[After leaving Heaven Dou City, you traveled east.] [The carriage rolled over the last rut in the main road, its rumbling fading into the distance as it left all the imperial capital's clamor and dust behind.] [You leaned against the cold carriage wall and closed your eyes to rest, but deep inside, your thoughts surged like the tide-] [You were sorting through the encounters of this life.] [From your childhood in a declining noble household to your desperate flight after your family's slaughter; from your wondrous encounter with immortal herbs at the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well to the dust and hardship of fleeing south; from the fresh fragrance of plants in the backyard in Star Luo Town to the stars and stories beneath the night sky of the Blue Silver Ancestral Land; and those tangled feelings between you and Ah Yin, impossible to explain or define, which ultimately faded without ever bearing fruit.] [You had fully mastered the essence of Dugu Bo's poison arts and fathomed the foundations of the Breaking Clan's spear techniques. The exposure of Qian Renxue's identity, the downfall of the Mo and Liu families, breaking Xue Beng's leg to establish your authority... each and every incident carried a searing heat and left marks carved into your bones.] [You leaned against the carriage wall, your eyelids drooping lower and lower, hearing only the wind rustling past the curtains.] [Instinctively, you reached out and grasped, your fingers curling as though trying to catch something. Yet when you opened your palm, there was nothing there.] [Once again, you sank into that same disorientation-] [You could scarcely tell whether this was a false simulation arranged by the system or a life you had truly lived.]
Reading this, Su Yi stirred inwardly. He could not help voicing the same question as his simulated self: "System, is this a false simulation, or a real life?"
The text on the simulator abruptly stopped, as though an invisible hand had pressed pause.
A moment later, another passage slowly appeared on the screen of light:
[This is both a simulation and a life.]
Su Yi lowered his eyes.
The answer was both unexpected and perfectly reasonable-
Just like his transmigration. In his previous life, the story of the Douluo Continent had seemed no more than passages written by an author. Yet when he truly set foot on this land, all those words became living reality.
As for the various possibilities generated by repeated simulations, his previous life had also had many theories of space and time that could explain them: the multiverse, parallel worlds, the many-worlds interpretation...
-Every branching choice gave birth to a new universe; every possibility realized was truly happening somewhere.
"In other words, for me, this is a simulation where I can reload a save and start over. But for the people inside it, this is their very real, flesh-and-blood life, with no second chances. Is that right?"
[Yes, and no.]
"What do you mean?" Su Yi pressed.
[Your fate is unique. You are the only one across all worlds.] [Every "you" in every simulated life is, in essence, you-] [They are your projections across different timelines, extensions and manifestations of your soul's traits throughout the multiverse.]
"What about the others?" Su Yi's gaze sharpened slightly. "Ah Yin, Dugu Bo, Dugu Yan in the simulations... what is their relationship to their real-world selves?"
[Others do not possess your uniqueness.] [Their simulated selves and their real-world selves are two entirely independent individuals with the same soul traits.] [They share the same true spirit, living utterly different lives across different timelines and possibilities.]
Su Yi fell silent, sinking into prolonged contemplation.
Seen this way, the joys and sorrows, partings and reunions within the simulations were fundamentally no different from life in reality-
They were merely different possibilities, different branches sprouting from the roots of the same true spirit.
And once a simulation ended, the simulator would graft the fruit borne on those branches onto the same tree in reality.
His brow furrowed slightly as several crucial questions quickly occurred to him:
Fated ones would receive the simulated memories-
How exactly did that work? Was it possession, or shared memories? After receiving those memories, would they still be their original selves?
As though perceiving its host's confusion, another passage appeared on the screen of light:
[Inheriting memories is not possession. After receiving the memories, they will still be themselves.] [Across different paths through life, their regrets, hopes, attachments... converge into a vast torrent of emotion. Together with your unique soul traits as an anchor, host, these form the foundation upon which this simulator operates.] [Simulated memories are, in essence, their selves from different timelines transmitting their deepest, most unresolved regrets and obsessions to their real-world "selves," through the medium of the simulator.] [They hope... that their selves in another time and space can make up for those regrets, relinquish those obsessions, and take an entirely different path.]
At this, Su Yi remained silent for a long time.
Since simulated lives were not merely false games assembled from data, every simulation corresponded to the joys and sorrows, partings and reunions of a real world.
