A Loose Cultivator's Path to Longevity

Late at night.

Yu Feng’Er nudged Lü Zhong, who was pretending to be asleep.

Her expression was conflicted for a long while before she finally made up her mind. ”Husband,” she whispered, ”why don’t you go and keep Master company? I... I’m so scared...”

Lü Zhong completely understood how she felt. In truth, he felt the same.

The difficulty of Nascent Soul Formation was no empty platitude.

The thought of the countless failed attempts recorded in the scriptures, coupled with the recent failure of Jin Lan’s Nascent Soul Formation tribulation, made Lü Zhong’s heart pound with anxiety.

The image of Jin Lan’s charred corpse kept flashing through his mind.

Even a Sect prodigy like Jin Lan couldn’t overcome the trial of Nascent Soul Formation.

He was afraid Shuini would suffer the same fate.

It was now the end of the fifth month.

The Lantern Festival on the sixth day of the sixth month was less than seven days away.

’Lü Zhong, oh, Lü Zhong,’ he mocked himself silently. ’You always fancy yourself so decisive and ruthless. Why are you shrinking back now?’ He knew the best choice was, of course, to go and be with Shuini.

That way, no matter the outcome, at least he would have no regrets.

’What am I afraid of?’ Lü Zhong wondered.

Probably.

Was it the fear that Shuini, like Li Hejun, would be separated from him by life and death, never to be seen again?

At that moment, Lü Zhong found himself envying the protagonists in storybooks. Every one of them possessed an unshakable Dao heart, as if they were born that way, immovable no matter what happened.

Unlike him, whose fears had now become a knot in his heart.

If he let it fester, it could very well develop into a Heart Demon.

It seemed a Dao heart couldn’t be firm just by wishing it so. Without being tempered, it was nothing but a fragile facade. He had prided himself on his firm Dao heart, but now he saw that was just his own perception.

As this thought crossed his mind, Lü Zhong hugged Yu Feng’Er tightly and said softly,

”Wait for me.”

He had decided to face it.

...

On the terrace, Shuini leaned against the railing, gazing at the moon.

The turbulent sea of clouds in the distance was a perfect reflection of her current state of mind.

A cool mountain breeze swept by, tangling the loose strands of her hair. A large hand smoothed them down—Lü Zhong had arrived. He pulled Shuini into his embrace.

”I’m happy you came,” Shuini said frankly.

After that, neither of them spoke.

They simply stood there in silence until dawn.

Until the morning sun began to rise.

Lü Zhong suddenly felt a weight on his shoulder. At some point, Shuini had fallen asleep.

He gave a wry smile and helped Shuini back to her room.

After tucking her in, he left the bedroom.

Just as he reached the door, he saw an anxious Yu Feng’Er. She seemed to let out a sigh of relief, but her expression immediately turned reproachful, as if blaming Lü Zhong for not staying with Shuini longer.

”She’s asleep.”

”Then... then we shouldn’t disturb Master,” Yu Feng’Er said. Although she was using voice transmission, she still looked cautious.

The two of them then went to the cloud pavilion outside the hall.

Lü Zhong had expected Yu Feng’Er to ask what happened between him and Shuini last night. Instead, the moment she sat down, she fell into his arms, fast asleep.

This was a sign of excessive Heart Power consumption.

He couldn’t help but chuckle and curse affectionately.

”What a silly woman!”

...

「The sixth day of the sixth month.」

On this day, the True Spirit Sect was adorned with Four Spirits Flower Lanterns.

Up and down the mountain, the festive atmosphere was palpable.

But at the same time, the Sect had entered its highest state of alert.

An area of three thousand li around True Spirit Mountain was now under a heavy lockdown. True Spirit Sect disciples patrolled day and night, and any cultivator who entered this zone was mercilessly driven away.

Within a thousand-li radius, three True Spirit Sect Elders, including Chuu Yueyun, each guarded a direction.

Within a hundred-li radius, Lü Zhong and Yu Feng’Er stood guard.

In the shadows, two Combat Incarnations lay in wait: the ”revived” Yinn Li and the new Incarnation, Xuan Cang. Each held a Magical Treasure, ready to self-destruct at a moment’s notice.

To create them, Lü Zhong had been forced to expand the Bihai Sect threefold just to gather enough Essence Souls.

His gaze shifted to the peak of True Spirit Mountain, where a figure levitated in midair.

It was the protagonist of this Crossing Tribulation—Shuini.

Seeing that the appointed ancient hour had arrived, she gave a slight nod in their direction from afar.

Then, she began Breaking the Core!

In an instant, an astonishing pillar of light shot into the sky.

A strange phenomenon occurred.

Stars appeared in broad daylight!

As the sky filled with stars, the once clear-blue expanse darkened at a visible rate. A radiant, full moon emerged from the Void.

Lü Zhong knew that Shuini also cultivated the ”Flying Star Inheritance.” This scene seemed to be the manifestation of her Divine Techniques.

Someone in the shadows gasped.

’With a celestial phenomenon like this for Nascent Soul Formation, who knows what kind of monster she’ll become afterward?’

Kill her.

She must be killed!

As if reaching a consensus, mysterious forces appeared simultaneously from three directions around True Spirit Mountain. Led by Core Formation Cultivators, they brought large groups of men and began to charge toward the mountain.

In an instant, a forest of signal flares lit up the sky!

Lü Zhong sat cross-legged in the air.

He knew his mission clearly: to hold them off until the Celestial Tribulation descended.

At that point, any cultivator who entered the Thunder Field, regardless of their intentions or goals, would first have to withstand a strike from the Six-Nine Great Celestial Tribulation. If they couldn’t, they would be instantly reduced to ash.

’Thankfully, with the Six-Nine Great Celestial Tribulation, there’s no mention of the Tribulation Thunder’s power increasing,’ Lü Zhong thought with relief.

The Six-Nine Great Celestial Tribulation was so terrifying that those who attempted it faced a near-certain death.

Pushing them further toward death...

That would clearly go against the Celestial Dao’s principle of always leaving a sliver of hope.

This was not an isolated case. It was rumored in some scriptures that during the Nine-Nine Celestial Tribulation of Divinity Transformation, the Celestial Dao would even take pity on the difficulty of cultivation and show extra consideration for the Tribulation-Crossing Cultivator.

’But why won’t the Celestial Dao leave a sliver of hope for mortals?’ Lü Zhong couldn’t help but wonder. ’Logically, the Celestial Dao should give mortals a chance to cultivate, no matter how difficult the process.’

Was it because it felt the probability of geniuses appearing among mortals was higher, so it didn’t leave that opening?