The Life Spring stage was different from the Qi Sea stage.
Beyond the unknowable depths of the Qi Sea lay the Life Spring.
Some said the Life Spring was the source of life. Once opened, it let one live peacefully to the natural limit of one's years.
Some people could live to 120, while others could even reach 130.
And they didn't spend those years old and feeble, barely clinging to life. They could retain eighty percent of their strength and live that way until their time was up.
Moreover, the Life Spring wasn't cultivated only during the Four Ascending Dragon Passes. It had to be cultivated throughout all the stages that followed.
Yu Xiu didn't think much about lifespan. The fourth Ascending Dragon Pass, the Life Spring, could at most let someone live to 120 or 130. But he already had a lifespan of more than five hundred years.
That wasn't a joke. Even four Life Springs combined might not outlast him.
I wonder if a Shadow Demon will appear this time.
Yu Xiu was full of anticipation.
But his hopes were still dashed.
Within his Qi Sea, surging inner energy churned without pause, then flooded into an indescribable place in its depths. There, it seemed, was a spring well, faint and indistinct, from which the breath of life stirred.
The Life Spring!
Yu Xiu's heart stirred as he carefully sensed the process.
As his inner energy surged, the Life Spring, once barely perceptible, grew ever clearer, and the breath of life it poured forth grew ever richer.
At last, the rich breath of life merged with his inner energy, transforming it into true qi.
But Yu Xiu was different from an ordinary cultivator who had just entered the Life Spring stage. His lifespan was far too long—already more than five hundred years.
Within his Life Spring, this manifested as an extraordinarily vast and vigorous breath of life, making his true qi frighteningly pure as well.
According to the cultivation manual, the younger one was upon entering the Life Spring stage, the purer and stronger one's true qi would be.
That was because youth meant a longer remaining lifespan, and the breath of life within the Life Spring would be richer.
If two people practiced the same technique, one entering the Life Spring stage at sixteen and the other at seventy, the quality of their true qi and the strength of their cultivation would differ like heaven and earth.
The sixteen-year-old's Life Spring would be more than ten times stronger than the seventy-year-old's.
Ultimately, the key to the Life Spring stage was the abundance of one's vitality. The longer one's lifespan, the stronger one's Life Spring.
In all of history, Yu Xiu might well be the only one to have reached the Life Spring stage at five hundred years old.
If a sixteen-year-old's Life Spring had more than ten times the true qi quality and strength of a seventy-year-old's, then Yu Xiu's Life Spring was more than twenty times stronger than the sixteen-year-old's.
That was no exaggeration.
[Realm: Fourth Ascending Dragon Pass, Life Spring: First Layer (189/1000)]
The Life Spring has formed!
But what disappointed Yu Xiu was that no Shadow Demon had appeared.
He had missed out on another spiritual item.
From breaking through the second pass, Qi Circulation, entering the third pass, Qi Sea, and now reaching the fourth pass, Life Spring, it had taken him less than two months in total.
Shadow Demon, why haven't you formed again yet?
What a letdown!
Yu Xiu felt a pang of regret, but soon put it out of his mind.
After entering the Life Spring stage, the first thing he ought to do was claim a free cultivation manual and sword art for the Life Spring stage, along with a sword technique for the same stage.
Something interesting happened here: the identity token for Inner Court disciples had to be updated.
He took a token from his clothes. It was made of a material like black jade, black all over yet shining through. On the front, six characters were written in bold, flowing script: "Qingwei Sword Sect Inner Court."
On the back were the characters "Yu Xiu."
True qi flowed through his body as he slowly infused a strand of it into the token.
In an instant, the token's glossy black color changed, turning green.
He had no idea what the token was made of, but it could actually change with one's aura.
Yu Xiu didn't dwell on it. He put away the updated token, went out, and headed straight for the Library Pavilion.
He had only taken a few steps when he saw Zhao Hong, Xu Rou, Liu Qingchuan, and Shan Yu, the four who had entered the Inner Court with him, approaching from the opposite direction.
