"Sigh!"
"Cultivating immortality is so hard!"
In Yinlian Village, Meng Nan rubbed his aching, swollen legs with both hands after sitting in meditation, his face full of helplessness.
In his previous life, he'd been twenty-eight.
In this life, he was eighteen.
He'd died in a car accident while traveling. Being given another chance at life was something worth celebrating. For the first sixteen years of this life, Meng Nan had been happy enough, cheerfully facing each day and full of hope for the future.
But ever since he'd officially begun cultivating two years ago, things had gone badly.
"Fetal Breath."
"Inner Qi."
"True Qi."
"True Essence."
Meng Nan counted off the first four major hurdles of the Qi Refining Stage on his fingers, feeling his scalp prickle.
Before turning sixteen, he hadn't begun proper cultivation. It had all seemed like flowers glimpsed through a fog—not that hard. He'd thought he could do it just as well as anyone!
But once he truly began cultivating—
Two years!
Fetal Breath Tranquility!
Meng Nan was still stuck at the very first step.
Stillness.
Qi Sensing.
Visualization.
He'd spent two whole years stuck at the first of the three minor hurdles in the Fetal Breath Stage.
Useless!
He hadn't even gotten started, and it already seemed like his path was about to end.
And beyond that—
The Inner Qi Stage: Qi Circulation, Lesser Celestial Circuit, Greater Celestial Circuit.
The True Qi Stage: Qi Accumulation, Body Cleansing.
The True Essence Stage: Sense Imprint, Three Cavities.
And then the Qi Refining Stage—
None of it seemed to have anything to do with Meng Nan anymore.
"Sigh!"
"Is it really this hard just to become a little Qi Refining cultivator?"
Meng Nan shook his head.
This wasn't how the novels he'd read in his previous life had described it!
Then he thought of the lofty lord of Tianlin Cave. That man was supposedly "only" at the third layer of the Qi Refining Stage, yet he ruled the Three Hundred Cave Villages and their three hundred thousand people, all of whom respectfully called him Immortal Master!
"Qi Refining Immortal Master?"
Meng Nan wanted to be one too, just to see what it was like.
But—
"Meng Nan!"
"The auspicious hour is here! Time to fetch the bride!"
Outside the little house, his eldest brother, Meng Ba, bellowed in his rough voice, startling the chickens into a flurry. Several nieces and nephews chattered excitedly, and firecrackers crackled.
Peaceful and festive, the noise flowed in through the door.
"Coming!"
Meng Nan's daydream shattered. He rose, silently put on a bright red robe, pinned a large red flower to his chest, and stepped outside—
Becoming an immortal was hard.
Getting married was easy.
According to the rules of the three hundred villages under Tianlin Cave, anyone who hadn't reached the Inner Qi Stage by eighteen had to obey the village's arrangements, marry, and have children.
Today!
Was Meng Nan's big day!
The wedding was bustling with noise and excitement.
The couple was escorted into the bridal chamber.
Inside the new earthen house, Zhao Xiaoshuang sat at the edge of the bed and lifted her veil to look at her husband—
He had a nose.
He had eyes.
"Not bad-looking."
Zhao Xiaoshuang breathed a sigh of relief. She'd gotten lucky.
That was how the rules of the mountain villages worked. Men and women alike were eligible to cultivate at sixteen—
Stillness.
Qi Sensing.
Visualization.
These were the stages of the Fetal Breath Stage.
If you could advance from the Fetal Breath Stage to the Inner Qi Stage by eighteen, turning Inner Breath into Inner Qi and circulating it through your meridians, you were considered talented enough to put off marriage and having children and focus on cultivation.
Even if, six years later, you still hadn't advanced to the True Qi Stage by the time you were twenty-four, you'd gain the right to choose your own spouse.
Those who reached the True Qi Stage had it even easier. Whether to marry or have children was entirely up to them.
But unfortunately, Zhao Xiaoshuang was eighteen this year, and her cultivation had stalled at the Qi Sensing Realm of the Fetal Breath Stage. She was still one Visualization hurdle away from the Inner Qi Stage.
And so—
She could only marry.
Meng Nan looked at the woman who was his new wife in this life, and his first spouse across both lives, and couldn't help finding it amusing.
He walked over to the bed, sat beside Zhao Xiaoshuang, and turned to look at her.
She was ordinary-looking—not striking at first glance, and no more so at a second.
But at least her features were regular, and her face was pleasant to look at.
She sat there quietly and demurely. He just didn't know what she was really like.
Meng Nan sat beside her, unsure what to say, so he asked, "What's your cultivation level?"
"Qi Sensing."
