Spring Gives Way to Autumn, Twenty Years of Passing Time

Before long, the two arrived at a spacious mountain cave.

After tidying it up, they lit a bonfire.

Su Yueli slept on the inside, while Lu Chen slept outside, guarding the entrance.

"Master, should I continue practicing the breathing method next?"

Su Yueli voiced what had been on her mind. After all, she still did not have even a single move or stance.

After a moment of silence, Lu Chen said, "Immortal cultivators draw the spiritual energy of heaven and earth into their bodies; what they cultivate is something external. Martial artists have no spiritual roots, so what they cultivate is themselves."

"Martial Dao is treating your flesh, bones, sinews, and internal organs like a piece of iron, hammering them over and over..."

Su Yueli listened with rapt attention, completely free of the drowsiness she had always felt while studying.

This was her first encounter with true transcendent power. Immortal cultivators were blessed by heaven; beginning with the lowest realms of Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core... there were fifteen realms in total. Each step was a climb to heaven, and their lifespans readily stretched into the hundreds or thousands of years.

Some could even live for ten thousand years.

Martial Dao, meanwhile, had only ten realms.

Skin Tempering, Bone Forging, Blood Exchange, Inner Fortification, Martial Awakening, Astral Force, Divine Strength, Unleaking, Golden Body, Martial God.

"Master, why do martial artists only have ten realms?"

Su Yueli asked, "Are martial artists simply born inferior to immortal cultivators?"

Hearing this, Lu Chen fell silent for a long while.

At last, he let out a long sigh. "That is indeed the case. Spiritual roots are the stuff of immortals; they allow mortals to absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and gain transcendent power. That is something ordinary mortals cannot compare to."

"And martial artists are mortals too."

As he spoke, Lu Chen paused. Only after a long while did he helplessly say, "Thus, no matter how strong a martial artist becomes, they cannot defeat the passing years."

Even among martial artists who reached the Ninth Realm, or even the Tenth Realm, those who lived beyond one hundred and fifty were few enough to count on one's fingers!

Even with life-extending immortal treasures, they still possessed mortal bodies and could not endure for long.

And so, before they had enough time to deduce and break through to the Eleventh Realm, they would grow old and die midway.

These ten realms were not the end of Martial Dao, but the limit of a mortal's lifespan.

Su Yueli lowered her eyes, countless thoughts swirling through her mind.

For mortals, practicing martial arts and cultivating immortality were as far apart as heaven and earth. Yet this was her only path to contact transcendent power.

At the very least... she could experience it. Her transmigration would not have been in vain.

Pulling herself together, Su Yueli asked, "Master, what realm are you in now?"

"Third Blood-Exchange Realm."

A trace of pride appeared on Lu Chen's face. He rose and walked to the open flat ground outside the cave. "Besides the breathing method, you also need a fist technique. Mundane martial arts cannot truly serve in a life-and-death battle."

"This is a fist technique your master created amid piles of corpses. It has no name and consists of five forms, all for the sake of killing!"

Lu Chen exhaled, sank into his stance, and set his feet firm, his punches flying like the wind.

He executed the five forms in one seamless breath. "First form, Mountain Splitter!"

"Abandoning all defense for a pure, savage blow, used to shatter the enemy's defenses!"

"Second form, Bone Entangler!"

"Third form, City Crusher!"

"Fourth form, River Severing!"

"Fifth form, Life Burning!"

After finishing the five forms, Lu Chen withdrew his fists, his expression truly fierce. "The final form is a move to perish together with the enemy when backed into a corner. You reverse the breathing method and burn your blood and vitality in exchange for explosive power at the limit. Unless you are in a desperate situation, you must never use it!"

Standing at the cave entrance, Su Yueli watched the rock beneath his feet, crushed into a deep pit, and her breathing quickened.

Then she nodded, overjoyed. "Yes, Master!"

"How much of those five forms did you see clearly?" Lu Chen asked again.

At his words, Su Yueli walked out of the cave and assumed the opening stance of the first form, Mountain Splitter.

Her expression was solemn. "I saw them clearly. Starting today, I will practice them a thousand times, ten thousand times every day!"

Lu Chen smiled at that, taking it for nothing more than the wild words of a young person who did not know the height of heaven or depth of earth.

He watched Su Yueli begin practicing her fists, throwing punch after punch.

Sometimes he offered guidance, sometimes he demonstrated the moves himself.

Spring came and autumn went, cold gave way to heat, and twenty years passed in the blink of an eye.

The dead leaves in the mountains fell and grew anew, piling outside the cave entrance into layers of rotting mud.

The beasts changed batch after batch. The white-browed tiger that had once ruled the mountainside had already died of old age in its den fifteen years ago.

