[ In the third month of the fourth year, you accidentally encounter a white-robed man. He calls himself Lu Changsheng, claiming to have lived for countless eras. You express your disbelief, unwilling to engage with him, yet he continuously pesters you and refuses to let go. ]
[ His figure is like cloud and smoke, as if merging with heaven and earth; his every gesture carries an otherworldly aura that transcends the mortal world. ]
[ You grow vigilant in your heart, but must also admit that this man is by no means ordinary. ]
[ Slightly better looking than you... ]
[ However, this man's meridians are unopened, and his physical body is weak, completely unlike a cultivator. ]
[ Thus, you do not care; in this vast heaven and earth, it is only natural to have one or two wanderers... ]
[ You find that your cultivation progress has recently slowed down, so you decide to extend your daily meditation to twenty hours to comprehend the Heavenly Dao. ]
[ However, no matter how hard you try, the results are still unsatisfactory. You are anxious in your heart, yet you do not know where the problem lies. ]
[ Upon reaching the Heavenly realm, understanding the laws of the world is of vital importance. ]
[ If merely practicing could raise your realm, with three great divine arts in your possession, you would have already reached the ninth-rank Great Perfection of the Heavenly realm. ]
[ But if you cannot thoroughly comprehend the laws of heaven and earth, even if you cultivate for another thousand years, it will be difficult to break through the bottleneck. ]
[ With only four years left until the eerie descends, you have not even ascended to the Upper Realm. ]
[ "I must swiftly break through to the Divility realm and ascend to the Mountain Sea Great World beforehand to have a sliver of hope for survival!" ]
[ You feel a sense of urgency in your heart, as if an invisible blade is suspended above your head, liable to fall at any moment. ]
[ Lu Changsheng is constantly there grinding a stone slab. You truly cannot stand it anymore, and ask him what on earth he is trying to do. He looks up, his eyes deep as the starry sky, with a faint smile: "I am polishing a stone to make a mirror." ]
[ You are stunned upon hearing this, and immediately scoff: "How can polishing a stone make a mirror?" ]
[ Lu Changsheng answers with another question: "What were you doing just now?" Frowning, you say: "Don't you see I am sitting in quiet meditation to comprehend the Dao?" He nods slightly, his tone indifferent: "Since a stone cannot be polished into a mirror, how can your quiet meditation lead to comprehending the Dao?" ]
[ Your heart is deeply shaken, as the Great Dao of heaven and earth flashes before your eyes, instantly illuminating your thoughts. ]
[ "Then how does one cultivate..." ]
[ "Cultivate from the very foundation..." Lu Changsheng answers... ]
[ You achieve sudden enlightenment, your thoughts unhindered. With your Great Dao defended, letting nature take its course, you instantly break through to the third rank of the Heavenly realm! ]
[ You immediately bow your head, your tone respectful: "Many thanks, for explaining this to me!" Yet Lu Changsheng only smiles faintly: "Explaining? I am merely polishing a stone to make a mirror." ]
[ Lu Changsheng has unraveled the knot in your heart; your gains this time surpass ten years of bitter cultivation. "Indeed... how could sitting in quiet meditation lead to comprehending the Dao?" You sigh in your heart—if not for Lu Changsheng's guidance, you would likely still be running in place. ]
[ In the sixth month of the fourth year, you break through to the fourth rank of the Heavenly realm. Your Dantian's accumulation is already complete, and you begin refining your soul. ]
[ You enter the realm of the unity of heaven and man, where soul and body fuse. To your current self, those martial skills mastered by other martial artists can be learned with a single glance; practicing them once more, you can directly step into the realm of perfection. ]
[ You are delighted in your heart, knowing you are yet another step closer to the Divility realm. ]
[ In the same month, Lu Changsheng suddenly drags you along to go fishing, and you reluctantly agree. But you truly do not know how to fish, unable to settle your mind. ]
[ Lu Changsheng says: "I shall teach you." Holding the fishing rod in his hand, his gaze is like water, as if merging with heaven and earth. Although you do not understand his intent, you can only follow along. ]
[ One year later ]
[ You follow Lu Changsheng to learn fishing, and this learning lasts for a full year. ]
