"Just as I thought..." Zhou Qing had anticipated everything that happened in the simulation.
That was because it was precisely the problem he had encountered when he underwent his Heart Demon Tribulation in the Nine Directions Chaos Kingdom all those years ago.
Back then, however, he had learned a Heartforce method, and his Dao heart had been far stronger than his simulated self's. His master, Ancestor God Fantian, had also found a wondrous treasure to help him overcome his heart demons, allowing him to get through it without mishap.
Even so, the feeling of being immersed in it, unable to pull himself free, still left him feeling as though thorns were pressing against his back.
[In the heart demon world, you make one careless mistake while undergoing your Lightning Tribulation, losing your physical body and becoming a Loose Immortal.] [You cannot accept that, as a transmigrator, you have been stumped by a mere Lightning Tribulation. Your Dao heart collapses, and you never recover from the setback.] [Faced with this situation, your two good friends, Patriarch Black Turtle and Old Immortal Heming, try everything they can to help you pull yourself together, but nothing works.] [They become utterly disappointed in you and stop associating with you. Not long afterward, your father, unable to break through to the Primal level because of his aptitude, reaches the end of his lifespan and passes away in meditation.] [The news deals you another blow, adding frost to the snow of your already shattered Dao heart.] [In the years that follow, you rely on a level of attainment comparable to that of a Loose Immortal of three hundred thousand years to overcome the Three Calamities and Nine Tribulations time and again, living for nearly another hundred thousand years.] [After a hundred thousand years of recuperation, your Dao heart gradually recovers, and you are no longer gloomy all day. Patriarch Black Turtle and Old Immortal Heming are overjoyed to see the change in you and resume their friendship with you.] [Time passes bit by bit. Your profound level of attainment allows you to live another hundred thousand years, but Old Immortal Heming, who was already a Loose Immortal of three hundred thousand years, falls to the Three Calamities and Nine Tribulations.] [The news leaves you and Patriarch Black Turtle overcome with grief and indignation, unable to accept the passing of your old friend.] [Another hundred thousand years pass, and you discover that the Three Calamities and Nine Tribulations are already proving extremely difficult for you at your level of attainment. Ever since you failed your tribulation, it is as if you suddenly lost your spiritual spark, and your insights into the Dao have barely advanced. The level of attainment you had before your tribulation is clearly no longer enough to deal easily with the Three Calamities and Nine Tribulations of a Loose Immortal of three hundred thousand years.] [Another fifty thousand years pass. By now, every round of the Three Calamities and Nine Tribulations leaves you drenched in sweat and struggling to withstand them. Just as you believe the end of this life is approaching, terrible news about Patriarch Black Turtle suddenly arrives.] [Patriarch Black Turtle, who has lived for over a million years, has fallen to the Three Calamities and Nine Tribulations before you.] [With your two good friends passing away one after another, you, already despairing over your next Three Calamities and Nine Tribulations, resolve to die.] [Sure enough, when your Three Calamities and Nine Tribulations arrive soon afterward, they are immensely powerful. Unable to withstand the heavenly tribulation even after giving it your all, you simply stop resisting and are killed by it.] [At the age of seven hundred and ninety, you succumb to the Heart Demon Tribulation while undergoing your heavenly tribulation. In the end, your body dies and your Dao vanishes.] [Simulation failed.]
Zhou Qing calmly accepted the result.
But then something suddenly occurred to him.
The Three Realms differed from the worlds under the Nine Directions Chaos Kingdom's jurisdiction: the Lord of Heart Demons was a parasite within the Heavenly Dao.
It was just as well that his simulation had failed, but if it succeeded and his experiences became real, wouldn't the Lord of Heart Demons learn that he was a transmigrator?
At the thought, Zhou Qing's face darkened.
But the Infinite Simulation Panel, seemingly aware of his concern, immediately gave Zhou Qing a reassuring answer: by default, the panel would conceal his experiences before transmigration from everyone but the host.
Only then did Zhou Qing breathe a sigh of relief.
At that moment, the text before his eyes flickered again.
[Simulation ended. You may choose one of the following two options.] [1. All your memories from the simulation. (Including insights into the Dao, life experiences, and so on.)] [2. One item that exists in the simulation.]
Zhou Qing chose the second option without hesitation.
