I Have a Cultivation Simulator

["Big Brother Zhou, I, Ye Feng, will remember your great kindness for the rest of my life."]

["If I make it out of the secret realm alive this time, I will definitely repay you ten, a hundred times over."]

[Ye Feng said with boundless gratitude.]

[Fifty spirit stones, combined with Ye Feng's own savings and loans from other friends, were finally enough to scrape together the one hundred spirit stones needed to redeem his freedom.]

["That secret realm... be careful."]

[Your willingness to lend him fifty spirit stones was born of two reasons. The first was your past friendship.]

[The second was investment.]

[If Ye Feng really managed to return from that secret realm alive,]

[even if he returned empty-handed, he would at least bring back some information about its interior.]

[Year 21: At thirty-six years old, you successfully completed your ten-year spirit herb nurturing phase and entered the ten-year flame control phase.]

[Year 22: At thirty-seven, you noticed that the emergence of the secret realm had driven up the prices of certain market goods by twenty to thirty percent—especially life-saving and recovery pills.]

[Year 23: At thirty-eight, you successfully broke through to the Qi Refining Third Layer.]

"The Qi Refining Third Layer..."

A smile surfaced on Zhou Qing's face.

The third layer was the absolute peak of the early Qi Refining stage.

The next step forward was the Qi Refining Middle Stage.

The Qi Refining Realm consisted of nine layers in total. Breaking from the early to middle stage, and then from the middle to late stage, both required overcoming a bottleneck.

[Year 24: At thirty-nine, you realized that after several years of exploration, the secret realm outside the market had been practically hollowed out. Few cultivators bothered entering it anymore.]

[Even now, you still hadn't heard a single word regarding Ye Feng. You understood that he had most likely met with disaster.]

[You later learned that quite a few Qi Refining Late Stage cultivators had ventured into that secret realm. As someone who had only just reached the Qi Refining Third Layer, Ye Feng's chances of dying in there were astronomically high.]

[Ye Feng perishing in the secret realm meant that your loan of fifty spirit stones had gone down the drain. Your heart ached over the loss for quite some time.]

[Year 25: At forty, Alchemist Yun personally instructed you in the art of flame control. You benefited immensely from the session.]

[Year 26: At forty-one, you learned more detailed information about the secret realm.]

[The site that opened several years ago was known as the Cloud Sea Secret Realm. Many spirit herbs grew within it, including the raw materials used to refine Foundation Establishment Pills.]

[Year 27: At forty-two, you gained preliminary mastery over the art of flame control.]

[Year 28: At forty-three, Alchemist Yun began to highly value you. He allowed you to stand by his side while he refined pills, letting you observe flame control in practical application.]

[Year 29: At forty-four, you began assisting Alchemist Yun in refining pills.]

[Year 30: At forty-five, your grasp of flame control grew increasingly proficient.]

[Year 31: At forty-six, you finally completed your ten-year flame control phase and entered the final ten-year phase of pill condensation.]

[Year 32: At forty-seven, your cultivation reached the peak of the Qi Refining Third Layer. You were fully prepared to attempt breaking through to the Qi Refining Fourth Layer.]

[Year 33: At forty-eight, you attempted the breakthrough to the Qi Refining Fourth Layer.]

[This attempt ended in failure. Fortunately, you had prepared adequately. Combined with an auxiliary pill gifted to you by Alchemist Yun, you only exhausted some origin energy. A few years of rest would be enough to recover.]

[This failure made you realize how arduous every step on the path of cultivation truly was.]

[Year 34: At forty-nine, while recuperating, you poured all your effort into the art of pill condensation.]

[Year 35: At fifty, you found that your breakthrough failure actually allowed for smooth progress in pill condensation.]

[Year 36: At fifty-one, you began preparing to independently refine a complete batch of low-grade pills.]

[This solo refinement was ultimately successful.]

[Gaining the ability to refine low-grade pills on your own meant you had become a Low-Grade Alchemist.]

"A Low-Grade Alchemist..."

Outside the simulation, Zhou Qing sighed.

