Third Life

Liang Kingdom, Ganzhou.

Just after the New Year, a major event took place in Ganzhou's Jianghu.

Within Nanyang City of Ganzhou, the Zhao Family's old patriarch suddenly announced his retirement from the martial world, handing the entire family over to his eldest grandson, Zhao Mingcheng.

As news of this spread like thunder, a rumor also began circulating in secret. Though Old Master Zhao was an Innate Grandmaster, he had been born a tenant farmer. In his youth, in his eagerness to advance, he had been too impatient for quick success and damaged his foundations. His lifespan would not exceed eighty years, and now his final day had arrived.

Thus, Old Master Zhao's so-called retirement was merely in name. In truth, he was already dead.

Naturally, the Zhao Family vehemently denied and refuted the rumors. Yet no matter how outsiders speculated, the Zhao Family's old patriarch never showed himself.

This made it clear that the rumor might not be false after all, and the Zhao Family's repeated denials were plainly laughable.

Name: Zhao Sheng
Lifespan: 79/79
Physique: Strong Bones and Sinews (Unranked)

Talent: Dynamic Vision (Mortal Grade)

Skills: Floating Light Swordplay (Peak Mastery), Wind Chasing Archery (Transcendent), Azure Sea Tide Rising Art (Major Accomplishment), Cloud Dragon Three Transformations (Peak Mastery)

"Second Life ended. Settling accounts...

"Settlement complete. Final evaluation: Upper C."

"Evaluation reward: You may choose one physique, skill, or talent to inherit. Please choose."

Hmm, choose to inherit the talent "Dynamic Vision."

Talent inherited.

"Congratulations, you have achieved two life achievements: First, Innate Grandmaster; second, Blessed with Many Children (10/10)."

"Achievement reward: You have received two random draws. You may draw from physiques, skills, and talents, or exchange them for talent rank upgrades. Please choose."

Choose physiques. Draw twice in a row.

"Drawing... Congratulations, you have drawn the Mortal Grade physique 'Hundred Longevity Body.' Congratulations, you have drawn the Mortal Grade physique 'Light as a Swallow.'"

Inside the inner residence of the Zhao Estate, Zhao Sheng abruptly sat up from his bed. Streams of information flashed through his mind, leaving a despondent expression on his face as he slowly exhaled.

Compared with his First Life, his final evaluation in the Second Life had improved. Not only was it two ranks above the "Lower C" of his First Life, but he had also achieved two life achievements.

Unfortunately, he still had not drawn a spirit-root physique.

"Come to think of it, this is already my Third Life since coming to this world..." Zhao Sheng sighed as he surveyed his surroundings. The room was elegantly furnished, its furniture exquisite.

It seemed his family circumstances were fairly good. At least his household had not fallen into decline as it had in his Second Life.

More than two hundred years ago, Zhao Sheng had first arrived in this world and been reborn into an ordinary family. After coming of age, he used the knowledge and experiences from his previous life to swiftly amass a fortune, becoming the richest man in a city in little more than a decade.

In the latter half of his life, he enjoyed all the wealth and splendor the world had to offer. Not only had he been surrounded by wives and concubines, but his children and grandchildren had filled the halls.

At eighty, he contracted a terminal illness. Only before his death did he learn from a divine physician that cultivators existed, and he was filled with boundless regret.

Unfortunately, by then it was already too late. After barely holding on for one more day, Zhao Sheng passed away.

Who could have imagined that after his death, he would discover, to his delight, that he possessed a supreme treasure—the Hundred Lifetimes Book. It allowed him to be reborn again and again within his bloodline descendants. So long as his bloodline endured, his soul would not perish.

Zhao Sheng was overjoyed. After drawing the talent Dynamic Vision, he hastily began his Second Life.

When he awoke in his Second Life, he discovered that he had become the son of a tenant farmer.

After inquiring carefully, he learned that nearly a hundred years had passed since his death in the First Life.

Furthermore, five years after his death, the Zhao Family had suddenly been exterminated by a band of bandits who roamed the rivers and lakes. Fortunately, one son had been studying away from home at the time and thus escaped disaster.

