Gu An didn't immediately invest his life span into evolutionary cultivation, fearing the disturbance might be too great, given the precedent set by the Dragon Strength Divine Primordial Skill.
"Let's wait until tonight!"
By then, even if the disturbance were to be large, Cheng Xuan Pill and Zhang Chunqiu, with their timidness, would probably shrink back and not dare to leave their houses.
Night fell quickly.
After Meng Lang had entered the house to rest, Gu An brought out his own Attribute Panel.
He focused his attention on the Spring Origin Technique, choosing to invest a thousand years of his life span into its evolution.
May the heavens bless me, don't let this thousand years go to waste!
As he prayed, he rubbed the White Spirit Rat for some good luck charm.
[You have invested a thousand years of life span into the evolutionary cultivation of 'Spring Origin Technique']
[You cultivated the Spring Origin Technique for one year, and due to your mediocre comprehension and qualifications, your cultivation level increased only slightly.]
[You cultivated the Spring Origin Technique for ten years, and your understanding of the Spring Origin Technique reached a whole new realm.]
[You cultivated the Spring Origin Technique for a hundred years, and you sensed the mountains and forests of the earth, inspiring more ideas about the Spring Origin Technique.]
[You cultivated the Spring Origin Technique for two hundred years, and your Spring Origin Technique advanced to the Withered Wood Spring Birth Skill.]
[You cultivated the Spring Origin Technique for five hundred years, and your understanding of Withered Wood Spring Birth Skill reached the Transformative Realm, enhancing your Wood Spirit Root.]
[You cultivated the Spring Origin Technique for eight hundred years, and your comprehension of nature allowed your Withered Wood Spring Birth Skill to advance to the Divine Wood Pure Yang Skill.]
[You cultivated the Spring Origin Technique for a thousand years, and your mastery over Divine Wood Pure Yang Skill reached Refined to Perfection, enhancing your Wood Spirit Root.]
Watching the prompts before his eyes, Gu An caught several keywords and was overjoyed. Then, a flood of memories streamed into his mind.
Immersed in his legacy, he emanated a green light, and tendrils of green Spiritual Energy sprouted from the ground inside the house.
At the same time—
Zhang Chunqiu, who was practicing indoors, opened his eyes and looked toward the windowsill. A sudden burst of strong wind shook his windows.
He quickly got up and went to the window, glancing outside before hastily closing it.
He walked swiftly to the desk, blew out the oil lamp, and hid under the bed.
"I can't stay here; I must leave early. Medicine Valley is becoming more and more bizarre..."
Meng Lang, who was also frightened, shivered under the blankets. Xiaochuan, exhausted from the day, slept like a dead pig, snoring thunderously.
Cheng Xuan Pill sat cross-legged in front of the Pill Furnace. Sensing the commotion outside, he looked out into the night sky, his gaze profound, without fear or curiosity, as deep and tranquil as a secluded well.
After a long time—
Gu An finally recovered his consciousness. When he opened his eyes, he felt the whole world had changed.
He could clearly sense the Wood Attribute Spiritual Energy in the air and the vitality of the plants and trees, a most marvelous feeling.
At a thought, the previous prompts reappeared before his eyes. Seeing that his Wood Spirit Root had been enhanced, he was quite surprised.
Cultivation techniques could actually improve Spirit Roots, so there was no need to forcibly enhance his Spirit Root Qualification in the future—a seemingly bottomless pit. Gu An had tried it only once but was already psychologically scarred by the experience.
He attempted to operate the Divine Wood Pure Yang Skill and, unlike before, he could instantly absorb the Wood Spiritual Qi from the surroundings. The Wood Spiritual Qi entered his body, flowed into his dantian, and transformed into Wood Attribute Spiritual Power.
The whole process was smooth and silky!
Drawing a single breath was already worth half a year's work!
Gu An felt as if he were in a dream, suddenly becoming a genius.
With this, there was no need to rush to increase his cultivation level.
When his life span had broken through a thousand years, the ability for Life Span Detection had been unlocked. Perhaps when it broke through ten thousand years, new abilities might emerge.
