One Trait Draw Per Year Even Simulations Count

This kind of problem isn’t a fatal issue for Heaven-Grade, Earth-Grade, or even lower-grade Spirit Artifacts.

Because even for Heaven-Grade Spirit Artifacts, a skilled artifact forger has ways to reshape their Artifact Spirit.

Or simply do without an Artifact Spirit altogether, letting the martial artist themselves act as the spirit, using Spiritual Energy to control the artifact in place of an Artifact Spirit.

Because Spirit Artifacts below the Heaven-Grade aren’t so complex that a martial artist would be completely unable to understand them.

But Immortal Artifacts are different.

What can be called an Immortal Artifact is no longer a structure that normal people can comprehend.

To put it bluntly, it’s like a mountain of shit code. Once the Artifact Spirit is lost and it stops functioning, no one can get it working again.

If Immortal Artifacts are already like this, then there’s no need to mention the even more complex, profound, and even immortality-related Great Dao Immortal Artifacts.

After learning all this, you think back to the scene that just flashed before your eyes.

”Why did the Nine Provinces Cauldron show me Da Chun? What is He hinting at...”Chen Yi, both inside the simulation and outside of it, thought of it almost simultaneously.

”Is Da Chun the Artifact Spirit?!”

This idea was too insane.

How could the Village Simpleton from a remote little village have any connection to a Great Dao Immortal Artifact?

”Wait... if Da Chun really is the Artifact Spirit...”

Chen Yi then thought of the massacre of Luoding Village.

An ordinary, almost entirely farming-based small village was visited by a group of professional killers who slaughtered them all.

Could that also be related to Da Chun?

Was the other party actually trying to kill Da Chun?

They just didn’t know who Da Chun was, so they killed everyone?

But why would they want to kill the Artifact Spirit of the Nine Provinces Cauldron?

”Next simulation, I must bring Da Chun to the side of the Nine Provinces Cauldron. A miracle might just happen!”

Just moments ago, Chen Yi thought that because of the seal’s existence, even with the foreknowledge from simulations, he couldn’t obtain the Nine Provinces Cauldron in the short term.

Now it seemed, that might not be the case!

Upon learning that the Nine Provinces Cauldron’s Artifact Spirit was lost, leaving only a dead-heavy, utterly functionless cauldron body, the various factions were all very disappointed.

After all, even if their own faction couldn’t obtain it, if humanity could gain one more Great Dao Immortal Artifact, the power balance with the demon race would be broken.

The Sword Lord himself also sighed.

”What a pity. If we had a complete Great Dao Immortal Artifact in hand, our martial artists from the Five Domains could strike into the Great Wastes and reclaim the three thousand Heaven-Grade Spiritual Veins occupied by the demon race.”

The others standing in the air also felt regret.

”Records concerning Great Dao Immortal Artifacts have been blank for tens of thousands of years. Finally, one emerges, yet it has no Artifact Spirit. It truly makes one wring one’s hands in frustration.”

”Currently, the only faction among us humans that possesses a Great Dao Immortal Artifact is the reclusive Shen Family of the Starry Sky.”

”The Shen Family’s Qiankun Mirror isn’t complete either; it’s severely damaged and often runs amok. Once, when I went to visit the Shen Family, I was nearly sent into a spacetime vortex by the Qiankun Mirror.”

From the casual chat of these big shots, you actually heard about the Shen Family of the Starry Sky!

”Damn, Third Brother-in-law is really amazing! This Shen Family of the Starry Sky is actually the only faction that possesses a Great Dao Immortal Artifact!”

At this moment, you have only one firm thought in your heart.

I am Shen Qingshan, and Shen Qingshan is me! Founding Ancestor, next simulation, you must bring me home!

Forty-fourth year, age sixty-two.

The Cauldron Quest Tournament concluded.

The Nine Provinces Cauldron, lacking an Artifact Spirit, couldn’t even be stored in a storage-type Spirit Artifact.

With no other choice, the Sword Lord personally took action, using a thousand flying swords to transport the Nine Provinces Cauldron back to the Limitless Sword Sect.

You and Zhen Pin head for Xiliang.

