"Ancestor! What are you trying to do?!"
Si Shuo tried to break free in terror, but however he struggled, that seemingly withered hand did not budge.
"Shut up and listen quietly."
Ancestor Si Ming's voice suddenly grew calm, no longer sounding as though he was clinging to his last breath.
Under the shocked gazes of Si Shuo, Li Tiezhu, and the others, he slowly released his hand. His body actually settled into a cross-legged position and slowly floated into the air.
His face, which should have been drained of all vitality, now radiated a solemn, sacred dignity.
A vast, timeworn aura turned into specks of green light and wafted from his body, making him resemble an ancient deity reborn from withered wood.
"All my life, I have hidden here and there, scheming and scraping by. I have long since calculated every way I might die."
"Knowing that I would fall sooner or later, how could I not prepare a way out for myself and the Si Household?"
Ancestor Si Ming opened his eyes slightly, looking down at Si Shuo with a clear gaze.
"Third, you have practiced the Yi Wood Eternal Spring Art too. Do you know why our Si Household reveres this art as our supreme inheritance, despite its slow progress?"
Si Shuo's eyes reddened as he gritted his teeth. "Life without end, continuity without cease..."
"That is only the surface." Ancestor Si Ming shook his head and smiled faintly. "The true heart of the Yi Wood Eternal Spring Art lies in one word: accumulation."
"Most cultivation arts in this world seek explosive power and killing force in an instant."
"But ours seeks accumulation, day after day, year after year."
"What it accumulates is not merely the Spiritual Energy or Immortal Essence between heaven and earth, but a lifetime's