Chapter 53: Ultra-Extreme Attribute Allocation, the Second Simulation Begins

Beneath the five positive red traits lay five negative grey traits.

[Plagued by Bad Luck]: You are shrouded in misfortune. The lower bound of your karmic fortune drops from 1 point to -20 points. Good fortune eludes you, while danger and trouble cling to your shadow like a second skin. Choosing this trait costs -120 talent points.

[Solitary for Life]: You have no affinity for romance and are destined to walk alone without a companion throughout your life. Even if you briefly possess a partner, you will lose them due to various reasons. Choosing this trait costs -30 talent points.

[Artifact Forging Bungler]: You possess no talent whatsoever for artifact crafting. Even if you force yourself to learn, various accidents will occur, leading to forging failures. Choosing this trait costs -25 talent points.

[Blazing Bloodlust]: You are a born killer. You harbor an intense passion for stripping away life and constantly wish to destroy something. If you suppress this killing intent for too long, you may even lose your sanity. Choosing this trait costs -40 talent points.

[Tone-Deaf]: You have absolutely no talent in the path of music. While other people singing costs money, you singing costs lives. Choosing this trait costs -25 talent points.

Just like during the first simulation, these negative traits existed purely to acquire more talent points in order to select positive traits.

If Lin Heng checked all of these negative traits, he would be able to select all five red traits as well, using them as a boost for this second simulation.

After reading through the ten talent traits, Lin Heng did not hesitate in the slightest.

He checked all four negative traits: [Solitary for Life], [Artifact Forging Bungler], [Blazing Bloodlust], and [Tone-Deaf].

Upon seeing these negative traits, Lin Heng almost burst out laughing.

He had no intentions of romance in the near future, nor did he plan to forge artifacts or sing. Furthermore, studying how to rapidly elevate his cultivation realm was utterly inseparable from stripping away life.

Could these negative traits even be considered negative?

It was practically no different from being handed free talent points!

Only the very first negative trait on the list, [Plagued by Bad Luck], made Lin Heng hesitate for a moment.

This trait not only provided Lin Heng with 120 available talent points—allowing him to select the captivating allure trait—but it also dragged the lower limit of his karmic fortune down to -20.

This meant that Lin Heng could use [Attribute Reset] to carve out a massive pool of extra allocatable attribute points from the karmic fortune category.

The usefulness of attribute points went without saying; an extreme allocation of attribute points was by no means inferior to a superior talent trait.

"Forget it."

After pondering for a moment in the end, Lin Heng chose to abandon it.

During the first simulation, a karmic fortune value of 1 had completely cut him off from any extraordinary fortuitous encounters.

Before breaking through to the Celestial realm, he had spent ten years traveling across the entire Lan Continent, yet he failed to harvest even a slightly valuable medicinal herb. Would you believe that?

If he switched to a karmic fortune of -20, he might get struck by lightning while walking, get swarmed and ambushed by experts for no reason, or perhaps even have the Blood Calamity—his current greatest enemy—drop straight onto his face twenty-two years early. That was entirely within the realm of possibility.

While having more talent points and attribute points was wonderful, having a simulation cut short prematurely because of it would be a devastating loss.

Having figured this out, Lin Heng stopped agonizing over it and began selecting his positive traits.

Actually, there wasn't much to choose from.

After selecting the four negative traits, Lin Heng had gained an extra 120 talent points.

Coupled with the 150 talent points initially gifted by the Life Simulator, Lin Heng had just enough to select all four positive traits except for the captivating allure trait.

As for why he chose not to select the captivating allure trait, Lin Heng had also given it some thought.

If his charm attribute could be pushed to 50 points, such otherworldly charm combined with certain transactional exchanges—such as Lin Heng selling his looks in exchange for living in a celestial grotto-heaven or being sent divine pills as a humiliation, just to find a three-thousand-year-old wealthy cougar to help him deal with the Blood Calamity—that might work.

The reality, however, was that neither the Lan Continent nor the surrounding seas and archipelagos harbored such powerful experts.

Twenty-two years later, Lin Heng would himself be the number one expert in the world, yet he was instantly obliterated by the opposing force without even knowing what the Blood Calamity actually was.

Perhaps he could also attempt to charm the Blood Calamity; that was one line of thought.

However, Lin Heng didn't even know what the Blood Calamity was, and there were simply too many uncertainties.

