Chapter 2 – Aspiring for Immortality

In the darkness, rows of glowing text appeared one after another, accompanied by unfolding scenes.

【You returned to anchor year 1. Overjoyed to the point of ecstasy, you behaved somewhat erratically and nearly had your aunt force-feed you exorcism water she’d obtained from the village witch.】

【The provincial examination was still half a year away. You studied day and night at home. Since you already knew the exam questions, you brimmed with confidence. Though your aunt often complained about you in daily life, when it came to your studies, she had always been supportive.】

【The village chief’s brother coveted your family’s ancestral fertile farmland and pressured you in secret. Your aunt, being a woman, resisted as best she could but was outmatched. You resolved the matter with a simple stratagem. From then on, your aunt regarded you in a completely new light.】

【Half a year later, you took the provincial examination. Though you barely scraped by with a ranking in the low thirties, you ultimately passed and earned the title of provincial graduate, bringing glory to your ancestors.】

【In anchor year +2, you traveled to Xuanjing to take the metropolitan examination. Having prepared for the questions in advance, you naturally passed with distinction. In the subsequent palace examination, you performed brilliantly, placing in the second tier and receiving the title of presented scholar.】

【You networked extensively throughout Xuanjing, and finally got your wish—an appointment as county magistrate of Wen County in Jiangnan.】

【In anchor year +3, you brought your aunt from home and took up your post in Wen County. You began secretly cultivating a core group of trusted subordinates. That same year, you led your men deep into the mountains and located several mineral deposits you remembered from your previous life.】

【In anchor year +4, you successfully produced a batch of explosives and matchlock muskets. Your musketeer squad’s very first engagement resulted in the annihilation and absorption of a nearby bandit stronghold.】

【In anchor year +5, a great drought struck Jiangnan, and refugees were everywhere. Because you had invested early in irrigation works and constructed waterwheels to divert water, Wen County under your governance was largely unaffected. That same year, a band of refugees rose in rebellion and attacked the Langya Prince’s residence. You led your troops to arrive just in time and saved the Langya Prince and his family. The Langya Prince was deeply grateful to you.】

【In anchor year +6, you were promoted to Prefect of Jianghuai Prefecture. That same year, you married the daughter of the current Vice Minister of Personnel.】

【In anchor year +7, a sudden locust plague struck the Jiangnan Circuit, devastating crops. Only your jurisdiction suffered the least damage. That same year, your wife bore you a son.】

【In anchor year +8, your subordinates successfully produced flintlock muskets.】

【In anchor year +10, the Langya Princess gave birth to a son. You personally visited to offer congratulations and presented carefully prepared gifts.】

【In anchor year +15, the Emperor was suddenly struck by a severe illness. Before his death, he summoned the Langya Prince to the capital and passed the throne to him. The Langya Prince ascended the throne and adopted the reign name Xuanjing.】

【In anchor year +16, Emperor Xuanjing summoned you to the capital and promoted you to Vice Minister of War. That same year, rebellions of varying scale erupted simultaneously across the realm. Emperor Xuanjing ordered you to lead troops to suppress them.】

【In anchor year +18, after campaigning across the land, you finally swept away all the rebels. Upon your return to the capital, Emperor Xuanjing stripped you of military command, promoted you to Minister of War, and granted you the title of Grand Preceptor to the Crown Prince.】

【In anchor year +20, the Empress was suddenly implicated in a sorcery case. Emperor Xuanjing flew into a rage and had her confined to the Cold Palace. The Crown Prince secretly sought your help, and you agreed without hesitation. Through discreet investigation, you uncovered evidence that Consort Xi had framed the Empress, clearing her name. Emperor Xuanjing executed Consort Xi’s clan to the third degree, yet did not release the Empress from the Cold Palace.】

【In anchor year +21, someone secretly accused you of plotting rebellion and submitted evidence of your unauthorized mining operations and your covert armed forces. You were terror-stricken and submitted a memorial confessing your crimes. Emperor Xuanjing stripped you of your ministerial position and relegated you to merely tutoring the Crown Prince.】