To the mortal world beyond the mountains, twenty years was enough for a child just learning to speak to grow into a man able to shoulder heavy burdens, and enough to wear a high-spirited youth down until his head was full of white hair.

Yet... time within the mountains seemed as though it had never passed.

Bang!

A dull thud rang out through the thick morning mist.

Atop a cliff, a young woman stood barefoot upon the rocks and suddenly thrust out a punch.

Morning light outlined her graceful figure. Her lovely face remained as smooth as it had been twenty years ago, without a single wrinkle or trace of age.

Twenty years—more than seven thousand three hundred days and nights.

Su Yueli could not remember how many punches she had thrown. She only knew that the enormous boulders on the cliff terrace, once taller than a person, had cracked apart one after another.

Rather than painstakingly cultivate the breathing method to accumulate blood and vitality like ordinary martial artists, she had thoroughly kneaded it into every strike and every retraction of her fists.

Opening move, Mountain Splitter.

A sonic boom actually rang through the air, sheer violence born from pouring all her strength out to the utmost.

Changing form, Bone Entangler.

Closing in, City Crusher...

The first three forms had long since been practiced through countless repetitions to the great mastery realm, fused into her marrow—almost a killing instinct carved into her bones.

As for the fourth form, River Severing, she had also entered the minor mastery realm.

"Hoo—"

Su Yueli slowly withdrew her fists, white vapor spilling from between her lips and lingering for a long time.

She spread her hand and felt the power within her that had crossed the threshold. Twenty years of effort had brought her Second Realm Bone Forging to completion. Next, she needed to focus on advancing her martial realm.

Arriving at the familiar mountain lake, she scooped up a handful of cool water and splashed it over her face, washing away the fine sweat from practicing her fists.

The ripples spread, and the gradually stilling surface of the lake reflected a lovely face that made even the passing years hold their breath.

Her skin was fair, her brows and eyes picturesque, and the tear mole beneath her clear, shallow eyes remained striking.

The youthful air unique to a girl of seventeen or eighteen was still frozen between her brows.

Su Yueli touched her reflection in the water with her fingertips, her brows furrowing.

"Twenty years have passed. Why do I show no sign of aging at all..."

She muttered to herself, deeply puzzled.

When mortals practiced martial arts, they burned their blood and vitality. No matter how high their realm, they could only strengthen their bodies and slow the onset of age.

If martial artists wanted to increase their lifespans, they could only rely on external things such as rare treasures of heaven and earth. Yet she clearly had no spiritual roots and was merely a mortal martial artist.

Unable to understand it, Su Yueli shook her head. She simply stopped drilling into a dead end and headed toward the cave.

A long life was naturally a good thing. Who would complain that their lifespan was too long?

She reached the cave entrance in less than half an hour.

Lu Chen was dragging a black boar out of the dense forest. By now, he no longer looked like a man in his thirties.

Twenty years had been like a dull knife, scraping the beard of the man whose blood and vitality had once burned like a furnace until it turned white.

At some point, her master's back had grown somewhat stooped. The scar on his face had been drowned beneath wrinkles, and none of its former fierce Killing Intent remained.

"Master." Su Yueli clasped her fists.

"Mhm, Yueli, you're back from practicing your fists?" Lu Chen turned and tossed the black boar onto the ground. A gentle smile flickered in his slightly clouded eyes.

"Mhm, I just finished."

Su Yueli lowered her eyes, hiding her complicated emotions. She stepped forward and lifted the black boar. "Master, please rest. I'll take care of it."

The knife rose and fell; she skinned it and removed the bones.

Without another word, she lit the bonfire, and grease dripped from the roasting meat.

Su Yueli tore off a piece of meat and handed it to Lu Chen. Looking at his aged face in the firelight, she ultimately could not hold herself back. "Master, what exactly is this strange ailment of mine?"

"Could it be that I'm actually a sealed immortal?"

Lu Chen accepted the roasted meat and gave a displeased snort of laughter, tugging at the wrinkles by the corners of his eyes. "An immortal? What kind of immortal doesn't even have spiritual roots?"

"If you were an immortal, even the wild boars in these mountains would be able to ride swords through the air."

"Mm..."

Su Yueli fell silent. That was true. What kind of immortal had no spiritual roots?

Lu Chen took a bite of meat. His gaze lingered for a moment on Su Yueli's face, which bore no marks of passing time, before he sighed softly. "Your master has traveled north and south for half his life and heard of all manner of things, but something like yours... truly is unheard of."

"No spirit medicine, no immortal arts, yet youth that never fades. It makes no sense, and there's nowhere to seek an answer."

But a moment later, he smiled in relief. "If you can't understand it, then don't dwell on it. Whether it is an illness or fate, so long as the heavens do not take you, live well. Live as long as you can."

"See for your master what wonders this world holds."