The Phoenix Rebirth Art was, in essence, also a healing technique that consumed life force. Or rather, any healing technique inevitably consumed life force. Healing generally occurred through cell division, but the number of times a person's cells could divide in a lifetime was extremely limited, resulting in a massive expenditure of vitality.
Martial artists fought frequently, and injuries were as commonplace as daily meals. Thus, even martial artists above the Ten Thousand Longevity Realm possessed lifespans of over ten thousand years, yet those who truly lived to ten thousand were as rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns. Even those who reached eight or nine thousand years were few and far between. Most people might have a lifespan of ten thousand years, but not many lived past five thousand. Most died in battle, while the rest had expended too much lifespan in previous battles and ultimately could not live long either.
Experts from great powers fared somewhat better. Those great powers often possessed heavenly treasures or Spiritual Pills capable of extending one's lifespan, allowing them to recover seven or eight parts out of ten. But among independent cultivators, long-lived people were truly scarce. Living past five thousand years was already a luxury beyond reach. Without all manner of Spiritual Pills, they often died prematurely in the end.
However, the Phoenix Rebirth Art was far more profound than ordinary techniques. With Ye Xiwen's repeated battles of escaping death by a hair's breadth, if he had used an ordinary cultivation method, never mind whether he could have survived—even if he had, he likely would have lost three or four thousand years of lifespan. Yet through the Phoenix Rebirth Art, together with the life force he had replenished previously, he had lost less than a thousand years of lifespan in total.
But