Chapter 1

In the Great Xuan Kingdom, in the capital city of Xuanjing, at the Grand Tutor's residence.

Li Fan held a wine cup, looking at the hall filled with civil and military officials who had come to celebrate his birthday. Despite being in his seventies, he couldn't help but feel secretly pleased.

After all, today, the majority of the court officials had gathered at the Grand Tutor's residence! What a grand occasion!

Thinking back, when Li Fan first arrived in this world, he was just a poor scholar.

Over the past fifty years, he had risen from nothing to become the Grand Tutor, wielding immense power. The journey was so eventful that it could be written into a novel of several million words.

Life is like this; what more could one ask for!

Li Fan stroked his beard and drained the wine in his cup.

"To the Grand Tutor's longevity!"

The officials present all cheered in unison.

Li Fan felt even more pleased.

Just then, a series of discordant cries came from outside.

"Look! What is that!"

"Heavenly fire is descending; it's an auspicious sign! Go and inform the Grand Tutor!"

"It seems to be heading towards our Grand Tutor's residence!"

...

Hearing the commotion outside, Li Fan furrowed his brow.

The originally lively hall suddenly fell silent.

Li Fan stood up and walked out first.

However, before he could scold the servants or express his dissatisfaction, he was captivated by the sight in the sky.

In the distance, two silver streaks, one in front of the other, like meteors, were rapidly heading towards them.

"This is..." Li Fan was stunned.

In the blink of an eye, the two meteors arrived above Xuanjing and suddenly stopped.

At the same time, a voice like thunder descended from the sky, booming in everyone's ears.

"Daoxuanzi! Don't push me too far!"

...

The crowd was shocked. Some even called out to the immortals and prostrated themselves on the ground.

A word that had been buried deep in his memory, almost forgotten, suddenly popped into Li Fan's mind.

"Cultivators!" Li Fan was stunned, muttering to himself, "How is this possible..."

The two cultivators in the sky clearly didn't care about the thoughts of the mortals below.

Another voice rang out: "Kou Hong! Do you think I will let you off just because you fled to this place where immortals don't tread? Hand over the cultivation method you obtained that day, or I will never stop pursuing you!"

"Ha! It's because I lacked the method to form a core that I was stuck at the Foundation Establishment stage for nearly a century. Now that I'm about to die, I obtained this core formation method. How can I possibly hand it over to someone else!" Kou Hong sneered, his tone full of disdain.

"Indeed!" Daoxuanzi sighed deeply, "The path to the Golden Core is mine alone. Although there are many cultivation methods for core formation, even more cultivators are stuck at the Foundation Establishment stage!"

Daoxuanzi's tone suddenly turned fierce: "Since you have the method for immortality right in front of you, how can I possibly let you go? How can I not push you too far!"

Kou Hong laughed: "It's just a matter of survival! It's laughable that we, who were brothers for a hundred years, are now drawing swords against each other for a chance at life!"

Daoxuanzi sneered in response.

Kou Hong suddenly said: "I know I'm no match for you, and I probably won't escape today. But there are so many mortals here, and I wonder if you can withstand the intense immortal-mortal miasma!"

Daoxuanzi's expression changed: "Kou Hong! What are you planning to do!"

Kou Hong laughed maniacally: "Just a chance at survival!"

Listening to the conversation between the two cultivators above, Li Fan felt a sense of foreboding. Before he could react, a red flame exploded above Xuanjing.

"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The deafening explosions echoed in Li Fan's ears, and his vision turned blood red. In a moment, he fainted.

...

After an unknown amount of time, Li Fan finally regained consciousness.

At first, he was dazed. After a while, he remembered what had happened.

Li Fan coughed, spitting out fresh blood, and shakily got up, looking around.

It was still night, and the once luxurious Grand Tutor's residence had become a pile of ruins.

The air was filled with the stench of burnt corpses.

All the officials who had been present moments ago were now dead.

Li Fan's wives and concubines, his five sons, none of them had survived.

Li Fan's aged face showed no emotion. His eyes were vacant.

He stood there for a long time before dragging his weak body out of the Grand Tutor's residence.

The once bustling and prosperous Xuanjing was now a hell of blood and fire. Everywhere he looked, there were broken bodies and collapsed buildings.

After this disaster, it was likely that only one in a hundred people had survived.

All of this was because of the two "immortals" who had suddenly descended, the two cultivators.

Li Fan had no strength left and sat down at a broken wall corner.

His hearing had been destroyed by the intense explosions, but it didn't matter.

At this moment, he just wanted to laugh.

How could there be cultivators in this world?

