Your lifespan is a river, mine is an ocean

Chen Xia's eyes lit up.

This "Blood-Burning Soul-Extinguishing Method" was just perfect.

A youth killed a young adult, a young adult killed someone middle-aged, and someone middle-aged killed an elder.

Didn't that fit his situation perfectly?

The part about trading a hundred years of his lifespan for eighty years of someone else's made Chen Xia's heart stir all the more.

It looked like a losing proposition.

But Chen Xia was running a business with no overhead. Forget trading a hundred years for eighty-even a thousand years for eighty was fine. Trade away. His selling point was simply that he lived long.

Chen Xia continued reading the introduction, but his delighted expression suddenly turned into a frown.

This "Blood-Burning Soul-Extinguishing Method" was an unfinished method from ancient times. The reason it remained unfinished was simple: its creator had traded himself to death.

A deed worthy of song and tears, that was.

So this technique currently couldn't trade a hundred years for eighty. It could only trade a hundred for twenty, and it couldn't trade away an old man's lifespan, either.

The explanation in the text was even simpler.

The Great Dao of the heavens did not permit it.

In other words, this "Blood-Burning Soul-Extinguishing Method" couldn't kill anyone. It could only kill its user.

It was like getting into a fight and agreeing to take turns striking each other. It might not look very fair, but it wasn't too outrageous.

Then you stabbed the other person in the arm, and just as you waited to take a stab yourself, your opponent suddenly pulled a gun out from between his legs.

For other cultivators, this "Blood-Burning Soul-Extinguishing Method" wasn't even worth calling a chicken rib.

It was purely a suicide method.

Luckily, Chen Xia wasn't an ordinary cultivator.

His business had no overhead. Even trading a hundred years of lifespan for twenty was a profit for him, but now he saw another restriction.

This "Blood-Burning Soul-Extinguishing Method" had a cooldown. After one trade, he had to wait five years before trading again.

Calling it a chicken rib no longer did it justice. This was fucking chicken shit.

The Divine Ability gave a rough explanation.

Cultivators were all counted within the fortune of heaven and earth, a part of how heaven and earth operated. The stronger an existence was, the greater the position it occupied.

Trading a hundred years for twenty looked very unfair and utterly useless.

But if you looked at it from another angle...

If you traded a hundred years of a Nascent Soul Cultivator's lifespan for twenty years of a Great Emperor's, wouldn't that be fucking incredible?

If you found ten thousand Nascent Soul Cultivators and had them all practice this "Blood-Burning Soul-Extinguishing Method," couldn't they directly trade two or three Great Emperors to death?

Then everyone could forget cultivating and simply compete over whose side had more people.

The selling point would be that unity was strength.

But the will of heaven and earth certainly wouldn't allow such a situation, so these two restrictions appeared.

First, it couldn't trade away an old man's lifespan.

Second, it had a five-year cooldown.

These two restrictions completely sealed off the life-trading power of the "Blood-Burning Soul-Extinguishing Method," leaving it utterly unappealing to ordinary cultivators.

Even its creator had traded himself to death, leaving only this half-finished method in the world.

Chen Xia was quite torn as well. He asked the book spirit, "Can I look at the other techniques that consume lifespan?"

The book spirit nodded and casually beckoned. Several techniques floated above Chen Xia's head, transmitting their contents in turn.

The process was quick. Before long, Chen Xia understood them all, and his frown deepened.

The other lifespan-burning techniques weren't outstanding. They were all run-of-the-mill methods that sacrificed lifespan to increase combat strength.

But the increases weren't large. At most, they added half, not even reaching double, and using them had lingering effects on the body, burning Qi and Blood along with lifespan.

Unacceptable. Thoroughly unacceptable.

If they only burned lifespan, that would have been fine. After all, Chen Xia was running a business with no overhead. Spending a few hundred or a thousand years of lifespan didn't matter, as long as it worked.

But burning Qi and Blood as well was out of the question.

