Chapter 2: The Pursuit Of Eternal Life

In the darkness, glowing lines of text appeared one after another, accompanied by vivid scenes.

[You returned to Anchor Year 1. Wild with joy, you displayed anomalous behavior, and your aunt nearly forced you to drink an exorcism potion obtained from the village witch.]

[With half a year left before the provincial examination, you studied day and night at home. Knowing the exam questions in advance, you were brimming with confidence. Though your aunt often grumbled about your behaviour, she always supported your studies.]

[The village chief’s younger brother coveted your family’s fertile ancestral land and covertly tried to force it from your family. Though your aunt resisted as much as she could, she was powerless to stop him. By hatching a small scheme, you resolved the matter. From then on, she regarded you in a new light.]

[Half a year later, you took the provincial examination. Though you ranked in the thirties, in the bottom tier, you still passed as a provincial graduate, bringing honor to your family.]

[In Anchor Year 2, you traveled to Xuanjing City for the metropolitan examination. Prepared in advance, you naturally passed with distinction. In the subsequent palace examination, you performed exceptionally well, ranking in the second tier and earning the title of Presented Scholar.[1] ]

[With your connections in Xuanjing City, you maneuvered through politics and finally achieved your wish—a magistrate position in Wen County, Jiangnan.[2]]

[In Anchor Year 3, you brought your aunt to Wen County and assumed office. You began secretly cultivating an inner circle of loyalists. That same year, you led your men into the mountains and located several mineral deposits from your past life’s memories.]

[In Anchor Year 4, you successfully produced a batch of gunpowder and matchlock firearms.[3] Your musket squad annihilated and absorbed a nearby bandit group in their first trial run.]

[In Anchor Year 5, a great drought struck Jiangnan, leaving refugees everywhere. Thanks to your early construction of irrigation systems and waterwheels, Wen County remained largely unaffected under your governance. That same year, a group of refugees rebelled and attacked the Prince of Langya’s estate. You led your troops to intervene in time, saving the prince and his family. The Prince of Langya was deeply grateful.]

[In Anchor Year 6, you were promoted to Prefect of Jianghuai Prefecture. That same year, you married the daughter of the Ministry of Personnel’s Vice Minister.]

[In Anchor Year 7, a locust plague struck Jiangnan, causing poor harvests. Only your jurisdiction suffered minimal losses. That same year, your wife bore you a son.]

[In Anchor Year 8, your subordinates successfully produced flintlock firearms.[4]]

[In Anchor Year 10, the Prince of Langya’s consort gave birth to a son. You personally visited to offer well wishes, presenting a carefully prepared gift.]

[In Anchor Year 15, the Emperor fell gravely ill. On his deathbed, he summoned the Prince of Langya to the capital and named him successor. The Prince ascended the throne, and the new era was named Xuanjing.[5]]

[In Anchor Year 16, Emperor Xuanjing summoned you to the capital and promoted you to Vice Minister of War. That same year, rebellions erupted across the land. The Emperor ordered you to lead troops to suppress them.]

[In Anchor Year 18, after years of campaigning, you finally eradicated the rebel forces. Upon returning to the capital, Emperor Xuanjing stripped you of military command but elevated you to Minister of War and Grand Tutor to the Crown Prince.]

[In Anchor Year 20, the Empress was suddenly implicated in a witchcraft scandal. Enraged, Emperor Xuanjing banished her to the cold palace.[6] The Crown Prince secretly sought your help, and you agreed without hesitation. Through discreet investigations, you uncovered evidence proving that Noble Consort Xi had framed the Empress, clearing her name. The Emperor exterminated Noble Consort Xi’s lineage alongside her parental and maternal families, but did not release the Empress from the cold palace.]

[In Anchor Year 21, an anonymous informant accused you of treason, submitting evidence of your past illegal mining operations and secret armed forces. Terrified, you petitioned for mercy. Emperor Xuanjing demoted you from Minister but allowed you to remain as the Crown Prince’s tutor.]

[In Anchor Year 23, during the spring hunt, Emperor Xuanjing was struck by a sudden impulse to revisit the Prince of Langya’s estate in Jiangnan.]

