"Eighth Layer of Qi Refining!"
Outside the simulation, Zhou Qing's delight was mingled with thoughtfulness.
After two simulations spanning more than a hundred years, he was naturally no longer a newcomer to the cultivation world.
For cultivators with low-grade spiritual roots, advancing from the Seventh Layer of Qi Refining to the eighth layer was indeed immensely difficult.
But Zhou Qing knew his own circumstances best. As a High-Grade Pill Master, he had also earned more than twenty thousand spirit stones during the years when the Mountain-Sea Secret Realm emerged.
Zhou Qing had invested vast resources in his cultivation, supplemented by his pill toxin bane talent.
Even the wholehearted support of a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator would have amounted to little more than this.
How could advancing from the Seventh Layer of Qi Refining to the eighth layer alone have taken more than a decade?
If cultivation in the later layers was so difficult for those with low-grade spiritual roots, how could there be rumors of such cultivators achieving Foundation Establishment?
Was it because of the Mountain Sea Art?
Zhou Qing considered this silently. The only difference between him and other cultivators with low-grade spiritual roots lay in the Mountain Sea Art.
The Mountain Sea Ring Artifact Spirit had instructed him to cultivate the Mountain Sea Art.
According to the artifact spirit, the mountain sea mana cultivated through the Mountain Sea Art was so pure and dense that passing the mana trial, one of the Three Foundation Establishment Trials, would be effortless.
Mountain sea mana?
Zhou Qing looked thoughtful.
Through the simulations, he clearly understood just how pure and dense mountain sea mana was.
However, he had never fought another cultivator, so he did not know exactly how much of an advantage it gave him.
Even so, Zhou Qing had enjoyed the benefits of its purity and density while refining pills.
He had succeeded in refining many highly difficult pills in a single attempt.
No, if the problem was the difficulty of cultivating the Mountain Sea Art, then Ye Feng...
Zhou Qing frowned.
In the first simulation, Ye Feng had taken only a little over thirty years to advance from the third layer of Qi Refining to Qi Refining Perfection.
Ye Feng possessed a Middle-Grade Spiritual Root, yet that cultivation speed probably rivaled that of someone with an ordinary high-grade spiritual root.
And that was without even accounting for the fact that he cultivated the Mountain Sea Art.
Either Ye Feng never cultivated the Mountain Sea Art...
Or Ye Feng... possessed some other innate aptitude?
Zhou Qing briefly sank into thought.
Other innate aptitudes referred to talents independent of spiritual roots, such as certain treasure bodies and Dao bodies.
Over the years within the simulations, Zhou Qing had frequently sought information about the cultivation world and learned of the existence of treasure bodies and Dao bodies.
Both treasure bodies and Dao bodies were extraordinarily rare.
Even the weakest treasure body or Dao body granted aptitude on par with an earth spiritual root or variant spiritual root.
If Ye Feng really possessed some kind of treasure body or Dao body, everything would make sense...
A little over thirty years to advance from the Third Layer of Qi Refining to the ninth layer? While cultivating the Mountain Sea Art, no less? And he had been arrogant, looking down not only on Zhou Qing but even on Pill Master Yun, a fellow Late Qi Refining Period cultivator and High-Grade Pill Master...
Cultivators with treasure bodies or Dao bodies encountered no bottlenecks between the first and ninth layers of Qi Condensation.
They only needed to take some care when breaking through to Foundation Establishment, but even that posed little difficulty.
For Ye Feng, a Foundation Establishment Pill was not absolutely necessary.
Even without the aid of a Foundation Establishment Pill, he stood a strong chance of entering the Foundation Establishment Realm.
The benefits of treasure bodies and Dao bodies were not limited to breaking through from Qi Condensation to Foundation Establishment.
They could also play a crucial role in advancing from Foundation Establishment to Core Formation.
If that was the case, I couldn't simply kill Ye Feng in the next simulation...
Zhou Qing considered this silently.
