The illusory text flashed past rapidly.
Finally, it stopped at the line [This simulation has ended].
Zhou Qing stared blankly at it, a thousand thoughts swirling through his mind.
In this simulation, he had lived through sixty-two years, from youth to old age-almost an entire lifetime.
Especially in his twilight years, when his blood and vitality waned and pill toxin tormented him.
Outside the simulation, all Zhou Qing might see was a few lines of text.
But inside the simulation, it had been a life as real as any other.
Just as Zhou Qing was lost in thought.
The illusory text, which had stopped moving, began changing again.
[Please select one of the following to inherit] [1: Your cultivation, realm, skills, cultivation methods, and memories at your peak during the simulation] [2: One treasure that belonged to you during the simulation]
Zhou Qing barely hesitated before his gaze settled on the first option.
Nearly all the spirit stones he had earned in the simulation had gone toward various cultivation resources. He had no particularly precious treasures; even that pill furnace was only worth a little over a hundred spirit stones.
It could not remotely compare with the first option.
"Cultivation at my peak..."
Once cultivators entered old age, they declined in every respect.
Their cultivation, for instance? Their skills?
Take two cultivators at the Fifth Layer of Qi Refining: one was forty, in his prime.
The other was eighty, old and decrepit.
The former would certainly be stronger than the latter.
So the "peak" mentioned in the option referred to the point in the simulation when Zhou Qing had been strongest.
"Option one."
After staring at it for a moment, Zhou Qing made his choice immediately.
Whoosh~
In an instant, Zhou Qing felt "qi" condensing out of thin air within his dantian, rapidly growing stronger.
The first layer of Qi Condensation.
The second layer of Qi Refining.
The third layer of Qi Refining.
At the same time.
Sixty-two years of memories from the simulation surged through his mind like a tide.
Although a vast number of memories had appeared in his mind, they did not disrupt Zhou Qing's own emotions.
All those memories flickered past like scenes in a movie.
Zhou Qing could remember every detail, but he did not become immersed in them himself.
What he had inherited was merely the memories, with none of the emotions attached.
Several dozen breaths later.
Zhou Qing finally opened his eyes.
Threads of spiritual pressure gathered around him.
"So this is what the Fifth Layer of Qi Refining feels like?"
Zhou Qing was delighted.
In the simulation, he had entered his twilight years not long after reaching the Fifth Layer of Qi Refining.
His blood and vitality had waned.
But now?
Zhou Qing was only sixteen.
At sixteen, his blood and vitality were at their most vigorous.
The Fifth Layer of Qi Refining at sixteen?
Apart from his cultivation, Zhou Qing had also inherited all his skills and experience in alchemy.
At this moment, Zhou Qing was not merely a cultivator at the Fifth Layer of Qi Refining, but also a mid-grade alchemist.
The status of the latter was far higher than that of the former.
Even someone with a low-grade spiritual root had a chance of reaching the Fifth Layer of Qi Refining through decades of arduous cultivation.
But a mid-grade alchemist? Without a teacher's guidance? Reaching that level was extremely difficult.
In the simulation, if Zhou Qing had not followed Pill Master Yun for decades with the same unwavering devotion.
Pill Master Yun would never have given Zhou Qing his Alchemy Insights in the end.
Without that book of Alchemy Insights, Zhou Qing could never have become a mid-grade alchemist.
Cultivation and skills were not everything Zhou Qing had gained.
In fact, there was another gain that was no less valuable than those two, and might even surpass them.
His memories.
More precisely, his exact knowledge of the major events that would take place over the next sixty-two years.
For instance, twenty years from now, a secret realm would emerge not far from Black Mountain Market.
That secret realm had drawn numerous Qi Condensation cultivators into a struggle over it, and many late-stage Qi Condensation cultivators had died in the fighting.
Ye Feng had benefited from that very secret realm, advancing straight from the third layer of Qi Condensation to the ninth in just over thirty years.
In the simulation, Zhou Qing had been weak and had no backing from any faction.
Daring to harbor ambitions toward that secret realm would have been courting death.
But in his next simulation, Zhou Qing could make arrangements ahead of time.
Then, over forty years from now, rumors would spread throughout Black Mountain Market Ward because it had failed to nurture a successor at the Foundation Establishment stage.
Eventually, large numbers of cultivators had even fled the Market Ward, selling off their various properties there at bargain prices.
During the final two years of the simulation, Zhou Qing had suffered the torment of pill toxin almost every moment, living a life worse than death.
The reason he had stubbornly held on instead of dying was not that he feared death, but that he wanted to know how Black Mountain Market would ultimately fare.
Had Market Master Ouyang truly failed to nurture a Foundation Establishment cultivator, as the rumors claimed, leaving the Market Ward to vanish like smoke once his lifespan ran out and he passed away?
Or had some other turning point emerged in the end?
Zhou Qing sank into thought as the crucial information he had obtained at the end of the simulation flashed through his mind.
Market Master Ouyang had appeared with an unfamiliar female cultivator who had recently reached Foundation Establishment, clearing out the rogue cultivators around the Market Ward.
It was easy to deduce that this unfamiliar, newly advanced Foundation Establishment cultivator was the successor Market Master Ouyang had nurtured.
Otherwise, he would not have brought her along to purge the rogue cultivators around the Market Ward.
Purging those rogue cultivators signified an intention to restore order to the Market Ward. Market Master Ouyang would only do such a thing after nurturing a new Foundation Establishment successor.
And with that female Foundation Establishment cultivator as his successor, Black Mountain Market would stabilize again even if Market Master Ouyang passed away the very next moment.
This piece of intelligence was especially important.
The illusory text began changing rapidly once more.
[Settling the results of your simulation experience...] [You spent more than half your life dealing with pills] [In the end, you died because pill toxin invaded your internal organs] [You have awakened a white talent-Pill Toxin Bane] [Pill Toxin Bane: Your body will develop resistance to pill toxin. Most pill toxin will be unable to accumulate in your body]
"A white talent?"
Zhou Qing raised an eyebrow.
As for these so-called talents... after each simulation ended, a talent would be awarded based on his experiences during that simulation.
Talents were divided into white, green, purple, gold, and multicolored.
The further along that progression.
The stronger the talent, and likewise, the more challenging the simulation experiences required to obtain it.
"Pill Toxin Bane..."
After a little thought, Zhou Qing realized how important this talent was.
As everyone knew, cultivators could not do without pills in their cultivation.
Yet every medicine carried a measure of poison. Even premium pills merely contained less pill toxin.
Take too many, and pill toxin would still accumulate.
Once enough pill toxin accumulated, what had happened to Zhou Qing in his twilight years during the simulation would occur.
Not only had his lifespan been shortened by over a decade, but the torment of pill toxin had also made his life worse than death.
With this talent's aid, however, he could largely avoid such a situation.
In other words, in future simulations, as long as Zhou Qing did not deliberately court death, even if he continued taking waste pills, he would not end up tormented by pill toxin to that extent.
Of course, as a mid-grade alchemist, Zhou Qing would not take waste pills anyway.
Waste pills not only contained large amounts of pill toxin, but also had very poor effects.
He had taken waste pills in the simulation because he had no other choice.
"If even a white talent is this useful, then what heaven-defying abilities might green, purple, or even gold and multicolored talents possess...?"
A faint fire of excitement stirred in Zhou Qing's heart.