What Determines the Lifespan of a Dynasty?
Hearing this, Zuo Ruotong shut his eyes tight. Then he raised a hand to Wu Gensheng and thanked him. "Thank you. Thank you for telling me the truth."
Seeing this, Wu Gensheng asked solemnly, "Do you still want to put it to the test?"
Zuo Ruotong had made his decision. In a tone whose meaning was hard to discern, he said, "I know the answer now, yet my heart feels as though it's being cut by knives. That heartache is both the reason I failed and proof of my failure. Since this is still the path of a mortal, let's see it through from beginning to end."
"Let's put it to the test and bring it to a proper end." Wu Gensheng agreed emphatically and silently activated Divine Spirit.
Then he reached out and clasped Zuo Ruotong's hand.
The next moment, a tearing sound came from Zuo Ruotong's outstretched palm as white qi began to disperse wildly. Suddenly, light blazed forth, dazzling the disciples outside the qi barrier so badly that they couldn't open their eyes. They cried out in panic, "What's happening? We can't see or hear anything!"
Suddenly, the barrier of white qi shattered, and everyone could finally see everything inside. Zuo Ruotong staggered backward, his body hunched. Then he looked first toward the Three-One Sect disciples before turning away and walking step by step toward the chair in front of him.
At last, he struggled to support himself on the chair.
After a long silence, he spoke in a hoarse voice. "Wu Gensheng, you all should leave."
"The immortal turned into an old man?!"
"What happened? How did the immortal end up like that?"
"Sect Leader Zuo really is different from us mortals. He could disperse all his cultivation just because he said so, throw it away just because he wanted to!"
"Hadn't Sect Leader Zuo already become an immortal? Why did he still have to test this so-called path to heaven? Was it that important?"
"If one hears the Dao in the morning, one may die content that evening."
Unlike the common people and scholars, the emperors of every dynasty were thinking not about whether Threefold Reversal could reach heaven, but about longevity.
Now, it seemed that Threefold Reversal really could grant longevity.
Zuo Ruotong, Immortal Daying on the heavenly screen, had looked young before becoming a qi immortal. After transforming into qi, he had looked even more like an immortal. Now that his cultivation had been broken, he had become a lifeless old man. That was enough to show everything.
Seeing this, even emperors who had never hoped for immortality couldn't help being tempted.
Who didn't want to live forever?
The emperors in particular all wanted to rule as the Son of Heaven for eternity, if they could.
Comments section—
[Could he compare to the Old Celestial Master?]
[Yes. Zuo Ruotong himself said that, with his strength at the time, there might be people in the world who could beat him by a move or half a move, but there was absolutely no one who could directly destroy Threefold Reversal—that was before he met Wu Gensheng. Zhang Zhiwei was still young then and hadn't reached the pinnacle.]
[He just couldn't let it go. If Threefold Reversal wasn't enough to reach heaven, what about a fourth or fifth level? Reverse-cultivating innate primordial qi, becoming qi was both the end and the beginning. How could he say there was no path forward?]
[The author meant that Reverse Rebirth wasn't a path to heaven. The direction was wrong, so a fourth or fifth level would only take him farther down the wrong path. In the end, it would simply prove that the path was wrong.]
[Breaking through the third level already made him unmatched in the world. Why go looking for trouble?]
[His goal was to reach heaven.]
[He broke through the third level to reach heaven, but after breaking through, he still couldn't reach heaven. His goal was gone.]
[He couldn't ascend.]
[Divine Spirit couldn't let someone ascend and become an immortal either, could it?]
[Threefold Reversal still isn't as good as the Eight Extraordinary Skills. Even the third level couldn't withstand Divine Spirit.]
[Divine Spirit simply counters it, that's all. Besides, so-called techniques and cultivation methods are all illusions. Strength is what's real.]
[Zuo Ruotong was just a hair's breadth from becoming an immortal! But that tiny gap kept him from ascending to immortality. You could say he was the closest anyone had come to being an immortal. In ancient times, he could have been called an immortal walking the earth.]
[If I had that kind of strength, I'd be invincible in ancient times. Who cares whether I could reach heaven or become an immortal? Wouldn't it be great to live carefree as an invincible emperor in the mortal world? I'd take a few thousand consorts and have a few hundred children.]
[Now that's a good idea!]
"People in later generations are so bold! They even dare to talk about immortals and emperors as they please!"
"Even people in later generations don't know whether Threefold Reversal can reach heaven."
"People in later generations really have some imagination. They want to be emperors and take thousands of consorts. Could they even make use of them all?"
"With that level of cultivation, he'd surely be different from ordinary people in that regard too!"
"If I had Sect Leader Zuo's cultivation, could I become an emperor too?"
"Shh! Do you have a death wish? You'll say anything!"
"Does anyone know where the Three-One Sect is? I want to become a disciple!"
"Even if the Three-One Sect really exists, it wouldn't be your turn to become a disciple! Princes and ministers, young masters of noble families, even the current Son of Heaven—who doesn't want to live a long life?"
Emperor Taizu of Ming, Zhu Yuanzhang, said unhappily, "People in later generations are too insolent! They have no respect for imperial authority. They dare to think and say anything! If they were subjects of my Great Ming, I'd have their heads chopped off!"
The emperors of the other dynasties were just as displeased and furious as Emperor Taizu of Ming.
Their power was imperial authority.
People in later generations were utterly unrestrained and had no reverence for imperial authority. They would influence the emperors' subjects and thereby affect their rule.
Yet there was nothing the emperors could do about those people.
[What exactly determines the lifespan of a dynasty? Why does the cycle keep repeating? #History]
Seeing this title, the emperors of every dynasty craned their necks. Compared with immortality, for which they had no leads, this video deserved more of their attention!
Ying Zheng said expectantly, "I wonder how many generations my Great Qin lasted, and how many years its reign endured?"
Yang Jian said, "My Great Sui will surely last for a thousand autumns and ten thousand generations!"
[What exactly determines the lifespan of a dynasty?]
[In the ancient feudal dynasties, the realm was forever dividing and uniting, and naturally, many founding monarchs played a part.]
[Of the dynasties established by these founding monarchs, some endured for hundreds of years, while others, despite their apparent might, lasted only a few years.]
[From the founding of the Xia Dynasty to the fall of the Zhou Dynasty, these three dynasties occupied nearly half of China's history. From the First Emperor of Qin's unification to the collapse of the Qing Dynasty, 2,131 years passed, with more than ten dynasties of varying lifespans.]
In a certain spacetime.
A Western Han civil official said, "From the First Emperor of Qin onward, there were more than ten dynasties in just over two thousand years? On average, that's less than two hundred years per dynasty?"
"I wonder how many years my Great Han endured?"
[What factors determined the lifespans of these dynasties?]
[Before the Qin Dynasty, at the beginning of the Xia Dynasty, none of the systems were fully developed. They were worked out bit by bit by those who came before. The population was not particularly large at the time, and most land remained in its original state. As long as the monarch didn't act recklessly or squeeze the people too severely, the risk of rebellion was extremely small. If you don't believe it, ask Jie of Xia, the last ruler of the Xia Dynasty.]
"How are we supposed to ask him? Summon Jie of Xia's soul?"
"Later generations even have immortals like Sect Leader Zuo. It wouldn't be strange for them to have an immortal who can summon souls, would it?"
Jie of Xia: People in later generations are truly the height of rudeness.