[ While you are beaming with joy, what you fail to notice is that Lu Changsheng has already departed. ]
[ He left behind a sentence: "Our fate has run its course; what I can help you with is only this much, the remaining journey must be walked by you yourself! ]
[ Fellow Daoist, beyond the heavens, let us meet again if fate permits." You are stunned upon hearing this, and a sense of inexplicable loss wells up in your heart. ]
[ In the fourth month of the sixth year, with the help of the Soul Heaven Ring, you swiftly complete Soul Refining, Spirit Refining, breaking through to the ninth-rank Great Perfection of the Heavenly realm. It is time to travel to the Mountain Sea Great World! ]
[ Sitting atop the Soul Heaven Ring, you traverse the Mountain Sea, roaming the cosmic starry sky, and discover countless worlds. ]
[ Some of them exist in the form of continents, some exist as planets, and others are hidden within cosmic space. Every single one is a place suppressed by certain laws. ]
[ Along the way, you comprehend the stars, triggering the solar stars' endless flow within the Nine Yang Divine Art as you absorb the Great Sun Essence! Your Hegemon Body achieves the three-star level! ]
[ The Great Sun arches across the firmament; your Hegemon Body reaches Minor Completion! ]
[ Nine grand visions suppress the starry sky, your Vitality dominating the heavens. ]
[ Wherever you pass, mortals kneel and worship! ]
[ Unfortunately, what you have condensed is merely an Acquired Hegemon Body, for which Great Completion is the limit. Had it been an Innate Hegemon Body, you could have stepped into perfection and achieved immortality with your physical body. ]
[ In the seventh year, you arrive at the Mountain Sea Great World. You come to a place called the Bodhi Dao Land. Because the laws of this world are extremely perfect, you use marvelous methods to perfect yourself and mend your flaws; your Dantian expands once more, perhaps only half a step away from a Divine-grade Dantian! ]
[ You wander through the three thousand Small Worlds inside the Soul Heaven Ring... Comprehending the Immortal Dao Laws within the ring, you extract a thread of immortal Qi, and your cultivation increases immensely! ]
[ In the same year, you break through to the Divility realm, capable of imprinting endless divine abilities within your body. ]
[ You choose to imprint the Angry Buddha Lotus Flame as your first-layer divine ability. The upper limit of this method is extremely high, making it a supreme divine ability capable of turning ten thousand paths into fire, battling through the heavens! You realize that this place is where the Bodhi Great Emperor achieved Emperorhood, which is why it is called the Bodhi Dao Land. ]
[ You come to understand that the Mountain Sea Great World is divided into one hundred and eight Dao Lands, thirty-six supreme domains, and countless Small Worlds and Medium Worlds. Combined, they are collectively known as the Teireao Universe, which is precisely the Mountain Sea Great World. ]
[ Within the supreme domains, there are even countless forbidden zones, laden with danger on all sides! ]
[ In July of the same year, you break through to the third rank of the Divility realm, harboring three supreme divine abilities within your body. ]
[ In August of the same year, you feel anxious in your heart, yet you still cannot find any method on how to travel to other Great Worlds. ]
[ You decide to risk it all, using the Soul Heaven Ring to fly at full speed in the direction completely opposite to the Upper Realm, while you hide within the three thousand Small Worlds of the Soul Heaven Ring. ]
[ The Soul Heaven Ring is indeed an Acquired Spiritual Treasure; although you do not know its exact rank, you know that a treasure capable of nurturing three thousand worlds is absolutely not something the Mountain Sea Great World could produce! ]
[ You can only gamble everything, hoping the eerie cannot corrode this ring! Otherwise, when you meet again in the future, it will be a mutual buzzing of insects. ]
[ In the eighth year, you are still flying. Day by day, you calculate when the eerie will arrive. Currently, you hide within the Soul Heaven Ring, drifting in cosmic space, hoping to find a sliver of hope for survival. ]
[ In the same year, you perform education and transformation within the Soul Heaven Ring. As the living beings cultivate, you call yourself the Soul Heaven Dao Ancestor, splitting into three thousand avatars to preach the Dao across the three thousand Small Worlds. ]
[ In the ninth year, you are still flying. The vastness of the universe makes you feel incredibly small... ]
