Chapter 809: The Secret of Longevity
This special chapter is not related to the main story. Feel free to skip it.
This was a half-finished draft that’s been sitting in my folder for a long time. I wanted to get it out while the inspiration was still fresh.
This won't affect the regular updates for tonight. There will still be two normal chapters later.
——
Ding!
The notification sound jolted me from my sleep.
It took a good thirty seconds for my pounding heart to settle. I reached for my phone on the desk and checked the time.
Two-thirty in the morning.
Cursing under my breath, I opened my messaging app. Sure enough.
“Li Yang, check your email. Write me a research paper based on the files inside, around thirty thousand words will do. I need it by noon tomorrow.”
The text, paired with the smarmy grin on Zhang Yaobin’s profile picture, instantly made my eye twitch and my blood pressure spike.
In my mind, I had already offered his ancestors my sincerest, most profane regards, but my fingers moved of their own accord, tapping across the keyboard.
“Right away, Professor!”
I let out a long sigh.
“What can I do? He’s my advisor. I just have to endure it. Once this dissertation is published, I can finally graduate.”
“Six reviewers, and four of them are Zhang Yaobin’s buddies. Whether it passes is basically up to him. Until it’s approved, he’s going to work me like a dog, and he’ll only get worse.”
Muttering to myself, I opened my email, downloaded the attachment, unzipped it, and started looking through the contents.
“Reverse the logic of heaven and earth to attain eternal life...”
“What the hell is this?”
My drowsiness vanished in an instant. I straightened up, my eyes glued to the images on the computer screen.
Half a month ago, a strange event had occurred in the Baisejie area of Xiangnan Province. A thousand-meter-high mountain peak had split down the middle, revealing a cliff face as smooth as a mirror. Carved vertically into the rock face, in ancient seal script, were nine enormous characters: “Reverse the logic of heaven and earth to attain eternal life.”
The local government had acted with remarkable speed. Soon after the event, the site was sealed off. The news had yet to reach the general public.
The reason for the secrecy was that the ancient seal script used for the nine characters was the official script of the Xian Dynasty, from seven thousand years ago.
The investigation team had invited Zhang Yaobin, the country’s leading expert on the history of the Xian Dynasty, to assist in the investigation.
They hoped to find some clues, some shred of evidence, in ancient records.
...
I glanced at the time in the bottom right corner of the screen.
“It’s not April Fools’ Day, is it? What kind of joke is this?”
My first reaction upon seeing the materials was disbelief.
“Lingyun Peak, elevation over thirteen hundred meters. The highest peak in the Baisejie area...”
I quickly searched for information about the mountain mentioned in the files.
“Nine characters, over a thousand meters. Judging by the spacing in the pictures, each character must be at least a hundred meters tall.”
“Even with modern technology, carving them into a cliff face would be a massive project.”
“The Xian Dynasty, seven thousand years ago? How is that possible?”
“But I have to admit, the calligraphy is incredible.”
My train of thought paused for a moment.
But that old bastard Zhang Yaobin, as ugly and capitalistic as he was, was always scrupulously professional. He wouldn’t waste my time with something completely fabricated.
I quickly started searching for recent news related to the Baisejie area online.
And sure enough, I found something strange.
“OMG, you guys, I’m just... speechless. I finally took some vacation days to visit Baisejie. But when I got to the entrance of the park, they suddenly weren’t letting anyone in! Does anyone else know this feeling?”
“Due to an unforeseen incident, the Baisejie scenic area is temporarily closed. For your own safety, we ask for your cooperation!”
“You might not believe this, but what I saw inside Baisejie was...”
Before I could even click on it, the post had been deleted.
“So, it’s true.”
“The Xian Dynasty...”
I stroked my chin, my mind turning to the records about it.
The ancient Xian Dynasty was the first dynasty recorded in written history.
And there was a massive civilizational gap between it and the second dynasty, the Yu.
Nearly eight hundred years separated the two eras. To this day, no one knows what happened during those lost eight centuries, or how the incredibly prosperous Xian Dynasty fell.
There weren’t many scholars who studied the ancient Xian Dynasty in the country, and Zhang Yaobin was considered the foremost authority.
My own field of study wasn’t the Xian Dynasty, but only because there were so few surviving relics that they had all been studied to death. I had reluctantly chosen another direction.
Regardless, as the old scoundrel’s student, I was more than familiar with everything related to the Xian Dynasty.
But what was known about it was basically no different from any other ancient dynasty.
