9: Chapter 9 Simulation Results

When Shen Ye emerged from the Simulated Rift, he was drenched in sweat.

He had been fighting three Void Tribe Scouts for over an hour. It wasn't because he couldn't defeat them—the sword qi baptism from the Five Elements Array Eye: Metal had raised the attack power of his Metal Spirit Root Kin to a new level. Although the first batch of spiritual plant sprouts produced by the spiritual fields couldn't be used for medicine yet, the Wood Spirit Root Kin had already learned to use the root systems of the spiritual plants to temporarily weave vine nets to trap enemies. What truly took up his time were the battlefield parameters that Qin Shu kept adjusting.

In the first round, Qin Shu increased the concentration of the Devouring Abyss power of the Void Tribe Scouts by twenty percent. Shen Ye's Five Elements Trapping Array was torn open, and the three scouts broke through the Metal-element Sword Cultivator's defensive line, charging straight at the Wood-element and Water-element cultivators. He used the rock walls of his Earth-element cultivators to block a bone blade, losing seven kin in the process.

In the second round, Qin Shu changed the battlefield environment from a wasteland to a mine cave. The narrow terrain made the deployment of the Five Elements Array half a beat slower. The bone blades of the Void Tribe Scouts ricocheted off the rock walls, striking the array of Fire-element cultivators from the side. Shen Ye lost twelve kin.

In the third round, Qin Shu mixed in a Void Clan Warrior among the Void Tribe Scouts. It wasn't a scout, but a true warrior-class entity. Its bone armor was thicker, its bone blades were faster, and its Devouring Abyss power was more concentrated. Shen Ye committed all his kin to the fight, and with the Five Elements Array Eye: Metal operating at full capacity, the flying swords of the Metal-element Sword Cultivators managed to break through its defense only after hacking seventeen cracks into the warrior's bone armor. He won, but lost twenty-three kin.

Qin Shu offered no commentary; he simply recorded a few lines on his data pad and then said, "Continue tomorrow."

When Shen Ye walked out of the training room, his legs felt weak. It wasn't physical exhaustion, but the depletion of his divine sense. After over an hour of high-intensity commanding, his consciousness had been switching back and forth between the Cultivation Divine Kingdom and the battlefield. Every command had to be precise, down to the positioning of every single kin, the timing of every spell cast, and the nodes for every shift in the array. A single mistake meant the death of his kin.

He leaned against the corridor wall and closed his eyes. His consciousness sank into the Cultivation Divine Kingdom.

Within the Cultivation Divine Kingdom, the kin who had fallen in battle were being reborn. It wasn't a resurrection—it was the condensation of new life from the source of the Divine Kingdom. Nine Metal Spirit Root Kin had been lost, and nine newborn Metal Spirit Root cultivators condensed from the source, at the early stage of Qi Refining, ignorant and pure. Six Wood Spirit Root, four Water Spirit Root, thirteen Fire Spirit Root, and ten Earth Spirit Root kin were lost. A total of forty-two newborn kin stood up amidst the mountains and plains, looking up at the sky.

Shen Ye watched them. They looked exactly like the kin who had died—the same faces, the same spirit roots, the same aptitude. But they possessed no memories of the battle. The experience of using vine nets to trap Void Tribe Scouts in the Simulated Rift, using rock walls to block bone blades, and using flying swords to hack seventeen cracks into the warrior's bone armor—all of it had reset to zero.

This was the rule of the Divine Kingdom. Kin could be reborn, but combat experience could not be retained. Every death was a true loss.

Unless—

Shen Ye's consciousness swept toward the Land of Gods and Demons. The Reincarnation Pool had not yet been built. That was a legacy of the Twilight Civilization, a legendary-grade structure capable of allowing fallen angels and succubi to be reborn in the pool while retaining partial combat experience. But he didn't even have the blueprints for the Reincarnation Pool, let alone the construction materials. The resources required for a legendary-grade structure were more than ten times that of an epic-grade one.

Shen Ye withdrew his consciousness and opened his eyes.

He couldn't rush. It had only been his second day since awakening.