[ You preach the Dao once again, because you discover that without absorbing external spiritual energy for a long time, the Small Worlds inside the Soul Heaven Ring will collapse. Allowing the living beings to cultivate can strengthen the worlds' fortune to avoid their destruction, and can also form a cycle: cultivators plant spiritual herbs to nourish heaven and earth, condensing Dharma power while alive, and upon death, their pure Dharma power can bless and enrich a part of heaven and earth. ]
[ In the tenth year, you are still flying. Currently, you are at the eighth rank of the Divility realm, and the divine abilities within your body are even more powerful. You have a premonition that when you break through to the Four Images realm, the Soul Heaven Ring will undergo a transformation! ]
[ In the same year, you take notice of an Empress of a Small World dynasty. Her name is Ultima; she is peerlessly elegant, with an aura like frost, and her every gesture carries supreme imperial majesty. ]
[ You secretly observe her... "This woman possesses an Innate Dao Embryo, which is extremely rare even in the Upper Realm"... ]
[ "Can be nurtured..." ]
[ You bestow ten percent of the fortune of the three thousand Soul Heaven worlds upon her. ]
[ In the eleventh year, you are truly bored out of your mind. Having reached the ninth-rank Great Perfection of the Divility realm, the amount of spiritual energy required for your daily cultivation is like a vast, boundless ocean. In this cosmic space, you still need to use resources to maintain the normal operation of the Soul Heaven Ring. ]
[ You can only rely on the feedback of merit along with the incense of the divine path, to sustain your cultivation. ]
[ Upon reaching your current realm, the endless flow of the Nine Yang Divine Art is no longer of much use. ]
[ The cultivation technique you were once so proud of now clearly shows its limitations. ]
[ The path of cultivation is like rowing against the current; to not advance is to regress. Only by continuously breaking through yourself can you establish a foothold within these myriad heavens and worlds. ]
[ Your Dao heart condenses, taking another step closer to the Four Images realm! ]
[ In the twelfth year, you have the living beings within the three thousand Soul Heaven worlds build a palace for you. They revere you as the lord of the Soul Heaven myriad realms, the 「 Soul Heaven Dao Venerable 」, and worship you with utmost sincerity. The voice of the Great Dao echoes from within, surrounded by countless revolving laws; you name it the Purple Cloud Palace. ]
[ In the same year, you officially step into the Four Images realm. Because you broke through your realm within the Soul Heaven Ring, you did not undergo a heavenly tribulation, leaving your realm slightly unstable. You feel the Hegemon Body Dharma Image inside your body gradually condensing. Suddenly gaining enlightenment, you realize that this realm will serve as the foundation for opening your inner world in the future. ]
「 Four Images Realm: Condensing a Dharma Image. The Dharma Image stands in the Dantian, acting as the pillar that supports the heavens! Upon opening the inner grotto-heaven in the Divine Bridge realm, it lays down a supreme foundation! 」
[ After breaking through, you discover that you can control the rate of time's passage within the three thousand Soul Heaven worlds, and can even specify the rate of time for a particular area or individual. At most, you can achieve one hundred years outside to one day inside; or conversely, one day outside to one hundred years inside! ]
[ You are ecstatic in your heart; regarding the Time Domain, if you can comprehend even a sliver of the Dao of Time from it, the Great Emperor realm is in sight! ]
[ This means you can either break through realms in an extremely short time, or lay low until the end of time! ]
[ Ding! Triggering simulation path selection. You may select from the following: ]
[ Lay Low Until the End of Time ][ Swiftly Break Through Realms ]
You ponder this simulation. You do not have any talents, and your fortune is not very good either.
That you could achieve what you have today is entirely due to luck.
Moreover... where would I get the resources to break through within the simulation?
The cultivation of the Hegemon Body requires devouring countless divine sources. If you swiftly break through now, only to hit a bottleneck at the very end and fail to advance, forcing you to venture outside to find longevity substances to prolong your life, it would be too late for regrets!
You select: Lay Low Until the End of Time...