Zhao Xiaoshuang heard the gentle tone in his voice and thought he seemed easy enough to get along with. She blinked, then asked, "What about you?"
"About the same."
"If you haven't reached the Inner Qi Stage, it's all the same."
Meng Nan bluffed a little. He was too embarrassed to admit he was still only at the Stillness Realm.
Then he deliberately changed the subject and chatted with Zhao Xiaoshuang about other things: their families, their villages, and funny things that had happened to them growing up.
They got to know each other better.
By the time night had grown late—
"Let's sleep."
"Mm."
The quilts tossed, the bed swayed, and a night of spring passion passed in a haze of bliss!
"Dad!"
"Dad!"
"Dad, don't die!"
Meng Nan was groggy. He heard someone calling, someone crying, someone shaking him.
He opened his eyes.
Three little radish heads, all around ten years old, were tugging at him and wailing. A middle-aged woman who looked a lot like Zhao Xiaoshuang was wiping away her tears.
And he—
"What is this—"
Meng Nan looked at himself. He was sitting cross-legged, his legs a little sore.
Aching and stiff.
He immediately stretched them out and rubbed them, then looked at the three children and the middle-aged woman. An ominous suspicion rose in his heart.
At that moment.
Right then.
"Huh?"
"Dad?!"
The third child, Meng Santan, saw Meng Nan move and sprang away in fright, his face blanching as he yelped, "Oh no, oh no!"
The second child, Meng Jian, was badly startled too. He scooted backward several paces on his bottom.
The eldest, Meng Xingzhe, was still clutching Meng Nan. He froze, unsure whether to let go, and gave an awkward, sheepish smile.
Zhao Xiaoshuang reacted faster. Her sobs caught in her throat, then instantly turned to delight. She rushed forward and wrapped her arms around Meng Nan. "You're all right! You're all right!"
She laughed through her tears.
Then cried through her laughter.
Her tears dampened Meng Nan's shoulder, cool against his skin.
He looked at the woman in his arms, then at the three little ones. For no reason he could name, a stirring passed through his heart.
The next moment—
Name: Meng Nan Lifespan: 0/8 Faction: Cha Mountain Cave Cultivation: Fetal Breath Tranquility Inner Breath: 0 Root Bone: 1 Cultivation Method: Thunder Illumination Scripture, First Layer Spells: None Skills: None Death Log: Available to view
"A status panel?"
Meng Nan rubbed his eyes, fixing his gaze on the last entry, [Death Log]. With a thought, he opened the information—
[Name: Meng Nan] [Age at Death: 30] [Cause of Death: Forced breakthrough, Qi Deviation] [Cultivation before Death: Visualization Realm of the Fetal Breath Stage]
"I—"
"I died?"
After reading the [Death Log], Meng Nan felt the whole thing was absurd.
He'd died at thirty?
And he'd only reached the Visualization Realm of the Fetal Breath Stage?
That was ridiculous!
"But—"
Meng Nan absorbed the jumble of information that had flooded his mind along with the "status panel." Before long, he finally understood.
This wasn't the present timeline!
It was one of countless possible futures, a future timeline.
Going by his age—
"Twelve years from now."
Meng Nan looked through the information. His alarm faded, replaced by pure curiosity.
Twelve years from now?
Was he currently in the future, twelve years ahead?
In reality, he'd only just consummated his marriage.
But in this timeline, twelve years later, he'd already completed the childbearing quota of "two in three years, three in five," and his children had even grown into little adults.
He looked again at Zhao Xiaoshuang, who had released him and raised her head.
Her face was still ordinary.
But the youthful beauty he'd seen just a moment ago remained vivid in his mind. Now her face had a faint yellow tinge, and a few wrinkles had appeared.
The marks left by time.
"Twelve years."
For the first time, Meng Nan felt the passage of time—and its mercilessness—with such clarity.
"I'm fine."
"Something just went wrong with my cultivation. My breath got thrown off. I'll be all right once I recover."
Meng Nan smiled at Zhao Xiaoshuang, but the twelve years of memories he was missing left him unsure how to act around her.
That went for the three children, too.
"Dad!"
"You scared us all half to death! You even stopped breathing!"
Meng Santan was a little girl, around seven or eight years old. She must have been born four or five years into their marriage.
As she spoke, Meng Nan could only guess at what she meant. He didn't even know her name—or the names of her two older brothers.
When Meng Santan came close again,
Meng Nan patted her head, finding the whole thing rather wondrous.
So he'd—
So he had children now?
And they were already this big, this adorable. That certainly saved him some trouble.
A surge of delight welled up in Meng Nan, but the urgent matters at hand weren't a sudden taste of family bliss. He needed to deal with the information on the "panel" and the problems he was about to face.
