When I Achieved Sainthood, the Immortal Official Actually Called Me to Raise Horses!

Gu An gazed at the mysterious, colossal being in the distance, wariness filling his heart.

He could feel that this being was immensely powerful—far beyond what the Sun-Moon Underworld Emperor could compare to. It had definitely reached the Ninth Heaven of the Immortal Dao!

Thanks to the protection of his Lifespan Barrier, the other party didn’t sense his presence and soon left the space.

The Dao Aura of the universe was in violent upheaval, and the range of the disturbance kept expanding—not like a vortex spreading, but rather in a chaotic, unpredictable way. Those who passed through had no way of identifying the source. It was eerily strange.

While Gu An was wary of them, the hidden entities lurking in the dark were equally cautious. Tension began to saturate this Oblivion Domain of cosmic space.

As the inherited memories deepened, Gu An closed his eyes, immersing himself completely, comprehending the mysteries of the Eternal Great Infinity Art.

Time flew by swiftly.

Another hour passed, and Gu An had fully mastered the creation aspect of the Eternal Great Infinity Art.

He couldn’t help but marvel at the power of Lifespan Reincarnation Cultivation.

Even with the memories of Dragon Zhan, Lu Han, and others, he couldn’t just replicate their techniques or divine powers. Memorizing alone wasn’t enough—his body and soul had to undergo transformation.

But Lifespan Reincarnation Cultivation could achieve that, compressing what would normally take eons into a single hour. At his level, it was virtually no different from instantly mastering it.

Learning this technique cost another 4 million years from his Lifespan Barrier.

Glancing at his remaining over 920 million years, Gu An felt calm and unhurried.

Suddenly, he had a new idea—maybe he didn’t need to keep upgrading his own divine powers and supreme arts. Instead, he could elevate the signature divine powers of Xiao Shengtian, Dragon Zhan, and Lu Han to the Return-to-Origin Realm. That would still significantly boost his power, and possibly cost less lifespan.

With that thought, Gu An got to work.

He opened his Attribute Panel and began investing lifespan.

Eventually, he upgraded Seven-God Golden Body, Battle Will, Heavenly Dragon Reincarnation Dharmic Aspect, and Extinction Fate Seal to the Return-to-Origin Realm, consuming a total of 90 million years.

Each of these creations had its own merits, connected to different types of Dao Laws. Though Seven-God Golden Body was slightly weaker, Xiao Shengtian’s Battle Will surprisingly rivaled Dragon Zhan’s and Lu Han’s divine powers, which shocked Gu An a little.

Battle Will didn’t fall under divine powers, spells, or supreme arts—it had its own category on the Attribute Panel: Dao Intent.

For Xiao Shengtian, who only lived to 143 years old, to develop such a concept... his talent must’ve been monstrous.

Too bad he crossed paths with the Black Profound Emperor.

Maybe that’s why the Black Profound Emperor targeted him.

That said, Xiao Shengtian was born with the ability to seize lifespan—so this didn’t necessarily mean he was more gifted than Dragon Zhan or Lu Han.

Another 8 million years were consumed by the Lifespan Barrier. Gu An now turned his attention to cultivation.

Cultivation was the true priority!

“Let’s start with one hundred million years. Test the waters first!”

He recalled that when he broke through to Divine Soul Immortal, it was one tribulation every 300,000 years. He didn’t know what the requirement would be now.

[You cultivated via Spiritual Absorption for 400,000 years. You used your profound understanding of the Eternal Great Infinity Art to force a breakthrough to the Free Soaring Immortal Stage. Tribulation begins. You failed to survive the Heavenly Dao’s Ninefold Execution Tribulation.]

[You cultivated for 800,000 years... You failed the tribulation again.]

...

One tribulation every 400,000 years!

Thank goodness—the difficulty only increased by 100,000 years. His physique and technique upgrades had helped.

According to Dragon Zhan and Lu Han’s memories, the gap between Free Soaring Immortal and Divine Soul Immortal was enormous.

Just one layer of Free Soaring Immortal was enough to crush a ninth-level Divine Soul Immortal!

This was why the Holy Court was able to dominate the Heavenly Spirit Great Realm and suppress the Oblivion Domain.

Gu An figured that without his upgrades, the cooldown after a failed tribulation might’ve exceeded 800,000 years.

Just as he pondered, system prompts flooded in:

[You cultivated for 24.8 million years. You survived the Heavenly Dao’s Ninefold Execution Tribulation and successfully broke through to Free Soaring Immortal, First Layer.]

[You cultivated for 31 million years. Advanced to Free Soaring Immortal, Second Layer.]

[You cultivated for 39 million years. Advanced to Free Soaring Immortal, Third Layer.]

...

[You cultivated for 85 million years. Advanced to Free Soaring Immortal, Seventh Layer.]

[You cultivated for 100 million years. Advanced to Free Soaring Immortal, Eighth Layer.]

He actually did it!

Gu An’s face lit up. He had mentally prepared for this entire hundred million years to go to waste. As long as the breakthrough cost stayed within 300 million years, he could accept it.

After reaching Free Soaring Immortal, each level cost millions of years to upgrade. But Gu An didn’t mind—Lifespan Reincarnation Cultivation had always consumed more lifespan than real-time training.

Also, beyond a certain level, cultivation wasn’t just about absorbing spiritual energy—it was about comprehending the Dao.

