NOVEL ONLINE FREE Chapter 27
Chapter 27: 024: Always remember the white-haired returner of the rivers and lakes, and the desire to return to the world in a flat boat_1 Chapter 27: 024: Always remember the white-haired returner of the rivers and lakes, and the desire to return to the world in a flat boat_1 His strength had broken through to the first layer of Qi cultivation.
Instead of immediately leaving the mountain crevice area to return to the gathering place, Chen Dengming chose to continue to consolidate for a few more days.
The gathering place, teeming with people, could not compare to the secluded serenity of the mountain crevice.
Having lived here for several months, he felt more familiar and secure.
Despite facing several dangers along the way, including a close encounter with a monstrous beast resembling a forest spider that made his heart tremble with its spiritual might, he managed to safely pull through each one under the early warning of the Snake Gu.
By now, he was officially a cultivator and had significantly improved his self-protection abilities.
His lifespan had also increased again, giving him a more robust status display on the panel.
“Qi Cultivation Layer 1 Chen Dengming
Lifespan: 100/170
Spiritual Root: Gold, Wood (Middle Grade 5/100)
Martial Arts: ‘Chen Family Martial Arts Compendium’ (Complete 76/100)
Daoism: “Gu Refining Chapter” (Advanced 1/100), “Three Elements Gathering Spirit Skill” (Layer 1, 0/100), “Life-Shortening Cultivation Enhancement Skill” (Beginner 90/100), “Big Fireball Skill” (Beginner 1/100)”
Upon his breakthrough from an innate mortal to a cultivator, his lifespan had increased by as much as fifteen years.
Plus, the breakthrough of the “Three Elements Gathering Spirit Skill” further added three more years to his lifespan.
Source: Webnovel.com, updated on 𝕟𝘰𝘷𝘨𝘰.co
Thus, his lifespan had reached a high of 170 years, a literal second lease on life.
Comparatively, the operation of consuming eight years of his lifespan to increase his Spirit Qi Affinity didn’t seem like such a extravagant waste.
After all, the “Life-Shortening Cultivation Enhancement Skill” would need just one more cultivation session to progress to the first layer, at which time his lifespan would increase even further.
The only downside was that learning the “Big Fireball Skill,” a Grade 1 Level 1 Dao technique, did not increase his lifespan.
Chen Dengming speculated that this technique should be on a similar level to the “Three Elements Gathering Spirit Skill.”
Therefore, learning it did not increase his lifespan, further proving how unimpressive the “Three Elements Gathering Spirit Skill” was.
Although he had a status panel and his lifespan increased with each cultivation session, as long as he diligently practiced and had enough cultivation techniques, eternal life seemed within his reach.
However, regardless of the number of techniques of the same grade he learned, whether it be ten or a hundred, only the first mastered technique or the highest-ranked one would extend his lifespan upon mastery and each subsequent breakthrough.
This motivated him to constantly seek higher-level cultivation techniques during his martial arts training years.
Looking at it now, it seems he’ll have to tread the same path in his cultivation journey, chasing after ever deeper realms that lie beyond the precipice.
Chen Dengming understood well that to do a good job, one must first sharpen one’s tools.
For a cultivator, the Spiritual Root was the essential tool for cultivation.
Ordinary people would not dare to rashly consume their lifespan to enhance the quality of their Spiritual Root.
But he dared.
As long as he had a long enough lifespan, he would directly consume it.
…
That night.
Under a sky full of stars, with a shining round moon, was the figure of Chen Dengming sitting in the moonlight, breathing in and out rhythmically, a few strands of white hair brighter than the moonlight at his temples.
This could be described as, an eternal return, with white hair as the mark, desiring to travel the world in a flat boat.
This was also like, a star-filled sky with a deep bright moon, hanging in the vast sky, resembling the heart of Dao.
He had once again consumed two years of his lifespan, raising his Spirit Qi Affinity to a medium-grade 6 level, and his cultivation speed had also improved.
The “Life-Shortening Cultivation Enhancement Skill” had finally broken through from the beginner stage to the first layer, hence his lifespan increased by three years, reaching 173 years in total.
Theoretically, he had more than seventy-one good years ahead of him.
After the Life-Shortening Cultivation Enhancement Skill advanced to the first layer, it aimed at the effects of the second layer.
He needed a lifespan of at least 180 years to achieve completion, at which point his Spirit Qi Affinity would increase by 50% to 120%.
…
The days passed in a flash, and six days later…
At noon that day.
A fiery ball of fire the size of a human head suddenly flew out from the mountain crevice.
𝑛𝘰𝘷𝗴𝘰.co
After flying eight feet, it abruptly curved and crashed into the ground with a loud, resonant bang.
Sparks flew from the ground in an instant.
Some grass was turned to ashes and a basin-sized pit of scorched earth appeared on the spot, emitting a thin plume of green smoke.
“Big Fireball Skill, I’ve finally got the basics down…
Barely able to control the fireball to take a simple turn, so it won’t be too rigid in a fight,”
Chen Dengming walked out from the crevice, his clothes tattered and unkempt, hands behind his back.
He emanated a subdued spiritual might.
His expression was somewhat emotional.
His features hadn’t changed – his forehead still wide, his eyes still shining and warm.
Ignoring his full-bearded face, he was quite handsome.