After a moment's thought,
he smiled at the three siblings. "You three go play outside. Xiaoshuang, stay a moment."
"Okay!"
"Dad, take care of yourself!"
Meng Santan was sweet and sensible. She followed her eldest brother, Meng Xingzhe, and second brother, Meng Jian, out of the room, looking back again and again before they finally left.
Inside the little house,
Meng Nan surveyed the furnishings.
This wasn't a cultivation chamber. It looked like a bedroom, though it was nothing like the newlywed room he'd had twelve years ago. He supposed that after starting a family and having three children, they'd moved out after the wedding to set up a household of their own.
The room was simple, but full of thoughtful little touches.
Some things looked like his handiwork: the table, chairs, stools, bed, and recliner were all modeled on designs he'd seen in his previous life. Other parts left him puzzled and were most likely Zhao Xiaoshuang's doing.
Meng Nan took a quick look around, then turned to Zhao Xiaoshuang.
After a little time to collect himself, he'd worked out what to say. "I must've burned out my brain from qi deviation. Right now, I can only remember what happened before our wedding and on the night we got married. I remember every word we said on our first night together. But after that—starting the next day, right up until now—I don't remember anything."
As he spoke, Meng Nan lightly tapped his temple with a troubled look, pretending to have lost his memory.
"You've lost your memory?"
Zhao Xiaoshuang studied Meng Nan carefully.
She'd been swept up in the joy of seeing her husband come back from the dead and hadn't had time to think or take anything in. But now that she'd calmed down and heard him explain, she immediately understood.
Sure enough, something felt off. He seemed a little like a stranger.
As for the night they married,
after more than ten years, she didn't remember it very clearly.
"The first thing we asked each other that night was about our cultivation. I'd only just reached the Stillness Realm, so I was too embarrassed to bring it up. After that—"
Worried Zhao Xiaoshuang might not believe him, Meng Nan quickly repeated what they'd said that night—which, in fact, he'd only experienced a moment ago. It was still fresh in his mind, every word exactly as spoken.
"You still remember all that!"
"But everything after that is gone?"
"It's not so bad."
"If you'd forgotten one more day, you'd have forgotten me, too."
Zhao Xiaoshuang smiled, but kept a tight hold on Meng Nan's hand.
He didn't need her to say more to know that their relationship over the past twelve years must have been a good one.
And when he thought about what he was like—
"I've always been a good man."
"I've always kept to a husband's virtue, stayed true to one woman, and put effort into nurturing a relationship. There's nothing strange about that."
But a relationship could never be built by one person alone.
From Zhao Xiaoshuang's expression, it seemed she truly cared for him, too.
Thinking this, Meng Nan felt rather lucky.
An arranged marriage.
A random match.
All but a childbearing machine.
To find a wife who could sincerely care for him and stand by him through thick and thin, even in such circumstances, was a real blessing.
As he thought about all this,
Meng Nan felt his head growing heavy. He'd meant to talk more with Zhao Xiaoshuang, but before he knew it, he'd slumped into her arms and fallen into a deep sleep.
He slept soundly through the night.
When Meng Nan woke, it seemed to be broad daylight. He didn't hurry out of bed. He sorted through his thoughts, glanced at the furnishings, and confirmed that he was still in the future, so he stayed where he was.
Lying in bed,
he opened the panel.
Name: Meng Nan
Lifespan: 0/8
Faction: Chashan Cave
Cultivation: Fetal Breath Tranquility
Inner Breath: 0
Root Bone: 1
Cultivation Method: First Layer of the Thunder Illumination Scripture
Spells: None
Skills: None
Death Log: Available
"So this thing brought me to this future timeline."
"Right after 'I' had died."
Meng Nan digested the information.
The "information panel" had brought him from reality to this place, but he wouldn't be staying here forever. The "lifespan" shown on the panel wasn't his real lifespan in reality. It was the amount of time he could survive in this future timeline.
"Eight years!"
"I can stay for at most eight years. Once the time's up, I'll return to reality."
"The time I can stay depends on ten percent of my maximum lifespan in reality."
"In other words, my natural limit in reality is eighty years."
Meng Nan scanned his attributes one by one, sorting through the information as it came. When he got to his lifespan, he read further, then shook his head. "The theoretical limit is eighty years. That's not an early death in my previous life. But that's only in theory. In this timeline, I died at thirty."
Thirty!
A short-lived ghost!
"Fine, I didn't reach the Inner Qi Stage by thirty, but how did I manage to die from qi deviation while still in the Fetal Breath Stage?"
"I'm useless!"
Meng Nan glanced at the [Death Log] again and couldn't help laughing at himself.
