Chapter 598: The Mountain Has an Immortal

Shoushan looms high.

The turtle's tail winds into a bridge.

Everyone stood dumbfounded.

Turtle.

What's going on?

What's happening?

Is there a treasure that grants a Wu Sheng a thousand years of extended life?

"Frog Sir, let's go!"

Liang Qu waved his hand.

Since we've entered the treasure mountain, we must take the Treasure-Finding Luo Pan.

The old frog, overjoyed, puffed out his round belly, marched proudly up the turtle's tail, dragging a trail of water all the way to the base of Shoushan.

The night was hazy.

The tide washed over the turtle's shell, splashing white waves.

Stepping onto the rocky ground, Liang Qu constantly controlled the water, forming a channel behind him, half his hand submerged for easy escape via divine technique—yet he felt no life force being drained.

The old frog showed no abnormality either.

So it's an active skill…

"Don't dawdle."

The giant turtle spoke, urging them on.

"Why the rush?" Liang Qu strolled calmly through it all. "You've lived for centuries—still so hasty. Cultivation doesn't mean cultivating the heart."

The giant turtle: "..."

The old frog suppressed the urge to roll on the ground and hopped inward.

He surveyed all around.

The entire Shoushan was unlike an ordinary mountain—no rock crevices, no uneven protrusions, its whole body fused into one solid mass, unmoved by wind and rain, inevitably evoking images of the Cloud Immortal Island forged by the Xiao Shenlong.

At the mountain's base lay neatly cultivated medicinal gardens, thriving lushly, all identifiable as longevity-boosting treasures.

Sui Zhi, Shou Teng, Bulaosong…

Longevity-boosting herbs were rare to see; cultivating them was even harder.

Yet here, there were so many, so densely packed, planted like cabbage.

Even if most were low-grade and unremarkable, picking just one to give a low-rank Wu Shi would surely extend their life by several months, even half a year, without issue.

The saying "Those who ascend Shoushan gain extended life" was indeed true.

Why plant so many longevity herbs?

With Yuan General's strength, eating these wouldn't increase his lifespan at all.

Liang Qu pondered.

"Hoo hoo hoo!"

Roars came from above.

He looked up.

"Human" shapes stirred on the mountain, moving steadily downward.

His gaze sharpened.

Monkeys?

Rustling.

Rocks tumbled.

A large troop of monkeys raced down the mountain.

Some carried buckets, towels, winnowing baskets, and brooms, pinching their noses to clean up the vomit of the fat catfish.

Others stared at the man and the frog, roaring incessantly, waving their arms and hurling stones, trying to drive away the intruders.

The giant turtle made no move to stop them—even secretly rejoiced. If they harmed the monkeys, it would be the perfect excuse…

Liang Qu ignited his Golden Eyes.

The monkey troop erupted in chaos, chattering wildly, leaping and scrambling as if panicked.

The giant turtle rejoiced, about to say, "You startled my monkeys—let's call it even," when he saw the monkeys scatter, wielding hoes to dig furiously at the medicinal gardens, clearing away soil debris, then holding the herbs aloft with both hands, lining up to pass them forward one by one.

The giant turtle: "?"

Liang Qu waved them off—he had no interest in ordinary longevity herbs.

The monkey troop wailed in despair, collapsing backward, the newly dug Sui Zhi rolling helplessly on the ground.

The giant turtle flew into a rage; Shoushan trembled.

The monkey troop sprang up instantly, replanting the Sui Zhi and covering them with soil.

Gardeners of Shoushan…

So the "Immortal of Shoushan" is actually an immortal monkey?

"Liang Qing! Hurry here!"

Liang Qu leapt up the cliff face, ascending to the mid-mountain, where he found a cave half a man's height, containing a small pond with a glowing white lotus blooming at its center, swaying as if scattering fluorescent powder.

The old frog rubbed his webbed paws: "Take this! Take this! The twelve-petaled Longevity Lotus!"

"Is it the best?"

The old frog shook his head, leaned close, and whispered: "It's the limit you can take without trouble!"

"Frog Sir, you're brilliant!" Liang Qu praised, then mused, "Is there something better?"

"Higher up, there's an eighteen-petaled one—a top-tier specimen," the old frog hesitated. "But if we take it, the old turtle won't agree."

"Nothing is impossible if you try."

He dragged the water channel upward.

Following the old frog's directions, Liang Qu circled a few steps and indeed found an eighteen-petaled Longevity Lotus, more beautiful than the previous one.

Before he could enter the cave.

"That item is unacceptable!"

"You have a Wu Sheng's extended life…"

"You audacious brat! Wait—actually, it's not impossible…" The giant turtle's eyes darted around, then settled on the Dragon Maiden in the water. "Leave this Dragon Maiden with me as a bonus!"

"Dragon Maiden?" Liang Qu glanced down, puzzled. "You're a dragon-descended crocodile turtle—do you like women?"

"Why not?" The giant turtle showed no shame, openly revealing his preference. "Humans aren't jade—why do they like jade? Humans aren't porcelain—why do they like white porcelain?"

Liang Qu understood.

"Earlier, when you approached us, was it because of the Dragon Maiden?"

"Correct." The giant turtle lifted his head. "I've always loved beautiful women—fair skin, exquisite features, like jade. This Dragon Maiden's beauty is unprecedented. If you leave her with me, I'll let you pick three treasures besides the Long Qi you already took—no arguments!"

