[You entrusted the tribe to that talented Return to Void Earth Immortal. No longer hesitating, you directly set out for Yao Emperor City.]
[Pangu World was incomparably vast. You traveled north, carefully avoiding countless dangers along the way. As you contemplated heaven, earth, and nature, you suddenly gained an introduction to the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth. Even without guidance from any method, you discovered that your progress was remarkably swift. You resolved to continue down this path.]
[After ten years, you finally arrived at Yao Emperor City. After explaining your purpose and relying on your own strength, you easily joined Yao Emperor's army.]
[You were assigned to an inconspicuous legion, drilling Godfiend battle formations alongside other Perfected Primordial Spirit Godfiends.]
[Within the army, you came into contact with secret manuals containing the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth. You studied them meticulously, and your realm advanced even more rapidly.]
[In your twelfth year in the army, your legion faced its first battle. A battle formation of thirty thousand Perfected Primordial Spirit Godfiends killed a Celestial Immortal of the Monster Race. You felt immensely exhilarated.]
[After that battle, you felt that more than half the pent-up gloom in your heart had dissipated. Your cultivation became increasingly smooth, yet you still could not break through that bottleneck and become a Return to Void God and Devil.]
[At eight hundred years old, you were still a Primordial Spirit God and Devil, but your strength had improved greatly. You had already become a leader in the army. Using the military merit you had accumulated, you exchanged it for a special treasure and successfully cultivated a Second Primal Spirit.]
[At nine hundred years old, you encountered your first tribulation. You passed it easily.]
[At one thousand years old, you continued accumulating.]
[At twelve hundred years old, you became a commander in the army.]
[At fifteen hundred years old, after battle after battle, you finally underwent a transformation and broke through to become a Return to Void God and Devil.]
[At seventeen hundred years old, you reached the Late Return to Void Stage. In terms of strength, you were already comparable to a Celestial Immortal, and you entered the Return to Void God and Devil Legion.]
[At twenty-five hundred years old, the Monster Race launched a massive invasion. You followed your legion into battle. The fighting was so fierce that heaven and earth seemed to collapse, and countless gods and demons died. You survived by luck, but this was not the end. Rather, it was the beginning of the conflict. Great wars erupted one after another between the human and monster races.]
[You understood that there was nothing you could do, so you could only cultivate in silence. Amid repeated slaughter and battle, your realm advanced at an astonishing pace. Before long, you reached the Million-Year Loose Immortal level. You began to consider undergoing the Heavenly God Tribulation. As long as you became an Empyrean God, you could easily take revenge and would have a better chance of surviving the conflict between the human and monster races.]
[At this time, you chose: first, undergo the tribulation. Second, continue accumulating.]
"Continue accumulating."
Zhou Yu made his choice without hesitation.
At the Million-Year Loose Immortal realm, he wanted to undergo the Heavenly God Tribulation? Even the weakest Heavenly God Tribulation could reach the level of a nine-by-nine lightning tribulation.
With such a realm, and without divine abilities like the Eight-Nine Profound Art or the Star-Plucking Hand as a foundation, that would simply be courting death.
As the memories from the simulation flooded into Zhou Yu's mind, the simulation soon began again.
[You chose to continue accumulating strength before undergoing the Heavenly God Tribulation, but you felt that the time was ripe for your Second Primal Spirit to undergo tribulation. You chose to have your Second Primal Spirit undergo the Celestial Immortal Tribulation, and you succeeded.]
[Time passed, and the conflict between the human and monster races grew increasingly intense. Beyond direct clashes, both sides began doing everything they could to cause trouble for the other.]
[One day, you suddenly heard that an unparalleled genius named Hou Yi had appeared in the elite legion next door. In less than a hundred years, Hou Yi had already become an Empyrean God. You sensed that something was not simple.]
[At thirty-five hundred years old, ten suns appeared in the sky. They were the Ten Golden Crows. Their leader was a True God-level Golden Crow known as the Golden Crow Demon Emperor. The Golden Crow Demon Emperor led his nine brothers in wreaking havoc across the gathering places of the human race. The human race could only respond passively and suffered devastating losses.]
[Until that day, Hou Yi, who had become an Empyrean God nearly a thousand years earlier, suddenly drew his bow. With unimaginable power, he shot and killed that True God-level Golden Crow, while the remaining Empyrean God Golden Crows were nearly wiped out.]
[After that battle, Hou Yi's name resounded throughout Pangu World. Yet the Human-Monster War did not cease. The death of the Golden Crow True God instead completely intensified the conflict between both sides.]
[When you were thirty-five hundred years old, the final decisive battle between both sides truly erupted. Because your strength was insufficient, you were unable to participate. But you knew that the human race had won. The Three Sovereigns of the Human Race all displayed astonishing power. It was said that an Elder God had fallen in that battle.]
[After the war, the legion formed by Yao Emperor was not disbanded, but remained behind. At this time, you chose: first, remain. Second, withdraw.]
Zhou Yu considered it, then chose to withdraw.
Since the war between humans and monsters had ended, the outside world would be much safer from now on. Once he returned, he could simply cultivate and accumulate in peace.
[You chose to retire from the army and returned to your homeland with the treasures you had accumulated over many years.]
[At this time, you discovered in sorrow that the small tribe from back then had already vanished. In the end, it still failed to endure the aftermath of the great war.]
