I Have a Cultivation Simulator

Inside the spiritually dense Tier Two cave dwelling.

Zhou Qing sat cross-legged before the Pill Furnace, rapidly forming the hand seals for pill collection.

The Pill Furnace spun steadily, heated from below by a spiritual fire fueled by spirit charcoal.

When refining pills, an alchemist was best served by drawing on a vein of earth fire.

Zhou Qing's rented cave dwelling had limited amenities, however, and lacked a dedicated earth fire source.

Thus, he had to rely on spirit charcoal.

Refining with spirit charcoal naturally couldn't compare to earth fire, but Zhou Qing wasn't concocting anything rare—only ordinary mid- and high-grade pills.

Even without earth fire, his alchemy skills were infinitely close to the Tier Two level, practically guaranteeing a hundred percent success rate.

Ultimately, earth fire and Pill Furnaces were just external aids.

Zhou Qing had once heard of a high-tier alchemist who used a scorching volcanic crater stretching for thousands of li as his Pill Furnace, drawing upon the power of heaven and earth to refine miraculous immortal pills.

"The pills are formed."

Zhou Qing swiftly formed a hand seal.

The spinning Pill Furnace slowly ground to a halt. Its lid flew open, and seven perfectly round pills floated out.

A rich medicinal fragrance wafted through the air.

"Three prime quality, four standard..."

Zhou Qing glanced at them and put the pills away.

Over the past half-year, he hadn't merely studied his alchemy inheritance.

He had also been refining pills himself, directly experiencing the exact moment when various medicinal properties perfectly fused into a solid pill.

Of course, he only refined them; he didn't consume them.

As for selling them? He would wait to do that inside a simulation.

This way, he could maximize the value of every single pill.

As long as he didn't sell them in reality, he could sell them again in every simulation.

Although he only refined mid- and high-grade pills, every little bit counted.

Zhou Qing naturally wasn't going to turn it down.

In half a year, he had refined no fewer than a hundred high-grade pills alone.

And even more mid-grade ones.

And that was with him holding back.

After all, he didn't need to cultivate in reality, leaving him with an abundance of free time.

'I'm so close to becoming a Tier Two Alchemist...'

Zhou Qing could feel that he was extremely close. He could cross that threshold at any moment.

A Tier Two Alchemist could independently refine Tier Two pills, which were made exclusively from various Tier Two spiritual herbs.

Tier Two herbs contained massive amounts of spiritual energy, and fusing their differing medicinal properties was much more difficult. The slightest misstep would result in an exploded Pill Furnace.

This severely tested an alchemist's control.

'In half a year, I've already grasped the basics of beast taming and talisman crafting, reaching the low-grade tier...'

Zhou Qing thought to himself.

This was the advantage of operating from a higher vantage point.

Back when he first tried to grasp the basics of alchemy, he had worked as an apprentice for Alchemist Yun for decades.

Part of that was because a mere apprentice wouldn't receive Alchemist Yun's full support, but it was also due to the sheer difficulty of breaking into the path of alchemy.

But now, as a Foundation Establishment cultivator, both his divine sense and his comprehension far surpassed those in the Qi Refining Realm. Learning ordinary crafts was as easy as could be.

If he were a core formation master, his comprehension speed would be even faster.

Every craft ultimately relied on a cultivator's own cultivation realm as its foundation.

'I can run countless simulations. There's no need to limit myself to a single discipline. If I hit a bottleneck in one, I'll study another. If that stalls, I'll move on to the next. You can never have too many skills, and I might need them all in future simulations.'

He reasoned to himself.

Whether it was a bottleneck in cultivation or a craft, heaven only knew how many years it could trap a cultivator.

Rather than stubbornly banging his head against a wall, it was better to find another path.

Of course, this approach only worked for him.

Other cultivators had to push through those bottlenecks to reach new heights and gain more lifespan.

If they couldn't? No matter how many crafts they mastered, they would still turn to ash when their time ran out.

...

'The time until my simulation attempts refresh is...'

Zhou Qing reeled in his thoughts and looked at the illusory text floating at the bottom of his vision.

[Name: Zhou Qing]

[Race: Human]

[Strength: First Level of Foundation Establishment]

[Crafts: High-Grade Alchemist, Low-Grade Beast Tamer, Low-Grade Talisman Crafter]

[Age: 17]

[Talents: Pill Toxin Nemesis, Indomitable Will]

[Simulations Available: 0]

His gaze settled on the simulation count.

'Twenty days left...'

Looking at the illusory countdown, he knew exactly when his attempts would refresh.

'I'm already seventeen...'

He glanced back at the age row.

He had only been sixteen when he ran his very first simulation.

'I'll keep waiting.'

Zhou Qing went back to studying his array inheritance.

Over the past half-year, he hadn't managed to grasp even the basics of arrays.

This was largely because array inheritances were far more difficult than other crafts.

His interest in arrays had been sparked by the colossal formation enveloping the entire Biyue Immortal City.

That terrifying power, spanning hundreds of li, was something even an ordinary Master wouldn't dare face head-on.

While array methods came with massive restrictions, their effects were downright terrifying when the right conditions were met.

Time flowed on.

Twenty days passed in the blink of an eye.

Under Zhou Qing's watchful wait, the illusory countdown finally hit zero.

"I can run a simulation!"

His eyes lit up.

Lately, he had been refining pills non-stop without eating a single one. It had left him craving them.

In his last two simulations, he had eaten pills like regular meals.

Flicker—

The illusory text rapidly shifted.

'Hm?'

Zhou Qing's expression shifted slightly.

Compared to the previous two times, a new change had appeared in this simulation.

There was an extra option for an 'Anchor Point.'

'Anchor point?'

Information about the anchor point instantly flooded his mind.

The so-called anchor point was simply the starting time of the simulation.

There were two types: the Current Anchor and the Initial Anchor.

The Current Anchor, true to its name, would start the simulation from Zhou Qing's present moment.

The Initial Anchor, however, was fixed. He had to choose a specific point in the past to serve as the start.

Once the Initial Anchor was selected, it could never be changed.

'And now I need to choose the Initial Anchor?' he mused.

Currently, the earliest anchor he could select was the exact moment he had crossed over into this world.

Any point in time before his transmigration... could not be used as an anchor.

'Did I unlock more simulation features because breaking into the Foundation Establishment Realm transformed my life essence?'

Zhou Qing pondered this. This hadn't happened during his first or second simulation. The only major difference between then and now was that he was finally a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

It was the only logical conclusion.

'Then I'll set the Initial Anchor to the moment I arrived in this world.'

He made his decision.

Since it was the Initial Anchor, the earlier, the better.

He figured the Initial Anchor existed to keep him from going down the wrong path.

For example, if he discovered in the future that the Shanhai Art he practiced had a massive hidden flaw preventing him from reaching the Nascent Soul Realm, he could use the Initial Anchor to simulate a completely different choice.

Setting it to his arrival meant returning to a time when he hadn't practiced a single cultivation method. He had been a completely blank slate.

With everything ready, Zhou Qing's expression turned solemn.

'Start the simulation using the Current Anchor.'

With a thought, the illusory text rapidly began to shift.

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