Since the day he entered politics, he had used his power to search for any traces of immortality.

When he became the Imperial Tutor, standing above ten thousand people, he had searched the entire world!

From the northern ice sea to the southern ocean, from the eastern wasteland to the western mountains.

There was not a single trace of immortals in the entire Great Xuan!

But today, after he had grown old and given up, two cultivators descended from the sky, appearing before him, and without any explanation, destroyed everything he had.

Is this what immortality is?

Where do immortals come from?

All the anger and frustration in his heart turned into endless confusion.

The will of heaven is indeed capricious!

At the same time, Li Fan felt incredibly fortunate.

He was fortunate to have finally confirmed the existence of immortals before his death!

Otherwise, in his next life, wouldn't he have wasted another fifty years?

That's right! He, Li Fan, a mere mortal, had risen from a humble scholar to the Imperial Tutor of the world. How could he have done it without any support?

This was also the reason he had survived the attack by the immortals.

"Return to Reality!"

Li Fan silently recited, and the surroundings suddenly dimmed. It was as if a thick curtain of water separated him from the world, making everything seem illusory and unclear.

"True becomes false when false is true"

Seven large characters lit up in the darkness, then suddenly scattered, forming a light screen.

"Charging complete."

"Would you like to virtualize the current scene and return to the initial anchor point?"

Two lines of text appeared in succession.

At the same time, a series of images appeared, rapidly filling the entire light screen.

These were the fifty years of Li Fan's life.

Li Fan looked at the images of himself, stunned for a long time.

"Return to Reality"

This was the name Li Fan gave to the extraordinary treasure he carried with him.

It had only one function: to turn reality into illusion!

By turning reality into illusion, it transformed Li Fan's real experiences into simulated virtual experiences, allowing him to return to the initial anchor point, which was the moment he first arrived in this world.

In fact, this was already Li Fan's second life.

In his first life, although Li Fan had great ambitions, he was just an ordinary person. After failing the imperial exams multiple times, he gave up on the idea of becoming an official at the age of thirty. He started a small business, became a wealthy man, married, and had children, living a mundane life. It was only when he was on his deathbed that he awakened "Return to Reality."

This led to the rise of Li Fan in his second life, unstoppable and powerful.

Unfortunately, it seemed he had used it in the wrong place.

After a moment of contemplation, Li Fan did not choose to end this life immediately. There were still a few things he needed to do.

Turning off the light screen and returning to reality, Li Fan mustered his strength to handle the aftermath of the disaster in Xuanjing.

After searching for some survivors, Li Fan, relying on his years of authority, managed to stabilize the situation somewhat.

Even though Li Fan could no longer hear, he could still find paper and pen. Although communication was difficult, it did not hinder the transmission of his orders.

First, Li Fan ordered his trusted guards stationed outside the city to rush to Xuanjing to maintain order after the disaster. He then sent orders to the surrounding cities to send grain and officials to Xuanjing.

Most of the buildings in Xuanjing were destroyed. After the guards took control of the city, Li Fan stayed in the camp to oversee the recovery efforts.

With Li Fan's orders, supplies and personnel from the surrounding cities continuously flowed into Xuanjing.

A month later, the ruins of Xuanjing finally began to show signs of life.

After the Great Xuan Kingdom had recovered from the attack by the immortals, Li Fan began to order the collection of information about the two immortals who had appeared that night.

This included where they initially came from, where they went afterward, and any other conversations they had along the way.

Unfortunately, after months of investigation, the only information they had was that the two cultivators seemed to have come from the eastern wasteland. Everything else was a dead end.

The hoped-for mutual destruction of the two immortals did not happen.

"I shouldn't have expected such a thing," Li Fan sighed inwardly. "Since that's the case, I have nothing to hold onto in this life."

Standing in the newly built Grand Tutor's residence, Li Fan activated "Return to Reality" again.

"Would you like to virtualize the current scene and return to the initial anchor point?"

Li Fan no longer hesitated and chose "yes."

On the light screen, countless vivid images froze. Then, the power, wealth, and glory of this life shattered like a dream, turning into meteors that flew into Li Fan's mind.

Scenes flashed rapidly before Li Fan's eyes, finally stopping at the moment when the two cultivators stood high above the Grand Tutor's residence.

"Daoxuanzi, Kou Hong." Li Fan softly recited their names. "Fifty years later, I will still be waiting for you in Xuanjing."

"Riches and honors are but fleeting clouds." Li Fan's consciousness gradually faded, but his will and goal became more determined than ever.

"In the next life, I will capture immortals!"

The light in his mind gradually disappeared, and Li Fan slowly fell into a deep sleep.