[ Ding! ]
[ You decide to adjust the time of the Soul Heaven Ring to one hundred years outside to one day inside. This way, perhaps after a few dozen days, the eerie will depart on its own! ]
[ Year 37,891: Feeling unsafe, you have laid low for a full year. You venture outside to inspect, finding that the exterior is still filled with the eerie. Your heart grows heavy, as if seeing endless insectoids engulfing the entire universe. ]
[ Just as you step out, you feel your Hegemon Body issue a warning. You sense energy eroding your physical body, but your Hegemon Body prevents the eerie from drawing near your physical body! Combined with the Nine Yang Divine Flame, you can barely resist the corrosion. ]
[ You had previously refined the Soul Heaven Ring into your Life-bound Treasure; now, the three thousand worlds are completely fused with your body, and the power of incense flows endlessly. ]
[ You decide, based on the star chart you previously purchased, to land on the nearest life-bearing planet to take a look. ]
[ One month later, you descend upon a life-bearing planet dominated by the Laws of the Blazing Sun—the Blazing Sun Realm. ]
[ Descending upon this realm, you ponder deeply! ]
[ You once had the good fortune of befriending an ascended cultivator from the Blazing Sun Realm. ]
[ He once told you that the Blazing Sun Realm, true to its name, had two suns appearing in turn, with absolutely no night! Yet now, only one sun remains; why has such a change occurred? ]
[ Moreover, the sunlight is extremely weak; that it can still provide illumination is already a great fortune. The entire planet is a world of ice and snow—where is there any trace of the Laws of the Blazing Sun? ]
[ In the past, the Blazing Sun Realm had hundreds and thousands of nations. If one nation grew powerful, the other nations would unite to destroy it. Yet now, from what you see, this realm is divided into two forces: one appears to be human cultivators, but they do not cultivate the Mountain Sea system; instead, they seem to follow a path of dual cultivation of the physical body and the primordial spirit. ]
[ The mental state of these cultivators is somewhat poor, completely unlike what normal practitioners should look like. ]
[ Through your friendly inquiry toward a low-level Innate cultivator, you have initially understood the information of this realm. The cultivation path of the people in this realm is divided into two kinds: one is the Dao Seed path, and the other is the ancient path—a fragmented version of using the body as the Dharma Image. ]
[ Does this sound a bit familiar to you...? ]
[ Using the body as the Dharma Image was precisely the technique self-created by [ You ] that you saw in the previous Simulation, which ultimately allowed you to achieve the I-Transformation of the Dharma Image, reaching the Great Immortal King realm. Why has it appeared here? ]
In reality, Noir is also very puzzled. This system was created by me in the first simulation; could it be that someone in this simulation also comprehended this system to fight against the eerie?
Noir surmises that this might be the trend of the Heavenly Dao, a sort of arrangement to resist the erosion of the eerie.
Destiny chose another person to answer the tribulation.
[ The other force, however, is a group of half-humans, half-bugs. ]
[ You descend among the human force. However, what is very bizarre is that this group of people call themselves demonic cultivators and evil cultivators. You are puzzled in your mind? ]
[ In the third month of Year 37,891, after a thorough investigation on your part. ]
[ Thirty thousand years ago, heaven and earth underwent a drastic change. The ascension passage to the Mountain Sea Great World was severed, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth vanished overnight, and from then on, the connection between heaven and earth was completely severed. ]
[ And more than twenty years later, spiritual energy once again returned to the world, and heaven and earth were once again capable of ascension. ]
[ At that time, some powerful figures speculated that the Heavenly Dao was undergoing metamorphosis, and the myriad realms were upgrading their dimensions! ]
[ However, later on, some powerful figures discovered that this spiritual energy was not that spiritual energy; this was eerie spiritual energy. ]
[ The spiritual energy was no longer pure, mixed with all kinds of impurities—mountain and river spiritual energy, metallic spiritual energy—and the air was filled with countless eerie auras! Cultivators would gradually lose themselves, ultimately transforming into ghosts, bugs, beasts, and monsters. ]
