Aspiring to Immortality

Aspiring to Immortality

In the darkness, lines of glowing text appeared one after another alongside shifting images.

You returned to Anchoring Year 1. Wild with joy, you did a few outlandish things and nearly had exorcism water obtained from the Village Witch forced down your throat by your Aunt.

There were still six months until the provincial examination. You studied day and night at home. Since you already knew the exam questions, you brimmed with confidence. Though your Aunt often had complaints about you in ordinary times, she had always supported you when it came to studying.

The Village Chief's younger brother coveted your family's ancestral fertile fields and secretly pressured you. Though your Aunt, being a woman, tried her best to resist, she lacked the strength to do so. With a small scheme, you settled the matter. From then on, your Aunt saw you in a different light.

Half a year later, you took the provincial examination. Though you only placed near the bottom, in the thirtieth range, you had nevertheless become a Recommended Man, bringing honor to your ancestors.

In Anchoring Year 2, you went to Profound Capital City to take the metropolitan examination. Having long prepared for the exam questions, you naturally passed with high marks. You then performed outstandingly in the palace examination, placing in the second class and receiving the status of Presented Scholar.

You pulled strings throughout Profound Capital City and finally got your wish, obtaining the post of County Magistrate of Wen County in Jiangnan.

In Anchoring Year 3, you brought your Aunt from home and assumed office in Wen County. You began secretly cultivating your own trusted inner circle. That same year, you led your subordinates deep into the mountains and found several mineral deposits from your memories of your previous life.

In Anchoring Year 4, you successfully produced a batch of explosives and matchlock guns. In their first showing, your Musket Squad wiped out and absorbed a nearby bandit stronghold.

In Anchoring Year 5, the Jiangnan Drought struck, and refugees covered the land. Because you had long since built waterworks and waterwheels to divert water, Wen County under your rule was not greatly affected. That same year, a group of refugees gathered to revolt and attacked the Langya Royal Mansion. You led troops there in time and saved the Langya King's family. The Langya King was deeply grateful to you.

In Anchoring 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 Anchoring Year 7, a Locust Plague suddenly broke out in Jiangnan Circuit, leading to poor harvests. Only the territory under your rule suffered minimal impact. That same year, your wife bore you a son.

In Anchoring Year 8, your subordinates successfully produced Flintlock Guns.

In Anchoring Year 10, the Langya King's consort gave birth to a son. You personally visited to offer congratulations and presented a carefully prepared gift.

In Anchoring Year 15, the Emperor was suddenly stricken by a grave illness. Before dying, he summoned the Langya King to the capital and passed the throne to him. The Langya King ascended the throne and changed the era name to Xuanjing.

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

In Anchoring Year 18, you raced across the land and finally swept the rebel armies clean. After returning to the capital, Emperor Xuanjing reclaimed your military authority and promoted you to Minister of War, while also appointing you Grand Tutor of the Crown Prince.

In Anchoring Year 20, the Empress was suddenly implicated in a sorcery case. Emperor Xuanjing flew into a rage and cast her into the Cold Palace. The Crown Prince secretly came to you for help, and you decisively agreed. After conducting a private investigation, you found evidence that Consort Xi had framed the Empress and cleared the Empress's name. Emperor Xuanjing exterminated Consort Xi's entire clan, yet did not release the Empress from the Cold Palace.

In Anchoring Year 21, someone secretly accused you of rebellion and submitted evidence that you had privately mined mineral deposits years ago and secretly controlled an armed force. Terrified, you submitted a memorial pleading guilty. Emperor Xuanjing stripped you of your Ministerial post and only allowed you to instruct the Crown Prince.

In Anchoring Year 23, Emperor Xuanjing went on a spring hunt. On a sudden whim, he decided to return to the Langya Royal Mansion in Jiangnan Circuit for a look.

In Anchoring Year 24, when Emperor Xuanjing traveled south to Jiangnan, he ordered you to accompany him. While touring the mountains and waters of Jiangnan, he also paid a visit to several mines you had secretly excavated years ago.

In Anchoring Year 25, Emperor Xuanjing traveled south to Jiangnan for a second time. Only this time, he did not bring you along. Three months later, you secretly received word that someone had reported your private visits to the Empress in the Cold Palace. That same year, Emperor Xuanjing was assassinated on his way back to the capital. When the news returned, the capital was shaken. The officials brought the Empress out from the Cold Palace, after which the Crown Prince ascended the throne and adopted the era name Kangning.

In Anchoring Year 26, you were additionally appointed Grand Tutor and Grand Secretary of the Deliberative Council, rising to the very pinnacle of officialdom. The Emperor was young and relied heavily on you. Taking advantage of this opportunity, you formed factions and purged dissenters, establishing your own power base in the Imperial Court.

In Anchoring Year 27, your Aunt died. The thought of seeking immortality arose within you once more, so you sent people everywhere to search for traces of immortals.

In Anchoring Year 28, the Emperor came of age. Yet your power grew with each passing day, until the Imperial Court had almost become your personal echo chamber.

In Anchoring Year 30, the people knew only the Grand Tutor, not the Emperor.

In Anchoring Year 31, the Empress Dowager became pregnant and urgently summoned you to the palace to discuss a solution. In your great delight, you secretly brought the Empress Dowager back to the Grand Tutor Estate and took meticulous care of her. That same year, the Empress Dowager bore you a son.

In Anchoring Year 33, when you entered court alone, you were surrounded by trusted guards secretly cultivated by Emperor Kangning. Fortunately, with the aid of a strange treasure, you barely escaped with your life. Enraged, you wished to kill the Emperor and establish yourself in his place. Yet under the Empress Dowager's bitter pleas and the persuasion of the ministers around you, you did not act. You executed all of the Emperor's close aides. Thereafter, Emperor Kangning had only the name of an Emperor, but none of an Emperor's substance.

