Chapter 12 – The Second Anchor Point Appears

“《 The Jade Realm Thousand-arts Golden Canon 》 《 The Jade Realm Thousand-arts Golden Canon 》, a nascent soul realm cultivation technique. Current number of practitioners: 0.”

Li Fan picked up the jade slip, and a stream of information naturally appeared in his mind.

“Nascent Soul realm, huh…” Li Fan felt a surge of longing, but unfortunately he was still just a mortal without even spiritual sense. Though he could make simple use of the storage ring, he was completely helpless when it came to this nascent soul true technique—he could only stare at it longingly, unable to discern its specific contents.

Sitting atop a treasure mountain with no way to enjoy it, Li Fan could only cast a few more greedy glances before reluctantly setting it down.

Then Li Fan turned his attention to the rust-covered iron sword beside it.

It was none other than Daoxuanzi’s Foundation Establishment wonder—the Rusted Sword Daoxuan.

According to Kou Hong, Qi Refining cultivators who wished to break through needed to use various heaven-and-earth wonders as the basis for forging their Dao Foundation.

Each heaven-and-earth wonder possessed its own unique marvel, and only those with the right affinity could find them.

Once a cultivator used one to forge their Dao Foundation, the wonder became intrinsically linked to their fate.

If the cultivator perished, the wonder would lose its miraculous properties along with the cultivator’s death and dissolution of their Dao, becoming nothing more than an ordinary object.

Li Fan ran his hand over the unremarkable iron sword before him, but his attention was focused on the information that had suddenly appeared from Return to Truth.

“Chargeable item detected: Rusted Sword Daoxuan (Remnant).”

“Proceed with charging?”

Li Fan pondered for a moment, then selected yes.

The rusted sword in his hand vanished without a trace, and a line of small text appeared in Li Fan’s mind.

“Current anchor charging progress: 1%”

“Current number of anchor points: 1”

Li Fan’s heart stirred. According to the feedback from Return to Truth, once the anchor charging progress reached one hundred percent, a second anchor point would be unlocked.

From then on, when he chose to Turn Reality into Illusion and selected to return, he could choose to restart from any of his anchor points.

“If I could truly unlock a second anchor point, that would make things so much more convenient.” Li Fan indulged in the fantasy for a while, filled with anticipation.

For instance, over these past several lives of repeated cycles, he had been trying to obtain cultivation methods from Kou Hong and the other. The first fifty years of each life were essentially a repetitive ordeal for him, not to mention the uncontrollable variables that sometimes arose.

If he could begin each cycle directly from the point where he had already become Grand Preceptor and held dominion over the realm, the efficiency of his attempts would improve dramatically.

Thinking even further ahead—right now he was merely a mortal, and each cycle lasted only fifty years. Though somewhat long, Li Fan could still barely tolerate it. But once he embarked on the path of cultivation, where timeframes routinely stretched into hundreds or thousands of years, having to start over from scratch after a single failure… just thinking about it now made Li Fan’s scalp tingle.

Moreover, if he could unlock even more anchor points, Li Fan would have plenty of opportunities for trial and error. Advancing step by step through constant experimentation, forging a perfect path to eternal life—it wasn’t impossible.

As for the original anchor point, it could serve as the ultimate insurance policy.

“Heaven-and-earth wonders may be rare, but the cultivation world is incomparably vast, and wonders emerge in endless succession. As long as I can leave this immortal-barren land and break free of these shackles…” Contemplating all these possibilities, Li Fan’s desire to leave this place burned ever more fiercely.

After absorbing the Rusted Sword Daoxuan, Li Fan paid little further attention to the other items in the storage ring.

They were nothing more than some standard spirit stones, low-grade magical instruments, and the like.

Standard spirit stones were spirit stones jointly manufactured by organizations such as the Myriad Immortals Alliance and the Five Elders Society. They came in different grades and served as the legal currency of the cultivation world. Each spirit stone bore a unique anti-counterfeiting seal that others could not replicate.

