Looking back on this life.
At the start of my cultivation, resources were scarce, and my cultivation method was flawed.
But more crucially, I awakened the wisdom of my past lives too late in this life. My body had already taken its final shape.
Although I gradually repaired my foundation through the method of the five elements, I had lost the early advantage all the same.
And my spiritual root in this life encompassed all five elements, making cultivation considerably slower.
I have now lived through two sixty-year cycles. My body, blood and qi, and soul are all in decline...
This is the law of heaven and earth.
Foundation Establishment requires essence, qi, and spirit to unite as one, drawing upon the spiritual workings of heaven and earth to reshape the Dao foundation. It places extremely high demands on the body and soul.
Even though I have now reached the great perfection of Qi Refining.
Attempting Foundation Establishment is simply impossible.
Over a hundred years.
In this third life of mine, I have wasted far too much time after all.
Xu Xuan slowly opened his eyes.
His gaze was calm, without much dejection.
There was only a faint regret and deeper reflection.
He possessed the supreme treasure, the Book of Time.
He could cultivate toward immortality for a hundred lifetimes.
Long was the road, and far did it stretch.
A moment's gain or loss was no great matter to him.
Since Foundation Establishment was beyond hope in this life.
He needed all the more to pave the way for the next.
I must leave enough resources for my next life.
I must also prepare all kinds of cultivation methods and secret arts in advance.
In my next life, I cannot spend too much time gathering these things...
He had amassed vast resources in this life.
Spirit stones, pills, spiritual materials, cultivation jade slips-too many to count.
He also had a great many wondrous objects that aided cultivation of the five elements.
Whatever spiritual root he had in his next life, they could support his cultivation to the Qi Refining Realm.
These treasures must be hidden separately.
I will leave some in the lineage.
The rest must be hidden in secret vaults outside... several of them.
The Lingyan Xu Lineage has now begun to take shape.
Even after this body passes away, its ties with the Azure Wood Sect will not be completely severed.
Xu Lineage descendants can be found in many sect branch institutions.
Besides, a branch of the bloodline has been left in both the Xu Household Market and Hundred Fragrance Valley.
Even if the Azure Wood Sect is destroyed and the main Lingyan lineage perishes, I can still reincarnate and return to life in the next lifetime.
After more than twenty years of tempering, Xu Xingzong has developed depth and shrewdness.
With Qingchan assisting him, leading the Lingyan Xu Lineage to endure should not be difficult.
This way, I can also use my remaining time to establish schools of immortal cultivation for the Xu Lineage's descendants and teach the profound arts...
With his mind made up, Xu Xuan acted immediately.
Under the pretext of consolidating his cultivation and cultivating in seclusion, he ventured deep into Spiritual Expanse Mountain and established several cave abodes using formations and restrictions.
The formations and restrictions outside the caves embodied the essence of everything he had comprehended in this life.
Even a grandmaster of formations would have a layer of skin stripped off if they rashly charged in.
He transferred most of his rare resources there.
Especially the pills and spiritual objects beneficial to Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment.
At the same time, he took his cultivation insights from this life and his experience cultivating the Evergreen Technique.
As well as his analyses and judgments of the Yan Kingdom, the war between the Azure Wood Sect and the Profound Sword Gate, and the powers surrounding the Yue Kingdom.
He inscribed them all onto jade slips and stored them deep within the various cave abodes.
Afterward, he secretly summoned Xu Qingchan.
Deep within the spiritual mountain stood a secluded little courtyard.
Inside the quiet chamber, the lamplight was no larger than a bean.
As Xu Xuan looked at the increasingly otherworldly figure before him, he unwittingly fell into a slight daze, as though he were seeing Liu Yun, his first wife from his previous life.
After a brief silence, he spoke slowly.
"Qingchan."
"Do you know why I summoned you?"
Xu Qingchan replied respectfully:
"Do you have an important task for me, Grandfather?"
Xu Xuan nodded, his gaze deep.
"We cultivators ought to wrest our lives from heaven, but heaven's will cannot be fathomed. What fate does not grant, we must not force..."
"In this life, I spent my early years in ignorance. Though I was fortunate enough to reach Qi Refining, my Dao foundation is flawed. Foundation Establishment is already beyond hope."
At his words, Xu Qingchan's delicate frame trembled.
She abruptly raised her head, her eyes filled with disbelief.
Her grandfather, who could do anything in her eyes, had actually summoned her to speak his final wishes!
"Grandfather!"
"You..."
Xu Xuan waved a hand, interrupting her. "There is no need for sorrow."
"I still have over ten years of life left."
"Although the lineage has taken root, the winds and clouds of the cultivation world are unpredictable. We must remain vigilant."
As he spoke, he changed the subject and gazed at Xu Qingchan.
"Qingchan, your aptitude is exceptional, and your character is excellent. You are the Xu Household's hope for the future."
"You even have a chance of reaching Foundation Establishment!"
"I wish to entrust you with the duty of protecting the Xu Household, along with a great responsibility concerning its future."
