[NR] Lifespan - Chapter 712

Courtney logged off to compile all that information Jason had just shared, leaving Jason alone. Which was fine by him as there wasn’t anything else to do but turn in for the night. And so the night passes quickly with him actually getting a full night’s rest.

Next morning, Courtney is back and preparing breakfast as Jason stumbles out of his cabin, suffering from that classic irony of feeling tired despite having slept more. Though it seems Rosha isn’t feeling much better.

Courtney sighs, “Well, you both look as good as I feel right now. Jason, if anything too many plants are hitting what you described. I think we might actually have to meet irl and I’ll have to show you around what is apparently an entire market for these things!”

Jason half sighs, half laughs at that. “Did people go crazy breeding the plants to try and extend a person’s life? Go all classic alchemy and what not?”

Courtney nods, “Spot on. Not that we’d know if any of them succeeded or not. They wouldn’t be selling those plants.”

Jason shakes his head, “Any success would be a one-off. If anything, look for a plant that has way too many available. That cultivar likely had a successful mutant for something and now someone is trying to repeat their success.”

Rosha pokes at her bacon, “Would that even work?”

Jason shrugs, “I wouldn’t say it couldn’t?”

Rosha raises an eyebrow, “So no?”

Jason laughs, “Yeah, especially if it was an actual life extension herb and not just one that faked that result by healing some age related ailments. True life extension doesn’t quite ‘go against the heavens’ as it were, if limited. If anyone had succeeded in mass producing a life extension herb, you’d know about it from their farm, family, and business all being struck by a ton of lightning that reduced everything to rubble.”

Rosha frowns, “Why would the plant cause that when apparently everyone can cultivate and gain extra years that way?”

Jason, “Well, not everyone can cultivate to a level to truly extend their lives by too much. Besides that, the act cultivation works to pay off the extra years.

“What is being paid off? Well, not even those in my last life knew. It would be easy to say the universe has some consciouses or law that goes against easy immortality, but if there is? It isn’t easy to find.”

Rosha, “Blarg, I think I’d prefer it to be some mindless law. If the universe did have a mind, it would have to be pretty cruel.”

Jason shrugs, “Eh, having a mind doesn’t mean having much of one. It isn’t like our universe is all that old, all things considered. Like, the theorized heat death of the universe would take magnitudes more time than everything that came before. Considering that, the universe is just a baby.”

Rosha looks horrified, “I like that even less! At least a cruel universe means something! Even a universe that just is, would be better. If everything is simply a baby fussing? Eugh!”

Courtney, “I do have a question. Why can we extend our lives with technology willy nilly, but a herb adding ten years causes such a large reaction? What is the difference when we use normal herbs with the medicine route?”

Jason smiles, “That I can answer! Your medicine is extending people’s lives, not their lifespan. I’m sure there are some of the older sorts who, even if quite ‘young’ for their group and despite the medicine, still die? That would be them reaching the end of their lifespan.

“I’m sure there are a ton of mystical herbs being passed around for high prices that do this as well, maybe even better than your medicine. Though lacking the proper alchemy to optimally use the herb, they won’t match up to beauty retaining pills.”

Rosha, “Why would a beauty retaining pills be what you’re comparing it to?”

Jason shrugs, “A cultivator who keeps cultivating, even if they don’t break through, will maintain their bodies until basically the end. They’ll look ever closer to middle age or old if they were already old or started reaching the end at some point. So the pill to retain their physical looks? They get called beauty retaining.

“For a mortal, though? Especially if they never cultivated? Such a pill will maintain their body and they’ll be able to live to the end of their true lifespan.”

Courtney sighed, “If we could get that recipe figured out, the rich and powerful would capture us and force it out of us. There is nothing we or our families could do to save us. Even if we released the recipe for free, they’d never believe that was it.”

Jason shrugs, “I never planned on selling them for an insane profit, anyway. By the time we could protect ourselves, I have to assume cultivation will have leaked already.

“Anyway, back to life versus lifespan. I assume you already have a decent idea, but I had it explained to me at one point in a way I felt got the point across. Extending a person’s life adds years onto the end. Extending a person’s lifespan adds the years right where they are.”

Rosha laughs, “So it wouldn’t do much good for those old monsters already at the end of their lives?”

Courtney shakes her head, “If I understand it correctly, they still get the extra lifespan. It is just as elders instead of getting more healthy years. They would probably still need to take all their current life extension medicines to not keel over.”

Jason nods, “There is some nuance for the early years, but on the other side? You need something else to restore the body as the extra lifespan won’t fix it. And even if you do restore the body, your natural point is still the elderly form.”

Courtney, “I assume the early year thing is whether they grow up to adulthood regularly or they stay kids for longer?”

Jason, “That is the basic gist of it. Because life extension, even from cultivation, tends to be case by case.”