Chapter 1: My Life Is Like Walking on Thin Ice

【You died of illness.】

【Your life was like walking on thin ice; relying on your keen instinct to retreat slightly whenever you were indecisive, you muddled through your entire life.】

【You lived for a total of 78 years. In this life, you performed good deeds and accumulated merit. After becoming a wealthy merchant, you provided relief to farmers year-round, truly living out the philosophy of not failing to perform a good deed just because it is small, and you saved the lives of over a thousand families.】

【Evaluation: A drop in the ocean.】

Inside an ordinary courtyard.

Gu Jiangming looked at the evaluation in his mind, silent for a long time.

This was his golden finger!

It was truly of absolutely no use whatsoever.

That's right, Gu Jiangming is a transmigrator.

And the screen before his eyes, which might as well have been written with 【Victory and defeat are common occurrences for a soldier, please try again, young hero】, was the golden finger Gu Jiangming had possessed since he transmigrated.

A simulator named 【Mie Changsheng】.

As the name suggests, it is to manipulate one's own character to undergo one Reincarnation life after another.

Every choice will lead to a different ending.

But the problem is

As it currently stands, it has no rewards.

It truly has not even the slightest bit of reward.

Following the conventional tropes, for a simulator like this that resembles a simulation deduction, shouldn't you get some kind of reward every time a simulation ends?

Even if it doesn't give you the simulated memories, it should at least give you the corresponding cultivation base.

Take the ending of this Reincarnation for example: he was a merchant who performed good deeds and accumulated merit. Based on this identity and this achievement, as a golden finger, shouldn't you reward a few taels of silver?

Sorry.

It has absolutely no rewards at all.

To use a sharp critique from Gu Jiangming to describe this golden finger.

This is just a toy.

Compared to others who have things like modifying talents, adding points to their own moves, and all sorts of high-end stuff like martial soul fusion for various techniques.

It's the lowest of the low.

Its only function is to give Gu Jiangming a way to pass the time when he is busy.

At least, in terms of being a toy, it perfectly matches Gu Jiangming's needs.

He let out a sigh.

Gu Jiangming decided to do another Reincarnation run.

In this era where there is almost no entertainment other than listening to music in brothels, 【Mie Changsheng】 is actually quite fun.

Gu Jiangming wanted to broaden his horizons and see what brand-new ways to die he hadn't unlocked yet.

【Please remember, every Reincarnation is a life of yours.】

【Every end is a brand-new beginning for your Reincarnation.】

【Reincarnation attempts today: 2/3.】

【Your talent: Treasure Appraisal.】

【Treasure Appraisal: Through your outstanding eyesight and extraordinary cognition, you can quickly distinguish whether many things are valuable.】

Before transmigrating, Gu Jiangming was a fresh graduate from the Archaeology Department at Peking University. Because he couldn't endure the hardship of a government job, he changed careers to do treasure appraisal on a short-video platform.

Later, he simply stopped appraising treasures altogether and went to livestream games instead.

But Gu Jiangming still kept this skill of treasure appraisal.

The problem is, in this world, goods not matching their descriptions is the most important thing, and they aren't goods from the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, or Qing dynasties, so theoretically, Gu Jiangming wouldn't be able to identify whether something is truly a treasure.

Yet 【Mie Changsheng】 still counted this skill among them.

In these few Reincarnation lives, Gu Jiangming basically couldn't gain any advantages by taking other paths, but by taking the merchant path, through the skill of 【Treasure Appraisal】, he could more or less find some ways to succeed.

【Randomizing your background—】

【Loading map—】

【Identity confirmed.】

【Your background is—a prestigious family.】

【You are born with an extraordinary talent for the sword; your talent for this Reincarnation Simulation is 'Sober After a Thousand Cups'.】

【Sober After a Thousand Cups: You will not get drunk, and you are completely immune to poison. (A special state will be triggered while in a state of intoxication.)】

Looking at the golden, shimmering 【Sober After a Thousand Cups】.

Gu Jiangming's eyes lit up.

Reincarnation Simulation talents are talents randomly drawn for you during each Reincarnation, which are equivalent to the innate abilities you possess in that Reincarnation life.

This 【Sober After a Thousand Cups】 is even a rule-based talent. Generally speaking, this kind of talent involving rules is, logically speaking, quite powerful.

Because it makes judgments according to the rules it sets for itself, rather than judging based on the strength of one's power; to put it bluntly, it is a conceptual god.

And not just words defined in the ordinary sense.

The talent like 【Sober After a Thousand Cups】 that Gu Jiangming obtained this time is one that ignores all logic within the rules.

Most importantly, this time Gu Jiangming also obtained an extraordinary talent for the sword.

As a fresh graduate of the Archaeology Department, he still had a lot of romantic sentimentality within him.

The treasures he loved to look at most were truly those bronze swords of kings and generals.

What man doesn't want to sing while drinking, and what man can resist the urge to wield a three-foot green blade to slay demons?

If you are given a chance to be a character like Li Xiaoyao or the Wine Sword Immortal, and you don't achieve an ending that shakes Heaven and Earth and makes ghosts and gods weep, then that is simply unreasonable.

Gu Jiangming immediately stood at the ready, treating this round with the attitude of someone preparing for a postgraduate entrance exam.

Among hundreds of Reincarnation simulations, this opening was absolutely the most absurd one.

"Sword Dao? A bit interesting."

"Now it is basically certain that the world in the scene is likely not just an ordinary ancient dynasty."

