My Longevity Simulation Chapter 2: Aspiring to Seek Eternal Life

In the shadows, a row of tiny luminous characters emerged on the display.

[Upon your return to the anchoring year, your unusual behavior stemmed from overwhelming joy. This caused your aunt to nearly submerge you in sacred water from the village shaman.]

[With half a year remaining until the rural exam, you devoted yourself to intense study at home from sunrise to sunset. Armed with prior knowledge of the questions, confidence surged through you. Though your aunt grumbled about your efforts, she steadfastly backed your learning.]

[The village leader's sibling lusted after your family's inherited rich farmlands and schemed covertly to seize them. Your aunt tried to fight back but couldn't prevail. Using a clever ruse, you resolved the issue. From that point, your aunt viewed you with newfound respect.]

[Half a year passed, and you sat for the provincial test. Even though you placed behind thirty candidates, you ultimately passed as a scholar, bringing glory to your forebears.]

[After two years of anchoring, you journeyed to Xuanjing City for the Imperial Exam. Ready for the exam content, you shone brightly. Your strong showing in the Imperial Exam earned you the rank of second-class scholar.]

[You wandered through Xuanjing City and at last secured your aim by receiving the appointment as magistrate of Wen County in Jiangnan.]

[In year three, you fetched your aunt from home and took up your role as Wen County magistrate. You started building a hidden group of loyal followers. That same year, you guided your team to uncover valuable ore veins in the remote mountains, drawn from recollections of your prior life.]

[During the fourth year, you crafted a set of explosives and muskets successfully. Your firearm squad effortlessly wiped out a close-by bandit stronghold in the hills.]

[Year five brought a harsh drought to Jiangnan Province, forcing many from their homes. Thanks to your prior water-saving initiatives, Wen County suffered less. Also that year, refugees banded together for an uprising and planned an assault on the Langya Prince's estate. Your vital support preserved his household. The Prince of Langya felt deep gratitude toward you.]

[In year six, promotion elevated you to governor of Jiangnan Province. That year, you wed the daughter of the Minister of Personnel.]

[Year seven saw a locust infestation ravage Jiangnan Province, leaving grain scarce. Regions you governed endured only mild impacts. Your wife bore you a son that same year.]

[In the eighth year, your subordinates perfected flintlock pistols.]

[Year ten marked the birth of a son to Lady Langya. You arrived in person to extend congratulations and offered a thoughtfully chosen present.]

[By the fifteenth year, the Emperor fell ill abruptly. In his final moments, he called the Prince of Langya to the capital and bequeathed the throne to him. The Prince of Langya ascended as Emperor Xuanjing.]

[Year sixteen brought a summons from Emperor Xuanjing to the capital, where he raised you to Minister of War. Rebellions erupted across multiple regions that year. Emperor Xuanjing commanded you to command troops against the uprisings.]

[In year eighteen, you roamed the lands, eradicating the insurgents. Upon your return to the capital, Emperor Xuanjing stripped your command and assigned you as tutor to the Crown Prince.]

[Year twenty witnessed the Empress ensnared in a sorcery scandal. Emperor Xuanjing raged and banished her to the Winter Palace. When the Crown Prince sought your aid discreetly, you readily consented. Your covert probe revealed proof that Consort Xi Fei had plotted against the Empress, vindicating her. Emperor Xuanjing executed Consort Xi Fei and her kin, yet kept the Empress confined in the Winter Palace.]

[In year twenty-one, accusations of treason surfaced against you, with proof of your unauthorized mining and private militia presented. Distress gripped you, leading to a submissive letter. Emperor Xuanjing removed you from ministerial duties but permitted continued tutelage of the Crown Prince.]

[Year twenty-three found Emperor Xuanjing on a spring hunt, choosing to revisit the Langya royal home in Jiangnan Province.]

[During year twenty-four, Emperor Xuanjing toured Jiangnan and required your attendance. You inspected several mines you had exploited in secret before.]

[Year twenty-five saw Emperor Xuanjing's third trip to Jiangnan, without you this time. Months later, word reached you covertly of denunciations for your unauthorized visit to the Winter Palace and the Empress. That year, Emperor Xuanjing met assassination en route to the capital. The shocking news rocked the capital. Officials retrieved the Empress from the Winter Palace, and the Crown Prince took the throne as Emperor Kangning.]

[Year twenty-six appointed you Imperial Advisor and head of the Parliamentary Court, reaching the peak of power. The youthful emperor relied heavily on you. Seizing the moment, you solidified your sway in the court.

[In year twenty-seven, your aunt departed this world. Thoughts of pursuing immortality resurfaced, prompting you to dispatch agents to hunt for signs of immortals across the lands.]

[By year twenty-eight, the Emperor reached maturity. Yet your authority continued expanding, turning the court into your domain.]

[In year thirty, the realm revered only the Imperial Advisor, with scant awareness of the Emperor.]

[Year thirty-one brought pregnancy to the Empress Dowager, who urgently summoned you for counsel. Overjoyed, you whisked her secretly to the Imperial Advisor’s residence for care. She delivered a son for you that year.]

