"Middle-grade spiritual root!"
At the sight of this, Zhou Qing's spirits soared.
In his previous two simulations, his low-grade spiritual root had severely limited his cultivation speed.
Different spiritual root grades meant different levels of efficiency in refining the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.
To refine a single wisp of magical power, a cultivator with a low-grade spiritual root needed a hundred wisps of spiritual energy.
A cultivator with a middle-grade spiritual root needed only eighty.
Over the long years, the gap created by those twenty wisps of spiritual energy was easy to imagine.
The improvement of Zhou Qing's spiritual root from low-grade to middle-grade might not make much difference over three or five years.
But stretch that span to twenty or fifty years, eighty or a hundred years? It could mean the difference of an entire cultivation realm.
And for Zhou Qing, the impact of a middle-grade spiritual root would not be limited to a single simulation.
It would affect every simulation from now on.
Once this simulation ends, as long as I choose to inherit my cultivation, realm, skills, cultivation methods, memories, and so on from the simulation, I can inherit the middle-grade spiritual root talent too...
A smile appeared on Zhou Qing's face.
With the experience of two complete simulations behind him, Zhou Qing had gained a general understanding of the two inheritance options that appeared after a simulation ended.
The option to inherit his cultivation, realm, skills, cultivation methods, memories, and so on from the simulation-
Essentially referred to Zhou Qing himself within the simulation, to what was intrinsic to him.
As for the second option, inheriting one treasure he owned within the simulation-
That concerned an external possession.
Of course, whether he inherited something intrinsic or external, all negative conditions and the many karmic entanglements would be erased when it was brought out of the simulation.
For example, when inheriting aspects of himself, he would inherit his cultivation and the like, but not pill toxin, drug resistance, and so on.
The Azure Moon Pool's ability to improve spiritual roots can only take effect once for a cultivator because of drug resistance. In my next simulation, I can simply wash away that resistance and soak in it again, repeating the process...
Reaching a high-grade spiritual root... is only a matter of time.
Joy filled Zhou Qing's heart.
A high-grade spiritual root was already the normal standard among Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators. Even without relying on the Pill Toxin Bane talent, he would have a faint hope of breaking through to the Core Formation Stage.
Counting the years, there are still six years until that Dark Demon Eagle Egg goes up for auction...
Zhou Qing considered this to himself.
The Dark Demon Eagle possessed an earth-grade bloodline, comparable to an earth spiritual root among human cultivators. It could easily reach the Foundation Establishment Realm and had a fairly good chance of becoming a third-tier great demon.
A third-tier great demon stood on par with a Core Formation True Person among human cultivators.
Raising a Dark Demon Eagle to the Foundation Establishment level would provide another safeguard for Zhou Qing.
Moreover, demonic beasts lived longer than human cultivators. Before Zhou Qing reached the end of his lifespan in this simulation, he could sell the Dark Demon Eagle to another faction.
And make another profit.
The value of a Dark Demon Eagle lay in more than its combat strength.
To a faction, its bloodline-or rather, its ability to breed-was more important.
[After your spiritual root transforms to middle-grade, you immediately leave the palace.] [Elder Wu has already left. You spent several days soaking in the Azure Moon Pool. As one of the Pill Hall's four great elders, Elder Wu naturally could not wait for you the entire time.] [Upon returning to the Pill Tower, you do not immediately begin cultivating. Instead, you take a bath.] [The two female cultivators, Chunhua and Qiuyue, are very considerate. After your bath, they carefully dry your body.] [Once everything is ready, you begin your first cultivation session since your spiritual root's transformation.] [During this session, you clearly feel that your cultivation speed has increased.] [And this is only the cultivation speed of a middle-grade spiritual root.] [You are satisfied.] [Several days later, you receive a letter from the Zhou Family in the Mortal Realm.] [When you first took the initiative to send the Zhou Family a letter, you left your address at the end.] [In the cultivation world, it is not unusual for cultivators to send letters to the Mortal Realm. Most cultivators who have just entered the cultivation world have relatives still living there.] [There are also designated locations in the Mortal Realm for sending letters to the cultivation world.] [You open the letter and quickly finish reading it.] [The letter is brief, containing little more than assurances that everyone is safe and well.] [The letter also mentions Dachun.] [Over the past two years, once he was certain the Zhou Family had established itself securely in the Kingdom of Lie, Dachun often ventured into the deep mountains to cultivate.] ["As long as everyone is safe and well."] [You put away the letter and devote yourself to cultivation once more.] [In the fourth year, at twenty years old, you vaguely sense that your pill-refining skills have reached a bottleneck.] [You do not panic or grow anxious. While continuing to refine pills every day, you also begin studying other skills.] [In the fifth year, at twenty-one years old, after several years of accumulation, your reputation gradually spreads through the immortal city. Every day, cultivators come to your door seeking pills, including quite a few Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators.] [As a pill refiner, the older you are, the more sought-after you become, and the more money you earn-provided, of course, that you have a good reputation.] [Many pill refiners cheat and cut corners during pill refinement, deliberately pocketing pills. With such poor reputations, they naturally attract few cultivators seeking pills.] [Although you occasionally pocket pills too, you always ensure a normal yield and do your best to let every cultivator seeking pills leave satisfied. Over time, your reputation naturally becomes quite good.] [In the sixth year, at twenty-two years old, alongside your pill refinement, you reach middle-grade in the art of talismans.] [The arts of talismans and pill refinement share many common principles. Pill refinement, for instance, requires precise control, and the same is true of drawing talismans. Without precise control, how could anyone condense surging magical power onto a tiny sheet of talisman paper?] [Moreover, you study talisman skills with Foundation Establishment Realm cultivation, so your rate of progress naturally far surpasses that of Qi Refining Realm cultivators with comparable talent.] [Compared with pill refinement, talismans contribute more directly to combat strength. A single offensive talisman can often turn the tide of battle.] [In the seventh year, at twenty-three years old, after your progress in talismans, you also successfully reach middle-grade in beast taming, becoming a middle-grade beast tamer.] [A middle-grade beast tamer can command three spirit pets simultaneously.] [It is said that high-level beast tamers can unite with their spirit pets, becoming one with their beasts and sharing certain abilities of their spirit pets.] [In the eighth year, at twenty-four years old, you cultivate to the peak of the first level of Foundation Establishment.] [This is several years faster than you predicted.] [Clearly, the assistance your middle-grade spiritual root provides has already begun to show itself.] [If your spiritual root were still low-grade, reaching the peak of the first level of Foundation Establishment would probably still take another three or four years.] [In addition, the Pill Toxin Bane talent deserves considerable credit.] [The Pill Toxin Bane talent cannot send your cultivation speed soaring to the heavens in a single step, but it can forcibly raise it by half a grade beyond what your current spiritual root would allow.] [For example, if you have a low-grade spiritual root, the Pill Toxin Bane talent allows you to take pills frequently enough that your cultivation speed can approach that of a cultivator with a middle-grade spiritual root.] [And if your spiritual root is middle-grade, relying on Pill Toxin Bane will bring your cultivation speed close to that of a cultivator with a high-grade spiritual root.] [The same holds true for earth spiritual roots and heaven spiritual roots.] [In the ninth year, at twenty-five years old, having adjusted your condition to its best, you begin attempting to break through the bottleneck.] [You reach the second level of Foundation Establishment.]