Eternal Life: My Lifespan Increases Daily

Chapter 653: Chapter 434: Firebird Spitting Flame (Double-Length)_2

This item was originally given to him by Su Qingqing’s mother, the Fox Demon Xi Yanxue.

The stone slab is ancient, and you can feel the marks left by the long years on it.

Among these marks, the deeply engraved sword scar is the most conspicuous.

There is residual sword intent on it, untouched by time.

In the past, Song Changming always felt that he might be able to research something from it, but due to his limited vision and insufficient mastery of the Sword Tao, he was never able to decipher the sword intent in that scar.

Now, he has studied many sword techniques, achieving great progress in the Sword Tao.

However, he still cannot comprehend the sword intent in this mark, only feeling a mysterious sensation like seeing flowers in the mist.

It is precisely this unseen, untouchable mystery that makes Song Changming anxious and unwilling to give up.

Today, having mastered another sword technique, Song Changming felt in excellent condition and decided to try again.

In fact, he has the physical trait of a Taoist Dreamer, which definitely gives him a better chance than other martial artists to comprehend this sword qi.

It can only be said that comprehending this stone saber intent is no ordinary difficulty!

Today, it was still the same; the insight he sought did not come, and it was hard to pierce through that fog.

”Maybe I’m still missing something...” Song Changming sighed in his mind.

Actually, he has another way that might help him gain some insight from the stone slab.

That is the limited-time state of ’Potential Activation’ obtained from daily evaluations.

In this extreme cultivation state, his accumulated potential would be maximally activated in one day, as if having a cheat, enabling him to achieve great perfection in his martial arts in just one day!

In the past, each activation of his potential brought him great gains.

Unfortunately, to gain this limited-time state, one must risk life and limb.

One must experience moments of life and death, receive perilous daily evaluations, in order to trigger this state.

Otherwise, a misstep might indeed cost a life.

Therefore, although this state is good, Song Changming had never actively tried to create such life and death moments in the past.

Later, as his strength grew, coupled with his steady nature, such life and death moments had not occurred for a long time.

Even after several battles with great demons, it never appeared, showing how stringent the conditions for triggering this state are.

Potential Activation is sought after but hard to achieve; with the stone slab insight elusive, Song Changming could only wait for the right moment to come.

That night, in the core district.

In the main hall of the Su Mansion, a group of uniformly white-bearded elders sat, each appearing calm and composed.

Altogether seven, all martial arts grandmasters!

Each exuding a powerful aura, spiritual qi inhaled and exhaled, white smoke billowing, their figures ethereal like immortals.

”This year, Prince Cui used the Imperial Banquet to show achievements and withheld another twenty percent.” The Su Family Patriarch, Su Gongming, said gravely.

The seven Su Family elder grandmasters present opened their eyes one after another, expressionless.

”If I remember correctly, three years ago, Prince Cui had already underpaid the spirit crystals by ten percent.” An elder grandmaster spoke.

”Not only that, the year the Black Obsidian Omen ended, Prince Cui used the revival of Cui Bai Dao as a pretext to provide ten percent fewer resources, and has since continued to reduce it by ten percent.

Three years ago, the missing resources increased to twenty percent, and this year, another twenty percent was taken off that amount...” Su Gongming explained further.

”Prince Cui is testing our limits step by step.”

”Indeed.”

”How dare he? Could he really have broken through to the Grandmaster Realm?”

”Impossible!”

”What if, what do we do if he really has broken through to the Grandmaster Realm?”

When this question was raised, several Su Family elder grandmasters, including Patriarch Su Gongming, fell silent.

Back then, the Su Family controlled the local imperial authority over Cui Bai Dao; at its most dominant period, the Prince’s Mansion’s treasure storage was practically the Su Family’s bank.

Later, the Su Family unavoidably declined after losing the ancestral land and foundation, and the imperial authority finally rose, gradually freeing itself from the Su Family’s control.

