Bab 2: Chapter 2: Aspiring for Longevity
In darkness, glowing lines of text appeared in sequence alongside images.
[You have traveled back to Anchor Year 1, where your exuberant actions nearly had your aunt force you to drink exorcism water obtained from the village witch.]
[With half a year before the rural examination, you spent your days and nights intensively studying at home. Your confidence was unwavering as you had already known the examination questions. Though your aunt usually grumbled about you, she always supported your studies.]
[The village chief's brother coveted your inherited fertile lands and pressured your family behind the scenes. Despite your aunt's attempts to resist, she was unable to stand against him as a woman. However, you cleverly resolved the matter. Your aunt began seeing you in a new light.]
[Half a year later, you took the rural exam. Though you were only in the thirtieth place, you had successfully passed and made your family proud.]
[In Anchor Year 2, you went to the capital, Xuanjing City, for the metropolitan examination. Your prior preparation for the exam led you to perform exceptionally well and placed you among the 'double-second' scholars in the palace examination, granting you the title of 'jinshi'.]
[You manoeuvred through the social circles in Xuanjing City, eventually acquiring the desirable position of county magistrate of Wen County in Jiangnan.]
[In Anchor Year 3, after bringing your aunt to live with you, you assumed your post in Wen County. You began discretely cultivating your own trusted circle. That same year, you led a team into the mountains and discovered several mineral deposits from your memories of your past life.]
[In Anchor Year 4, you successfully manufactured a batch of explosives and flintlock guns. With your new firearms squad, you eliminated and conscripted nearby outlaw groups into your service.]
[In Anchor Year 5, the great drought struck Jiangnan, leading to a widespread displacement of people. Thanks to your early effort in building canals and waterwheels, Wen County, under your rule, was not heavily affected. That same year, a group of refugees revolted, storming the King Langya's Mansion. You led your troops and timely rescued the besieged King Langya and his family, who were extremely grateful to you.]
[In Anchor Year 6, you were promoted to the position of District Governor of Jianghuai Government. In the same year, you wed the daughter of the current Minister of Personnel.]
[In Anchor Year 7, a locust plague broke out in Jiangnan Taoist, causing poor grain harvest. Only your jurisdiction was least affected. That same year, your wife bore you a son.]
[In Anchor Year 8, your team successfully produced flintlock guns.]
[In Anchor Year 10, Queen Langya gave birth to a son. You personally visited to celebrate the joyous event, presenting carefully prepared gifts.]
[In Anchor Year 15, the emperor fell gravely ill. Right before his demise, he summoned the King Langya to the capital and handed his throne to him. King Langya ascended to the throne and changed the era's name to Xuanjing.]
[In Anchor Year 16, Emperor Xuanjing summoned you to the capital and promoted you to Minister of War. Simultaneously, rebellions broke out across the country, and Emperor Xuanjing ordered you to quell these revolts.]
[In Anchor Year 18, after several years of campaign, you wiped out all the rebels. Upon your return to the capital, Emperor Xuanjing took back military power from you, promoted you to Secretary of War, with the additional title of Grand Master of the Crown Prince.]
[In Anchor Year 20, the Empress suddenly became embroiled in a witchcraft scandal. Emperor Xuanjing was furious and threw her into the cold palace. The crown prince, however, sought your help privately, and you agreed without hesitation. After a discreet investigation, you discovered evidence that Venerated Consort Xi had slandered the Empress and cleared her name. Emperor Xuanjing ordered the extermination of Venerated Consort Xi's kin but did not release the Empress from the cold palace.]
[In Anchor Year 21, someone accused you of treason, presenting evidence of your secret mining operations and the private control of an armed force. You were terrified and immediately asked for forgiveness in a letter to the emperor. Emperor Xuanjing dismissed you from your position as Secretary, leaving you only as the tutor for the crown prince.]
[In Anchor Year 23, on a spring hunting trip, Emperor Xuanjing suddenly felt the urge to return to the King Langya's Mansion in Jiangnan Taoist.]
[In Anchor Year 24, as soon as Emperor Xuanjing arrived in Jiangnan, he ordered you to accompany him. While touring the beautiful landscapes of Jiangnan, he also visited the private mines you operated years ago.]
[In Anchor Year 25, Emperor Xuanjing visited Jiangnan for the second time. However, this time, he did not bring you along. Three months later, you secretly received news of someone accusing you of visiting the Empress in the cold palace. In the same year, Emperor Xuanjing was assassinated on his way back to the capital. The capital was in upheaval. The court officials requested the empress from the cold palace, and the crown prince ascended to the throne, changing the era's name to Kangning.]
[In Anchor Year 26, you were named Grand Master, also holding the office of leading Council of State affairs, a position of the highest honor. With the young emperor often relying on you, you seized this opportunity to establish your circle of influence within the court.]
[In Anchor Year 27, your aunt passed away. This evoked your desire to seek immortality, and you sent people to search for traces of immortals.]
[In Anchor Year 28, the emperor came of age. However, your power continued to grow, making the court almost entirely under your control.]
[In Anchor Year 30, people only recognized the Grand Master, but not the Emperor.]
[In Anchor Year 31, the Empress Dowager became pregnant and urgently summoned you to discuss countermeasures. Thrilled, you secretly moved the Empress Dowager to the Grand Master Mansion for better care. In the same year, the Empress Dowager bore you a son.]
[In Anchor Year 33, while entering the court alone, you were surrounded by the Palace Guard trained by Emperor Kangning. Fortunately, with the help of a magical artifact, you narrowly escaped death. Enraged, you decided to overthrow emperor and establish yourself as Emperor, but were dissuaded by the begging of the Empress Dowager and the persuasion of court officials. Instead, you purged the emperor's close officials. Since then, Emperor Kangning had only the title of Emperor, but not the authority.]
