Chapter 291: Talent Settlement

"The seventh simulation... is over."

Zhou Qing stared at the shifting illusory text at the bottom of his vision.

Finally, his gaze settled on the line reading [Current Simulation Ended].

The simulation was completely over.

Closing his eyes, Zhou Qing let the scenes of the seventh simulation flash through his mind.

Compared to the previous six runs, this seventh one hadn't brought much improvement in his cultivation realm, yet the span of years he had lived through was the longest of them all.

Counting the hundred years of possession from the Dead But Not Stiff talent, he had spent a total of two thousand seven hundred years inside.

'The environment of heaven and earth during the Near-Ancient Era was far too harsh...' Zhou Qing sighed to himself. In terms of talent, he wasn't the strongest, yet he was far from the worst. Even so, after thousands of years across two simulations, he had only managed to reach the Deity Transformation Early Stage Peak—and that was with the help of Li Yan's first wisp of Primordial Yin Qi.

Without Li Yan, he would still have been a good distance short of the Deity Transformation Early Stage Peak, a gap that might have taken two or three more simulations to cross.

For a Deity Transformation Stage Heavenly Monarch of the Near-Ancient Era, every sliver of progress meant shouldering the crushing weight of the entire world.

The fault lay not with the cultivators, but with heaven and earth themselves.

'Still, aside from my cultivation realm being a little unsatisfying, everything else is acceptable,' Zhou Qing thought silently.

During this run, both his Divination and puppetry skills had stepped into Rank 5, while his Talisman Dao skill had gone even further, reaching Fifth Tier Middle Grade.

Advancing Rank 5 arts was much easier than raising one's cultivation realm, yet it was still no simple feat—especially in the Near-Ancient Era, where there were no Talisman Dao Grandmasters of the same level to exchange pointers with.

"Puppetry..."

Zhou Qing rubbed his chin. In the simulation, his puppetry had reached the Fifth Tier Low Grade Peak.

Yet whenever he tried to cross into Fifth Tier Middle Grade, it always felt like something was just slightly out of reach. He hadn't lacked the corpses of Fifth Tier Middle Grade Demon Monarchs to use as puppet materials in the simulation.

Even so, he had never managed to craft a Fifth Tier Middle Grade puppet.

Once he could build one at that level and have his Second Primordial Spirit take control of it, the combat strength it unleashed wouldn't fall much short of his true body's.

"One step at a time."

Zhou Qing reined in his thoughts. Those centuries had been spent inside a simulation anyway, leaving no mark on reality.

"Come to think of it... possessing the Purgatory Demon Sovereign for those hundred years helped me immensely."

Zhou Qing steadied his mind, recalling in particular how the Purgatory Demon Sovereign wielded his power and perceived the Great Dao of the Demon Abyss Realm.

Even in the Demon Abyss Realm, a Void Return Demon Sovereign stood at the absolute pinnacle. Above them were only the Ten Creation Demon Lords, beings who rivaled the Dao Integration Stage.

At the very least, while holding all of the Purgatory Demon Sovereign's senses in the simulation, Zhou Qing had been able to vaguely detect auras billions or even tens of billions of li away, and not a single one of them could match the Purgatory Demon Sovereign.

His only regret was that while possessing the fiend, he could experience everything the Purgatory Demon Sovereign felt and share his field of view, yet he could not browse the Void Return Demon Sovereign's memories.

Being able to read those memories would have meant a qualitative leap for Zhou Qing, giving him a deep, thorough understanding of the Demon Abyss Realm.

The memories of a Void Return Stage Demon Sovereign were vast as the open sea—how priceless would that be? Especially since Zhou Qing could carry that intelligence into future runs.

'A pity the Purgatory Demon Sovereign walked the path of a physical-body inner world. Had it been a primordial-spirit inner world, it would have helped me even more,' Zhou Qing thought. Though he also trained in body cultivation on the side, his main focus remained dharma cultivation, and his strongest methods were all centered around his primordial spirit.