Even Dragon Zhan had encountered Free Soaring Immortals who couldn’t break through for tens of millions of years.

Maybe his earlier cycles of Lifespan Reincarnation had helped.

Gu An didn’t dwell on it. He was in a good mood and kept investing lifespan until he reached Free Soaring Immortal, Ninth Layer, spending another 20 million years.

Suddenly, Dao Aura surged madly into his body, shaking the entire universe.

This disturbance was far greater than before!

Heavenly Spirit Great Realm – Immortal Dynasty.

Beneath a dazzling starry sky stood a majestic peak. At its summit lay a massive plaza with golden stone pillars.

Emperor Yangxian, ruler of the Immortal Dynasty, sat cross-legged atop a white jade platform. Suddenly, he opened his eyes, looked up, and frowned deeply.

“That disturbance... it’s coming from the Oblivion Domain,” he murmured, worry in his eyes.

The reason the Immortal Dynasty and the Holy Court hadn’t gone to full war was because of the Oblivion Domain. They feared mutual destruction, giving the Heaven Demons a chance to invade.

Now, the chaos from the Oblivion Domain was starting to affect the cosmic spiritual energy even in the outer universe—and that effect was still expanding. It might soon reach the Heavenly Spirit Great Realm.

Even someone as powerful as Yangxian Emperor couldn’t decipher what kind of signal this was.

He recalled how, years ago, a similar—though smaller—disturbance had occurred in another nearby universe near the Oblivion Domain.

Could these two events be related?

His frown deepened as he fell into thought.

Meanwhile.

On the other side of the Heavenly Spirit Great Realm, figures shot out from the Holy Court’s Sacred Domain, heading toward the light layer of the outer universe.

They stared off into the distance.

”That disturbance is coming from the Oblivion Domain. What’s going on?”

”Someone breaking through? But this is way too intense!”

”Hard to say. Might be some scheme by the Heaven Demons.”

”Better to be cautious. Don’t forget that outsider who once stole a sacred treasure from the Holy Court.”

”You don’t think it’s the Immortal Dynasty? They might be colluding with the Heaven Demons.”

The Holy Court’s Grandmasters conversed grimly, some glancing suspiciously toward the Immortal Dynasty.

As time passed, major sects within the Heavenly Spirit Great Realm also detected the anomaly. More and more Grandmasters flew out toward the light layer of the outer universe.

Boom!

Within the Lifespan Barrier, Gu An’s aura surged wildly. His body radiated brilliant light from the Eternal Great Infinity Art.

He had officially stepped into the Free Soaring Immortal Stage!

Upon reaching this realm, his Golden Core began to transform.

At the Free Soaring Immortal level, one’s core could store the power of cosmic Dao Laws and form a personal Dao.

Mystic Celestial Immortals created Mystic Souls.

Dao-Void Celestial Immortals solidified the Dao within the Golden Core.

Divine Soul Immortals refined their souls into Divine Thought.

The Golden Core and the soul alternated upgrades to maintain balance.

Now, it was the Golden Core’s turn. It began transforming into something else—a Dao Seed.

Gu An knew what this meant.

Thanks to Dragon Zhan’s memories, he understood that above the Ninth Heaven of the Immortal Dao, the key lay in the Dao Seed.

The Dao Seed would eventually blossom into a Dao Fruit, leading to an entirely new level.

The Free Soaring Immortal Stage was the process of cultivating the Dao Seed.

As his Golden Core fully transformed, his cultivation continued to rise, and the Dao Seed grew steadily.

By the time he reached the Ninth Layer of the Free Soaring Immortal Stage, his Dao Seed would be at its most perfect state.

The Dao Seed brought tremendous benefits: enhanced spiritual power, physique, and soul. If the Dao Seed remained intact, even if both body and soul were destroyed, it could regenerate them.

That’s because the soul’s origin had fused with the Dao Seed.

The Dao Seed was more agile than flesh or soul and could merge seamlessly with the Dao Laws, avoiding rejection. In a way, it was like a newborn Dao—easier to exist in the universe.

That was the true meaning of ”Free Soaring.”

At this level, Gu An could faintly sense a cosmic Will of Heaven—a force separate from the Dao itself that governed all things.

He was lost in the blessings of this breakthrough.

While he meditated, a pair of eyes opened in the distant darkness, peering into the void—then vanished.

Shadowy figures flashed through the meteor field like illusions—gone in the blink of an eye.

Moon sets. Sun rises.

Sunlight bathed the Taicang Continent, banishing the night.

A new day dawned.

At the Third Medicine Valley, disciples gathered as usual for morning drills—a grand sight.

Early in the morning, Wu Jue came to visit Gu An, only to find he wasn’t there.

Instead of leaving, he stayed at a distance, watching the disciples train.

When they finished, An Xin approached Wu Jue and asked if he was here for Gu An.

Wu Jue nodded. An Xin explained that her Master had gone out yesterday and should be back today, so Wu Jue decided to wait.

He wandered to the Go (Weiqi) area, but ended up watching people play Chinese Chess instead.

He preferred chess over Go. When he overheard someone discussing Romance of the Three Kingdoms, he couldn’t help but join in.

Debating whether Liu Bei was truly benevolent, he got into a heated argument with a senior cultivator, both of them turning red in the face.

Just then, the teleportation platform lit up—Gu An stepped out from the array.