I Want to Sell My Own Lifespan!

"See? I told you it wasn't a refrigerator."

The Zhang family had good genes. Both siblings were handsome and pretty.

Though Zhang Xiaoxi's features were not as exquisite as Chen Nuanyu's, she was still delicate and beautiful, with naturally excellent bone structure.

She was currently sprawled lazily across the sofa, her bare feet raised and swaying back and forth.

Zhang Fusheng smacked her foot.

"You were pretty quick to block me, huh?"

Zhang Xiaoxi spoke in an affectedly coy tone.

"Oh my, little brother has grown up. He's starting to be mean to his sister now. Boohoo."

Zhang Fusheng's liver ached.

"Where are Uncle and Aunt?"

"Oh, my dad got summoned by the Public Security Bureau. Mom went with him, so I stayed behind to entertain you." Zhang Xiaoxi lazily pushed herself up and began unpacking the enormous delivery that looked like a refrigerator.

"Summoned?"

Zhang Fusheng froze.

"What happened?"

"Nothing much, just a small matter. My dad's factory suddenly caught fire tonight. A small fire—it was put out before the fire department even arrived—but they still need to ask routine questions and stuff."

As she unpacked the delivery, Zhang Xiaoxi instantly perked up.

"They probably won't be back until tomorrow morning. You know how strict public security is in Longzhou City—the regulations are long and stink to high heaven! Look at my new baby!"

Zhang Fusheng looked at the enormous package she had opened. It was not a refrigerator, but something resembling a large mainframe?

"What's this?" he asked curiously.

"A Third Generation High-Speed Computer, issued free by the Source Origin Research Institute."

Zhang Xiaoxi said smugly,

"I'm one of only three people in our city qualified to enter the Research Institute. But Longzhou City only has one slot. I'm more skilled than the other two, though my seniority is a little weaker. If I win first prize in the provincial competition this time, I'll have everything I need."

Zhang Fusheng did not understand, but it sounded impressive.

"The Source Origin Research Institute? What does it do?"

"You don't even know that? What a country bumpkin!"

Zhang Xiaoxi looked at him with utter disdain.

"It researches Different Dimensions. It has the largest supercomputer in Golden Province, and the government approves a ton of funding for it. As long as you become an official researcher, I heard there are loads of benefits and special privileges too."

Zhang Fusheng's eyes shifted slightly.

Different Dimensions?

He recalled what Huang Qiuxian had said. The Flesh and Blood Plague of the Western Sect came from the Thirty-Six Heavens Dimension.

"What's a Different Dimension?"

Zhang Fusheng was not ashamed to ask.

"Why do they need computers to study it?"

"I haven't gotten in yet, so how would I know!" Zhang Xiaoxi said as if it were perfectly reasonable. "As for the computer, it calculates dimensional parameters, obviously. You idiot."

She caressed the refrigerator-like computer as though it were a treasure.

"Of course, it also analyzes things like spiritual worlds and helps build world models. Don't ask me—I don't know what a spiritual world is either."

Zhang Fusheng became even more interested.

Spiritual world.

Zhang Xiaoxi did not know what that was, but he knew all too well: the Mental Spiritual Realm.

So that Source Origin Research Institute was studying things like the Mental Spiritual Realm and the Thirty-Six Heavens Dimension?

That was rather extraordinary.

It seemed Sister Xixi was about to soar into the heavens in a single bound.

But what did helping construct a spiritual world model—or rather, a Mental Spiritual Realm model—mean?

Wasn't this thing freely changeable according to one's consciousness?

Hmm. He would ask Master later.

While Zhang Fusheng's thoughts turned over and over, Zhang Xiaoxi had already dragged her precious baby toward her room.

"I'm going to do research now, so don't disturb me. Your room is ready. A pretty big sister personally made your fragrant, soft bed. No need to thank me. See you tomorrow!"

"This little brat."

Zhang Fusheng shook his head helplessly, walked into the kitchen, lit the stove, pan-fried that liang of Star Beast Meat, and swallowed roughly one-fifth of it.

The last trace of dimness on the Contract Book dispersed. Its cooldown had ended.

"The effect has weakened a little again. I wonder whether Longzhou City has any new varieties of Star Beast Meat."

Zhang Fusheng frowned.

There would probably be quite a few transactions he needed to make next.