After a twenty-six-year apprenticeship, he had finally joined the ranks of alchemists.

Although a Low-Grade Alchemist sat at the bottom of the hierarchy, he was still an alchemist.

Even if he could only refine low-grade pills, Zhou Qing could still rely on this craft to live quite comfortably.

It was safe to say that with the status of a Low-Grade Alchemist, Zhou Qing had officially established a foothold in the cultivation world.

[Alchemist Yun personally summoned you. He stated that now that you were a Low-Grade Alchemist, he could lift the restrictions of your Spirit Contract, granting you your freedom.]

[Naturally, you were unwilling. The path of alchemy was equally difficult to traverse. Above a Low-Grade Alchemist was a Mid-Grade Alchemist, and above that was a High-Grade Alchemist.]

[Without a veteran alchemist to guide you, your hopes of becoming a Mid-Grade Alchemist would be distant.]

[Alchemist Yun looked at you, pleased. He allowed you to remain at the alchemy workshop, occasionally having you refine low-grade pills and paying you in accordance with market rates.]

[Year 37: At fifty-two, having recovered the origin energy lost in your previous breakthrough attempt, you launched another charge at the Qi Refining Fourth Layer.]

[With the massive increase in income you earned as a Low-Grade Alchemist, you purchased many supplementary resources for the breakthrough.]

[Your breakthrough was a success. You stepped into the Qi Refining Fourth Layer.]

[Year 38: At fifty-three, you found that upon entering the Qi Refining Middle Stage, the difficulty of your cultivation had further increased.]

[Your spirit root aptitude was merely low-grade. Theoretically, a cultivator with a Low-Grade Spirit Root had no hope of crossing into the Qi Refining Late Stage.]

[Year 39: At fifty-four, under Alchemist Yun's guidance, you smoothly joined Wushan Market's "Alchemy Alliance".]

[The so-called "Alchemy Alliance" was a loose organization of gathered alchemists. Other factions and cultivators would frequently approach the alliance with pill requests. The alliance would then distribute these requests as commissions to the alchemists within its ranks.]

[The existence of the alliance allowed these gathered alchemists to accept far more refinement commissions.]

[Year 40: At fifty-five, having saved enough spirit stones, you rented a Tier 1 mid-grade cave dwelling within the market.]

[The spiritual energy contained within a Tier 1 mid-grade cave dwelling far exceeded that of a low-grade one. Now that you were a Qi Refining Mid-Stage Cultivator, only a Tier 1 mid-grade cave dwelling could satisfy your basic daily cultivation needs.]

[Year 41: At fifty-six, you continued your slow cultivation.]

[Year 42: At fifty-seven, you felt you would need at least fifteen to twenty years of bitter cultivation to reach the peak of the Qi Refining Fourth Layer.]

[Year 43: At fifty-eight, an unexpected person came to visit Alchemist Yun.]

[Ye Feng.]

[This follower—someone you had long since assumed dead—arrived at the alchemy workshop to visit Alchemist Yun.]

[Furthermore, the current Ye Feng was no longer the lowly early-stage Qi Refining cultivator from all those years ago. He was a Qi Refining Late Stage cultivator.]

[Watching from afar as Ye Feng was invited inside by Alchemist Yun, you fell into a daze.]

[Thirty-three years ago, Ye Feng had only just entered the Qi Refining Third Layer. Today, he had leaped all the way to the Qi Refining Late Stage.]

[You realized that Ye Feng must have secured a massive harvest when he explored that secret realm back then.]

[You thought of the fifty spirit stones you had lent him back then.]

[After you waited outside the door for a long while, Alchemist Yun walked out.]

[Alchemist Yun nodded at you, aware of your past relationship with Ye Feng.]

[Once Alchemist Yun departed, you took a deep breath and walked in.]

[Inside the hall, Ye Feng was sitting casually. He faintly radiated an intimidating spiritual pressure—the spiritual pressure of a Qi Refining Late Stage cultivator.]

[Sensing you enter, Ye Feng glanced at you. Without rising, he smiled and said,]

["So it is Zhou... Little Friend Zhou Qing."]

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