"Tomorrow is the day of our very first trial. It is time to put our strength to the test!"
"I heard the class monitor has already mastered beginner beast taming, and his family even helped him contract a Nether Soul Wolf. Should we go ask him to form a party?"
"Forget it. Someone as popular as the class monitor was probably snapped up long ago. If you ask me, the only one left for us is that guy."
"That guy? What's the use of teaming up with a good-for-nothing? He'd be too slow even for cannon fodder!"
...
Qinghe High School.
In the second-to-last row on the side of the classroom, Ye Feng rested his chin in his hand and gazed out the window.
This was his third year since transmigrating.
Who would have thought he would end up in a world where spiritual energy was reviving?
Though calling it a spiritual energy revival wasn't entirely accurate; strictly speaking, it was the awakening of various abilities.
Everyone in this world awakened a special power at the age of eighteen. Some cultivated immortality, some practiced martial arts, and some manipulated magic.
The problem was that he had already passed his eighteenth age, yet nothing had changed.
Someone like Ye Feng was probably the only one of his kind in this world, which meant that for the school's final assessment—the dungeon trial—no one was willing to group up with him.
However, none of that mattered anymore. Right now, he had something much more important to attend to.
[Your Transmigration Simulator loading progress: 98%...]
"It should hit 100% by the time school lets out."
Ye Feng casually closed the blue interface floating before his eyes. He could only rely on this now, and he hoped this sudden simulator would bring him some surprises.
After school, Ye Feng lay on his bed, quietly staring at the interface in front of him. The System had already notified him during dinner that the loading was complete.
A spark of hope quietly took root in the ordinary Ye Feng's heart. Who wouldn't want to transmigrate and become an overpowered protagonist?
Back then, he had even wanted to try shouting out the feeling of "Don't bully a young man for being poor."
"Come on, let me see what this is all about!"
[Life Simulation System loaded successfully. The Life Simulation System is designed to let you experience different lives.]
[The System will provide corresponding rewards based on the achievements you unlock.]
Light and shadow flickered across the screen before him. Ye Feng gently tapped "Start Simulation" on the interface.
[Simulation loading...]
[Remaining simulation attempts: 0]
[Background randomly generated: Cultivation World]
[Talents generating. You will randomly acquire two of the following talents:]
World-Burning Fire Spiritual Root (Gold): The ultimate form of the fire-attribute spiritual root, possessing absolute innate control over flames, allowing you to use any fire-attribute cultivation technique at will.
Myriad Phenomena Spiritual Perception (Purple): Perception of all things in the world is sharpened to the absolute limit, enabling the detection of minute spiritual energy fluctuations and doubling results with half the effort during cultivation.
Artifact Refining Master (Blue): Possesses a unique innate perception of artifact-refining materials, making him an exceptionally gifted genius in artifact crafting.
Low-Light Night Vision (Green): Retains good vision even in dimly lit environments, allowing one to move as smoothly as on flat ground when operating at night or exploring dark caves.
Tenacity (Green): You can endure far more than ordinary people.
"Give me at least a gold or a purple!" Ye Feng quickly scrolled through the list. The best among them was naturally the gold-tier World-Burning Fire Spiritual Root.
Spiritual roots were of paramount importance in cultivation. If he could randomly roll the World-Burning Fire Spiritual Root, his life would likely become a lot more comfortable. Of course, settling for second best with "Myriad Phenomena Spiritual Perception" wouldn't be bad either. But if he rolled "Night Vision" and "Tenacity," it would simply waste his status as a transmigrator.
Soon, the simulator gave its results. The other talents vanished completely, leaving only the "World-Burning Fire Spiritual Root" and "Tenacity" in front of Ye Feng.
"Not bad either. At least I have a safety net." Ye Feng was quite satisfied with the outcome; his luck wasn't that terrible after all.
[Talent selection complete. Entering the simulation world.]
[All goes smoothly.]
...
[User 0931, Simulation 01 begins.]
[Two months later, your body is plagued by illness, and painkillers have ceased to be effective.]
[In the depths of agony, you choose to commit suicide by charcoal burning.]
[To your surprise, you successfully transmigrate and return to age 17, burdened with the top-tier talents "World-Burning Fire Spiritual Root" and "Tenacity."]
[You earn the appreciation of Li Muyang, Peak Master of the Tianjian Sect, and are taken in as a disciple, entering the lineage of Hengzhu Peak.]
[Endowed with extraordinary talent, your cultivation progresses at a speed beyond ordinary comprehension. Within a few years, you achieve minor success and step into the Golden Core realm.]
[One day, the peerless Chaotic Divine Body manifests out of thin air, and factions from all sides rush to seize it.]
[Your Master orders you to accompany your Senior Brothers to ensure it does not fall into the hands of demonic cultivators.]
"Ugh..."
Ye Feng covered his mouth. Everywhere his gaze fell, corpses lay scattered in disorder. Fresh blood gushed from their wounds, and the air was thick with a sickening, pungent stench of blood.
Ye Feng hadn't expected this simulation to be so painfully realistic.
His stomach churned violently, though through a forceful suppression, he managed not to actually vomit.
"Junior Brother? Are you alright? You haven't experienced much of the mortal world and usually stay within the sect; it's normal to feel unwell seeing a scene like this," a Senior Brother said, offering words of comfort when he noticed that their master's most prized youngest disciple seemed somewhat unaccustomed to the bloody spectacle. "This Chaotic Divine Body is a top-tier talent in the cultivation world. Reaching the Tribulation Crossing stage is practically a certainty, so it's entirely normal for major sects to fight tooth and nail over it."
"Thank you, Senior Brother Wang. I just need a moment to recover. You guys go ahead, I'll be right behind you," Ye Feng thanked him politely.
The senior brother surnamed Wang was slightly older among this group of Tianjian Sect disciples and possessed the highest cultivation base, acting as the leader of this sub-team. Hearing this, he nodded and turned back to address the junior brothers waiting behind him: "It should be right ahead. Let's move!"
"Understood!" the others chorused in unison. One by one, they muttered incantations under their breath, steering their respective flying swords and streaking away like shooting stars.
Ye Feng watched the figures darting rapidly ahead and thought to himself, "It looks like the destination is just up ahead. This is my first time carrying out Master's orders; I mustn't mess it up."
He took a deep breath, fighting hard to suppress the lingering discomfort in his body, before steering his flying sword and accelerating to catch up with all his might.
Before long, the group descended one after another into a spacious clearing.
At this very moment, across that wide open ground, numerous cultivators were unleashing their respective Daoist techniques, sending flashes of light darting everywhere in a dazzling display!
And the two factions locked in fierce combat seemed to share a tacit understanding, instinctively forming a circle around the perimeter.
Amidst the clamor and shrieks of agony, the faint sound of an infant crying drifted into Ye Feng's ears.
Ye Feng looked toward the center of the circle and saw an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes lying right in the middle. Though the surrounding cultivators were locked in a fierce battle, their eyes kept darting toward the baby from time to time.
"So this is the peerless Chaotic Divine Body? How is it still just a baby?"
Just as Ye Feng was pondering this, a dark figure suddenly lunged toward the infant.
"Watch out!" Ye Feng cried out, rapidly summoning his flying sword and hurtling it toward the dark figure...