And with his current rate of practice, he felt that he could rely on cultivation to improve his cultivation level.
Although there was no rush to improve his cultivation level, he needed to enhance his offensive techniques!
The Dragon Strength Divine Primordial Skill was a supporting technique and had no moves. His gaze fell on the Residual Wind Leg.
The Seven Swords of the Li Family were swordsmanship techniques, but he had no Treasure Sword, and swordsmanship probably relied on cultivation level.
The Residual Wind Leg was different—it relied on the legs. His physical strength had grown strong enough to easily smack dead a Foundation Establishment Realm Demon of Greed and Wrath. If he combined this with the Residual Wind Leg, the power would surely surge.
How much life span should he invest?
Gu An was caught in a dilemma—not enough would be meaningless, too much would be heart-wrenching.
Fine, let's round it up and invest five hundred years!
Excitedly, Gu An invested five hundred years of life span into the evolutionary cultivation of the Residual Wind Leg.
[You cultivated the Residual Wind Leg for one year and, due to your mediocre comprehension and qualifications, although your movement was fluid, you failed to unleash the full strength of the Residual Wind Leg.]
[You cultivated the Residual Wind Leg for ten years, and after years of arduous practice, your Residual Wind Leg reached the pinnacle.]
[You cultivated the Residual Wind Leg for a hundred years, returning to simplicity from complexity. You gained new insights, and your Residual Wind Leg advanced to Wind Shadow Leg.]
[You cultivated the Residual Wind Leg for two hundred years, achieving great success with Wind Shadow Leg, and your understanding of body techniques was enhanced.]
[You cultivated the Residual Wind Leg for four hundred years, and your Wind Shadow Leg advanced to Gale Shadowless Leg.]
[You cultivated the Residual Wind Leg for five hundred years, reaching a state of complete integration with Gale Shadowless Leg, and your understanding of body and movement techniques was enhanced.]
Could this understanding of body and movement techniques be related to Comprehension?
Just as Gu An had this thought, his mind was inundated with memories of Gale Shadowless Leg.
...
In the early morning, as the first rays of sunlight swept over Medicine Valley without yet touching the threshold of Gu An's house, the door opened.
Gu An walked into the courtyard, facing the morning sun, and stretched lazily, his entire essence, qi, and spirit transformed completely.
He wore a smile on his face, his excitement still not completely faded.
He silently called up his attribute panel:
[Name: Gu An]
[Life Span: 19/1862]
[Spirit Root: First-rate Wood Spirit Root, Four Elements Slightly Superior Spirit Root (can invest life span for cultivation)]
[Cultivation Level: Qi Cultivation Realm Second Layer (can invest life span for cultivation)]
[Cultivation Technique: Fire Control Technique (not mastered), Divine Wood Pure Yang Skill (Refined to Perfection), Dragon Strength Divine Primordial Skill (Refined to Perfection) (can invest life span for cultivation)]
[Secret Skill: Gale Shadowless Leg (thoroughly mastered), Li Family's Seven Swords (not mastered) (can invest life span for cultivation)]
Qi Cultivation Realm Second Layer!
Last night, while inheriting the Divine Wood Pure Yang Skill, his spiritual power grew considerably, and coupled with a whole night of Qi absorption cultivation, he smoothly broke through to the second layer of the Qi Cultivation Realm.
He was no longer a powerless good-for-nothing!
The feeling of investing life span was just too exhilarating!
Gu An began to entertain more thoughts about his path of immortal cultivation.
He had no interest in venturing out to slay demons and extract their lifespan as it could allow his lifespan to grow faster, but it would also greatly increase the risk of death.
He thought of the master of Medicine Valley!
Cheng Xuan Pill didn't have many years left, and Zhang Chunqiu was considering leaving the mountain, the position of Valley Master was rightfully his!
By then, he could recruit a group of menial disciples to help with the cultivation; he would only need to take care of the harvesting, which sounded wonderful.
Gu An placed his hands on his hips and looked around at the surrounding peaks.
It's not impossible to grow more medicinal herbs on the mountain!
Cheng Xuan Pill did not expand Medicine Valley, perhaps because expansion was meaningless for him, as he was just an employee of the Supreme Sect.
