Chapter 3: Evolutionary Technique, Dragon Force Divine Origin Art

Meng Lang and Zhang Chunqiu were equally surprised by Li Ya's choice, but they didn't voice their opinions.

Cheng Xuandan looked at Li Ya with approval, nodding slightly. "Not bad, you have a good eye and are not impulsive."

With a wave of his right hand towards the table beside him, three manuals appeared on the table. He gave Zhang Chunqiu a look, who immediately began distributing the manuals.

From start to finish, Gu An didn't have a chance to speak.

Well, he was being ignored.

But Gu An was optimistic by nature and wasn't discouraged.

Today you may be indifferent to me, but sixteen years later, I will bear no grudge and will offer incense for you!

Gu An received the manual titled "Qi Cultivation Technique" and pretended to be pleased.

"Recently, demons have infiltrated the Taixuan Sect. The Medicine Valley is located on the outskirts of the sect, and although disciples patrol the area, there is still danger. You must not leave the valley. You may go now."

After Cheng Xuandan gave his instructions, he waved them off, and the three of them immediately bowed and took their leave.

Gu An walked behind the others, closing the door as they exited.

Cheng Xuandan nodded slightly and said, "That boy named Li Ya is not simple. I suspect he has cultivated some technique to conceal his true strength. His energy, essence, and spirit are no weaker than yours. Pay closer attention to him in the future. Also, he comes from the royal family, so don't be too harsh on him."

Zhang Chunqiu nodded. After thinking for a moment, he said, "Master, Gu An is the most diligent, and since his aptitude is the weakest, he is likely to stay in the Medicine Valley the longest..."

Cheng Xuandan calmly replied, "Hmm, then take good care of him. I'll leave him in your hands."

Zhang Chunqiu smiled and thanked him.

On the other side.

Gu An and the others returned to their courtyard. Along the way, Meng Lang kept talking about the demons. He was not afraid at all, but looked very excited.

Li Ya stopped in his tracks, looked at Gu An, and said, "The Qi Cultivation Technique isn’t bad. It can help you conceal your energy and extend your lifespan. I already have a cultivation method, so I don't need it. For someone like you, the Qi Cultivation Technique is actually a better choice."

Hearing this, Gu An smiled and said, "Thank you for the advice, Brother Li. I'll probably spend my entire life in the Medicine Valley, so the 'Herb Manual' isn't of much use to me. Following Senior Brother, I can still learn about herbs."

Li Ya nodded slightly, satisfied that Gu An was so receptive to his advice.

The three of them didn't talk much more and soon went their separate ways to their respective rooms.

There weren’t many daily tasks in Medicine Valley, so they had plenty of time to cultivate.

Gu An sat on his bed and began to read through the Qi Cultivation Technique.

Originally, he had no interest in the Qi Cultivation Technique, but after hearing Li Ya mention that it could conceal one's energy and extend life, he suddenly felt the urge to practice it, and at the same time, test his ability to evolve his lifespan.

Over the past year, he had practiced the Spring Wood Technique given to him by Zhang Chunqiu but made no progress, so he gave up after half a month.

For him, instead of monotonous cultivation, it was better to visit the Medicine Valley's library, read more books on herbs, and various travelogs to broaden his horizons.

Days passed by.

Aside from the daily inspections of the herbs, Gu An spent all his time cultivating in his room.

After fifteen days of cultivation, he finally managed to add the words "Qi Cultivation Technique" to his attribute panel, though it still noted that the technique was "not yet mastered."

Gu An looked at his attribute panel, his face full of anticipation. 

This was his first time using lifespan evolution, and he was quite nervous, unsure of how many years it would take to fully master the Qi Cultivation Technique. 

Although his lifespan has exceeded a thousand, he would feel bad if it took dozens or hundreds of years.

He stared at the Qi Cultivation Technique listed on his attribute panel and silently chose to invest his lifespan into its evolution.

A prompt appeared before him: "Please select the number of years of lifespan to invest."

