“Testing, one…two…three… Think it’s working… this feels kind of strange.”

Zhang Dong was looking at a person in an old video. There was some kind of date on it but it didn’t make much sense to the system they had now. This made it seem that this was recorded before the current dating system was put in place.

‘The current dating system dates back to a hundred thousand years, it probably started right after the last war between empires. If the timer gets restarted every hundred thousand years, there is no way of knowing how old this is.’

First, he took a good look at the person that was recording himself. Just like any other system users that he had seen, he was quite handsome. It was clear that the people chosen for this position wanted to make themselves look the best and he was the same.

The person looked more like a traditional cultivator but he wasn’t that young. His hair was a mix of black and silver that had appeared due to age. Either the person had gone with the elder option in his e-mail or he had just spent quite a bit of time in this world. But judging that it would probably take many years to build a place like this, he was sure it was the latter.

He didn’t look as old as some of the elders, at most he was about fifty. But it would be hard to tell his true age with just the appearance. Nascent soul masters lived to around a thousand years and depending on their cultivation they could keep their youthful look even into their older years. This person had the system with them, so even here he could already be nine hundred.

“I did it, I have managed to create this testing ground. With it I will be able to find more people like me, by that I mean people with a system! I know that you are out there, I can’t be the only one…”

It seemed that this person was really the one that figured out the secrets of the system but as it was starting to get to the good part, the video was cut off. Zhang Dong realized that this computer was quite old and even if it looked fine from the outside there was a limit at which data could be stored.

When he tried to click the next video after it, he was shown a corrupt image with no sound. Other ones wouldn’t even start playing and Bob was also unable to reconstruct the corrupt data.

‘It’s already a miracle that this thing didn’t crumble into dust, it's at least a hundred thousand years old…’

Without much to do, he continued to go through the many videos one by one. Finally, he was able to play a part of it, in this video, the man looked a lot older. His skin had some wrinkles and his hair was now almost fully gray. His eyes also looked tired, it was as if he didn’t sleep for some time.

“Log number 59… ah whoever cares, not like anyone will ever see this… but anyway…”

The man gave out a sigh while leaning back in the gaming chair recreation.

“I have been unable to discover any other people like me, it has been many thousands of years, no one was able to finish this trial and no other system could be discovered. I have been putting myself into stasis to prolong my life but there is a limit on how much time I have…End log”

The video cut so he continued to the next one.

“Log number 245… I’m getting tired, so I went outside to stretch my legs… my old sect is no more, I don’t recognize anyone… I don’t think anyone from my bloodline is alive anymore…”

“567… It has been a hundred thousand years… the war cycle has repeated… but no other of my kind has appeared and I know the reason. I have made an error in my calculations, unless I cut off from the source no one will come… without a new system user the empire has no chance of winning, they have retreated into the center but they will survive… I know what I must do…”

“569… I know how to remove myself from the system but I’m too old to survive the procedure. Only when close to death is this possible and by prolonging my life artificially I will certainly die, I must leave this in the hands of someone else. I have updated the trials but I’m unsure if it will work… there are too many variables that could go wrong… I have decided to ascend.”

“571… I am planning to ascend today, this will be the last time. Even after living for this long, I do not wish to die, I am afraid… I know that something is waiting for me, I don’t know what it wants and why it created this game-like world, I know that there are others like me but I’m unable to travel to them at this point, I only hope that the person watching this can meet me on the other side…”

“The ascension to the immortal realm is impossible for anyone other than a system user. I made a discovery, there were several realms between the immortal realm and the nascent soul realm that had been stricken from history. Without this knowledge, it is impossible for regular cultivators to bridge the gap. The step from the nascent soul all the way to the immortal realm is certain death.”

“Only if you give yourself to the system, is ascension possible but what awaits on the other side, I don’t know… After ascending you will be forced to leave this realm, it will be unable to contain your new realm and reject your very being. I hope that I’m wrong and what waits for me on the other side is not certain death but I’m out of options, I have no way of prolonging my life anymore so I hope this message reaches someone who can pave a new path…”

After going through all of these videos he had an idea of what had been happening here. Each video showed the man being older and older. It seemed that he was using some type of device to halt his aging, something akin to cryogenic sleep.

The man would put himself to sleep for thousands of years and come out on certain occasions to check if the testing ground brought any system holders out. He also spoke about altering the system but being unable to fully cut himself from it. He was still connected which was the reason that he was unable to find any other system user.

This made him remember that fateful day when he was cut away from the system. He must have been injected with this man’s program but only when he almost died did it sever him from the source. He had almost died back there but he was somehow able to survive which was a miracle of its own. The person here was unwilling to go through the process himself and chose to ascent to a higher realm.

This was a very widespread trope in the xianxia world. There were certain limits to the world the main protagonist always found themselves in, after reaching that ceiling what remained was to go through it. This would be done by reaching a higher realm of power and then ascending to a brand new world.

Then they would find themselves somewhere with more realms and new locations to discover. Their adventure would continue again where they would have more time to progress and go against stronger foes. It was like a perpetual adventure where there was no one to it until the person became a full-fledged god-like being that could do whatever they wanted.

The person also confirmed one of his theories, there were other realms beyond the nascent soul level. It did seem strange to him that there was a massive leap from the nascent soul level all the way to the immortal realm. But it seemed that this was by design, it was supposed to limit the non-system users from ever achieving this degree of power.

“This timeline, he ascended somewhere around the time there was a war between the empires…”

The Azure Dragon had informed him that the battle had been mostly lost in the old days. Only by sacrifice and bunkering up in the previous capital were they able to last through it all. This would mostly mean that this person built this secret ground two hundred thousand years ago and it lasted to this day when the new war had started.

Somehow this man had probably been victorious in his version of the empire war. Then he figured out how to hack the system before attempting to make contact with other system users. He was probably trying to gain some allies to figure out what everything was about.

Zhang Dong was unsure of the extent of this man’s hacking capabilities. He was unable to totally strip himself of the system but it didn’t seem that any of the watchers were utilized to get to him. Perhaps because he wasn’t causing any world-ending calamities or altering the rules of the world, there were no repercussions.

When he visited the world of sword and magic, he was a being that affected the power balance. Perhaps only when someone past the nascent soul level threshold would the system mods become alert. His current enhanced core formation realm might be a problem now because if he ever made it into the higher realm, it could go against the rules.

“I guess I’ll have to prepare… but this doesn’t really give me any answers…”

These revelations weren't anything new to him. In some sense, he knew more things than this person as he had actually visited another world. It was apparently a miracle that he was even alive after the incident in this trial.

But it did bring up some questions, what was waiting for him out there. If he reached a new realm here would he be forced to leave his family and friends behind? It was apparently impossible to sustain oneself in this world after attaining the immortal realm. What was waiting out there for him? It could be just another world to explore and have fun with or death.

“Not like I want to be immortal… if I can see my kids grow up and have their own families…”

He gave out a sigh as he didn’t really care that much about living for longer than a thousand years. What he was fighting for was his new family, if he could assure their survival then it was enough. But if this world could be erased at a snap of a finger was also a possibility.

For now, he decided to look around some more. Perhaps there would be more information about the coming war. The person that created this testing ground certainly said that they went through their own adventure. If he could find some new weapons to aid him in the coming battles, then it would still be a very fortuitous encounter.