Becoming a Marquis Was Never My Wish, Simulation Ends

[The iron cavalry of North Wind's diplomatic mission carried a biting cold wind with them, and at last broke the silence of the southern ancient capital.]

[The news quickly spread among the scholars of the capital, like one stone stirring up a thousand layers of waves.]

[Southern scholars rushed to tell one another, making the news that the mission's convoy had entered the capital known far and wide.]

[On the streets of the ancient capital, carriages and horses flowed like water, the crowd's voices boiled like a cauldron. The people surged to both sides of the streets, craning their necks in eager expectation, wanting to catch a glimpse of North Wind's mission.]

[The mission's convoy slowly drove in. The accompanying princess and generals personally dismounted at the gate of the imperial city, displaying utmost humility and respect.]

[This was Great Qing's stiffest-spined day in twenty years.]

[The debate over peace negotiations and advocating war raged among the court officials for several days without rest.]

[In the end, the present Son of Heaven decided to have North Wind return the six prefectures, and set the policy of a marriage alliance.]

[When the news came ordering the Lu Family Army to return to court, inside the command tent, your father looked at the imperial edict in his hand, and a trace of helplessness flashed through his eyes.]

[The Lu Family Army's morale was like a rainbow, and with the addition of the righteous armies of the north, driving straight to Huanglong Prefecture seemed only one step away.]

[However, an imperial command was hard to defy. He could only let out a deep sigh. "Eight thousand li of road, clouds and moon, and now all have become dust and earth."]

[Your father's memorial requesting permission to fight sank like a stone into the sea, raising not the slightest ripple. Instead, because of it, he was demoted by one rank.]

[Yet less than half a month later, another golden edict arrived, summoning you father and sons, three in all, to the capital to receive titles.]

[Looking at the golden edict in your hand, then... you decided]

1. Cast everything aside and drive straight to Huanglong Prefecture.

2. Obey the order and return to the capital to receive your title.

3. Retire and return home, continuing to cultivate the Dao in the mountains.

4. Personally participate (1/3)

Yu Ke looked at the four options.

He could not help thinking it over. If he chose 1, casting everything aside and driving straight to Huanglong Prefecture.

Then what of it? After all, even if he won the realm, the realm would still belong to Great Qing.

Launching a rash attack would also bring censure from the court. There was absolutely no need.

In the five years since he descended the mountain, he had already changed the general trend of the realm. This simulation's reward should be quite good.

The side mission had already been completed.

The simulation's main mission was still Dao cultivation.

Yu Ke decided to choose 3. Retire and return home, continuing to cultivate the Dao in the mountains.

[Your wish to resign was already known to your father. Though he wrung his wrists and sighed, he deeply understood your unwavering resolve to cultivate the Dao.]

[Your younger brother also wanted to return to the mountains to cultivate the Dao. He had long been clamoring to go back to Mount Zhongnan.]

[When Wang Yang heard the news, he galloped through the night to arrive. For many days, he bitterly urged you to reconsider. However, your heart for Dao cultivation was firm and unmoving, and never wavered.]

[He could only sigh. "Great Qing has lost a pillar of stone that could have steadied the sea."]

[You personally took up the brush and wrote a letter of resignation, submitting it to the court, wishing to retire to Mount Zhongnan and pursue the Dao's following of nature.]

[This resignation, through the hands of the seal-holding eunuch Ma Bao, was presented before the Son of Heaven. Ma Bao accepted your resignation and sighed softly. "Junior Guardian, your future is like brocade. You need only beat your wings lightly, and you can soar straight into the blue clouds, be enfeoffed as king and appointed chancellor. Why must you cultivate the Dao on Mount Zhongnan?"]

[Hearing this, you only smiled calmly and said, "I sped through eight thousand li of the northern land, not to be enfeoffed as marquis, but to raise up the nation."]

[Your resignation was sent back to the capital, and in an instant, all under heaven was in an uproar, shocking the four directions.]

[People discussed it one after another, with mixed praise and blame for your decision. Some praised your noble character and integrity, while others mocked you for advocating war and rash advances, going against the court's sacred will, harboring dissatisfaction, and thus doing this deliberately.]

[Ma Bao even deliberately spread your words on your behalf. For a time, the celebrated tale of "becoming a marquis was never my wish" was widely circulated, spreading through the four directions.]