Still, it wasn't a big issue. Whether through the physical body or the primordial spirit, certain fundamentals of opening an inner world remained the same. Zhou Qing wasn't greedy; getting to possess a Void Return Stage Demon Sovereign for a century was already a massive stroke of fortune, regardless of which path it followed.

"Also, this simulation confirmed one thing: under the backup sword strike left behind by the Sword Lord, the Purgatory Demon Sovereign didn't truly die. Even after his strongest demonic body was cut down and destroyed, he survived through a life-saving method..."

A thoughtful look crossed Zhou Qing's face. Near the very end of the possession, his perspective and senses had shifted into a gray worm—the lowest kind of demonic creature, yet also the very foundation of the Demon Abyss Realm.

Rumor had it that the Ten Creation Demon Lords had cultivated step by step all the way up from such worms.

That the Purgatory Demon Sovereign had survived came as no surprise to Zhou Qing. Never mind a Void Return Stage being like the Purgatory Demon Sovereign—even Zhou Qing himself kept more than one life-saving trump card.

Take his Second Primordial Spirit, for instance. Whenever he met with that white-haired demon, he always went in his Second Primordial Spirit. That way, even if the white-haired demon had some terrifying trick up his sleeve, the worst Zhou Qing would suffer was discarding a Second Primordial Spirit while his main primordial spirit remained untouched.

By the same token, even if his main primordial spirit perished, he wouldn't truly be dead so long as the Second Primordial Spirit survived, for the Second Primordial Spirit was still him.

'Perhaps... if I still haven't stepped into the Void Return Stage in future simulations, there's no need to delay the destruction of the Purgatory Demon Sovereign's true body... Ideally, right after my possession begins, his consciousness will immediately awaken inside that gray worm, letting me experience his step-by-step recovery of his cultivation firsthand...'

A spark of inspiration stirred in Zhou Qing's heart.

Experiencing the Purgatory Demon Sovereign at the height of his power had certainly yielded tremendous gains, yet starting from the very bottom—feeling the Purgatory Demon Sovereign climb back to Void Return strength step by step from the lowliest abyssal worm—would bring him just as many rewards.

Along the way, he would get to witness a living being's metamorphosis from weak to strong. Most importantly, the final step—where the Purgatory Demon Sovereign crossed back into the Void Return Stage and opened his physical-body inner world—would be of immense help to him.

The Purgatory Demon Sovereign wouldn't be cultivating from scratch; he would merely be recovering his lost cultivation. Going from the lowest worm back to a Void Return Stage Demon Sovereign could very likely be done within a century, so long as there was enough external energy.

In other words, the hundred years of Zhou Qing's possession stood a real chance of covering that entire process.

"The process of opening a physical-body inner world..."

Zhou Qing's eyes lit up. It was practically a crystal-clear, unerring guide for his own push into Void Return.

Normally, even if a Deity Transformation cultivator openly displayed the process of breaking through to Void Return and opening an inner world, an observer wouldn't necessarily understand it. Zhou Qing, however, would be in a state of possession, privy to every sensation and perspective of the one making the breakthrough.

If the benefits proved great enough, he wouldn't mind letting his body cultivation path cross into the Void Return Stage first.

To Zhou Qing, body cultivation and dharma cultivation were much the same; whichever offered hope of advancing further was the one he would focus on.

In the Near-Ancient Era, the fallen rank of heaven and earth suppressed body cultivation even more heavily than dharma cultivation, which was why he had chosen dharma cultivation as his main path.

Yet if body cultivation offered a better shot at reaching the Void Return Stage, he wouldn't mind setting dharma cultivation aside for the time being.

So long as his body cultivation stepped into the Void Return Stage first, it could easily pull his dharma cultivation into the Void Return Stage right behind it.

"Fellow Daoist Purgatory..."

All of a sudden, the Purgatory Demon Sovereign looked much more pleasing to Zhou Qing's eyes.

