[Year 0]
You were born into the Han Clan, a poor cultivation household in the Xuanming Realm of the Upper Thousand Provinces.
Though the Han Clan was poor, its members stood together, and life was still carefree.
When you were born, a light snow fell from the heavens. Your father named you Han Han.
[Year 1]
You grew up under your parents' loving care. Though your home had no delicacies or spirit medicines, your father often took you into the mountains to gather herbs, while your mother taught you to read and write.
[Year 3]
Your mother gave birth to another daughter.
She was named Han Xue.
You looked at your chubby little sister and thought, She's so ugly.
[Year 5]
You began to show exceptional cultivation talent. At just five years old, you could already draw in Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy. Your father said with pride, "Han'er has extraordinary talent. Perhaps one day he can restore the Han Clan to glory!"
Only then did you learn that the Han Clan's bloodline held a secret.
Those with extraordinary talent could awaken their Bloodline Power.
Once awakened, it could conceal every trace of your aura, temporarily turning you into an ordinary mortal with no cultivation.
Even a Great Emperor would struggle to see through it unless he came in person.
You joked that it was a useless ability.
[Year 6]
When you were six, you once went into the mountains with your father to gather herbs. By accident, you fell to the bottom of Xuantian Cliff, where a Nine-Leaf Dao Grass glimmered faintly.
Overcome by pain, you plucked three leaves and swallowed them to stave off hunger. To your astonishment, your injuries healed in an instant.
"This is a gift from the heavens!" You gazed at the six remaining leaves, your heart filled with reverence.
After thinking it over, you plucked three more leaves and carefully put them away, leaving the last three for the miraculous Spirit Grass.
When you got home, you gave one of the three miraculous leaves each to your father, your mother, and your little sister.
Seeing them glow with vitality after swallowing the leaves, you smiled with satisfaction.
You buried this secret deep in your heart and never told a soul.
[Simulation paused.]
"Nine-Leaf Dao Grass?"
Qin Wangchuan looked at the herb on the screen and felt a strange sense of familiarity.
"Why do those leaves look so much like... the Heavenly Fortune Creation Fruit?"
The longer he looked, the more familiar they seemed.
The treasure wasn't the leaves, but the fruit buried beneath them.
The Heavenly Fortune Creation Fruit was no ordinary treasure. Even in the Ten Directions Immortal Court, it was exceedingly rare.
After consuming it, one would naturally draw in the Qi Yun of heaven and earth, enjoy a steady stream of good fortune in the short term, and turn danger into safety. It could even slightly alter the course of one's fate.
The fruit contained a trace of the True Meaning of Heavenly Dao, allowing a cultivator to briefly enter a state of "Celestial-human resonance" and comprehend techniques with twice the results for half the effort.
Its medicinal power could even settle into one's bloodline, blessing future descendants with deep, innate good fortune.
Each of these three defying traits was extraordinary.
"He only took a few leaves and left the most precious Creation Fruit right where it was..." As Qin Wangchuan spoke, he wondered: if the fruit was still there when the simulation ended, it would be his.
[Simulation continued.] [Year 8]
A calamity struck—while gathering herbs in the mountains, your father accidentally offended a disciple of the mighty Old Ancestor Blood Fiend of the Xuanming Realm.
Old Ancestor Blood Fiend flew into a rage and ordered the Han Clan wiped out!
[Year 9]
The Han Clan was destroyed.
Your father was beheaded in public, his head hung from the city gate for three days as a warning.
Your mother was mutilated, her limbs cut off, and tortured to death.
Only you and your little sister, Han Xue, survived by sheer luck, hiding among the ruins.
"Tsk, tsk... With treatment like that, could he be some so-called Son of Luck?" Qin Wangchuan clicked his tongue.
He knew there were people in this world blessed with great fortune.
He just hoped it wouldn't turn into one of those "thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river" stories.
[Year 10]
You took your sister and wandered from place to place, enduring setback after setback.
But you never gave up cultivating. Instead, you trained even harder, with only one thought in your heart—revenge!