[As for your resignation, the Son of Heaven was instead quite gratified. He issued an edict to bring your father to the south, granting him the posts of military governor of the Pacifying State Army and historian of Longevity Abbey, and bestowed him a fief in the capital.]

[Though this post was an idle one, it was still a dignified Principal First Rank, clearly showing how heavy the Son of Heaven's rewards and favor toward the Lu family were.]

[Many generals of the Lu Family Army were all granted high offices, but the important posts among them had already been taken over by great generals from the court.]

[Seeing this scene, you deeply understood that this Son of Heaven still harbored misgivings toward the Lu Family Army, which was about to number a hundred thousand, and found it difficult to be completely at ease.]

[On this day, you were already twenty-six. You and your younger brother packed your luggage and prepared to set out for Mount Zhongnan.]

[You put on that long-unseen Daoist robe once more.]

[Unexpectedly, this news inadvertently spread throughout the entire north. Outside the Lu Family Army camp, countless commoners surged in from every direction, surrounding the main camp so tightly that not even water could seep through.]

[Your father told you that these simple northern commoners had all come to see you brothers off.]

[A warm current welled up in your heart. You stepped out of the camp gate and saw men and women, old and young, their eyes flashing with reverence and reluctance, shouting your honorific in unison—"Junior Guardian."]

[In their hands they held eggs, flatbreads, clothing, and other things, wanting to see you off, fearing only that the road ahead was long and you would suffer cold and hunger. However, you politely declined them one by one, though your heart felt doubly warm.]

[Their eyes brimmed with tears. Some felt wronged on your behalf. Those people in the south who did not know the truth, at the very moment of your resignation, said you had done it deliberately, grown spoiled and arrogant from favor.]

[However, the people of the north deeply knew the hardship and difficulty the Lu Family Army had endured along the way. They deeply understood the Lu family's character and sense of duty.]

[Freezing to death but not tearing down houses, starving to death but not plundering—these were absolutely not empty words.]

[They had personally experienced the cruelty and ravaging of North Wind's great army. Countless homes had turned to ruins in the flames of war, and loved ones had been forced apart.]

[Twenty years of humiliation for family and country—how could this weight be compared to a simple marriage alliance between two nations?]

[You gazed at those people who had seen you off all the way. Among the Lu Family Army, many generals covered their faces and wept.]

[At this moment, an indescribable shame welled up in your heart.]

[Although you had recovered the old rivers and mountains over these six years, you still felt in your heart that you had not established even an inch of merit.]

[You took your younger brother and bowed deeply to those commoners seeing you off, expressing your gratitude and respect. Then you resolutely turned and left.]

[On that day, heavy snow fell from the heavens, swirling and fluttering, falling for three days and three nights in full.]

[In the north, a song began to be sung: "Who says Heaven is no gracious host, when wind and snow fill the sky to see one man off?"]

[In the deep autumn of this year, you returned to Mount Zhongnan. The mountain's red leaves were like fire. You had already been away for six years.]

[Liu Jinchan personally welcomed you two brothers at the foot of the mountain, his face brimming with joy.]

[The campaign in which you crossed the Yellow River three times back then had now become a legend that the sect's disciples delighted in talking about, and they held you in the highest esteem.]

[Those disciples who had once harbored contempt for you now also put away their arrogance, leaving only deep admiration for you.]

[However, you paid it no mind, and still cultivated with your heart free of distractions. Every day, you did morning practice, went up and down the mountain, unhindered by wind or rain.]

[In the winter of the same year, Mount Zhongnan's Three Truths and One Sect were granted titles by the court as the orthodox lineage of Daoism, and their reputation rose day by day.]

[In the three years that followed, you trained painstakingly every day. Though progress was slow, your tenacity and perseverance inspired admiration. Even when the night was deep and all was still, you were still practicing standing postures.]

[After countless days and nights of hard work, your cultivation finally reached the sixth layer of the Great Yellow Court, and you finally squeezed into the ranks of the jianghu's second-rate.]

[On this day, you turned thirty years old.]

[Prompt: Today's Celestial Reincarnation has ended. Please come again tomorrow. Save already archived.]

[One day in the human world, ten years in the cauldron.]

[Archive time: thirty years.]

[Warm reminder: You changed the general trend of the realm within ten years, sparing the people of the north from the suffering of war, and have obtained a reward from Kun Void World. Drawing now...]