I chose one of four options at the start, and I chose the number one clan in Lingnan.

[Brain Storage]: Signing in increases any part of the body by 20 centimeters.

P.S.: Legend has it that if you add a bookshelf now, the system will drop onto your face.

A blue light curtain floated in mid-air.

The screen displayed the following message: "Life Restart Simulator binding complete. If God gave you a chance to choose your birth again, which would you choose?"

The following are four options.

Option A reads: "A top-tier young master in the capital. Internal strife within the family is extremely severe, a constant struggle for power. Siblings plot against each other daily, even testing poison ten times before eating a single meal."

Option B reads: Heir to a multinational conglomerate. You possess assets worth hundreds of billions, but you have three illegitimate brothers who are always ready to assassinate you. You must travel with fifty bodyguards and sleep in a bulletproof vest.

Option C reads: "Top-tier Uranus second-generation star. Living under the spotlight every day, even when you go out to take out the trash, eighty paparazzi with long lenses pointed at your face, and sasaeng fans have installed ten listening devices under your bed."

Option D reads: The new patriarch of a remote, powerful clan in Lingnan. You will take control of a dilapidated, ancient village, with a large group of impoverished relatives under your command.

Looking at the four options, Lin Ting pressed his finger on option D without hesitation.

He's had enough of that cutthroat world.

Option A: Go to the capital to become a young master? You'll be stuck playing guessing games with a bunch of cunning old foxes at the dinner table every day, and if you say the wrong thing, you'll lose your entire fortune.

Option B means constantly being on guard against assassination attempts, making it impossible to sleep soundly at night. Option C means becoming a celebrity, where even dating is subject to public scrutiny.

Screw the power struggles among the wealthy, screw the top celebrities.

Lin Ting will choose D; he wants to be the head of the clan.

Being a clan leader is great; you hold the lifeline of the entire clan in your hands. With a single word, your clansmen handle things flawlessly. That's what it means to have absolute power.

The light curtain dissipated, and the surrounding scenery gradually became visible.

Lin Ting sat on a hardwood armchair, which had a gleaming patina and two tigers descending a mountain carved on the armrests.

He held two large walnuts in his right hand, which spun in his palm, making a clicking sound.

He raised his head.

In front of them was an extremely spacious courtyard, the ground of which was paved with bluestone slabs, and green moss grew in the gaps between the slabs.

Directly in front is a century-old building with thick log pillars supporting a red tile roof.

In the very center hangs a plaque with four large, gilded characters that read "Lin Clan Ancestral Hall".

Hundreds of people were kneeling densely packed in the courtyard.

Most of these people were elderly, with white hair, and wore black coarse cloth jackets.

The old man kneeling at the very front had a face full of wrinkles and was so thin he was skin and bones.

He leaned on a yellowed bamboo cane with both hands, his body bent over the ground.

"Welcome back, Grandfather, to take charge of the overall situation!"

The old man shouted and slammed his forehead heavily against the bluestone slab.

"Welcome back, Grandfather, to take charge of the overall situation!"

Hundreds of people followed suit, shouting in unison, their heads banging against the ground, making the bluestone slabs thud loudly.

Lin Ting held the walnut in his palm, processing the memories of this body in his mind.

This is Tazhai Town, Lingnan Province.

The people kneeling on the ground are the elders of the Lin clan of Lingnan.

The old man at the head of the group was named Lin Shouzhen, the second great-uncle of the clan. According to seniority, Lin Ting was three generations higher than the second great-uncle.

The Lin family has been passed down for hundreds of years, and all the people in the eighteen villages surrounding Tazhai Town are surnamed Lin.

The registered members of the Lin clan number a total of 100,000. The Lin clan established four ancestral halls: Loyalty, Filial Piety, Propriety, and Righteousness.

The Loyalty Hall is in charge of security, the Filial Piety Hall is in charge of ancestral worship, the Ceremonial Hall is in charge of external business, and the Righteousness Hall is in charge of welfare distribution.

