Jiang Mi understood the matron's thoughts at a glance.
After all, they had spent over a decade together day and night in the simulations. Jiang Mi could not have known her better.
She offered neither comfort nor promises. She simply showed the matron her indenture and told her to follow her from now on.
For ordinary people, an indenture carried more weight than the heavens.
The matron's thoughts stopped short. She obediently acknowledged the order, then went to rest as Jiang Mi had instructed.
She did not even wonder why Jiang Mi had told her to rest.
Watching her retreating figure, Jiang Mi marveled that she really had triggered her underlying code.
With a sigh, she returned to the main room. Full of food and drink, her eyelids grew heavy again. Jiang Mi yawned before opening the Simulator panel.
After becoming a Houtian Martial Artist, the number of traits she could equip had risen from four to seven-a full three more!
So, before this simulation, Jiang Mi could carefully consider which traits to equip.
The two gold traits were essential, as was crippled spirit root, leaving only four slots. Without hesitation, Jiang Mi equipped endless vitality. As for the remaining three slots-
After a moment of silence, she quietly equipped the only three green traits she had.
Carefully consider her choices? With so few traits, did she even have a choice?
Enough nonsense. Simulate!
[Generating simulation world-] [Generation complete.] [Welcome to your third simulation!] [Equipped traits: Simulator (gold), failure is the progress bar to success (gold), endless vitality (purple), crippled spirit root (green), fists as big as sandbags (green), abundant qi and blood (green), Lightness (green)] [Current identity: Great Xia-honored guest of Dingbei Marquis Manor, Great Xia's greatest genius (as proclaimed by Dingbei Hou)-Jiang Mi (16 years old)]
Jiang Mi:
This identity really was complicated, but it looked much better than "menial maid."
[You lowered your head to examine the sumptuous brocade dress you wore. Your fingertips met a softness and silkiness you would never have dared imagine before, no longer the coarse maid's uniform covered in patches and dust.] [Your status was worlds apart, your circumstances already reversed. Once, you scraped by at the mercy of others' expressions; now, you sat in the main hall receiving their respect. This simulation was destined to be utterly different from the previous two.] [Year one, age sixteen.] [You knew you were now in the Simulator's world. For the first time, you had no urgent task and did not need to worry about escaping the Marquis's Household. Even without working hard, you could live out your life in peace and security.] [This did not mean you had grown lax, only that your state of mind had become more at ease.] [Instead of sitting cross-legged to cultivate, you went to find Dingbei Hou.] [The reason was simple.] [Although you were a martial artist at the Houtian ninth level, your approach had been entirely unorthodox. You had forcibly piled up your cultivation realm through time and the spiritual energy in the dates.] [You knew nothing about how to cultivate systematically or how to break through to the Xiantian realm.] [Thus, asking Dingbei Hou was the best choice.] [Besides, hadn't he said he could give you anything, whether resources, cultivation methods, or his family's martial techniques?] [What? You had turned him down?] [Your real-world self had turned him down. What did that have to do with your simulated self?] [After this inward retort, which you considered perfectly justified, you turned and headed straight for Dingbei Hou's study.] [Every servant of the Marquis's Household who saw you bowed respectfully, not even daring to breathe heavily. The marquis himself had declared you an honored guest. Who would dare deny it?] [After the attendant outside the study announced you, Dingbei Hou's hearty voice immediately came from within. "Come in."] [You pushed open the door and entered to find Dingbei Hou seated at his desk reviewing documents. His black brocade robe lent his face an imposing air, but the sharpness in his eyes softened somewhat the instant he saw you. "What brings you here? Have you changed your mind and decided you want cultivation methods and resources?"] [This was a simulation. You did not care about saving face at all and said bluntly, "That's right."] [Dingbei Hou paused before realizing what you meant.] [Although he did not understand how you could have become an entirely different person in the time it took to return to your room, Dingbei Hou had wanted to pass his family's cultivation methods on to you in the first place, so naturally, he said nothing more about it.] [In his eyes, having a genius like you study his family's cultivation methods was an absolute honor for those methods!] [For a genius like you, becoming a cultivator was only a matter of time, provided you survived.] [You were clever and could tell what Dingbei Hou was thinking.] [The more he behaved this way, the more you looked forward to his expression when he discovered you only had a crippled spirit root.] [Of course, you would keep it hidden for as long as you could.] [Dingbei Hou soon reined in his surprise and burst into laughter. He slapped the desk, his voice and movements full of bold vigor. "Good! Now that's speaking your mind! I was afraid your youthful pride would make you grit your teeth and refuse to bow your head. Since you've asked, I certainly won't hold anything back."] [He rose and took two exquisitely bound, thread-stitched ancient books from the red sandalwood bookshelf behind him, then strode over and handed them to you. His voice carried a measure of solemnity. "Of these two, one is an internal cultivation method called the Blazing Sun Art, a low-grade spirit tier method passed down through our Dingbei Marquis Manor. This one is an external cultivation method called the Flame Sun Skill, also low-grade spirit tier. Practicing them together will both stabilize your cultivation realm and nourish your qi and blood."]
Low-grade spirit tier?!
Jiang Mi's pupils widened for an instant. She was genuinely shocked.
The Old Woman had told her that this world's internal cultivation methods, external cultivation methods, and martial techniques were all divided into four tiers: mortal, spirit, earth, and heaven. Each tier was further divided into high, middle, and low grades.
Although low-grade spirit tier cultivation methods were only at the very bottom of the second tier-
This was the Northern Region!
To put it plainly, this was an impoverished backwater.
Although the Old Woman had never explicitly said which faction she came from, both her pride when mentioning her faction and her instruction to Jiang Mi before she left-"head east"-showed that she came from an excellent background.
Yet even someone from one of Great Xia's foremost factions had only a high-grade mortal tier martial technique in her possession.
That alone showed how rare spirit tier techniques were.
But now, Dingbei Hou had casually offered her two!
[Before you could recover, you saw Dingbei Hou take another two books from the red sandalwood bookshelf.] [He pointed at the two books in your hands. "Now that you have internal and external cultivation methods, we certainly can't leave out martial techniques." "My Li Household doesn't have many inherited martial techniques, just these two: the Sun-Burning Fist and the Raging Wind Facing the Sun Spear. The fist technique is high-grade mortal tier, while the spear technique is middle-grade spirit tier. However, powerful though this spear technique is, it is also exceedingly difficult to master." "I've practiced it since childhood and have only reached the fourth level. But those four levels are enough for me to pass through enemy formations on the Northern Frontier as though no one were there, slay Houtian eighth level demonic beasts single-handedly, and even hold my own against martial artists at the half-step Xiantian realm."]
Before you continue