【In the seventh year of the Tianming Calendar, you were born into a prestigious family. Your father, Gu Zhangqing, is a successor of the Northern Wei Gu Family Sword Sect, famous throughout the world for his superb swordsmanship.】

A dynamic portrait of a man appeared before Gu Jiangming's eyes.

Clad in white, ethereal as an immortal.

【His swordsmanship is superb and unfathomable; the Northern Wei Imperial Court once invited your father to serve as an official.】

【However, Gu Zhangqing was indifferent to fame and wealth, wishing only to study swordsmanship until he reached perfection, and thus he politely declined.】

【From a young age, you received your father's teachings and studied his swordsmanship.】

【Your father, Gu Zhangqing, was deeply affectionate, and thus you inherited your father's disposition.】

【In this Reincarnation Simulation, you have and can only have one romantic partner/Dao companion.】

【As for your mother, Meng Lianhua, it is rumored that she was a successor of the Ghost Valley, her needle techniques proficient in both the art of healing and the art of killing.】

【In the seventh year after giving birth to you, she passed away due to an incurable disease.】

【Before you were seven, your father never taught you a single thing about swordsmanship, only letting you learn how to draw a sword, and how to draw it efficiently.】

【This made your strike speed faster than ordinary people, and it made your casting speed more rapid than ordinary people.】

【Congratulations, you have obtained the temporary Golden Word: Ganjing Liluo (Purple Word).】

"This is what it means to be born into a prestigious family."

"What on earth have I been reincarnating for in my previous hundreds of lives?"

In 【Mie Changsheng】, there is something similar to a talent that appears more clearly before your eyes in the form of a Golden Word.

They are divided into Golden Word, Purple Word, Blue Word, and White Word.

The previous 【Thousand Cups Without Getting Drunk】 was a Golden Word; the quality is distinguished by the intensity of the color.

The currently obtained temporary 【Ganjing Liluo】 is a Purple Word.

The higher the quality of the Golden Word, the more its power is reflected in the text description.

If the previous times were like being in prison.

Now, for Gu Jiangming, it is an enjoyment, a true visual feast.

【At the age of eight, your father, Gu Zhangqing, finally taught you the family's Unique Learning swordsmanship—Zhetianbir.】

【When this sword technique is practiced to the pinnacle, it can make people feel as if Heaven and Earth have lost their color, with sword shadows pouring down like Zhetianbir.】

【Therefore, it has extremely strict requirements for a swordsman's strike speed.】

【You have learned the sword technique Zhetianbir (Initial).】

【You have learned the Gu Family Heart Method "Chao Tian Que".】

Gu Jiangming's next operations were very simple: to cultivate his own sword technique and the Gu Family Heart Method.

【At the age of seventeen, because of your extraordinary talent in Sword Dao, your family sword technique Zhetianbir has reached the level of entering the hall; in terms of sword intent, you are a step ahead of your father, Gu Zhangqing.】

【"Chao Tian Que" has even been practiced by you to the Ninth Layer, which no generation of the Gu family had ever achieved.】

【And this year, the prestigious Du family of Guanzhong in Northern Wei was tragically wiped out.】

【The scene was so tragic it was as if evil demons had descended; the well in the Du family's backyard was filled with severed limbs and arms drained of blood, and everyone's state of death was filled with terror, as if they had encountered some awe-inspiring monster.】

【Your father, Gu Zhangqing, also being from a prestigious Northern Wei family, found it hard to set his mind at ease regarding the tragic annihilation of the Du family; he could not eat or sleep in peace until he caught the culprit.】

【Thus, in the year you turned eighteen, your father, Gu Zhangqing, left and never returned, disappearing just like that.】

The screen froze.

A bird's-eye view of the white-haired swordsman before his long journey appeared before his eyes; he reached out to gently stroke his newly adult beloved son, placing the family heirloom sword onto Gu Jiangming's hands with great solemnity.

【You have obtained the Gu family heirloom sword—Ting Shui Xuan.】

Gu Jiangming's expression also turned ugly.

None of his previous Reincarnation simulations had informed him that this was such a dangerous world.

The scene currently displayed on the screen could simply not be an effect produced by ordinary martial arts.

It felt like the work of a demon.

The difficulty of physically slaying demons was too high, and he was not Zuo Qianhu, the ceiling of mortal combat power.

【Facing this situation, you can only calm your heart and cultivate steadily.】

【At the age of twenty-four, after cultivating "Chao Tian Que" to the Ninth Layer, you discovered that the subsequent heart method was severely incomplete; it was more like a theoretical concept created by the Gu family ancestor, which he himself never managed to put into practice in his entire life.】

【At this moment, you realized that the cultivation of "Chao Tian Que" had reached its end; you must either fulfill the ancestor's dying wish and further perfect "Chao Tian Que," or stop here.】

【And your father has been missing for a full six years.】

Although this was just a Reincarnation simulation, the visuals and the sense of immersion were truly too real.

It felt as if one were there in person, like starting from zero as if reborn into the world.

And the tragic case of the Du family's annihilation—that scene made Gu Jiangming feel nauseated.

Subsequently, Gu Jiangming gritted his teeth.

He decided to go all out.

Currently, his cultivation had reached the great perfection of the present stage, and there was not much room for improvement.

His father, who had been so attentive to him in this life, had disappeared just like that, and for him to play the coward here was definitely not Gu Jiangming's style.

It was a Reincarnation life anyway.

Being a hero for five minutes is better than being a coward for a lifetime.

Since he said he would be a sword immortal, he must have the demeanor of a master of a sword sect.

Whatever demons or monsters they may be, even if the Heavenly King himself were to come, he would have to take a few sword strikes from me regardless!

(End of chapter)