The illusory text shifted rapidly.
At last, it stopped on the line [This simulation has ended].
Zhou Qing let out a soft breath.
To be honest, he could have chosen to end the simulation himself at the very end.
But to spite the Blood-Sea True Person, he had deliberately detonated his divine sense, causing his sea of consciousness to explode and blow his head apart along with it.
Didn't you want to possess me?
I'd rather blow myself up than let you have me.
Mad yet?
Clearly.
Judging by the shock and fury in the Blood-Sea True Person's final gaze, Zhou Qing could tell that he must have been furious.
After all, keeping the body intact was absolutely crucial when it was meant to serve as a vessel for possession. Even losing an arm or a leg would have a major impact, let alone losing its head.
The Blood-Sea True Person would probably have to find another vessel to possess.
Decades of nurturing and dozens of tendon transformations and marrow cleansings had all gone to waste.
Zhou Qing felt thoroughly refreshed.
This isn't over yet.
The Blood-Sea True Person, was it? The Mountain-Sea True Person sealed you inside the Mountain Sea Ring over two hundred years ago. Just you wait-in the next simulation, the one after that, and countless simulations to come!
Zhou Qing thought to himself.
For someone who could simulate endlessly, failure was nothing to fear, because he could always start over.
In this simulation, the Blood-Sea True Person had tricked him. In the next simulation, and the one after that, it would be Zhou Qing's turn to trick the Blood-Sea True Person.
Luckily, I spent all my spirit stones before attempting foundation establishment...
Zhou Qing's mind settled.
He had spent all his spirit stones precisely to guard against the worst-case scenario-failing to reach foundation establishment.
Even cultivators with earth-grade spiritual roots, the favored children of the cultivation world, occasionally failed in their attempts.
Although the Blood-Sea True Person's help had brought Zhou Qing's body and mana to flawless perfection, he had still prepared for the possibility of failure.
Now those preparations had paid off handsomely. The many legacies of specialized arts in his mind, worth tens of thousands of spirit stones, were proof.
As Zhou Qing's thoughts rose and fell.
The illusory text, which had stopped changing, began shifting once more.
[Please select one of the following to inherit] [1: Cultivation, realm, skills, cultivation methods, and memories from your peak during the simulation] [2: One treasure belonging to you in the simulation]
Zhou Qing looked at the two options offered by the illusory text.
Without a doubt, he would choose the first.
After all, although this simulation had ended with his brutal detonation of his divine sense, he had already completed its transformation and passed the Divine Sense Trial before detonating it.
Together with the earlier Qi-Blood Trial and Mana Trial.
Passing all three trials meant reaching the Foundation Establishment Realm.
There should be nothing wrong with the Mountain Sea Art or the Mountain-Sea Body Refinement Art.
Zhou Qing briefly sank into thought.
In the simulation's final moments, he had asked the Blood-Sea True Person whether those two cultivation methods had any hidden dangers.
The Blood-Sea True Person had answered no.
Zhou Qing felt that answer had some credibility.
People said that when a man was about to die, his words turned kind.
In truth, Zhou Qing felt that saying made little sense.
Plenty of old foxes liked to dig deep pits for others before they died.
But when answering a question from someone doomed to die, people generally did not lie.
And in the Blood-Sea True Person's eyes at the time, Zhou Qing had been doomed. He probably could not be bothered to lie in response to a doomed man's question.
After all, there was nothing to gain.
Logically speaking, Zhou Qing did not think there was anything wrong with the Mountain Sea Art or the Mountain-Sea Body Refinement Art either.
The Blood-Sea True Person had nurtured Zhou Qing for his own ultimate benefit. How could he possibly have chosen flawed cultivation methods for himself?
Tendon transformation and marrow cleansing...
Zhou Qing looked contemplative.
Now that he understood the Blood-Sea True Person's ultimate purpose in nurturing him, he naturally knew that those tendon transformations and marrow cleansings had most likely left some hidden contingency behind.
But so what?
What Zhou Qing inherited was purely cultivation, realm, skills, cultivation methods, and memories...
As for hidden dangers or contingencies? He would not inherit those.
For instance, the pill toxin in his body during the simulation had never carried over.
"I choose option one."
Zhou Qing made his choice immediately.
In that instant.
An earth-shaking transformation took place within his body.
His physique and qi-blood surged, while his mana also increased wildly, finally condensing into thirty drops of liquid mana deep within his dantian.
At the same time, deep within Zhou Qing's sea of consciousness, his divine sense began transforming as well.
Nearly a century of memories from the second simulation began flashing before Zhou Qing's eyes like scenes from a film.
Sitting cross-legged, Zhou Qing sensed the changes within himself while also suppressing his aura.
If a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator chose to conceal his aura, outsiders would notice nothing unless another Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator of the same level examined him at close range.
The reason many Qi Refining Realm cultivators felt an irresistible spiritual pressure when facing Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators was that the latter had not concealed their auras.
Liquid mana?
Zhou Qing looked inward at his dantian and "saw" thirty drops of liquid mana.
The thirty drops floated throughout his dantian, and every single drop could unleash power surpassing that of perfected qi refining.
So this is a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator!
Zhou Qing marveled inwardly. Of course, he had been able to condense thirty drops of liquid mana because he cultivated the Mountain Sea Art.
An ordinary Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator could only condense nine drops of liquid mana.
My body hasn't changed much, though.
Zhou Qing sensed his own physique.
Before attempting foundation establishment, he had already cultivated the Mountain-Sea Body Refinement Art to the third level. His physical body alone could rival an ordinary late-stage qi refining cultivator.
Now that he had entered the Foundation Establishment Realm, the infusion of spiritual energy from heaven and earth had strengthened his physique somewhat, but the improvement fell far short of the qualitative transformation in his mana.
Zhou Qing found nothing surprising about that.
The physical body and mana were two different paths to begin with.
Even in ancient times, there had been a distinction between body cultivators and ancient cultivators, representing the physical body and mana respectively.
Of course, both body cultivators and ancient cultivators also developed their divine sense.
Divine sense...
Zhou Qing began extending his divine sense.
In the Qi Refining Realm, divine sense could cover at most two or three zhang around the body.
But now, as Zhou Qing released his divine sense, he felt that everything within thirty zhang of him was revealed in the finest detail, as clear as the lines on his upturned palm.
My divine sense is also a little stronger than that of an ordinary cultivator who has just entered the Foundation Establishment Realm...
Zhou Qing thought to himself.
According to what he knew, an ordinary cultivator who had just entered the Foundation Establishment Realm could only extend his divine sense twenty zhang around himself.
The Mountain Sea Art truly lives up to its primordial inheritance!
Zhou Qing's spirits soared.
I've only just entered the Foundation Establishment Realm, so I'm at the first level, but my actual combat strength probably isn't inferior to someone at the second or third level!
Zhou Qing thought.
The first, second, and third levels of foundation establishment all belonged to the foundation establishment early stage. They were minor subdivisions, and even if there were differences between them, those differences were not great.
"Hmm?"
Just then, Zhou Qing noticed the illusory text at the bottom of his vision changing again.
[Calculating your experiences in this simulation...] [In this life, you were merely a vessel nurtured for possession by a Core Formation True Person. All your efforts were destined to become resources for his return.] [But in the final moments of your life, you dared to pay the price of self-detonation to ruin the Core Formation True Person's scheme...] [You have awakened a purple talent-]