The People at the Summit

In an instant, the Reason within Li Shun surged wildly.

The heavenly barrier standing before the upper grade of the Spirit Resonance Realm suddenly dissolved.

As naturally as water flowing into a channel, Li Shun broke through.

"Thank you, senior." Though startled, Li Shun bowed again at once.

"Come. Let's watch the sunrise over Dai Mountain." The man in black turned back toward the horizon.

After a moment's hesitation, Li Shun strode to his side.

A red morning sun was struggling to leap above the horizon.

All things seemed to catch fire, bathed in golden light.

The light drove away the night's deathly stillness, and Heaven and Earth came alive again with the vigor of day.

Li Shun sensed a vast, pure vitality bursting forth with the dawn.

It felt utterly different from the vitality the Azure Wood Invocation forcibly drew from Heaven and Earth.

The vitality summoned by the Azure Wood Invocation was law, a natural order: life defined against death.

But the vitality heralded by this sunrise belonged to the flow and transformation of all things.

Everything was just beginning, brimming with energy yet to be unleashed.

Longevity.

A word suddenly surfaced in Li Shun's mind.

The first state of the Twelve Longevity Method bore a striking resemblance to this moment.

"Longevity." At that very moment, whether by coincidence or not, the man in black said the same word.

Alarm bells rang through Li Shun's mind.

After Elder Wei's earlier advice, Li Shun had made a habit of leaving only the bare minimum of his consciousness in a puppet when controlling it.

The rest remained hidden within the Square Inch Space.

That kept stray thoughts from betraying him to anyone who might peer into his mind.

Now, having inexplicably encountered this unfathomable man atop Dai Mountain, Li Shun