Without hesitation, Gu An made his choice. Immediately, two lines of text appeared before his eyes:

"You have invested one year of lifespan to evolve your cultivation of the Qi Cultivation Technique."  

"After cultivating the Qi Cultivation Technique for one year, due to your mediocre comprehension and aptitude, your cultivation has made no progress. However, your energy has improved."

Gu An suddenly felt a wave of comfort throughout his body, but the feeling came and went quickly.

Was that it?

The word "mediocre" deeply stung Gu An.

This was just too humiliating!

A sense of frustration welled up within him. He began to wonder if his aptitude was related to his spiritual roots. 

Without delay, he decided to use lifespan evolution on his spiritual roots and boldly invested a hundred years of his lifespan.

"You have invested one hundred years of lifespan to evolve your spiritual roots."  

"You begin to perceive the natural world, enhancing your spiritual roots' sensitivity to nature. After a hundred years, your Five Elements Spiritual Roots' sensitivity has increased."

After reading those two lines of prompts, Gu An pulled up his attribute panel again and noticed that his spiritual roots had evolved from "Ordinary Five Elements Spiritual Roots" to "Better Five Elements Spiritual Roots."

Gu An felt like he'd lost out. Seeing his lifespan shrink from four digits to three filled him with regret.

It seemed that evolving spiritual roots was a bottomless pit.

"Maybe I should try the Qi Cultivation Technique again?" Gu An thought. After trying to evolve using lifespan, he felt an itch to do it again.

"I gained a thousand years of lifespan with just a year's effort; maybe I should invest a bit more today and just work hard to earn more lifespan later... Hmm, I'll indulge just this once, especially since it’s my first time using this function..."

Taking a deep breath, Gu An decided to invest 500 years of his lifespan into the Qi Cultivation Technique.

"You have invested 500 years of lifespan to evolve your cultivation of the Qi Cultivation Technique."  

"You cultivated the Qi Cultivation Technique for one year. Due to your mediocre comprehension and aptitude, your cultivation made no progress, but your energy improved."  

"You cultivated the Qi Cultivation Technique for ten years. Despite your mediocre comprehension and aptitude, you successfully mastered the Qi Cultivation Technique, and your vitality improved."  

"You cultivated the Qi Cultivation Technique for one hundred years. Years of cultivation led you to gain insights into the technique, causing it to evolve."  

"You cultivated the Qi Cultivation Technique for two hundred years. The technique absorbed the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, transforming into a higher cultivation method."  

"You cultivated the Qi Cultivation Technique for three hundred years. The technique advanced and became the 'Qi Nourishing Divine Art'."  

"You cultivated the Qi Cultivation Technique for four hundred years. One day, you suddenly had an epiphany, understanding the true essence of heaven and earth, and created the 'Dragon Elephant Vitality Technique' from the Qi Nourishing Divine Art. Your physical strength and vitality underwent a transformation."

"You have cultivated the Qi Cultivation Technique for five hundred years. The Dragon Elephant Vitality Technique has reached perfection and broke through the limits of the technique and advanced to the Dragon Force Divine Origin Art. Your physique underwent a fundamental transformation."

A series of prompts flashed before Gu An’s eyes. Before he could finish reading them, a surge of memories flooded into his mind.

A gentle breeze blew in from outside the window, stirring the curtains beside the bed and Gu An's black hair. Unconsciously, he parted his lips, breathing in and out, with a faint, subtle dragon's roar.

It was unclear how much time had passed before Gu An gradually woke up.

When he opened his eyes, what greeted him was the dimly lit mountain forest outside the window.

Night had fallen.

Gu An had fully inherited all the cultivation memories of the Dragon Force Divine Origin Art and had even directly mastered this technique.

The Dragon Force Divine Origin Art was a cultivation method created based on the practices of the dragon turtle. It could conceal one's aura, hide one's cultivation level, and even cultivate dragon strength.

The Qi Cultivation Technique was part of the foundational practice of the Dragon Force Divine Origin Art. The evolution of lifespan was like deducing a complete technique from an incomplete one.

