Life Revival!

At this, the Ancestor's expression turned unusually grave, and his gaze sharpened.

As though he were making arrangements for his own funeral.

"After I'm gone, you know what your father is like. He's better at preserving what we have than making progress, and he's prone to acting on impulse. In truth, most of the burden of the family will fall on your shoulders."

"You may be young, but ever since you awakened that inheritance, you've been steady and methodical in everything you do. You're better than your father."

"Remember this: if anything happens to me, the Wang Family will definitely make its move."

"When that happens, don't fight them head-on. Take the family's core members with you, especially those two newborn children, and leave for the Central Continent through the Teleportation Array. Even becoming a Rogue Cultivator would be better than staying here and being wiped out..."

The Ancestor rambled on, his voice low and sorrowful.

This was an old man nearing the end, making his final arrangements for the family and voicing his last concerns.

He had even run through the escape routes for the family's survivors countless times in his mind.

Zhang Chen listened quietly, but a wave of bitterness rose in his heart.

This old man had truly worn himself to the bone and shed every drop of blood for the Zhang Family.

Even in the final moments of his life,

he wasn't thinking about how he might survive, but how to keep the younger generation alive.

"Ancestor."

Zhang Chen suddenly spoke, interrupting Zhang Tianzheng's almost-funereal instructions.

Zhang Tianzheng paused. "What? Does your Great-Grandfather talk too much?"

"No."

Zhang Chen shook his head, raised his gaze, and looked at the Ancestor with shining eyes. "Your grandson only wanted to say that those escape plans you've made probably won't be needed."

"Nonsense!"

Zhang Tianzheng furrowed his brow, thinking the young man didn't know his place. "Do you think the death of a Nascent Soul Cultivator is a small matter? Do you know what cultivation level Wang Lie of the Wang Family has reached? He—"

"Ancestor, don't rush to scold me."

Zhang Chen smiled and reached into his robes. "Take a look at this first. You can scold me afterward."

As he spoke, he took out the antique wooden box he had prepared long ago.

He gently set it on the stone table between them.

The box was small, with simple cloud patterns carved on it. It looked perfectly ordinary.

Yet the instant he took it out, a delicate but overwhelmingly domineering fragrance drifted through the gap in its not-quite-sealed lid.

The scent was strange.

It was unlike the fragrance of any flower or plant. It was more as if an entire spring had been condensed into a single breath.

After inhaling just a trace of it, Zhang Tianzheng felt his body, heavy as lead, grow a little lighter.

The foggy, sluggish feeling in his mind vanished in an instant.

"Hm?!"

Zhang Tianzheng's cloudy old eyes flew wide open. His whole body jerked as if he'd been pricked by a needle.

He sprang straight up from the Prayer Mat.

As a Nascent Soul Cultivator who had lived for hundreds of years, he had seen countless heavenly treasures in his lifetime. He naturally knew a thing or two.

A pill fragrance of this caliber couldn't possibly come from anything ordinary!

It was even several grades above the Creation Pill he had taken when he achieved Nascent Soul Formation!

"This is..."

The Ancestor's voice trembled slightly. He stared fixedly at the wooden box and swallowed.

Zhang Chen didn't keep him in suspense. He reached out and slowly lifted the lid.

Bzz—

There was no earth-shaking spectacle, nor any pillar of light shooting into the sky.

Only a soft, gentle glow, green as jade.

It rippled through the Cave Mansion like waves across water.

A pill, no bigger than a longan, lay quietly on the velvet in the center of the box.

The pill was a rich emerald green, with nine naturally formed cloud patterns on its surface, as though they held some profound principle of heaven and earth.

Around it, the air teemed with an astonishing vitality.

"Is this... a Longevity Pill?!"

Zhang Tianzheng cried out, frozen in place.

He didn't recognize the pill's exact grade, but he recognized this aura.

It was pure life force!

An ultimate treasure that could defy fate and steal back time from King Yan!

In the Cultivation World, pills that increased one's cultivation were precious, but not impossible to obtain.

Pills that extended one's lifespan, however, were truly as rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns. Every appearance stirred a storm of bloodshed. Even Spirit Transmutation Great Powers would fight tooth and nail over one.

After all, if you lost your cultivation, you could cultivate again. But if you lost your life, you lost everything.

"Exactly."

Zhang Chen remained composed. "More precisely, it's a Third-tier top-grade Longevity Pill."

"Th-Third-tier top-grade?!"

Zhang Tianzheng felt as though his heart were about to leap out of his throat.

An ordinary Longevity Pill could extend one's life by ten or twenty years, and it would already cost a fortune. But a Third-tier top-grade one? How many years could that add?

"This pill can extend your life by two hundred years."

Zhang Chen dropped the bombshell as casually as if he were discussing the weather. "And its medicinal properties are mild. It works regardless of cultivation level, and it'll still be effective even in your current condition, Ancestor."

"Two... two hundred years..."

Zhang Tianzheng had completely lost his composure.

He tremulously reached out to touch the pill, then hesitated, afraid he might damage it. There was none of his usual dignity in the way he handled it so gingerly.

Two hundred years!

To a Mortal, that was the span of several lifetimes.

To him, a man with one foot already in the grave...