"Us? Cultivate immortality?" Chen Guofu glanced at his callused hands. "I'm almost fifty, already halfway to the grave. Can I still cultivate?"
Chen Qianqian darted out of the Back Courtyard, carrying a wooden sword she had picked up somewhere, and shouted excitedly, "Dad! Of course you can! I can already kill a cow with one punch!"
Liu Shuqin glared at her daughter. "You little brat! Mind your manners!"
Ignoring Chen Qianqian's antics, Chen Lin turned to Changqingzi. "Take out your Evergreen Art."
Changqingzi's expression turned solemn. He immediately took a Jade Slip from his Storage Bag and set it on the Stone Table with both hands.
"Second Uncle, Auntie." Chen Lin pointed at the Jade Slip. "The cultivation arts distributed in the village focus on fighting and killing, but I only want you to increase your lifespan. Once I find better arts, I'll replace this one for you."
"Then what do we practice?" Chen Guofu asked.
"This." Chen Lin pointed at Changqingzi. "It's the art he practices."
Chen Guofu sized up Changqingzi's thin, wiry frame. "This old immortal looks... seventy or eighty?"
Changqingzi coughed twice and straightened his back. "Honored elder, this old servant is exactly twelve hundred years old."
Clatter.
The half-smoked pipe fell from Chen Guofu's hand.
Liu Shuqin gasped. Chen Muyao covered her mouth, her eyes widening into circles.
Twelve hundred years!
That went far beyond anything they had ever understood about life.
"This art isn't suited to combat, and its offensive power is mediocre," Chen Lin said, bluntly exposing its shortcomings. "But it has one advantage. Longevity. As long as you practice steadily, living a few hundred years will be easy."
Chen Lin looked at his elders, his gaze softening.
"The world out there is chaotic. I don't lack fighters, and I don't need you risking