Subverting Common Sense! A Cultivation Method That Doesn't Require Soul Rings!

As Zhang Tiezhu opened the Eternal Spring Technique.

The image on the heavenly screen changed accordingly.

The contents of the book pages, which only Zhang Tiezhu had been able to see, transformed into ancient characters glowing faintly with golden light and appeared directly in the sky above the entire Douluo Continent.

Even illiterate commoners could automatically understand their meaning the instant they saw those golden words.

"Heaven and earth possess the wonders of creation; all things have spirits."

"To draw the spiritual energy of heaven and earth into the body, guide it through the limbs and meridians, and gather it in the dantian—this is Qi Refinement."

Just a few short opening lines laid out a cultivation system completely different from that of Douluo Continent.

Within Shrek Academy.

Purple light gleamed in Tang San's eyes as he pushed his Purple Demon Eye to its limit.

He stared fixedly at the golden characters floating in midair, his mind racing as he tried to memorize every word of the technique.

Yet the farther he read, the more shocked Tang San became.

"Drawing qi into the body, opening all the meridians throughout the body..."

Tang San swallowed, feeling his back completely soaked in cold sweat.

The Mysterious Heaven Technique, the Tang Sect's supreme art that he had been so proud of in his previous life, was ultimately nothing more than an internal martial arts technique.

The essence of the Mysterious Heaven Technique was to continuously accumulate internal energy within the body.

But this basic art called the Eternal Spring Technique drew directly upon the energy between heaven and earth to nourish oneself!

The intent and scope of the two were simply worlds apart!

If I could switch to cultivating this technique... A trace of unconcealed greed flashed through Tang San's eyes.

Yu Xiaogang, standing in front of him, seemed to have gone mad.

He clutched his hair with both hands, his gaze sweeping repeatedly across the golden characters as he muttered without pause.

"Impossible! Why doesn't it say how to absorb soul rings?"

"When one reaches a bottleneck, there's no need to hunt soul beasts to break through?"

"Dantian becoming a sea, Foundation Establishment forming a platform—what are these things?"

One of the most fundamental points in Yu Xiaogang's proudly proclaimed Ten Core Competencies was this: when soul masters reached every tenth rank, they had to absorb a soul ring in order to continue breaking through.

Yet the Eternal Spring Technique stated things with absolute clarity.

From the initial stage of Qi Refinement to the great completion of Qi Refinement, one only needed to continuously absorb spiritual energy, supplemented by external items called pills, to naturally advance in realm.

From beginning to end, it did not even mention martial souls or soul beasts once!

Then what use was his core theory?

Meanwhile, deep within the Star Dou Forest.

Ripples spread across the surface of the Lake of Life.

The enormous head of the Sky Azure Bull Python suddenly emerged from the water, unprecedented brilliance bursting from its bovine eyes.

"Big Brother, did you see that?"

The Titan Giant Ape beside it trembled with excitement and nodded repeatedly.

"I saw it! I saw it!"

"This cultivation method from the so-called cultivation world doesn't require hunting us soul beasts at all!"

Before this, there had been an irreconcilable, blood-soaked feud between soul beasts and humans.

For humans to grow stronger and break through, they had to hunt soul beasts and obtain soul rings.

This was a law of heaven and earth, one that no one could change.

As a result, high-level soul beasts within the Star Dou Forest had become fewer and fewer. Even hundred-thousand-year soul beasts constantly faced the danger of being hunted by humanity's peak experts.

But now, the technique revealed on the heavenly screen offered an entirely new path.

There was no need for slaughter—only the absorption of spiritual energy from heaven and earth!

"If all humans across the continent cultivate this technique, then wouldn't our soul beast race no longer have to suffer slaughter?"

Hearing that, the Sky Azure Bull Python also raised its head toward the golden words in the sky, a trace of longing in its voice.

In the image, Zhang Tiezhu had already been brought by a senior brother of the High Heaven Sect to a crude wooden hut in the outer sect.

