Hengsheng's consciousness had already returned to reality, but he still had his eyes closed, deep in meditation, and he did not have a sign to open them soon.
It wasn't because of any problem or complication—what he was doing now was assimilating the simulated person's experience.
Unlike last time, the simulated person's consciousness is so powerful that it has completely overwhelmed him and taken over his body.
He had prepared his mental state this time. His will was firm and solid.
On the outside, he sat calmly on the cultivation mat, but inside, an intense battle was raging—a battle to determine who would be the true owner of the body!
…
PAK! BOOM!
Hengsheng struck out with a powerful palm, destroying the Puppet Master's mental body. But a moment later, one of the Puppet Master's puppets suddenly morphed and transformed into the Puppet Master again.
A thousand puppets emerged from beneath the Puppet Master's feet, crawling up as if from the grave. They rushed toward Lan Hengsheng, each one performing its own technique with perfect coordination.
Hengsheng smirked. His eyes shone with golden light, and a ray of brilliance swept across the thousand puppets, sending them back to their graves.
"You'd better give up. You should know by now—you don't stand a chance," Hengsheng said, staring down the Puppet Master.
"That's not for you to decide! Only I can decide! You're just a worthless thing!" the Puppet Master roared. With a wave of his hand, another thousand puppets emerged—this time merging to form a colossal flesh titan.
The flesh titan swung its massive arm at Hengsheng with devastating momentum.
OHHHH—
Hengsheng flicked his arm, countering the titan's strike with a massive wooden arm that appeared in tandem with his swing.
BOOM!
The flesh titan's arm was destroyed instantly, while the wooden arm remained unscathed.
The Puppet Master gritted his teeth and launched another technique. A mountain of bones materialized and crashed toward Hengsheng.
Once again, Hengsheng countered with ease—his world-shattering palm met the bone mountain head-on.
BOOM!
The bone mountain shattered.
The flesh titan grasped a large bone from Shatterd Bone Mountain, used it as a club, and smashed it at Hengsheng.
Hengsheng's hand blurred. A large hole appeared in the flesh titan, and then the shockwave struck, blowing its whole body into dust.
"Your stubbornness is nothing but a waste of time—for both of us," Hengsheng said coldly.
The Puppet Master sneered. "You think I don't know? I was never meant to be part of 'us' in the first place."
Hengsheng nodded as he understood what the other side said.
The process of assimilating the simulated person's experience necessitates synchronizing their minds.
Consequently, Hengsheng might inherit some of the other side's habits, as seen in the case of Samuel Barlow, from whom Hengsheng inherited a little bit of scientific thinking method.
In the case of the Puppet Master, He truly had no intention of allowing any part of the Puppet Master's habit to linger within him.
This man was too evil—unlike most cultivators who became sociopaths due to the harsh environment of the cultivation world, this guy was naturally born evil, a complete psychopath and serial killer.
If he did allow any habit of this guy to linger within him and left unchecked, who knows—one day he might wake up and want to kill someone for no reason.
Hengsheng wouldn't allow his pure heart to be tainted by this.
"Alright, I'm done talking. See you in another place, then," Hengsheng said, giving up on trying to convince him to surrender.
He changed his approach—he will completely destroy the Puppet Master's consciousness. It was surely a waste of time, but it seemed necessary.
Hengsheng rushed toward the Puppet Master, his entire mental body emitting the aura of martial intent. He is going all out with all of his asenal to beat the shit out of this psycho killer, obliterating his will and consciousness.
…
10 days later
Hengsheng opened his eyes, and he exhaled slowly, his mind drifting through Bi Gou or the Puppet Master's experiences, thoughts, memories, and knowledge.
He experienced it all firsthand as if he were the Puppet Master himself. It was a weird experience, since this guy's mentality was completely different from his.
The world from the lens of someone who was completely devoid of empathy was like a game—everyone was a thing, not just pretend or self-brainwash, but they really felt that way…
He took another deep breath, even though it was not necessary for a cultivator to breathe, he did it for focus as he was assimilating the simulated person's everything.
…
After a while, the assimilation was complete.
"Phew, that was tough," Hengsheng murmured, offering his thoughts on Bi Gou's life.
Bi Gou was born a psychopath, which was already bad enough, and the worst kind of human beings also raised him. It was a disastrous combination, a perfect recipe for creating a villain.
Even if someone is born a psychopath, if they are raised in a good environment, there's still a chance they might fit into society instead of going on a killing spree like Bi Gou did.
Hengsheng examined himself and found that his will had grown stronger.
He nodded in satisfaction.
Even though the improvement rate couldn't compare to the first simulation, he had no complaints.
After that, he entered his sea of thought, the spiritual space within his mind.
