I Can Reincarnate Infinitely

With a bewildered Sui Zhi sent back to the front lines, Ruihan City, a place of mixed celebration and sorrow, returned to its usual peace.

Although the power structure had changed, for the common folk, the difference wasn’t profound. At most, the Sui family acted a bit more arrogantly, while the other three families were ordered to lie low. Still, things wouldn’t get too out of hand.

After all, the Four Great Clans were deeply intertwined through generations of intermarriage.

Sometimes, what looked like the Sui family bullying the Bian family on the surface might in reality just be an uncle picking on his nephew.

Since the other three great families had immediately feigned submission, Du Youqian arranged for the Sui Family to take a softer approach. They began to gradually absorb the power and interests of the other families, avoiding any drastic measures.

The other three great families, in turn, promptly adjusted their mindsets and began the slow transition into the role of vassal families.

Becoming a vassal family to a powerful clan was no shameful matter.

When one person achieves the Dao, even their chickens and dogs can ascend to heaven—so what’s to be said of a vassal family?

Of course, this was all just a way to console themselves.

The most crucial point was that Sui Xiao had only just entered the Core Formation Realm, his cultivation not yet even stabilized, yet he had suppressed all three of them by himself—and it seemed he hadn’t even used his full strength.

’So how terrifying will he be when he reaches the Golden Core Late Stage, Perfection, or even Nascent Soul Formation?’

’At Sui Xiao’s cultivation speed, it likely won’t even take him 200 years to reach Golden Core Perfection. If we don’t submit now and obediently become a vassal family, are we supposed to wait until we’re completely powerless, only to have our entire families demoted to slaves?’

Having orchestrated this major event, Du Youqian once again adopted a low profile. He spent his years in secluded cultivation, emerging only occasionally for feasts and amusement, but he generally ignored all mundane affairs.

All mundane affairs were handed over to the current patriarch of the Sui Family, the father of his current body.

Come to think of it, in all this time, Du Youqian had only met this father of his a few times, and they had exchanged fewer than twenty sentences...

His mother, Duan Shurui, on the other hand, cared for him deeply. Whenever Du Youqian emerged from his seclusion, she would come over to talk.

Du Youqian was also respectful and close to her, and they maintained a good relationship.

Perhaps he was a bit more distant than before, but it was the normal kind of distance that forms when a son grows up and keeps an appropriate space from his mother. It was perfectly normal, so Duan Shurui didn’t think much of it.

Her only regret was that her son had reached Core Formation so early that she hadn’t even been able to find him a suitable Dao Companion.

’In Ruihan City, from the Rong, Bian, and Shen Families, which woman is worthy of my son?’

’Forget Ruihan City, in the entire Immortal City Alliance, what woman is worthy of my son?’

’A Core Formation Master at the age of twenty-nine!’

’At the very least, it would have to be a Kun Cultivator who reached the Foundation Establishment Late Stage before thirty to be even remotely worthy, right?’

But looking across the entire Immortal City Alliance, such Kun Cultivators were exceedingly rare!

On the rare occasion that one did appear, her family would be unwilling to marry off such an outstanding daughter, preferring to recruit a son-in-law into their own family instead.

Because a Kun Cultivator who could reach the Foundation Establishment Late Stage before thirty had a very high chance of reaching Core Formation.

Who would be willing to let a prospective Core Formation Master marry into another family?

Thus, despite Duan Shurui’s enthusiastic efforts, she could never find a woman of a matching status, and so Du Youqian’s marriage prospects were delayed again and again.

Of course, this was a good thing for Du Youqian himself. It saved him a lot of trouble and allowed him to continue his cultivation in peace.

In his previous life, Du Youqian also had a Celestial Spirit Root. It took him over forty years to go from the Initial Core Formation Stage to the Golden Core Middle Stage.

Of course, that was because he had achieved Body Refining Core Formation and wasted considerable time for the sake of Human Dao Fortune. Furthermore, he wasn’t familiar with the Profound Void Three Treasures Decision back then and had to spend a vast amount of time studying, experimenting with, and completing it.

