, one must at least be a Void Refinement Earth Immortal in Qi Refinement or a Primordial Spirit God or Devil in Body Refinement. Your strength is clearly not enough.]

[After thanking the two immortals, you take the remaining tribesmen from the hunting party and leave this place.]

[Age 108, you rebuild the tribe ten thousand miles away. The tribe is small and weak. On this land, you can only carefully lead your tribesmen to struggle for survival.]

[Age 150, through your day-and-night cultivation, you finally break through to the Primordial Spirit level. You yearn to head north, but you do not; you know that your tribe still needs you.]

[Age 186, you reach the perfection of the Primordial Spirit level.]

[Age 300, you face your first Three Calamities, which you pass with ease.]

[Age 305, a genius appears in your tribe. You are very happy and do your best to cultivate him.]

[At age 500, that genius has become a Void Refinement Earth Immortal with an extremely high level of Dao comprehension. In terms of strength, he has already surpassed you. At this time, you choose: 1. Hand over the tribe to him and head north. 2. Stay in the tribe.]

"It seems the environment for the human race at this time is far inferior to the present." Zhou Yu looks at the content in the simulation and, combined with some legends circulating in the Three Realms, he roughly understands.

In the Pangu World of that time, although the human race had the Three Sovereigns, they might not have had their current strength. Among the Five Emperors, Emperor Yao had just risen to power, and his strength was clearly much weaker.

And the Demon Race? They were actually a coalition of ten thousand races! There might even have been innate Ancestral Gods among them. Their strength was naturally terrifying, enough to stand on equal footing with the human race.

"However, this choice..." Zhou Yu falls into deep thought.

This situation is very similar to the previous simulation when he went to the Sea of Chaos Lightning. If he in the simulation had been strong enough, he might not have given Zhou Yu the chance to choose; he would have just run off on his own.

But he in the simulation is clearly not strong enough yet, so whether to go or not remains a decision for Zhou Yu himself.

"Go." Zhou Yu quickly makes his decision.

Joining Emperor Yao's army is indeed dangerous, but is staying in the tribe safe? This era is clearly not peaceful. Tribes that originally had Celestial Immortal ancestors were wiped out just like that, let alone a tribe that now only has a Primordial Spirit God or Devil and a Void Refinement Earth Immortal.

The key is that cultivating the Dao is also cultivating the heart.

Continuing to stay in the tribe is not necessarily a good thing for him in the simulation.

"Heaven Rewards Diligence" is good, but it is not omnipotent. Zhou Yu has already discovered that the greater the bottleneck, the longer it takes to break through relying on "Heaven Rewards Diligence."

Without passing the tribulations, one's lifespan is ultimately limited. When the time comes, there might not be time for "Heaven Rewards Diligence" to take effect, so he chooses to head to "Yao Emperor City"!

As Zhou Yu makes his choice, the memories of him in the simulation flood in.

Feeling the emotions contained in those memories, Zhou Yu becomes even more certain that his choice is correct.

PS: Seeking support.