Chen Nuanyu and her mother, Huang Qiuxian, and finding someone suitable to recruit in Longzhou City—all of that would require "transactions."

And there was also cultivation time, time to cultivate his physical body.

Third Refinement was too weak.

"Three parts strength to beat a man, seven parts force to kill one."

Zhang Fusheng murmured,

"With the Mental Spiritual Realm as my trump card, I can reveal a little of my other abilities when appropriate."

He entered the room, shut the door, assumed the Lotus Flower Stance, and silently circulated the [Great Sun Scripture].

Of the three cultivation methods, visualization cultivated the spirit, while the Breathing Technique drew in Mysterious Factors. Only the primary cultivation art was truly used for cultivation.

This was why those without a primary cultivation art could, through breathing and visualization alone, advance no further than First Refinement.

With every breath in and out,

Under the interference of Zhang Fusheng's spiritual will, a vast quantity of Mysterious Factors was drawn in. They entered his body with his breathing and circulated throughout him along the pathways of the Great Sun Scripture.

His body was now immaculate and without impurity. Though it could not compare to a special physique, among ordinary people, he was already a true genius.

One cycle, two cycles.

Six hours passed. After twenty-four cycles, the bottleneck had begun to loosen.

"At this pace, one month—at most one month—and I'll be able to break the shackles of [Flesh], fuse Mysterious Factors into it, and enter Fourth Refinement."

"However."

His spiritual will once more coursed through his body, binding those Mysterious Factors and forcibly smashing through the shackles hidden in every muscle, forcefully merging them together!

Silently and soundlessly.

Fourth Refinement was achieved.

This time, he directly gained a thousand jin of strength.

"At Flesh Third Refinement, each refinement grants a thousand jin of strength upon entry. Slow tempering can yield another thousand jin. The three refinements grant a total of six thousand jin of force."

Feeling the more than four thousand jin of strength within him, Zhang Fusheng exhaled a breath of Pure Qi.

A smile bloomed across his face.

"After the spirit becomes strong, cultivation yields twice the result with half the effort, especially when breaking through realms."

"The shackles and barriers that originally required vast amounts of time to grind away bit by bit can be forcibly blasted open with my spiritual will!"

Zhang Fusheng clenched his fist. The muscles throughout his body rippled like waves, while his blood and qi flowed through him.

"Hmm?"

He looked inward and discovered that after entering Fourth Refinement, the pale red blood and qi within his body had faintly gained a thread of golden radiance.

"Interesting. Is it because of the Great Sun Illumining Seventy-Two Great Snow Mountains True Scripture?"

"Unfortunately, I don't know how long it will take for my Dead Man's Bones to be nurtured. If it's measured in years, then that really would be..."

Zhang Fusheng finished his cultivation and lightly shook his head with a sigh. Then a thought suddenly surfaced.

"I can't buy the progress of my Dead Man's Bones, but I can buy and sell... a person's basic time."

"Or rather, lifespan."

His gaze flickered.

Lifespan was, in essence, reflected in the body. As time passed, the body gradually decayed, slowly approaching its limit until it completely failed.

"If I bought an ordinary person's remaining hundred years of lifespan, would he die immediately while young and strong, or would he age a hundred years and die of old age?"

"Logically, it should be the latter."

"Then buying lifespan would not necessarily make someone directly younger. The minimum age is zero, but there is no upper limit."

"Buying lifespan should slow the rate at which the body and soul decay—or transfer that decay elsewhere."

Listening to Sister Xixi's slow, steady breathing from the next room, Zhang Fusheng drew back the curtains and stared at the crescent moon in the sky.

"Then what if I sell—give away—my own lifespan?"

"If it means aging, if my body undergoes ten or twenty years of natural changes out of thin air..."

"Would the Dead Man's Bones be nurtured directly?"

"After all, the appearance of Bone-Born Light has already been attained. The birth of Dead Man's Bones is simply the slow change of my body."

Zhang Fusheng licked his lips, suddenly growing excited.

"Many things can't only be obtained by buying. Selling works too!"

"Disease and pain can be sold away. My time can be sold away too!"

He paced back and forth. If his guess was correct, if selling lifespan could truly accelerate the Dead Man's Bones, and buying back lifespan would not make the Dead Man's Bones disappear—

It was well worth trying.

At worst, he would lose a little Star Beast Meat.

"I want to sell my own lifespan!"