His simulated self's Dao heart was mediocre, and his insights into the Dao fell short of even an ordinary Celestial Immortal's. To the real Zhou Qing, they were worth less than chicken ribs.
Besides, his current predicament was that his magic power and divine power were exhausted. Only by choosing the second option would he have a chance of resolving the crisis.
As soon as he made his choice, Zhou Qing's vision went dark. When he opened his eyes again, he found himself in an unfamiliar place.
Looking around, he spotted a middle-aged man who looked exactly like him, and whose presence was rapidly dissipating.
Was this... his simulated self?!
Looking at the figure, so familiar yet so unfamiliar, Zhou Qing came up with a bold guess.
Just as he was about to approach for a closer look, a message appeared in the text before his eyes.
He read it carefully and finally understood what had happened.
To obtain an item from the simulation, he had to go into the simulated world and retrieve it himself.
Moreover, he would suffer backlash from the simulated world when retrieving an item. The more precious the item, the stronger the backlash.
At his current level of strength, if he overestimated himself and coveted a treasure on the level of an Ancestor God or even a World God, the simulated world's backlash would utterly destroy him, leaving not a trace of his true spirit.
After learning this, Zhou Qing was not troubled. On the contrary, he let out a long breath.
He had been worried that this so-called retrieval of an item his simulated self had once owned might not be his own choice, but a random draw instead.
If that were the case, he really would have wanted to cry without tears.
If he randomly drew some worthless junk, he would become the first transmigrator to starve to death.
Zhou Qing then discovered that, if he wished, he could also go to other periods of his life in the simulation to retrieve treasures.
There was no need to go to an earlier time in this simulation, however, because the treasures his simulated self had on him now were already enough to meet Zhou Qing's needs.
Putting those distracting thoughts aside, Zhou Qing followed the simulation panel's guidance. With a thought, he reached his right hand toward his simulated self's corpse.
The moment he extended his hand, Zhou Qing felt a powerful resistance.
And the closer he got to his simulated corpse, the stronger the resistance became.
A moment later, he touched his simulated corpse.
He then felt around for some time before finally getting hold of what he wanted.
But when he tried to pull his hand back, it felt as though his right hand had been filled with lead, unbearably heavy.
"Hmm?" Zhou Qing couldn't help frowning at this.
Could it be that this thing didn't count as a single item?
Zhou Qing refused to believe it and immediately summoned the pitifully small amount of divine power he had left.
Divine power eruption divine ability! Third level of Heartforce!
With power approaching the very limit of an Empyrean God or True Immortal, he yanked out an object glittering with golden light.
The next second, Zhou Qing felt a repulsive force strike his entire body. In an instant, he found himself back in the World Prison.
Looking at the miniature golden palace in his palm, Zhou Qing immediately refined it with his magic power.
A moment later, he took a small white porcelain bottle out of it.
Opening the bottle, Zhou Qing greedily absorbed the pure energy flowing out.
It seemed that even though the Pure Yang Immortal Mansion contained a separate world and held quite a few things, it was still, strictly speaking, a single item.
Zhou Qing then took out several immortal pills, swallowed them, and refined them.
As the immortal pills entered his mouth, he immediately felt his nearly depleted divine body come back to life like parched land receiving sweet rain after a long drought.
Several decades later.
Beside the same familiar hill, Zhou Qing no longer looked ragged and withered as he had before.
Dressed in white, with a face as flawless as jade, he looked every bit the elegant young master.
Zhou Qing took a sip of immortal wine from the Pure Yang Immortal Mansion, an enraptured look on his face.
What bliss, what bliss...
How long has it been since I lived so extravagantly? If I remember correctly, the last time I enjoyed a scene like this was back in the endless ages past.
He then looked at the simulation panel before him.
[Time until the next simulation: 145 years, 7 months, and 1 day]
A hundred and forty-five years.
To a mortal, that was a long stretch of time, but to Zhou Qing, it was no more than the time it took to doze off.
He had been imprisoned in the World Prison for several chaos cycles, and a single chaos cycle lasted a full ten trillion eight hundred billion years.
After being imprisoned for endless ages, Zhou Qing might have been inferior to his fellow transmigrators in other respects, but when it came to patience alone, he was unquestionably among the very best.