In both the sixth and seventh simulations, he had freeloaded a wealth of intelligence off the Purgatory Demon Sovereign, and now he could even possess him to experience his cultivation from the ground up. The fiend was practically a guiding beacon.

"Since the Purgatory Demon Sovereign's strongest demonic body was cut down, what about the Human Realm..."

A sudden thought struck Zhou Qing. Judging from his final perspective during the possession, he was certain the Purgatory Demon Sovereign could not recover within the next several decades.

Under those circumstances, what would become of the Human Realm?

"Doesn't really matter..."

After a moment's thought, Zhou Qing gave a slight shake of his head.

Even before the Purgatory Demon Sovereign descended upon the Human Realm, the entire realm had already been thoroughly converted into the environment of the Demon Abyss Realm, its fundamental laws matching the abyss.

Even if no Demon Sovereign descended afterward, the Human Realm was already no different from the Demon Abyss Realm, and droves of Rank 5 Demon Monarchs would pour in.

More than that, Zhou Qing didn't believe for a second that no Demon Sovereign would enter. Just because the Purgatory Demon Sovereign couldn't make it didn't mean others wouldn't.

The Purgatory Demon Sovereign wasn't the only Demon Sovereign in the Demon Abyss Realm. Once word got out, others would inevitably be drawn over. By that point, the Purgatory Demon Sovereign had already battered the Human Realm wide open; all that remained was to step in, refine the heart of heaven and earth, and merge the world completely into the Demon Abyss Realm.

Any other Demon Sovereign who showed up would simply be plucking the ripe peach for themselves.

"As for the Dao of Divination... I still need to study it further..."

Zhou Qing rubbed between his brows. The key to this simulation going so smoothly was that he had used his Rank 5 Divination skill to fool the divination of that Divination Grandmaster from the Demon Abyss Realm.

He placed great weight on the Dao of Divination—or more precisely, on its power of Foreseeing Good and Bad Fortune.

If his Divination skill advanced further, his margin for error in the simulations would grow much wider.

For instance, he could go to the Purgatory Demon Sovereign and demand all sorts of cultivation resources from the Demon Abyss Realm.

The world rank of the Demon Abyss Realm far surpassed that of the Human Realm, and the same held true for every kind of cultivation resource there.

Up until now, Zhou Qing simply hadn't dared accept the resources sent by the Purgatory Demon Sovereign. Who knew what kind of tampering might be hidden on them? Even after Heavenly Monarch Extreme Sword tested them, Zhou Qing had still given them up.

If his Divination skill became refined enough, wouldn't he be able to divine whether the resources sent by the Purgatory Demon Sovereign were compromised, and then selectively refine the safe ones?

Just as Zhou Qing was pondering this, the illusory text that had paused began shifting once more.

[Please select one of the following to inherit:]

[1: All cultivation, realms, skills, techniques, memories, etc. from the simulation]

[2: One treasure belonging to you in the simulation]

Zhou Qing looked at the illusory text below his line of sight.

Without a doubt, Option 1 remained the most helpful to him.

Although he had remained at the Deity Transformation Early Stage in the seventh simulation, he had cultivated all the way to the Early Peak, and many of his skills had made breakthroughs as well.

As for Option 2? Right now, unless it was the Heavenly Sword left behind by the Sword Lord, he had little interest in external treasures over his own cultivation realm.

Few external objects mattered more than raising one's own cultivation.

Glancing around, Zhou Qing immediately chose Option 1.

Everything he was inheriting this time belonged to the Deity Transformation Stage, so there was no need to specifically pick a new spot like he had after the last simulation.

Besides, even if it stirred up some disturbance in heaven and earth, he was currently inside a grotto-heaven fragment that sealed off everything from the outside world.

Hum— The instant Zhou Qing chose "Option 1," every aspect of his being began soaring rapidly.

The auras of both his main primordial spirit and his Second Primordial Spirit swelled fast.

