I Have a Cultivation Simulator

"Eighty years old, mid-stage Gold Core realm!"

Outside the simulation, Zhou Qing was in an excellent mood. "No, wait. I'm only seventeen in reality. That makes me a seventeen-year-old mid-stage Gold Core cultivator!"

"Since the start of the near-ancient era, has any cultivator ever had a higher starting point than me?"

Zhou Qing thought about it.

Among demonic beasts, for example, those possessing a True Spirit Bloodline boasted overbearing bloodlines and the favor of heaven and earth. They might be born at Tier 2 and break through to Tier 3 in a short time.

They had a chance to surpass his starting point.

But human cultivators?

Unless it was the rumored Innate Dao Fetus.

Otherwise, what could compare to him?

Even with staggering talent, a cultivator still had to climb step by step from the Qi Refining Stage.

The so-called Innate Dao Fetus... was the result of mighty cultivators in the ancient era gathering the essence of heaven and earth to nurture an unborn child.

This process came with heavy restrictions and harsh requirements for the fetus. At the bare minimum, it required a convergence of various dao bodies and treasure bodies just to withstand the nurturing.

The ancient era had abundant resources to withstand such a demanding process.

But in the near-ancient era? The conditions to cultivate one no longer existed.

Finding a suitable fetus also required a master of Divination to exhaust their effort and sacrifice their own lifespan for the search.

Treasure bodies and dao bodies were inherently obscured by the secrets of heaven. Forcibly divining them yielded twice the effort for half the result.

"I just don't know how far I can go in this simulation. Nascent Soul True Monarch?"

Zhou Qing's thoughts wandered.

Reaching the Late Golden Core Stage held no difficulty for him.

If a cultivator with a Flawless Gold Core couldn't become a Late-Stage Great True Person, it would be a joke.

What Zhou Qing truly pursued was becoming a Nascent Soul True Monarch.

While a Gold Core true person in the Taiyuan Region was already considered a high-level cultivator and a prominent figure...

...a true lord was an existence that truly dominated a grand region.

As long as they wished it, a Nascent Soul True Monarch could carve out a brand-new region in the wildlands, reigning supreme as its founding ancestor.

A Nascent Soul True Monarch was Zhou Qing's true goal.

"Take it slow."

Zhou Qing reeled in his thoughts.

Cultivators with a Flawless Gold Core were often called Nascent Soul seeds.

However, breaking through to the Nascent Soul True Monarch level was still incredibly difficult.

Not every seed eventually grew into a towering tree.

"It's a pity I already took Yan'er's first strand of Primordial Yin Qi to break through to the Flawless Gold Core."

Zhou Qing shook his head to himself. The first strand of Primordial Yin Qi from a Primordial Yin Treasure Physique had an unbelievable effect on shattering cultivation bottlenecks.

If one could obtain the first strand of Primordial Yin Qi from a Core Formation Stage Primordial Yin Treasure Physique, it would provide substantial benefits for breaking through to Nascent Soul True Monarch.

But it didn't matter much.

In the next simulation, Yan'er's first strand of Primordial Yin Qi would naturally return.

Thinking of this, Zhou Qing looked up at Li Yan, who was resting in a nearby room.

Right now, Li Yan was still at the early stage of Qi Refining, and her Primordial Yin Qi was completely intact.

[After breaking through to the mid-stage of the Gold Core realm, you begin to feel the changes in your body.]

[Aside from the qualitative transformation of your dharma power, your divine sense has expanded from a ten-li radius when you first entered the Core Formation Stage to a fifty-li radius.]

[This means that within a hundred-li diameter around where you stand, everything is as clear as looking at the lines on a flipped palm, revealing every minute detail.]

[A fifty-li radius for divine sense is the standard intensity for a normal Late-Stage Great True Person.]

[Thanks to the quality of your Gold Core, combined with talents like Indomitable Will, you have stepped into this territory early.]

['Perhaps mastering so many skills also played a part...']