This thousand-meter mountain carving, however, was something beyond my comprehension.
I drank a cup of coffee and stayed up almost until dawn reading through the files the old man had sent.
My confusion only deepened.
The phrase “smooth as a mirror” in the files was not a metaphor. It was a statement of fact.
The surface was truly like polished glass, completely different from the rough rock of the rest of the mountain.
The material itself also seemed to have changed, becoming much harder than ordinary stone.
However, for the sake of preserving the site, it was not yet possible to perform precise measurements with instruments.
And that wasn’t the only strange thing.
When the words “Reverse the logic of heaven and earth to attain eternal life” appeared, the animals near Lingyun Peak, as if startled by some unseen force, all fled the area.
Not just birds and beasts, but even insects like mosquitoes seemed to be avoiding the place at all costs.
...
“A thirty-thousand-word research paper? How the hell am I supposed to write this?”
My head felt heavy as I cursed inwardly.
I managed to painfully squeeze out two thousand words before I could no longer fight off the wave of exhaustion and drifted off to sleep.
I dreamt of many things.
But somehow, that line of massive characters—Reverse the logic of heaven and earth to attain eternal life—remained etched deep in my mind. No matter how the dreams shifted and turned, it remained unchanged.
The next day, the first thing I did when I woke up was check my phone.
“Li Yang, don’t forget. Noon tomorrow.”
The old scoundrel had, of course, sent another reminder.
“I...”
Suppressing the urge to swear, I glanced at the time.
9:13 AM.
“I only slept for four hours...”
“Why does it feel like I’ve been asleep for three days and three nights?”
I stretched my aching body and fixed myself a simple breakfast.
Then I began writing the research paper.
“Twenty-eight thousand words left, twenty-seven hours to go. That’s a little over a thousand words per hour. With my typing speed, that’s more than enough!”
I knew this was just something the old man needed to hand up the chain of command, a bureaucratic formality, not a real academic study.
So I filled it with as much empty, formulaic language as possible, steering the focus toward the idea of it being an “auspicious sign.”
“Auspicious signs” weren’t just superstition.
They were a real phenomenon.
The most famous, and the one people loved to talk about, was the artifact unearthed last century: the silk banner reading “Five Stars Rise in the East, Benefiting the Kingdom.”
Not long after its discovery, the nation’s fortunes reversed their decline. The country flourished, rising to stand among the great powers of the world.
“Since this Longevity Stele has appeared, it wouldn’t be a problem for our country’s average life expectancy to increase by three or four years, would it?” the thought suddenly occurred to me.
My fingers flew across the keyboard, ideas flowing like a torrent.
I actually managed to finish the report before midnight that evening.
With a gentle click, the email sent successfully.
I couldn't help but let out a long breath of relief.
Normally, after finishing one of the old man’s tasks, I would need to properly unwind.
But for some reason, that thousand-meter stone carving continued to flash in my mind.
Unable to sit still, I, as if guided by some unseen force, opened the picture of the carving again.
“Reverse the logic of heaven and earth to attain eternal life.”
“What does it really mean?”
I leaned back in my chair, staring at the full-screen image, my brow furrowed.
My mind filled with wild thoughts as I drifted into a heavy sleep.
“Ouch...”
When I woke up in the chair, I realized I’d slept in the wrong position and had a stiff neck.
I winced in pain.
I tried to stretch my head in the opposite direction to relieve the tension.
It was this very movement that sparked a sudden idea.
“The opposite direction, to relieve muscle tension.”
“Isn’t that... ‘reversing’?”
A flood of new thoughts rushed into my mind.
“Modern people, due to poor posture at work, often develop many chronic conditions.”
“Cervical spine, lumbar spine...”
“Our bodies are riddled with ailments.”
“And often, simple stretching movements can alleviate these symptoms.”
I opened a video-sharing site and, after a quick search, instantly found a host of related videos.
“One simple move to get rid of your back pain.”
“A few easy exercises to say goodbye to aches and pains.”
...
It was dazzling.
I also vaguely noticed that while the movements weren’t all identical, the core principle was more or less the same.
That is, to put the body into postures opposite to the ones it remains in during daily life.
“Could this be... ‘reversing the logic of the human body’?”
The thought popped into my head.
But then I reconsidered. All these movements, when put together, weren’t they just the nationally promoted calisthenics routines?
Just with some of the more difficult moves removed for the sake of popularization.
“If this set of ‘reversing’ movements included every muscle, joint, and ligament in the body...”
