When Jiang Yifeng saw this in reality, his face turned quite grim.
Lost and on the brink of starvation.
How humiliating would it be to tell others about this?
Jiang Yifeng kept shouting in his heart.
"Get up, don't give up!"
***
["No," the lying-down you suddenly let out a roar.]
[You feel you can't give up like this; you must survive.]
[You think about how you still need to save yourself and the Jiang Family.]
[Compared to facing cultivators 13 years from now, what is this minor difficulty?]
[You struggle to get up from the desert.]
[You continuously check your surroundings, looking for any signs of animal life.]
[As the saying goes, hard work pays off. You eventually find a few sand snakes, barely staving off starvation.]
[Days pass by, and you gradually get used to life in the desert, managing to find some desert animals to eat each day.]
[A year later, you no longer resemble a wealthy young master, looking more like a primitive man.]
[The largest mountain range you see is still far away, even after a year of walking.]
[By now, you understand that the largest mountain range you see might not be the Evergreen Mountain Range.]
[Perhaps the Evergreen Mountain Range is the largest in the Great Abyssal Kingdom, but from an open area, what you see could be mountains outside the kingdom.]
[After realizing you are completely lost, you no longer deliberately search for the Evergreen Mountain Range, but instead, you pick a direction and keep moving.]
[With your survival now assured, you start practicing the Unnamed Manual daily.]
[In the second year, your Martial Dao cultivation shows slight improvement.]
[In the third year, still not out of the desert, your Martial Dao cultivation improves a bit more.]
[In the fifth year, your Martial Dao cultivation progresses, but you still haven't broken through to the sixth level of body tempering.]
[In the tenth year, you are still in the desert.]
[After so many years, you feel you haven't strayed off course, always moving in one direction.]
[But you can't fathom why the desert is so vast.]
[In the thirteenth year, you continue diligently practicing the Unnamed Manual.]
[You keep wondering if the Jiang Family has fallen victim to misfortune again.]
[In the fifteenth year, your persistent cultivation of the Unnamed Manual finally pays off, and your Martial Dao cultivation breaks through to the seventh level of body tempering.]
[In the twentieth year, you feel like a blind cat stumbling upon a dead mouse, finding a way to survive. After all these years, the shadowy figure hasn't come to kill you.]
[In the fortieth year, you are in your sixties but still trapped in the desert.]
[The good news is, this year your Martial Dao cultivation finally breaks through to the eighth level of body tempering.]
[In the forty-third year, you feel the desert ground starting to churn.]
[You see something flying out of the desert.]
[Suddenly, you see a giant shadow cast over the desert.]
[You know that whatever just flew out is now in the air. As you look up to see what it is, you are instantly swallowed whole.]
[You died at the age of 63!]
[Simulation ended.]
[You can choose two rewards from this simulation: Five Elements Fake Spiritual Root (Talent), Martial Dao Cultivation (Eighth Layer of Body Tempering Realm), Desert of Death Map (Incomplete).]
[Five Elements Fake Spiritual Root (Talent)]: Price 100,000 Energy Value.
[Martial Dao Cultivation (Eighth Layer of Body Tempering Realm)]: Price 800,000 Energy Value.
[Desert of Death Map (Incomplete)]: Price 1 million Energy Value; a map of the routes you traveled in the desert during the simulation.
This simulation completely deviated from the initial plan.
Originally, with the talent for cultivation, the plan was to go to the Evergreen Mountain Range to obtain a cultivation technique and start cultivating.
But due to chasing bandits and getting lost, you ended up spending your entire life in the desert.
Whether the outcome is good or bad is hard to say.
Although you didn't start cultivating, you did live a long time this time.
Even if you hadn't been swallowed by that giant shadow in the end, you might have died of old age soon anyway.
Jiang Yifeng thought this could be considered as avoiding the shadowy cultivator.
Perhaps this was also a way to live by hiding.
As for the giant shadow that appeared at the end?
You couldn't even see its face before it killed you, clearly something extraordinary.
Jiang Yifeng couldn't figure out what it was and didn't dwell on it.
For now, he just kept it in mind since it posed no immediate threat to his real self.
Jiang Yifeng was quite interested in all three simulation rewards this time.
[Five Elements Fake Spiritual Root (Talent)] is a must-have for cultivation, no doubt about it. Even if it's described as the worst spiritual root, it's still the foundation for cultivation.
Although Martial Dao is confirmed to be strong, this simulation showed that Martial Dao is really hard to improve.
It took forty years to advance just two minor realms.
And that's just the beginning. If you reach higher levels, it will take even more time.
So Jiang Yifeng felt that cultivation was still necessary.
Even if cultivation is difficult, it can extend your lifespan.
A longer lifespan means more time in the simulator to practice.
The second reward, [Martial Dao Cultivation (Eighth Layer of Body Tempering Realm)], was also hard to give up. It took forty years to achieve.
Not taking it would be wasting one or even multiple simulation attempts.
As for the [Desert of Death Map (Incomplete)], its other uses are currently unknown.
But from this simulation, it's clear that this map can help avoid the shadowy cultivator, allowing for a longer survival time.
If you take this map, in future simulations, you can use it to hide and practice in the Desert of Death.
The longer you survive in each simulation, the more your strength will naturally increase.
In the long run, this choice is more cost-effective than directly choosing Martial Dao cultivation.
After all, it's better to have consistent meals than just one feast, and Jiang Yifeng understood this well.
After much thought, Jiang Yifeng made his choice.
"I choose the Five Elements Fake Spiritual Root and the Desert of Death Map."
Besides the must-have cultivation talent.
[Ding, congratulations to the host for obtaining the Five Elements Fake Spiritual Root, deducting 100,000 Energy Value, remaining Energy Value:85,065,000]
[Ding, obtained the Desert of Death Map (Incomplete)], deducting 1 million Energy Value, remaining Energy Value:84,065,000]
As soon as the simulator's electronic voice finished, an incomplete map appeared in Jiang Yifeng's hand.
As for the Five Elements Fake Spiritual Root, Jiang Yifeng didn't feel anything.
Maybe it will only be noticeable once he starts cultivating.
Jiang Yifeng glanced at his Energy Value again. He hadn't spent much; there was still plenty left, more than he could use.
Since that was the case, there was no need to rush Jiang Dafu to speed up the acquisition of gold and silver treasures!
***
Knock, knock, knock!
"Feng'er, are you there?"
Just as Jiang Yifeng was still staring at the Desert of Death Map, a knock and a call came from outside the door.
Hearing the voice, Jiang Yifeng knew it was his father, Jiang Fushan.
"My old man is here to give me money."
Jiang Yifeng muttered to himself.
It seemed like this had happened in the simulator before, where he ran into his father on his way out.
Then his father asked why he was acquiring gold and silver treasures and eventually gave him the key to the study where the silver notes were kept.
Without hesitation, Jiang Yifeng casually put away the Desert of Death Map and cheerfully went to open the door for Jiang Fushan.