Name: Meng Nan Lifespan: 4/10 Faction: Yaozi Mountain Cultivation: True Essence Sense Imprint True Essence: 6 Root Bone: 1 Cultivation Method: Lesser Thousand Sword Scripture Spells: Gale Thunder Sword Technique (Minor Accomplishment), Hundred Transformations Cloud-Mist Movement Technique (Minor Accomplishment), Five Thunder Technique (Proficient), Blood Arrow Secret Technique (Proficient), Giant Spirit Mysterious Technique (Proficient), Small Thousand Sword Array (Not Yet Initiated); Crafts: Alchemy (Intermediate: Qi Circulation Powder, Yellow Spirit Pill, Golden Marrow Pill); Artifact Refining (Beginner: Little Flying Scissors, Water-Drawing Sword) Death Log: Available
Time flowed like water.
Before he knew it, four years had passed in this life.
For four years, Meng Nan had devoted himself to bitter cultivation, but he hadn't shut himself away from the world.
West of Yaozi Mountain stood a market called Peach Blossom Market, jointly established by more than a dozen True Essence cultivators. It had quite a bit of character, and rogue cultivators came and went in great numbers.
Meng Nan spent most of those four years at the market.
Making pills.
Refining artifacts.
Dabbling in formations.
Meng Nan had accumulated quite a fortune beforehand, and reaching the True Essence Stage hadn't cost him much.
Only the Giant Spirit Mysterious Technique had been a tremendous drain, more than he could afford to sustain.
His nine jin and two liang of spirit sand would only get him through another twenty-odd layers at most.
Four years had passed, and Meng Nan had already used up half of it.
So he could only make ends meet by occasionally selling one or two magic artifacts or precious materials he'd accumulated in the past, replenishing his funds every now and then.
That way, he wouldn't end up in the awkward position of being alive but penniless.
Selling off one's possessions was the fastest way to raise money.
Not only was the secret technique costing him money; his alchemy and artifact refining were running at a loss, too.
He wasn't making pills and refining artifacts to earn money. He was focused on rapidly improving his skills and pursuing growth, not profit.
He was in a hurry, and his expenses exceeded his income.
Losses were inevitable.
In short, the great fortune Zhao Xiaoshuang and he had amassed over the previous hundred years would be squandered by Meng Nan in just a few short years—and over the years to come.
Meng Nan didn't mind.
While throwing money around, he also made friends at the market.
Whether they were true friends or false ones, if they could share a few words and a drink with him, Meng Nan treated them as the real deal.
Through these "friends,"
Meng Nan could learn about everything happening in the world while at the market.
"Everything" was an exaggeration.
He couldn't even keep track of everything happening across Blood Lotus Mountain.
But at the very least, he could learn about most major and minor events within tens of thousands of li of Peach Blossom Market.
Immortal Era Year 128.
The eighth year of his fifth life.
A major event rocked Blood Lotus Mountain—
"Eight thousand li to the north, there's a place called Fire Cloud Mountain. A rogue cultivator living there calls himself Fire Cloud Daoist. He hadn't even lived sixty years when he reached the Qi Refining Stage."
"Once he became an Immortal Master, he escaped the sea of suffering and was a changed man!"
At Peach Blossom Market, Lingzhi the Wanderer drank with Meng Nan and spoke of the matter, sighing with emotion.
He wasn't much younger than Meng Nan, and he was already over a hundred.
Without any particular skill to his name, he could only spend his days out in the wild, gathering herbs and prospecting for ore or hunting demonic beasts, hoping to earn some spirit sand.
It was better than nothing.
Meng Nan had bought medicinal ingredients from him several times, and they had gradually grown familiar. They would get together whenever they had free time to chat.
Now Lingzhi the Wanderer brought up Fire Cloud Daoist of Fire Cloud Mountain.
There was a hint of envy in his voice.
To reach the Immortal Master realm before sixty—this man had boundless prospects on the immortal path.
"Fire Cloud Daoist."
Meng Nan was just as envious. He poured Lingzhi the Wanderer another cup and asked curiously, "How did he break through?"
Which of the Three Qi Condensation Methods had he followed?
If it was the Middle Method, relying on a great medicine, Meng Nan could ask around in detail and make a note of the place.
But—
"Of the Upper, Middle, and Lower Methods you mentioned, Brother Meng, this man seems to have followed the Upper Method."
"He broke through through bitter cultivation!"
"He didn't rely on help from a Qi Refining Immortal Master, and I never heard that he found a great medicine. He just opened the Three Cavities on his own, out of the blue, and broke through directly."
Lingzhi the Wanderer clicked his tongue in admiration.
The Three Qi Condensation Methods he referred to were something Meng Nan had told him.
Whether Lingzhi the Wanderer had known about them beforehand was another matter.
In truth, in the cultivation world, not everyone knew that a great medicine was the most effective path for a rogue cultivator to reach the Qi Refining Stage.