In Anchoring Year 38, Emperor Kangning died in despondency. You installed his legitimate eldest son as Emperor and changed the era name to Longchang.

In Anchoring Year 40, the Empress Dowager died of illness. Your desire to seek immortality grew ever more urgent.

In Anchoring Year 45, your wife died.

In Anchoring Year 46, your eldest son died of illness.

In Anchoring Year 48, after years of fruitless searching for immortals, you gave up on seeking immortality.

In Anchoring Year 50, two immortals came from the east of the Void Abyss and reduced Profound Capital City to ruins. You barely escaped with your life.

This simulation has ended.

You may choose one of the following options to retain:
1. An item currently in your possession during this simulation.

2. Your cultivation realm during this simulation.

3. The simulated memories of one person with whom you shared a close relationship during this simulation. That person may inherit these memories.

4. Forgo the above choices and accelerate charging progress.

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

As he looked around at the strange yet familiar scenery, the experiences of the past several decades passed through Li Fan's mind one by one. He could not help but sigh. "Did reality turn into illusion, or was everything merely a simulation—one so real that it created this illusion? Or perhaps, once one reaches a certain point, there is no boundary between false and true."

However, Li Fan was not one to indulge in sentimentality. He quickly steadied himself and focused on the four options.

There was nothing much to say about the first and second options. If Li Fan had embarked upon the path of cultivation, either one would have been immensely helpful to him. Unfortunately, in his previous life, he had merely been an ordinary mortal. He had no cultivation realm at all.

As for the most valuable item he had possessed, it was likely that Imperial Jade Seal.

It too was useless, and would only bring disaster.

As for the third option, allowing someone else to obtain the memories of this simulation as well...

That truly made Li Fan's heart pound.

For a moment, several figures flashed through Li Fan's mind.

But in the end, he still shook his head.

After all, the human heart was the hardest thing to fathom. No one knew what a person would become after gaining decades' worth of memories.

Return to Truth had not yet finished charging. He was still a frail scholar without the strength to truss a chicken, with no capital for starting over.

Therefore, stability had to come first in all things.

That left only the fourth option.

Accelerate charging progress.

Return to Truth's ability to turn reality into illusion required charging.

Based on the experience Li Fan had gained through exploration in his previous life, charging progress could only naturally increase with the passage of time. It took roughly twenty years to fully charge.

Once charging progress reached a maximum of 200%, it would no longer increase.

At the same time, whenever Li Fan suffered a fatal blow, Return to Truth would consume charging progress to automatically protect him. This was also why Li Fan had survived several near-death encounters in his previous life.

Therefore, the fourth option was the safest choice.

Having made up his mind, Li Fan no longer hesitated and silently recited his choice.

At once, the lines of glowing text scattered into points of light, then swiftly arranged themselves into several new lines of characters.

Name: Li Fan

Realm: Mortal

Physical Age: 20/86 Mental Age: 166/1056↑

Transformation of Emptiness Charging Progress: 30%

"Three lives as a man, one hundred and sixty-six years. So I've already lived this long. As for the upper limit of mental age afterward, I remember it had only been a little over nine hundred years in my previous life, but now it has increased to over a thousand. It seems it increases along with my experiences. That eases some of the anxiety in my heart."

Just as the body's lifespan had its limits, mental endurance also had a threshold.

Once one carried too many memories, they formed a burden upon the spirit. If that burden became too heavy, it would utterly crush a person's soul.

This was what people called "the erosion of years."

However, the upper limit of mental age increased as one's mental capacity grew stronger.

For now, Li Fan did not need to worry about it.

"As long as I embark on the path of immortal cultivation, none of this will be a problem. Now that I have started over, glory and wealth, fine carriages and beautiful women are no longer what I seek."

"I seek only immortality!" The pain of watching his beloved family and friends vanish one by one in his previous life, along with the helplessness and fear brought by his steadily aging body, made Li Fan's resolve firmer than ever.

"The goal of this life is to learn the secret of immortal cultivation from those two cultivators. They will descend upon Profound Capital City fifty years from now. With careful planning against an unprepared foe, even if they are so-called Foundation Establishment Realm experts, I may not stand without a chance."

"Perhaps, besides firearms and explosives, I can also rely on the Immortal-Mortal Miasma they spoke of..."

"Besides, I cannot simply wait around for fifty years. They came from the Eastern Ruin Abyss. Perhaps I can first send people deep into the bottom of the Void Abyss to investigate."

The most frightening thing in life was having no goal. In his previous life, whenever Li Fan awoke from the Empress Dowager's bed in the middle of the night, he would feel an incomparably profound emptiness and confusion.

In this life, he had already stood at the very summit of ordinary people.

He was the Son of Heaven's teacher and held the armies of the realm in his hands. Eight or nine out of every ten court officials were his trusted followers.

He could depose and enthrone Emperors. Even the Empress Dowager was his to take and demand as he pleased.

There was no higher to climb.

Even if he lived another life, it would be the same.

Should he do the same in the next simulation? If so, what meaning would there be in cycling through life after life? Power and pleasure, repeated too often, became as tasteless as chewing wax.

Perhaps, if no variable appeared, Li Fan would one day give up after a certain cycle and choose to end his own life.

But!

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

It showed Li Fan an unfamiliar world, brimming with temptation, beckoning toward him.

It gave Li Fan immense ambition and a goal.

He wanted to cultivate immortality!

He wanted eternal life!

No one could stop him! Li Fan pushed open the door and strode out with his head held high.

His steps were firm!