Wei Zhong reluctantly set down the cultivation jade slip and looked at the black stone beside him.
According to the information Bai He had left behind, this item was a special treasure material used to carry profound Dao methods.
The black rock was the size of a palm, and Wei Zhong could not discern what material it was made from. It was merely exceedingly tough, and under the probing of his Spirit Seeking Art, it contained not the slightest trace of spiritual qi.
Divine objects concealed their own brilliance. If it were placed among mortals, any passing cultivator would surely take it for nothing more than an ordinary stubborn rock.
"Years Dao Method." Such an extraordinarily special technique was recorded within the black stone.
Bai He had once said that this method's uniqueness surpassed the understanding he had gained over a thousand years of cultivation. It was an essential guarantee that had allowed him to cultivate from Qi Refining all the way to Spirit Transformation.
It was also the basis for his conjecture that the Spring Autumn Water Refining Art did not end at Great Ascension.
Wei Zhong raised it and pressed it against his forehead.
At once, he felt as though his head had exploded. His soul left his body and drifted into that distant void.
Before his eyes, he seemed to see the chaos of the universe and the birth of the world. Amid it stood a stone stele, engraved with the words "Years Dao Method."
Wei Zhong merged into it and became a living being, experiencing birth, aging, sickness, and death through countless cycles of reincarnation. A wisp of bright light continually carved itself into his soul, going from blurred to clear, from incomplete to whole.
It seemed as though a thousand years had passed, yet it also seemed like a mere instant. When Wei Zhong awakened from his daze, the complete Years Dao Method had already been engraved in his mind.
Wei Zhong had never even heard of such a method of imparting an inheritance. In the cultivation world, methods of passing down teachings ranged from simple written records in books to cultivation jade slips, all of which were merely straightforward recordings and transmissions of information.
This was Wei Zhong's first time experiencing a method like the Years Dao Method, which allowed one to personally experience its journey from its initial birth, through gradual formation, to ultimate completion.
As he carefully savored the Dao method, Wei Zhong was profoundly astonished.
Years, years—naturally, it was a Dao method related to time.
After reading through the entire thing, there was only one word at its core: borrow. Through the river of time, it borrowed from the past and borrowed from the future, placing the strength of all things upon the present.
Borrowing from the past was a profound method for concealing one's cultivation. So long as one expended their own mana, they could lower their apparent cultivation.
No Dao method below the same level could see through it, because the cultivation displayed was indeed genuine—it was simply one's cultivation from the past.
Borrowing from the future was a method that consumed one's lifespan to temporarily raise one's cultivation realm, and it could be maintained for a full hour.
At Qi Refining, one could consume seven and a half years of lifespan to raise oneself by one minor realm. The minor realms here did not refer to the first through ninth levels of Qi Refining, but rather the three stages of early, middle, and late.
For Foundation Establishment, it was twelve years; by the same logic, Core Formation required twenty-five years...
In general, it consumed one-twentieth of the typical lifespan of cultivators in that realm.
If one crossed a major realm, the expenditure would be doubled again.
For example, Wei Zhong was currently at Late Stage Qi Refining. To use the Dao method once, he would need to consume twice seven and a half years—fifteen years of lifespan—to rise to Early Stage Foundation Establishment.
At a cursory glance, one might think this method was nothing remarkable, but its terrifying aspect was that a single casting was not the limit.
A person could cast it three times in succession within a short period, raising their cultivation by three minor realms—the equivalent of one major realm.
Wei Zhong only needed to consume forty-five years of lifespan to immediately become a Late Stage Foundation Establishment cultivator for one hour.
There were indeed cultivators in the cultivation world who possessed the combat power to fight above their level, but secret arts that could temporarily raise one's cultivation were exceedingly rare. Moreover, they all drastically overdrew one's potential and could only raise one's cultivation by half a minor realm or one minor realm.
After using them, one might not immediately perish with body and Dao extinguished, but they would still be close to having their lamp run dry and oil exhausted.
This showed just how profound the Years Dao Method was.
No wonder even Bai He, a Spirit Transformation Cultivator, had praised it so highly.
