Eternal Life: Talent Grows with Age

"After this, we’ll be living in different places. In another few decades, feelings will probably fade away."

Once he came to terms with it, his heart felt much lighter. During this time, Gu Feng came to see Lu Chang’sheng in private, explaining that since the Gu Family was currently in the spotlight, the Patriarch couldn’t receive him and hoped he would understand.

From Gu Feng’s tone, it was clear Gu Long’s attitude had shifted dramatically again, which made Lu Chang’sheng sigh with emotion.

Before he left, Gu Shuang and Gu Chan walked him out.

Seeing the faint blush on the girl’s cheeks, Lu Chang’sheng couldn’t tell if it was excitement or just the cold mountain breeze. He sighed inwardly, then said, "If either of you ends up at the Good Beast Sect, you can come find me and we’ll get together."

After he finished speaking, he handed Gu Chan a Sound Transmission Shell.

Reaching late Qi Cultivation so quickly—Gu Chan’s gift of the Cyan Spirit Pill was a huge contributor. By now, Lu Chang’sheng also understood just how precious the Cyan Spirit Pill was.

Since it was specifically used to cultivate the Cyan Spirit Technique, the Cyan Spirit Pill was even more valuable than a Grade Two True Essence Pill.

Anything that could enhance one’s Immortal Dao Spirit Root talent was never cheap anyway.

"Thank you, Lu," Gu Chan said with a smile.

Behind her, a flicker of complicated emotion flashed in Gu Shuang’s eyes, as she pressed down that unusual discomfort in her heart.

She hadn’t expected Lu Chang’sheng to reach such heights this quickly.

"But this is probably his peak." She thought to herself, and somehow felt more at ease.

······

The next morning, a flying boat quietly set off from Lu Mansion. After several days journey, it landed at the Mountain Gate of Good Beast Sect. Lu Chang’sheng and the others stepped off the boat.

But besides the Lu Mansion group, there was another unexpected person aboard the flying boat.

Looking at Gu Chan not far away, chatting cheerfully with Nangua, Lu Chang’sheng gave a helpless laugh. He thought to himself: Gu Long really doesn’t give a damn about face—who just shoves a woman into your group like this?

The closer Gu Chan and Nangua got, the less Lu Chang’sheng felt he could say anything.

Next, Gu Yuan led the group to the mountain gate, and after checking things out, they settled on a mountain peak. The Good Beast Sect’s mountain gate was actually bigger than the Supreme Profound Sect’s, surrounded by a range of mountains and some natural lakes, all covered by a massive Mountain Guardian Spirit Array.

Lu Chang’sheng even spotted a temple priest in one of the herb gardens.

"Looks like temple priests show up in a lot of Immortal Sects," Lu Chang’sheng commented.

Gu Yuan replied, "Steward Lu, you might not know, but the temple priest clan has some unique abilities: they can gather incense money, which can be used for certain special things, and its power is pretty extraordinary. So, whenever possible, Immortal Sects will buy a few temple priests to sprinkle around their sect, so as not to waste the value of mortals under their jurisdiction."

Once they’d settled in, Gu Yuan showed Lu Chang’sheng around and threw him an entry banquet. At the feast, Lu Chang’sheng met a lot of Good Beast Sect cultivators—the atmosphere was overall pretty good.

Soon after, Gu Yuan brought news about what had happened at Platinum Immortal City.

The Fellow Daoist Heishi and Zhou Fang situation had been resolved. That day, when Ning Zhao and Gu Yuan went to the Imperial Garden at the South Gate, they already knew the two were spying from afar. But since it wasn’t appropriate to act inside the city, they waited until the pair snuck out, then ambushed them on the road.

"Elder Ning He asked me to tell you, you don’t have to worry about those two bothering you anymore."

"Please let Elder Ning He know that when he returns, I’ll definitely teach him everything I know."

Gu Yuan almost couldn’t keep from laughing.

Ning He was famous in Good Beast Sect for being obsessed with the Alchemy Dao; unfortunately, his talent never matched his passion.

Lots of people in the sect loved gossiping about this over tea and dinner—it was an inside joke.

"Also, as for the Supreme Profound Sect’s reaction—rumor is the matter alarmed their Sect Leader, and a lot of stewards got chewed out."

Gu Yuan was all smiles. The Gu Family had played the hero in Lu Chang’sheng’s matter. If Gu Yuan hadn’t bridged the gap to take Lu Chang’sheng away, who knows—they might have gotten rewards from Supreme Profound Sect for their trouble.

"The Sect Leader of Supreme Profound Sect? I figure he was probably more rattled by the Profound Turtle Alchemist’s cave incident, wasn’t he?" Lu Chang’sheng joked.

