9 First Successful Simulation

[3.10 pm. You had waited only 5 minutes while standing, and you realized a problem right away. It was easy to say one would stand in one place and wait for 24 hours to pass, but it was another thing to actually do it, especially with nothing to do. Each second that passed, especially in a tense situation where you feared anything could happen, was like a whole year in your opinion.]

[3.15 pm. Another 5 minutes passed, and you became increasingly restless. You decided that your best bet would be to collect the Martial Arts manual and the resources and practice the methods to pass the time while you waited. As such, you blinked out of your cell and headed over to take the necessary items and resources, then came back.]

[3.20 pm. You finished reading the manual seriously and taking note of the details and began training.]

[3.30 pm. It took you 10 minutes to finish the first of 9 introductory exercises needed to activate your blood qi and enter the Skin Tempering Realm. You were absolutely tired and weak, unable to get up and no longer caring about the mucky floor.]

[3.40 pm. You rested for 10 minutes and tried to do the second exercise but completely gave up halfway through and fell to the ground while sweating and utterly fatigued. Your muscles were spasming, and your bones were creaking, your entire body wracked with a strange pain.]

[3.50 pm. You tried to get up but fell back down weakly, as if all the energy had been sucked out of you. Shocked, you quickly checked the manual and slapped your forehead, realizing that your body was drained not just because of physical fatigue, but due to lack of nutrients and energy.]

[3.55 pm. After popping one of the Xueqi pills, you felt like your entire body was on fire as your fatigue was swept away and even your muscle pain was drowned out. You immediately got up and began practicing furiously, going through the first, second, and even third exercises in a short period before the effects of the pill faded.]

[4.05 pm. You came down from your high but did not feel much fatigue, only a sense of fullness from exercise. You checked the booklet to see if you could pop another pill, but realized that one had to wait to let the medicinal effects cool down fully before continuing, so you decided to do just that.]

[4.10 pm. You sat down and rested while waiting for the next session in which you could use the pill.]

[An hour has passed, the simulation comes to an end.]

Dalvin's eyes shone. His fear that standing still was deadly was partially alleviated by the fact that he had survived his first simulation by sitting his ass down and actually practicing rather than running around thinking he could escape from a place even genuine immortals had been trapped in.

This heartened him as he did not waste time, immediately blinking out of his cell using his bloodline energy for the first time in reality. The sensation was extremely weird; he was standing in the cell one moment and in another, he was in the paved hallway of the prison.

For that matter, he had often explored this place in the simulations, but this was the first time he was seeing it with his actual eyes. The hallway on both sides had cobblestone floors and walls that were designed similarly to tiles, giving it a surprisingly elite and clean look.

That would have been the case if most of the walls and flooring weren't aged and decayed. One thing the simulation never mentioned was the slight rank smell that permeated the air, which made Dalvin wrinkle his nose.

It wasn't enough to cripple him, and he was not so pampered that he could not stand some stench. However, it was definitely quite irritating, so he quickly moved to his destination and finally saw the cell with the skeleton of the aged cultivator who was currently his greatest benefactor.

He entered it using Blink and nodded towards the corpse in respect as he usually did and took the pouch as well as the booklet. He then quickly left the cell and returned to his own, practically depleting his bloodline energy.

He had around 20% left, and he didn't plan to use it so soon. Now that he was back in his cell, he immediately opened the booklet and began reading its content with his own eyes. There were far more details within that the simulation had left out, enriching Dalvin's knowledge of the world.

This also told him not to omit things in reality that have been seen in the simulation; there might be tidbits or tangential information that could prove useful later, so it was important to see things with his own eyes in the end.

About ten minutes later, twice the time he took in the simulation, Dalvin closed the booklet as he read everything twice and committed many details to memory. He was never good at rote memorization and hated exams, but who knew that a life-and-death situation could squeeze out one's potential?

Hey, maybe all we needed to pass our exams was someone poking a knife in your side, saying they would stab you if you forgot anything you learned beforehand.

Dalvin immediately popped the Xueqi pill and felt the boiling sensation in his body as his blood seemed to churn in his vessels. Immediately, he became extremely restless and even felt himself pop a violent boner as his blood became active all over.

He did not feel any shame because he did not have the state of mind to care. He immediately began to practice his movements, those from the first set of exercises right up to the third set before he began to feel his entire body began to relax its burning intensity.

The entire time he was strangely focused and extremely enthusiastic. He still felt the pain and strain of working out, but there was also some strange feedback in his body that caused every fiber of his being to cry out in joy and crave more.

Was this how those buff gym dudes felt when they worked out? Man, it was a great feeling, no wonder they came every day and worked until they sweated despite having the body we all craved.

Dalvin saw his character screen possess a red question mark, trying to catch his attention. As he had naturally been focused on his routine, he had not noticed it until now, so with idle curiosity, he naturally 'clicked' the icon.

[Congratulations, player Dalvin, you have successfully cultivated the Earthquake Fist, having initiated the foundation level. Unlike the natives of Tianzi, you can only increase your rank by using the system to break through when you accumulate enough blood qi through practice!]

[When you go offline, your avatar will cultivate the technique during your downtime, but don't forget to log in every 6 hours to claim the free… <error >… pack!]

Dalvin's eyes narrowed. Like any mobile game, this game should probably have had an internal shop of sorts, or at least, something for players to sell or buy things. Even if the game boasted no microtransactions, it couldn't survive without certain necessary elements.

Unfortunately, Dalvin could not access any of these elements as he was, whether due to the Dao Curse or the fact that he was physically here instead of looking through a screen.