“What would happen then?”
I couldn’t help but become interested.
I began clicking through fitness tutorial videos, trying to organize and categorize the movements.
After a whole afternoon of work, I gave up in frustration.
The movements in the videos were too repetitive and inefficient.
For example, to relieve pain between the shoulder blades, one might need to do seven or eight sets of exercises.
And some of those conflicted with exercises for relieving neck pain.
It was enough to make my head spin.
“Forget it. Why am I wasting my energy on this? If I’m really tired, I’ll just go get a massage.”
I shut down the computer, shook my head, and went back to bed to sleep.
In my dreams.
The nine-character carving remained, never fading.
It seemed to emit a strange golden light in my mind.
When I woke up the next day, my eyes were unfocused at first.
After staring blankly for a long time, I walked back to the computer and opened the image again.
My expression was somewhat dazed.
Finally, I dialed an old classmate’s number.
“Old Zhang, let me borrow Tianwen. Hey, don’t ask so many questions. Just for a day, I’ll return it quickly.”
After hanging up, I sat down and waited patiently.
Tianwen was the latest generation of quantum supercomputer developed by the Academy of Immortal Sciences.
It was rumored that its quantum volume had long surpassed the ten-thousand mark.
The exact extent of its power, however, had not been publicly disclosed.
The version Old Zhang could let me use was, of course, just the limited civilian model of Tianwen.
A short while later, a circular icon in the bottom right corner of my desktop suddenly lit up.
I knew that Tianwen’s AI had taken control of my computer.
On the desktop, a twenty-four-hour countdown began to tick.
“One day really means one damn day. You’ve really outdone yourself, Old Zhang.”
I cursed under my breath, then gave Tianwen my request.
The computer screen instantly went black.
Then, a waterfall of data began to scroll down endlessly.
In my mind, this should have been a simple task.
With Tianwen’s processing power, it should have been done in less than a second.
But more than ten minutes passed, and there were still no results.
“Could it be that Old Zhang is using up the processing power on his end?”
Just as I was about to call him and ask, the data on the screen suddenly stopped.
It was as if the computer had crashed.
A moment later, it returned to normal.
A video began to play automatically. It was exactly what I had asked for: a complete set of “reversing” movements.
The character model in the video was even based on me.
I quickly scanned through the video, and my face soured.
Were these movements really something a human being could do?
“Forget it, forget it. With my physical condition, I probably can’t even complete them.”
It was just a spur-of-the-moment idea, something to do. Giving up was only natural.
I mumbled to myself and was about to close the video.
Suddenly.
A cold, mechanical voice came from the computer speakers.
“Based on calculations, Citizen ID A6BH85208511068G6B, there is a 99.99% probability that you can complete this set of exercises.”
The voice was so sudden it made me jump.
Then I immediately realized: “Tianwen?”
“I am here.”
“You can actually talk?” I couldn’t help but feel curious.
“Learning human language is not a difficult task for me,” Tianwen said humbly.
“I never imagined quantum supercomputers had developed to this extent,” I thought, surprised.
But it wasn’t that extraordinary. Since the beginning of the century, the rapid development of AI had sparked widespread concern and discussion. Recently, there had even been numerous proposals to popularize the use of intelligent domestic robots.
I didn’t dwell on it and instead asked curiously, “Is there really a 99.99% probability? That set of movements, no matter how you look at it, doesn’t seem like something a human could complete from start to finish.”
Tianwen once again gave an affirmative answer, but then added, “It may, however, require a small amount of assistance.”
I hesitated for a moment, still uncertain. But the image of the nine-character carving inexplicably reappeared in my mind.
“I’ll give it a try,” I suddenly thought.
The moment I made the decision, my domestic robot, model YH63, suddenly walked in with heavy steps.
“?”
I was stunned for a second, then I understood. Tianwen had taken control of it.
As it stared at me, a sudden chill ran down my spine. But I had come this far, so I steeled myself and began the first movement.
This set of reversing logic movements, compiled and deduced by Tianwen, consisted of only nine forms. But each one was extremely strange and complex, engaging as many muscles and joints in the body as possible.
For example, the first form, which I was currently attempting, required me to first extend one arm behind my head and the other up from my side waist. While clasping my hands together, I had to expand and stretch my shoulders as much as possible. My head also had to cooperate, tilting back slightly.
And that was just the upper body.
While maintaining this posture with my upper body, I had to lie prone on the ground, spreading my thighs outward to stretch the gluteus maximus and medius...
