"At last, I've become a Second-Tier Middle Grade Alchemist..."
Even Zhou Qing, watching from an entirely objective perspective outside the simulation, could not help feeling moved.
In this simulation, he had already been a second-tier Low-Grade Pill Master in the first year.
Only in the fifty-sixth year had he advanced to the Second-Tier Middle Grade level.
It had taken him a full fifty-five years.
Gaining insight into a craft was not like overcoming a cultivation bottleneck.
If someone truly ran out of patience, they could simply take a Realm-Breaking Pill to break through.
They would merely be burning through their own potential.
But to cross a bottleneck in a craft, they could only slowly grind their way through.
Fifty-five years to go from second-tier low-grade to mid-grade...
And that was with Zhou Qing's excellent mindset. Whenever he encountered a bottleneck, he studied another craft, taking the attitude that if this attempt failed, he could always try again next time.
Any other second-tier Low-Grade Pill Master trapped at a bottleneck for so many years would probably have fallen into despair long ago.
"Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators only live a little over two hundred years..."
"Fifty-five years..."
Then Zhou Qing reconsidered. "Oh, fifty-five years inside the simulation..."
For Zhou Qing, fifty-five years in the simulation amounted to only an instant in reality.
If he chose to end the simulation now, Zhou Qing would immediately become a Second-Tier Middle Grade Alchemist.
A seventeen-year-old Second-Tier Middle Grade Alchemist... even a True Lord would probably fall silent upon hearing that.
"Keep going, keep going."
Zhou Qing steadied himself and looked again at the constantly shifting illusory text.
``` [After refining your first batch of Second-Tier Middle Grade pills, you refine several more batches of other varieties of Second-Tier Middle Grade pills, firmly consolidating your Second-Tier