Immortal Overlord

Prologue: Immortality

Immortality has always been an eternal topic for humankind.

From the moment humans first learned to fear death, the desire to escape it was born. Across time and civilizations, regardless of culture or belief, humanity has never stopped imagining a way to transcend the limits of flesh and time. Immortality is not merely a fantasy—it is an obsession carved deeply into the collective consciousness of the human race.

In the realm of imagination, both East and West have their own legends of immortal beings.

In the West, angels descend from the heavens, untouched by aging or decay. Gods of Olympus drink ambrosia and live eternally among clouds and thunder.

In the East, cultivators refine qi, temper their bodies, and condense golden elixirs, walking a path that defies heaven itself.

Almost every god in mythology is immortal.

Even demons, spirits, and monsters often possess lifespans far beyond ordinary humans. Mortality, it seems, is a curse reserved exclusively for mankind.

Yet despite living in an era of unprecedented technological advancement—where humans can split atoms, map the genome, and send probes beyond the solar system—research into longevity has never ceased. From genetic modification to cryogenic preservation, from anti-aging drugs to consciousness uploading, modern science continues to pursue the same dream our ancestors once sought with rituals and prayers.

Longevity feels as though it is engraved into human genes.

In reality, people have been exploring the path to immortality for thousands of years.

In the West, alchemy emerged in the pursuit of the Philosopher’s Stone and the elixir of eternal life. Medieval scholars devoted their entire lives to obscure formulas, believing that base metals could be refined into gold—and mortal flesh into something eternal.

In the East, this obsession was even more direct.

Over two thousand years ago, Xu Fu sailed eastward across the sea under the command of the First Emperor of Qin, seeking the elixir of immortality. He never returned.

Later, countless emperors consumed Taoist elixirs, refined from mercury, cinnabar, and rare herbs, hoping to preserve their thrones forever.

Of course, they all failed.

Some returned empty-handed.

Some were poisoned to death instead.

It seemed as though no one could escape the program set at the creation of humanity: birth, aging, sickness, and death. An invisible law dictated that all humans must eventually decay and vanish into dust.

But… have there truly been no immortals in history?

According to legends and unofficial historical records, the answer may not be so simple.

Liu An, Prince of Huainan—forced to commit suicide—was said not to have died at all. Instead, he allegedly consumed an elixir, ascended to heaven, and even caused his chickens and dogs to attain enlightenment alongside him.

The Yellow Emperor mounted a dragon and rose to the heavens before the eyes of his followers.

During the Tang Dynasty, the Taoist priest Xie Ziran reportedly ascended in broad daylight, witnessed by countless people.

In modern society, such stories are often dismissed as myths, products of ignorance and superstition. After all, humans can already explore Mars—so where exactly would one “ascend” to?

But immortality is not solely about ascending to heaven.

There are records of extraordinary longevity that challenge modern understanding.

Peng Zu allegedly lived for over 800 years.

Li Qingyun reportedly died at the age of 256.

Chen Jun lived from the Tang Dynasty into the Yuan Dynasty—over four centuries.

Zhang Sanfeng, founder of the Wudang School, was rumored to have lived more than 200 years.

And Chen Pu—the Taoist priest whose name rarely appears in official history—was said to have lived over three hundred years.

Too many names. Too many coincidences.

It was as if these legends, scattered across history, were fragments of a forgotten truth.

And it was precisely this truth that Fang Yi found himself standing before.

Nighttime, around eleven o’clock, was known in ancient times as Zi Shi, the moment when yin reached its peak and yang was about to be born.

In the west-facing bedroom on the second floor of a self-built rural house, Fang Yi sat silently before his desk.

The legends of immortality were no longer distant myths to him.

They had become a question he could no longer escape.

And tonight, that question was about to demand an answer.