Chapter 20: Short-Term Goal: Extend Life by Seven More Years

"Say I look human! Just say it! Don't you love me in human form?"

"I'm so tired! If you won't cultivate, I still have to cultivate!"

Feng Xue couldn't stand the saccharine, whiny tone of the little white snake, and was about to turn it into a silent stone—when suddenly he remembered something and changed the subject:

"You said earlier you've cultivated for forty years?"

"Yeah, let me count… roughly forty-four… hmm, forty-five? Something like that!" The little white snake sounded unsure herself—after all, in the wild, a snake had no easy way to track exact time.

But whether forty or forty-five, to Feng Xue it sounded strangely odd, given that…

"Only forty-five years to reach this level of sentience? Then all the old monkeys in the mountains must be demons already."

Feng Xue's question wasn't unreasonable—even with species limitations, from both strange tales and biology, reptiles generally have lower intelligence than mammals. Of course, if you count birds as the dragon's lost jewels, there are indeed corvid masters—but in this world of strange tales, birds are feathered insects, while most reptiles are scaled insects.

So the question arises: if a creature like a snake—with its small brain—can achieve human-level sentience in forty years, how long would a raven, a dolphin, or even a chimpanzee need?

Hearing this, the little white snake was puzzled, surprised:

"Don't you realize anything about the number forty-four?"

"Realize what? I'm only in my twenties—what happened forty years ago would I know?" Feng Xue rolled his eyes. Forget forty years ago—even if aliens had invaded and been repelled a year ago, he, having arrived in this world only two days ago, couldn't possibly know.

"..." The little white snake said nothing about Feng Xue's age. In her eyes, even if he wasn't a true transcendent, he must be the reincarnation of some great master—perhaps even a ghost deity from the Underworld who got bored and returned to the mortal realm for a vacation.

The Fox Immortal Grandma had told similar stories before. Whether the person carried memories or not, you couldn't say it outright—so she simply went along with Feng Xue's words:

"The Emperor's Juice! It's the Emperor's Juice! A rare essence of lunar brilliance, appearing once every sixty years. Any living being lucky enough to swallow and digest it gains sentience, extends lifespan, and learns how to absorb lunar energy."

"Oh!" Feng Xue had heard the name before—but then a thought struck him:

"If animals gain sentience and extended life from the Emperor's Juice, what about humans?"

"Hmm… I really don't know."

The little white snake shook her head decisively—before Feng Xue, she'd never even met a human.

The little white snake didn't know—but Feng Xue couldn't stop thinking.

He'd assumed the eighty-odd years of remaining lifespan left after she lost her cultivation were the human lifespan granted by her transformation—but now he thought again: if she wasn't even in human form, how could she gain human lifespan bonuses?

Now he realized: those eighty years… no, counting her original lifespan and the time she'd lived, it must be over a hundred and twenty, nearly a hundred and thirty years.

Considering that small snakes normally live five to ten years, the Emperor's Juice must grant not only sentience but also a hundred and twenty years of yang life?

Thinking of this, Feng Xue's heart burned hot—if humans could also benefit from the Emperor's Juice, could he use it to extend his own life?

But forty-four years ago… that was sixteen years ago…

"So I've got to find a way to gain at least seven more years of life!"

Feng Xue instantly set himself a short-term goal—but didn't hold much hope. After all, if it only appears once every sixty years, even warriors and mystery cultivators would likely encounter it one or two times in their lives, and ordinary people might even stumble upon it. Even if it could extend life, it probably wouldn't be easy to obtain.

So the Emperor's Juice could only be an optional path—not a primary goal.

"Master, you've asked all your questions—can I be human again now?"

Seeing Feng Xue in a good mood, the little white snake pulled the topic back. Feng Xue rolled his eyes:

"No. I'm cultivating. If I turn you human, I might not be able to resist doing you! Oh, wait—you remind me—you're just a silent stone!"

"Boom!"

Satisfied, Feng Xue placed the white snake statue beside the bed, returned to his cot, and resumed his cultivation in the quiet of night.

Qi surged like tides, rising and falling; in his mind-sea, the spherical form wrapped in gauzy light slowly filled, rounded, and pulsed gently with his breath and heartbeat.

Repeated explosive extractions gave Feng Xue's qi supply a cyclical rhythm unlike ordinary cultivators, making his soul's pulsation far more pronounced than theirs.

Ordinary cultivators' souls pulsed like mood lights—slow, steady, long. Feng Xue's soul pulsed like a heartbeat—sharp, sudden, violent.

This soul, unlike ordinary cultivators', still produced magical power, accumulating in his empty mind-sea, guided consciously by him into a fine rain falling upon his heart-field, pooling into a small puddle.

According to the cultivation manual, at the Master Realm, one could summon qi like a tidal wave with a single thought. Feng Xue's tiny puddle seemed insignificant.

But with the prefix "only one night of cultivation," it was different—no new cultivator could reach Feng Xue's level of soul formation and qi-rain without sealing himself away for two or three months, burning three to five years of life.

Each pulse of his soul meant extracting qi equivalent to three days of yang life. Continuing like this, by morning, Feng Xue had extracted qi equivalent to sixty years of yang life.

When he woke, fully replenished, he only felt hungry. He looked up—remaining lifespan: 3281.

"Of course—I accidentally burned two days of life yesterday!"

Feng Xue muttered, walking to the ordinary-looking stone:

"You look like a ring."

"Boom!"

"That's too much! You sealed my mouth, but you flooded the whole building with qi—how am I supposed to cultivate now?!"

The little white snake immediately protested loudly the moment she could speak. Feng Xue sighed helplessly.

Though he burned sixty years of life in one night, that didn't mean his soul gained sixty years of cultivation—because he'd just begun, like a newborn infant. No matter how much you feed it, there's a limit to what it can absorb and digest.

But who cared? Feng Xue had qi to spare—no cost, no consequence! Just increase the flow!

Feeling his soul swollen, almost bursting, Feng Xue adjusted his clothes. Today, he had two things to do.

You spent two whole chapters explaining the cultivation method, yet some still don't understand.

In this world, refining essence into qi and refining qi into spirit are not two separate realms, but a single cultivation method—equivalent to martial artists' nourishing essence to solidify qi, and solidifying qi to stabilize spirit—not the traditional xianxia model where you first refine essence into qi, then stop and begin refining qi into spirit at a later stage.

The overall process in this world's system is: during cultivation, the body's essence is refined into qi, then the qi is sent to the mind-sea to nourish the spirit. This is a single, simultaneous cultivation cycle.

So the result is: though refining essence, you're also refining spirit.

Whether beginner or Master, all cultivators use this same set of techniques; different sects may vary in details, but the principle is identical.

The difference only comes after achieving "the Dao" (a soul without leaks), when one can finely control magical power to nourish the body in return—yet this merely allows the body to extract more essence without depletion; it's not a new cultivation method.

As for how qi is sent to the mind-sea: it's the Small Heavenly Circulation. Qi gathers at the heart region (not the heart organ, but closer to the Shanzhong acupoint), then sinks through the dantian to the huiyin point, then travels up the spine along the Great Dragon, finally reaching the baihui point and entering the mind-sea. Strictly speaking, it's similar to the Ren and Du meridians in wuxia novels (not identical, but similar path). But the circulation actually begins with Ren and Du, then extends to the limbs and extremities—since flow prevents pain, and pain indicates blockage. As long as you're healthy, your meridians are already open—there's no such thing as "opening" them.



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(End of Chapter)