1: Chapter 1: Traveling Through Sixty Years, the Lamp's Oil Dries Up

The scent of decay crept into Gu Yan's nostrils.

It was the smell of the bed board, the roof beams, and his own eighty-year-old body.

His eyelids were too heavy to lift, and his vision was filled with a blur of dark red—the color of light filtering through his thin, withered eyelids.

He tried to move his fingers, but the only response was a wave of weakness rising from the depths of his bone marrow.

His lungs were like a dilapidated bellows; every breath came with a wheezing, leaking sound, exhausting all his strength yet yielding only a wisp of thin air.

His hearing, however, had become exceptionally clear.

Outside the door, his granddaughter Yaya was whispering, trying to soothe something—likely a broken egg freshly laid by the old hen in the courtyard.

Beside the bed, a sound of suppressed sobbing, intermittent and fine like drizzle, tapped against his fading inner fire.

It was Shen Qingxue.

His daughter-in-law, Shen Qingxue.

A pitiful woman, only twenty years old, yet already a widow for three years.

"Sixty years already…"

Gu Yan's consciousness surged within his heavy Physical Body.

Sixty years ago, he was still a corporate slave on Earth who had just received his first paycheck and was preparing to cook a bowl of instant noodles with an egg in his rented room.

In the blink of an eye, the world had turned upside down.

He had come to this world called the Xuantian Continent, becoming a newborn baby in the Gu Family of Luoyun Town.

He had once dreamed of immortal fate, of wandering the world with a sword.

But the cruel reality was that he had the most useless Useless Spirit Root, lacking even the qualifications to sense Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi.

Cultivation? It was nothing but a fool's dream.

He could only live like a Mortal: marry and have children.

No, even his son was not his own; because he and his wife were unable to conceive, they had adopted a foster son out of necessity.

He watched helplessly as his foster son grew up, married a wonderful wife like Shen Qingxue, and then watched helplessly as his foster son was beaten to death by a local bully while trying to protect the meager assets of the Gu Family rice shop.

He remembered that afternoon, kneeling on the ground, holding his foster son's body as it gradually lost its warmth, kowtowing and begging for mercy at the bully's back.

Humiliation and helplessness had entwined his later life like poisonous vines.

Now, he was eighty years old, his oil exhausted and his lamp dried up.

The vast Gu Family was left with only a widowed daughter-in-law, a five-year-old granddaughter, and him, lying in bed waiting to die.

The Gu Family Bloodline would end with him.

A light sound of footsteps approached, accompanied by a thick scent of medicine.

"Father, it's time to take your medicine."

Shen Qingxue's voice was thick with nasal congestion, yet remained gentle.

A soft arm strained to lift his upper body against the headboard. He could feel Shen Qingxue's body trembling slightly.

Her other hand held the bowl, using a spoon to carefully skim aside the dregs, bringing the dark brown medicinal liquid to his cracked lips.

The bitter liquid slid down his throat, bringing no warmth, but instead triggering a fit of violent coughing.

"Cough… cough, cough…"

Gu Yan coughed until his lungs felt torn, murky tears sliding down the corners of his wrinkled eyes.

It was not the bitterness of the medicine, but the bitterness of his fate.

He saw two lines of silent tears falling down Shen Qingxue's plain yet beautiful face. She did not dare to cry aloud, fearing it would affect the mood of a dying man, only wiping away her tears with her sleeve and continuing to feed him spoonful by spoonful.

What a good child.

If not for the burden of the Gu Family, she should have had a better life.

"Shen Qingxue, I have failed you, I have failed the Gu Family…"

He wanted to say something, but his throat could only emit a strange "hissing" sound.

He knew this bowl of medicine would be of no use. The best doctor in town had said three days ago that it was time to prepare for his funeral.

Once the bowl was empty, Shen Qingxue set it down and used a warm cloth to carefully wipe the corners of Gu Yan's mouth. Her movements were very light, as if treating a rare treasure.

"Father, rest for a while longer. I'm going to make something for Yaya to eat."

She forced herself to stand up, carried the empty bowl, and walked out with slightly unsteady steps.

Gu Yan watched her thin yet straight back, knowing that all the burdens of this Family would fall upon the shoulders of this young woman. And he, he could do nothing.

An endless wave of exhaustion surged over him, this time more ferocious than any before.

His consciousness began to sink, falling into an abyss without light or sound.

Everything around him began to fade away.

The daughter-in-law's suppressed sobbing, the granddaughter's childish voice, the sound of the wind outside the window, the smell of medicine in the room… all his senses were rapidly stripping away.

He knew he was going to die.

A Transmigration traveler, having struggled in another world for sixty years, would ultimately return to nothingness like a speck of dust, without a sound.

No Heaven-Defying change of fate, no satisfying revenge.

Only humiliation.

Only regret.

"I am not reconciled!"

"My Gu Family cannot end just like this!"

"Damn Heaven! Give me one more chance! I would trade anything for it!"

His dying Soul erupted with the most intense, primitive roar.

Just as Gu Yan's consciousness was about to dissipate completely and return to eternal silence.

A lazy voice, carrying a hint of electronic static, abruptly sounded in the deepest part of his mind.

"Sigh, what's the rush? I just finished watching the host in the neighboring Universe snap their fingers; it was just getting to the good part…"

"Tsk, the signal is terrible. It took sixty years of lagging to finally connect."

"Let me see… Oh, host information read… Gu Yan, male, eighty years old, Useless Spirit Root, Lifespan… less than one stick of incense remaining."

"About to croak, just in time."

"Fine, fine, stop rushing. Binding now."

"Ding—"

"Family Continuation and Ascension System, at your service!"

"Detected that the host's vital signs are about to hit zero; the intense will of unwillingness meets the ultimate conditions for binding!"

"System binding… 1%… 10%… 50%…"

"Binding successful!"

"Hello, host. I am your exclusive System, an excellent worker dedicated to helping the host expand the Family branches, have many children and blessings, and ultimately achieve the Ascension of the entire clan."

"Friendly reminder: Due to this System being addicted to watching the finale of 'Transmigrating into a Useless Son-in-Law, the Empress Arranges a Marriage with a Female Devil Head', it missed the optimal binding time and is a full sixty years late. Regarding this, we express… absolutely no apologies."

"So, to celebrate our first meeting, let's issue a novice mission."