It was like catching crabs in a river. Once caught, they could be sold-a guaranteed profit with no risk of loss. Then, as you reached in for a crab, a passing snake bit you.

That extra cost was a little too steep.

Chen Xia really wasn't willing. After thinking it over, he still decided to choose the "Blood-Burning Soul-Extinguishing Method." Even if he couldn't directly trade someone to death now, he could keep upgrading the Cultivation Method.

As long as he completed the "Blood-Burning Soul-Extinguishing Method" later, even trading a thousand years for five hundred would be a huge profit for Chen Xia.

Chen Xia collected the Cultivation Method and leisurely returned to his cave abode. He had already decided whose life to trade away first.

You're the one!

At the far end of the sword tip.

Old Fisherman had already received the news. His brows furrowed slightly, his expression somewhat startled and uncertain.

"A Divine Ability that burns lifespan? Why would he choose a technique like that? That's no good thing for a cultivator. Could it be..."

The black robe reporting below shook his empty hood. "According to the book spirit, he chose the unfinished ancient Divine Ability, the 'Blood-Burning Soul-Extinguishing Method.'"

Old Fisherman's frown deepened. His hands, clasped behind his back, tightened slightly.

As someone who held a high position in the Azure Heaven Sword Sea, he naturally knew of an unusual Divine Ability like the "Blood-Burning Soul-Extinguishing Method."

He also knew it was a Divine Ability that traded life for life, with numerous restrictions. Its creator had even bizarrely traded himself to death.

This Divine Ability was practically trash. It was only kept in the Heaven Pavilion to fill out the inventory.

He hadn't expected anyone to actually choose it, much less Chen Xia.

"Go back. Don't spread word of this. If anyone asks, just say he picked a random Great Dao mental method," Old Fisherman said after a moment's thought.

"All right." The black robe dipped his empty hood, and his figure flickered, vanishing from the hall.

Old Fisherman's expression grew increasingly grave. He paced without stopping, constantly speculating.

Could Chen Xia's Dao heart really have suffered such severe damage that he had now chosen to take this crooked path?

But surely it wasn't that bad. Hadn't he only lost a wisp of divine sense in that small world? Surely that wasn't nearly enough to drive him to such extremes?

He was a Great Emperor seedling with limitless prospects. Forget becoming a Great Emperor-as long as he became a Saint, he could force his way into the Lower Realm and directly blast that entire world to death.

How could such a minor matter have damaged his Dao heart so badly that he took a crooked path?

It shouldn't have. It really shouldn't have.

Old Fisherman's expression was solemn, his brows tightly knitted, his worry spilling over.

There were many Great Emperor seedlings in the world, but not many pure humans like Chen Xia.

Whether the other Great Emperor seedlings rose to prominence didn't matter.

But Chen Xia had to rise in the coming great era. He might not become a Great Emperor, but he had to become at least a Quasi-Saint.

Before he became a Quasi-Saint, nothing could be allowed to go wrong!

Light flickered in Old Fisherman's eyes. He decided to bring some rare treasures and go properly comfort this fine disciple he had acquired with such difficulty.

Meanwhile, his "fine disciple" was sitting in his cave abode, beginning to study the "Blood-Burning Soul-Extinguishing Method."

This Divine Ability was simple and easy to understand. Even a Golden Core could use it. The only question was whether they were willing.

It could be called unrivaled in suicide.

Chen Xia sighed. Fortunately, his own business had no overhead.

He set his divine sense in motion, and a blade seemed to appear abruptly in his mind, lying across a long river of time.

This was the length of Old Fisherman's lifespan. It looked like a river of time a thousand zhang long.

Bearing heaven's will, the mind blade slashed down forcefully, cutting away half a meter of the river, taking twenty years off his life.

Neither gods nor ghosts knew.

Next, it was time to cut Chen Xia's own lifespan.

The mind blade changed scenes.

And there appeared a...

Vast, boundless ocean of time!