Wang Mingbai's words brought tears to the eyes of the few survivors present.

"You've all suffered a lot over these past few years."

"Just when the hope of going home finally appeared, not all of you could return intact—half of you fell in the Three-Headed Realm."

"Brother Wang, you've finally become worthy of her."

Wang Mingbai let out a bitter laugh.

"I didn't sacrifice myself entirely for her sake…"

"After all these years of danger in this realm, you and I both know the Dragon-Man tribe will soon attack the human world."

"I have a gut feeling, Chen Yi—you have a unique talent for dealing with these alien races."

"You can't be trapped in another world!"

"That attack back on Tide Wind Island was aimed at you. They couldn't kill you, so they exiled you here instead."

"They won't let you stay in the human world because you're a huge threat to them!"

"So you absolutely must return. I'll give my life to help you get back!"

Wang Mingbai gripped your sleeve tightly, using the last of his strength to speak these words.

Perhaps it was a flash of insight before death that allowed Wang Mingbai to unknowingly approach the truth.

You accepted Wang Mingbai's storage ring and agreed to his request.

"I will definitely deliver your ring to the Wang family on your behalf, Brother Wang. Do you have any other regrets?"

Wang Mingbai's face was now aged and withered. He looked toward Wu Yue, covering his face with his hand as if afraid she might see him in his current decrepit state.

"May there be a next life…"

Wang Mingbai was gone.

You buried him within the Cauldron Realm.

"Boss Wang's death is a real shame. He was a man of deep loyalty and love…"

Fortunately, Chen Yi knew this was just a simulation.

In reality, Wang Mingbai was still living comfortably as a young master of the Wang family right now.

"Simulations are great. Every bad ending can lead to a good one."

[The ten other candidates who traveled with you—their bodies couldn't be brought out. All you could do was erect cenotaphs for them.]

[Ten small graves now stood inside the Cauldron Realm.]

[The ten of you survivors stood before the graves, raising your cups to toast the spirits above.]

["Splash…"]

[The wine spilled onto the ground, but your brows remained furrowed.]

[Because you still hadn't returned to the human world.]

["I swear, that Qiankun Mirror is a total lunatic!"]

[You stepped outside the Cauldron Realm and saw a familiar landscape.]

[A dim, lightless sky, a desolate and barren land, faint mist, and the stench of decay.]

[Congratulations—you're back in the Demon World!]

[When Long Yang and the others came out and realized there was no Essence of Heaven and Earth here either, they were completely stunned.]

["What's going on? We can't cultivate here either? Is the entire Void Realm completely incapable of cultivation except for our human world?"]

[You told them that wasn't the case.]

[It was just that Qiankun Mirror, that lunatic, had gotten the direction wrong.]

[In fact, you had said from the beginning that Qiankun Mirror was highly unreliable.]

[Even if he successfully sent you through worlds, there was no guarantee he'd send you to the human world.]

[Sure enough, he got it wrong.]

[You looked at Qiankun Mirror, still smoking inside the Star Source. You wanted to curse him out, but thought better of it. Old Kun wasn't having an easy time either.]

["Huh?"]

[Suddenly, inspiration struck you.]

["We can go back!"]

[Wu Yue and the others turned to look at you.]

["What do you mean?"]

["There's an old senior in the Demon World who can send us back!"]

[You decided to head for the Ancient City Ruins of the Demon Tribe to find their Guardian—the imprisoned Qilin Soul!]

[Year thirty-seven, age fifty-six.]

[Extracting trait tags…]

[Extraction successful!]

[「Qilin Arm」(Purple Epic): Your right arm is now impervious to blades, fire, and water. Defense and resistance are greatly increased. All attacks launched with this arm deal ten times the destructive power.

However, each time you use this arm to attack, you must endure the burning pain of Qilin blood. The greater the power of the attack, the greater the pain.

Once your cultivation reaches the Core Formation realm, this trait's side effects will greatly diminish, eventually disappearing completely.]

[Adjust traits?]

[Yes/No]

"So the prize pool keeps stacking, huh."

Chen Yi did the math. The traits that could currently stack physical body strength, power, and basic attack damage included:

Badminton Expert, Serious Punch, Green Giant, Heartsteel, Qilin Arm, and the doubled physical body strength effect from the Demon Tribe talent "Natural Respiration," which was copied by Calamity of Ten Thousand Races.

If fighting non-humans, there was also "The Most Severe Father to Non-Humans," which added another hundredfold boost to physical body strength.

In fact, the tenfold rage boost from "Irritable Constitution" also enhanced the Green Giant effect, so that could be considered another layer of stacking.

That was how, in the simulation just now, Chen Yi, at the Spirit Condensation Realm, could cross two major cultivation realms to battle Jin Fei Jin.

He was just too tanky!

And his punches really hurt.

Martial Arts had both mechanics and numbers, but using Martial Arts consumed energy.

Punching people didn't require as much thought—as long as he had stamina, he could keep swinging.

So the question was—

If stamina really wasn't enough, he could just pull in a few teammates.

Because "Leader Aura" gave Chen Yi unlimited stamina when fighting as part of a team!

Chen Yi couldn't beat Jin Fei Jin, sure—but Jin Fei Jin wouldn't find it easy to kill him either.

If he couldn't kill him, he'd be stuck in a stalemate, making it look like they were evenly matched.

"Right now, I need to go rescue the Demon Tribe's Guardian. There's a guy named Huo Feihuo over there…"

Chen Yi decided to test things out on this Huo Feihuo—to see just how terrifying the combined power of all these high-value multipliers would be.

[You replaced 「The Aura of Ten Thousand Races」 with 「Qilin Arm」.]

[You replaced 「Trait Slingshot」 with 「Badminton Expert」.]

Now you had equipped every trait that could amplify physical body strength, arm power, or basic attack damage.

"If I stack Heartsteel to max during battle, that would be… an instant explosion!!"

Also, in the description of the "Qilin Arm" trait, Chen Yi once again saw that familiar realm name—Core Formation!

"This must be a title from the Real Realm, since the Void Realm can only cultivate up to the Martial God realm."

The previous "Mortal Bones" trait mentioned "tenfold increase in divine ability comprehension after reaching the Core Formation realm," which meant there were realms above Core Formation too.

"Old Shen was right. Only by going to the Real Realm can you see the broader path of immortal cultivation."

[Looking at the newly swapped traits, you knew what to do.]

[During your journey across the continent, you caught a group of Water Demon Spirits that the Dragon-Man tribe had left behind in the Demon World, trapping them inside the Cauldron Realm.]

["Brother Chen, why are you catching these monsters?"]

[Long Yang and the others watched these massive creatures taking up so much space, completely baffled.]

[After all, the Cauldron Realm was a very small world. Cramming these things inside would make it cramped.]

[You smiled mysteriously.]

["I have a great use for them."]

[Water Demon Spirits actually didn't take up much space.]

[After you and the other geniuses defeated the Water Demon Spirits, you quickly separated the Spirit Pearls from the water and stored them individually.]

[Without water, these Spirit Pearls were completely helpless—they couldn't form combat bodies.]

[Year thirty-eight, age fifty-seven.]

[Extracting trait tags…]

[Extraction successful!]

[「E-sports Needs No Love」(White Common): You lose all interest in women, especially when doing something you enjoy.]

[Adjust traits?]

[Yes/No]