Chapter 53: Encouragement, Demonic Spirit Root!_1
“Regret? Not really, but sometimes I do wonder, is it all worth it?”
Li Feiyu slightly shook his head, speaking with a hint of wistfulness.
People always grow, and over the four years at the Lu Family, he too had his edges worn down and was no longer as brash and confident as he once was.
Hearing this, Lu Changsheng fell into a brief silence.
He thought of his past self.
Full of passion at graduation, extremely diligent, but gradually began to settle for less a few years later.
And Li Feiyu was in an even more severe situation.
In secular life, as the young master of the Crimson Whale Gang, he was a top expert at eighteen, and calling him a promising youth was no exaggeration.
But upon coming to the Cultivation World and becoming a son-in-law to the Lu Family, although he stepped onto the cultivation path, life was just about having children, with hardly any hope seen in cultivation.
How could such a life continue to be filled with passion and brilliance?
He stood up, patted Li Feiyu on the shoulder, and said, “Feiyu, I always remember what you said back then.”
“It was when you chose to come to the Lu Family, that saying ‘Life is but a dream of a hundred years, if a chance at immortality presents itself, it cannot be missed’.”
“You and I are fortunate to possess the Spiritual Root and to step onto the path of immortality, to see the scenery beyond the reach of common folk, we are already luckier than ninety-nine percent of the world.”
“We must be brave, make diligent progress, press on valiantly, so as not to fail the precious gift from heaven!”
“Be it the arduous or treacherous journey of seeking immortality, it is all just part of life’s landscape.”
“Do not forget why you started, continue to hone yourself, and persevere to the end, even if you should fail, you will have no regrets.”
“Otherwise, possessing the Spiritual Root and a chance at immortality, yet giving up on yourself and quitting halfway, to ultimately lead a mediocre life, would you be content?”
Lu Changsheng looked at Li Feiyu and spoke out.
He did not want to see his spirited, immortality-seeking brother grind away his edges and lose his sharpness in such a life, ending up mediocre.
Moreover, these words were not just for Li Feiyu, but also for himself.
Externally, he always seemed indifferent to ambition, seeking only a peaceful life.
But in reality, from the moment he awakened the memories of his past life and learned of the existence of immortals in this world, his heart harbored an endless yearning to pursue cultivation!
No reason needed.
Being an immortal warrants the pursuit!
No reason required, nor needed.
However, he had the system by his side, could see hope, and was also full of hope for his future!
Hearing what Lu Changsheng had to say, Li Feiyu’s spirit was greatly shaken.
He hadn’t expected his brother, who always seemed to lack grand aspirations and only wanted a life of pleasure with multiple wives and children, to utter such inspiring words.
But he also knew that Lu Changsheng was comforting him, encouraging him.
Yet, in the next moment, he suddenly remembered what Han Lin had mentioned at their three-year reunion – that Lu Changsheng had once placed first in the ‘Heart-Testing Platform’ during the fourth trial at the Qingyun Sect.
The Heart-Testing Platform tests one’s Dao Heart.
That is, the mindset and will to seek immortality!
If Lu Changsheng could achieve first place, how could he truly lack ambition and relinquish the pursuit of immortality?
“That’s it, Changsheng knows he possesses a Ninth Grade Spiritual Root, and there is no path to immortality in this life, so he seeks immortality in a different way.”
“By marrying and having children, multiplying his offspring, he carries on the heart of seeking immortality, entrusting it to his descendants.”
Li Feiyu thought to himself.
In this moment, his heart seemed much clearer.
If he really had no grand ambition and only knew indulgence in sensual pleasures, focusing on progeny, how could he possibly have sold the Flying Sword he obtained not long after arriving at the Lu Family, and spend all the Spirit Stones to learn Talisman Making?
And in four and a half years, he went from a son-in-law to a Middle Grade Talisman Master, marrying the granddaughter of the Lu Family’s elder!
This clearly wasn’t what someone indifferent to ambition and obsessed with pleasures would achieve.
If his own brother could do so much, how could he be any worse, any farther behind?
Looking at Lu Changsheng with newfound resolve in his eyes, he said, “Content? Of course not!”
“Changsheng, you are right, the chance for immortality is rare, and we are fortunate to have witnessed it, how could we possibly give up easily!”