But for Gu An, it was different; he didn't need to share more medicinal herbs, he just wanted to take their life force.
The more Gu An thought about it, the more excited he got, and he began kicking and stretching his limbs.
What he performed were movements from the Residual Wind Leg technique, sharp and powerful, creating gusts of wind.
It wasn't long before Meng Lang emerged from the neighboring house and caught sight of Gu An's leg technique, causing his eyes to widen in surprise.
The nineteen-year-old Gu An had fully grown into his body; his legs whipped around like lashes. Although he did not move from his spot, the breeze generated by his movements reached Meng Lang, leaving him astonished.
Meng Lang couldn't help but rub his eyes, thinking he had mistaken someone else for Gu An.
When did Gu An become so powerful?
Feeling Meng Lang's gaze, Gu An stopped kicking and turned to him with a smile, "Did I wake you?"
Meng Lang hurriedly approached him, looking him over closely, and then said, "How did you suddenly become so powerful? Last night there was a demonic wind, did you notice it? It wasn't related to you, was it?"
Gu An rolled his eyes at him and said, "You're right, it was me. I was practicing the Residual Wind Leg technique passed down by my master last night, stirring the Heavenly Dao, making the earth tremble, truly shaking heaven and earth, and moving ghosts and gods. Since you heard the commotion, why didn't you come out and see my prowess?"
Meng Lang didn't admit how embarrassed he had been and retorted, "Your leg technique might be fierce, but without spiritual power to back it up, how could it have stirred up last night's wind? Moreover, last night it wasn't just strong winds, there were also fluctuations of spiritual energy, either a demon was absorbing nature's spiritual energy or a Great Cultivator had a breakthrough."
Gu An laughed and gave him a kick in the butt.
"You dare to kick me, revolting, eh? With Li Ya gone, do you not recognize me as your big brother?" Meng Lang cried out.
"If I recognize you as my big brother, wouldn't you have to stay here with me for life? Don't you want to be an outer disciple?"
"That makes sense; you're right. I'm not like you."
The two began to horse around and play-fight.
An hour later, Zhang Chunqiu found Gu An and took him on a tour around Medicine Valley, pointing out and discussing every inch of land and medicinal herbs.
Gu An listened intently, but as he listened, he sensed something off.
Isn't this like making final arrangements?
Could the commotion from last night have scared him to death?
Gu An was about to persuade him, but then he thought again; Zhu Mo Cliff was no good guy, probably involved in plenty of dirty deeds for the Demon of Greed and Wrath behind the scenes, and once Chu Jingfeng settled the issue, Zhang Chunqiu would likely be implicated.
After all, they were friends.
It would be better for him to descend the mountain earlier!
Gu An swore he did not aspire to be the eldest disciple, but truly considered it for Zhang Chunqiu's sake.
After mastering the Divine Wood Pure Yang Skill, Gu An did not hurry to contact Chu Jingfeng, partly because he now had the means to protect himself and partly because he didn't want to startle the snake by hitting the grass.
Returning to Medicine Valley and having Chu Jingfeng show up the next day would cast suspicion on him.
What Gu An dreaded was not Zhu Mo Cliff, but the person behind him. According to Zhang Chunqiu, that person held a high position, and the entire Medicine Valley combined could not shake that person's standing.
It was a good opportunity to improve his cultivation level while he waited!
After touring with Gu An for an hour and even visiting the surrounding mountains, speaking until his mouth was dry, Zhang Chunqiu finally took Gu An to see Cheng Xuan Pill.
Seeing the pill furnace in front of Cheng Xuan Pill, curiosity filled Gu An's eyes.
He had long heard that Cheng Xuan Pill was skilled in the art of alchemy and wondered if he could learn from him.
If he could learn and then invest life span to directly transform into an Alchemy Grandmaster!
Cheng Xuan Pill stood up and looked at Gu An, saying, "From now on, you are the eldest disciple of this Medicine Valley."
Upon hearing this, Gu An was shocked, and he instinctively looked at Zhang Chunqiu and asked in panic, "Eldest disciple, what's wrong with you?"