Since the family's decline, the Zhao Family had gone from bad to worse with every generation. By the time of his father's generation, they had already fallen into the status of tenant farmers.

However, Zhao Sheng was not worried in the slightest. In this life, he would not only restore the family fortune, but also practice martial arts and cultivate immortality in pursuit of longevity.

Ten years later, he had once again established a vast family fortune. With the aid of the Dynamic Vision talent, his martial arts also improved by the day, and he smoothly became a second-rate expert.

Yet throughout those ten years, he had never uncovered any trace of cultivators.

After deep consideration, he resolutely abandoned his wife, children, and family estate and began wandering the Jianghu.

That wandering lasted twenty years.

At the age of fifty-five, Zhao Sheng relied on medicinal pills and external aid to barely advance into the Innate realm, becoming one of Ganzhou's supreme grandmasters.

Having risen to a higher level, he naturally came into contact with cultivators.

Half a year later, Zhao Sheng learned from a cultivator that only those with spirit roots could cultivate immortality.

Yet Zhao Sheng had no spirit roots. Worse still, fewer than one in ten thousand people in the mortal world possessed them.

Fortunately, he also obtained a crucial piece of information: cultivators' descendants had a higher chance of developing spirit roots.

Half a year later, Zhao Sheng returned to Nanyang City and began seeking marriage alliance candidates for his descendants. Naturally, his target was the children of Cultivation Families.

But that goal was truly far too difficult.

The Cultivation World was closed-off, conservative, and exceedingly hostile to outsiders. In order to increase the chances of spirit roots being born, cultivators generally only joined with other cultivators, and Cultivation Families only formed marriage alliances with Cultivation Families.

For a mortal family to marry a child of a Cultivation Family was simply wishful thinking.

Zhao Sheng exhausted every scheme at his disposal. He not only offered up more than half his family fortune, but even voluntarily signed a twenty-year contract of servitude. Only then did the Chen Family relent and agree to send a concubine-born girl from a collateral branch to marry Zhao Mingcheng, his eldest grandson.

"Cultivation is difficult—harder than climbing to the blue sky... In my previous life, after all my twists and turns, I only barely glimpsed a sliver of dawn on the path to cultivation. In this life, can I finally have my wish fulfilled?"

Thinking of the hardships of his previous life, Zhao Sheng could not help but sigh. Fortunately, he still had the supreme treasure, the Hundred Lifetimes Book. If one life was not enough, then he would simply try another! With that thought, Zhao Sheng sank his consciousness into the depths of his sea of consciousness, where a jade-colored book was shining brightly.

The cover of the book bore the two words "Hundred Lifetimes." The book slowly opened. The remaining ninety-seven pages were still blank; only the first three pages contained writing.

Zhao Sheng was already incomparably familiar with the records on the first two pages. His gaze fell upon the third page.

Name: Zhao Zhiqin (Zhao Sheng)
Lifespan: 15/120
Physique: Hundred-Year Physique (Mortal Grade), Light as a Swallow (Mortal Grade)

Talent: Dynamic Vision (Mortal Grade)

Skills: Floating Light Swordplay (Proficient), Cloud Dragon Three Transformations (Entry Level), Azure Sea Tide Rising Art (Entry Level)

"The Zhi generation?" Zhao Sheng murmured, his thoughts slowly drifting.

In his previous life, he had established the Zhao Family's generational poem: "Revere worth, illuminate benevolence, honor the ancestors; preserve truth, uphold sincerity, foster great harmony. Zhi and Cheng proclaim the jade canon; centered and upright, uphold the golden precepts. Rush and mystery encompass Han's depths; lofty grandeur upholds the great Luo. Virtue unfolds pure splendor; cultivation treasures eternal life."

The Zhi generation was already the eleventh generation.

Reviewing this body's memories, Zhao Sheng discovered that another one hundred and sixty years had passed.

This time, the Zhao Family had not only avoided decline, but had grown into a great clan with more than a thousand members. Its businesses spread throughout Ganzhou, and it had become a renowned martial arts family in Ganzhou, equally at home in both the underworld and the upright world.

Zhao Sheng's status in this life was not low. Though both his parents had died, he was still a direct descendant of the Zhao Family's Third Branch.

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