The only noticeable change was the striking white hair on his temples, which added a dash of mature charm to his demeanor.
This white hair seemed to be an aftereffect of practicing the Life-Shortening Cultivation Enhancement Skill.
Even though his lifespan kept increasing, the white hair would not go away.
But as a self-proclaimed committed cultivator, he didn’t care about these flaws in his appearance.
However, it was these long three months of arduous cultivation in the wild, which he decided to take a break from today.
The facts proved that it was relatively easy to practice the Big Fireball Skill a hundred times, but practicing it ten thousand times was by no means an easy task.
The main reason was that the recovery of Spiritual Energy was quite slow.
To cast the Big Fireball Skill once would consume 10 percent of the Spiritual Energy inside his body.
In his prime, Chen Dengming could only cast it ten times.
After ten times, when the Spiritual Energy in his body was depleted, he had to practice the “Three Elements Gathering Spirit Skill” six times to fully recover, and by then almost half a day had passed.
One day has twelve periods, and it would take Chen Dengming six time periods to practice the “Three Elements Gathering Spirit Skill” just twelve times.
And practicing the “Three Elements Gathering Spirit Skill” twelve times would only be enough to recover his spiritual Energy twice, enabling him to practice the Big Fireball Skill twenty times in a day.
If he wanted to upgrade the Big Fireball Skill from a beginner to entry-level status, he had to persevere in practicing for five days without slacking off.
By now, he had begun to grasp the basics of a Daoist technique by practicing the Big Fireball Skill until he reached entry-level status.
Through six days of relentless practices, his “Three Elements Gathering Spirit Skill” had also improved a bit more.
However, he was still at least three months away from breaking through to achieving the second level of Qi cultivation with relentless hard work.
A person is like a bow, needing to know when to relax and when to tighten.
He was planning to improve his cultivation environment and return to the gathering place of the Loose Cultivators to check out the situation first.
When he first left, he was still an ordinary person.
But now that he was back, he had become a Cultivator.
The dramatic transformation of the identity from ordinary people to Cultivators represented a leap in social class and was equivalent to crossing the divide between mortal and immortals in the world of cultivation.
Even though a warrant was still out for his arrest by Qian Yuan, the authorities were only looking for ordinary people.
No one dared or even needed to rashly check a Cultivator.
Because after becoming a Cultivator, even the Gold Word Workshop would reevaluate Chen Dengming’s value and would not treat this meritorious figure unfairly.
But if he were a worthless mortal, it would be a different story.
He used his movement technique to leave swiftly.
When the martial techniques of the mortal realm were executed with Spiritual Energy, they naturally became more fast and fierce, moving faster than the wind, and capable of crossing dozens of feet in an instant.
This was a speed unimaginable in the mortal world, but its spiritual energy consumption was also extremely high.
Chen Dengming tried his best to reduce Spiritual Energy consumption by coordinating muscle strength with stride, exploring more convenient, efficient, and energy-saving ways of rapid movement during practice.
Now, he understood why the Cultivators he saw before were almost always stationary when using techniques.
Even though some had the flexible movement of a snake, they were still quite clumsy overall.
Certainly part of this was due to the aforementioned Cultivators not excelling in martial arts, but more importantly, they probably also had to take into account the consumption of Spiritual Energy.
“Initially, at the Ascension Conference, the female Cultivator gave me three Daoist Techniques.
One of them was the Big Fireball Skill, one was the Wood Escape Skill, and the last one was Gold Touch Skill.”
The Wood Escape Skill is a second level Daoist Technique level, and Gold Touch Skill is a fourth level Daoist Technique.
I need to further improve my abilities before I can practice these, so it seems that I need to buy some other useful Daoist Techniques soon…”
While Chen Dengming was pondering, he suddenly sense a change in the air.
His ears caught the sound of the wind and his expression changed slightly.
He immediately modified his movement technique and dashed into the forest on his left.
Almost at the moment he had held his breath and concealed his figure,
A figure had already rushed past his original position, moving without touching the ground, at an incredibly fast speed.
Chen Dengming didn’t look, but judging from the sound of the wind, he couldn’t help but frown.
“Godspeed Skill?!”
He didn’t want to get into trouble.
In the world of martial arts, it’s better to mind your own business.
Trouble only starts when you stick your nose in other people’s business, and annoyance comes from being too aggressive.
He promptly wrapped his cloak around his face like a scarf.
Just when he was about to sneak off from the other side of the forest, he heard two more whistling sounds, one after another, swiftly approaching.
He cursed under his breath and was forced to stop again.
However, it seemed that his slight movement just now had caused some fluctuation in his Qi, and the two whistling sounds, which had just passed by, suddenly turned around, and a cold voice with a hint of amusement came from outside the forest.
“Hey!
Jiang Qiang, you little guy, you’re hiding in the forest and almost shook us off.
Come out!”
Chen Dengming was speechless, “…~~~?~”
He continued to hold his breath and stay motionless.
Another cold female voice came from outside the forest, followed by intense fluctuations of spiritual energy and rising temperature.
“Jiang, if you’re a man, come out!
You still want to hide at this time?
Are you a turtle or what?”
Chen Dengming was annoyed.
What kind of mess was this?
He had deliberately avoided them and didn’t want to cause trouble, but they were still trying to drag him out.
He was not the protagonist, couldn’t they leave him alone?
…
…