A Divine Ability That Burned Lifespan

"Ten thousand years is too long. A few hundred years should be about right. There won't be much benefit in continuing to recuperate beyond that."

The Old Fisherman put a little more weight into his tone.

Hearing the change in the Old Fisherman's tone, Chen Xia lowered his head and replied in a muffled voice, "Mm."

In any case, he would just pretend his Dao heart was damaged. If anything came up, they should leave him out of it.

In truth, Chen Xia had no Dao heart at all.

He didn't need any Dao heart to cultivate. All he had to do was add points.

After I painstakingly add points for a few hundred thousand years, could I really still lose to those Great Emperors who have only cultivated for a few tens of thousands of years?

Heaven rewarded diligence. How could a mere few tens of thousands of years even presume to compare with hundreds of thousands of years of accumulation?

Besides, on the path of cultivation, combat strength was secondary.

The first thing to compete over was who lived longer.

They could casually live twenty thousand years first, then come challenge Chen Xia.

The Old Fisherman offered a few more words of concern afterward, all empty pleasantries. Just before leaving, he suddenly said,

"You can visit the Heaven Pavilion toward the sword tip. Provisional disciples are entitled to choose one Sea-Overturning Realm Divine Ability or Secret Method. You can go see whether anything suits you."

"If you're interested in how our immortal lineage specifically divides the cultivation realms, you can also look it up in the Heaven Pavilion. If you aren't interested, forget it. It isn't anything important anyway, as long as you can grow stronger yourself."

"All right." Chen Xia nodded, his head still lowered, looking listless.

The Old Fisherman glanced at him, lingered no longer, and vanished in a flash.

The cave abode fell quiet.

Chen Xia looked at the ground, considering his plans from here.

The Old Fisherman had agreed to give him a few hundred years, which certainly wasn't enough for Chen Xia. He had reached Nascent Soul in a little over four hundred years in the small world. That was his strength on the surface.

His true combat strength in secret, meanwhile, was his 399 strength, roughly equivalent to peak Nascent Soul strength.

He now combined the combat strength of two Nascent Souls in one person, along with True Dragon Qi and a Divine Ability of the Great Dao of Time. Even if he couldn't call himself invincible within his realm, he was at least half-invincible.

But given his current situation, that clearly still wasn't enough. He needed more strength.

Chen Xia considered using Time Stop, but the answer was that it simply wouldn't work.

Because he couldn't stop time throughout the entire Great All-Heavens.

Descending into the heavens wouldn't work either. His previous strand of divine sense hadn't returned yet, and if he split his divine sense again, Chen Xia would lose control.

Splitting off one portion of divine sense to lie low in a small world was already his limit.

That also counted as one of his trump cards.

Chen Xia sighed, feeling that the road of adding points truly was a heavy burden and a long journey.

If he really could live for millions of years, he should be invincible by then, right?

Chen Xia lazily stood up, intending to visit the Heaven Pavilion at the sword tip and see whether he could find a cultivation method that suited him.

The journey wasn't far.

But Chen Xia walked very slowly, meandering along the road fashioned from sword patterns.

Other provisional disciples stood along the roadside, all elites from the outside world. Among them were even some Ancient Lineages: a little demon god with six hearts, ancient demonic creatures born with divine eyes, and others.

Chen Xia had never greeted them, much less had any dealings with them. He only happened to run into them occasionally.

But these Ancient Lineages knew that Chen Xia was the third Great Emperor seedling among the Azure Heaven Sword Sea's provisional disciples.

Great Emperors were few; Great Emperor seedlings were many.

This was something the elders of the Vast Sea Sword Sect often said.

But were Great Emperor seedlings really that plentiful?

Among the current hundred-plus provisional disciples, even the lowest level of talent was an Ancient Lineage, and there were even Supreme Lineages and Mythical Lineages.

Yet there were only three Great Emperor seedlings.

The first was a holy son of another race who possessed the Demon Venerable Dao Bone. It was said that he had come to cultivate in the Azure Heaven Sword Sea solely for its imperial method.

The second was an unparalleled prodigy of the Azure Heaven Sword Sea who had avoided two great eras and only now emerged into the world, reputed to possess divine eyes that could discern the three thousand Great Daos, along with an immortal physique invincible within the same realm.

The third was Chen Xia.

There was nothing special about him. Supposedly, his fortune was very good.

Two Ancient Lineages kept scrutinizing Chen Xia, hoping to spot something extraordinary, but there really didn't seem to be anything.

The current provisional disciples had divided into two camps led by the two Great Emperor seedlings. Undercurrents surged within them, and they had even established connections with supreme elders in the Saint realm.

They were only waiting for the entrance selection five hundred years from now to begin the true contest, to shake past and present and claim the position of the Azure Heaven Sword Sea's Sword Scion before the next great era began.

Both Great Emperor seedlings wanted that position and had put tremendous effort toward it, seeking to contend for the supreme imperial path in the coming flourishing great era.

As for Chen Xia, the third Great Emperor seedling, although he had done nothing at all, the other two had already set their sights on him.

Chen Xia himself neither competed nor fought over anything, but the others did.

He stood on this chessboard, and in an important position at that. He was destined to receive their "attention."

Fortunately, nothing happened for now. Chen Xia leisurely reached the foot of the Heaven Pavilion and looked up. The thousand-zhang pavilion towered high, like a gigantic sword driven into the ground, majestic and imposing.

Guarding the entrance was a voluminous black robe. No figure could be seen inside it at all; it looked as though only a black robe was moving.

Chen Xia approached and politely asked, "May I go in?"

The black robe swayed, and an eerie voice came from beneath it. "Chen Xia, provisional disciple. Entitled to select one Sea-Overturning Realm Divine Ability or Secret Method. Permitted entry to the first three floors."

Chen Xia nodded and was just lifting his foot to enter when he suddenly stopped and asked the black robe,

"Could you recommend any cultivation methods? Something like burning lifespan to increase combat strength. Lifespan isn't important. Mainly, I just want a boost."

The black robe fell silent for a moment, presumably having never heard such a strange request before. Only after a while did it reply,

"There are book spirits in the Heaven Pavilion. Go inside and ask a book spirit."

"Good, good, good." Chen Xia nodded, lingered no longer, and strode into the Heaven Pavilion.

The moment his foot landed, he had already reached the third floor. There were no shelves around him, much less any books, only clusters of seven-colored light.

A pure-white little figure flew out of the light and hovered in midair. With an impassive expression, it asked Chen Xia,

"What kind of Divine Ability or Secret Method do you want? Give me a general range, and I can help you search."

"Something that burns lifespan," Chen Xia replied, somewhat expectant.

The book spirit swept a hand through the light, and several sheets of ancient hide parchment appeared before it as it said,

"There aren't many lifespan-burning Divine Abilities and Secret Methods in the collection. Only one reaches the Mountain-Moving Realm. It counts as an ancient Secret Method. Do you want it?"

"What exactly does it do?" Chen Xia asked curiously.

The book spirit waved its hand. The ancient hide parchment in the very middle floated out and settled above Chen Xia's head as it said,

"Read it yourself."

Chen Xia looked up, and countless words poured madly into his mind, describing the effects of this Divine Ability.

"Blood-Burning Soul-Extinguishing Method."

To kill another, first kill yourself.

I cut away a hundred years of my lifespan in exchange for eighty years of yours.

The young killed the grown, the grown killed the middle-aged, and the middle-aged killed the old.

A fight with lives on the line!

PS: Too much came up today. I'll make it up with five updates tomorrow. Thank you, brothers, for your support and gifts. Seriously, thank you so much.

Here's a two-dimensional beauty as your reward.