One hundred thousand people—that's a behemoth.

The Lin family is now in a complete mess.

Lin Ting looked at his second great-uncle and spoke, "Second great-uncle, stand up and answer me. What is the current order of our Lin family?"

My second uncle, leaning on his cane, got up, tears streaming down his face.

"Grandpa, our Lin family is doomed." Second Uncle wiped his eyes with his sleeve.

"Our three sand and gravel plants in town were shut down yesterday by Longhai Building Materials Company, which is owned by foreign capital, in conjunction with the market supervision department, because they said we didn't meet environmental protection standards."

Second Uncle took a breath and continued to complain.

"The seafood wholesale market in the north of the city, which our auditorium is responsible for, was vandalized by a group of unidentified people in the middle of the night."

The seafood was all doused with gasoline, and the water supply to our 3,000 mu tea garden on the back mountain was cut off, causing all the tea leaves to wither and die.

"The Lin family has 100,000 mouths to feed, Grandpa. The young people in the town can't find work, so they all stay in the village playing mahjong."

If this continues, we won't even have money to buy rice in three months.

Lin Ting placed the walnuts on the table of the armchair.

Foreign-invested enterprise, Longhai Building Materials Company.

He understood what was going on: foreign capital had its eye on this land in Tazhai Town and wanted to squeeze the Lin family out.

With its aggressive real estate development and monopolistic building materials market, the Lin family's outdated industries simply couldn't withstand the commercial onslaught of capital.

"Where are the people from Zhongtang? Their business was smashed, and they didn't even fight back?" Lin Ting asked.

Second Uncle sighed: "Lin Dabiao, the head of Zhongtang, led two hundred brothers to demand an explanation."

They were sued for "picking quarrels and provoking trouble" by the lawyer hired by the other party, and now Da Biao and his gang are all in detention. They're saying they'll only settle if they pay one million yuan in compensation.

Lin Ting stood up and walked to his second great-uncle.

The Lin family is being humiliated and bleed dry. If he doesn't come up with a plan, these 100,000 clansmen will eventually break up.

Clans are like a blazing fire when they're together, but when they're scattered, they're just a mess.

"Bang!"

The large iron gate outside the courtyard was smashed open.

A boy of about sixteen or seventeen stumbled into the yard.

His face was covered in blood, and his black short-sleeved T-shirt was torn into strips and covered with footprints.

The boy fell headfirst onto the bluestone slab.

"Fei-zai!" The second uncle went over and helped the boy up.

The boy's name was Lin Fei, and he was a member of Zhongtang.

Lin Fei spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva, grabbed his second great-uncle's sleeve, and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Great-Grandfather! Second Great-Uncle! Something terrible has happened!"

"I'll hold the sky up even if it falls. Tell me, what happened?" Lin Ting walked up to Lin Fei.

Lin Fei pointed towards the direction of the mountain behind the village, tears and blood mingling as they streamed down his face: "That Zhao Laosi from the provincial capital, he led over three hundred thugs, armed with baseball bats and shovels, and drove eight large excavators up the mountain!"

Second Uncle's legs buckled and he fell backward, but luckily someone next to him caught him: "What are you doing up the back mountain? There's nothing valuable there."

"They're going to demolish our ancestral graves!" Lin Fei roared through gritted teeth.

"Old Zhao said that piece of land has good feng shui, and their boss has his eye on it. He wants to bulldoze our ancestors' graves and build a five-star hot spring resort hotel on it!"

The hundreds of elders kneeling in the courtyard immediately erupted in uproar.

Some people slapped their thighs and cried, while others lowered their heads and sighed.

Among these hundreds of elders from the Lin family, not a single one of them suggested going up the mountain to risk their lives.

Faced with the aggressive local bullies from other provinces, these old-timers backed down.

Lin Ting stood on the steps, turned his head to look towards the back mountain, and his face darkened. Someone had actually driven a bulldozer onto the Lin family's ancestral graves.