Chapter 18: Using Lifespan Requires Skill

The white dot floating in Feng Xue's mind-sea shimmered with a faint glow, and in an instant, it transformed from a fleeting illusion like a visual afterimage into a genuine, solid sphere of light.

As qi flowed in, the light on the dot gradually saturated and spilled outward—not blinding, not intense, but thin as moonlight gauze, slowly enveloping and drifting, gently illuminating the void of the mind-sea.

Vaguely, Feng Xue seemed to feel a kind of touch, as if the light within her sea of consciousness had acquired a temperature—but that temperature was so subtle, elusive, like water close to body heat: seemingly different, yet impossible to tell whether it was warm or cool.

Just as he continued drawing in qi, a powerful sense of hunger surged into his heart, shattering his meditative state; Feng Xue's consciousness was abruptly ejected from his mind-sea.

One moment he was lost in the fresh sensation, the next he felt dizzy and disoriented, a foreboding instinct rising instantly—he opened his over-the-shoulder view again and saw the number above his head—

3282.

"Shit!"

Feng Xue was acutely sensitive to the number above his head; he immediately noticed the missing two days. Even accounting for the imprecise time difference between the two worlds, it had already passed midnight—he should still have 3283 days of lifespan, not 3282.

"Lost more lifespan again!"

A wave of despair rose in Feng Xue's heart; he ignored the speed advantage granted by locking 【Refining Essence into Qi】, relocked his lifespan, and only then felt somewhat reassured.

"Cultivation in the Profound Way really does just eat away your lifespan! No wonder that senior brother had only twenty years left at such a young age!"

Though muttering under his breath, Feng Xue could clearly sense something new in his mind.

It was minimal, and hard to control—like walking on stilts; though technically an extension of the body, it wasn't fully obedient.

"Is this… cultivation energy?"

Curious about this power gained by burning two days of lifespan, Feng Xue couldn't set up a ritual altar in the inn, so he closed his eyes again and resumed refining qi.

In truth, he still carried a trace of worry—he wasn't sure whether this cultivation method, which caused lifespan loss, would succeed without draining lifespan, or whether the inability to lose lifespan meant he couldn't cultivate at all.

If the former, Feng Xue had gained a massive cheat; if the latter, no matter how potent it seemed, he'd have to abandon Profound Cultivation in this world and try the so-called martial path instead.

Of course, if martial cultivation was equally hard, he could always reincarnate again—he'd already asked the innkeeper's boy; this world had trains, though the nearest station was a hundred li from the county town.

Hmm, at least trains didn't require worrying whether they weighed enough to reach a hundred tons.

Carrying this thought, Feng Xue chewed two energy bars and re-entered stillness. His restless mind made it hard to settle, but as the faint spiritual light in his mind-sea drifted outward, he finally began another round of 【Refining Essence into Qi】.

Thin streams of qi emerged from his limbs and bones, converging and spreading toward his mind-sea—but when he examined it closely, he sensed something odd.

If earlier, cultivating qi had felt like adjusting a faucet—smoothly regulating flow—now it felt broken: either dripping like a leaky tap, drop by drop, or surging in bursts, entirely lacking continuous smoothness.

This conflict jolted Feng Xue out of his state again, but he didn't immediately try again; instead, he thought.

"The gaps mean there's a segment that's 'unusable'—but why is it unusable?"

Feng Xue took out paper and pen, sketched a progress bar, and began pondering.

"'Refining Essence into Qi'—literally, converting matter into energy. The earlier hunger was caused by this. Lifespan loss occurred because stored energy was exhausted, forcing the body to cannibalize cells, consuming fat and muscle. Hmm, it felt like self-cannibalism. At this level of starvation, even if rescued, bodily damage is irreparable—lifespan loss is only natural."

Muttering to himself, Feng Xue divided the progress bar into three segments—

"So, the fine trickle is the part where food energy is converted into qi—no lifespan involved, so harmless. The large clumps of qi, however, are a sudden extraction of massive energy, overloading and killing countless cells. Because of the lock, the mechanism causing lifespan loss is blocked—so cells don't die, but the instantly extracted qi can't be reabsorbed. The middle segment? The extraction is continuous, slowly damaging cells; the first damage is blocked, so subsequent qi simply can't emerge."

Feng Xue found this easy to understand—he'd already tested the lifespan lock extensively.

For example, buy a rooster, lock its lifespan, then bleed it—when would it stop?

The answer depends on the bleeding method.

If you sever its head in one blow, the cut causes no harm; but if you make a shallow incision, the rooster bleeds—until it reaches the point where the control rooster, without the lock, would begin losing lifespan, then it stops abruptly.

That's why Feng Xue said his cheat protects against death, not injury.

"So my cultivation focus differs from other cultivators'. Normal cultivators aim for smooth, gradual processes to minimize single-instance damage and ensure cell self-repair. My focus? The total qi extractable in an instant."

If forced to analogize: ordinary cultivators dig a small canal by the river to let water trickle out slowly; Feng Xue uses a large bucket, hauling water out bucket by bucket.

Though it seems far more laborious, unlike cultivators who must preserve river flow, Feng Xue can recklessly enlarge his bucket until it matches the flow rate.

Having devised a viable plan, Feng Xue closed his eyes again and re-entered stillness—while the white snake waiting by the window, still awaiting the moonlight, grew restless.

Before the moon's radiance could fall, the room already surged with qi turbulence. Though only the excess qi his soul couldn't fully absorb, the frequency was relentless—almost every one or two seconds, a wave of qi rippled out, and before it faded, another surged forth.

Feeling the qi surge now thick enough to interfere with her perception of moonlight, Bai She sighed and growled:

"Drain, drain, drain! Just drain yourself to death already!"

Regarding the priority between the cheat's lifespan lock and lifespan consumption—questions like "Does a lifespan-burning technique activate without consuming lifespan, or fail entirely?"—including using lifespan to cast spells, cultivate, or even suffer injury—these can be explained using the concepts of effect and cost in K-language.

First, the protagonist's lifespan lock can be understood as an effect: "Lifespan remains unchanged, and any effect altering lifespan is rendered invalid." Note: invalidation of the effect, not prevention of activation—activation occurs, but has no result, not blocked from activation.

Now consider lifespan consumption.

Take decapitation: a classic case of "decapitation causes death," because successful decapitation inevitably reduces lifespan to zero (excluding anomalous species). Thus, activation is invalid—the entire effect is nullified, like an ant ignoring fire: cut, but unharmed.

Now, self-consumption of lifespan splits into two cases: lifespan as cost with outcome as effect, and outcome as cost with lifespan loss as effect.

Lifespan as cost: "Spend lifespan to activate XXX." Because lifespan cannot decrease, cost payment fails, activation conditions unmet, entire effect fails—e. g., cursing a target at the cost of one's life: lifespan doesn't drop, and the curse doesn't activate.

Effect as cost: "Activate XXX, then lifespan decreases." For example, after using Qimen Dunjia, lifespan drops to zero. Here, Qimen Dunjia activates, but lifespan doesn't drop (though disability may occur).

Feng Xue

Feng Xue

(End of Chapter)