You leave the Eastern Wastes.

You cross over the Cangqiong Ridge.

You enter the territory of the Central Plains.

You cross the Qing River, passing by your homeland, Baling Prefecture in Qingzhou.

You make a detour to Baiyun County.

Seeing that Da Chun and Third Sister and her family were living well and peacefully, you didn’t disturb them.

Taking Da Chun to the Limitless Sword Sect now to test if he’s the Artifact Spirit is no longer realistic.

He’s not a martial artist. Now in his sixties, although free from illness and disaster, he is, after all, an old man.

The journey is long and arduous, with demons lurking along the way. How could you traverse mountains and rivers, how could you face demons while bringing an old man along? It’s truly a huge problem.

Even if you were Zhao Yun and Da Chun were Liu Shan, and you tied him to your back to charge through enemy lines seven times, his old body wouldn’t be able to withstand it.

Next time.

At least let Da Chun live out this life carefree and without worries.

Passing through Divine Arms County, you discover that local ”Divine Monkey Temples” have appeared, enshrining a Divine Monkey General, with flourishing incense offerings.

That fellow Zhen Pin, along the way, visits and pays respects at every temple he encounters. He says it’s a rule for monks.

So he bowed respectfully to that golden monkey statue.

You look at the appearance of the golden statue; it’s clearly the Fiery-Eyed Golden Monkey.

You don’t see a statue of the other four-eyed, six-eared spiritual monkey, though.

You ask some local folks who came to offer incense.

You learn that over the years, the Fiery-Eyed Golden Monkey has vanquished demons and eliminated evils in Divine Arms County, saving many people.

The common people, grateful for his kindness, built him a golden statue and enshrined it in the temple, accepting incense offerings and prayers.

At first, there were very few Divine Monkey Temples.

But the Fiery-Eyed Golden Monkey is not one to sit idle.

Whenever commoners came to offer incense and pray, murmuring about recent difficulties they faced, the Fiery-Eyed Golden Monkey would actually appear to help them solve their troubles.

From corrupt officials oppressing the people at the top, to digging wells that yielded no water at the bottom, the Golden Monkey could solve it all.

He doesn’t rely solely on martial prowess.

This monkey’s master is the Pavilion Master of the Divine Arms Pavilion, the leader of one of the Eight Pillars of the Five Domains. That’s a pretty big background.

So he can handle human relations and worldly affairs too.

After offering incense, you continue on your journey.

Forty-seventh year, age sixty-five.

The Central Plains is vast, and you didn’t deliberately hurry.

Before you knew it, you had been wandering for three years.

During these three years, you also had the Ten Thousand Souls Banner sense for the location of Earth Veins.

Unfortunately, nothing was discovered.

The Central Plains is not peaceful these days.

The Female Emperor of the Southern Borderlands is constantly launching northern expeditions, proclaiming herself the true orthodox ruler of the Central Plains.

The Khans of the Northern Frontier tribes want to march south to capture the dragon, claiming their ancestors intermarried with Central Plains imperial dynasties, so their bloodline is also of imperial orthodox lineage.

The Great Qian Emperor sits in his palace, while the label of ’barbarian’ falls from the sky onto his head.

When the war situation became tense, the imperial court proposed peace negotiations.

But the current Female Emperor of the Southern Borderlands and the Great Khan of the Northern Frontier are both highly aggressive personalities. Envoys sent by the court for peace talks were slaughtered by them.

One sentence!

In the struggle for the Central Plains, the winner is the orthodox ruler, the loser is the barbarian!

The court fights wars on both the northern and southern fronts simultaneously, finding it very strenuous.

The lives of common folk in an era of raging war are destined to be difficult.

The only good news is that no matter how the war is fought, the martial artists appearing on the battlefield will not exceed the Spirit Condensation realm.

This seems to be a kind of tacit agreement to avoid the war causing the decline of humanity’s top martial experts.

But the war must be fought because some conflicts cannot be resolved by sitting down and slowly talking.

As for martial sects, they already have the principle of not participating in conflicts between human political powers. Moreover, right now, they are all busy studying the Nine Provinces Cauldron.