His Second Primordial Spirit also rose to the Deity Transformation Early Stage Peak; once the realm was reached, the rest was merely a matter of accumulating energy.

At the same time, Zhou Qing relived every detail of the seventh simulation on a deep level, as if watching a film, etching every single moment firmly into his heart.

His puppetry, Divination, Talisman Dao, and many other art realms were inherited in sync.

In less than a breath, Zhou Qing slowly opened his eyes.

Two or three thousand years of experience in the simulation took only an instant during the inheritance phase.

"Deity Transformation Early Stage Peak cultivation, stacked with numerous talents, plus Rank 5 Divination..."

A smile surfaced on Zhou Qing's face.

This feeling of his cultivation skyrocketing without a single hidden flaw left him thoroughly refreshed.

"A physical-body inner world..."

Having inherited the memories and insights, Zhou Qing now had an even clearer grasp of what he had gained from possessing the Purgatory Demon Sovereign for a hundred years.

'If I keep studying the Three Thousand Illusion Realms now, my progress will probably advance by leaps and bounds... Even if I can't reach the four hundredth illusion layer in a short time, reaching layer three hundred and sixty or seventy should be more than easy enough,' Zhou Qing thought.

At its core, the Three Thousand Illusion Realms allowed the one studying it to perceive the essence of an inner world.

Yet no amount of indirect insight could compare to experiencing the workings of an inner world firsthand.

Of course, Zhou Qing also realized that the physical-body inner world opened by the Purgatory Demon Sovereign didn't seem particularly sophisticated; at least compared to the world-operation essence presented by the Three Thousand Illusion Realms, it seemed somewhat ordinary.

Still, however ordinary it might be, it remained a genuine inner world, and it would help him break through the illusion layers one after another.

'It seems the so-called prototype of the Grand Pure Heaven refers to a higher-grade method of opening an inner world...' Zhou Qing mused. Having reached his current level, he understood that the inner worlds opened at the Void Return Stage also varied in quality.

That was tied to the fact that macrocosms themselves differed in strength. The Demon Abyss Realm far surpassed the Human Realm, while the Upper Realm—which had shared an ascension passage with the Human Realm in the Ancient Era—surpassed even the Demon Abyss Realm, housing Mahayana Stage True Immortals.

"The Three Thousand Illusion Realms..."

Zhou Qing raised his head and glanced toward a certain direction in the Human Realm.

By now, he knew the exact locations of all three strange stones that made up the Three Thousand Illusion Realms.

The Reincarnation Stone was in Wujian Hall, the Purple Eye Jade Stone was at Great Snow Mountain, and the Mysterious Black Jade was in the Ghost Realm Trial Field.

So long as he wished, he could easily claim all three stones in reality and fuse them into the Three Thousand Illusion Realms.

"Forget it."

Zhou Qing gave a slight shake of his head.

There was no need for that.

The other two stones were fine, but the Mysterious Black Jade came from the Ghost Realm Trial Field.

Once he entered the Ghost Realm Trial Field in reality, he would lose his first-entry opportunity in future simulations.

Although the Ghost Realm Trial Field's usefulness to him had dropped sharply after he stepped into the Deity Transformation Stage, there was still no reason to affect his future runs just for the Three Thousand Illusion Realms.

At the current cooldown rate, it was only a month anyway.

In a month, he would be able to start his next simulation.

Over a mere month, obtaining the Three Thousand Illusion Realms again wouldn't make much difference.

In reality, Zhou Qing's rule was to keep a low profile, and then an even lower profile. Even now that he possessed Deity Transformation Stage cultivation, he avoided disturbing any variables as much as possible.

Doing so ensured a stable starting environment for his simulations.

Hum— The illusory text shifted once more.

[Settling your current simulation experience...]

Zhou Qing's expression sharpened as he fixed his eyes on the illusory text at the bottom of his vision.

His favorite part had arrived once again: the talent settlement phase.

Compared to inheriting cultivation or treasures, he looked forward to the talent phase even more.