【In anchor year +23, during the spring hunt, Emperor Xuanjing was suddenly moved by nostalgia and decided to revisit the Langya Prince’s former residence in the Jiangnan Circuit.】

【In anchor year +24, Emperor Xuanjing made his first southern tour to Jiangnan and ordered you to accompany him. While touring the scenic mountains and rivers of Jiangnan, he also made a point of inspecting the several mines you had once secretly operated.】

【In anchor year +25, Emperor Xuanjing made his second southern tour to Jiangnan. Only this time, he did not bring you along. Three months later, you secretly received word that someone had reported your unauthorized visits to the Empress in the Cold Palace. That same year, Emperor Xuanjing was assassinated during his return journey to the capital. When the news reached the capital, the court was shaken. Officials went to the Cold Palace to escort the Empress out. The Crown Prince subsequently ascended the throne, adopting the reign name Kangning.】

【In anchor year +26, you were elevated to Grand Preceptor and granted the title of Grand Secretary of the Deliberation Council, reaching the absolute pinnacle of power. The young Emperor relied on you heavily. Seizing this opportunity, you purged dissenters and established your own faction at court.】

【In anchor year +27, your aunt passed away. The desire for immortality stirred within you once more, and you dispatched agents across the land to search for traces of immortals.】

【In anchor year +28, the Emperor came of age. Yet your power only grew with each passing day, and the court had all but become your personal domain.】

【In anchor year +30, the people of the realm knew only of the Grand Preceptor, not of the Emperor.】

【In anchor year +31, the Empress Dowager became pregnant and urgently summoned you to the palace to discuss countermeasures. Overjoyed, you secretly brought the Empress Dowager to the Grand Preceptor’s Manor and ensured she received the finest care. That same year, the Empress Dowager bore you a son.】

【In anchor year +33, while you were attending court alone, you were ambushed by trusted guards the Kangning Emperor had secretly trained. Thanks to the protection of a mystical treasure, you narrowly escaped with your life. Enraged, you contemplated killing the Emperor and seizing the throne for yourself. Only the desperate pleas of the Empress Dowager and the counsel of your ministers stayed your hand. You executed all of the Emperor’s close attendants. From that day forward, the Kangning Emperor held the title of Emperor in name only, with none of its actual power.】

【In anchor year +38, the Kangning Emperor died of despair. You installed his eldest legitimate son as Emperor and changed the reign name to Longchang.】

【In anchor year +40, the Empress Dowager passed away from illness. Your desire to seek immortality grew ever more desperate.】

【In anchor year +45, your wife passed away.】

【In anchor year +46, your eldest son died of illness.】

【In anchor year +48, after years of fruitless searching for immortals, you abandoned the pursuit.】

【In anchor year +50, two immortal cultivators arrived from the east, from the Ruins Abyss, and razed Xuanjing to the ground. You narrowly escaped with your life.】

……

【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 attained during this simulation.

3. The simulated memories of one person with whom you had a close relationship during this simulation. These memories can be inherited by that person.

4. Forfeit all of the above options in exchange for accelerated recharge progress.】

Li Fan regained consciousness and found himself back in his humble study.

Gazing around at the scenery that was both foreign and familiar, decades of experiences flashing through his mind one by one, Li Fan couldn’t help but sigh with emotion. “Was reality turned into illusion, or was everything merely a simulation—one so vivid it created the illusion of truth? Or perhaps, beyond a certain threshold, the line between false and real simply ceases to exist.”

Still, Li Fan was not one for sentimentality. He quickly steadied his mind and focused his attention on the four options before him.

The first and second options were straightforward enough. If Li Fan had embarked on the path of cultivation, these two would have been tremendously helpful. Unfortunately, in his previous life he had been nothing more than an ordinary mortal. He possessed no cultivation realm whatsoever.

It was interesting that this was the first time the second option even appeared after a life ended—after his first live ended he wasn’t aware of the possibility of cultivation at all.

As for the most valuable item in his possession—that would probably be the Imperial Jade Seal.

