To achieve immortality, I cultivate using Qi Luck

Chapter 1177: Chapter 472 Severing Ties_2 Chapter 1177: Chapter 472 Severing Ties_2 But time presses on, and death has its tally.

When the time comes, everyone will eventually die.

The death of Sun Siwen was like a beginning.

Following him, within a span of just a few decades, Lu Yuan’s friends and family, one after another, departed from this world.

In the 107th year of Shenwu, his disciple Chu Wei passed away.

Although called a disciple, Chu Wei, Li Liang, and the others were actually about the same age as Lu Yuan, some even older.

So after Sun Siwen’s departure, these people also soon reached the end of their lifespans.

Within just two or three years, the original five true successor disciples had passed away one after another.

In the 114th year of Shenwu, Lu Yuan’s wife of over a hundred years, Lan Cai’er also died.

This empress, who initially thought to outlive Lu Yuan and then support her son’s ascent to the throne, although later she abandoned that idea, ultimately did not live to see that day.

Instead, it was Lu Yuan who sent her on her final journey first.

The empress’s death meant the world lost another person he valued the most.

Lu Yuan was even more grieved and ordered the court to close for three days, the nation to mourn for three months.

In the 120th year of Shenwu, Grand General Zhou Qing died.

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Lu Yuan closed the court for several months, and after getting drunk for seven days in front of this disciple’s tomb, he continued to visit the graves of his friends and wife to drink heavily and express his longing.

In the 133rd year of Shenwu, the crown prince Lu He passed away, followed by the second prince Lu Hao the next year.

Lu Yuan had them buried together with the empress so that the mother and her sons could reunite under the Nine Springs.

Twenty years later, the remaining princes and princesses, a total of twenty-four, died in succession.

By the end, Lu Yuan had grown numb; although his heart still ached, his emotions no longer fluctuated greatly, and he slowly returned to a state of calm.

By this time, nearly all of his close friends and family in the Nine Provinces world had gone.

Inside and outside the imperial palace, the only one still accompanying Lu Yuan was the spiritual woman who cultivated the divine method and had reached a lifespan of two hundred years.

This barbarian’s holy woman, with her long lifespan, had finally come out on top.

After the former empress’s death, she was supported as the legitimate consort and became the new empress of Great Chu, known as Empress Ling.

But two hundred years of lifespan, even for an immortal, is not long.

In the 181st year of Shenwu, Empress Ling had reached the end of her life.

“Your Majesty, after I am gone, please take care…”

On her deathbed, after uttering her last words, the spiritual woman, still maintaining her beauty through divine power, closed her eyes.

Lu Yuan held her hand, gazed upon her face, then turned away and closed his own eyes as if wishing to eternally remember her countenance.

At this moment,

Lu Yuan, who had grown accustomed to the constant departure of loved ones, found his feelings stirred once again.

He knew that his last attachment in the world of the Nine Provinces had now been lost.

From this moment on, even though millions of descendants from the Chu royal family had flourished,

He was still truly alone.

At this point in life, he felt immensely desolate; even as a being of longevity, he faintly harbored thoughts of loathing the world.

No wonder those devoted to cultivating immortality and refining Dao preferred not to walk amid the mortal dust but to live in the mountains, seeking solitude and tirelessly pursuing their cultivation.

Apart from wishing for a tranquil life dedicated to cultivation, they likely also wished to avoid entanglements in close relationships with too many people.

Otherwise, to watch one’s friends and family, unable to escape their designated lifespan and heavenly mandate, leave one by one,

Is truly an unbearable affliction and torment to one’s spirit.

The cultivators of the heart must have also felt this way, thus they chose not to live amongst mortals.

Alas, the sorrow of parting, Lu Yuan had tasted it to the full.

…

With the spiritual woman’s departure, Lu Yuan’s ties to the world of the Nine Provinces were nearly severed.

Only his own creation, the Immortal Dynasty of Great Chu, an endeavor that carried the efforts and hopes of his friends, disciples, and family, still held some of his affection.

But after nearly two hundred years of such a peaceful and prosperous age in Great Chu, the population had undergone wave after wave of explosive growth.

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By now, the population of Chu State had exceeded 1.5 billion.

More than quintuple the number upon initial unification of Central State.

The number of people had already far exceeded what the land could sustain.

Had it not been for the continuous selection of superior grain varieties over the years, and even finding some cultivation techniques for seeds in various Immortal Technique texts, and personally using Immortal Techniques to create several high-yield grains,

It’s likely that the entire Immortal Dynasty of Great Chu would have collapsed under the immense pressure of an exploding population due to a shortage of grain.

But even with the support of the Immortal Species, issues of overpopulation and insufficient grain were still the greatest hidden dangers during this golden age of Shenwu.

Therefore, to address this problem, Lu Yuan had started to guide the common people in recent years to have fewer and later births, by strictly regulating marriage ages, and imposing heavy taxes on those who had many children, in an effort to reduce the population.

This policy had been in effect for decades and had successfully curtailed the trend of population growth.

Otherwise, according to estimates, if the growth continued unabated, the national population would now exceed two billion, not the current 1.5 billion.

The fact that there are five hundred million fewer people than estimated shows the effectiveness of this policy.

The common folk actually cooperated quite well.

Due to a flourishing culture, after nearly two hundred years of governance under Great Chu, it could be said that illiteracy had been eradicated.

Regardless of gender, everyone could read and write.

With enlightenment spreading amongst the people and guidance from Lu Yuan, everyone understood that overpopulation would lead to self-destruction.