All four looked excited and pleased.
They had entered the Inner Court together, and their Bamboo Cottages were all in the same area, making them neighbors.
"Brother Yu." Zhao Hong beamed and greeted him with a distant cupped-fist salute.
"Brother Zhao, Miss Xu... What brings you all here?" Yu Xiu returned the salute.
They're all still stuck at the first layer of the Qi Sea! Yu Xiu glanced over the four and saw that they had improved—not that they hadn't improved at all—but their progress was very, very slight.
Fortunately, before leaving, Yu Xiu had used his Sword Heart and Hidden Edge to conceal his cultivation. Otherwise, seeing his progress would have been quite a blow to Zhao Hong and the others.
"We found a few senior disciples to guide us through our cultivation technique, and we gained a great deal," Zhao Hong said with a smile, clearly satisfied with her progress.
"Everyone says the Qi Sea is difficult to cultivate, but actually, as long as we have enough contribution points to ask senior brothers and sisters who practice the same technique for guidance, people with our aptitude can still make rapid progress," Xu Rou chimed in, seemingly still immersed in the guidance she'd received from that senior sister.
"In less than a month, we've already mastered the first section of the technique, and we've come a long way on the path to mastery," Liu Qingchuan said little, but his confidence was plain in his eyes.
"If things continue like this, we should be able to open our Life Springs and enter the fourth Ascending Dragon Pass in five or six years—no need to wait ten," Shan Yu added, unusually joining the conversation. His brows were alight with fighting spirit.
Zhao Hong suddenly remembered something. "By the way, Brother Yu, how has your cultivation been going lately? Why haven't you sought guidance from senior disciples who practice the same technique?"
Are they still working on mastering the first section? Yu Xiu thought. I mastered it the first time I read through the technique.
Now, he had already reached the Life Spring stage. He hardly needed anyone else's guidance.
But he didn't want to discourage the four, so he merely shook his head. "I'm short on contribution points. It wouldn't be right to ask senior brothers and sisters for guidance, so I can only explore the path on my own."
Zhao Hong felt sorry for him. "You really should seek someone's guidance. That would make your cultivation progress at least twice as fast, if not more."
Xu Rou suddenly chimed in. "Oh, when we first joined, lots of senior brothers and sisters invited us to join their groups. A few of them were very enthusiastic. They even offered to find people to guide us in our cultivation techniques and sword arts, and they weren't in a hurry to make us join. They could also take us on missions to earn contribution points. We could consider it!"
They aren't rushing to get people to join, they'll find someone to teach them techniques and sword arts, and they'll take them on missions to earn contribution points? Yu Xiu's thoughts stirred.
Wasn't that a scam?
Only con artists could meet those conditions.
But Zhao Hong and the others hadn't offended anyone, and they had good aptitude. Perhaps someone was willing to invest in them for the future...
Yu Xiu thought it over and vaguely sensed that this might have something to do with him, though he couldn't be sure.
"Once we run out of contribution points, we'll have more or less consolidated our Qi Sea cultivation. Then we can go out and earn some more points," Zhao Hong agreed.
Shan Yu and Liu Qingchuan didn't say much, merely nodding.
"Brother Yu, will you come with us?" Zhao Hong asked, looking at Yu Xiu.
"We'll see when the time comes." Yu Xiu thought for a moment but didn't rush to refuse.
If Fang Jiming really was pushing all this behind the scenes just to lure him out of the Inner Court, then after a little more time had passed, once Yu Xiu broke through the fourth Ascending Dragon Pass, the Life Spring, and stepped into the first of the Four Great Passes, he could give Fang Jiming a huge surprise!
You want me to leave the Inner Court? Then I'll leave the Inner Court and show you!
The Four Great Passes against the Four Ascending Dragon Passes—an upper-stage cultivator striking down a lower-stage one!
Before you continue