Grotto of Infinite Cycles
His life as a pragmatic Swiss engineer met a definitive end, only for awareness to dawn again beneath the borrowed skies of a Xianxia world. He awoke trapped in the body of Chen Yi, a young master burdened by unfamiliar customs and the encroaching memories of a life not his own. Before he could fully grasp this impossible reality, a strange interface materialized before him—a system powered by the world's spiritual energy: Spirit Stones.
Driven by a chilling curiosity born from the shock of transition, he activated it. The cost: one Spirit Stone. The result: a horrifyingly visceral simulation of his new family's impending doom – a wedding feast destined to become a bloodbath, culminating in his own brutal, simulated demise.
Armed with this terrifying foresight and governed by the cold calculus of survival inherited from his past life, he made his choice. Heroism held no appeal; saving strangers bound only by phantom memories was illogical. Survival was paramount. Taking only the simulation's grim memories as his reward, he ruthlessly abandoned the doomed Chen Mansion, fleeing to a hidden grotto revealed during his simulated escape.
Here, in the damp darkness, a new strategy takes shape. The system offers knowledge, experience, even items pulled from simulated timelines, all for a cost intrinsically tied to his cultivation realm. The path becomes chillingly clear: remain a mere mortal, keep the simulation cost minimal, and exploit this reality-bending power from the unbreachable safety of stone walls.
While the world outside hurtles towards inevitable chaos, he will cultivate knowledge through infinite simulated lives, mastering theories of power and immortality, surviving on scavenged scraps pulled from virtual pasts. His sanctuary is a grotto; his cultivation ground, the endless, recursive possibilities of the simulation.
Let others chase tangible power across the lands; he will build his foundation unseen, cycle by cycle, until the cost of godhood itself becomes affordable.