He searched for a habit that this evil simulated person had left behind, and soon, he found it. Without hesitation, he immediately removed it from his sea of thought.
"Time for the final reward," Hengsheng murmured. He wasn't very excited, as the world the simulated person had lived in was only a Lower Realm.
The strongest cultivator there was only at the Golden Core realm, which was equivalent to the True Body realm. A place like that had nothing he considered valuable.
Hengsheng opened the life simulator system panel to claim his reward.
Ding!
[Simulation Result: B-Rank]
You may select 1 out of the following 4 B-Rank rewards:
[Soul Swallowing Technique] [Tier 4]
[Soul Stitcher's Bone Needle] [Earth]
[The Puppeteer's Secret Diary]
[Dual Spirit Root] [Water/Wood] [Earth]
Hengsheng's eyes widened when he saw what the final reward was.
"This is actually allowed?!" Hengsheng exclaimed, looking up at the sky as if expecting the Heavenly Dao to answer him.
…
Silent.
Hengsheng takes that as yes!
He was genuinely surprised that the life simulator system he created was capable of extracting a Spirit Root as a reward.
He thought carefully for a moment, then realized, if even a physique could be extracted, then why not a spirit foundation like a Spirit Root?
Hengsheng recalled the knowledge he gathered from observing various realms through the Astral Map.
Through the Astral Map, Hengsheng saw many realms that were different from the Five Pillar Realm or the Nine Heaven Realm, where cultivators have a Spirit Core as the spirit foundation for cultivation.
From what he gathered, this spirit foundation can take many forms depending on the continent, realm, or universe in which the cultivator was born, such as a Spirit Core that he possesses, a Martial Spirit, a Leakless Body, and so on.
They were the foundation for a cultivator's abilities and potential, representing their innate aptitude for cultivating and absorbing spiritual qi.
Think of them as the "engine" of a cultivator, while spiritual qi was the fuel.
The Spirit Root was one of these spirit foundations. It was also the most common foundation in the Heavenly Dao World.
Among the countless worlds Hengsheng had observed through the Astral Map, more than 95% had Spirit Roots as their spirit foundation.
The Spirit Core he possessed, along with other types of spirit foundations, was part of the 5% minority.
Even though they are the same spirit foundation, there were differences between them, as in the case between the Spirit Core and Spirit Root.
The Spirit Core has two parts: the type and the quality. The type determines a cultivator's specialized talent, and the quality determines the overall talent. Each contributes 50% to determining a cultivator's true talent.
The Spirit Root also has two parts, affinity and quality.
Despite the similarity, it differs in meaning from the Spirit Core.
Unlike the Spirit Core, which, despite having a type, still allowed the user to absorb every affinity of Qi, the Spirit Root only allowed its possessor to absorb the Qi that matched its root affinity.
As a result, a Spirit Root possessor is likely to have purer elemental qi in their dantian compared to a Spirit Core possessor, who absorbs and mixes all types of elemental qi in their dantian.
The Spirit Root's quality also differs in meaning; it does not directly determine a cultivator's talent like the Spirit Core does.
Instead, a higher grade of Spirit Root means a stronger affinity. The Spirit Core is the same, but the increase in affinity per grade could not compare to the pure affinity focus of the Spirit Root.
This meant that with the same affinity and quality, the Spirit Root would have a stronger elemental affinity than the Spirit Core, and the talent of the cultivator would differ.
For example, a cultivator with a Fire Spirit Root of Earth Grade will have more talent in fire cultivation techniques than a cultivator with a Fire Spirit Core of Earth Grade—and the difference in talent is not just slight, but immense, because the Fire Spirit Root possessor has far superior Fire Qi purity and a deeper understanding of the Fire Element.
However, it was not always the case because all of this is only a general understanding; in reality, countless techniques and methods can negate the difference.
Another thing that the Spirit Root gives to the cultivator is an innate spiritual sense, allowing them to passively sense the qi of their affinity, unlike Spirit Core possessors, who have to create a spirit body to gain spiritual sense.
From all this, cultivators with Spirit Roots may seem more talented and stronger if they have the same affinity type and quality, but that is not the case.
Each cultivator foundation has its own strengths and weaknesses. The Spirit Root provides great talent in affinity and high-purity Qi, but the cultivator could only wield a limited type of Qi, which results in limited technique variety.
On the other hand, the Spirit Core has its own advantage: it offers variety and balance to the cultivator, which broadens the cultivator's path choices—something the Spirit Root lacks.
Most importantly, a cultivator's strength ultimately depends on the cultivator themselves.
The cultivator's spirit foundation only determines their starting point and direction, but in the end, all paths converge at the same point.