Xu Qingchan immediately knelt and bowed to the ground, her tone resolute:
"Grandfather, you gave Qingchan a new life, and Grandmother raised and cared for me!"
"Whatever you command, I would not refuse even if it meant dying ten thousand deaths!"
"Good."
Xu Xuan swept his sleeve and lifted her to her feet.
"First, after I pass away in meditation, you must assist Xingzong and protect the Xu Household."
"Ensure that it endures and grows in the Southern Wilds."
"If you truly encounter a calamity beyond your strength to resist, you may leave alone. I will not blame you."
"Second..."
Xu Xuan took out an antique-looking square bronze box.
"This is the key to a secret vault I have set aside. It concerns the Xu Household's true reserves and its opportunity for resurgence."
"I expended my lifespan and exhausted my efforts, and at last glimpsed a corner of the future."
"In the future..."
"If a boy appears in the lineage who possesses a spiritual root, has a pure and good heart, and can unlock this mechanism."
"You may take him to the secret vault to seek the opportunity I have left behind."
Xu Qingchan accepted the square bronze box.
It felt heavy in her hands, as though it bore a burden of a thousand tons.
With a sweep of her spiritual sense, she immediately discovered that the mechanical box was incomparably complex.
It contained many profound mysteries of formations.
Even she could not unlock it.
Knowing full well that this object was no trifling matter, Xu Qingchan solemnly put it away.
"Qingchan will remember!"
"I will never fail the trust you have placed in me, Grandfather!"
Having made arrangements for the most important matter, Xu Xuan felt somewhat reassured.
Afterward, he spent several more years compiling the Xu Lineage Qi Refining Art.
It detailed the cultivation process from an ordinary mortal to the early Qi Refining stage.
All manner of profound changes, how to hone one's foundation, and the cultivation insights of two lifetimes were gathered within it.
At the same time, he established a strict and orderly reward system for the Xu Lineage.
He vigorously developed the lineage's schools of immortal cultivation.
Regardless of aptitude.
Anyone of the Xu Lineage's bloodline could enter the schools to cultivate upon reaching six years of age.
Any progress would be rewarded.
All expenses were borne by the main lineage's treasury.
The Azure Mystery Hall's reach also extended throughout the Yue Kingdom.
It was different from his previous life in the Yan Kingdom.
Back then, he had only been at Meridian Opening, and there had been few cultivators in his clan. He had been hampered at every turn and held at others' mercy.
Now, however, the Lingyan Xu Lineage had quite a name throughout the Yue Kingdom.
Though most of that came from having the Azure Wood Sect behind it.
Xu Qingchan, Xu Xingzong, and the other Xu Lineage descendants who had ventured out to temper themselves.
Had also made their names known within the Yue Kingdom's cultivation world.
The little courtyard where he lived in seclusion had been built atop Spiritual Expanse Mountain.
Few people came here.
Especially after Yuan Zhilan passed away, he was the only one left.
In this life.
He had not fathered a single child.
After his previous lives, Xu Xuan's bloodline had long since spread its branches and leaves.
Having no children in this life did not affect anything.
Yet until her death, Yuan Zhilan had regretted being unable to continue his bloodline.
Over these years, to fulfill her wish.
Xu Xuan had tried every sort of method, even finding quite a few dual cultivation arts.
Unfortunately, Yuan Zhilan was not a cultivator. After they both passed sixty, their blood and qi declined, leaving them even less able to do as they wished.
Gradually, Xu Xuan also lost the desire to leave offspring and devoted himself fully to pushing toward the Qi Refining Realm.
In my next life, I must find a woman with a spiritual root and marry early.
I cannot be constrained by spiritual root aptitude again...
His arrangements were now nearly complete. His resources and cultivation methods were already sufficient.
The only thing he could not control was his spiritual root aptitude in his next life.
Because of the Earth Spirit of the Eight Directions.
Everything has gone smoothly in this life. Even when there were setbacks, I could turn peril into safety.
My luck in reincarnation... should not be too bad either, should it?
That day.
He sat alone atop Spiritual Expanse Mountain, watching the sea of clouds churn.
The setting sun was red as blood.
More than a hundred years flashed through his mind, one by one.
His muddled days before awakening the wisdom of his past lives, his struggles in the Azure Wood Sect's herb garden, his maneuver of using the grain famine to reap gains from cultivation lineages, and his experiences coming to the Southern Wilds to develop Spiritual Expanse Mountain...
Every little detail remained vivid before his eyes.
Everything that should be done has been done.
What will my next life be like?
A barely perceptible smile touched his lips.
His gaze pierced the sea of clouds, as though he could see the distant future.
The mountain wind whipped fiercely, stirring his graying hair and beard.
His shadow stretched long beneath the setting sun.
Though it carried a trace of the desolation of a hero in his twilight years.
More than anything, it held resolve.
After a hundred lifetimes of cultivating anew, he needed only to wait for time to turn and his true spirit to awaken once more.
Then he would return once again amid the boundless red dust of the mortal world.