Though the conditions were simple, they were already exceptionally good for Zhang Tiezhu, who had spent his life as a farmer.

Unable to wait any longer, he sat cross-legged on the wooden bed as described in the Eternal Spring Technique.

"Close your eyes and still your mind; sink your qi into the dantian..."

Zhang Tiezhu closed his eyes and awkwardly assumed a cultivation posture.

Countless eyes across Douluo Continent were fixed on this ordinary young man.

Everyone wanted to see whether a cripple with no martial soul could truly defy common sense.

The time it took to burn an incense stick passed.

Just as some soul masters grew impatient and were about to mock him—

A sudden change occurred.

The air around Zhang Tiezhu began to distort slightly.

Wisps of pale white mist, visible to the naked eye, gathered from all directions and slowly seeped into his body through his nose, mouth, and every pore.

Zhang Tiezhu's originally sallow, rough face visibly became more rosy.

His breathing grew long and steady.

Crack.

Accompanied by a faint muffled sound from within his body, Zhang Tiezhu suddenly opened his eyes.

His gaze was filled with disbelief as he raised his hands and clenched them into fists.

"I... I have strength again?"

He could feel a warm current slowly circulating below his navel.

With the slightest exertion, that current could instantly surge through his limbs.

[Zhang Tiezhu successfully drew qi into his body and entered the first level of the Qi Refining stage.]

As the words appeared on the heavenly curtain, all of Douluo Continent was even more astonished.

Half an hour.

It had taken only half an hour!

A piece of trash who did not even possess half a level of innate soul power had actually cultivated the power of that world out of thin air with this basic cultivation technique?

In Douluo Continent, if one awakened a martial soul without innate soul power, it meant their meridians were blocked and they would never be able to cultivate in their lifetime.

This was an ironclad law that not even a Titled Douluo could overturn.

Yet now, that ironclad law had been shattered before their very eyes.

Meanwhile, within Spirit Hall.

Bibi Dong took a deep breath, her full chest heaving violently.

She looked at the Ghost Douluo beside her and said, "Pass down the order. Have every scribe and scholar in Spirit Hall immediately copy down every single word of the Eternal Spring Technique displayed on the heavenly curtain!"

"Not just this technique—any information concerning the cultivation world that appears on the heavenly curtain in the future must all be recorded!"

Spirit Hall was not the only one.

The Heaven Dou Empire, the Star Luo Empire, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan...

Nearly every force issued the same order.

Copy it down frantically!

This was a supreme opportunity capable of changing the balance of the world!

Yet just as everyone was swept into a frenzy over this cultivation technique—

The image on the heavenly curtain zoomed in again, focusing on the final page of the Eternal Spring Technique.

It seemed to be the book's preface, or perhaps some basic explanatory notes.

"We cultivators walk against the will of heaven."

"Those at the Qi Refining stage may live for one hundred and twenty years."

"Those at the Foundation Establishment stage may live for two hundred years, fly upon artifacts, and go without food for months."

"Those at the Core Formation stage may live for five hundred years, their pill fire can shatter gold, and they may establish a sect."

"As for mighty Nascent Soul cultivators, they possess a lifespan of a thousand years. So long as their Nascent Soul remains undying, their physical body will not perish. They are titans of a region."

Upon seeing these lines describing lifespans—

Inside the main hall of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect in Heaven Dou City.

Ning Fengzhi could not help but draw in a sharp breath, scarcely believing his eyes.

"The Core Formation stage... a lifespan of five hundred years?"

Sword Douluo Chen Xin beside him also revealed a bitter expression and shook his head.

He was already over a hundred years old, considered long-lived in Douluo Continent.

Even at his level of ninety-seven, he could at most live to two hundred.

Unless one became a god, no one could escape the erosion of time.

Could any random Core Formation cultivator in this cultivation world really live five hundred years?

What about the Nascent Soul stage? A thousand years?

And that was only what the cultivation manuals of the human realm recorded.

What about the spirit realm?

And the immortal realm?