Mountains, lakes, rivers, oceans... This was a vast, boundless world.
Beside a hill in this world stood a young man in tattered clothes.
"What am I to do? What am I to do...?" Sensing the thin energy in the air, Zhou Qing could not help smiling bitterly.
The last trace of his divine power was nearly exhausted...
He had never imagined that he, a transmigrator, would be reduced to such a state...
At that thought, memories long buried resurfaced in Zhou Qing's mind.
That was right. Zhou Qing was a transmigrator from the twenty-first century.
Countless ages ago, he had suddenly arrived in this world called Desolate Era. But the time and place were not the era of the Three Realms he knew, but the era of the Nine Directions Chaos Kingdom, several chaos cycles before the main story began.
The unfamiliar era meant he had lost a transmigrator's advantage of knowing what lay ahead, so at first, Zhou Qing truly felt at a loss.
Still, he had read countless webnovels in his previous life. He quickly adjusted his mindset and integrated into this world.
And so, a legend rose.
At the thought, a rare smile appeared on Zhou Qing's face.
Perhaps because he had transmigrated, his talent far surpassed that of ordinary people, especially his talent for Heartforce.
Before undergoing his tribulation, he had reached the second level of Heartforce, becoming a somewhat renowned genius in a chaos world under the Nine Directions Chaos Kingdom.
He then happened to meet an Ancestor God traveling abroad, who became his master-Ancestor God Fantian.
Ancestor God Fantian hailed from the Maha Sect, a famous sect in the Nine Directions Chaos Kingdom. He was especially skilled in Heartforce and was a peak Ancestor God through and through.
Naturally, Ancestor God Fantian would not pass up such a fine uncut gem, a talent whose gift for Heartforce defied the heavens. He brought Zhou Qing to the Maha Sect, where Zhou Qing became his youngest disciple.
After a period of tempering, Zhou Qing successfully passed his heavenly tribulation, becoming both an Empyrean God and a Celestial Immortal.
Because he valued his youngest disciple so highly, Ancestor God Fantian even went to considerable expense to ask Immortal Wanren, a Chaos Immortal of the Nine Directions Chaos Kingdom, to help Zhou Qing forge a first-grade Golden Core.
By then, Zhou Qing was in high spirits, with a promising future ahead.
But it seemed the first half of his life had gone too smoothly, for Zhou Qing soon received a crushing blow.
Several hundred years after he passed his tribulation, the Cold Mountain Chaos Kingdom suddenly launched a massive invasion of the Nine Directions Chaos Kingdom.
The Cold Mountain Chaos Kingdom was the Nine Directions Chaos Kingdom's archenemy, and it had three World Realm experts.
Because of territorial disputes, it had clashed with the Nine Directions Chaos Kingdom countless times over the ages.
However, the ruler of Nine Directions was a powerful figure even among World Realm experts, one who could be called a top expert in the World Realm. The Cold Mountain Chaos Kingdom's World Realm experts were no match for him, so in the vast majority of their previous conflicts, the Nine Directions Chaos Kingdom had held the advantage.
Having learned these things unknown to ordinary people, Zhou Qing concluded that this war between the two kingdoms would also be loud thunder and little rain.
Yet things did not unfold as he had expected.
For some unknown reason, the Cold Mountain Chaos Kingdom advanced like a hot knife through bamboo, taking several of the Nine Directions Chaos Kingdom's chaos worlds in succession.
The situation suddenly became extremely unfavorable for the Nine Directions Chaos Kingdom.
To resist the invasion, the Nine Directions Chaos Kingdom urgently mobilized all the gods, fiends, and immortals under its command to reinforce the front lines.
Among them was Zhou Qing's master, Ancestor God Fantian.
Up to this point, Zhou Qing felt somewhat more uneasy, but he remained calm and untroubled.
After all, an Empyrean God and Celestial Immortal like him had no need to go to the front lines.
Another three hundred years passed in this manner. While cultivating in the Maha Sect, Zhou Qing suddenly received news that struck him like a bolt from the blue.
The pass guarded by Ancestor God Fantian had fallen to the Cold Mountain Chaos Kingdom. Ancestor God Fantian had died on the spot, and the Nine Directions Chaos Kingdom had suffered devastating losses.
Before anyone in the Maha Sect had time to grieve, they were captured and imprisoned by the Nine Directions Army, the Nine Directions Chaos Kingdom's imperial guard.
Amid his panic, Zhou Qing did not forget to make inquiries, and only then did he learn of his situation.
The fall of the pass guarded by Ancestor God Fantian had sent the Nine Directions Chaos Kingdom's battle line collapsing for a thousand miles.
And because the Nine Directions Chaos Kingdom's eldest prince had also perished in that battle, the ruler of Nine Directions flew into a rage.
Thus, the Maha Sect, the sect from which Ancestor God Fantian, the commanding general, had come, was implicated.
In the end, to appease the enraged ruler, the Maha Sect's ordinary disciples were sold into slavery, while those of higher standing, like Zhou Qing, were thrown into the World Prison to be tortured.