[You think to yourself. In this simulation run alone, you have mastered five Tier 3 skills. For any other Core Formation Stage true person, this would be completely unimaginable.]

[The daily cultivation of a true person demands massive amounts of time. Mastering one or two Tier 3 skills is already their utmost limit. Five Tier 3 skills? Absolute fantasy.]

[Mastering profound skills also hones the divine sense. The art of Divination, for example, frequently requires merging your mind with the ubiquitous web of heaven's secrets. While it easily drains your lifespan, it also provides an excellent boost to your divine sense.]

[You look inward at your dantian. The perfectly round Flawless Gold Core has faintly shrunk in size, but the spiritual pressure it emits is far greater, even beginning to warp the space around it.]

['In the future, when I reach the Late Golden Core Stage, my divine sense should be able to surpass the absolute limit of the Core Formation Stage,' you ponder inwardly.]

[The essence of divine sense stems from the soul; naturally, the stronger, the better.]

['Hmm... After reaching the mid-stage of the Gold Core realm, the number of dharma talismans I can nurture has reached twenty...']

[You immediately take the mid-grade Tier 3 dharma talismans you prepared earlier into your dantian and begin nurturing them.]

[Ever since your talisman dao reached the mid-grade of Tier 3, you prepared several mid-grade Tier 3 dharma talismans for yourself, waiting until you reached the mid-stage of the Gold Core realm to seamlessly begin nurturing them.]

['Now that I've successfully broken through, it's time to refine a suitable Divination wonder for myself...']

[You think to yourself.]

[Before the breakthrough, you helped True Person Mystic Turtle refine a Crystal Condensation Pill in exchange for the Tier 3 mystic turtle shell that belonged to the first mountain master of Beast Taming Mountain.]

[However, refining this turtle shell would take a considerable amount of time, so you decided to wait until you reached the mid-stage of the Gold Core realm to attempt it.]

['The dao of artifact refining...']

[You immediately head to the refining room.]

[Your mastery in the dao of artifact refining remains at the high-grade of Tier 2.]

[But refining a Divination wonder isn't the same as making a Core Formation dharma treasure; it isn't complex, making high-grade Tier 2 refining mastery more than enough.]

[Three months later.]

[You look at the palm-sized gray turtle shell before you with a satisfied expression.]

[A Tier 3 mystic turtle's shell originally measured dozens of zhang across. Only after refinement did it shrink down to the size of a palm.]

[A mystic turtle's shell is naturally suited for crafting into a Divination wonder.]

[You pick up the shell and immediately test it out.]

[A moment later, you open your eyes and nod slightly.]

[With the help of this Divination wonder, your divination process goes much smoother than before.]

[A high-grade Divination wonder not only aids the divination process but also helps the diviner block a portion of the backlash from heaven's secrets.]

[Using the turtle shell, you begin to divine True Person Biyue.]

[During the early stage of the Gold Core realm, you tried divining True Person Biyue multiple times, but gained very little.]

[The dao of Divination is not omnipotent. The success rate heavily relies on the target's cultivation level and the karmic burdens they carry.]

[True Person Biyue is at the mid-to-late stage of the Gold Core realm. Combined with the demonic sect karma she shoulders, divining her is naturally an arduous task.]

[This was also why you had True Person Huanglang collect items previously used by True Person Biyue. If you could divine her through a physical medium, the difficulty would drop somewhat.]

[However, the aura of True Person Biyue that you collected acts as a consumable medium. It can only be used once, so unless it is for the final step, you will save it.]

[Buzz—]

[In a trance, your mind merges with the unseen web of heaven's secrets.]

['True Person Biyue... Late Golden Core Stage... 375 years old... Formed a High-Grade Gold Core...']

[You open your eyes. In this divination, thanks to your cultivation breaking through to the mid-stage of the Gold Core realm and acquiring a high-grade Divination wonder, you finally managed to glean some useful intelligence.]

['A High-Grade Gold Core... Demoness Biyue must have at least an earth spiritual root aptitude, with a small chance of a heavenly spiritual root.']

