A Loose Cultivator's Path to Longevity

In the days that followed, Lü Zhong continued to use the Jiuying for fishing, and he never grew tired of it.

After eating so much beast meat, his blood and qi had naturally become as vast as the sea. Recently, the twenty-second acupoint for the Barbarian Ancestor Heaven-Swallowing Mantra had begun to loosen; it wouldn’t be long before he broke through.

Another night of cultivation came to an end.

Lü Zhong got up and walked out of the Quiet Chamber.

It was currently early spring. The morning breeze carried a hint of a chill, along with the shouts of the disciples training on the mountain below.

He walked to the training ground and began practicing some strikes.

There were no exquisite moves; it was purely to loosen up his body. After practicing Body Refining for so long, he always felt he had endless energy. If he continued to just sit still, he would inevitably feel restless and pent-up.

He went through one routine after another, his body gradually loosening up.

BOOM!

In a moment of carelessness, Lü Zhong put a little too much force into his strike, creating a concussive blast of air. It swept the ground clean, instantly filling the entire training ground with dust.

A look at the ten-foot-square white stone tiles revealed numerous new cracks.

’Cultivators truly are superhuman!’ Lü Zhong thought.

At his current Late-stage Core Formation Cultivation, feats like burning mountains and boiling seas were trivial. He could easily split a mountain or cleave a valley with a single sword strike.

’I can’t even imagine the power of a Divinity Transformation Grand Venerable. The destruction they could unleash... I bet they could even flip the entire continent over.’

Records on the subject were sparse. The few existing fragments all emphasized the power of Divinity Transformation cultivators, but they also made a special point: when Divinity Transformation cultivators fought, they usually chose to do so far from the Cultivation Realm, millions of miles away.

’What exactly lies beyond the Cultivation Realm?’

Lü Zhong had specifically asked Shuini about this, but she said the maps she knew still didn’t extend beyond the Four Domains and Central Earth. What lay beyond the Cultivation Realm—be it the edge of the world or something else—was a mystery likely known only to the Divinity Transformation Grand Venerables.

After practicing continuously for half an ancient hour, Lü Zhong finally considered his warm-up complete.

”Husband!” Yu Feng’Er walked over.

”You’re awake. Let’s have breakfast together, shall we? I caught a Sea Emperor Eel yesterday. I hear the meat is exceptionally delicious, considered one of the finest delicacies in the world.”

”Yes! I’ll eat whatever you’re eating, Husband,” Yu Feng’Er said softly.

After they finished breakfast, Lü Zhong chatted with her for a while.

He then turned and went underground.

Mastering how to set up a Transmission Array was extremely important to him.

It was necessary to set one up, whether to prepare an escape route or to facilitate his trade with the Western Realm while reducing the risk of discovery.

As was his routine, he entered the Kong Mountain Nine Illusions Grand Array to continue practicing his Spatial Perception.

Space, or to be precise, the Space Law.

Array Sword Mountain’s Kong Mountain Nine Illusions Skill was, in reality, a clever shortcut. It was a cognitive process akin to the parable of the blind men and the elephant; one could never grasp the legendary Law in its entirety this way, just as cultivators could never fully unravel the principles behind Immortal Divine Techniques. However, this level of spatial awareness was enough to set up a Transmission Array via a Secret Skill.

He had thought it would be just another routine session.

Unexpectedly, this session was noticeably different from the previous ones.

Lü Zhong knew he had succeeded.

At this very moment, in his awareness...

The so-called ”space” was like a vast, undulating ocean.

According to the Long Family’s records, others had perceived it as a forest, a mirror, or even a bolt of silk. What one actually perceived wasn’t important; what mattered was being able to discern direction.

After all, the Transmission Arrays in this realm weren’t simple point-to-point arrays. They were a multi-node network passed down by an Immortal millions of years ago, capable of connecting with one another based on set coordinates.

The Secret Skill for calculating position was simply called the ”Space Divination Technique.”

With this skill, a cultivator could calculate their position in space. Once they also obtained the coordinates of their destination, they could construct a Transmission Array to connect the two points.

The principle sounded simple, but there was still a long road ahead before he could actually set up a Transmission Array.

According to the records of the Long Family of Array Sword Mountain, even the fastest Array Master in their family’s history had taken ten years to successfully deploy a Transmission Array.

...

In the blink of an eye, July arrived.

While the temperatures in the Southern Barbarian lands were starting to cool, the weather in Bihai remained scorching hot.

After successfully achieving Spatial Perception, Lü Zhong dedicated nearly all his free time to the Transmission Array, only breaking for his decades-old routine of meditation and Qi Refining. This Array truly lived up to its name as the ”Array Dao Pearl.” Its complexity far surpassed that of any Array he had ever encountered; sometimes, a single minor detail would require half a month of study.

One day, just as he emerged from his Quiet Chamber...

He saw Luu Baokui hurrying over, his face covered in sweat. ”Ancestor,” Luu Baokui reported breathlessly, ”an Evil Flood Dragon just appeared at Bidao Market! After destroying the ships that couldn’t make it back to port, it’s now commanding Sea Beasts to attack the market’s Grand Array! Please, Ancestor, I implore you to act quickly and deal with this creature!”

”An Evil Flood Dragon?”

Lü Zhong raised an eyebrow. ’How did one of those just show up at my doorstep?’ he thought. He had been eagerly anticipating the chance to complete his Flood Dragon Banner. But the timing was too coincidental, making him suspect a plot. After all, a Flood Dragon wouldn’t attack Bidao Market just because it was bored.

”Tell me on the way.”

As they walked out of the cave residence, Luu Baokui began to explain the details.

There wasn’t much information available at the moment.

The Evil Flood Dragon’s appearance had been incredibly sudden. It was shrouded in a thick mist, so no one knew what type of Flood Dragon it was. It began its rampage the moment it appeared, sinking three sea ships in quick succession. Few of the cultivators aboard managed to escape; most ended up in the bellies of the Sea Beasts.

”How outrageous!” Lü Zhong snorted coldly. This creature was completely ignoring his presence.

After calming Yu Feng’Er, who had rushed over at the news, he ordered Luu Baokui to guard the gates of the Bihai Sect with all his might, in case this was a ploy to lure the tiger from its mountain. Then, taking two of his Combat Incarnations with him, he shot into the sky like a blazing, blood-red meteor, speeding toward Bidao Market.

It took him only half an hour to reach the rampaging Evil Flood Dragon.

Just as Luu Baokui had described, the Flood Dragon was indeed shrouded in mist. While this mist could block the Spiritual Eye Skill of an ordinary cultivator, it was completely useless against his Celestial Net Secret Eye Technique.

He focused his gaze, and everything became perfectly clear.

”Huh? It’s not a Water Flood Dragon?” Lü Zhong said, surprised.

He had assumed the attacker would be a Water Flood Dragon.

Logically, each of the Five Elements Flood Dragons had its preferred habitat. Fire Element Flood Dragons frequented areas with dense Fire Veins, thriving in extreme heat. Earth Element Flood Dragons preferred to live deep underground where the Earth Qi was rich; consequently, they were extremely rare, as cultivators did not often venture so deep into the earth.

Among the Five Elements Flood Dragons, only the Water Flood Dragons typically made their home in the sea.

But the Flood Dragon Lü Zhong was looking at now was jade-green from head to tail, covered in intricate patterns.

It was clearly not a Water Flood Dragon.