Chapter 57: Cultivation Knows No Years

Primordial Saint Sect, Heaven-Connecting Cloud Sea.

When Lu Yang returned to Heaven-Mending Peak, there was hardly a piece of intact flesh on his entire body. The severity of his injuries even surpassed those from the great battle at Skull Mountain.

On his way back to the sect aboard a flying vessel, he was ambushed by Orthodox Path sects. A Great Perfection of Qi Refining cultivator used a divine ability to pare his left hand down to the bone. His face was covered in scars, left behind after a scorpion demon beast launched a sneak attack with its stinger while he was passing through a forest.

And these were just the visible injuries.

Under this body, his meridians, acupoints, Dantian, and Violet Palace all suffered varying degrees of damage—and all were inflicted by people weaker than him.

“This is what happens when Qi destiny leaves… a hero is no longer free.”

Lu Yang looked helpless. His Qi destiny for the next thirty years had been prematurely exhausted by Perfected One Yin Shan’s fishing expedition. Now, plagued by misfortune, naturally, nothing he did went smoothly.

At first, Lu Yang tried to fight back.

However, as soon as he engaged with anyone, all sorts of accidents would happen to him—old injuries relapsing, exerting too much force, backlash from divine abilities, and so on…

In the end, he could only keep running.

However, he was still a Great Perfection of Qi Refining cultivator after all. Although his Qi destiny was gone, his life was tough enough, so he still managed to hold on until he returned to the sect.

As for the war of annihilation launched by the Saint Sect against the Divine Martial Sect after the Skull Mountain incident, Lu Yang dared not participate no matter what. With his current state, where he might fall into the pit just by going to the toilet, if he really went to the Divine Martial Sect, he worried a Foundation Establishment Perfected One might slap him dead from eight hundred miles away.

Upon returning to the Saint Sect, Lu Yang immediately hid inside his own Cave Abode.

Subsequently, he deployed the Heavenly River Massacre Sword Formation Diagram outside and pasted various talismans all over the inside and outside of the cave, completely sealing it off to isolate all external disturbances.

“For the next thirty years, I’m not going out!”

Not only that, but under the plague of bad luck, even cultivation was a luxury for him. Forget about improving his cultivation base; the only likely result would be Qi Deviation.

Fortunately, he was already at the Great Perfection of Qi Refining, so there was no need to continue cultivating anyway.

Lu Yang sat upright on a meditation cushion, then took out a jade slip from his storage bag. However, this jade slip was different from ordinary ones; it was brilliant gold.

This item was called the “Dao-Illuminating Jade Slip.”

Perfected One Yin Shan had bestowed this item upon him as a substitute for a Foundation Establishment Treasure. As he wished, this was a secret treasure that could help one comprehend Dao Arts.

If one encountered any difficulties during cultivation, one simply needed to inject the question into the jade slip, and it would provide an answer. Within the Qi Refining Realm, the accuracy of its answers was one hundred percent. The effect was almost equivalent to a Foundation Establishment Perfected One helping you deduce divine abilities. For Lu Yang, it truly solved his urgent need.

“In my current state, comprehending divine abilities has no way out.”

“After all, I’m so unlucky that I definitely won’t be able to comprehend the correct path, and might even go astray. But this Dao-Illuminating Jade Slip is different.”

“That Perfected One Yin Shan said this wondrous item vaguely touches upon the threshold of Foundation Establishment, so the answers it provides won’t be affected by my bad luck.”

Although that was the case, Lu Yang was in no hurry to use it to comprehend the Taiwei Imperial Edict Scripture. Although only this final technique remained for his Great Divine Ability, the Grand Yin Corpse Liberation Transformation True Method, he placed more importance on another gain from Skull Mountain— the Golden Flower Great Unity Scripture!

Of course, he did not obtain the complete Golden Flower Great Unity Scripture.

Since he wasn’t a True Disciple of Heaven-Mending Peak, the grade of techniques available to him was limited, so he didn’t get to plunder the full version from Yun Miaozhen.

He only obtained one-third, a divine ability called “Great Unity Primordial Essence Jade Light.”

As the name suggested, once this divine ability was mastered, one could condense a jade-colored “Essence Light.” When blessed upon the physical body, it could render the body indestructible like diamond.

Aside from that, it also had the effect of repairing physical injuries.

This point was especially important for the current Lu Yang. Due to his bad luck, he was currently “short of weight and lacking in measure”—his physical body was severely damaged.

“Once my injuries and Qi destiny recover, perhaps I’ll need to find a body-refining technique to cultivate.”

Thinking of this, Lu Yang immediately took out his disciple token and contacted Luo Wuya, the Second Senior Brother of the Three Rivers Society, intending to ask if there were any suitable techniques.

As a Great Perfection of Qi Refining cultivator, he now had the qualification to speak with Luo Wuya as an equal.

Soon, Luo Wuya sent a reply:

“There is indeed a technique very suitable for Junior Brother, but it cannot be cultivated right now. Junior Brother might as well wait a few years; I will notify you after the matter succeeds.”

Lu Yang naturally agreed readily, then entered deep meditation for secluded cultivation.

A few years later, a heroic-looking young man arrived outside Lu Yang’s Cave Abode.

