“Cough, cough, cough…”
Inside the underground cave abode, Li Changsheng began coughing violently.
His head spun, and his face was deathly pale.
Burning 20,000 years of lifespan in a single instant had severely overdrawn him.
Burning lifespan to equally drain another’s lifespan was like inflating a balloon. If he failed to control his own limit, it could burst just like that balloon, and he might die suddenly along with it.
For this reason, over the years he had constantly calculated the upper threshold of his lifespan to prevent the tragic outcome of sudden death one day.
According to his calculations, his limit was about one hundred times his natural lifespan. He was now nearly 700 years old, so his upper boundary was roughly 70,000 years.
Just expending 20,000 years had already left him dizzy and nauseated. If that old man’s lifespan had exceeded 70,000 years, he might truly have died together with him.
Therefore, even when activating the divine ability Longevity True Flame, he had to be extremely cautious, lest he play himself to death.
For a Saint-level Spiritual Practitioner, the lifespan limit was roughly 10,000 years. There had been no need for him to burn 20,000 years in one go. Likely around 5,000 years would have been enough to kill the old man.
But Li Changsheng had been too tense. To be safe, he directly burned 20,000 years.
After all, no matter how long-lived a Saint-level cultivator was, it was impossible to exceed 20,000 years.
“Old man, you brought this upon yourself.”
Li Changsheng muttered in a low voice. He did not linger. After a brief rest and swallowing several medicinal pills to recover, he walked out.
…
In the courtyard, Chen Xiuzhen stood calmly in place.
His eyes were slightly closed as he quietly waited.
The Chen family ancestor was cultivating in seclusion inside. This time, he was convinced that once Li Wu disturbed the ancestor’s cultivation, death would be inevitable.
Even if the Emperor came personally, he would not be able to save him.
The Chen family ancestor was a Saint-level Spiritual Practitioner who had lived for thousands of years. Ordinarily, he would not emerge even after several decades or a hundred years.
Even Chen Xiuzhen himself had not seen the ancestor for over a hundred years.
If the ancestor killed the Prime Minister, the Emperor could not possibly blame him. After all, Li Changsheng had sought his own death. If he went inside and died, he deserved it.
“Hm?”
Suddenly, Chen Xiuzhen’s expression shifted. He raised his eyes and saw a disheveled figure walking out.
When he recognized Li Changsheng, his expression froze.
This man had come out alive? How was that possible?
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Li Changsheng’s face was dark as he stared at Chen Xiuzhen.
“Ah?”
Chen Xiuzhen forced himself to appear calm.
“My soldiers died in your cellar treasury. You will bear full responsibility.”
“Died? How did they die?”
Chen Xiuzhen’s expression changed in apparent shock.
“Hmph. The inside was full of mechanisms. How else could they have died?”
Li Changsheng snorted coldly, his face turning stern. “There was also a corpse inside. An old man. He had already passed away.”
“Let’s go.”
Li Changsheng’s expression hardened as he turned and left without another word.
Chen Xiuzhen’s face changed drastically upon hearing this.
“Ancestor?!”
His heart trembled violently. Forgetting everything else, he rushed into the cellar.
When he reached the depths of the cave abode, he saw an aged figure seated cross-legged at the center of the Spirit Gathering Formation.
White hair scattered over his shoulders. His face was sallow and shriveled. His body was little more than skin and bone. There was no sign of life remaining.
“Ancestor…”
Chen Xiuzhen stared in disbelief before collapsing to his knees with a thud.
Tears streamed down his face. He could not believe that the family ancestor, who had lived for thousands of years, had passed away just like this.
He had left no will, no final instructions. How could he depart so silently?
At that moment, it felt as if the sky had collapsed. The ancestor had been the sky of the Chen family.
The Chen family’s sole Saint-level Spiritual Practitioner. Relying on his prestige, the Chen family had served as officials in the Great Shang Empire for generations, flourishing and prosperous.
Now that the ancestor was dead, the Chen family would never regain its former glory. They no longer had a powerful backer to shield them.
…
News of the Chen family ancestor’s death spread rapidly throughout the Imperial Capital. All officials were shocked. The cultivation world was shaken.
Within the Great Shang Empire, there was only one Emperor-level Spiritual Practitioner, the former Emperor Long Cang. There had been three Saint-level Spiritual Practitioners.
Now that the Chen family ancestor was dead, only two remained.
Saint-level Spiritual Practitioners were as rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns. The emergence of even one could protect a family’s prosperity for thousands of years.
Who could have imagined that the Chen family ancestor would disappear so silently?
“Reporting to the Former Emperor, the Chen family ancestor has died. It aligns perfectly with the Heavenly Mystic prophecy. The fatal divination sign has not changed.”
Within the deep palace of the Former Emperor, a group of aged ministers stood respectfully in the Main Hall.
Long Cang stood before the Heavenly Mystic compass, his cloudy old eyes fixed on the stellar formation in the sky. His expression was incomparably grim.
“Do we know why the Chen family ancestor died?”
“This… Your Majesty, this minister does not know. It may have been a recurrence of old injuries, or perhaps a cultivation heart demon backlash.”
The ministers’ speculation matched Long Cang’s own.
The Chen family ancestor had died too suddenly. He had been cultivating in seclusion inside the cave abode. When Chen Xiuzhen entered, the ancestor had already lost all vitality, reduced to skin and bone, like a withered skeleton seated in meditation.
A Saint-level Spiritual Practitioner should have possessed over 10,000 years of lifespan. Yet the Chen family ancestor had died several thousand years prematurely.
This matched the divination sign. Nothing had changed.
Long Cang stared at the star array before him. A wave of pessimism rose in his heart.
The new Emperor, Long Qianqian, had been reckless enough to launch war. By now, chaos had engulfed the Empire. The vast realm seemed plunged into misery and turmoil, as if it could collapse at any moment.
For a fleeting instant, Long Cang felt regret.
If he had remained Emperor, if he had prevented the war, could he have altered the Empire’s fate of destruction?
At this moment, he seemed to foresee that the fall of the Great Shang Empire might truly be inseparable from the demon clan.
Across the Empire, three battlefronts had erupted in the north, west, and south.
In the west and south alone, more than 20 million troops each had launched war against the demon clan. In the north, roughly 50 million soldiers had been deployed.
More than half the men within the Great Shang Empire had been continuously sent to the battlefield. It had reached the point where even women were being conscripted.
Cultivators fought demon cultivators. Mortals fought savage demon beasts. Both sides had long since killed until their eyes turned red, with no intention of stopping.
Long Qianqian forcibly conscripted able-bodied men everywhere. Prisoners, refugees, and beggars were exhausted. Servants, household guards, and thugs were also depleted.
What remained were ordinary men, and then women.
The war had escalated beyond control. The demon clan were a savage race. They would never negotiate with the human race, and the humans could not halt the war.
The Great Shang Empire had already been riddled with wounds. All grain supplies were transported to the frontlines. Talismans, medicinal pills, formation arrays, spirit stones. Every resource was continuously poured into the three major battlefields.
At the same time, the more than a dozen small states that had split from the former Great Qian Empire also joined the war.
The conflict had gradually evolved into a war of extinction and survival between the human race and the demon clan.
And just like that, in the blink of an eye, a hundred years passed.