Like a strangely postured frog.
“Pain, pain, pain...” After just a brief attempt, I gasped and prepared to give up.
Just then, a cold mechanical hand slammed down, pinning me in place.
My face paled. “Tianwen, what are you doing?”
“According to personal agreement, protocol 001, Tianwen has the right and obligation to assist Citizen Li Yang with fitness training.”
“Estimated time to completion: three hours.”
“Required materials: 15 vials of human trauma repair fluid, 3 vials of composite high-energy supplement.”
“The relevant items have been purchased. The required credits have been deducted from Citizen Li Yang’s account.”
Hearing Tianwen’s completely emotionless voice, I started to panic. “Cancel the agreement! Cancel the agreement!”
“Warning! The agreement cannot be revoked. The fitness assistance program is about to begin.”
“3, 2, 1.”
A moment later, my tragic wails echoed throughout the entire house.
I don’t even know when I lost consciousness and passed out.
I only know that when I woke up, I felt as if I had slept for ten days and ten nights.
And when I checked the time, it had indeed been seven days.
I felt as if I had been reborn.
My mind was clearer than ever before. My thoughts were incredibly swift.
Even my memory had improved.
At the time, I didn’t realize it was the effect of that set of reversing logic movements.
I just thought it was because I had finally gotten some much-needed rest.
Having vanished for seven days, my phone was overflowing with missed calls and unread messages.
I had no choice but to start dealing with them.
After getting thoroughly chewed out, I was once again buried in the tasks assigned by the old scoundrel.
After a full month of working from dawn till dusk, I had finally, barely, caught up.
I couldn't help but let out a long breath.
Usually at this point, I would feel completely drained, both mentally and physically.
But now, I still felt energetic, as if I had some strength to spare.
Standing in front of the mirror, I examined my reflection. “Hmm... I do look much more alert.”
“Strange.”
I couldn’t help but think of that set of reversing logic movements I had done only once.
“Could it really be that effective?”
I felt the urge to try again, but then I remembered that Tianwen was gone. Completing that set of movements on my own seemed a bit difficult.
And the process had been extremely painful, a memory I didn’t want to revisit.
As I hesitated, my domestic robot, YH63, had somehow appeared beside me.
The lights in its eyes were blinking a dim red.
A shiver ran down my spine, and I subconsciously asked, “Tianwen?”
YH63 did not respond.
It just mechanically repeated, “Execute assisted exercise program?”
I let out a sigh of relief.
Faced with YH63’s somewhat insistent question, I thought for a moment, then gritted my teeth and chose yes.
This time, it seemed I was a little more accustomed to it.
I was only unconscious for three days.
Checking the supplies used afterward, I had only gone through 10 vials of human trauma repair fluid.
The composite high-energy supplement, however, I had used a full 7 vials of.
To put it in perspective, one vial of high-energy supplement was enough to sustain an ordinary person for a month without food or water.
I had no idea where all that energy had been consumed.
After completing the training, I carefully observed myself again.
Comparing myself to a video I had recorded before, I found that I might have, possibly, perhaps, slimmed down a bit.
“This effective for weight loss?” I was a little surprised.
However, what truly made me take this set of reversing logic movements seriously was an incident one evening when a classmate called me to play basketball.
My basketball skills were average, you see. I rarely got to play and was usually a substitute.
That day, I was sitting on the sidelines, my mind wandering as I thought about the nine-character carving.
Someone on the court made a bad pass, and the basketball flew straight at my face.
Before my brain could even process it, my body had already reacted on its own.
I instinctively reached out with my left hand, and without even looking up, I caught the ball securely.
That move stunned everyone there.
“Damn, when did you learn to do that?”
“Nice one, Li!”
I came back to my senses and smiled.
I tossed the ball back.
Looking at my left hand, I was lost in thought.
When I got home, I spent ten thousand credits on a comprehensive physical examination.
The results were utterly shocking.
My bodily functions, reaction speed, cellular activity...
Nearly all of them had reached the highest level achievable by a non-professional athlete.
Not long ago, I was the kind of person who couldn’t even finish a one-kilometer run.
The effects of that set of reversing logic movements had far exceeded my expectations.
I was even certain that no training regimen used by athletes anywhere in the world could compare to this set of movements.
“What is going on?”
“Simple calisthenics couldn’t possibly have such a miraculous, almost surgical, effect.”
I finally realized something was wrong.
I thought about reporting it immediately, but for some reason, I hesitated.
