Fan Youfu lowered his eyes. A drooping lotus leaf covered half his face, hiding any flicker of emotion.
"For nearly a thousand years, the martial arts of this world have been in decline."
Jia Hu looked at Fan Youfu. "Aside from those who deliberately conceal their abilities, few have shattered the void through martial power. Only Bai Xiang Shou, the second disciple of Great Chen's state preceptor, has done so. Other talents of breathtaking brilliance have become all but impossible to find. Do you know why?"
Fan Youfu covered his head with the lotus leaf again, his voice emerging muffled beneath it. "Spiritual energy's too thin."
"Precisely." Jia Hu nodded. "At its root, this is because the Primordial Chaos Fruit needs to devour vast quantities of Heaven and Earth Primordial Energy to grow. Like a bottomless pit, it has swallowed energy in the Mortal World for ten thousand years, thinning the world's spiritual energy day by day. Breaking through cultivation realms is now more than ten times harder than it was in ancient times."
"Yet calamity and fortune lean upon each other."
He suddenly smiled. "Precisely because breakthroughs are so difficult, those who achieve Ascension have exceptionally solid foundations. Once they reach the Upper Realm, its abundant spiritual energy and high-level cultivation methods let them advance a thousand miles a day. Bai Xiang Shou is living proof. He cultivated bitterly in the mortal realm for decades and reached only the Grandmaster Realm, yet within two years of Ascension, he became a Golden Immortal. Even in the Immortal Realm, he is now a figure of some standing."
Jia Hu leaned forward slightly, resting his elbows on the grease-stained wooden table.
"According to our deductions," he said, lowering his voice almost to a whisper, "the Primordial Chaos Fruit is only three to