Then every word and deed, every action he took within a simulation, had to bear real weight.
Moreover, since fated ones merely "inherited memories" rather than having their "personalities replaced," using the Fate Simulation demanded unprecedented caution-
If the fated ones synchronized with "memories of the future," they would most likely interpret them as "prophetic dreams" or "memories of a previous life."
There would be no conflict within their souls.
They would simply accept them, then follow "fate's guidance," straying little by little from their "original course." In this life, they would rewrite that regretful ending and become who they had most wanted, yet failed, to become in those memories.
But what if a fated one received "memories of the past," and those memories were the complete opposite of her actual experiences?
Take Bibi Dong, for instance. In reality, she deeply loved Yu Xiaogang, while in the simulation, she had fallen for someone else.
If two utterly contradictory sets of memories were rashly merged...
With her obsessive temperament, she would very likely force herself to forget one set, or suffer cognitive confusion, even a split personality. Worse still, she might exhaust herself between two utterly different emotional attachments, ultimately heading toward destruction.
At this thought, Su Yi could not help drawing in a sharp breath.
[Yes, host.]
The system calmly confirmed the worst possibility.
[A conflict at the soul's source is far more deadly than injuries to the flesh.]
Su Yi remained silent for a long time.
Moonlight spilled through the dilapidated window lattice, cutting alternating patches of light and shadow across his face.
After a long while, he gently exhaled a stale breath. His gaze returned to the screen of light, his voice calm and firm:
"Continue the simulation."
The text on the screen of light began flowing again, as though the conversation had never happened.
[Such thoughts left you lost in prolonged bewilderment.] [Through twenty years of wind and rain, every debt of kindness, every grudge-what needed avenging had been avenged, what needed repaying had been repaid.] [If there was anything you had truly yet to let go of, only one name remained-Qian Renxue.] [Back then, she had impersonated Xue Qinghe and purged her opponents with the crown prince's authority. Though your family could hardly be called loyal pillars of the state, neither had they deserved death. They had merely been dust crushed beneath the grinding wheels of power.] [She had not killed Boren, yet Boren had died because of her.] [You had exposed her identity, destroying years of planning in a single stroke and leaving her utterly disgraced before the members of Spirit Hall.] [This had been a small counterattack on your part, but compared with the lives of an entire family, it was still far from enough.] [Besides, when the old man on the frontier lost his horse, who could say it was not a blessing?] [Her early escape from this foolish plan, doomed to collapse, might well have been a fortunate thing.] [You weighed matters for half a day before finally deciding to go to Spirit City.] [You knew this journey might offer nine chances of death and only one of survival.] [Spirit City was sacred ground for Soul Masters. The Papal Hall, Douluo Hall, and Elder Hall stood side by side, with no fewer than ten Titled Douluos. Qian Daoliu, that Level 99 Limit Douluo, was an even sharper sword hanging over your head.] [Qian Renxue, too, would only be stronger than she had been on her original path-] [Without the restraints of infiltrating Heaven Dou, without the wasted time of her exposed identity, ten years of arduous cultivation would be enough for her to reach Advanced Soul Saint, or even approach Soul Douluo.] [You, meanwhile, were merely a level 70 Quasi-Soul Saint who had yet to obtain your Seventh Soul Ring.] [Challenging someone above your level, your chances of victory were slim.] [Yet you still decided to go.] [You were not going to seek death, nor to settle accounts, but only to clear the way for your thoughts.]
P.S. This was a simulation, but also a life. Ah Yin was a fated one, but a person's entire life could not revolve around just one person.
What the protagonist encountered at this moment was actually the "obstruction of knowledge and views" so common in other cultivation systems.
The Douluo Continent's cultivation system did not cultivate the mind or disposition, relying purely on accumulating energy; strictly speaking, however, the protagonist's cultivation system was simulator cultivation.
The Su Yi within the simulation had not realized this, but his response was undoubtedly correct-having recognized the obstruction of knowledge, he sought only his true heart.
Also, this chapter served as a bridge between what came before and what followed in this simulation.
Before this chapter, reason far outweighed emotion in the protagonist's dealings with others: his calculations left nothing out, and he fortified every step. After this chapter, he would truly immerse himself in this life and walk the road ahead with a warmer gaze.
Before you continue