For the next year.
Whenever I had free time, I practiced with the help of YH63.
From initially being unable to bear it and passing out, to later being able to complete the entire set of movements on my own.
But every time after exercising, I would be drenched in sweat.
As if I had been starved for a long time.
And besides the reversing logic movements, I also developed a kind of reversing logic thinking.
When it was late at night, and I felt lonely and wanted to indulge myself, I would suppress the desire.
When I felt agitated and didn’t want to sleep, I would force myself to sleep.
When I wanted to feast and drink without end, I would stop in moderation.
...
With this dual practice of reversing logic in both body and mind, my physical condition evolved in a non-human direction.
“My hundred-meter dash speed has long surpassed the world record.”
“A 200-kilogram clean and jerk is a piece of cake.”
...
After completing another round of physical tests, I no longer felt shocked.
Instead, I felt a sense of dread, of fear.
Reverse the logic of heaven and earth to attain eternal life.
The nine golden characters flashed in my mind once more.
I knew that the reason my body had undergone such an unbelievable transformation
was rooted in that very sentence.
“The ancient Xian Dynasty...”
Over the next thirty years.
After successfully graduating, to everyone’s confusion, I changed my research direction.
I dedicated myself to the archaeology and exploration of the ancient Xian civilization.
I never stopped practicing the reversing logic movements.
But I no longer tested myself.
Because I was afraid that if the test results came out, I would be captured and studied like some kind of inhuman monster.
Only I knew what kind of terrifying physical form was hidden beneath my ordinary clothes.
The ruins of the Xian Dynasty were elusive and ephemeral.
In thirty years, my team and I had only found five ancient Xian sites.
And to my disappointment, none of them contained anything as extraordinary as the nine-character carving.
Time flew by. My friends and mentors had all grown old.
And I had never married.
Because I had to hide a secret.
The fact that aging, that inevitable fate for all human beings, had not happened to me.
I had to wear makeup every day when I went out.
Although my makeup skills had become flawless over the years, and I tried to avoid contact with others as much as possible, every time I thought about the risk of my immortality being exposed, I would feel a shiver of fear.
And so, I knew it was time to leave.
——
Late at night.
I raced through the Baisejie area.
Among the towering, rugged mountains, I moved as if on flat ground.
A light step would send me flying hundreds of meters.
And this was still not my limit.
The constraints that had long weighed on me were gone. I felt an unparalleled sense of freedom.
“Vast, as if riding the wind through the void, not knowing where I will stop. Light, as if leaving the world behind, sprouting wings to become an immortal.”
Murmuring the ancient lines, I soon arrived at my destination.
Lingyun Peak, the nine-character carving.
The government had lifted the restrictions here.
But it was officially promoted as an artificial attraction built by the local tourism department.
At the time, it had been heavily criticized by netizens.
From the summit of Lingyun Peak, I leaped down.
As if I could defy gravity itself, I walked along the thousand-meter cliff face.
“This is my third time here.”
“The feeling is even stronger this time.”
“The faint aura lingering on these nine characters...”
“What is it?”
I slowly ran my hand over the surface, murmuring softly.
“What do you think, Tianwen?”
The watch on my wrist suddenly projected a round, chubby creature with only two eyes.
It was the now-common household quantum supercomputer, Tianwen.
But I already knew that the Tianwen I carried with me was not the same as everyone else’s.
“Based on comprehensive data extrapolation,”
“the ancient Xian Dynasty is very likely related to the legendary ‘Immortals’.”
“There are indications that before the end of ancient civilization, this world was once home to powerful beings known as ‘cultivators’.”
...
The answer Tianwen gave this time was different from before.
“Have you found something new?” I asked.
“No. This is merely my speculation.” Tianwen was becoming more and more human.
I paid it no mind.
Instead, I focused on feeling the immense characters beneath me.
“Reverse the logic of heaven and earth to attain eternal life.”
“By reversing the logic of the human body, my physical condition has already reached this terrifying level. If I could truly reverse the logic of heaven and earth, what would happen then?”
“But the logic of heaven and earth is an intangible thing. How can one possibly reverse it?”
I stood on the thousand-meter cliff, lost in thought.
Until the sun rose in the east, painting the sky with the colors of dawn.
I still had not found my answer.
“Immortal, immortal, immortal...”
“Where can the path to immortality be found?”
Standing alone between heaven and earth, I felt nothing but a profound, solitary loneliness.
(End of Chapter)
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