Fortune Like the East Sea's Ever-Flowing Waters, Longevity Like the Southern Mountain's Evergreen Pines!

That day, Luo Zhou slaughtered everything in his path!

At noon, while helping the Fifteenth Squad, he encountered eight giant sea turtles.

Each of the turtles was over ten feet long, with a golden shell as hard as iron. Relying on their formidable defenses, they rampaged wherever they pleased.

Like tanks, they charged across the battlefield, and the Fifteenth Squad was utterly helpless against them.

Luo Zhou wasn't about to indulge them. He moved slightly, slapped his palm, and sent out a sharp, rattling sound that pierced the air and burrowed into the turtles' shells.

The strongest thing about the rattlesnake's infrasonic waves was their ability to pass through armor, ignoring defenses.

The turtles were immediately gravely wounded.

Luo Zhou struck again. Their shells remained intact, but their insides were reduced to bloody pulp, killing them outright.

The other turtles panicked and tried to run!

Too late. You've come all this way, so you're not leaving.

Luo Zhou picked them off one by one, shaking each giant sea turtle to death.

For some reason, after killing the eight giant sea turtles, Luo Zhou felt a tremor run through his body, and an inexplicable sensation stirred within him!

Yet he couldn't tell what it was!

But that afternoon, Luo Zhou found himself in danger!

Second-order Sea Race members quietly surrounded him, intent on killing him.

A whole group of second-order Sea Race members—an especially lethal squad, eight in all—had been assigned to hunt Luo Zhou down.

Again and again, they silently closed in, with Luo Zhou as their target.

Realizing things looked bad, Luo Zhou immediately retreated. He'd rather not fight than give them any opening.

Fortunately, he had All-Knowing, which let him spot them in advance.

Fortunately, he had Instant Step, so he could turn and flee. Not once did they manage to trap him.

As Luo Zhou ran and evaded them, he escaped five attempts to surround him. Then a voice sounded by his ear:

"Luo Zhou? I'm Guo Yingxin of the Sea Police Camp. Withdraw from the battlefield immediately.

"The enemy has singled you out and keeps trying to surround and kill you.

"You're not suited to fighting right now. Go back and rest. Don't come tomorrow.

"If you keep fighting, you'll die!

"Though you've managed to escape their encirclement again and again, one mistake will be the end of you!"

Luo Zhou hadn't expected Captain Guo to directly order him to withdraw.

He was obedient and took advice very well, so he withdrew at once.

The hunting squad made one last attempt to surround him, practically dropping all pretense. They chased Luo Zhou to the city walls, only giving up when Qi Refining cultivators blocked their path.

Luo Zhou returned to the city to collect his reward. After three days of fighting, he'd accumulated 58,600 Broken Spirits.

Looking around, he saw that the cultivators in the city were all in high spirits.

This beast siege should be nothing serious. It would disperse after a few more days.

At least ten years of peace lay ahead!

Luo Zhou went home. With this battle and everything he'd accumulated before, he could perform Body Tempering and condense his spirit eight times.

He immediately began tempering his body and condensing his spirit...

Evil Control, Instant Step, Truth-Listening, Spirit Technique, Death Curse, Light Technique, Flash of Inspiration.

None of his many talents had changed much. He needed to keep condensing his spirit or burn them with a thousand fires.

This time, Death Curse had grown stronger again, and Luo Zhou sank into thought.

An idea had occurred to him!

He used All-Knowing to run through the possibilities over and over.

So many cultivators and sea beasts had died just like that?

And the bastard who'd caused all of this wasn't going to pay a price?

Luo Zhou wasn't willing to accept that!

He had to curse the bastard and make him suffer, too!

He thought it over all night. Around midnight, in a daze, Luo Zhou suddenly let out a loud shout.

The sea turtles he'd killed at noon were known in the ocean by another name: tortoise-divining turtles!

They were native to the Eastern Sea and lived long, ageless lives.

After killing eight of them that day, he'd gained an insight. Now, it suddenly surfaced on its own, and he understood.

A Hinoki Force User appeared beside Luo Zhou, and a figure split off from it!

A Tortoise-Divining Force User!

"O tortoise, o divining stalks, dispel clinging thoughts and resolve doubts. O teacher, o model, straighten what leans and set right what's wrong."

It was exactly like when he'd first acquired the Overturning Rivers Force User and Sea-Treading Force User. Luo Zhou had obtained yet another Force User.

The Tortoise-Divining Force User had three extraordinary abilities: Void Turtle Life, One Breath Turtle Breath, and Wave-Breaking Turtle Sink!

With Void Turtle Life, Luo Zhou clearly felt an invisible tortoise shell surrounding his body. It was watertight, covered him from every direction, and existed without needing to be activated, protecting him at all times.

