https://novelcool.info/chapter/Chapter-19-Lifespan-Barrier-Breaking-Through-the-Golden-Core-Stage/12574015/
https://novelcool.info/chapter/Chapter-21-Li-Yi-s-Return-Li-Family-s-Divine-Soldier/12574020/
Chapter 20: Spirit Root Transformation, Nascent Soul Realm Cultivator
Chapter 20: Spirit Root Transformation, Nascent Soul Realm Cultivator
The night sky was serene, with only the occasional call of a bird piercing the silence. The mountains and forests lay quiet in the darkness.
Gu An sat in meditation within the lifespan barrier, basking in the beauty of the moonlight.
Tonight's moon was especially captivating, reflecting his own cheerful mood.
His cultivation had reached the fourth layer of the Golden Core realm, and he was getting closer to the end of this stage.
He intended to keep pushing forward until he broke through to the Nascent Soul realm, and then he would cultivate an ultimate technique, as the Storm's Shadowless Kick was no longer sufficient for him.
Who uses leg techniques at the Nascent Soul realm?
It had to be the sword!
Gu An decided to favor the Li Family's Seven Swords. Now that he had reached the Nascent Soul realm in his cultivation, he needed an attack method befitting his new level.
Hmm, let's assume Cheng Xuandan's master is a Nascent Soul realm grand cultivator! Gu An wanted to overestimate his opponent as much as possible, as that would decrease his chances of defeat.
After the departing of the cultivator he had sparred with earlier, Gu An's worries dissipated.
Now that he was a Golden Core realm cultivator, he could swagger in the outer sect's territory. Even if someone suddenly barged in, they wouldn't be able to withstand a single kick from him!
Golden Core, Fifth Layer!
As his cultivation level rose again, so did the power of Gu An's spiritual sense!
The Golden Core realm was like heaven compared to the Foundation Establishment realm, which was like earth—a vast difference.
Not only was there a huge gap in spiritual power, but also in spiritual sense. Gu An's spiritual sense could now converge into a powerful force.
Only upon reaching the Golden Core realm did he truly feel like a cultivator.
If the Golden Core realm was already so impressive, how much more so would the Nascent Soul realm be? Gu An couldn't wait to push his cultivation further.
However, he had to wait until his cultivation reached the sixth layer of the Golden Core realm before he could bring up the attribute panel.
His gaze was involuntarily drawn to his spirit root.
He had tried to improve his spirit root before, but the attempt had failed miserably, leaving him with a psychological shadow. Fearing that it was a bottomless pit, he had diverted his lifespan towards other areas, reasoning that studying the profound arts could also enhance his spirit root aptitude.
Now that he was strong enough and had ample lifespan remaining, it was time to try improving his spirit root again.
After a while, when Gu An's cultivation increase slowed down, he directly invested two thousand years of lifespan into his spirit root!
[You have used two thousand years of lifespan to evolve and cultivate your spirit root.]
[You have comprehended the essence of heaven and earth for a hundred years, and your Five Elements spirit root's perception has improved.]
[You have comprehended the essence of heaven and earth for two hundred years, and your Five Elements spirit root's perception has improved further.]
...
[You have comprehended the essence of heaven and earth for a thousand years and have finally grasped a thread of the true meaning of heaven and earth. Your spirit root has been baptized by heaven and earth, and your Five Elements spirit root aptitude has started to transform. Your Five Elements spirit root aptitude has evolved to the second-rate level among mortals, with the Wood spirit root being the most prominent.]
[You have comprehended the essence of heaven and earth for one thousand and two hundred years, and your Five Elements spirit root's perception has improved.]
...
[You have comprehended the essence of heaven and earth for two thousand years and have finally grasped a thread of the true meaning of heaven and earth, as well as the essence of the earth's veins. Your spirit root has been baptized by heaven and earth, and your Five Elements spirit root aptitude has started to transform. Your Five Elements spirit root aptitude has evolved to the first-rate level among mortals, with the Wood and Earth spirit roots being the most prominent.]
Line after line of prompts appeared before Gu An's eyes.
When he saw the first few lines about the Five Elements, his heart began to bleed.
How careless of me!
This thing really is a bottomless pit!
Seeing the final result, with all five elements of his spirit root reaching the first-rate level, his mood improved, but he still felt the pain of the loss. After all, his previous contemplation of the Divine Wood Pure Yang Art had also brought his Wood spirit root to the first-rate level.
Don't think like that!
Instead, think that the Divine Wood Pure Yang Art took a thousand years to get one spirit root to the first-rate level. If I want all five spirit roots to reach that level, it would take at least five thousand years.
