Live a Long, Long Life

Yue Shuo's calm expression nearly cracked.

But he had been able to persist in practicing the only thing he knew from his previous life—Tai Chi Fist—for ten years, all to strengthen his body and live a few more years.

Now, he could adjust his mindset as well.

Yue Shuo continued flipping through the book.

The latter half introduced the tools and materials needed for Talisman Crafting, talisman brushes, and the basics of making talisman paper.

It also provided several formulas.

Yue Shuo had an excellent memory. After reading through them twice, he had memorized everything.

He turned to the pages at the back.

They contained the methods for writing three foundational talismans, as well as detailed introductions to two First-Grade Spirit Talismans.

There was not much in total.

Just five talismans he could try making.

He had never encountered any other information related to cultivation, so he did not know whether this was good or bad.

But having something was better than having nothing.

His Cultivator Character Panel seemed unable to record things unrelated to cultivation.

He could try Talisman Crafting later.

"Thank you, Big Brother!"

"No need, no need! It belongs to our family in the first place. Giving it to you is no different!"

Yue Shuo had originally planned to memorize the contents and return the book to his elder brother, Yue Gu.

The formulas were easy to remember.

But after memorizing the talismans, he felt a faint sense of blurriness.

He had clearly been certain he had memorized them at a glance, yet when he recalled them now, the two First-Grade Spirit Talismans had become hazy.

When he tried to force himself to remember them, a wave of mental exhaustion washed over him.

Startled, Yue Shuo hurriedly closed his eyes and looked inward.

The Character Panel.

[Divine Sense: 2/15]

Memorizing talismans consumed Divine Sense?

Yue Shuo closed the book and recalled it once more in his mind, without forcing himself to remember the First-Grade Spirit Talismans at the back.

He discovered that he had remembered the formulas and the three foundational talismans.

Only faint impressions of the First-Grade Spirit Talismans remained.

Yue Shuo opened his eyes and saw that his elder brother was somewhat dazed, as though lost in thought, with a slightly desolate expression.

Taking advantage of Yue Gu's distraction, Yue Shuo abruptly asked:

"Did Father... cultivate before?"

"Huh?" Yue Gu came back to himself and looked blankly at Yue Shuo. He shook his head. "No. Oh, I don't know either..."

His elder brother's expression looked genuine.

Yue Shuo carefully recalled the past twelve years of his life as well.

He had not possessed this body. He should have been reincarnated.

Although he had no memories from the womb, he had basically spent his infancy asleep. Other than nursing, he had never truly been awake.

The only thing he remembered was the worried look in his birth mother's eyes when he was little.

From the fragments of conversation he had overheard, they had feared he would not survive.

Before he turned two, he did nothing but eat and sleep. He simply could not properly think about what exactly had happened to him.

Until the year he turned two.

At the time, his birth mother had been seven or eight months pregnant.

It was also early winter.

The coastal region of Lesser Desolate Island had encountered a tide of sea beasts—or rather, the aftermath of one.

He had only learned after waking up one day that he had slept through a life-and-death crisis. Half his family's house had been destroyed at the time.

He also learned that everyone in the family had gone to hide on the back mountain.

He had accidentally been left at home.

It seemed that when a sea beast attacked their home, it had been slain by a Qin Clan cultivator who had happened to come deal with the beast tide on Lesser Desolate Island.

Weak and unlikely to survive, he had been abandoned once.

That alone had filled Yue Shuo, upon waking, with a sudden unwillingness and obsession.

He wanted to live!

Not merely survive!

He wanted to live a long, long life! A healthy one!

But in his previous life, he had only been an ordinary person.

In this life, he had been frail from birth.

Even the town doctor had said he might not survive.

Tai Chi Fist was the only method remotely related to preserving health that he had seriously studied while attending school and practiced with some proficiency.

Therefore,

After turning two,

he worked hard to restrain his constant urge to sleep and began practicing Tai Chi Fist in a corner of the family courtyard.

Anyway, once he tired himself out, he would sleep.

Just as usual.

During the day, his parents were basically never home.

Only he and his then four-year-old elder brother, Yue Gu, were there. Yue Gu had been a lively, healthy child since he was young, and when he saw Yue Shuo exercising, he followed along and learned.