The frog loves big boats.

The crocodile turtle loves beautiful women.

Hmm.

Liang Qu suddenly recalled the words of the noodle shop owner at Baoqing Wharf.

"Last summer, a woman harvesting water chestnuts glowed with radiant beauty—was that your doing?"

"She had good potential, but worked too hard in manual labor. I gave her a Sui Zhi."

"You're quite the romantic turtle," Liang Qu shook his head. "The Dragon Maiden is my friend. She won't be a bonus."

Long Long Eying's expression relaxed slightly.

"If you won't give her as a bonus, you can't take the eighteen-petaled Longevity Lotus!"

The giant turtle spoke, secretly proud of his cleverness: getting the ultimate Dragon Maiden would be a win; if not, he'd already broken the cycle of mutual threats!

"How about a different bonus?" Liang Qu proposed.

"What?"

"I'll help you activate the Long Qi's effect!"

Activate the Long Qi's effect?

The giant turtle was skeptical.

Others couldn't be trusted.

But this boy before him was truly strange.

In the Wolf Smoke Realm, he possessed divine techniques, could absorb Long Qi merely by approaching, even merge four into one!

It had refined the Four Seasons' Long Qi for a long time, always feeling it could advance further—but never found the key.

Today's events were perilous yet safe, even an opportunity.

But…

It felt like a trap.

"I don't believe you!"

Liang Qu scanned the Shoushan environment, not rushing to trade for treasures.

"Black Crocodile, long-lived, if you gain the Long Jun's essence blood, you could live two hundred years—or even three hundred, easily. With such longevity, you could cultivate the Twenty-Four Solar Terms Method, absorbing scattered qi from heaven and earth, progressing step by step."

It's a brilliant strategy: using the Black Crocodile's strength to endure your weak early stage, and leveraging the unique nature of the Twenty-Four Solar Terms Method to break through the dragon-blooded realm's constraints—truly astonishing, endlessly determined, enough to make all aquatic demons sigh in awe.

Old, well-worn talk.

The giant turtle's ears had calluses, and it was extremely impatient.

"What do you want to say?"

"I mean, General Yuan is far more gifted than the world realizes!" Liang Qu slapped the cliff face and looked up at the peak. "Shoushan is truly a treasure mountain—any random tree growing atop it, capable of extending life, would spark fierce bidding among Grand Masters, selling for hundreds of thousands of silver taels. This mountain must have been deliberately cultivated and accelerated by General Yuan."

The giant turtle said nothing.

Liang Qu continued.

"You adapted the Twenty-Four Solar Terms Method, condensing seasonal long qi within your own body, then cultivated and accelerated Shoushan, planting longevity treasures upon it.

Because the longevity treasures are rooted in the same system as Shoushan, their essence is similar and closely aligned, allowing them to be nourished and ripened by the seasonal long qi.

A longevity peach that normally takes sixty years to mature grows on Shoushan in just twenty.

Then, General Yuan uses the same ability you once used to cultivate my friend—half-consuming, half-nurturing—the essence of the longevity treasures, harvesting them endlessly to extend your lifespan.

It's a cycle with no end, endlessly self-sustaining.

Today, I helped you unify the four seasonal qi into one, further boosting the cycle's efficiency. When your lifespan finally runs out, it may well be measured in thousands of years?"

Thousands of years?

The old toad, the fat catfish, and the dragon heart were all shaken to their cores.

Even a Martial Saint couldn't live to a fraction of that number.

The giant turtle grunted, clearly pleased with itself.

The Shoushan cycle was its greatest secret—anyone who knew it would die.

But now that the seasonal long qi had been exposed, whether others knew or not no longer mattered; what mattered was that someone had uncovered its true talent.

It felt good.

Hit the mark!

Seeing the giant turtle's pride,

Liang Qu knew he had guessed correctly. He had synthesized all the scattered information and just now fully understood how General Yuan's entire cultivation method operated.

Brilliant.

Too bad.

Impossible to replicate.

For one thing, the seasonal long qi requires the Twenty-Four Solar Terms Method to condense—and only General Yuan's own modified version of the method could generate it.

And only the turtle race can cultivate this method; that single barrier alone makes replication utterly impossible.

Then there's the dragon blood infusion to enhance longevity, the cultivation of Shoushan, the condensation of the cultivation ability...

Perhaps across the entire heavens and earth, only General Yuan, the turtle, can generate such an extraordinary long qi as "Temporal Flow!"

Liang Qu stepped forward three paces.

The dagger was revealed at last.

"I have a method that can enhance your cycle as much as unifying the four seasonal qi! In the future, your lifespan may be measured in ten thousand years!"

"Ten thousand years?" The giant turtle's massive form trembled. "Is this true?"

"Absolutely true!"

Liang Qu spoke with absolute certainty.

His plan was to transform the long qi into spiritual fish!

His calculations clicked like abacus beads.

【Divine Aura】!

The Zeling Zerong evolved into the Water Wang Yuan, its upper-tier talent transformed from 【Intimidation】.

All who received the Water Wang Yuan's essence would feel 【Divine Aura】—their limbs would go limp, powerless to resist!

Controlling General Yuan was still beyond reach.

But one must proceed step by step.