Eternal Life from the Golden Needle Technique

"Senior Brother Wu, you’re here!"

"I just arrived myself. I came to back up Senior Sister, but I didn’t expect you to have everything handled by the time I got here."

As Shen Changchuan came down from the mountaintop carrying a large string of Storage Bags,

Wu Tianhao and the Shen Family’s Third Elder had already met up with Wei Yuting.

They were chatting, discussing the whole affair.

Shen Changchuan greeted them.

Wu Tianhao turned to Shen Changchuan, his voice heavy with emotion as he responded,

"It wasn’t long after we got the message from the other Sect disciples that we set out. We were worried about Senior Sister’s dangerous predicament, so we rushed here as fast as we could."

"Not long after arriving nearby, we ran into Tang Yuncheng and the other junior brothers retreating from Jinfeng Town. We heard from them that you had gotten involved and had actually attacked before we even got here. That really gave me a scare at the time!"

"I was worried you’d be hot-headed and get yourself into danger."

"Now, it seems I underestimated your talent. I was worrying for nothing."

Wu Tianhao’s voice was filled with a mixture of admiration and wistfulness.

Of course, it was a wonderful thing that his junior brother was not only alive but had also defeated their enemy and rescued their senior sister.

He had long since realized the vast difference in talent between them,

so he felt no jealousy toward Shen Changchuan.

He sighed simply because

seeing Shen Changchuan’s meteoric rise made him feel inadequate by comparison.

In the past three years,

his own diligent Cultivation had barely been enough to recover from the backlash of using the Qi Absorption and Essence Returning Secret Skill. He’d only made minor progress beyond that, reaching the Late Stage of the Soul Emergence Fourth Layer.

And yet,

his junior brother had rocketed from the Soul Emergence Fourth Layer all the way to the Soul Emergence Seventh Layer!

Even the sword strike he’d unleashed was something a Soul Emergence Ninth Layer Cultivator wouldn’t dare underestimate!

In comparison,

’How mediocre am I?!’

The Little Cultivator from years past who could only look up to him had now left him far behind.

Wu Tianhao even had a premonition

that as time passed,

this gap would only grow wider, until he could no longer even see his junior brother’s shadow!

When he thought about Changchuan’s potential achievements,

and contrasted them with the limits of his own Path of Immortal Cultivation,

this huge disparity

naturally filled Wu Tianhao’s heart with a complex mix of feelings.

"It’s never ’worrying for nothing’ when it’s concern from you, Senior Brother."

"Besides, my success this time was largely due to a stroke of luck. Otherwise, I’m not sure I would have made it..."

As he spoke,

Shen Changchuan went on to describe the revival of the mysterious ancient corpse inside the volcanic cavity.

In hindsight,

if not for that sudden turn of events, which crippled one of Corpse Refining Sect Leader Qiu Kunsheng’s arms,

Shen Changchuan would have likely taken Senior Sister Wei and left immediately, without even considering a direct confrontation.

Shen Changchuan had already witnessed the Corpse Refining Sect’s Secret Technique outside the Secret Realm Ruins—the one that allowed a Cultivator to temporarily merge with their refined corpse and unleash power one full Realm higher than their own.

Without the trial of fighting Qiu Kunsheng head-on,

his Cultivation Realm would most likely still be at Soul Emergence Sixth Layer Peak.

He might have needed several more years of polishing to achieve a breakthrough.

So,

the success of this mission was owed in large part to fortunate happenstance.

"Speaking of which, I still don’t know what was up with that female corpse."

"At the time, I was hiding and watching from far away, and I was overcome with a bone-chilling horror that paralyzed my entire body!"

"An ancient corpse, dead for over two thousand years, actually came back to life. If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I would have thought it was absurd!"

Recalling that scene,

Shen Changchuan couldn’t help but feel a sense of lingering fear.

He could feel that

back then, if that mysterious female corpse had wanted to, a single glance would have been enough to grind him to dust!

