Reborn at Eighty: The Grave Tiger of the Late Han, Founder of a Dynasty

History + Reverse Aging + Hegemony + Farming

The Han dynasty is nearing its end, and the realm lies in chaos.

Eighty-year-old veteran Li Polu (Li Hu, known by his courtesy name) finally returns to the hometown he remembers, bearing a body ravaged by wounds and illness and eyes full of life's hardships.

He clutches a broken tally of authority and shuffles along.

But the hometown before him is nothing like the one in his dreams. "Pine and cypress trees crowd the graves" marks the end of his journey home.

Amid the crumbling walls, where wild rabbits dart in through dog holes and pheasants fly away from the rafters, he cooks that bitter bowl of shepherd's purse soup with his own hands.

As the sun sets, tears stream down his face, not for his pain, but for a life utterly crushed by the times.

Just as all hope seems lost,

he awakens a System, only for it to uninstall itself,

leaving Li Polu with one simple ability: each day, he can become one year younger. If he chooses not to grow younger, he can instead gain one jin of strength.

When he founds the Tang dynasty and rules the realm, he discovers that even at a hundred years old, he is still young...

Many, many years later, at the Tang dynasty's Imperial Ancestral Temple,

a newly enthroned emperor performs the rites. Through the drifting incense, the spirit tablet of "Emperor Jing, Taizu of the Tang, Li Hu" stands in silent dignity.

A court historian records with reverence: "With divine valor, Taizu rose from Longxi, swept away his many foes, and laid the foundations of the Great Tang..."

No one knows whether the real man lies buried beneath the tablet: the lonely soul who once grew young and old, wishing to use endless time to protect one corner of the world, only to have time and history swallow every last one of his original intentions.

Only the wind passes through the temple, carrying what sounds like a faint sigh from centuries past.