In truth, standard spirit stones held value because they were recognized by the Myriad Immortals Alliance and the Five Elders Society, and could be exchanged for cultivation techniques within these organizations. Those privately produced inferior spirit stones, or natural spirit stones mined from various spirit veins, were all utterly worthless.

At the end of the day, what truly constrained cultivators in today’s cultivation world was not spiritual energy or spirit stones, but cultivation techniques. Techniques for every realm.

The Myriad Immortals Alliance and the Five Elders Society had become colossal entities spanning the entire cultivation world precisely because they controlled the vast majority of cultivation techniques.

As for those low-grade magical instruments, most were expendable tools used in combat. Kou Hong and Daoxuanzi could hardly be called wealthy. The instruments they carried were all common fare, truly of little value.

After returning all the items before him—including the nascent soul realm technique—back into the storage ring one by one, Li Fan was already gasping for breath.

This body had already grown so old, like a candle flickering in the wind, ready to gutter out at any moment.

Taking a deep breath, Li Fan closed his eyes, as if trying to engrave this moment of weakness firmly into the depths of his heart.

Then, without further hesitation, Li Fan summoned Return to Truth and ended this life.

…

In the darkness, scenes flashed by at breakneck speed. Finally, several familiar lines of text appeared in his field of vision.

【This simulation has ended】

【You may select one of the following options to retain:

1. One item in your possession during this simulation.

2. Your cultivation realm from this simulation.

3. The simulated memories of one person closely connected to you during this simulation. These memories can be inherited by that person.

4. Forgo the above options to accelerate charging progress.】

This time, Li Fan chose the first option.

Unfortunately, his attempt at the end of his last life to place all his items into the storage ring as a workaround had not succeeded.

The storage ring, the nascent soul technique, fragmentary stones, magical instruments—all the items appeared one by one in Li Fan’s mind.

Li Fan naturally chose the nascent soul technique.

What delighted him was that after selecting this technique, he could retrieve and return it to Return to Truth at any time. Moreover, the technique had achieved a form of binding with him.

This technique now belonged to him completely. Even if in his next simulated life he chose not to bring it back, it would permanently exist within Return to Truth.

“With this, I have many more options to work with…” Li Fan retrieved the golden jade slip and toyed with it in his hand while mentally planning his course of action for this life.

“The Great Migration era ended thousands of years ago. All related clues have long been buried underground. And large-scale excavation of ancient tombs is far too shocking for the public—even with the level of control I had over the court in my last life, it still stirred up considerable opposition. If I were to undertake such a thing right after establishing the dynasty, it would surely be unsustainable.”

“However, if I begin laying the groundwork from this very moment and spend twenty years on it, transforming the thinking of the entire realm is not beyond the realm of possibility…”

Name: Li Fan

Realm: Mortal

Physiological age: 20/86

Psychological age: 282/1109↑

Turn Reality into Illusion charging progress: 0%

Anchor charging progress: 1%

Current number of anchor points: 1

Bound item: 《 The Jade Realm Thousand-arts Golden Canon 》 《 The Jade Realm Thousand-arts Golden Canon 》

…

Time flowed onward, and Li Fan’s sixth life began.

Everything proceeded along the established trajectory, though under Li Fan’s covert maneuvering, subtle changes rippled through the affairs of the world.

In the third year after anchoring, rumors of immortals descending to the mortal world began spreading across the various regions of Great Xuan.

In the fifth year after anchoring, the School of Antiquarian Studies burst onto the scene. The school brought several volumes of ancient texts to the capital to present before the emperor. The texts were so exquisitely profound and extraordinarily rare that they shook the entire realm.

The ancient texts were famous Daoist and Confucius texts from Earth, titled: 《 The I Ching》, 《 The Dao De Ching》, 《 The Zhuangzi》, 《 The Analects of Confucius》, 《 The Great Learning》…