Then a question arose: why didn't he cultivate the profound arts of the other four attributes?
As humans, we must try different things to find the most perfect path.
As Gu An reflected on this, the earth's spiritual energy surged towards him once more. This time, it wasn't to enhance his cultivation but to temper his bones and transform his entire body.
Pain!
Gu An experienced an unprecedented level of pain, and he could only grit his teeth and bear it.
To distract himself, he started thinking about the attribute panel.
It seemed that spirit root aptitude was the hardest thing to improve. That made sense, as spirit root aptitude was equivalent to one's limit in lifespan, while cultivation level represented one's current lifespan. Breaking through one's limits was always the most difficult.
No amount of hard work could ever surpass the limits set by fate.
This was also why the Tai Xuan Sect treated geniuses so favorably. For them, a dual spirit root cultivator like Ji Xiaoyu was far more valuable than a Golden Core realm cultivator.
For ordinary people, the fewer spirit roots they had, the higher their aptitude. Let's say a person's total talent value represented by their spirit roots is one hundred. With dual spirit roots, each would get a value of fifty. But if they had five spirit roots, each one would only have a talent value of twenty, and being well-rounded sometimes meant mediocrity.
Gu An was different now. By improving his spirit root aptitude, he was effectively increasing that total talent value from one hundred.
It was just a pity that the spirit root attribute couldn't be improved by solely investing cultivation. At the moment, the other spirit roots didn't help him much in his cultivation of the Divine Wood Pure Yang Art, so his cultivation speed had increased only slightly.
However, he noticed that the prompt mentioned the first-rate aptitude was prefixed with "mortal."
Could there be saintly or spiritual bodies as well?
Gu An's thoughts wandered as the consumption rate of the lifespan barrier began to slow down. From the start of his breakthrough until now, he had spent a total of one hundred and thirty-four years of lifespan.
As Gu An's spirit root aptitude continued to rise, he noticeably felt the various attribute spiritual energies becoming clearer, which also changed his perception of the entire world.
The pain he felt was now being replaced by a sense of novelty!
After a long while, Gu An's body stopped absorbing spiritual energy, and the attribute panel showed that his spirit root had transformed into a first-rate Five Elements spirit root. He didn't get up but instead invested two thousand years of lifespan into his cultivation.
Failing to cross the tribulation had left a deep shadow in his heart, so he decided that drastic measures were necessary. If he invested a thousand years of his lifespan and still got stuck at the ninth layer of the Formation of Pill stage, he would be spitting blood.
There was a real possibility of that happening!
After failing to cross the tribulation, one would have to waste fifty years before attempting it again. Too cruel! In reality, failing to cross the tribulation often resulted in death or injury, and recovering from those injuries would indeed take time.
Moreover, the tribulation for the Nascent Soul realm would undoubtedly be even more challenging, and the number of failures would only increase!
Let's begin!
[You have cultivated by absorbing spiritual energy for a hundred years, and your cultivation has broken through to the seventh layer of the Formation of Pill realm.]
[You have cultivated by absorbing spiritual energy for two hundred years, and your cultivation has broken through to the eighth layer of the Formation of Pill realm.]
[You have cultivated by absorbing spiritual energy for three hundred years, and your cultivation has broken through to the ninth layer of the Formation of Pill realm.]
[You have cultivated by absorbing spiritual energy for four hundred years, and with your profound mastery of the Divine Wood Pure Yang Art, you forcibly attempt to break through to the Nascent Soul realm. You begin to cross the tribulation but fail to endure the Three Profound Heavenly Tribulation.]
...
[You have cultivated by absorbing spiritual energy for one thousand and five hundred years, and with your profound mastery of the Divine Wood Pure Yang Art, you forcibly attempt to break through to the Nascent Soul realm. You begin to cross the tribulation but once again fail to endure the Three Profound Heavenly Tribulation.]
[You have cultivated by absorbing spiritual energy for one thousand and six hundred years, and with your profound mastery of the Divine Wood Pure Yang Art, you forcibly attempt to break through to the Nascent Soul realm. This time, you successfully endure the Three Profound Heavenly Tribulation and advance to the Nascent Soul realm.]
[You have cultivated by absorbing spiritual energy for one thousand and eight hundred years, and your cultivation has broken through to the second layer of the Nascent Soul realm.]
[You have cultivated by absorbing spiritual energy for two thousand years, and your cultivation has broken through to the third layer of the Nascent Soul realm.]
Damn!
