Chapter 171: A Long Life of Forty-Five

To the people of this world, Jiang Li’s question was undoubtedly strange and foolish—it was like asking someone in the Nine Provinces if they knew who the Human Sovereign was.
If you don’t even know the Human Sovereign, how can you call yourself a Nine Provinces native?
That man also gave Jiang Li a weird look. To ask something like that—was this guy even from our world?
But thoughts like that stayed in his head. No one would actually say it out loud. Other than the Twelve Heavenly Kings, who else could possibly be from another world? That idea was just too far-fetched.

The Twelve Heavenly Kings were saviors?
Jiang Li was puzzled. That didn’t match what the system had described at all.
According to the system, the Huan Yu World had been invaded by unwelcome guests who sought to destroy it. No matter how you looked at those words, “saviors” was not the vibe.

“Who exactly are the Twelve Heavenly Kings?”
“My apologies, brother. I’m from another world and not very familiar with yours, so I had to ask,” Jiang Li said honestly.
The man looked at Jiang Li even more strangely.
From another world? Yeah right. Who would believe that? You think you’re one of the Twelve Heavenly Kings or something?
He tried to shake his sleeve and leave, but Jiang Li’s hand was like iron—he couldn’t shake it off. Seeing Jiang Li smiling politely, he gave in.
“My surname is Meng. I’m a local teacher, and I was just about to go over some history with my students. If you really don’t know, I’ll tell you a bit—consider it a preview.”

“Over three hundred years ago, the dynasties were at war. The people suffered, corpses piled up, blood flowed like rivers. The historical records say that back then, martial artists were very few—only the elite could learn martial arts. If you had no money or power, forget about it. Even if you barely got started, you’d spend your life stuck at the threshold, not much different from a commoner.”
“On top of that, martial artists back then were full of violent bloodlust. They had to kill to control their blood. That’s why martial artists were also called killers—anyone who had accomplishments in martial arts must have taken lives.”
“On the battlefield, martial artists slaughtered without mercy. Even trained soldiers couldn’t withstand a single strike. One martial artist could sweep the field, unbeatable.”
“Martial artists needed to kill, and the dynasties needed land. Naturally, the two found common ground and plotted to rule the world together.”
“Each dynasty did all it could to recruit martial artists and send them to war. Dynasties that didn’t have enough martial artists had to throw regular soldiers into battle instead. Countless innocent soldiers died at the hands of martial artists in every war.”

At this point, Teacher Meng puffed out his chest, cleared his throat, and proudly continued:
“That’s when the upper realm saw the people suffering, and sent down the Twelve Heavenly Kings to save us.”
“The Twelve Heavenly Kings were unmatched. Martial artists were no match at all—they were slain with ease.”
“The Kings believed that the old martial artists were too closed-minded, refusing to share their martial arts techniques, which was wrong. So the Kings spread martial arts to the world, made all techniques public, and everyone could learn to become a martial artist.”
“Plus, the techniques the Kings released had been improved. People who trained with the new techniques no longer had that bloodthirsty urge.”
“Since then, martial artists were no longer superior beings. There was no more distinction between martial artists and commoners—everyone became martial artists.”
“In other words, Teacher Meng, you’re also a martial artist. May I ask where your martial arts manual came from?”
“Of course it was issued by the Kings,” Teacher Meng said matter-of-factly. “The Kings said martial arts manuals can’t be casually created, or else we’d end up with those bloodthirsty kinds again.”

“I do have one more question.”
“Go ahead,” Teacher Meng was starting to feel like he was back in class.
“If martial artists were the source of chaos, why not just destroy all the martial arts manuals? That way everyone would be commoners again, and there’d be no more trouble from people using martial arts to break the law. Why go to all that trouble to revise and republish them?”
“That’s something you clearly don’t know. The new martial arts techniques have other benefits. For example, back then the old techniques only let people live to twenty or thirty, but now the new ones let people live to forty, even forty-five. The life-extending effects are remarkable!”
“Impressive indeed. If you could live to forty-five, that’d definitely count as a long life,” Jiang Li praised insincerely—people in the Nine Provinces averaged one hundred and twenty, and dying at forty-five was extremely rare.

Jiang Li had once heard from Immortal Elder Changcun that across the heavens and myriad worlds, the human race had a fixed lifespan: one hundred and forty years.
But without cultivation, very few could actually live that long. Take the Mingzhong World or the Zombie World, for example. People there theoretically could live to 140, but almost none did.
That’s because of postnatal pollution. The human body was both a vessel for surviving the mortal world and a container for all its filth.
Infants were the purest stage of life, but as postnatal impurities seeped in, they lost that purity, absorbed filth, and their lifespan shrank. With good health practices, you might live to 100. If you lived recklessly—well, who knew how long you’d last?
Cultivation, also known as cultivating the truth, meant refining the true self. Part of that meant returning to the infant-like pure state.
Whether Qi Refining or Foundation Establishment, both were about constantly using spiritual energy to cleanse the body, purging filth.
That’s why Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment cultivators could live to the human race’s heavenly limit of 140. Only after Golden Core did that limit start to increase with cultivation.

In other words, people here should also be able to live to 140.
He used his divine sense to examine those nearby and found that, just as Teacher Meng said, their martial arts techniques were basically the same, with no essential differences.
All were techniques that burned lifespan.

Jiang Li hadn’t seen the old martial arts techniques, so he couldn’t judge. But if it was true that the current methods extended life, then the old ones must’ve burned lifespan like crazy.

“Where are the Heavenly Kings now?” Jiang Li asked curiously. This world was a continent, and his divine sense couldn’t cover it all. He did spot someone who looked like an emperor—but with that dumb face, there was no way he was one of the Twelve Heavenly Kings.

“The Heavenly Kings returned to the heavens long ago. If they feel we’re doing something wrong, they’ll appear in the emperor’s dreams.”
“When do they send dreams?”
“How would we know that?” Teacher Meng chuckled.

Jiang Li suddenly sensed movement from his Remote Communication Talisman—and was shocked to see it was Commander Liu calling.
His mind raced. This had never happened before. Could it be that Commander Liu was finally fed up with sitting in the Human Sovereign Hall and wanted Jiang Li to come back?
No way—he had to come up with a good excuse.

Jiang Li found a quiet spot and activated the Remote Communication Talisman.
“Hall Master, there’s a child here…”
“My stomach hurts…”
“……”
“……”
Neither Commander Liu nor Jiang Li said anything. The silence got awkward.
Eventually, Commander Liu suggested, “How about… you go take care of that first? It’s not that urgent.”
A Mahayana Stage cultivator claiming to have a stomachache—Hall Master, did you eat some legendary rogue Immortal poison that even Immortals can’t survive?
“Ahem. Just tell me.”