[ Currently, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth has undergone a drastic change. Mortal bodies are already unable to adapt to this treacherous spiritual energy, yet compared to other races, the Human race remains naturally close to the Dao. ]
[ Cultivators conduct spiritual root testing in the mortal world; those with spiritual roots can be planted with a Dao Seed to become cultivators. ]
[ These people are also known as those who "have fated affinity with the Dao." The master leads you to the door, but cultivating the bug relies on the individual. ]
[ They are all convinced; in their eyes, there are no bugs, and everything is beautiful. ]
[ They define those bug eggs as Dao Seeds. For those who cultivate the Dao Seed—plainly speaking, they are pregnant. ]
[ Rejuvenating their youth, the Dao Seed inside their body will breed essence and Qi; those initiated into the Dao Seed are said to be in the Qi Condensation stage. ]
[ This is also the path of cultivation for that group of orthodox insectoids, the 「 Dao Seed 」 path, consisting of the Qi Condensation, Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Golden Core, and Nascent Soul realms. In the Nascent Soul stage, one can ascend to the Upper Realm and comprehend the ultimate truth of the universe. ]
[ These people are called 「 Daoists 」 ]
[ The Nascent Soul stage is likely the realm of the Four Images experts. ]
[ In this realm, you have not detected the aura of any such experts; it is feared that upon reaching such a realm in the lower world, one's cultivation cannot advance further. ]
[ If those who cultivate the eerie Dao Seed method can still call themselves human before the Golden Core stage, after the Golden Core stage, they are no longer human. ]
[ When the Dao Seed cultivator breaks through to the Golden Core realm, the Dao Seed is the Golden Core, and the Golden Core is the Dao Seed—the two are indistinguishable—and they begin "breaking the core to form the Nascent Soul." ]
[ At this point, the Daoist's physical body and divine soul are almost completely affected by the eerie, beginning to merge as one with the Dao Seed, or perhaps feeling the Dao Seed reject their own body. ]
[ Some powerful Dao Seeds, or those that have been nurtured to extreme perfection within the host's body during the Core Formation stage, will bloom prematurely. ]
[ At this point, the Daoist's body will undergo 「 Ghostification 」, and even gradually transform into a half-human, half-ghost existence. Some speculate that this might be because the eerie spiritual energy has contaminated the Dao Seed, causing what was originally an immortal-achieving Dao Seed to turn into a twisted monster. ]
[ Of course, cultivators who can perceive their own 「 Transformation 」 are one in a million... so ordinary cultivators need not worry; they will continue to immerse themselves in a gentle dreamland... and what they see will only be dismissed as having succumbed to inner demons... ]
[ But... thirty thousand years ago... ]
.......
[ These symptoms were known as the mortal sickness thirty thousand years ago, during which succumbing to inner demons was a common occurrence. Heaven and earth were frequently in turmoil, and figures from the Upper Realm often descended—sometimes they were treacherous mighty figures, sometimes they were shrouded in fluttering immortal Qi. Some speculated that perhaps the Upper Realm was undergoing some great battle between righteous and demonic forces at the time... ]
[ The mortal sickness would infect the Dao Seed through spiritual force. Those infected would kneel and worship the Lifeless Broodmother, thanking her for her great benevolence and virtue, and then slaughter every living being they saw. As they slaughtered more, their bodily mutation grew more severe, ultimately becoming bugs. ]
[ A few mighty figures with heaven-reaching cultivation deduced immeasurable methods that could temporarily delay the mortal sickness through some ancient scriptures, but that was all. ]
[ Rumor has it that this 「 Dao Seed Law 」 has been circulating in the Upper Realm for hundreds of millions of years, so it shouldn't be wrong. However, the current eerie spiritual energy is causing uncontrollable mutations in the Dao Seed, even turning the cultivators into insectoids. ]
Outside the simulation, you frown: "I'm afraid this system itself has problems. The Mountain Sea system is the true path to achieving the Dao in the Mountain Sea Great World; when did it change to the Dao Seed?"