The only pity was that this method required the Spring Autumn Water Refining Art as one's foundational Dao method before it could be used. In other words, Wei Zhong could only look at it now, not use it.
Spring and autumn, and years—there truly is a connection between the two.
Looking at the black stone in his hand, perhaps it was this object that had attracted the Time Treasure Record, causing it to bring him to this grotto-heaven.
With such arrangements, how could it wait for a fated person?
Recalling the vacant spots where treasures had once been in the tall tower, he suddenly understood.
Perhaps all the arrangements Senior Bai He had once made had been utterly destroyed by the passage of time.
Had he not come here, this inheritance would likely have drifted away to some unknown place along with the Qingchuan Secret Realm.
Setting down the black stone, Wei Zhong was in no hurry to put the three items away. Instead, he returned to the hall.
In an inconspicuous corner of the hall was a round pearl. According to Bai He, this item was the core of this grotto-heaven. Refining it would allow one to claim the grotto-heaven for oneself.
A grotto-heaven treasure—even the Azurewood Sect, a Core Formation-level force, probably did not possess one.
Releasing his mana, Wei Zhong began refining the object.
In only a short while, Wei Zhong had successfully refined it. Everything within the grotto-heaven began to unfold before his eyes.
It covered an area of ten mu. Beneath the ground, spiritual veins spread outward, seemingly connected to the Spirit Stone Mine outside. The Spirit Fields above, the small courtyard, the cultivation room within the courtyard, the hall, living quarters, and everything else all appeared in Wei Zhong's mind with perfect clarity.
At a thought, the grotto-heaven shrank and transformed into a square mark on the back of Wei Zhong's hand. At his command, the mark swiftly concealed itself as well.
Wei Zhong could sense that, so long as he wished it, he could immediately enter that grotto-heaven. It was quite a useful method for evading powerful enemies.
The only pity was that he could not control the grotto-heaven's movement from within. If someone guarded his "spawn point," things would become rather troublesome.
Wei Zhong was currently inside the tall tower. The air-restriction formation had already failed after he took the grotto-heaven away.
This journey had been a complete success, and Wei Zhong left the place fully satisfied.
When he arrived outside and looked toward the distant Spirit Stone Mine, a thought immediately arose in his heart:
Since the grotto-heaven's spiritual veins were connected to this Spirit Stone Mine, could he move this mine into the grotto-heaven?
The instant this thought appeared, the mark on Wei Zhong's right hand representing the grotto-heaven treasure immediately became searing hot.
At the same time, the Azurewood Sect disciples beneath the earth discovered that the mine tunnels had begun to shake as mountains and earth trembled.
"Not good! This mine is about to collapse! All disciples, abandon the excavation and leave this place!"
Lu Yibin's expression changed drastically as he issued the command.
Upon hearing this, all the sect disciples immediately abandoned their work and followed their leaders out.
If they were buried within the mine tunnels, then with the strength of these Qi Refining cultivators, likely not a single one would make it out alive.
Watching the mine vein ahead collapse, Lu Yibin revealed a regretful expression.
"What a pity. We were just about to excavate the core of this vein. That is where Mid-Grade Spirit Stones are most densely concentrated."
"Senior Brother Lu, there is no need to be like this. The mine's collapse was already within our expectations; it was merely a matter of sooner or later. We have already mined a sufficient quantity of Spirit Stones. Even the sect elders will not blame us."
Lu Yibin sighed. He seemed to think of something, but in the end, it became only one sentence: "It is all fate."
Deep underground, where no one could see, Wei Zhong watched as the grotto-heaven treasure seemed to transform into a black hole, swallowing vast stretches of the Spirit Stone Mine.
Once the absorption was complete, Wei Zhong probed within and indeed discovered that the mine vein had tightly connected with the spiritual veins.
Not only that, but the spiritual qi within the grotto-heaven had become even denser, and the grotto-heaven itself had also grown somewhat larger.
In the future, he could learn the art of moving spiritual veins and spirit mines to raise the grade of the spiritual veins within the grotto-heaven.
As Wei Zhong took away the spirit mine, the Qingchuan Secret Realm also began to change, emanating a faint feeling of rejection.
This secret realm was about to close once more.
Before you continue