Killing a cultivator with a treasure body or Dao body would be far too wasteful.
Whether he made use of Ye Feng himself or "sold" him to another faction, he could reap a handsome profit.
As for whether Ye Feng would bear a grudge, he would certainly conceal his true identity when doing something like this.
Even if Ye Feng later achieved Foundation Establishment or Core Formation, he would have no one to seek revenge against.
[In the forty-fifth year, you were sixty years old. Pill Master Yun asked you to visit the pill workshop.]
[You sighed inwardly. In the first simulation, Pill Master Yun had passed away around this time.]
[Sure enough, when you reached the pill workshop, Pill Master Yun was lying in bed, his breathing faint. Clearly, his end was near.]
[Pill Master Yun sent everyone else out, leaving only you behind.]
["I don't know why, but the first time I met you, Brother Wang, I felt particularly at ease, as though we'd known each other for years."]
[Pill Master Yun looked at you and suddenly smiled.]
[You remained silent.]
["Brother Wang, there's little else I can help you with. But if you ever intend to attempt Foundation Establishment, take this token to Biyue Immortal City and seek out a pill master named Zhao Kan. He was my teacher in the art of pill refinement and should be able to offer you some help..."]
[Pill Master Yun produced a token made of jade, which faintly radiated spiritual energy.]
["This..."]
[You could not help being moved. The pill master named Zhao Kan in Biyue Immortal City was likely the "Master Zhao" Pill Master Yun had mentioned-a second-tier Mid-Grade Pill Master whose mastery of pill refinement allowed him to independently refine Foundation Establishment Pills.]
["After I'm gone, the Yun Pill Workshop will still need you to look after it, Brother Wang. Shu is still young. If she does anything wrong, you must point it out..."]
[Pill Master Yun rambled on, his words filled with both attachment and acceptance.]
[After Pill Master Yun passed away, Yun Shu, his designated successor, immediately knelt before you. "Uncle Wang, Grandfather is gone. The pill workshop will depend on you from now on."]
[Looking at Yun Shu's grieving expression, you were filled with emotion.]
[In the first simulation, although Yun Shu had treated you with considerable respect after Pill Master Yun's passing, she had never gone so far as to kneel before you.]
[That was because you had only been a Mid-Grade Pill Master with cultivation at the fifth layer of Qi Refining.]
[But in this simulation, you were already an accomplished Late Qi Refining Period cultivator and a High-Grade Pill Master, scarcely inferior to Pill Master Yun in any respect. Added to that was Pill Master Yun's trust in you...]
[Naturally, Yun Shu's attitude toward you could not have been the same as in the first simulation.]
[You did not make things difficult for Yun Shu. Judging by her performance in the first simulation, she was indeed a capable successor to the pill workshop.]
[In the forty-sixth year, you were sixty-one years old. As in the first simulation, you never interfered with the Yun Pill Workshop's development, leaving authority in Yun Shu's hands.]
[In the forty-seventh year, you were sixty-two years old. With Market Master Ouyang Yangshen still having failed to nurture a Foundation Establishment Realm successor, signs of rogue cultivators began appearing near the Market Ward.]
[In the forty-eighth year, you were sixty-three years old. The senior members of the Yun Pill Workshop gathered to discuss its future.]
[Yun Shu specifically asked for your opinion. Shopkeeper Ouyang's continued failure to nurture a Foundation Establishment Realm successor had severely affected the Market District's stability. Yun Shu was already considering relocating the workshop's operations to another market called Listening Rain.]
[Remembering Pill Master Yun's instructions, you told Yun Shu to wait a little longer.]
[Your reason was that the Ouyang Family had not sold any of its core businesses in the Market District, which indicated that Shopkeeper Ouyang remained confident of nurturing a Foundation Establishment Realm successor.]
[The Ouyang Family, to which Market Master Ouyang Yangshen belonged, was also the largest force in Wushan Market and controlled numerous important businesses.]