And there he remained for several chaos cycles.
At the thought, Zhou Qing let out a long sigh.
With his Dao-heart as it had been, he might not have lasted so long.
But after being escorted here and learning that he was in the seventeenth World Prison, Zhou Qing had felt a glimmer of hope.
The seventeenth World Prison-if he remembered correctly, it was the very World Prison Ji Ning would obtain in the future.
If he could hold on until Ji Ning released him...
At that thought, Zhou Qing's will to survive had become extraordinarily firm.
And so he sat there in vain for several chaos cycles. Not only did his Dao-heart remain free of dust, it grew ever more resilient. Along the way, his Heartforce even broke through to the third level, the Ruler Realm.
But that was as far as he got.
Sensing the scant divine power and magic power left within him, Zhou Qing's expression grew bitter.
Before entering the World Prison, he had followed the experience of those who came before him and exchanged all his savings for immortal pills, solely so he could last a little longer.
But how could an Empyrean God and Celestial Immortal like him compare in wealth to those True Gods and True Immortals?
Although Ancestor God Fantian had been very fond of him, who in this prison had no connection to an Ancestor God or a World God?
He had managed to last several chaos cycles only because he had kept his consumption to the bare minimum from the moment he entered the World Prison.
Even so, he could not accept it...
Zhou Qing clenched his fists.
Perhaps Ji Ning would obtain the World Prison before long, only for him to fall in the darkness before dawn.
[Infinite Simulation Panel loaded. One simulation opportunity obtained. Begin simulation?]
Just as despair arose in Zhou Qing's heart, a line of small text suddenly appeared before his eyes.
"Hm?"
Zhou Qing blinked.
The line of small text had not disappeared.
"A golden finger?!" Zhou Qing's heart was instantly turned upside down.
"After several chaos cycles, the bitterness has finally given way to sweetness..." Zhou Qing could not suppress the smile on his lips.
He then began to learn about the Infinite Simulation Panel's functions.
"I see..."
After studying it, Zhou Qing grew thoughtful.
The Infinite Simulation Panel could let him simulate a life while retaining his memories of his time on Earth before transmigrating. If the simulation succeeded, that illusory life would become reality, and he would gain a clone.
Even if the simulation failed, Zhou Qing would not come away empty-handed. He could obtain an item from the simulation or his memories of it.
Zhou Qing's eyes lit up at this.
Obtain a clone, obtain an item, obtain memories.
These functions could resolve his immediate crisis!
Obtaining a clone would mean he had another life. Even if his true body perished in the World Prison, his clone could live on.
There was no need to mention obtaining items. As long as he could obtain some immortal pills in the simulation-no, even Essence Liquid-it would be enough to keep him barely alive for quite some time.
As for obtaining memories, through repeated simulations, he could continually deepen his insights into the Dao. If one day he could raise a type of source power to the sixth level and break through to the World Realm, then this World Prison naturally would no longer be able to hold him.
At that thought, Zhou Qing could not resist starting the simulation.
With a thought from him, the text before his eyes began to change.
[Simulation beginning. Simulation world: Desolate Era. Drawing simulation identity...]
One extraordinary identity after another flashed before Zhou Qing's eyes, stirring a surge of excitement in his heart.
Eternal Clan, Chaos Divine Beast, Ancient Cultivator, Chaos Source Beast...
Having read the original work before transmigrating, Zhou Qing naturally understood how powerful these beings were.
Even the weakest among them could easily destroy the Nine Directions Chaos Kingdom.
A moment later, the draw finally produced a result.
[Draw successful. Identity: Zhou Xian, eldest legitimate son of the Zhou Clan, a martial arts family in the Long Kingdom, East Spirit Prefecture, Seven Marvels Minor World, Three Realms, Damo Domain, Flame Dragon Domain, Desolate Chaos Universe!]
"The Three Realms? But a minor world?"
Zhou Qing frowned.
The Three Realms would be a decent starting newbie village, but conditions in a minor world were hard to predict.
After the Three Realms were shattered in ancient times, they became three thousand major worlds and countless minor worlds.
Cultivation conditions in these minor worlds varied greatly. Some could produce Celestial Immortals, while others were close to the Age of Dharma Decline, where even a Zifu cultivator was hard to produce.
If he drew a world in the Age of Dharma Decline, this simulation would go down the drain.
The text before Zhou Qing's eyes continued to update.
[Simulation objective: reach the Empyrean God or Celestial Immortal level within a thousand years.]
"This difficulty..."
Zhou Qing drew in a sharp breath.
Geniuses who became Empyrean Gods or Celestial Immortals within a thousand years were rare even in the Nine Directions Chaos Kingdom, let alone the Three Realms.
Not to mention that he was restricted to a minor world within the Three Realms.
"The chances of succeeding in this simulation aren't high..." Zhou Qing shook his head. "Looks like I'll have to focus my efforts on finding Essence Liquid and immortal pills."
With that thought, Zhou Qing began the simulation.