Chapter 121 Choosing Talents, Simulating Paths

"Phew..."

Li Ang stood at the edge of the cliff, the night wind blowing the hem of his clothes.

He took a deep breath of the air, which carried the scent of the mountain forest.

He quickly suppressed the slight surge of emotion in his heart caused by the sudden acquisition of great power.

A hundred years of trials were not experienced in vain; his martial heart was as firm as a rock.

He had long since become immune to this fleeting "nouveau riche" mentality.

After all, for the current Li Ang...

This was merely like going to a bank to withdraw the savings he deserved.

What he truly looked forward to was the changes in the life simulator itself.

With a thought, he summoned the life simulator panel, which had already been upgraded to version 2.0.

As his Martial Arts Realm in reality broke through one after another, several notification messages appeared on the panel that he hadn't had time to look at closely:

[Detected host's Martial Arts Realm has increased to the Origin Opening Realm!]

[Obtained: Talent Slot Fragment +1 (Current Progress: 1/2)]

[Detected host's Martial Arts Realm has increased to the Soaring Realm!]

[Obtained: Talent Slot Fragment +1 (Current Progress: 2/2)]

[Congratulations, host, for collecting all fragments. Talent carrying slots +1! (Current total slots: 4)]

[Note: Subsequent Breakthroughs in major Realms will continue to drop Talent Slot Fragments. Please Cultivate diligently.]

[Version Update Tip: With the leap in the host's life level, the quality upper limit of the random initial talents rolled when starting a new simulation has been increased!]

[Highest Rank talent drop rate adjusted: Increased from "Blue (Rare)" to "Purple (Epic)"!]

"As expected."

Li Ang looked at the changes on the panel, not feeling surprised.

After each simulation ends, as his own strength increases...

The simulator will also undergo corresponding iterative upgrades.

"A new talent slot has been added."

"In the next simulation, I can carry four talents into the field at the same time."

"The starting advantage has improved a lot again."

"And purple talents can now appear in the random pool..."

"This is good news."

However, before that, he had to fill the vacancy for this fourth permanent talent.

He still had 4,850 destiny points left in his hand.

It seemed like a lot, but after the gamble of spending 20,000 points to smelt [Regret of a Thousand Autumns (Gold)]...

Li Ang deeply realized the importance of point reserves.

"Good steel must be used on the blade's edge; it can't be wasted on those trash talents."

While thinking, Li Ang opened the talent exchange library and began searching through the dense list of entries.

[Early Balding (White)]: Your hair will fall out quickly, but it also saves shampoo.

[Iron Stomach (Green)]: You can digest some food that ordinary people cannot, such as tree bark and Guanyin Clay.

[Gambler's Intuition (White)]: When guessing heads or tails of a coin, your accuracy is slightly higher than 50%.

[Flat Ground Trip (Grey)]: You have a 5% chance of falling while walking on flat ground.

[Picky Eater (Grey)]: You don't eat cilantro or chopped green onions.

[Deep Sea Phobia (Grey)]: You are afraid of deep water, even if it's a bathtub.

[Late Night Champion (White)]: Your dark circles are heavier than others, but this does not affect your spirit.

[Directionally Challenged (Grey)]: Even with a map, you can't find north.

...

Looking at the screen full of bizarre, even somewhat spoof-like grey and white talents...

Li Ang couldn't help but rub his brow.

He felt like the expert aura he had just established by breaking through to Fuyao was about to be dissipated by these things.

"I almost forgot, I've only simulated four times."

"Besides the innate [Hardworking and Enduring (Green)], plus the [Blade Dao Genius (Blue)] that I lucked into..."

"This talent library is practically a junkyard."

He directly filtered out those useless white and grey talents.

He fixed his gaze on the four currently unlocked [Green] talents.

They were: [Iron Stomach (Green)], [Absolute Pitch (Green)], [Tireless Teacher (Green)], and [Passerby A (Green)].

Before choosing, he took a look at the updated talent exchange price list:

[The talent exchange price list is as follows:]

[Grey Talent: 20 points]

[White Talent: 50 points]

[Green Talent: 150 points]

[Blue Talent: 500 points]

[Purple Talent: 6,000 points]

[golden talent: Insufficient permissions, cannot exchange (Requires a specific item as a medium to forge).]

Seeing the high price of 6,000 points for "Purple Talent" and the strict conditions for golden talents...

Li Ang once again silently thanked the "wealth-sending boy" far away in the Grotto-Heaven.

"Han Ming, oh Han Ming, you really are a great person."

"Not only did you help me forge the divine fetus, but you also gave me a golden talent with your thousand years of regret."