[In Anchor Year 24, the Emperor embarked on a tour of Jiangnan, ordering you to accompany him. While sightseeing in Jiangnan, he also inspected the mines you had secretly operated.]

[In Anchor Year 25, Emperor Xuanjing journeyed south again, this time without you. Three months later, you received covert news that someone had exposed your secret visits to the cold palace to see the Empress. That same year, the Emperor was assassinated on his return to the capital. The news sent shockwaves through Xuanjing. Officials released the Empress from the cold palace, and the Crown Prince ascended the throne. The new era was named Kangning.[7]]

[In Anchor Year 26, you were ennobled as Grand Preceptor and appointed Grand Secretary of the Deliberative Council, reaching the pinnacle of official rankings. The young emperor relied heavily on you. Seizing the opportunity, you purged dissidents and solidified your faction in court.]

[In Anchor Year 27, your aunt passed away. The thought of seeking eternal life resurfaced, and you dispatched your men across the land to search for traces of immortals.]

[In Anchor Year 28, the Emperor came of age, yet your influence only grew. The court became your personal domain.]

[In Anchor Year 30, the people knew only the Grand Preceptor, not 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 her to the Grand Preceptor’s Estate to care for her. That same year, she bore you a son.]

[In Anchor Year 33, while attending court alone, you were ambushed by Emperor Kangning’s secretly trained loyal guards. Only with the aid of your esoteric gift did you narrowly escape. Enraged, you plotted to kill the Emperor and seize the throne. Yet, after the Empress Dowager’s desperate pleas and your ministers’ dissuasion, you relented. You executed the Emperor’s close advisors. From then on, Emperor Kangning held only his title, but no power.]

[In Anchor Year 38, Emperor Kangning died of melancholy. You enthroned his eldest son, and the new era was named Longchang.[8]]

[In Anchor Year 40, the Empress Dowager passed away from illness. Your desire for immortality grew fiercer.]

[In Anchor Year 45, your wife died.]

[In Anchor Year 46, your eldest son succumbed to illness.]

[In Anchor Year 48, after years of fruitless searching, you abandoned the quest for immortality.]

[In Anchor Year 50, two immortals arrived from the Abyssal Chasm in the east, reducing Xuanjing City to ruins. You narrowly survived.]

[This simulation has ended.]

[You may choose one of the following options:

1. Retain an item you possessed in this simulation.

2. Retain your cultivation level in this simulation.

3. Retain the simulated memories of one closely associated individual. These memories can be inherited by that person.

4. Forfeit the above choices to accelerate charging process.]

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

Surveying the familiar yet foreign surroundings, decades of memories flashed through his mind. He couldn’t help but sigh.

Was reality transformed into illusion, or was it all a simulation from the get-go? Maybe it was so lifelike it blurred the line between truth and falsehood... or maybe, at some point, the distinction doesn’t matter anymore.

Yet Li Fan was not one for sentimentality. Quickly steadying himself, he focused on the four options.

The first two were straightforward. Had he embarked on the path of cultivation, either would have been invaluable. Unfortunately, in his past life, he had remained a mere mortal with no cultivation to speak of.

As for the most valuable item he had possessed—likely the imperial jade seal—it was not just useless now, but a potential magnet for disaster.

The third option, granting someone else the memories of this simulation... That stirred his heart.

For a moment, faces flickered through his mind.

But in the end, he shook his head.

Human nature was unpredictable. There was no telling how someone might change after inheriting decades’ worth of memories.

With Return to Truth not yet recharged, he was still a frail scholar with no means to start over.

Caution was paramount.

That left only the fourth option: accelerating the charging process.

Return to Truth’s virtualization of reality required charging. From his past life’s experience, this ability could only be charged with time, roughly twenty years for a full charge.

The maximum capacity was 200%, at which point the charging process would cease.

When he faced mortal peril, Return to Truth would automatically consume some of the charge to shield him. This was how he had cheated death multiple times in his past life.

Thus, the fourth option was the safest choice.

With his decision made, Li Fan hesitated no longer. He simply confirmed his choice.

