Should He Form His Core or Not?

Two days later, Xu Changxing returned to his mountain peak.

He did not rush to start a simulation. Instead, he took out the Emerald Crystal he had obtained in the Secret Realm.

In a previous simulation, he had used this crystal to raise his wood spiritual root to first grade.

Although it would no longer improve him by much, even the slightest increase in his spiritual root's quality was still welcome.

Xu Changxing spent two days fully absorbing the Emerald Crystal.

His first-grade spiritual root was now even closer to perfection.

Without another fortuitous opportunity, there would likely be no further room to improve its quality.

Xu Changxing nodded in satisfaction. Only then did he sink his consciousness into the system and say quietly, "Start the simulation!"

[Day one: you did not cultivate. Instead, you pondered whether you should live and die alongside the Setting Sun Sect.

In the few months since joining the Setting Sun Sect, your cultivation had advanced by leaps and bounds, and your ties to the sect had grown ever deeper.

If you stayed any longer, you would most likely never be able to shake off the Setting Sun Sect's imprint.

Yet you knew perfectly well that the doom awaiting the Setting Sun Sect ten years from now was beyond your ability to avert.

Whether to leave now or stake your life on one last gamble left you deeply torn.]

Xu Changxing stared at these lines, momentarily stunned.

"Why would I agonize over something like this? I never planned to leave the Setting Sun Sect."

He instinctively muttered the words, then suddenly realized something.

The reason he was not leaving was that he had the system backing him.

In truth, after the previous two simulations, the devastating catastrophe ten years in the future had already cast a shadow over his heart.

If the system suddenly left him, he might well choose to leave the Setting Sun Sect.

The most advantageous choice would actually be to reap every benefit he could over those ten years, then leave before the disaster struck.

But Xu Changxing did not have a heart of iron.

If he truly did that, he would inevitably end up like he had in several earlier simulations, his cultivation stagnating because he could not untie the knot in his heart.

For him, leaving before the Setting Sun Sect branded an indelible mark on his heart might well be a good choice.

Xu Changxing stared blankly for a moment, then murmured, "This system actually knows me better than I know myself.

"How on earth does it do that?"

Clearly, there was no answer to that question.

When he emerged from his bewilderment, he found that dozens of simulation entries had already appeared in his consciousness.

He immediately began reading from the second entry.

[Day two: after a full day of deliberation, you finally decided to leave.

You immediately went to Liu Chenyu and told him you intended to venture out for training.

Liu Chenyu initially wanted you to wait a few more days and leave after the spirit fruits had been sold.

But you said it would not be too late to collect the spirit stones when you returned from your training.

Liu Chenyu suspected nothing. He gave you a few bottles of pills and let you leave.]

[Day three: standing outside the Setting Sun Sect, you gazed at the sect you had joined only a few months ago, lost in a daze.

"Master, please consider those hundred thousand low-grade spirit stones a token of your disciple's filial respect.

"I fear we may never have another chance to meet."

You murmured these words, then vanished into the horizon without looking back.]

[Month three: after more than two months of adjusting, you finally recovered from the sense of loss that came with leaving the Setting Sun Sect.

By now, you had flown nearly ten thousand li and reached the Artifact Soul Sect's territory.

You decided to conceal your identity and begin life anew here as a rogue cultivator.]

[Month four: your extraordinary bearing soon drew someone's attention, and they invited you to explore a Secret Realm together.

After a brief hesitation, you agreed to their request.]

[Month five: those rogue cultivators actually harbored malicious intentions and attempted to kill you for your flying sword.

What they had not anticipated was the overwhelming power of your sword intent.

Alone with a single sword, you easily killed the three rogue cultivators who had plotted against you and seized their storage bags.

Looking at the corpses strewn across the ground, you merely chuckled and decided to continue exploring the Secret Realm.]

[Month six: you fought several deadly battles in this Secret Realm and reaped considerable rewards.

However, you felt that this Secret Realm did little to hone your abilities, so you prepared to leave and seek another.

You had barely left the Secret Realm when, to your astonishment, you discovered a Core Formation cultivator preparing to attack you.

Upon questioning him, you learned that he was an elder of the men you had killed in retaliation.

You sneered and fled on your sword.

The Core Formation cultivator was not adept at swift flight. He chased you for several hundred li without catching you.

While he was stamping his feet in fury, you suddenly turned and unleashed a sword strike, cutting a deep wound into his body.

Shocked and enraged, he prepared to fight you to the death.

But after circling around, you fled on your sword once again.

The Core Formation cultivator watched your retreating figure with a conflicted expression and ultimately gave up the pursuit.]

[Month eight: after traveling on and off for more than a month, you settled near a cultivation market a thousand li away.]

[Month nine: at the market, you learned of a nearby Secret Realm open to visitors and prepared to go there to train.]

[...]

In the ensuing simulation, Xu Changxing repeatedly traveled to different Secret Realms to train as a rogue cultivator.

During that time, he joined others on several journeys, made a few good friends, and suffered several betrayals.

Yet whatever danger he faced, he carved his way through it with the flying sword in his hand.

Although he encountered no devastating catastrophe, his training progressed far more slowly than in the previous simulations.

As a rogue cultivator, he found it extremely difficult to locate Secret Realms suited to his training.

Not only did he have to gather information about the Secret Realms himself, but even those he finally managed to find might not suit his needs.

Their levels were either too high or too low, and some were not suitable for cultivators to train in at all.

On several occasions, he might have lost his life had he not sensed something amiss immediately upon entering and escaped.

But no matter how difficult life as a rogue cultivator became, he never gave up.

Through one life-and-death trial after another, he gradually confirmed the path he wished to follow.

When the simulation reached its sixth year, he finally condensed a golden core.

However, what he formed was not a sword core, but merely an ordinary first-grade golden core.

"A first-grade golden core seems a little weak..."

At this point, Xu Changxing finally could not help sighing again.

Barring any surprises, once this simulation ended, he should be able to choose Core Formation Stage cultivation.

But after so many simulations, an ordinary first-grade golden core was no longer enough to satisfy him.

"Should I give up on a sword core and choose an ordinary first-grade golden core?"

Still somewhat torn, Xu Changxing continued watching the rest of the simulation.