Liang Country, Ganzhou.
The New Year festivities had just concluded when a major event shook the martial arts world of Ganzhou.
In Nanyang City, Ganzhou, Old Master Zhao of the Zhao family suddenly announced his retirement, handing over the entire family to his eldest grandson, Zhao Mingcheng.
As this news spread like wildfire, a rumor also began to circulate secretly. Although Old Master Zhao was a Grandmaster, he came from a tenant farmer background. In his youth, eager for advancement, he was too hasty and damaged his foundation, limiting his lifespan to eighty years. His time was now up.
Therefore, Old Master Zhao's retirement was merely a facade; he had, in fact, already passed away.
The Zhao family naturally vehemently denied and refuted this, but no matter what outsiders said, Old Master Zhao never made an appearance.
This suggested that the rumor might not be false, and the Zhao family's repeated denials were clearly laughable.
...
Name: Zhao Sheng
Lifespan: 79/79
Physique: Strong Bones (Unranked)
Talent: Dynamic Vision (Mortal Grade)
Skills: Floating Light Swordplay (Proficient), Wind Chasing Arrow Technique (Mastered), Azure Sea Tide Generation Skill (Great Attainment), Cloud Dragon Three Transformations (Proficient)
"Second life ended, settling…
"Settlement complete. Final evaluation: Grade C+."
"Evaluation reward: You can choose one to inherit from physique, skill, or talent. Please choose?"
"Yes, choose to inherit the talent 'Dynamic Vision'."
"Talent inherited."
"Congratulations on achieving two life accomplishments: One, Grandmaster; Two, Many Children and Much Fortune (10/10)."
"Achievement reward: Receive two random rewards. You can draw from physique, skill, or talent, or choose to upgrade a talent level. Please choose?"
"Choose physique, draw twice consecutively."
"Drawing… Congratulations on drawing the Mortal Grade physique 'Hundred Lifespan Body'. Congratulations on drawing the Mortal Grade physique 'Light as a Swallow Body'."
...
Inside the Zhao Estate's inner quarters,
In a bedroom, Zhao Sheng suddenly sat up from his bed. Information flashed through his mind, causing him to look disappointed as he slowly exhaled.
Compared to his first life, his second life's final evaluation had improved, not only two levels higher than the 'Grade C-' of his first life but also achieving two life accomplishments.
Unfortunately, he still didn't draw a spiritual root physique.
"Counting it, this is already my third life in this world…" Zhao Sheng mused, surveying his surroundings. He found the room elegantly decorated with exquisite furniture.
It seemed his family background was decent; at least he hadn't experienced the decline of his family like in his second life.
More than two hundred years ago, Zhao Sheng first arrived in this world, reincarnating into an ordinary family. After coming of age, he used his knowledge and experiences from his previous life to quickly accumulate wealth, becoming the richest man in a city in just over a decade.
In the latter half of his life, he enjoyed all the riches of the world, with not only numerous wives and concubines but also a house full of children and grandchildren.
At eighty, he contracted a terminal illness. Only on his deathbed did he learn from a divine physician that Cultivators existed, filling him with immense regret.
Alas, by then it was too late. After barely holding on for a day, Zhao Sheng passed away.
To his surprise, after death, he joyfully discovered that he possessed the supreme treasure, the "hundred lifetimes book," which allowed him to continuously reincarnate through his bloodline descendants. As long as his bloodline persisted, his soul would be immortal.
Zhao Sheng was ecstatic. After drawing the "Dynamic Vision" talent, he hastily began his second life.
When he woke up in his second life, he found himself to be the son of a tenant farmer.
Upon careful inquiry, he learned that nearly a hundred years had passed since his death in his first life.
Five years after his death, the Zhao family was suddenly annihilated by a group of notorious bandits. Fortunately, one of his sons was studying abroad at the time and thus escaped the calamity.
Since the family's decline, the Zhao family had worsened with each generation, and by the time it reached his father's generation, they had become tenant farmers.
