[Age 18: One day, while training, your father broke through a major realm! With newfound confidence, he wanted to come out of hiding, but you advised against it, reasoning that there could still be some danger and father should not go out without reaching the peak of his martial art.]
[Age 19: With your modern world knowledge, you easily got along well with the villagers, helping them with sanitation and overall health improvement, providing you a good reputation within the village.]
[Age 20: Your father had stabilised his realm, and after the passage of three years, most of the bandits from your group had already let go of all worries, of course, that did not include you, as you were aware of the future.]
[Within a year, you all have managed to completely integrate into the village life. Helping villagers with sanitation and overall health improvement.]
…
'Hmm, I wonder what my simulated version would do to increase his influence?' Li Hao was curious. Thinking so, he glanced down at the panel.
…
[To increase your influence, you decided to reach out to more villages and help them improve their lifestyle, trying to cover as much as possible.]
[Age 21: You have managed to help nearly ten villages that were neighbours to the Clear Spring Village. This greatly increases your prestige in the eyes of the villagers. Even the village head of the Clear Spring Village and his eldest son took notice of your knowledge and accomplishment.]
[By this time, the bandits were already eager to rebuild the Golden Eagle Brotherhood, but you firmly denied the idea. Your father remained calm, agreeing with you.]
[Age 22: Even more villagers were helped, and now your influence has reached fifteen villages. Due to the lack of more villages around this limited area, your search had to end. Now you began focusing on building up your reputation as a martial artist and began accepting young men as apprentices.]
[Your father and brothers were initially not in agreement, yet you convinced them later, saying this could be their new hidden base.]
[Healthy young men hailing from the fifteen villages approached you for training. Having not learned the Bull Strength Technique yourself, you at first made them perform modern exercises such as jogging, push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups…]
[Age 23: All of you focused on training without caring for the situation outside. Till now, no one had approached the village to disturb you. Your father took the opportunity to train your apprentices with the Bull Strength Technique, rest of the brothers joined in.]
[Age 24: Due to the training, some villagers successfully became martial artists. You and your father recruited them and created a new force and named it the United Brotherhood.]
[According to your idea, the United Brotherhood had only one leading figure, who would be Zhenhao; others had no hierarchy, and everyone worked together as equals. It slowly started increasing its influence over the fifteen villages with the newly trained martial artists. Mass recruitment, training, hunting within the deep forest, and connection with village heads.]
[Age 25: By this time, the United Brotherhood had already expanded beyond the boundary of the fifteen villages, extending outwards. Five more villages entered its sphere of influence.]
[During the winters of the same year, news came that the Qing Dynasty had been going around eradicating any bandit groups in the wild. Its military forces had even reached the Qingfeng County of the state Zhou.]
[Age 26: The United Brotherhood stopped expanding due to fear of external attack by either refugee bandits or being suspected by the Imperial army. Your father had managed to call back the rest of the member bandits from the disbanded Golden Eagle Brotherhood.]
[Your father focused on training his martial arts and broke through a small realm, becoming a mid-level Bone Tempering Realm martial artist.]
[Age 27: One day, as you walked around, a group of intruders entered the Clear Spring Village and killed everyone on site. Your father took down most of them, but the one leading the intruders killed him. Before dying, you noticed a young woman whose appearance struck a resemblance to Emma among the group of infiltrators.]
[Simulation Ends!]
[During the simulation, your earlier years were spent hiding, but it changed once your father broke through. You helped twenty villagers understand sanitation and a healthy lifestyle, letting them acquire knowledge of the future! You managed to influence the lifestyle improvement of many villages!]
[Your suggestion to your father and brothers that the villages could be used as the new hidden base influenced the creation of the United Brotherhood, which governed over twenty villages in the wild. This provided a few more years of survival for you!]
[Calculating Simulation Points…]
[Total Points Awarded: 100]
…
"This was such a long simulation!"
Li Hao truly regretted not thinking wisely during the first simulation itself. That would have saved him more money! He was already getting used to this panel's mechanism.
'It seems the more I can survive and influence, the more points I will be earning.'