At that time, the Prince’s Mansion’s treasure storage was no longer freely accessible to the Su family, yet the Su Family was still powerful, having established an undisclosed agreement.

Every year, the Prince’s Mansion’s income of spirit crystals and all resource accounts had to be reviewed by the Su family, with a portion taken away.

Day after day, year after year, it continued like this.

Gradually, this commission of the Su Family seemed to have become as natural as the heavens.

To this day, this agreement still exists!

The Su Family is like a lurking evil beast, feeding off the blood of Cui Bai Dao for hundreds and thousands of years!

However, after the current Prince Cui took over, the friction with the Su Family also became more intense.

In the Su Family’s view, this current Prince Cui was undoubtedly the most disobedient and rebellious.

Not only lacked respect for the Su Family, now even thinking about the ancient agreement, simply insatiable!

Yet, the Su Family’s decline seemed irreversible, while this Prince Cui had gradually grown to a level that intimidated them unawares.

If it weren’t for this, they wouldn’t have tolerated to such a degree.

Now, the only question facing them is whether to completely fall out with this current Prince Cui, even if in the end they can defeat Prince Cui, the Su Family will certainly suffer losses.

If they are careless and both sides end up wounded, that too wouldn’t be a good outcome for the already declining Su Family.

They have too many factors to consider; the Su Family seems still powerful in Cui Bai Dao, but compared to the Su Family centuries ago, the family’s strength has nearly dwindled to a tenth of its former glory!

”If the Dongdan Ancestor were still here, it wouldn’t be like this...” After a moment of silence, Su Gongming suddenly said.

His careless words also drew annoyance from the several Su Family elder grandmasters present, just as a grandmaster was about to speak, a night breeze blew open the main hall door.

Suddenly, an aged voice floated in with the wind.

”What if I were here, could the family’s revival really depend on an old man like me?”

At these words, everyone present was shocked, even the seven elder grandmasters were startled to their feet, all looking towards the hall door.

There, a white-robed elder walked in, hands behind his back.

”Greetings, Ancestor!” Su Gongming was the first to react, hastily taking two steps forward and bowing deeply.

The person before him was five generations apart; though he was the current Su Family patriarch, in front of this person, he was indeed the junior among juniors.

”Dongdan Ancestor, you’ve finally returned after over eighty years of roaming!” An elder grandmaster also bowed to him.

He was only two generations apart from this ancestor, thus did not have to perform such a grand gesture as Su Gongming.

”So many years have passed, I never thought the family could fall into such decline, if I had come back any later, would I not see the Su Family anymore?!”

Su Dong Pill flicked his sleeves, somewhat indignant.

Clearly, after returning, he was quite dissatisfied with the Su Family’s current state.

”Eighty years ago it was you old bones managing the family, and eighty years later it is still you few; in eighty years, no one in the younger generation has reached the Grandmaster Realm?”

”Ancestor, please calm your anger.” Faced with Su Dong Pill’s reprimanding after returning, Su Gongming and the other seven Su Family elder grandmasters could hardly lift their heads.

No successors; that was also what worried them in daily life.

As their ancestor said, it’s been over eighty years without a new grandmaster born.

If their Su clan were not from the Changsheng Family, and their elder grandmasters did not live longer than ordinary grandmasters, the Su Family would have been more profoundly declining by now.

Su Dong Pill’s indignation was well-founded.

”Xiao Gongming, you tell me, what is going on, and the others?” Su Dong Pill strode in, unceremoniously sat in the main hall’s chief seat, and looked at Su Gongming to ask.

Su Gongming only said that the other few elder grandmasters had been in seclusion for a long time; unless the family faced annihilation, those few grandmasters did not interfere in the family’s daily meetings and decision-making.

Even during the period of the Black Obsidian Omen back then, not all of the Su Family’s elder grandmasters came out.

No one outside could accurately know how many martial arts grandmasters the Changsheng Su Family held.

This has always been a secret.

...