In this life, however, the Spiritual Qi in the Human World was far denser than in the Momenan World, and the Sui Family’s Spirit Vein was also incredibly potent.

The Golden Jade Flying Scripture of the Eight Realms of Truth that he cultivated came with extensive annotations, saving him a great deal of precious time.

Therefore, after a mere sixteen years, Du Youqian reached the Golden Core Middle Stage.

That year, he happened to be forty-five years old.

After thirty-one years of arduous cultivation, Du Youqian decided to give himself a break. He would rest for a while and also take the opportunity to do a few things to solidify his position as the leader of the Sui Family, lest some of the younger generation forget about him.

Although strength reigned supreme in the Cultivation Realm.

But if some people didn’t understand their place and forced him to teach them a lesson with his strength, it would be both troublesome and time-consuming. It could also weaken the very power at his disposal through internal friction.

’It’s better to plan ahead and reinforce my authority every so often. That way, when I need to wield the power of the family—no, the power of all Four Great Clans—I’ll be able to command them as easily as my own limbs.’

Du Youqian knew this kind of showmanship like the back of his hand; after all, he had been a powerful court official and even the National Preceptor of the Nine Countries.

Without much effort, he flexed his muscles, forcing those with ulterior motives to abandon their schemes, and he also took the opportunity to promote a few loyalists.

He also selected a few people from the Four Great Clans to support, such as Shen Wu from the Shen Family.

But he was in no hurry.

’In this life, my goal is to secure the Nascent Soul Realm as a bare minimum and strive for Divinity Transformation. If I get the chance, aiming for the Void Step Realm isn’t out of the question either.’

And even a Nascent Soul Cultivator, his baseline goal, had a lifespan of 1,200 to 1,900 years.

A lifespan of over a thousand years meant he didn’t need to act like a Mortal in anything he did.

Mortals had to seize every moment.

Because the window of time for a Mortal to achieve greatness, when they had enough wisdom, stamina, and energy, was only a brief ten or twenty years.

But when a Nascent Soul Master made a move, the effects of that single chess piece might not be seen for a hundred, or even several hundred, years.

「One day, at the end of the year.」

Du Youqian, along with the Sui Family’s ancestor Sui Bian, who was not in seclusion, led the Sui family to the ancestral home for the ancestor veneration ceremony.

Naturally, not all clan members could attend. After multiplying for so many generations, there were hundreds of thousands of the Sui family living in the city alone.

And those living outside the city numbered over a million.

Only about a thousand members from the Direct Lineage, those closely related by blood, or those with higher cultivation were able to participate in the ceremony.

Led by the two Core Formation Masters, Du Youqian and Sui Bian, they knelt in a grand procession amidst curling incense smoke. But as Du Youqian carefully observed, he detected no response whatsoever.

According to ancient records, before the fall of the Ancient Celestial Court, both the City God Temples and family ancestor veneration ceremonies would receive responses and feedback.

"May the ancestors protect us" was not an empty phrase in that era.

𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

When the ancestor veneration ceremony ended, Du Youqian didn’t return immediately but instead wandered through the city.

Fearing trouble, he used a Secret Technique to alter his appearance and aura, strolling about to take in the prosperity of the Immortal City.

Compared to the Endless Desert Sea, his main area of activity in his past life, this place—though also on the fringes of the Human World—was incomparably more prosperous. The abundance of its resources, while not matching the heartland of the Human World, was still well worth fighting for.

That was why, for so many years, the Immortal City Alliance had been locked in endless war with the local Demon Race.

Because neither side could bear to give up this prize.

’Of course, the tacit understanding to cull their excess human and demon populations was also an important reason.’

Du Youqian pondered, ’How should I lay out my strategy?’

’How can I best use my advantageous position in Ruihan City, as well as the Four Principles Sect, to create an environment where I can cultivate in peace? How can I secure more resources to give myself a chance to aim for Divinity Transformation, or even the Void Step Realm?’

The further one progressed, the more advancement depended on far more than just personal talent and Comprehension.

From what Du Youqian understood, at that stage, only those who controlled more resources could advance further.

’Achieve Enlightenment overnight and become an Immortal on the spot just because you have great talent and heaven-defying Comprehension?’