Meng Nan, for example.
He hadn't known about it in his previous four lives.
Information about it was tightly guarded. Everyone seemed to tacitly agree that no one should casually reveal it.
Great medicines were rare to begin with.
Rogue cultivators, however, were as numerous as oxen's hair.
There was too little meat for too many wolves.
The fewer people who knew about the path of the great medicine, the fewer competitors there would be.
Meng Nan, however, didn't care.
He even wished more people knew, so they'd go search for great medicines—and he could find out about them.
So when he met people at Peach Blossom Market, he'd casually tell them about the Three Qi Condensation Methods, baring his heart and soul. It was easy to make plenty of friends that way.
Some truly hadn't known, and were shocked and overjoyed.
Others only pretended not to know, but seeing Meng Nan reveal such a secret so freely still touched them. They thought he was selfless and held nothing back.
With this secret as his opening gambit,
Meng Nan quickly made connections. In just eight years, he'd made quite a few friends.
He didn't expect them to be willing to lay down their lives for him. At the very least, they could be like Lingzhi the Wanderer: think of him when they heard something and talk it over with him. That alone made it worthwhile.
Like this time.
Meng Nan had heard the news of Fire Cloud Daoist's ascension to the Qi Refining Stage from several different sources, pieced together the full picture, and learned quite a bit about the man's background.
"Breaking through with the Upper Method."
"Boundless prospects."
"He probably won't stay in Blood Lotus Mountain for long."
He would either head north in search of an immortal sect,
or east, where a hundred rivers eventually flowed into the sea.
A little place like Blood Lotus Mountain couldn't hold him.
As it turned out, Meng Nan's guess was right.
Less than two years later,
Fire Cloud Mountain stood empty. Fire Cloud Daoist had become an Immortal Master and departed as lightly as drifting clouds.
Meng Nan remained in Blood Lotus Mountain, at Peach Blossom Market, as the years passed.
In the fourth year of his fifth life, Meng Nan broke through to the True Essence Stage.
Over the next six years, he managed to establish one sense, reaching the first level of Sense Imprint.
The True Essence Sense Imprint realm was divided into five levels, corresponding to the five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. The order could be changed, and he could choose one sense to establish at each level.
Ordinary True Essence cultivators—
Qian Yu, for instance.
Or Zhao Xiaoshuang.
At the first two levels, they would usually choose sight and hearing.
Once they succeeded, their eyesight and hearing would surpass those of ordinary people. It was called Super Sensation, allowing them to see and hear things that ordinary people couldn't.
It helped in combat, spell duels, and traveling through the wilderness.
Meng Nan had originally planned to do the same.
But since he'd come to the future, when he started cultivating all over again this time, he chose smell as his first sense to establish, strengthening his sense of smell.
It would help him study alchemy.
As for combat—
As for travel—
He didn't need those for now.
Having reached the peak of Internal Qi in the real world, Meng Nan's task now was to enter the future repeatedly and break through to True Essence, until he could advance to Qi Refining with ease and perhaps even dominate the Qi Refining Stage.
Along the way, he'd improve his alchemy and artifact-refining skills.
He had to know what came first and what came second.
So smell came first.
In the True Essence Stage's Sense Imprint realm, each additional sense he established added six years to his lifespan.
In his fifth life,
Meng Nan had only established one sense, adding not even a full year to his lifespan.
Early in Immortal Era Year 130.
Forty thousand li west of Peach Blossom Market.
There stood a mountain called Star Mountain, where an Immortal Master known as Master Cao lived.
On this day,
Meng Nan climbed Star Mountain and gazed into the distance, taking in all the beautiful scenery.
Then, standing atop the mountain, he drew a breath and shouted, "Master Cao! Master Cao!"
His voice boomed through the mountains.
For a good while, no one answered.
Meng Nan had no choice but to continue—
"Cao Baoju!"
"Little Baoju!"
"My son!"
His voice rolled like thunder and lightning, clear across a dozen nearby peaks, high and low alike.
"Good heavens!"
"Is this man trying to get himself killed?"
"Could he be near the end of his lifespan and came here to provoke an Immortal Master?"
"What a reckless fool! What an ignorant fool! What kind of person is an Immortal Master? How many methods do they have? Even if he's about to die, the Immortal Master could still rip out his tendons, peel off his skin, and use his soul as a lamp, making him wish he were dead!"
"This man—"
There weren't many rogue cultivators nearby, just three or five scattered about. One by one, they sprang into action, eager to climb up and see what kind of death the man would meet.
The next moment.
A starburst flashed past, piercing through his brow.
Meng Nan died on the spot. In his final moments, he saw that the starburst seemed to be a flying sword. Its blade-light swept up his corpse and shot through the sky, vanishing without a trace.
He had never even seen the immortal master, yet he had already lost his life.
His fifth life ended just like that.
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