[In the 33rd year, you lived alone in the Black Serpent Woods for three years]

[You began raising pigs and dogs, chickens and ducks]

[Every day, you spoke to these animals so your language skills wouldn’t deteriorate]

[You planted several peach trees in your quiet little courtyard]

[You liked peach trees very much; their flowers were beautiful, and the peaches were delicious]

[Looking at the peach trees, you would think of Miao Liwu, wondering how this martial arts prodigy was doing]

[You established your own base in this dense forest]

[You often lay under the peach trees in your courtyard, closing your eyes to rest]

[Sometimes you would go fishing at a nearby waterfall]

[You no longer used true qi to shock fish, but quietly waited for the fish to bite]

[You gradually truly understood the joy of fishing]

[Besides cultivation, your life was very leisurely]

[You comprehended the meaning behind the phrase “picking chrysanthemums by the eastern fence, leisurely seeing the southern mountain”]

[In the 35th year, you were fifty years old]

[You still looked like you were in your early twenties; this was the benefit of cultivating martial arts—your appearance aged much slower than ordinary people]

[Even at eighty or ninety, you would only look like you were in your thirties or forties]

[So judging a martial artist’s age by appearance alone was unreliable]

[You might see a young man, but he could be much older than your aunt]

[Although martial artists aged slowly in appearance, their actual lifespan was about the same as ordinary people]

[Martial artists generally lived to eighty or ninety, with some exceptionally living past a hundred]

[There were rumors that Ultimate Grandmasters lived even longer]

[You had never met anyone at that level, so you didn’t know if the rumors were true]

[You didn’t dwell on it—you were only in early-stage Bone Tempering, far from Ultimate Grandmaster level]

[You focused solely on your cultivation]

[Your cultivation at early-stage Bone Tempering was very stable]

[Judging by the intensity of your current pill consumption, you estimated you could break through to mid-stage Bone Tempering in about two years]

[You had cultivated Phantom Phoenix Steps to a minor success realm]

[Your movement became even more graceful]

[Your positioning could even dodge basic attacks]

[You now knew Wan Qingluan hadn’t used her full strength when chasing you]

[You became more proficient at refining Blood Qi Pills]

[Out of ten Blood Qi Pills refined, you could successfully produce eight]

[Your pill refining skill had reached mastery level]

[With this Blood Qi Pill refining technique, you could serve as a core technician in any sect]

[However, Blood Qi Pills were only effective for Skin Refining and Bone Tempering]

[At Marrow Washing and higher levels, Blood Qi Pills had little effect]

[After Marrow Washing, internal spirit pills were needed to significantly increase true qi and assist cultivation]

[You planned to obtain a pill recipe for internal spirit pills if possible]

[But pill recipes were very rare]

[They were usually passed down by alchemists through eighteen generations, rarely accessible to outsiders]

[You didn’t push for it and took it as fate allowed]

[At least for now, Blood Qi Pills could be supplied infinitely, so you would first improve to the peak of Bone Tempering]

[In the 37th year, you sometimes needed to leave the forest to nearby towns to purchase materials for refining Blood Qi Pills]

[One day, you were eating and resting at an inn in the city]

[You overheard several martial artists chatting next door]

["Did you hear? Miao Liwu, the young hero of the Sword Establishment Pavilion, has won again!"]

["I heard that! That Wolf King ranks third among the young generation of the demonic path!"]

["Young hero Miao fought in the northern Cangwang Desert for three days and nights. In the end, he emerged alone from the desert, holding the Wolf King’s head high on his spear—so majestic and satisfying!"]

["Of the top ten young fighters in the demonic path, Miao has slain eight. This time, the demonic path must be severely weakened!"]

["Miao Liwu is only twenty-one years old and already at the peak of Organ Fortifying. I can’t imagine how high he’ll rise!"]

["Looks like the Sword Establishment Pavilion will produce another Ultimate Grandmaster."]

["Isn’t the Sword Establishment Pavilion famous for swords? How come Miao’s weapon is a spear?"]

["It’s said that when Miao was young, a martial arts elder gifted him a spear and guided him onto the martial path. Since then, Miao specialized in spear techniques, killing enemies with just one spear!"]

[This was the first time you heard news of Miao Liwu]

[You hadn’t expected that snot-nosed kid to reach such heights]

[Miao Liwu’s cultivation was two realms higher than yours]

[You felt like you’d wasted these decades living like a dog]

["Good kid, really impressive!"]

[But then again, did you envy Miao Liwu’s talent?]

[You didn’t envy him, because you were a cheat!]

["In this simulation, uncle can’t keep up with you. Wait for me to simulate a few more times!"]

["Genius? Every genius has to call me genius!"]

[At the same time, you thought of a question: will Miao Liwu be born again in the next simulation?]

[Without you sending food during that drought, Wei Xia and Miao Jiayao probably starved to death. How could Miao Liwu be born?]

[But maybe not, since Wei Xia still had strength to come find you during that drought. Perhaps Wei Xia survived]

[Miao Liwu’s birth was not funded by Miao Jiayao but by another investor]

[Too many uncertainties]

[You didn’t think about it further]

[You thought about how Miao Liwu had always used a spear, surely influenced by the martial arts manual you left him]

["Using a spear in the Sword Establishment Pavilion, you’re quite the talent."]

[The Sword Establishment Pavilion was not a small sect but one of the five great sects, very powerful]

[In terms of combat strength, it ranked first among the five great sects]

[One could imagine how much favor Miao Liwu received there because of his talent]

[But none of this concerned you]

[You wouldn’t seek out Miao Liwu and would keep your distance even more]

[Avoiding entanglement with these godlike figures’ fates would let you live longer]

[You returned to the dense forest and continued living as a wild man]

[You trained even more diligently]

[You didn’t even fish anymore]

[From dawn till dusk, you took pills]

[At the first ray of morning light, you swallowed a Blood Qi Pill]

[In the unbearable midday heat, you swallowed another Blood Qi Pill]

[With the first cool breeze of night, you swallowed yet another Blood Qi Pill]

[You even feared developing resistance to Blood Qi Pills]

[Finally, hard work paid off for the pill taker]

[In the 38th year, you were fifty-three years old]

[One morning, your bones cracked and popped all over]

[You broke through to mid-stage Bone Tempering]

[True qi surged, shaking the peach trees in your courtyard, making their flowers scatter and drift into the air]

[A gale lifted the peach blossoms, swirling them skyward]

[True qi formed a thin film around your body, capable of withstanding ordinary people’s sword and blade attacks]

[Your bones began showing signs of jade transformation, shining with a translucent luster]

[Your bones were strengthened, truly becoming hard bones]

[Your Phantom Phoenix Steps also improved]

[Your proficiency reached mastery]

[You could now stay in the air for the duration of one breath]

[Your combat power in midair was epic-level enhanced]

[Your Blood Qi Pill refining ability remained at mastery]

[Breaking through to perfection was extremely difficult]

[You knew this was called the law of diminishing returns—improving the last bit required increasingly more effort]

[Fortunately, your mastery-level refining ability was sufficient, so you didn’t force perfection]

[You would just slowly improve your refining skills in daily practice]

[That day, you were cultivating in your courtyard]

[Suddenly, the courtyard gate was kicked open]

[A fierce shout rang out: “Villain, come out and die!!”]