[With nowhere to go, you chose to travel.]
[The years passed, and your realm grew ever higher. When you were fifteen thousand years old, you were only one step away from fully comprehending the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth. You felt somewhat amazed. You had never expected your talent to reach such a point.]
[At this time, you once again considered undergoing the Heavenly God Tribulation. At this time, you chose: first, undergo the tribulation. Second, continue accumulating.]
"Continue accumulating." Zhou Yu made his choice directly.
For some reason, this simulation had no time limit. A Return to Void God and Devil who had reached this level was absolutely comparable to a Peak Celestial Immortal. With such strength, he could withstand the Three Calamities and Nine Tribulations for a long time, and his lifespan was still extraordinarily long. There was no need to rush.
Besides, with Heaven Rewards Diligence, as long as he continued cultivating, he would eventually break through.
[You continued traveling. One day, you suddenly encountered a Celestial Immortal of the Monster Race. You had long investigated the identity of the monster immortal responsible for the destruction of your tribe. You recognized him instantly as one of your enemies from back then. Rumor had it that he had died in the decisive battle between the two races, but you had not expected him to still be alive. Without hesitation, you attacked and tore him to pieces.]
[After personally killing your enemy, you felt incomparably relaxed in spirit. You returned to the place where your tribe had once stood and secluded yourself there.]
[Before you knew it, you were one million years old. With Heaven Rewards Diligence, you miraculously comprehended the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth completely, and your Second Primal Spirit became a True Immortal.]
[Having mastered a Great Dao, you were filled with confidence and once again considered undergoing the Heavenly God Tribulation. At this time, you chose: first, undergo the tribulation. Second, continue accumulating.]
"Logically speaking, my chances of succeeding at the tribulation now aren't low." Zhou Yu naturally understood this.
Yet he still chose to continue accumulating. With the Heaven Rewards Diligence talent, further accumulation would make progress easy enough.
[You chose to continue accumulating. As time passed, you gradually began comprehending the Power of Space.]
[At one million years old, your Power of Space reached the third level.]
[At fifteen million years old, your Power of Space reached the fourth level.]
[At this time, you felt that you had accumulated enough and chose to undergo the tribulation.]
[Because you had experienced the Three Calamities and Nine Tribulations too many times, your Heavenly God Tribulation was also incomparably terrifying. During the lightning tribulation, even the legendary Pure Yang Golden Light Lightning appeared, but it posed no threat to you now.]
[The only thing you found troublesome was the Heart Demon Tribulation. However, ever since you killed that Celestial Immortal of the Monster Race, there had been no flaw in your heart. Tens of millions of years of tempering had long made your Dao Heart incomparably steadfast. In the end, the Heart Demon Tribulation still failed to become an obstacle. You successfully passed the tribulation and became an Empyrean God.]
[News of your becoming an Empyrean God soon reached Yao Emperor. The God and Devil Legion formed back then had contained a full million Return to Void God and Devils, yet apart from Hou Yi, no one else had succeeded in passing the tribulation. Tens of millions of years had passed, and nearly all the Return to Void God and Devils from the legion that had fought the Monster Race had already died. The fact that you had waited tens of millions of years before undergoing tribulation and had actually succeeded was indeed astonishing.]
[Yao Emperor personally came to find you and asked whether you were willing to return to the army.]
[At this time, you chose: first, agree. Second, refuse.]
"This time, it didn't even give me a choice about undergoing the tribulation." Zhou Yu sighed inwardly. Well, he had ultimately mastered the fourth level of the Power of Space. It would have been unreasonable not to undergo the tribulation.
"Still, there's no need for me to return to the army now, is there?" After considering it, Zhou Yu chose to refuse.
And the instant Zhou Yu chose to refuse, surging memories flooded into his mind.
Memories spanning more than ten million years were no small shock to Zhou Yu.
However, Zhou Yu had long prepared himself. Moreover, the memories from each previous simulation had been a form of tempering for him, making his heart even stronger than before.
Once Zhou Yu had digested those memories, his gaze soon returned to calmness.
"Born as a mayfly, united with heaven and earth." Zhou Yu felt a sense of release. The fusion of the two sets of memories also allowed him to completely shatter the bottleneck in his heart.
Every Cultivator had more or less held lofty ambitions, but how many could truly avoid doubting themselves forever?
When an ant looked toward the sky, could it help but be awed by that vast and boundless existence?
"But no matter how small I am, the road lies beneath my feet. I need only move forward, one step at a time." Zhou Yu's heart was exceptionally tranquil now, free of all confusion.
He had long understood the principle, but understanding it on the surface did not mean he had truly grasped its essence.
At this moment, Zhou Yu was no longer confused, and that signified the transformation of his heart.
His heart was like a tender shoot breaking through the soil. Though inconspicuous, it stubbornly began to grow.
The fourth level of Heart Force—Mortal Dust.
Zhou Yu felt rather emotional. Through simulation after simulation, his Dao Heart had long met the requirements for the fourth level of Heart Force. Yet without truly comprehending the essence of the fourth level, he could not break through.
Now that he had understood its true meaning, the breakthrough came naturally.
"The fourth level of Heart Force—fearless heart, boundless Heart Force. The gap from the third level is simply too great." Zhou Yu sighed. Only after reaching this point did he understand its true power.
"Let's continue the simulation." Zhou Yu did not think much more about it.
Before you continue