[In year thirty-three, as you entered court unaccompanied, Emperor Kangning's hidden guards encircled you. A unique artifact aided your escape from death. Rage consumed you, urging regicide and seizure of rule. But the Empress Dowager's frantic begging and ministers' counsel stayed your hand. You eliminated all the Emperor's confidants. Thereafter, Emperor Kangning retained only the imperial title, stripped of authority.]

[Year thirty-eight ended with Emperor Kangning perishing in despair. You enthroned your firstborn son, renaming him Emperor Longchang.]

[In year forty, the Empress Dowager succumbed to sickness. Your craving for immortality intensified.]

[Year forty-five claimed your wife's life.]

[In year forty-six, illness took your eldest son.]

[By year forty-eight, after endless failed quests for immortality over decades, you surrendered the pursuit.]

[After fifty years anchored, two immortals arrived from the west via Ruins Abyss, laying waste to Xuanjing City. By some miracle, you endured.]

......

[Simulation concluded.]

[Select one from these to retain:

1. An object you held in this simulation.

2. Your cultivation status from this simulation.

3. Simulated recollections of a loved one in this simulation. That individual may inherit these memories.

4. Forfeit the prior selections to hasten recharge.]

Li Fan awoke, returning to his modest study.

Surveying the scene both known and strange, memories of his past decades flooded his thoughts. Emotion stirred in Li Fan as he mused, “Did the real world turn into a simulation? Or has all existence been simulated? Maybe, at some profound level, reality and illusion merge without divide?”

Yet Li Fan refused to dwell on unknowables. Quickly, he composed himself and turned attention to the choices presented.

The initial two options offered little appeal, but should Li Fan pursue cultivation, they would prove immensely useful. Regrettably, his previous life left him mortal too, devoid of any cultivation to carry forward.

Among his possessions, the finest was surely the Imperial Jade Seal.

Equally pointless, it would merely draw calamity.

Regarding the third choice, granting another the simulation's memories...

This stirred excitement in Li Fan's heart.

Briefly, various faces crossed Li Fan's thoughts.

Ultimately, though, he dismissed them with a shake of his head.

Hearts proved hardest to fathom. Predicting changes after decades of added memories in someone remained impossible.

With [Truth] yet to recharge, he lingered as a powerless scholar lacking resources.

Thus, caution dictated all actions.

Leaving only the fourth choice.

To speed up the recharge.

[Truth] reshaped reality into simulation through a recharge process.

From past life insights, Li Fan knew this progress advanced solely over time, needing roughly twenty years for full recharge.

Progress capped at 200% thereafter.

     Furthermore, fatal strikes triggered [Truth] to expend progress for self-preservation. This mechanism spared Li Fan from demise multiple times before.

Thus, the fourth option stood as the safest path.

Mind made up, Li Fan chose inwardly without delay.

Instantly, the tiny glowing words dissolved into specks of light, swiftly reassembling into fresh lines.

Name: Li Fan

Cultivation Realm: Mortal

Physical Age: 20/86

Mental Age: 166/1056↑

Charging Progress: 30%

“Three human lives, one hundred sixty-six years. So I've endured this long already. In my last life, mental age capped near nine hundred years, yet now it rises to a thousand. Evidently, experience builds this limit, easing my inner worries.”

Like bodily lifespan, mental endurance held bounds.

Excess memories bred mental strain. When overwhelming, it shattered the spirit utterly.

Known as the “wear and tear of time”.

Still, mental age ceiling rose with deeper understanding.

For the moment, Li Fan faced no such threat.

“Once I tread the immortal path, all else fades as concern. Restarting now, riches, status, and charms hold no allure.”

“Immortality alone calls me!” Losses of dear ones in prior life, coupled with frailty and fear of aging, hardened Li Fan's resolve now.

“This life's aim: unravel cultivation mysteries from those two immortals. In fifty years, they'll strike Xuanjing City. With thorough schemes and readiness, even against so-called Foundation Establishment experts, victory might be mine.”

“Beyond gunpowder, perhaps the Immortal-Mortal Miasma they mentioned offers leverage.”

“Moreover, in these fifty years, idleness won't do. Originating from eastern Ruins Abyss, I could dispatch scouts deep into its depths for prior exploration.”

......

Life's greatest woe lay in purposelessness. In his former existence, Li Fan often roused at night from the Empress Dowager's chamber, assailed by profound void and futility.

There, he crested mortal heights.

Emperor bowed to him, armies obeyed his will. Court ministers served as his allies.

Abolishing the throne stood within grasp, the Empress Dowager yielded to his whims.

No further ascent possible.

Repeating this in the next simulation?

What purpose in rebirth then?

Authority and indulgence soured with overuse.

Likely, absent new elements, some cycle would prompt Li Fan to end it willingly.

Yet!

Those two immortal cultivators unveiled fresh vistas!

Revealing a realm of novel, alluring prospects inviting him.

It kindled vast ambition and purpose in him.

He yearned for immortal cultivation!

For eternal life!

None would bar him!

Li Fan flung open his door and strode forth proudly.