Gu An suspected that the Dragon Force Divine Origin Art already existed in the world and that the Taixuan Sect only had a fragment, hence the name Qi Cultivation Technique.

What changes would the Dragon Force Divine Origin Art undergo if he invested another 300 years of lifespan into it?

Gu An forcibly suppressed the urge to recklessly spend his lifespan. He felt his physique and sensed a powerful force within him that made him feel invincible.

He felt as if he could easily shatter a pavilion with a single punch!

This powerful sensation was simply too wonderful!

Not only that, but his senses had also been greatly enhanced. He could hear the breathing of Meng Lang and Li Ya, and he could even hear the distant conversation between Zhang Chunqiu and Cheng Xuandan.

"That demon has already killed thirteen disciples, most of whom were servant disciples from various medicinal valleys. Master, with just the two of us, we might not be able to protect them."

"Don't worry, I've already applied for a sect mission. The sect will send a Foundation Establishment disciple to guard our medicinal valley."

"That's great news! This afternoon, the spiritual energy in the valley felt a bit strange. At the time, I thought it was the demon coming, and to my shame, I didn't even dare to leave my room."

"Oh, you… You've grown up under my care and never went out for experience. It's understandable that you're timid…"

Listening to their conversation, Gu An broke out in a cold sweat.

He had been careless!

From now on, when deducing techniques, he must not act recklessly.

Fortunately, Zhang Chunqiu's cultivation level was low; otherwise, Gu An's practice would have been discovered.

After eavesdropping for a while and confirming that Cheng Xuandan and Zhang Chunqiu were not discussing him, Gu An finally relaxed.

He continued to feel his new physique, suppressing his aura to the lowest level according to the Dragon Force Divine Origin Art. He also kept his vital energy deep within, making him appear no different from before—still frail and weak.

An hour later, Gu An opened his eyes and brought up his status panel.

[Name: Gu An]  

[Lifespan: 16/402]  

[Spiritual Root: Better Five-Element Spiritual Root (can invest lifespan to evolve cultivation)]  

[Cultivation Level: Unranked (can invest lifespan to evolve cultivation)]  

[Techniques: Fire Control Technique (not mastered), Spring Wood Technique (not mastered), Dragon Strength Divine Origin Technique (mastered) (can invest lifespan to evolve cultivation)]

Dragon Force Divine Origin Art, mastered!

Gu An was quite satisfied with what he saw, though it was a pity that the Dragon Force Divine Origin Art was a body cultivation method and couldn't cultivate spiritual power, so his cultivation level remained unranked.

Even though he was still unranked, Gu An felt confident that he could easily overpower those in the Qi Refining stage.

Next, he could wait for his lifespan to increase.

His Dragon Force Divine Origin Art had already reached great mastery, and the force within him would automatically help him extend his lifespan, though the rate of increase was still uncertain.

That night, Gu An found it difficult to sleep.

However, even after staying up until dawn and repeatedly refreshing his status panel, he still didn’t see any increase in lifespan. He could only console himself—no matter how strong the technique, it's impossible to gain a year's lifespan in a single day.

Hmm!

Heaven rewards those who are willing to sacrifice. Surprises are bound to come sooner or later!

Gu An washed up briefly, then stepped out of his room and planned to take a stroll through the garden to calm his mind while looking at the medicinal herbs.

As luck would have it, as soon as he arrived at a section of the garden, his gaze locked onto a white-furred rat.

It was the same rat that had ruined the Serenity Grass before!

Gu An looked around and confirmed that no one else in the medicinal valley had stepped out of their rooms. He immediately and quietly approached the white-furred rat.

The rat had its back to him, about ten feet away, unaware that someone was closing in.

When the distance between them was less than seven steps, Gu An shot forward like an arrow from a bow and swiftly grabbed the white-furred rat with his right hand.

The rat was terrified and immediately raised its tiny paws to surrender.

"Dare to steal my lifespan, huh? You're done for!" Gu An laughed triumphantly. As he caught the white-furred rat, he noticed how slow its reaction had been when it turned around.

Too slow!

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