That was an unimaginably terrifying being!

Even Master Wandering Dragon was far inferior to her!

He had no idea why,

in this Nanyue Kingdom,

such a terrifying thing existed!

"Something like that actually happened?!"

Hearing Shen Changchuan’s account, the expressions of both Wu Tianhao and the Shen Family’s Third Elder changed dramatically.

They also remembered that before entering these Secret Realm Ruins,

they had felt a terrifying pressure from the outside world. At that time, the entire sky outside Golden Wind Valley was dark and heavy, and bolts of furious Thunder tore across the heavens.

Back then, they had a vague feeling

that the heavens themselves were enraged!

At the time, their group was full of shock and uncertainty.

They had just assumed it was a peculiar local weather phenomenon.

Now, it seemed,

that was precisely when the mysterious ancient corpse Shen Changchuan spoke of had revived and was achieving Ascension into the Heavens?!

"This matter is beyond our ability to handle. We should report it to Master and the others as soon as possible."

"While I doubt that mysterious female corpse feels any sort of connection to the Corpse Refining Sect, she is their origin, after all. Letting Master and the others know about this upheaval will allow them to prepare for any unexpected developments..."

Wei Yuting said, breaking the ensuing silence.

"Indeed!"

Wu Tianhao nodded in firm agreement.

While the others were talking,

the Shen Family’s Third Elder had remained silent, merely standing beside them and listening quietly.

At this moment,

although he too was aghast at Shen Changchuan’s story and shocked by the revival of a two-thousand-year-old corpse,

his attention was mostly fixed on Shen Changchuan’s attitude.

’Shen Changchuan’s progress is simply too fast,’

’and this interaction feels so abrupt. I wasn’t prepared for this shift in our dynamic.’

’I should keep a low profile for now and stay on the sidelines.’

’In a few days, I’ll pay him a formal visit with a generous gift. That should help smooth things over.’

Such were the Third Elder’s considerations.

But because he hadn’t yet figured out how to approach Shen Changchuan, he was trying to be as inconspicuous as possible.

Wu Tianhao, however, was grateful for his help and took the initiative to introduce him to Wei Yuting and Shen Changchuan.

"This is Elder Shen Yingxia of the Tian Nan Shen Clan. There aren’t many Soul Emergence Late Stage cultivators stationed in Barbaric City. When the news arrived, Elder Shen had just reached the city and volunteered to help. He’s the only reason I was able to come."

As he spoke, a wry smile appeared on Wu Tianhao’s face.

"Otherwise, with my meager Soul Emergence Fourth Layer realm, coming here would have been suicide. I probably would have had to wait a few days, or send the news over to Broken Soul Mountain..."

"Thank you, Elder!"

Wei Yuting said with gratitude.

"Third Elder, thank you."

Shen Changchuan also offered his thanks.

’Whether he was actually useful or not doesn’t matter. He dared to risk his life to come help, and that sentiment alone is remarkable.’

’It seems this person is from the First Madam’s faction.’

’But... whatever. As long as he hasn’t acted directly against me, there’s no major grudge.’

"Not at all, not at all!"

Shen Yingxia said hastily.

When he looked at Shen Changchuan, his expression was one of someone almost overwhelmed by the honor.

This made Wu Tianhao and Wei Yuting feel that something was vaguely strange.

Figuring it was probably an internal matter of the Shen Clan, the two of them didn’t ask any further questions.

...

With everything settled,

the group left the Secret Realm Ruins.

And as he stepped out of the spatial vortex with the others,

Shen Changchuan’s heart was overflowing with immense joy.

Because,

as they were leaving,

he had casually opened and browsed through Qiu Kunsheng’s Storage Bag.

Inside,

he had discovered something extremely important to him—

the main ingredient for refining the Void Escape Gu—a Void Stone!

This directly increased Shen Changchuan’s progress on refining the Void Escape Gu by fifty percent!