[Year 12]
Your talent caught the attention of several Rogue Cultivators. Someone wanted to take you as a disciple, but you refused.
"Old Ancestor Blood Fiend is too powerful. Ordinary cultivators wouldn't dare provoke him. I have to rely on myself!"
[Year 14]
Just when you thought your path ahead was hopeless, a mysterious person came looking for you.
He wore a black robe that concealed his face, and his voice was hoarse. "Han Han, do you want revenge?"
You stared at him warily. "Who are you?"
"Who I am doesn't matter. What matters is... I can help you."
From his words, you learned that what interested him was the Han Clan's Bloodline Power within you.
You knew better than to trust someone like him, so you refused.
But what happened next was beyond anything you could have imagined.
The mighty Old Ancestor Blood Fiend was slain by a single finger from the mysterious person.
The mysterious person claimed to come from the Ten Directions Immortal Court.
You had heard of that place—the realm above the Upper Realm, the Heaven Above Heaven that countless people spent their whole lives without ever reaching.
He waved a hand, and your little sister, Han Xue, appeared in his grasp out of thin air, unconscious!
"Xue'er!" You glared with bloodshot eyes and tried to charge forward, but an invisible force held you down.
"Don't worry. She's fine," the mysterious person said calmly. "But if you want to save her, you'll have to do something for me."
"What is it?!"
"Assassinate the Qin Clan's Ninth Young Master—Qin Wangchuan!"
You had no choice but to agree.
"Assassinate me?" Qin Wangchuan stared at the words on the Simulation Screen, a chill at odds with his childish face.
He tapped the table lightly with one finger, a glint passing through his eyes.
"So someone has prepared a 'Grand Gift' for me at my Tenth Birthday Banquet..."
"But I already know all about it. Aren't you just bringing it right to my door?"
[Year 15]
You were taken to the Ten Directions Immortal Court, where you became the mysterious person's pawn and began undergoing brutal training.
After inhuman abuse, you successfully awakened your Bloodline Power and gained the Stealth Ability.
The mysterious person taught you a Forbidden Secret Technique—Taixu Steps. It let you burn Spiritual Power to gain Invincible Speed for a short time, but it consumed an immense amount of Spiritual Power. If you ran short, it would drain your Essence Blood instead.
He also showed you a Pitch Black Nail.
"Remember, you must act at Qin Wangchuan's Tenth Birthday Banquet!"
"Once you drive this nail into his body, your mission will be complete."
"Then I'll reunite you with your sister."
You didn't know what the nail was. You only sensed an ominous aura coming from it.
The mysterious person handled it very carefully, afraid to touch even a sliver of it.
Later, you learned that the nail was an Outer Realm Item.
[Year 16]
You secretly investigated the Qin Clan and discovered that Qin Wangchuan was its youngest son.
He had peerless talent and immense strength, and was adored by everyone.
"Why kill him?" You were filled with doubts and deeply unwilling.
But for your sister's sake, you had no choice.
[Year 18]
Qin Wangchuan's Tenth Birthday Banquet went ahead as planned. Great Powers and Imperial Clans from across the Upper Thousand Provinces gathered, and the spectacle was magnificent.
Using an identity arranged by the mysterious person, you slipped into the banquet, the Pitch Black Nail hidden in your sleeve.
At the height of the feast, someone suggested a friendly martial contest.
You seized your chance and suddenly sprang into action!
"Qin Wangchuan!"
Taixu Steps activated. You burned all your Spiritual Power, turning into a streaking blur as you thrust straight at your target!
But—
"Clang!"
The clear ring of metal striking metal echoed through the hall. Your full-powered strike was stopped as casually as could be by the boy's slender arm.
You looked up and met a pair of smiling eyes.
Qin Wangchuan tilted his head at you, his tone playful. "Who sent you?"
As soon as he finished speaking, Zither Music rang around you. Your head throbbed as if it were splitting apart.
You gritted your teeth and said nothing, striking again!
Yet for all your prodigious talent and painstaking cultivation, you could no longer advance a single inch before the ten-year-old.