Instantly, the glowing lines of text scattered like fireflies before rearranging into new characters:

Name: Li Fan

Realm: Mortal

Biological Age: 20/86

Psychological Age: 166/1056↑

Virtualization Charging Progress: 30%

Three lifetimes, a hundred and sixty-six years. So I’ve already lived for this long. As for the psychological age limit, it was only nine hundred the last time, but now it’s over a thousand. It seems to increase as I accumulate experience.

The thought eased some of his worries. Just as the lifespan of the body had its limits, so too did the mind's capacity for endurance.

The accumulation of too many memories became a burden on the mind. Once that burden grew too heavy, it would crush a person’s soul entirely.

This was the so-called “erosion of time.”

Yet one’s psychological age limit could increase alongside one’s resilience.

For now, Li Fan did not have to concern himself with this.

Once I step onto the path of cultivation, none of this will matter. Now that I’m starting anew, wealth and pleasure mean nothing.

Only eternal life matters!

The agony of watching loved ones fade in his past life, the helplessness and dread as his own body withered with age—all of it had tempered Li Fan’s will into unbreakable steel.

My goal in this life is to extract the secrets of cultivation from those two cultivators. Fifty years from now, they will descend upon Xuanjing City. With preparation, even Foundation Establishment cultivators can be outmaneuvered.

Beyond firearms and explosives, perhaps I can exploit the so-called Immortal-Mortal Miasma...

Fifty years is too long. They came from the Abyssal Chasm in the east. Perhaps I can send men to explore it first.

The greatest fear in life is to lack purpose. In his past life, Li Fan had often woken up in the dead of night beside the Empress Dowager, gripped by emptiness and doubt.

He stood at the pinnacle of mortal achievement.

He was the Son of Heaven’s tutor, commander of the empire’s armies. Nearly all court officials were his loyalists.

He could depose Emperors at will, and even the Empress Dowager was at his beck and call.

There was no higher ladder to climb. Even in this life, things could only get this good.

Should he repeat this path in the next simulation? What meaning was there in such endless cycles?

Power and pleasure may taste sweet at first, but savor them too much, and they end up tasting like ash.

Perhaps, if nothing had changed, Li Fan might have given up in some future iteration, choosing to end his own life.

But the appearance of those two cultivators had revealed a new possibility!

An unfamiliar, alluring world beckoned to him, igniting his ambition and sense of purpose.

𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

He would cultivate!

He would attain eternal life!

None would stand in his way!

Li Fan pushed open the door and strode forward, his steps unwavering.

1. The title of Presented Scholar (jinshi) was an actual title granted to a very limited number of people who passed the highest-tier imperial examinations for civil servants. ☜

2. Jiangnan is a real place in China. It’s the territory immediately to the south of the lower Yangtze River, including the southern part of its delta. Some other places mentioned here also exist in real life. ☜

3. Matchlocks use a burning slow match (rope soaked in saltpeter) to ignite gunpowder. They are simple to manufacture but vulnerable to rain/wind. Furthermore, reloading is slow, and smoke from the match can reveal shooter positions. ☜

4. These use a flint striking steel to create sparks. They are reliable in humid weather and can fire faster. However, they are more complex and expensive to produce. ☜

5. The era name system was established by Emperor Wu of Han in 140 BC for the purpose of numbering years, much like BC/AD. The reigning emperor assigns a relevant word/phrase to the period of their reign, and the year count restarts from 1. In this case, Xuanjing is not an actual word, but it would mean something along the lines of “proclaiming reverence,” and the year the Prince of Langya ascends to the throne is Xuanjing Year 1. Sometimes, the era name also becomes the title of the emperor (the emperor is not to be referred to by their personal name). ☜

6. This is a place of political exile within the palace, often a dilapidated, isolated building staffed by eunuchs/maids who spy on the inmates. Being banished there symbolizes total loss of imperial favor (worse than death for some). ☜

7. This is half of the idiom 福寿康宁(fú shòu kāng níng), meaning “blessings, longevity, health, and peace.” ☜

8. This is not an actual word but it would mean “magnificent and prosperous.” ☜