Upon awakening in the original body, Ding Yun, familiar with the process, began to sort through the meager spiritual energy in her dantian and then used her mental power to survey her surroundings.
Finding that there was at least no one in her room.
She hurried to sort through her memories.
The world the original body inhabited was peculiar, a world where cultivators had existed since ancient times, and where the lineage of cultivation had never been broken.
However, with the development of the times and societal changes.
Cultivation had its ups and downs, its ebbs and flows.
For tens of thousands of years, cultivation methods had been held by a select few, belonging to noble families or sects, and were completely unrelated to ordinary people.
Until eight hundred years ago, when spiritual energy had receded to its lowest point.
Many ancient powerful beings, to avoid the detrimental effects of spiritual energy's extreme decline on their cultivation and lifespan, either entered deep seclusion or hid in blessed lands. Those with lower cultivation levels mostly stayed within their own territories. For a time, cultivators almost vanished from the world.
This, while diminishing the legends of gods and immortals in the world.
It also provided humanity's technological path a respite from the oppression of cultivators, a chance to breathe and develop.
Seizing this opportunity, technology surged forward.
In a mere five hundred years, it overthrew the old society, established a new world, and even created terrifying weapons capable of destroying blessed lands and killing Nascent Soul ancestors. The leaders of the new era, who were wise and understood that spiritual energy would eventually revive, began to selectively and systematically eliminate certain sects and families. This was both to weaken the power of cultivators and to obtain sufficient research materials to unravel the secrets of cultivation.
Another two hundred and sixty years passed.
Spiritual energy began to gradually revive.
The relevant departments of the new era immediately followed the directives of their predecessors and initiated a nationwide propagation of cultivation techniques.
This involved freely disseminating cultivation methods, developed over the preceding years and suitable for the vast majority of ordinary people, and even providing corresponding instructional videos.
This action, besides allowing cultivation methods, a unique existence, to fly into ordinary households like the bygone birds of noble families, giving commoners a chance to encounter and practice cultivation and improve their physical fitness and extend their lifespans. The most crucial aspect was that widespread cultivation could significantly slow the rate of spiritual energy revival, thus preventing the premature awakening of Soul Transformation elders.
Many Soul Transformation elders, when entering deep seclusion or self-imposed seals, had set certain revival thresholds. The primary threshold was spiritual energy concentration. If the spiritual energy concentration did not reach a certain standard, their awakening would be in vain.
After all, they were beings of extremely high spiritual energy concentration. If the surrounding spiritual energy concentration did not meet a certain standard, then even if they did not cultivate, spiritual energy would eventually dissipate from the high-concentration area, which was their bodies. In such a situation, they would have to exert all their efforts just to prevent their cultivation from declining.
How would they have the time and energy to cultivate or do anything else?
Most importantly, in a conscious state, their lifespans would still be consumed normally. Rather than that, it was naturally better to remain in a low-consumption mode, such as deep seclusion or sealing, which at least reduced the consumption of lifespan.
It was important to note that in low-consumption mode.
Only one year of lifespan was consumed for every ten years that passed.
Often, the higher the cultivation, the more people feared death and cherished their lifespan. These Soul Transformation elders were exceptionally so.
The process of spiritual energy revival was inherently a gradual increase in spiritual energy concentration. When the number of cultivators was small, the revival of spiritual energy was naturally rapid, as the increase in spiritual energy concentration far exceeded that absorbed by cultivators.
But once cultivation became widespread.
Let alone the process of spiritual energy revival, even with full spiritual energy revival, it would likely not be enough to satisfy the consumption of widespread cultivation, thus naturally reducing the spiritual energy concentration and preventing those Soul Transformation elders from awakening.
As for why they went to such lengths, it was naturally because they could not defeat Soul Transformation elders. Once Soul Transformation elders revived, it would be easy for them to inflict devastating blows to restore the old era. At this point, they could only simultaneously use widespread cultivation to slow the spiritual energy revival and research weapons that could deal with Soul Transformation elders.
Of course, these had nothing to do with the original body's death. This was mainly background information. When cultivation methods were widely introduced, the original body had just gotten married.
And was pregnant.
When cultivation methods were first introduced, there were many concerns. The authorities only conducted a small-scale experiment, unsure if widespread cultivation would lead to various problems.
Therefore, pregnant women, those in poor health, and those with incomplete limbs who could not perform the great circulation were temporarily classified as unsuitable for cultivation.
Coupled with the fact that everyone was a complete beginner, the speed of cultivation for the first batch of practitioners was extremely slow.
Many could not bear the monotony and gave up. Others thought it might be a scam, a complete waste of time. After three years, according to statistics, less than ten thousand people successfully cultivated and broke through to the Qi Refining realm.