Later, perhaps because of how things had been described,

the adults came to believe that he had learned those strange gesturing movements from his elder brother, Yue Gu.

As he grew older and gained more freedom, and because he was weak or had once been abandoned, his parents had no expectations of him whatsoever.

They merely neglected him somewhat.

After all, with memories of his previous life, he could not be overly affectionate, spoiled, or naturally adorable with his family in this life.

He appeared somewhat quiet and withdrawn.

Memories of the past flashed through his mind one by one.

Yue Shuo carefully recalled what his parents had been like in this life.

His birth mother was a traditional woman who handled everything inside and outside the home, was excellent at both housework and farm work, and bustled about without pause from dawn to dusk.

Aside from being rather sturdy-looking and somewhat dark-skinned,

her appearance was above average.

His birth father, on the other hand, was somewhat unusual.

Of course, Yue Shuo had always thought it was because his father was a schoolteacher.

His birth father was handsome, but his complexion had always been pale.

He often needed medicine and could not work in the fields. Fortunately, he had some learning. Yue Shuo had heard that he was a scholar who had come from elsewhere.

He had opened a private school in town.

The family had fifty mu of fertile farmland. Aside from the twenty mu that had been his birth mother's dowry,

all the rest had been acquired by his literate birth father.

Everyone around them had a very good impression of his father.

He must have had excellent social skills as well.

But a cultivator?

Or a cultivator injured for some reason?

Yue Shuo recalled his observations from the past few years, after his condition had improved somewhat. His father had no private time to cultivate or meditate at all, nor had Yue Shuo ever seen him do so.

"Big Brother, did Father ever teach you anything in private?"

"No, no!"

Yue Gu shook his head hard, afraid that his quiet, sickly younger brother might overthink things, and hurriedly added:

"Father only asked Uncle He from town to teach me martial arts for a few years, but..."

Yue Gu did not say why he had stopped learning later.

Yue Shuo knew about that matter.

Uncle He had taken a liking to Yue Gu and wanted him as a son-in-law.

But his daughter, He Yu, who was a full three years older than Yue Gu, and Yue Shuo's birth father had both disagreed.

His daughter had even made a fuss.

The whole affair had become rather awkward.

After that, his elder brother no longer went to the He family.

That had already been three years ago.

"Our father... probably wasn't a cultivator, right? After all..." Yue Gu was no fool. He had the same suspicions as Yue Shuo.

"Could it have been passed down through the Yue Family?"

Yue Shuo fell into thought, then nodded. "Have you checked the books in Father's study?"

He had not made that connection before, and he had already exchanged the money needed to treat his elder brother's injuries.

Therefore, Yue Shuo had not gone to tidy up his parents' room.

After all, he knew.

By his parents' traditional way of thinking, everything in the family belonged to the healthy eldest son.

He would probably have to rely on his elder brother for food.

He also felt a fair amount of brotherly affection for Yue Gu and had no wish to fight over anything.

Yue Gu had always been quite protective of him, his second younger brother, when dealing with outsiders.

Before Yue Shuo activated the panel, Yue Gu had fought in the village for his sake several times, sparing him a great deal of trouble.

So when Yue Gu was injured, Yue Shuo had cared for him wholeheartedly.

And planned for his safety.

The two brothers discussed their guesses about their birth father's identity for a while. Gradually, Yue Gu seemed to think of their parents' deaths and grew sad.

Yue Shuo's expression, however, was slightly strange.

"Just treat it as though they went on a long journey. Didn't Father and Mother tell you so a few days before they left?"

Yue Shuo had always felt that the matter of his parents encountering pirates was very strange.

Of course, without proof, he did not wish to say too much.

After calculating the time,

he tucked the Basic Talisman-Making Notes into his clothes.

Then, with a solemn expression, he said to his elder brother, "Big Brother, I mortgaged thirty mu of the family's fertile land to Uncle Huang at the head of town. Later..."

"What!?"

Yue Gu raised his head in shock.

At that moment, heavy knocking and someone calling out came from beyond the courtyard gate. Unlike the other villagers, Yue Shuo did not leave the courtyard gate open during the day.

It was his habit to close and bar it whenever he came or went.

Yue Gu had no time to press further.

He hurriedly turned the wooden wheels and slid out from the sawed-flat main hall.

As he slid along, he muttered softly.

"In broad daylight, why bar the gate..."