Initially, Chen Changsheng couldn’t quite crack the methodology.
Although Spirit Roots resided within the human body, no one in history actually knew what one looked like.
Facing this biological hurdle, Chen Changsheng formulated a bold hypothesis.
Namely, that a physical “Spirit Root” didn’t exist at all.
What Cultivators referred to as a Spirit Root was merely a biological sensitivity to a specific elemental attribute.
The higher the sensitivity, the higher the grade of the resulting Spirit Root.
Operating on this theory, Chen Changsheng engineered a perfectly safe, non-invasive procedure.
He would simply marinate himself in pure botanical essence.
Spirit Grass inherently contained the Wood attribute. Prolonged exposure and soaking should theoretically heighten his bodily sensitivity to Wood-attribute Spiritual Qi, thus artificially forging a Wood Spirit Root.
Furthermore, entering his system-mandated hibernation would shut down all his life signs.
This perfectly bypassed the risk of his active immune system prematurely digesting the botanical essence.
In layman’s terms, Chen Changsheng was pickling himself like a ginseng root in medicinal wine.
Boom!
The moment the heavy lid sealed shut, Chen Changsheng’s life signs flatlined.
Every organ in his body ceased functioning. For all intents and purposes, he was a corpse.
With his metabolism dead, his body naturally stopped absorbing energy.
However, the highly concentrated botanical essence within the jade coffin began to passively permeate his dead flesh.
The osmotic process was agonizingly slow, but relentless.
……
Time flowed like water, years vanishing into the ether.
For Chen Changsheng, eighty years passed in the blink of an eye.
But for the mortal world, eight decades was a lifetime.
The surrounding flora had cycled through dozens of generations of life and death.
A tiny sapling he had casually tossed near the cave entrance had matured into a towering, waist-thick ancient tree.
Screech~
A tooth-aching scrape of stone on stone echoed through the cavern. The once-pristine jade coffin had long lost its luster.
The heavy lid slowly ground open.
Smack!
A hand utterly coated in thick, mossy green fur gripped the edge of the coffin.
A second later, a humanoid abomination covered head-to-toe in green algae sat up.
“Hoo…”
The green-furred monster exhaled a long breath of pale, stagnant green gas.
Indeed, this botanical nightmare was none other than Chen Changsheng, freshly awake from his eighty-year nap.
Shaking off the stiffness of near-century paralysis, he didn’t immediately rush to allocate his Attribute Points. Instead, he pulled out a Spirit Root-testing Magical Artifact. New chapters come out on g.com first.
He pressed his furry green palm against the crystal ball. Instantly, it flared with a blinding, verdant light.
Seeing the blinding emerald glow, Chen Changsheng couldn’t hold back a hoarse, raspy laugh.
“Hahaha!”
“The Artificial Spirit Root theory is scientifically sound! Finally, I don’t have to worry about some ancient overlord tossing me onto a dissection table.”
It was true. Ever since he realized the brutal nature of the Cultivation world, paranoia had eaten at him.
He was terrified of someone discovering his infinite lifespan.
Sure, his System granted Attribute Points every time he hibernated.
But to physically stockpile enough stats to punch out a Nascent Soul or Soul Formation monster? God knows how many millennia that would take.
If he ran into a random catastrophe during that massive grinding phase, his infinite life would be instantly terminated.
Thus, he desperately needed a stopgap measure for self-preservation. Traditional Cultivation was the most practical solution.
Having confirmed he successfully forged a High Grade Wood Spirit Root, he finally pulled up his System Panel.
【Host: Chen Changsheng】
【Strength: 1】
【Speed: 1】
【Defense: 11】
【Spiritual Power: 0】
【Lifespan: 160】
Chen Changsheng: ???
Staring at the glowing blue text, his furry green face scrunched up in total confusion.
“System, what the hell is this? Why did my stats roll back?”
“Unless the hibernation scrambled my brain, I was definitely at the fourth layer of Qi Condensation.”
“It wasn’t much, but it passively boosted my physical stats. Why am I back to baseline mortal?”
The System’s mechanical voice instantly chimed in.
“During the extended hibernation period, the Host’s internal Spiritual Power naturally leaked into the surrounding environment.”
“Without active Spiritual Qi nourishing the cells, the Host’s physical attributes naturally decayed back to their mortal baseline.”
“Please note: Stats permanently upgraded via Attribute Points are exempt from this biological decay.”
Chen Changsheng clicked his tongue, instantly accepting the logical explanation.
Whatever. It was only four measly layers of Qi Condensation. Easy come, easy go.
Armed with his new High Grade Wood Spirit Root, hitting that rank again would take him a weekend at most.
Without a second thought, Chen Changsheng dumped all eighty newly acquired Attribute Points straight into Defense.
Admiring his chunky new stat of 91 Defense, he nodded in satisfaction. “System, run a threat assessment. What can 91 Defense tank?”
“A mid-stage Foundation Establishment Cultivator can inflict light trauma. A late-stage Foundation Establishment Cultivator can cause critical damage.”
“Facing Foundation Establishment Perfection carries a severe mortality risk. Anything exceeding the Foundation Establishment realm guarantees instant death.”
Right as the System finished its bleak assessment, a massive explosion rocked the cave entrance.
A second later, a figure vaulted enthusiastically through the settling dust.
“The heavens truly favor me!”
“With this, breaking into the ninth layer of Qi Condensation is a guarantee!”
The excited intruder landed, took one look around the cavern, and completely froze.
She had just realized she broke into a tomb housing a massive jade coffin.
Worse, sitting upright inside that coffin was a rotting, humanoid corpse covered in thick green fur.
And the green-furred corpse was staring directly at her.
“Ahhh!”
A terrified shriek tore through the cavern.
Operating on pure panic, the intruder summoned a flying sword, hurling it straight at Chen Changsheng’s face.
Faced with the sudden assault, Chen Changsheng casually raised a furry arm to block.
Clang!
The razor-sharp flying sword sparked against his skin and wildly ricocheted into the ceiling.
Seeing her strongest attack casually swatted away, the intruder’s mind instantly auto-filled ninety-nine gruesome ways this ancient zombie was going to eat her.
Overwhelmed by sheer existential terror, the girl’s eyes rolled into the back of her head, and she dropped to the floor, dead-faint.
Chen Changsheng scratched his mossy head in utter bewilderment. He swung his legs over the side and climbed out of the coffin.
Walking closer, he finally got a good look. The home invader was a young girl from the demon race.
She wore coarse linen clothes, looked no older than sixteen, and had two fluffy fox ears twitching atop her head.
“Why is a demon out in the middle of nowhere? I don’t even have any loot hidden here,” he muttered.
He was genuinely baffled by the break-in.
When scouting for his grave, he had gone out of his way to pick a barren wasteland utterly devoid of Spiritual Qi.
The entire point was to avoid exactly this—getting dug up by random Cultivators looking for treasure.
But judging by her pre-faint monologue, she had blown up his front door on purpose.
The mystery, however, solved itself a moment later.
The unconscious fox girl was clutching a stalk of Spirit Grass in her right hand. Judging by the sheer density of its aura, the herb was at least eighty years old.
It was a Spring Revival Grass—a garbage-tier weed in the Cultivation world. Before his hibernation, he had chucked a handful of random seeds over his door for camouflage, including a few Spring Revival seeds.
By some botanical miracle, this specific weed had bypassed its biological limits and absorbed sunlight undisturbed for eight decades.
If his deductions were correct, his own camouflage had literally acted as a beacon, luring this idiot right to his front door.