When this scene reached Douluo Continent on the other side of the heavenly screen, it instantly stirred up waves more turbulent than any revelation before it. Everyone on the continent who knew of it was stunned.
The noisy discussion in Shrek Square came to an abrupt halt. The next second, the entire square erupted.
Yu Xiaogang was the first to jump out. His face flushed red, he craned his neck and shouted, "Nonsense! Utter nonsense! When has anyone ever lived forever? Since ancient times, few have lived to seventy. Even a Peerless Douluo can't escape the cycle of life and death, so how could anyone live forever?"
"That brat's talking complete rubbish to fool idiots!" Flender and Liu Erlong hurriedly chimed in, but they couldn't hide the curiosity in their voices. Even they didn't dare say it with certainty.
No one really took up Yu Xiaogang's argument. Ning Rongrong murmured, "Eternal life? If we really could live forever, would we be able to stay with the people around us forever?"
Ning Fengzhi's hands trembled incessantly. He turned his head, swallowed, and asked Chen Xin beside him, "Uncle Jian, look. Ye Lingtian has been in his sect for fifty years, but doesn't he still look like he's only in his early twenties?"
Chen Xin stared at the young man in blue robes on the heavenly screen, his eyes frighteningly bright. His Adam's apple bobbed for a long while before he spoke. "Fifty years without his appearance changing-that's already a realm we wouldn't even dare imagine... What he said about eternal life might not be false."
In Spirit Hall's Worship Hall, the anger that had filled Qian Daoliu's chest vanished in an instant. He sat rigid in his seat, unconsciously repeating, "Eternal life... It really exists?"
He had lived for nearly two hundred years, and his body had long been going downhill. He had long been prepared to sacrifice himself for Qian Renxue, but when those two words struck him, even his steadfast heart couldn't help but stir.
Bibi Dong tightened her fingers around her teacup, while the hand hanging at her side clenched white. Who in the world didn't want to live forever?
In the Heaven Dou Imperial Palace, Xue Ye abruptly pushed himself up from the dragon throne. The hand braced against it trembled, a startling light burst from his clouded eyes, and even his voice shook.
"Eternal life! There really is a path to eternal life!"
The entire court erupted at once. Civil and military officials whispered among themselves, their eyes red. Who didn't want to live longer? Who didn't want eternal life?
Back at the edge of the sword forest on Sword-Seeking Peak, Ye Lingtian watched Qian Renxue's shocked expression. He merely smiled faintly and added, "The path of immortal cultivation has always been about seizing the fortune of heaven and earth."
"Cultivators at the Body Tempering Stage are already unaffected by ordinary illnesses and can live to a hundred."
"Qi Refining Stage cultivators are nourished by spiritual Qi and become whole, adding fifty years to their lives."
After a pause, Ye Lingtian continued, "Foundation Establishment is different. Once they build the foundation of magic power, they can shed their mortal bodies and be reborn, rise above the mundane, cultivate divine abilities, and fly on swords. Their lifespan reaches two hundred years."
"Above that is my realm. Spiritual Qi gathers into a core, becoming a seamless whole. That is the Golden Core, with a lifespan of five hundred years."
"Above that, the Nascent Soul's lifespan increases severalfold. One can sit and watch dynasties rise and fall while remaining unchanged, with a full two thousand years to live. At the Spirit Transformation realm above that, the lifespan reaches five thousand years."
"After that, one progresses all the way to the Tribulation Transcendence Stage and ascends successfully, becoming as long-lived as heaven and earth. I don't know what comes after that."
Ye Lingtian shook his head helplessly. "So far, there's no record of anyone returning after ascending."
Qian Renxue suddenly raised her eyes to the clear-featured, otherworldly young man before her. Everything she had fought for over decades undercover in Heaven Dou was only the starting point in this world.
Could she reach the eternal life she had never even dared imagine simply by cultivating diligently, one step at a time?
The mountain wind blew again, carrying the faint scent of pine from the young man. Qian Renxue gripped the hem of her clothes. The gloom left by the abolition of her cultivation vanished completely, and an unprecedented, burning light kindled in her eyes.
Meanwhile, on Douluo Continent's side of the heavenly screen, whether they belonged to the imperial family, a sect, or Spirit Hall, everyone's gaze was fixed firmly on that screen. In their ears and hearts, only those two words echoed over and over:
Eternal life?
Eternal life!
He waved a hand and said with a smile, "You've got some motivation now, right? Go back and memorize the acupuncture points."
The tips of Qian Renxue's ears instantly flushed pink. She lowered her head, answered him, and hurried away, her steps a little lighter.
Ye Lingtian watched her retreating figure and chuckled softly, then turned back to the sword forest to collect the swords.
Yu Xiaogang stood in the middle of the crowd, his face bright red. His earlier words cursing Ye Lingtian for talking rubbish still hung in the air, so he could only crane his neck and stubbornly insist, "Even if eternal life really exists, so what? Only someone like my Little San, who knows when to yield and when to stand firm and holds righteousness in his heart, can reach the top in the end!"
No one contradicted him. Everyone's thoughts were fixed on the words "eternal life." Who had time to undermine him?
The anger Qian Daoliu had held in for so long had vanished completely. He stared at Qian Renxue's retreating figure on the heavenly screen, his Adam's apple bobbing again and again. "Good, cultivate well... If my granddaughter can form a Golden Core and live five hundred years, I can close my eyes in death."
Bibi Dong's fingertips turned white around her teacup, and a dark glimmer surfaced in her eyes. She had served the Rakshasa God like an ox or a horse all her life, yet she would live only a few decades. If eternal life were truly possible, who would willingly remain a pawn?
All of Douluo Continent was thrown into turmoil by the words "eternal life," but none of that had anything to do with Ye Lingtian and the others.
In the blink of an eye, three days passed.
In a dense forest in a river valley, Tang San had traveled with Soul-Devouring Zhenren's group for three days and had figured out their plan.
It turned out this was not Soul-Devouring Zhenren's first time slaughtering a city on such a scale. He had done it once every five years for decades, striking once, hiding for a few years, then emerging again to collect souls to aid his cultivation.
As for talk of a city's people being plunged into suffering, or of the demonic path being utterly inhumane, such words had never constrained him.
In two lifetimes, from stealing into the Scripture Depository in Central Shu to take the Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record, to entering Slaughter City on Douluo Continent and staining his hands with the blood of hundreds upon hundreds, he had long believed in the rule that the strong were supreme.
Resources were meant for the strong to seize. If he were in Soul-Devouring Zhenren's position, he would make the same choice to grow stronger through cultivation. That little bit of bloodshed didn't trouble him at all.
The only thing he had been unable to suppress these past three days was his greed for the demonic cultivation techniques those demonic cultivators carried with them.
An old craving etched into his bones had resurfaced. Back then, he had stolen the Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record behind the Tang Sect's back. Now, looking at the most prized cultivation methods of these cultivators from another world, how could he not covet them?
His fingertips brushed lightly over his sleeve pouch, where he had hidden his poison-coated Yama's Invitation.
He wasn't confident that this top-tier poisoned Hidden Weapon of the Tang Sect could kill Soul-Devouring Zhenren, a Golden Core cultivator, in one strike. But against these ordinary demonic cultivators, most of whom were only at Qi Refining or Foundation Establishment, it was just enough.
To be safe, however, he still intended to target a Qi Refining cultivator. As it happened, the demonic cultivator who had spoken up for him was at the late Qi Refining stage.
After nightfall, the demonic cultivators made camp at a mass grave thick with Yin Qi. Most entered meditation to regulate their breathing, while only the two demonic cultivators on watch dozed against tree trunks.