Later, the official conjecture was that, besides everyone being a beginner at the start, the most important reason was that the spiritual energy was indeed very thin at that time, as it had just begun to revive.
Cultivating in thin spiritual energy was very difficult.
Those who succeeded were geniuses.
Because some people did succeed, the authorities later specifically promoted it, even having some people perform feats like flying on swords and conjuring fireballs. Only then did the remaining people rekindle their hope for cultivation.
The original body only began to cultivate at that time.
But because she had to care for her child, do housework, and also work, the time she could dedicate to cultivation each day was very limited. It took her five years to get started. By the time her child grew up and got married, she had only cultivated to the fourth level of Qi Refining.
Her son had much better conditions when he started cultivating. The predecessors had accumulated much experience, the spiritual energy concentration had increased slightly, and there were even cultivation-assisting elixirs. Most importantly, her son could cultivate full-time in the early stages, dedicating much more time to it than she could. Therefore, by the time her son got married, he had already reached the ninth level of Qi Refining. When her grandson was in high school, he had even painstakingly reached the Foundation Establishment realm on his own.
Without consuming a Foundation Establishment Pill, he had slowly grinded his way to the Foundation Establishment realm.
That year, the original body was only at the seventh level of Qi Refining. As she was getting older, cultivation became more strenuous. Even when she had time, her cultivation was difficult to improve. She likely had no hope of reaching Foundation Establishment.
In the year her grandson was in his final year of high school, the authorities introduced a new policy: any high school student who could break through to the Foundation Establishment realm before the college entrance examination would be admitted to the newly established National Top Cultivation Academy.
The faculty was far superior to those of past universities.
Golden Core professors taught, and Nascent Soul deans provided guidance.
Graduates would secure government positions, a golden rice bowl.
Her grandson's conditions for cultivation were even better when he started. Thus, in his final year of high school, Guo Yuntao had already reached the peak of the twelfth level of Qi Refining.
Theoretically, he was bound to reach Foundation Establishment within three years.
However, time was running out. He was already in his final year of high school. It was almost impossible to break through to Foundation Establishment solely through self-cultivation before the college entrance examination. Only with the assistance of a Foundation Establishment Pill could he possibly succeed.
When the news from above was released, it was the wealthy and powerful who received the information first. By the time ordinary people learned about it, it was already too late. Foundation Establishment Pills were unobtainable through regular channels in the market; they could only be bought through other means.
For her grandson's future, the original body and her husband emptied their coffin savings, searching everywhere for a Foundation Establishment Pill. After being introduced by acquaintances and passed through several hands, they finally managed to acquire one pill.
Upon obtaining it, the original body excitedly rushed to deliver it to her grandson, urging him to consume it and break through.
Guo Yuntao also desperately wished to reach Foundation Establishment and be admitted to the National Top Cultivation Academy. Coupled with his deep trust in his grandmother, he quickly calmed his emotions, swallowed the Foundation Establishment Pill, and attempted the breakthrough.
As for the result?
The Foundation Establishment Pill was fake. Guo Yuntao not only failed to break through but his cultivation also regressed by three levels due to the backlash from the failed breakthrough, leaving him at the ninth level of Qi Refining. Furthermore, it would take him several years just to repair the damage to his foundation. It was no exaggeration to say that his future was ruined.
The current situation was worse than before.
Guo Yuntao could not handle the shock. Coupled with the damage to his foundation, he fell unconscious. Upon learning of this, although her family did not excessively blame her, the original body could not forgive herself. Overwhelmed by remorse and guilt, she directly suffered qi deviation in her bedroom and died.
After that, Ding Yun arrived.
It had to be said, scammers were truly detestable.
However, perhaps due to having witnessed more tragic events, Ding Yun felt no particular emotion. After sorting through the original body's memories, she then checked the golden finger she had randomly received, and was utterly speechless.
Because the golden finger she had randomly received was—
The Super God Antimatter Mech.
Undoubtedly one of the top-tier mechs, even considered top-tier within interstellar civilizations spanning the entire galaxy. But introducing a mech into a modern world of widespread cultivation felt incredibly out of place. What was the difference between this and flying a spaceship in the cultivation world?
Fortunately, the mech had ample antimatter energy, requiring no further replenishment. If it lacked energy, Ding Yun would have been truly despairing.
After all, in this era, with its level of technology.
Where would she find antimatter to use as energy?
The mech having its own energy source was fine; at least she could get free antimatter energy to use directly, which was quite appealing.
However, considering the mech's size would undoubtedly not be small, her current house, less than one hundred square meters, absolutely could not accommodate it. Therefore, Ding Yun did not rush to take out the golden finger to examine it. After confirming that it should be usable, she did not tamper with it.
Then, she cautiously stood up, walked to her bedroom door, and began to quietly eavesdrop on what her family members outside the bedroom were saying, before deciding on her next course of action.