"I, Li, will remember this kindness."

"If I have the chance, I'll definitely burn more paper money for you."

Pulling his thoughts back, Li Ang began to seriously evaluate those four green talents.

[Iron Stomach] was passed immediately.

He was already in the Soaring Realm; he shouldn't have the chance to play the role of a refugee.

As for the [Passerby A (Green)] he had used before, Li Ang did not intend to exchange it and make it permanent again.

The reason was simple: the functions overlapped.

He now had the [Cang Ming Lotus Heart Divine Fetus] in his body, which came with its own "divine firewall" that isolated Karma.

Coupled with the effect of [Thousand Faces of Myriad Selves]...

Combined with his own martial arts methods for concealing his aura, his stealth was already maxed out.

The slight effect of [Passerby A] in reducing presence had become redundant for him.

His gaze finally settled on a green talent named [Tireless Teacher].

[Tireless Teacher (Green)]:

You are very patient when teaching others and can extremely keenly point out the other party's mistakes in cultivation and learning.

The comprehension of students taught by you will be slightly improved, and they usually progress very quickly.

"This is the one."

Li Ang did not hesitate, directly spending 150 destiny points to exchange it and equipped it into the fourth talent slot.

Why choose this support talent that seemingly didn't help with combat power at all?

This related to Li Ang's strategic planning for the next simulation.

"Spending eighty years in the Xuan Shui Cave Heaven allowed me to rush to the Soaring Realm in one go."

"But that doesn't mean I'm invincible in the world."

Li Ang stood in the night wind, carefully calculating his current shortcomings.

"The 'Heavenly Sea Billowing Body Spirit Seed Origin Method' Grandmaster Zhao Zongtian gave me can only be cultivated to the Soaring Realm at most."

Actually, in the final stage of the fourth simulation...

Relying on his deep understanding of new martial arts and Traditional Martial Arts, plus the addition of "Faith Computing Power"...

He had already touched the threshold of subsequent cultivation and deduced how the path to the Mountain-Sea Realm should be taken.

This was exactly where his confidence lay when he asserted back then that "without Han Ming's constraints, becoming a Grandmaster in one leap is not a dream."

But.

"That set of self-deduced wild paths is still too crude."

Li Ang shook his head slightly.

"At that time, the vast majority of my time and computing power were used on climbing the ladder and analyzing divine art models; deducing Martial Arts Cultivation Techniques was just something I did in passing."

"If I were to rely entirely on myself now, in the real world without the addition of massive Faith Computing Power..."

"To slowly polish, or even forcibly deduce to the higher 'Shentong Realm'..."

"That efficiency would be far too low."

Li Ang looked at the city lights in the distance, his eyes narrowing slightly.

Ignoring a ready-made feast...

And insisting on starting from growing rice to research how to cook.

That's not a Genius, that's a fool.

In the era of new martial arts, resources and knowledge are highly monopolized.

Truly top-tier Cultivation Techniques, top-secret intelligence about gods and other-dimensional Realms...

All of it is held in the hands of the Federation's high-level officials, top academies, major financial groups, and great clans.

"I can't run to some Secret Realm to be a 'Shili Slope Sword God' in every simulation."

"If I want to obtain higher martial arts Legacies and break the information gap between classes, I must join them!"

And for the current Li Ang, the best and most legitimate entry point...

Is to join the "Twin Stars"!

"This time, I will take the path that the original owner of this body desired most."

"To become a high-profile commoner Genius!"

The original owner's greatest dream was to be admitted to one of the "Twin Stars."

Those are the two top academies in the entire Federation, where countless children of the elite converge.

But they also maintain a "commoner faction" that represents lower-level Martial Artists.

"In the next simulation, I will play the role of a 'commoner Genius' that fits everyone's stereotypes."

"I will use the effects brought by [Thousand Faces of Myriad Selves] to climb up the Federation step by step."

"Enroll in a Martial Arts University, show my brilliance, join a faction, make connections with the elite, and finally... stay at the school to teach and become a high-level official of the academy!"

Once I become a mentor or even a professor at Twin Stars, those strictly sealed library collections and top-secret archives will no longer be secrets to me.

And the talent [Tireless Teacher]...

It might help Li Ang quickly establish prestige and Cultivate his own student base.

Of course, this is just a draft for now.

Rigorous by nature, he never sets a plan in stone.

"If at the start of the next simulation, the System rolls a powerful purple talent for me..."

"Then there might be new ways to play it."

There is plenty of time to plan everything.

Li Ang glanced at the bottom of the panel.

There, the countdown representing the start of the fifth simulation was slowly ticking.

[Next simulation cooldown: 30 days.]