’Sorry, but that’s not how things work in the Immortal Cultivation Realm.’

’And resources...’

’...require Martial Force to seize and maintain.’

’Both personal Martial Force and organizational Martial Force.’

’In the end, the path of a lone wolf is a dead end.’

The furthest a Loose Cultivator can go is the Nascent Soul Realm.

Every single Divinity Transformation True Monarch, without exception, was either the leader of a faction, had been nurtured by one, or had joined a major power after achieving Core Formation or Nascent Soul Formation.

’No faction?’

’You can’t take that next step.’

’Of course, Du Youqian wished he could be like the protagonists of those web novels he’d read. Just step outside and stumble upon two Tier Five Demon Emperors fighting, letting him reap the rewards. Go for a stroll while drinking and have a beauty fall from the sky—a Grand Sect Saintess, no less—who would follow him without asking for any official status and even bring him all her sect’s treasures. Play the hero for a bit and run into some villains; after beating the young one, the old one shows up, and the old one just happens to have a fatal weakness for him to exploit. Enter a Secret Realm and run into a Great Saint Son who either looks upon him with admiration and bows in submission, or hates him with a vengeance and practically chases him down to hand-deliver treasures.’

’If that were the case, he wouldn’t need to join any faction. He could just be a lone wolf and cruise all the way to Becoming an Immortal without any obstacles.’

’Too bad none of that was happening.’

’How pitiful.’

Du Youqian suddenly stopped and looked toward a nearby herb shop.

This was an herb shop for Mortals; it only sold common, ungraded medicinal herbs.

Inside the shop, a listless assistant was bent over, organizing herbs.

There was also an extremely overweight woman, her chin lost in her neck, sitting in a reclining chair that creaked and swayed.

From her graying hair and her plump, greasy face, you could hardly see any trace of her younger self.

’She’s half a year younger than me...’ Du Youqian thought. ’She should also be 45 this year, right?’

’Just by looking at her, if you didn’t know her past, who would ever imagine that in her youth, she was once hailed as the "Number One Beauty of Ruihan City"?’

At that moment, Du Youqian did something very cruel.

He revealed his true face—still as handsome as a young man after all these years—and gave the woman a faint smile.

The woman was stunned. She stared at him for a moment, then her face fell. She frantically raised a pair of large hands with fingers as thick as carrots to cover her face, but how could she possibly hide it?

In her panic, her shoulders began to shake, and she actually started to cry.

But she didn’t want to cry out loud. The sight of her desperately holding back her sobs, her body wracked with uncontrollable tremors, was a pitiful one to behold.

The shop assistant stared, stunned, at his distraught boss, then looked at Du Youqian. He felt that the handsome young man seemed somewhat familiar, but he didn’t recognize him.

’Why is this young man smiling at the boss?’

’Do they know each other?’

He glanced back at his boss, and when he turned to look again, the young man was gone.

The assistant wasn’t surprised or frightened.

There were too many Cultivators in Ruihan City who could appear and disappear at will. Although he was just a Mortal without a Spirit Root, his surname was Rong, so he naturally had relatives who were Cultivators and knew what they were like.

He simply mused, ’So the boss has an acquaintance like that.’

’From the looks of it, maybe they were more than just acquaintances. There might even be a story between them.’

He’d heard that the boss used to be a major figure in the Rong Family, even a member of the Direct Lineage. But later, for some unknown reason, she got involved in some trouble and was kicked out by the family, fobbed off with a small shop just to survive.

He heard she had married a down-and-out cultivator from the Bian Family. He had cultivated for most of his life but was still only at the Qi Cultivation Middle Stage. The man also suffered from chronic headaches, drank often, and would beat the boss whenever he got drunk.

Later, the boss’s husband supposedly couldn’t stand the chronic headaches anymore, so he went to the front lines to try his luck and was never seen again.

Such things were commonplace.

An ordinary boss with an ordinary husband.

The assistant had never paid it much mind before.

He just never expected that his ordinary boss would actually know such a handsome young man who was also an accomplished cultivator.

’Maybe she wasn’t so ordinary after all.’