Sixty Years of Cultivation

Outside Baishi County, Daxing Village.

Dilapidated houses, dim, damp ground, and a strange stench permeating the air.

Babies cried, women screamed, and burly men roared. Blood and flesh flew everywhere, clumps of mangled gore hurtling from one side to the other as though a rain of flesh and blood had begun to fall.

Chu Jiang stared blankly up at the sky, unable to help freezing as fragments of memory slowly pieced themselves together in his mind.

He had transmigrated. A truck had struck him while he was crossing the street, and when he woke up, he was here.

His identity was one of the four chief constables of Baishi County's Demon Hunting Office, overseeing more than thirty Demon Hunters.

Demons and monsters ran rampant through the world, and the common people lived in misery.

And he had just been killed by demons.

The fragments of memory in his mind gradually surfaced, making his head swell with inexplicable pain.

After taking some time to sort through his thoughts, he understood why the original owner had died.

By colluding with demons, the original owner had not only preserved his life time and again during demon attacks, but had even climbed step by step until he became a renowned constable in Baishi County.

Yet this constable had been a thorough scoundrel. He treated the common people as sacrifices for demons, bullied them without restraint, and committed every evil imaginable.

But the original owner's collusion with demons was no secret among Baishi County's upper ranks.

It was something they tacitly accepted.

Each time the original owner led the demons out to feed their fill, there would be peace for a time afterward.

One could say that Chu Jiang deserved some credit for Baishi County's overall peace.

The price was sacrificing a portion to preserve the greater part.

Everything went without saying, unfolding as naturally as it should.

Those grand lords among the upper ranks had never told Chu Jiang to do such a thing, and Chu Jiang had never indicated that he did.

The two sides had reached an astonishing tacit understanding.

Everyone knew, but no one dared say it aloud.

Though everything seemed perfect, doing it too often would inevitably leave traces.

And so, rumors began to spread.

Therefore.

When they needed the original owner, he could lord it over others and run wild.

But when the time came, they needed his death to quell the resentment of the common people.

Then they would replace him with a new spokesman.

Even knowing the final outcome, countless people fought until their heads bled for such a position, yet could not obtain it.

And so, today happened to be that critical point.

It was time to replace him.

Chu Jiang fell silent. What kind of world was this?

[Martial Arts Deduction Panel activated]

A system?

His heart churned with enormous waves. After confirming it again and again, he found that a panel had indeed appeared in his mind. Chu Jiang was overjoyed.

[Lifespan: sixty-three years]

[Lifespan can be consumed to accelerate martial arts progress]

He drew a deep breath, steadied his mind, and focused his attention on the panel.

The Sun Gathering Art was a martial art issued by the county office to every Demon Hunter. Every Demon Hunter could cultivate it, and it could lay a solid martial foundation for its practitioner.

But the original owner had been rather lazy, and his talent was limited. After cultivating for ten years, he had only reached the Second Stage of Body Refinement.

After all, the original owner had made his way through Baishi County by relying on his connections with demons, not his strength.

If he had possessed great strength and talent, those county office higher-ups would never have chosen him as their middleman.

The Demon Suppressing Saber Technique was no simple matter either. It had extraordinary effects when fighting demons. However, this saber technique was easy to begin but difficult to master.

Chu Jiang gradually calmed down as he looked at the lines of text on the panel. Damn, calling this thing a life-spending panel would be more fitting.

To cultivate martial arts, one had to gamble with one's life.

Whoosh!

A hoarse sound rang out. The smell of blood drew closer, and a fierce wind howled.

A pig demon with a bloated head and fat ears drifted over. It had a pig's head and a human body, its mouth smeared with blood. Its lower body was insubstantial, with only its head remaining solid.

Faint black qi spread around it, like a messenger that had emerged from hell.

It seemed slightly surprised that Chu Jiang had awakened.

"How are you awake? By custom, you should be lying on the ground right now!" The pig demon's face remained expressionless, but its eyes carried a lofty, mocking amusement.

"Could it be that I was too gentle just now?"

After saying that, the pig demon revealed a strange smile and attacked again without hesitation. Its movements were extremely practiced; clearly, this was not its first time doing this.

But this time was obviously different.

This pig demon intended to kill him.

As the pig demon gradually approached, its bloated pig head was soul-shaking, crushing Chu Jiang until he could barely breathe.

Wasn't it just his life?

The panel opened again. Looking at the Sun Gathering Art, a glint of ruthlessness flashed through his eyes.

"Panel, let me see your limits!"

His most urgent task was to raise his realm first. That was the true path. Right now, he was far too weak.

The Tenth Level of Body Refinement was divided into three major stages.

The first three levels tempered qi and blood, the middle three forged tendons and bones, and the final three strengthened the five organs. The tenth level was Marrow Cleansing and Body Refining.

Even the first stage had not yet reached completion for him. He simply could not contend with demons.

As for martial techniques, those could wait. His life was nearly gone—he just needed to brute-force the cultivation art.

The previously calm panel suddenly began to tremble violently, as though an invisible force were madly devouring his Life Force.

As time passed, the lifespan number displayed on the panel rapidly plummeted at a terrifying speed, like a punctured balloon quickly deflating.

In the blink of an eye, that once-long lifespan had nearly reached its end.

[You cultivated the Sun Gathering Art bitterly. In the ninth year, your qi and blood overflowed. You broke through to the Fourth Stage of Body Refinement and entered the tendon-and-bone forging stage.]

[You continued cultivating day and night. In the twenty-first year, your tendons and bones grew increasingly powerful. You broke through to the Fifth Stage of Body Refinement.]

[In the thirty-eighth year, you broke through to the Sixth Stage of Body Refinement.]

[In the sixty-second year, your bones became as strong as an ox. You broke through to the Seventh Stage of Body Refinement and stepped into the five-organs strengthening stage.]

[Houtian martial arts: Sun Gathering Art (Mastered)]

Sixty-two years had passed on the panel. Yet astonishingly, time in reality seemed to have frozen, without the slightest change.

That vicious pig demon still maintained its attacking posture. A strange smile hung on its savage, twisted face, as though it were mocking the ignorance and helplessness of the world.

Chu Jiang gripped the long saber in his hand. With his strength having soared, he felt as though the saber had fused into one with him.

Within the dim, dead silence, the long saber flashed with a glimmer of light, like a ray in the dark of night, about to cleave apart the chaotic blackness.

The pig demon's eyes widened, and the smile on its face became especially exaggerated. "A mere Houtian martial artist wants to launch a final counterattack before dying? Laughable!"

Chu Jiang's face was cold and stern. The saber in his hand was his best response. "This strike carries sixty years of cultivation. Can you block it?"

(Author's note: The realms in this book:

Mortal Realm—Houtian, Xiantian, Vajra, Grandmaster, Great Grandmaster, the three realms.

Transcendental Secret Realm—Golden Core Realm, Divine Power Realm, Dharma Aspect Realm, Qiankun Realm, Heaven Merging Realm, Heaven Transforming Realm, Heaven Piercing Realm.

Demons and monsters—Void Rank, Nether Rank, Grievance Tier, Fiend Tier, Underworld Tier.

True Demon stages—Spirit-tier demons, Mystic-tier demons, Earth-tier demons, Heaven-tier demons, Demon Commander, Demon King, Demon Emperor.)

This book updates around noon and six in the evening every day. It has been updated continuously for one hundred and ninety-eight days, so the author will not run away. Rest assured, dear readers.