One Breath Turtle Breath was a form of turtle-breathing technique. It could put Luo Zhou into a state of feigned death, deceiving everyone and letting him go almost entirely without breathing.

Using this technique, he could hide in the shadows with no sign of life at all, making him very difficult to detect.

Wave-Breaking Turtle Sink let him part the water with ease. Whether on the surface, underwater, in the ocean depths, in rapids, or in gentle currents, he could move freely and without effort.

In the water, he was like a sunken tortoise, able to control himself perfectly and command the currents.

But its true value lay in combining it with the Hinoki Force User!

Hinoki, the evergreen pine of the Southern Mountain, a symbol of longevity like that of the immortals Song and Qiao.

The Tortoise-Divining Hinoki joined together!

"May your years grow long as yang rises, and the pitch pipes turn to Huangzhong; may the bow hang by your left gate. Remember the auspicious age of yore, the jade swallow sent in a dream; today, your birthday dawns. Fragrant incense burns in the golden beast, the Southern Pole Star shines bright, the Northern Mountain Hall stands deep, and verdant pines and cypresses stand with tortoises and cranes."

When the Tortoise-Divining and Hinoki joined together, a divine ability arose of its own accord!

Fortune Like the East Sea's Ever-Flowing Waters, Longevity Like the Southern Mountain's Evergreen Pines!

Luo Zhou's lifespan soared as a result!

With this divine ability, each day Luo Zhou lived added three days to his lifespan—two extra days, in effect.

For an ordinary human, lifespan had a limit. A Body Tempering cultivator could live at most eighty years; with this divine ability, that would become two hundred and forty years.

After advancing to Qi Refining, a cultivator could live for two sixty-year cycles, and their lifespan would become three hundred and sixty years.

But Luo Zhou possessed the Devil Lord Saint Body, which completely broke the rules governing humankind. He couldn't even calculate how much his lifespan had increased.

Lifespan was of utmost importance to cultivators. Running out of years, breaking through realms, and fighting over fate—these were the cultivation world's three great calamities.

Countless cultivators, lineages, and sects had been destroyed because of them.

Besides, lifespan wasn't merely about staying alive. Quite a few spells and divine abilities required one to spend lifespan to activate them.

Luo Zhou's divine ability, Overturning Rivers and Seas, consumed a year of his lifespan every time he used it without the support of true qi from his dantian.

Now, he had nothing to fear. If he lost a year, he'd soon make it back.

The night passed without incident. The next day, Luo Zhou woke up.

He could no longer take part in the battlefield outside the city.

After thinking it over, he decided to visit the academy and see how his classmates were doing.

Headmaster Zhao wasn't at the academy; he was stationed outside the city.

The academy wasn't deserted, though. Some students had gathered there.

They were students who'd been wounded over the past few days and had withdrawn from defending the city.

Many had deliberately injured themselves to avoid the fighting.

There wasn't much use in sending cultivators like them into battle anyway. Better to let them sit it out.

Luo Zhou spotted Cui Jian there, one arm slung across his chest. His left arm was injured.

"Senior Brother, are you all right?"

"Isn't that the Skull-Crushing Hand? You got hurt too?"

Luo Zhou's reputation had already spread!

"The Sea Race has a group specifically watching me. Captain Guo told me to rest."

"Good. As long as you're all right, take some time to recover."

Luo Zhou looked around and asked, "Are all our classmates okay?"

Cui Jian shook his head and said:

"Class Three's full of useless people. We've all been assigned safe logistics work, so nothing much has happened to us.

"Eight or nine people are injured now, but nobody's died.

"Classes One and Two are strong, but they've already lost four!

"Li Zexi, Huang Ying, Ye Zhiwen, and Gu Hui are all dead."

Luo Zhou furrowed his brow. He hadn't expected Li Zexi to die.

"What a shame!"

He looked at Cui Jian and suddenly noticed that Cui Jian was at the eighth level of Body Tempering, with the divine ability Light-Twisting Engraving and the extraordinary ability Swift Movement.

The divine ability Light-Twisting Engraving was no longer sealed. It had been unlocked!

He paused, then couldn't help asking, "How did your divine ability, Light-Twisting Engraving, get unlocked?"

"The battlefield changes in an instant. What's the point of keeping it sealed? We can worry about the future after we survive!"

"Wait, how did you know I had the divine ability Light-Twisting Engraving?"

So that was it. That meant it wasn't just him; Zhang Quan and the others who'd been hiding their divine talents had probably all unlocked them too.

Luo Zhou was delighted. "Is Zuo Sanguang here?"

It was time to reap the rewards again!

"He pretended to be wounded and ran back on the very first day. He's over there!"

Luo Zhou was overjoyed and went to find Zuo Sanguang.

Before he could even speak, Zuo Sanguang whispered:

"Brother Luo, it's over. A disaster's upon us. We're all going to die!"