From the current simulation, one thing was clear. Avoiding Emma seemed like an impossible task for Li Hao. Hence, quickly increasing his strength should be the main focus.
'Even the bone-strengthening realm is not enough, I must surpass it!'
He also has to find out information relating to those fair-skinned individuals.
But before that, his eyes looked at the panel.
[Name: Li Hao
Age: 17 (Life Span: 90)
Physique: Mortal (Body Strengthened)+
Balance: 23 Taels of silver
Life simulation: 0 (Requires 50 taels of silver) [Use? Yes/No] (Warning! Insufficient money!)
Points: 100]
Seeing the plus sign beside his physique, Li Hao was thrilled! 'Add the points to physique!'
Suddenly, the hundred points disappeared from the panel and were inserted into his physique column.
As it happened, Li Hao started feeling pain all over his body! It felt as if countless needles pierced his skin! He went through the whole suffering by forcing himself not to make any noise.
One hour later,
Li Hao lay half-naked on the ground, sweat appearing all over his body. Along with this, a layer of dark substance oozed out.
Breathing heavily, Li Hao noticed that the room smelled bad, making him feel nauseous.
A few minutes later, he got up and opened all the windows. It was pitch black outside, the only source of light being the moon and the stars shining in the sky.
Breathing in fresh air from outside, Li Hao felt reinvigorated. All soreness and pain disappeared as if they never existed.
Without checking his current situation, Li Hao went outside to take a bath and returned ten minutes later. Once inside, he started touching himself.
Unfortunately, due to having access to limited resources, they did not have any mirrors on their base. So, he had to take the path of self-assessment through reflection from river sources, touch, or a limited angle from his eyes.
His skin became clear and bright, but they were not sensitive or delicate. Instead, Li Hao even felt that the saber in his room could not pierce through it anymore. As for the metallic weapon? It would have the same result.
"Is this the Skin Hardening Realm?... Such Rapid advancement!"
His father, after decades of practice, had reached the peak of this realm, yet he was able to achieve it within a span of one night! And it's all because of the Life Simulation Panel.
After the excitement died down, he checked the updated information on the panel.
[Name: Li Hao
Age: 17 (Life Span: 131)
Physique: Extraordinary Mortal (Hardened Skin)
Balance: 23 Taels of silver
Life simulation: 0 (Requires 200 taels of silver) [Use? Yes/No] (Warning! Insufficient money!)
Points: 10]
The panel's description of him as a mortal has changed to that of an extraordinary mortal. Even the money required for the simulation attempt now requires 200 taels of silver.
Seeing the updated information on the panel, Li Hao fell into deep contemplation.
Nine simulation points were spent to achieve the Body Strengthening Realm. Now, ninety points were required to reach the Skin Hardening Realm.
"So does that mean it would require nine hundred points to achieve the Bone Tempering Realm?"
If that is the case, then what about the subsequent realms? Nine-Thousand? Ninety-Thousand? Sheesh….
In the future, it would not be possible for him to advance a major realm after each simulation. It was possible now only because of the early low-cost advantage.
Of course, with continued simulations, his strength would also increase, which would help in attaining greater influence over the world.
Anyway, these are all for future consideration. What about now? He should probably sleep.
His own personal wealth has already been spent. In order to continue with the simulations, he must gather more money. But how?
'Well, I am a bandit, right?'
And so, he fell asleep.
…
The next morning. Inside the hideout of Golden Eagle Brotherhood.
Zhenhao stood with his hands behind his back. Numerous bandits stood opposite him. Today, their boss was going to tell them something important. Even Li Hao had to come and stand alongside the other bandits.
Seeing everyone gathered together, he stood silently for a few minutes.
Finally, as the bandits were about to lose their patience, Zhenhao opened his mouth.
"Everyone! Today, I have gathered everyone to discuss our future paths as a group of bandits. In a week or so, emissaries of the saber king Tiexue from the mainland of Chenyang Prefecture are going to arrive."
He looked at the group of bandits. Seeing their absent-minded looks, he knew they did not know whom he was talking about.
"I have received a letter from them. They wish to meet and discuss something important for the survival of us bandits."