Gu Yuan covered her mouth, giggling. "That’s part of it, but the Sect Leader of Supreme Profound Sect hasn’t shown up in years. Supposedly, he’s preparing for the next Peach Blossom Banquet. For him to even pay attention to your little incident—that’s quite something."

Lu Chang’sheng just smiled without a word.

A Grade Two alchemist wasn’t enough to make Supreme Profound Sect lose their mind. Maybe a few stewards would catch some flak, but that was all.

Seeing his expression, Gu Yuan rolled her eyes.

"Don’t act like it’s nothing. Your ex almost didn’t make it out alive, you know!"

Lu Chang’sheng nearly choked on his tea. "What ex? Gu Yuan, don’t throw wild rumors around!"

He glanced around—thankfully, there wasn’t anyone eavesdropping. Otherwise, the sect would be making up all kinds of stories about his romantic exploits.

Gu Yuan laughed. "Now you see how serious it was? I’m talking about Zhu Qing—she ended up bedding an elder to save her life. That’s pretty hardcore."

"Who knows if that’s a good thing or a bad thing!" Lu Chang’sheng was stunned. He’d heard rumors already that an elder in Supreme Profound Sect had taken a liking to Zhu Qing’s Spiritual Body and wanted to dual cultivate with her, but nothing had come of it. Looks like his actions finally pushed her to make a decision.

······

Before leaving, Gu Yuan reminded Lu Chang’sheng that if he wanted to gain the recognition of a Grade A Beast Institute’s spirit pet, he’d better start preparing now.

She started talking about picking spirit beasts. Generally speaking, anything from a Grade B Beast Institute and below would only be first rank or less in talent—at best, they’d reach ninth layer Qi Cultivation.

Train them well, and from Grade B you could get one up to just about Foundation Establishment entry-level.

Only from a Grade A Beast Institute could you find pets that were guaranteed to reach the boundary between Grade Two and Grade Three.

"But, smart as they are, the spirit beasts from Grade A institutes are super picky about their partners. If you don’t want your favorite pick to skip you, you’d better make early preparations."

"First impressions count. That’s what we’ve learned!"

First impressions?

Lu Chang’sheng furrowed his brow. The way Gu Yuan described it, this felt like some sort of matchmaking session.

Take advice, fill your belly—he wasn’t one to ignore good advice.

Lu Chang’sheng didn’t think that just because he was new here, he’d be any savvier about getting picked by a spirit beast than the next guy.

He decided to take things slow and build up his base first.

Besides, he wasn’t really in a hurry for a spirit pet, so there was no need to rush.

In the blink of an eye, twenty years passed. Lu Chang’sheng was almost a hundred years old now. Luckily, he still had another seventy years of lifespan, so he didn’t look much different, though his eyes had grown deeper, wiser.

During those twenty years, he almost never left the sect. Only when someone found some rare treasure and needed him to show up did he bring Mountain Nether and step out.

He’d hit the ceiling with Puppetry Technique; there was no more progress to be made. So, Lu Chang’sheng dove into Immortal Techniques, alchemy, and working on Barbarian Armor Technique.

He was real lucky—Good Beast Sect actually had materials for refining Cyan Spirit Pills, mostly for sale to outsiders.

In the Guangnan Domain, only Supreme Profound Sect people really practiced Cyan Spirit Technique. Good Beast Sect disciples followed another Spirit Body Cultivation Technique, the Mountain God Technique, cultivating the Mountain God Spirit Body—which gave a pretty strong boost to wind and water elemental Immortal Talents.

So, most ingredients for making Cyan Spirit Pills ended up in Lu Chang’sheng’s hands. Of course, most of his yearly income went up in smoke in exchange, but in return, he reached Minor Achievement with the pill formula.

After reaching Minor Achievement, he could reliably produce Cyan Spirit Pills, which sent his Cyan Spirit Body progress rocketing forward—he hit Minor Achievement there too.

With his advances in both Cyan Spirit Body and Golden Finger, his Immortal Dao Spirit Root talent rose another notch, and he finally achieved Grade D Intermediate level.

In that moment, no one understood better than Lu Chang’sheng just how huge the gap was between Grade D Lower and Grade D Intermediate spirit roots.

"No wonder the Immortal Sects care so much about Spirit Root Talent. Even a tiny step up makes all the difference."

If Grade D Lower was a creek, then Grade D Intermediate was a full-blown river.

This would determine just how long it took for him to cultivate Immortal Techniques going forward.

With his breakthrough in spirit roots and help from Perfect Pills, his cultivation speed went back to what it had been in early Qi Cultivation—maybe even faster.

Finally, today, he’d reached the ninth layer of Qi Cultivation!