[ The Great Dao has fifty paths, Heaven deduces forty-nine, and the 'one' that escapes is the variable; not all 「 Daoists 」 are submerged in the swarm ocean. Some Daoists, upon reaching the Core Formation realm, will see through their true selves. ]
[ They discover that the myriad heavens and worlds are but 「 Insect Dens 」, and the sects and factions are merely nests for hatching shells. ]
[ These Daoists who see through themselves often find their thoughts obstructed, with demons lurking within their Dao. At this time, they must 「 Either Accept Fate 」 or 「 Escape 」. As for a few extreme existences—usually ancestor-level figures of sects—they will slaughter all living beings whose perception does not align with theirs, until they themselves perish. ]
[ These people who see through themselves are known as "those who have succumbed to inner demons, straying into the wrong path, abbreviated as 「 Demons 」." The low-level Innate cultivator you had friendly questioned was one of them. This group of people uses the ancient "using the body as the Dharma Image" and soul-body fusion methods to prevent the eerie Dao Seed aura from spreading throughout their bodies, thereby reaching a state where they are not controlled. ]
[ But this cultivation method is extremely dangerous; with even a slight lapse in care, one will suffer backlash from the Dao Seed and turn into a bug. ]
[ In their subconsciousness, that group of orthodox 「 Cultivators 」 believe that this pack of Demons slaughter the innocent and defy the harmony of heaven, meaning they must be killed on sight. ]
[ Cultivating extremely terrifying demonic arts that defy the Heavenly Dao, they use the Dao Seeds of orthodox cultivators as cultivation resources. ]
[ Some orthodox mighty figures speculate that the root cause of everything was that mortal sickness thirty thousand years ago, leaving behind hidden dangers of inner demons within everyone's body. ]
[ Of course... currently it seems that this mortal sickness was actually just dispelling the illusion in the Daoists' eyes, allowing them to see the real world... After it is dispelled, the Dao Seed (bug egg) inside the body... plans to replace the cultivator's consciousness. If they can withstand it, they become a Demon or an accepting Daoist. ]
[ Can't bear it? Haha, this person is already beyond cure, and will be killed by both the demonic and orthodox sides! ]
[ The lifespan of Demons is typically very short. At the Qi Condensation stage, it is the same as orthodox cultivators, but in the Foundation Establishment stage, it is only half of an orthodox cultivator's; in the Core Formation stage, it is only five to six years; and for those at the Golden Core stage, they will suffer backlash and die within a mere few months. ]
[ Needless to say for the Nascent Soul stage; at every single moment, there are signs of falling into madness, which are identical to the symptoms of the mortal sickness—kneeling and worshiping the Lifeless Broodmother, going on a massive slaughtering spree! ]
[ In the territory of the Demons, you only see a single Golden Core cultivator presiding over it, and there are only a few Core Formation practitioners. ]
[ As for why the Demon forces can stand on equal footing with the "orthodox" without falling into a disadvantage, it is because over thirty thousand years ago, the mortal sickness swept through the Blazing Sun Realm, and the Immortal Dao spiritual energy suddenly reappeared, filling the entire Blazing Sun planet. ]
[ This unexpected event allowed countless people to see through their true selves, and the younger generation possessed even more extraordinary talent. There was even someone who, in a short span of ten years, used the Formless Method (using the body as the Dharma Image) to break through to the Formless Domain (Divine Bridge), on the verge of stepping into the Void Form Domain (God-King). ]
[ Even in the Upper Realm, a God-King is an existence that suppresses a region... ]
[ Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. One of the daytime suns that originally represented the two characters of the Blazing Sun—the Golden Sun—suddenly vanished into thin air. In its stead, there appeared an unimaginably colossal insect. ]
[ It was like a supreme bug, devouring other planets in a single gulp, charging straight toward the Blazing Sun planet. All the cultivators of the Blazing Sun planet fell into despair, as if doomsday had arrived. ]
[ But at this moment, a man's Dharma Image stood between heaven and earth, his body spanning countless millions of miles, like a deity of heaven and earth. ]
[ Holding a sword in his hand, his sword light reversed the laws, instantly slaying that supreme bug. Afterward, he used his sword to draw a circle on the ground; only those who had seen through their true selves could enter, while insectoids would instantly turn to ashes upon entering. ]
[ From then on, inside the circle was the paradise of the evil cultivators, while outside the circle, countless eerie beings watched greedily. ]
[ However, the seal frequently loosened, and this was precisely the opportunity for the bugs to launch an attack! ]
.......
Outside the Simulator, you feel a wave of chill.
From the low-level cultivators to the entire cultivation world, and then to the broader world, it seems everything is under the control of some invisible force.
[ You realize that your strength is still somewhat insufficient; you decide to modify the time flow rate of the three thousand Soul Heaven worlds. ]
[ For every single day you wait in the outside world, one hundred years will pass inside; the incense and merit obtained every day will surely be an astronomical figure! ]
[ And those deceased lifeforms, their souls will be condensed into Origin by your Soul Heaven Ring—recycling waste into treasure! ]