The youth was named Wang Song. He had just joined the Saint Sect a few days ago and, under the recommendation of his grandfather Wang Bairong, joined the Three Rivers Society and accepted Luo Wuya’s commission.

“Senior Brother Luo had an agreement with Senior Brother Lu regarding a body-refining technique. However, Senior Brother Luo fought bloody battles with the Divine Martial Sect for several years and achieved great merit. He was rewarded with a Foundation Establishment Treasure by the Perfected One and is currently preparing to charge at the Foundation Establishment Realm. Unable to come personally, he specially asked me to come and deliver the technique…”

“But now Senior Brother Lu is also in secluded cultivation. What should I do?”

Wang Song looked distressed. In the end, he had no choice but to find a Cave Abode near Lu Yang’s to live in. He was young anyway; he had time to wait for Lu Yang to exit seclusion.

Thinking of this, Wang Song glanced at Lu Yang’s Cave Abode again, his eyes filled with expectation.

According to what he knew, this Senior Brother Lu seemed to have been an ordinary disciple in the past, yet he stood out from the crowd to become a Great Perfection of Qi Refining cultivator, with Foundation Establishment now in sight.

“If Senior Brother Lu can do it, I may not necessarily fail!”

“I am now at the First Layer of Qi Refining. As long as I study diligently and train hard, striving unremittingly, I will surely become a figure like Senior Brother Luo and Senior Brother Lu in the future!”

“Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west—do not bully the young for being poor!”

Cultivation knows no years. In the blink of an eye, thirty years passed.

Heaven-Mending Peak, Scripture Pavilion.

Wang Song, now over fifty years old, had been stuck at the bottleneck of the Third Layer of Qi Refining for more than a decade. With barely an inch of progress in his cultivation, signs of aging had already appeared on his face.

The old man of the Scripture Pavilion who originally recommended him to join the Saint Sect, Wang Bairong, had long passed away. He left Wang Song only the iron rice bowl of a Scripture Pavilion Deacon and a Cave Abode that still required another thirty years of loan payments. Fortunately, his luck wasn’t bad; after thirty years of diligent work, he was finally about to pay off the loan.

The sharp edges of his youth had long been worn smooth.

Now, only numbness from the severe beatings of the Saint Sect remained on Wang Song’s face. His thoughts had shifted from the initial “Do not bully the young for being poor” to “The dead are the greatest.”

Just muddle along.

Thinking on the bright side, at least he was about to pay off the Cave Abode loan. That way, when his son joined the Saint Sect, he would also have a foundation…

Just then, a loud noise suddenly came from the distance.

“Hm?”

Wang Song looked up blankly, only to see that the Cave Abode—which made him feel love, hate, and helplessness, the one he used to curse at but which never opened—suddenly moved.

“Exiting seclusion… Senior Brother Lu is exiting seclusion!?”

The next second, the Cave Abode opened. Wang Song instantly saw a handsome youth pacing out, looking heroic and as young as he himself was thirty years ago.

Thirty years of time had flowed by, yet it left not a single trace on his body.

Immediately after, seeming to sense his gaze, the handsome youth suddenly turned his head. His calm gaze seemed capable of piercing through the human heart.

“You are…?”

Lu Yang revealed a look of curiosity. With a thought, a circle of round light instantly appeared behind his head, like a full moon, within which flowed extremely complex talismanic script.

The script resembled dragons and phoenixes, giving off an incredibly contradictory feeling. At first glance, it was as tiny as a mustard seed, but once one focused to observe, one would sink into it, as if seeing a Sumeru world. As time passed, these scripts constantly changed, displaying the myriad images of flowers, birds, fish, and insects.

Taiwei Imperial Edict Scripture!

The final divine ability of the Grand Yin Corpse Liberation Transformation True Method. It was completely different from the Heavenly Demon Blood-Dissolving Divine Light and the Mystic Yin Seizing Form Great Art; it was not used for battles of arts.

Instead, it was used for divination.

Therefore, the moment Lu Yang’s gaze fell upon Wang Song, as the precious script circulated, the causes and consequences of the matter were no longer a secret to him.

Whether it was Wang Song’s identity, his ancestors for eighteen generations, the technique he cultivated, his cultivation base, the divine abilities he excelled at, or even why he was waiting outside the cave—the entire sequence of events was fully known to Lu Yang. This feeling of viewing all things like patterns on one’s palm made Lu Yang sigh with emotion—

‘Perhaps this is how a Foundation Establishment Perfected One feels?’

Of course, this was also due to the massive gap in cultivation between him and Wang Song. If he were divining a Great Perfection of Qi Refining cultivator, it certainly wouldn’t be this effortless.

From this, it was clear he was still far from being a Foundation Establishment Perfected One.

On the other side, Wang Song finally waited for the Senior Brother Lu he had been thinking about for decades. He was just staggering forward to pay his respects when he heard a sigh—

“No need to bow. Give me the item.”

Wang Song dared not neglect. He hurriedly took out a jade slip that had been kept warm for thirty years. Lu Yang swept it with his spiritual consciousness; the restrictions on the jade slip dissolved on their own, and the content emerged.

Luo Wuya didn’t lie to him. He indeed sent a body-refining technique, and it was indeed very suitable for him.

Its name was —The Sage Steals (Sheng Ren Dao).

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