[You ponder to yourself.]

[After finishing your divination of True Person Biyue, you begin divining True Person Dongsha.]

[Now that you've reached the mid-stage of the Gold Core realm, the resistance to divining True Person Dongsha is much smaller.]

[Although you have never met True Person Dongsha, you spent the past few years having True Person Blood Sea continuously gather intelligence on him.]

[Information can also serve as a divination medium.]

[Furthermore, your cultivation strength has officially surpassed True Person Dongsha's.]

['Three years from now, True Person Dongsha will leave Profound King Island to personally escort a shipment of goods to the Jiuyou Region...']

[You open your eyes. This is the opportunity you have been waiting for.]

[The Dongsha Merchant Association frequently travels between various major regions to sell goods and turn a profit.]

[This is the standard business model for the vast majority of Core Formation-level merchant associations.]

[Certain resources might be common in one region, but their value could skyrocket dozens of times over in another.]

[The Dongsha Merchant Association has a Core Formation Stage guest elder who usually handles these inter-regional travels.]

[True Person Dongsha rarely takes the field personally.]

[However, the goods being shipped to the Jiuyou Region this time are extremely important. Coupled with the fact that demonic cultivators in the Jiuyou Region are difficult to deal with, True Person Dongsha plans to escort them himself.]

['The Jiuyou Region...']

[You put on a strange expression. You have already figured out how to pin the blame for True Person Dongsha's death onto the demonic cultivators of the Jiuyou Region.]

[After stepping into the mid-stage of the Gold Core realm, you continue cultivating in the Purple Bamboo Forest Cave Dwelling for another half a year.]

[Although the underground spiritual vein connected to the Purple Bamboo Forest Cave Dwelling is only low-grade Tier 3, a Tier 3 Spirit Gathering Array can forcefully boost the vein's grade to mid-grade Tier 3, perfectly meeting the needs of your daily cultivation.]

[Year sixty-five. You are eighty-one years old.]

[Having thoroughly stabilized your mid-stage Gold Core realm, you begin preparing to break through to Tier 3 in body cultivation.]

[Your physical body reached the absolute limit of Tier 2 long ago. You could have broken through to Tier 3 at any time, but your wariness of the body-refining heavenly tribulation kept you from doing so.]

[Now that you have entered the mid-stage of the Gold Core realm, armed with the safety net of higher-tier dharma power, you finally plan to let your body cultivation breakthrough.]

['For this breakthrough to Tier 3, I'll rely on my physical body to endure the heavenly tribulation as much as possible to stimulate my physical potential. Unless it's an absolute emergency, I won't use my dharma power to defend myself...']

[You contemplate inwardly.]

[For a body cultivator, the body-refining heavenly tribulation is both a disaster and an opportunity.]

[By enduring the tempering of the heavenly tribulation, a body cultivator's physical potential is ignited, offering the chance to awaken certain body cultivation divine abilities.]

[For example, in the third simulation run, Dachun awakened the ancient body cultivation divine ability—Shrinking the Earth into an Inch.]

[You also want to see if you can awaken a body cultivation divine ability for yourself.]

[A month later, you secretly leave the Purple Bamboo Forest Cave Dwelling with Xiao Hei.]

[As for the location of your tribulation... you made your choice long ago.]

[The mortal realm.]

[Within the million-li territory of the Taiyuan Region, an area spanning nearly a hundred thousand li across is a spiritually barren land.]

[A spiritually barren land isn't entirely devoid of spiritual energy; the energy is just so incredibly sparse that it is unfit for a cultivator's daily practice.]

[As a result, cultivators are a rare sight in these barren lands, leading them to be called the mortal realm or the mortal world.]

[You are going there to undergo a body-refining heavenly tribulation, not a cultivation breakthrough, so you have zero need for spiritual energy.]

[The mortal realm has no cultivators around to bother you, making it the perfect place to undergo your tribulation.]

['The Nether Mountain...']

[As you step into the Nether Mountain, you feel a deep sense of emotion.]