However, Zhao Sheng was not worried at all. In this life, he would not only revitalize the family business but also practice martial arts and cultivate to achieve immortality.
Ten years later, he once again built up a vast family fortune, and his martial arts skills, enhanced by the "Dynamic Vision" talent, improved daily, allowing him to smoothly become a second-rate expert.
Yet, in those ten years, he never heard any news of Cultivators.
After much deliberation, he resolutely abandoned his wife, children, and family business, embarking on a life of wandering in the martial arts world.
This wandering lasted twenty years.
At fifty-five, Zhao Sheng, with the aid of external elixirs, barely managed to advance to the Grandmaster realm, becoming a top Grandmaster in Ganzhou.
His level had risen. He naturally began to interact with Cultivators.
Half a year later, Zhao Sheng learned from a Cultivator that only those with spiritual roots could cultivate.
However, Zhao Sheng did not possess a spiritual root, and even more unfortunately, less than one in ten thousand people in the mortal world possessed spiritual roots.
Fortunately, he also obtained a crucial piece of information: the probability of spiritual roots appearing in the descendants of Cultivators was higher.
Six months later, Zhao Sheng returned to Nanyang City and began to seek suitable marriage partners for his descendants, with the target naturally being the children of Cultivator families.
However, this goal was incredibly difficult to achieve.
The cultivation world was closed, conservative, and extremely exclusive. To increase the probability of spiritual root birth, Cultivators often only married other Cultivators, and Cultivator families only intermarried with other Cultivator families.
For a mortal family to marry into a Cultivator family was simply a pipe dream.
Zhao Sheng went to great lengths, not only offering more than half of his family's assets but also voluntarily signing a twenty-year servitude contract. Only then did the Chen family, a Cultivator family, relent and agree to give away a collateral branch's illegitimate daughter to marry his eldest grandson, Zhao Mingcheng.
"Cultivation is difficult, harder than ascending to the heavens… In my previous life, after much effort, I only barely glimpsed a ray of hope for cultivation. In this life, can I achieve my wish?"
Recalling the hardships of his previous life, Zhao Sheng couldn't help but sigh softly. Fortunately, he still had the supreme treasure, the "hundred lifetimes book"; if one life didn't work, he could just try another!
With this thought, Zhao Sheng's consciousness sank into the depths of his sea of consciousness, where a jade-colored book shimmered brightly.
On the cover of the book were the characters "Hundred Lifetimes." The book slowly opened, and the remaining ninety-seven pages were still blank; only the first three pages had text.
Zhao Sheng was already intimately familiar with the records on the first two pages; his gaze fell on the third page.
Name: Zhao Zhiqin (Zhao Sheng)
Lifespan: 15/120
Physique: Hundred Lifespan Body (Mortal Grade), Light as a Swallow Body (Mortal Grade)
Talent: Dynamic Vision (Mortal Grade)
Skills: Floating Light Swordplay (Proficient), Cloud Dragon Three Transformations (Initiate), Azure Sea Tide Generation Skill (Initiate)
...
"The 'Zhi' generation?" Zhao Sheng murmured to himself, his thoughts slowly diverging.
In his previous life, he had established the generational names for the Zhao family: "Feng Xian Ming Ren Zong, Quan Zhen Du Tai He. Zhi Cheng Xuan Yu Dian, Zhong Chang Jin Ke. Chong Xuan Tong Han Yun, Gao Hong Ding Da Luo, Dao De Yan Qing Hua, Xiu Xian Gui Chang Sheng."
The 'Zhi' generation was already the eleventh generation.
Flipping through the memories of this body, Zhao Sheng discovered that another one hundred and sixty-odd years had passed.
This time, the Zhao family had not only avoided decline but had grown into a large family with over a thousand members. Their family businesses spanned across Ganzhou, and they were a renowned martial arts family in Ganzhou, practically controlling both the righteous and unrighteous paths.
Zhao Sheng's status in this life was not low. Although his parents were deceased, he was considered a direct descendant of the Zhao family's third branch.