His overwhelming strength filled you with fear.
The next moment, the Great Emperor of the Qin Clan made his move.
Vast imperial might descended. Every bone in your body shattered, and you died on the spot!
The Great Emperor of the Qin Clan's voice rang in your ears. "A mere ant dares lay a hand on the Young Master of my Qin Clan?"
You struggled to lift your head and looked toward the mysterious person in the crowd, only to find he had already vanished without a trace.
"Xue'er... I'm sorry..."
As your consciousness faded, you heard Qin Wangchuan sigh softly:
"What a pity."
[Simulation ended]
Final Achievement: Failed Regicide
Time Survived: 18 years.
Ending: A Pawn All Your Life, Discarded at the End
(You were born into a poor household and grew up in obscurity. You could have lived an ordinary life, but an undeserved calamity swept you into fate's whirlpool.
As a child, you encountered the Nine-Leaf Dao Grass. With a kind heart, you left it a chance to live, never realizing you'd kept not a shred of its good fortune for yourself.
Your family was destroyed, your loved ones slaughtered. You scraped by with your sister, with nothing left in your heart but the fire of revenge.
But when you thought you'd grasped a lifeline, you didn't know you had already become a puppet in someone else's hands.
They gave you power and taught you secret techniques, but never gave you a choice—
"Assassinate Qin Wangchuan" was nothing more than a game you were doomed to lose.
Only when the Great Emperor of the Qin Clan struck did you finally understand:
You weren't even a chess piece. You were a pawn to be discarded once used.
Your last thoughts were:
Where was your sister? Where was the promised reunion?
Only Qin Wangchuan's sigh brought your absurd life to an end—
"What a pity."
A pity that you had exceptional talent, yet ended up paving the way for someone else;
A pity that you endured for years, yet never won yourself the slightest chance to live;
And most tragic of all...
The sister you spoke of had actually been tortured to death long ago.
From the very beginning, your life had been destined to end in tragedy.)
(Additional comment: If you had swallowed every leaf of the Nine-Leaf Dao Grass back then, dug up the Spirit Fruit, and swallowed it, you might have been able to Defy Fate. But one kind thought had already set cause and effect in motion. What a pity!)
Qin Wangchuan stared at the Simulation Screen, where the short, tragic life of Han Han, a nobody, had unfolded. A rare hint of complexity appeared on his childish face.
He lightly tapped the table with one finger. "You left three leaves out of kindness, never knowing that kindness was the key to changing your fate... What irony."
The next moment, he remembered the mysterious mastermind plotting to assassinate him.
Qin Wangchuan suddenly sneered. "A pity? It really is a pity."
He rose and pushed open the window, gazing toward the distant Heaven-Reaching Pillar.
It was the entrance to the Lower Realm.
"This pawn was chosen cleverly. They went all the way to the Upper Thousand Provinces, and specifically sought out someone with the right Bloodline Power. The mastermind was willing to pay a steep price—they even brought out an Outer Realm Item."
"They don't want to kill me—or they know they can't. So I'd guess that nail isn't fatal. It can probably only cripple me."
"They certainly thought it through."
"By now, Han Han has already started wandering. As for the Heavenly Fortune Creation Fruit, it should be at the bottom of the cliff."
With that, Qin Wangchuan swept his hand through the air.
"Guards!"
As soon as the words left his mouth, several Shadow Figures appeared behind him without a sound, dropping to one knee.
"What are your orders, Young Master?"
"Go investigate the Upper Thousand Provinces of a realm called the Xuanming Realm. Find a place called Xuantian Cliff. At the bottom is a Heavenly Fortune Creation Fruit."
"Bring it to me."
The Shadow Figure accepted his orders and was about to leave, but Qin Wangchuan called him back.
"No, wait." Qin Wangchuan pondered for a moment, then changed his mind. "I'll go myself."
After giving his orders, he raised his head and looked into the distance.
"In the simulation, I could thwart your schemes. Outside the simulation, I can do the same."
"What's more, I can become even stronger than I was in the simulation!"
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