What if it was a natural phenomenon of heaven and earth clearing away living souls through cyclical rebirths?

What if the core consciousness of the Blood Calamity was a frigid, mechanical intellect immune to charm?

What if charm did work, but 50 points of charm simply wasn't enough?

Then the talent points Lin Heng had spent so much effort on would instantly turn him into a clown.

To play it safe, Lin Heng continued to execute his "family background" attribute allocation strategy.

Although the family background build offered no surprises, and whatever resources you got depended entirely on what your family possessed, it was extremely stable. Unlike karmic fortune, which relied entirely on the whims of heaven, it minimized unforeseen variables and helped achieve the ultimate simulation goal.

With the talent traits selected, Lin Heng began wiping his stats using [Attribute Reset] and re-allocated them.

In the end, he obtained a brand-new attribute panel:

Name: Lin Heng
Race: Human [Racial Value: 40]
Lifespan: 5/80 years
Strength: Despicable and weak
Family Background: 2 → 40
Charm: 14 → 1
Comprehension: 16 → 1
Physique: 13 → 1
Karmic Fortune: 25 → 29
Talents: [Innate Wisdom], [Attribute Reset], [Martial Dao Celestial], [Peerless Sword Emperor], [Astonishing Intellect], [Alchemical Adept], [Ox-Horse Holy Physique]
Simulation Count: 3.3
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This time, Lin Heng's attribute allocation was even more extreme than in the first simulation, wiping even his charm and comprehension down to their absolute minimums.

His goal was to maximize his family background while retaining a higher level of karmic fortune.

This would allow Lin Heng to reap the tangible benefits provided by a powerful family background, while also retaining positive variables brought by high karmic fortune. Who knew, perhaps this second simulation would allow him to resolve the Blood Calamity.

Simultaneously, this allowed Lin Heng to test the effects of high karmic fortune and see whether it could surpass a high family background.

The side effect of such an allocation was that 1 point of charm meant he looked barely human, thoroughly repulsive to both man and beast.

A comprehension value of 1 was outright mentally deficient; referencing Lin Heng's state at three years of age prior to awakening his innate wisdom in this lifetime, he could do nothing except eat, sleep, and play.

Yet Lin Heng still chose this path, refusing to bolster his charm and comprehension as a safety net for his family background.

The reason was very simple: inside Lin Heng's storage bracelet lay a Tier 2 physical origin essence [Azure Wood Spirit Physique], alongside a Foundation Establishment Pill.

These two items were Lin Heng's safety nets prepared specifically for the second simulation.

As soon as the simulation began, he would immediately fuse with the physical origin essence and then swallow the Foundation Establishment Pill.

Unlike karmic fortune, which could not easily be elevated on one's own, and family background, which was difficult to raise, physique, comprehension, and charm were extremely easy to improve. As his cultivation realm advanced, these three attributes would all evolve automatically.

Judging the effects of the Azure Wood Spirit Physique by the massive bodily transformation Lin Heng experienced when achieving the Martial Dao Celestial realm, it was safe to say it wouldn't just max out his comprehension, physique, and charm; at the very least, it would elevate all three to above 30 points.

Every single point increase in an attribute represented a qualitative transformation, and the effect of 30 points could already be described as exaggerated.

With a little more personal cultivation afterward, it would be effortless to reach the 40-point racial limit for attributes and then push beyond that extreme value.

"In this simulation, I will test my compatibility with the [Azure Wood Spirit Physique], find a cultivation technique capable of rapidly recovering my realm to tide over the period of weakness, and then do everything in my power to locate the origin of the Blood Calamity and resolve it."

Lin Heng confirmed his simulation goals and re-checked his attribute allocation and talent configurations.

Ensuring there were no issues, Lin Heng chose to initiate the simulation.

Then, just like during the first simulation, apart from the operating interface of the Life Simulator in front of Lin Heng vanishing, not a single other change occurred.

Not daring to delay, Lin Heng thrust his short blade straight into the heart of the ugly human trafficker beside him.

Immediately afterward, he forcefully pressed the bamboo-green runic orb representing the physical origin essence of the [Azure Wood Spirit Physique] directly into his own chest.

Before Lin Heng even had the chance to fish the Foundation Establishment Pill out of his storage bracelet to consume it, the next second, the [Azure Wood Spirit Physique] began its fusion, and Lin Heng dropped his head and fell fast asleep.