[That's right, you intend to undergo your tribulation at the Nether Mountain.]

[There are two reasons for this choice.]

[First, the Nether Mountain is completely devoid of cultivators, and even ordinary mortals don't come here.]

[Second, in the event of an unforeseen catastrophe during the tribulation—where even your mid-stage Gold Core dharma power can't withstand the heavenly tribulation...]

[...you can directly activate a secret technique and flee into the depths of the Nether Mountain.]

[The Ghost Realm Trial Field hidden within the Nether Mountain is completely cut off from the outside world. It seems to have been forged by an unimaginably mighty expert; perhaps it can sever the heavenly tribulation's lock on you?]

[You are also a trial-taker of the Ghost Realm, so even if you hide inside, you won't be expelled.]

[Of course, the odds of needing to do that are exceptionally low.]

[If a Tier 3 body-refining heavenly tribulation can't even be stopped by mid-stage Flawless Gold Core dharma power, then how did Dachun survive it back then?]

[When Dachun broke into Tier 3 body cultivation, his strength was roughly equivalent to yours at the early stage of the Gold Core realm. He was nowhere near a match for your current mid-stage Gold Core power.]

['Foolproof! Completely foolproof!']

[After mulling it over repeatedly, you feel that undergoing the body-refining heavenly tribulation this time is extremely safe.]

['Xiao Hei, if any cultivator gets close, kill them without mercy!']

[You glance at Xiao Hei and issue the command.]

[Swoosh!]

[Xiao Hei shoots up into the sky, vanishing from your line of sight.]

[Through the spiritual pet contract, you can feel Xiao Hei patrolling back and forth thousands of li high in the sky.]

[Next, you deploy several Tier 3 puppets in the vicinity for ground defense.]

['Let's begin.']

[You sit cross-legged and circulate the Mountain and Sea Body Refining Technique, pushing it into the seventh layer.]

[The seventh layer of the Mountain and Sea Body Refining Technique corresponds to a Third-Tier Body Cultivator.]

[Rumble—]

[An unimaginably suffocating pressure instantly gathers as rolling black clouds blanket the high skies.]

[You slowly stand up.]

[The next moment, the first bolt of lightning strikes down.]

[Compared to the heavenly tribulation lightning of the Foundation Establishment stage, the sheer power of this bolt immediately reaches the absolute limit of Foundation Establishment.]

[Your physical body struggles against it, but fortunately, it isn't a major issue.]

[Although your physical body has nominally been stuck at the limit of Tier 2, decades of continuous nourishment from your Flawless Gold Core dharma power mean it can effectively be considered half-step Tier 3.]

[Even without drawing on your mid-stage Gold Core dharma power, you hold a far greater advantage than a pure body cultivator.]

[Bolts of lightning continually crash down.]

[Injuries begin to appear on your physical body.]

[Yet you still refrain from using dharma power to defend yourself. You feel confident that you can block these lightning bolts with your flesh alone.]

[At a certain moment.]

[A gentle breeze blows past.]

['Hmm?']

[You can feel your internal organs rapidly weakening under the caress of this gentle breeze.]

[Not only that, but this breeze even sweeps across the level of your soul.]

[The essence of your soul is on par with a mighty cultivator at the Late Core Formation Stage, so this breeze fails to inflict any harm on your soul whatsoever.]

['Is this the wind tribulation?']

[You marvel inwardly. It is only because of your mid-stage Flawless Gold Core cultivation realm that you can withstand it so easily.]

[How are those body cultivators at the Foundation Establishment level supposed to resist this?]

['No wonder the lineage of body cultivation completely fell into ruin after the ancient era...']

[You shake your head slightly. Outside of someone like Dachun who possesses the Ancient Saint Bloodline, what normal Tier 2 body cultivator could ever survive this?]

[Rumble—]

[As time passes, the roiling black clouds in the sky rapidly dissipate.]

[The body-refining heavenly tribulation is over!]

[And you are feeling the staggering changes taking place within your body.]

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!