And even if he hadn't suffered qi deviation, at this rate, he'd never have achieved anything in cultivation in this life.
Having children.
Laboring in obedience.
That was apparently his value—to Yinlian Village, to Tianlin Cave.
"But that was before!"
"Now!"
"Could this 'information panel' let me do things differently?"
Hope rose in Meng Nan's heart, and he continued reading.
Inner Breath.
Root Bone.
Cultivation Method.
Spells.
Skills.
These had all carried over from his original timeline, not from the version of himself in this future.
His cultivation was the same.
In this timeline, Meng Nan had suffered qi deviation, but he'd at least reached the Visualization Realm. Now that he'd taken over the body, he was back where he'd started.
Even the way his body felt had reverted from thirty to eighteen, when he'd just come of age.
"So—"
"Cultivating here is the same as cultivating in reality."
"It's just a shame that the cultivation I gain here can't be taken back with me."
Meng Nan felt a little regret.
But it didn't matter.
He could stay in this timeline for eight years, which meant he could cultivate here for eight years. Even if he couldn't take his cultivation back, he could bring back eight years of experience—experience he'd gained firsthand.
Cultivating in reality would be much easier after that!
"At least I won't end up at thirty still in the Fetal Breath Stage and Visualization Realm, or even die from qi deviation!"
Meng Nan's fighting spirit flared. He rolled out of bed and got to his feet in one smooth motion.
His first day in the future was about to begin.
"Meng Xingzhe."
"Meng Jian."
"Meng Santan."
Early in the morning, Meng Nan looked at the three children lined up in front of him. Thinking about the names he'd learned from Zhao Xiaoshuang, he began to grasp the kind of mischief he'd get up to in the years ahead.
There was no need to guess. He'd definitely come up with those three names himself.
"I imagine that was what I hoped they'd become."
He could imagine what he'd been thinking at the time.
He called it "mischief," but wasn't there sorrow in it, too?
After transmigrating, if you couldn't make it in cultivation, you had to accept—
Marriage!
Children!
You couldn't refuse.
Even if you didn't want children and claimed you were infertile, even if you took a blade to yourself, the children you were supposed to have would still be born.
If you didn't have them,
the village would find someone else to have them for your household.
Meng Nan knew the rules, which was why he'd accepted marriage and the wedding night.
He couldn't fight back, so he had to submit.
And if he didn't want another man planting grass on his head, he had to do his part. There was no room for coyness.
And so,
these three little rascals had come along.
Meng Nan looked at the three of them, then glanced from side to side. Just as he'd thought, they'd set up their own household, some distance from the few rooms his parents had left to him and his eldest brother, Meng Ba.
They were in a bamboo grove, filled with the thick kind of moso bamboo.
Judging by its location, it hadn't been here twelve years ago.
"Dad planted all of this!"
"Dad's bamboo-crafting skills are the best in Yinlian Village! Even the Fort Lord has ordered things from him!"
Meng Santan was the most active and talkative of the three. Ever since she'd learned first thing that morning that her father had lost his memory and couldn't remember the past twelve years, she'd been bursting with energy. She wished she could pour out everything she knew, so her father might get his memory back sooner and remember her.
Unfortunately, she was only seven. She'd started remembering things around the age of three or four, so there were plenty of things from her early years she didn't know.
Her eyes darted about as she looked at Meng Nan, then at her two brothers, afraid they knew more and would say more than she did.
"I'll make you a bamboo dragonfly in a bit."
Meng Nan saw his daughter give him a thumbs-up and figured he should work on getting closer to her. He smiled at her.
"I've already got lots of bamboo dragonflies!"
The moment Meng Santan heard him, she took off running. Before long, she came back carrying more than ten bamboo dragonflies, big and small, a whole heap of them. Quite a few looked like more than Meng Nan could make himself.
"I must've made a living in Yinlian Village these past twelve years with carpentry and bamboo work."
He'd learned bamboo weaving from his grandfather in his previous life, and carpentry from his father. He was passable at both. His skills might not have impressed anyone in his previous life, or even in the ancient times of his previous life.
But here in the South Frontier, in Yinlian Village, he was absolutely better than everyone else.
He hadn't shown off much before his marriage. Outside his daily work shifts, he'd devoted himself wholeheartedly to cultivation.
After they got married, the pressures of daily life had made him pick it back up, and he'd even made something of it.
Immortals had to cultivate.
Life had to go on, too.
Meng Nan felt he'd done pretty well in life and in his relationship.
Cultivation was the one area where he still fell a little short.
P.S. New year, new book, new beginnings. Happy New Year, everyone!
Before you continue