Equally useless. Although it would be identical to the real one, it would only invite disaster and claims of counterfeiting. He had less painful ways of suicide.

As for the third option—granting someone else the memories of this simulation…

That did set Li Fan’s heart racing for a moment.

Several figures flashed through his mind in quick succession.

But in the end, he shook his head.

After all, the human heart was the most unfathomable thing of all. No one could predict what a person might become after receiving decades’ worth of memories.

Return to Truth had not yet finished recharging. He was still a feeble scholar who couldn’t even truss a chicken. He had no capital to start over with.

Therefore, caution above all.

That left only the fourth option.

Accelerate recharge progress.

Return to Truth’s ability to turn reality into illusion required recharging.

Based on the experience Li Fan had accumulated in his previous life, recharge progress could only increase naturally with the passage of time. It took roughly twenty years to reach full charge.

Recharge progress capped at 200% and would not increase beyond that.

Additionally, whenever Li Fan suffered a lethal blow, Return to Truth would automatically consume recharge progress to protect him. This was precisely why Li Fan had managed to survive several brushes with death in his previous life.

Thus, the fourth option was the safest choice.

His mind made up, Li Fan hesitated no longer and silently made his selection.

The rows of glowing text instantly scattered into motes of light, then rapidly rearranged themselves into several new lines.

Name: Li Fan

Realm: Mortal

physiological age: 20/86

psychological age: 166/1,056↑

illusory recharge progress: 30%

“Three lifetimes lived, one hundred and sixty-six years. So I’ve already lived this long. As for the upper limit of my psychological age—I recall it was only around nine hundred in my last life, yet now it’s risen past a thousand. It seems it increases with my experiences. That does ease some of my anxiety.”

Just as the body’s lifespan has its limits, the mind’s capacity to endure also has a threshold.

When one bears too many memories, they become a spiritual burden. Once that burden grows too heavy, it will utterly crush a person’s soul.

This was what was known as “the erosion of time.”

However, the upper limit of one’s psychological age would increase as one’s mental resilience grew stronger.

For now, Li Fan had no need to worry about this.

“As long as I set foot on the path of cultivation, none of this will be a problem. Starting over now, wealth and glory, fine carriages and beautiful women—none of these are what I seek.”

“All I want is immortality!” The anguish of watching his beloved family and friends perish one by one in his previous life, the helplessness and dread of his own body withering with age—all of it only hardened Li Fan’s resolve in this moment.

“My goal in this life is to learn the secrets of cultivation from those two cultivators. In fifty years, they will descend upon Xuanjing. Prepared against the unprepared—even if they are so-called Foundation Establishment experts, I may not be without a chance.”

“Perhaps what I can rely on, besides guns and explosives, is the Mortal Taint they spoke of…”

“Furthermore, I cannot simply sit idle for fifty years. They came from the Ruins Abyss to the east. Perhaps I can send people deep into the Ruins Abyss first to investigate.”

……

The most terrifying thing in life is having no purpose. In his previous life, on many nights when Li Fan awoke on the Empress Dowager’s bed, he would feel an overwhelming emptiness and confusion.

In that life, he had already stood at the very pinnacle that an ordinary man could reach.

He was the Emperor’s teacher and held command over all the realm’s armies. Eight or nine out of ten officials at court were his loyalists.

He could depose and enthrone emperors. Even the Empress Dowager yielded to his every desire.

There was nowhere higher to climb.

Even with another lifetime, it would be the same.

In the next simulation—should he do it all again?

And so, life after life in this endless cycle—what was the point?

Power, pleasure—repeated enough times, they became as tasteless as wax.

Perhaps, without any change in circumstances, after some number of cycles, Li Fan would have voluntarily given up and chosen to end his own life.

But!

The appearance of those two cultivators showed Li Fan an entirely new possibility!

They showed him a strange, tantalizing world beckoning to him.

They ignited within him a burning ambition and purpose.

He would cultivate!

He would achieve immortality!

Nothing would stand in his way!

Li Fan pushed open the door and strode out with his head held high.

His steps were resolute!