He had failed a total of twelve times! When Gu An saw his sixth failure, his heart sank to the bottom of a valley, and by the tenth, he felt darkness creep into his vision.
Fortunately, he eventually succeeded in breaking through to the Nascent Soul realm.
Was it really that difficult to break through to the Nascent Soul realm?
Gu An's mind was in a state of collapse as he realized why his lifespan had decreased more than expected during his evolution cultivation.
Evolution cultivation was equivalent to cultivating naked. Normal cultivation involved the use of pills and array formations to gather spiritual energy, and these could also help with crossing tribulations, not to mention the wondrous effects of rare treasures.
The spiritual energy of heaven and earth surged towards him once more, and the consumption rate of the lifespan barrier began to accelerate.
Gu An calmed his mind and began to enjoy the enhancement of his cultivation.
...
The rising sun bathed the earth in its morning glow, gradually illuminating Xuan Valley. Gu An stood atop a mountain, overlooking the autumn-colored forests. His robe fluttered in the breeze, and the sunlight shining on him made him seem as if he could ascend to immortality at any moment.
He had successfully formed his Nascent Soul and become a true Nascent Soul realm cultivator!
To reward himself, he increased his displayed cultivation level by one layer, reaching the fourth layer of the Qi Refining realm. From now on, he would increase it by one layer every year, stopping at the ninth layer of the Qi Refining realm, so that he wouldn't be summoned away.
He couldn't help but check his attribute panel once more.
[Name: Gu An]
[Lifespan: 22/4502]
[Spirit Root: First-Rate Five Elements Spirit Root (Wood and Earth attributes are more prominent) (Can invest lifespan into evolution cultivation)]
[Cultivation: Nascent Soul Realm, Layer 3 (Can invest lifespan into evolution cultivation)]
[Martial Arts: Fire Control Manual (Unlearned), Divine Wood Pure Yang Art (Profoundly Learned), Dragon Vein Divine Power Art (Profoundly Learned), Pill Refinement Technique (Initial Insights) (Can invest lifespan into evolution cultivation)]
[Ultimate Techniques: Storm's Shadowless Kick (Mastered), Li Family's Seven Swords (Unlearned), Eight Directions Step (Unlearned) (Can invest lifespan into evolution cultivation)]
Gu An then planned to invest some more lifespan into the Li Family's Seven Swords and continue saving up his lifespan, aiming to reach the ten thousand years mark before using it.
For now, he needed to rest for a few days to calm his excited heart.
With his Nascent Soul realm cultivation, he could go to the Tai Xuan Gate and receive a good position and treatment. But the thought of the sect sending him out to slay demons, fight against the demonic path, and possibly engage in internal power struggles quickly extinguished that idea.
Stay true to your original aspiration, and you shall attain the righteous fruit!
No one could stop him, and he intended to hide in Xuan Valley until the end! Occasionally, he could go out to search for heavenly treasures and earthly treasures, but he must not shift his focus away from Xuan Valley.
A higher status might increase his lifespan gain, but the dangers would also increase proportionally. Besides, he had no enemies, so why rush? Gu An turned around and began walking down the mountain.
Although he had reached the Nascent Soul realm and could fly through the skies, he chose to walk down the mountain instead.
When he arrived in the Medicine Valley, Xiao Chuan and the others gradually emerged.
"Big Brother, you came up the mountain so early today?" Ye Lan greeted Gu An, feeling that today's Big Brother seemed even more handsome than before, although she wasn't sure why.
Gu An smiled and said, "I went to check on the seeds. You can lead them in their practice today."
Ye Lan nodded in agreement and wanted to ask more questions, but Gu An had already walked towards the pavilion.
Not far away, Wu Xin looked at Gu An's departing figure and secretly thought, "There must be a secret in these mountains! I will definitely find it!"
Gu An climbed the stairs and pushed open the door. As he entered, he saw the White Spirit Mouse lying on the table, its body puffed up like a balloon, and the Azure Vine Fruit was gone.
It's still alive!
He immediately used his lifespan-sensing ability on the White Spirit Mouse.
[White Spirit Mouse (First Tier): 12/120/180]
Hmm?
Its lifespan had increased by seventy years. Initially, the White Spirit Mouse only had a lifespan of fifty years.
Was the effect of the Azure Vine Fruit that powerful? Gu An immediately went to the wooden cabinet, took out an Azure Vine Fruit, and started chewing on it.
Thanks to Zhi Qiu Da Zi Zai for the reward of 1000 starting coins to Gu An!
As always, seeking monthly votes~~
This book will continue to exist, so don't worry about the title~~
(End of Chapter)
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