[In Anchor Year 38, Emperor Kangning died from depression. You installed his lawful eldest son as Emperor, changing the era's name to Longchang.]
[In Anchor Year 40, the Empress Dowager passed away due to illness. Your desire to seek immortality intensified.]
[In Anchor Year 45, your wife passed away.]
[In Anchor Year 46, your eldest son passed away due to illness.]
[In Anchor Year 48, after years of fruitless search for immortality, you gave up the idea.]
[In Anchor Year 50, two Immortals appeared from the Eastern Ruin Abyss and destroyed Xuanjing City, but you narrowly escaped death.]
...
[Simulation ended]
[You can choose to keep one of the following options:
1. An item possessed by your simulated self during the simulation.
2. The cultivation level of your simulated self during the simulation.
3. The memory of the simulation of one person closely related to your simulated self. This memory can be inherited by that person.
4. Abandon the above choices to accelerate the energy charging progress.]
Li Fan regained consciousness, finding himself back in his modest study again.
As he looked around at his unfamiliar yet familiar surroundings, decades of past experiences flashed through his spirit consciousness, prompting him to ruminate, "Did reality turn into an illusion, or was everything just a simulation that was overly realistic resulting in illusions? Or perhaps, when certain level is reached, there's no longer a boundary between real and fake."
However, Li Fan was not a sentimental man. He quickly gathered his thoughts and focused his attention on the four given options.
The first and second options needed no consideration. Had Li Fan embarked on the path of cultivation, these choices would surely be beneficial to him. However, regretfully in his previous life, he was merely a mortal, lacking any cultivation level.
As for the most valuable item in his possession, it was likely the imperial jade seal.
Just as useless, it would only invite trouble.
As for the third choice, granting someone else the memory of the same simulation...
This option gave Li Fan a heart-thumping excitement.
For a moment, images of several individuals flashed through Li Fan's spirit consciousness.
But in the end, he still shook his head.
After all, human hearts are the most unpredictable. No one knows how a person will change after gaining decades of memories.
Currently, [Real] hadn't finished charging yet, and he himself was still a weak scholar without the strength to even truss up a chicken, without the capital to start over.
Therefore, everything should be steady.
So the last option was the only one left.
Accelerate the charging progress.
The transformation of [Real] from reality to void required charging.
According to the experience that Li Fan groped in his previous life, this charging progress could only increase naturally with the passage of time. It would take about twenty years to be full.
Once the charge reached the maximum of 200%, it would no longer increase.
Meanwhile, when Li Fan is hit hard, [Real] would consume the charging progress for automatic protection. This was the reason why Li Fan had been able to escape death several times in his last life.
Therefore, the fourth option would be the safest choice.
Having made up his mind, Li Fan no longer hesitated and recited silently in his mind.
Then, rows of glowing small characters suddenly broke into specks of light and then quickly lined up into several rows of new characters.
Name: Li Fan
Realm: Mortal
Biological age: 20/86
Psychological age: 166/1056↑
Void transformation charging progress: 30%
"Three lifetimes as a human, one hundred and sixty-six years. So I've already lived this long. It's the upper limit of psychological age behind, I remember my last life only had more than nine hundred years, but now it has increased to over a thousand years. It seems this will increase with my experiences. This relieves some of my anxiety."
Just like the body's life span has a limit, the psychological carrying capacity also has a certain threshold.
When bearing too many memories, it will form a kind of mental burden. Once this burden is too heavy, it will completely crush a person's soul.
This is the so-called "wear and tear of the years".
However, the upper limit of psychological age will increase with the enhancement of psychological bearing capacity.
At present, Li Fan didn't have to worry about this.
"As long as I set foot on the path of cultivation, nothing is a problem. Now that I'm starting over, wealth, luxury cars, and beautiful women are not what I'm after."
"I just want longevity!" The pain of losing beloved friends and family one by one in his previous life, along with the powerlessness and fear brought on by his own physical aging, all made Li Fan's determination even stronger at this moment.
"The goal of this life is to learn the secret of cultivation from those two cultivators. In fifty years, they will descend upon Xuanjing City. With calculated intent against an unguarded mind, even if they are the so-called Foundation Establishment Phase powers, I might not be at a disadvantage."
"Perhaps what I can rely on, besides guns and gunpowder, also includes the Immortal-Ordinary Miasma they mentioned..."
"Besides, in fifty years' time, I can't just sit and wait. They come from the Eastern Ruin Abyss, maybe I can send someone to explore the bottom of the abyss first."
...
The worst thing in life is having no goal. In his previous life, many times Li Fan woke up in the middle of the night from the queen mother's stretcher, he would feel incredibly empty and lost.
In this life, he had already reached the peak point for an ordinary person.
He was the teacher of the emperor, and also controlled the worldly military. Most of the ministers in the court were his confidantes.
He had the power to depose and appoint emperors, and even the queen mother had no choice but to indulge him.
He couldn't get any higher.
It would be the same even if he lived another life.
Would he do the same thing in the next simulation?
So, what's the point of living lifetime after lifetime in this cycle of reincarnation?
Power, pleasure, after repeating it too many times, it's the same insipid taste.
Maybe, without any variables, after several cycles of reincarnation, Li Fan would voluntarily give up and choose to end his life.
But!
The appearance of those two cultivators made Li Fan see a whole new possibility!
They led Li Fan to see a strange, attractive world beckoning him from afar.
They gave Li Fan immense ambition and goals.
He would cultivate!
He would achieve longevity!
No one can stop him!
Li Fan pushed open the house door and walked out with his head held high.
His steps were firm!
Hadiah
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Power 
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