“Ordinary folk seek nothing but fame, fortune, and social status; but what we desire is immortal longevity, which obviously isn’t easy.”
“That’s exactly why we should strive even harder, with a heart that dares to pursue what seems impossible!”
“Life is but a dream of a hundred years; with a sight of immortality before us, we must not live it in mediocrity!”
“Thank you, Changsheng!”
Li Feiyu spoke, his eyes alight with a sharp and burning flame.
“No need to thank me,”
“I simply don’t want to see you, before truly entering the world of cultivation, losing your edges and your sharpness.”
Lu Changsheng said aloud.
In this world, he didn’t have many friends, Li Feiyu was pretty much the only one he could count.
He still hoped that Li Feiyu could go a long way on the path of cultivation in the future.
“How could Li Feiyu be so easily defeated.”
“Now that I’m no longer bound by a mere contract, once the child grows a bit more and I break through to the middle stage of Qi Refinement, I’ll go out and make my mark, truly experiencing the Cultivation World.”
“Otherwise, if things keep going like this, I’m afraid I’ll really lose my edge and dull my sharpness.”
“If I end up as a pile of dry bones one day, I’ll have to trouble you to take care of my wives and children.”
Li Feiyu said with a laugh, full of nonchalance.
Having come from a jianghu gang, he was quite philosophical about life and death, but he couldn’t let go of the people around him.
“Don’t you be setting up your banner so early.”
Lu Changsheng’s mouth twitched as he said.
“Setting up what banner?”
Li Feiyu asked.
“It’s nothing, if anything unexpected does happen, I’ll take care of your wife and kids myself!”
Lu Changsheng said with a smile, shaking his head.
Li Feiyu didn’t take these words to heart and the two continued to catch up on old times.
Ever since Lu Changsheng moved to Qingzhu Valley, the two of them really had fewer opportunities to meet and chat.
Lu Changsheng also brought out the Biyu Bamboo Wine he had just bought from the Fifth Elder and shared a bottle with Li Feiyu.
After a small drink, Lu Changsheng didn’t stay long and went straight back to report Li Feiyu’s situation to the Fourth Elder.
The Fourth Elder was very efficient and had everything sorted out for Li Feiyu the next day, dissolving the contract he had signed with the Lu Family before.
Thanks to Uncle Fu’s arrangements, Li Feiyu chose to become a Spiritual Butcher due to his expertise in martial arts and blade techniques.
A Spiritual Butcher is much like a regular butcher.
One who skins demon beasts, debones them, extracts their marrow, takes their cores, and so on, handling their dissection.
There are many special demon beasts that, after being hunted down, are not only troublesome to harvest materials from but also can easily lead to waste and damage to the materials.
In such cases, they would hire a skilled Spiritual Slaughterer to handle the dissection and material recovery.
As Li Feiyu chose to become a Spiritual Butcher, the Lu Family naturally had an experienced hand to guide him.
If it weren’t for Li Feiyu’s lack of strength, he would have wanted to join the Lu Family’s Patrol Hunting Team to hunt demon beasts.
Seeing Li Feiyu free himself from childcare to learn a trade, Lu Changsheng was also relieved.
This was pretty much all he could help with at the moment.
At the border between Jiang Country’s Qing Province and Jizhou.
There stood a precipitous range of hills, with eerie and oddly shaped rocks, filled with dense mists, over a bottomless cliff.
“Whoosh whoosh whoosh”
“Woo woo woo”
The cold wind howled in the valley, and the gray mist pervaded, making one’s heart palpitate.
In the center, a crimson lake had now dried up.
Only a huge blood cocoon and a pile of stacked bones remained.
The blood-red glow on the cocoon flickered on and off like a heart beating quietly, breathing, incredibly eerie.
Just then, the blood cocoon emitted a dull heartbeat sound, like a giant drum vibrating, shaking the entire valley involuntarily.
Moments later, in the void, an old man and a young man appeared.
The young man was dressed in a wide black robe, and his black hair was tied up with a wooden pin, giving him an exceptionally handsome look, a beauty that was tantalizing and marked with a maturity beyond his years.
“As expected of the Demonic Spirit Root, to have integrated the demon lord’s blood and completed the baptism so quickly.”
The young man looked at the blood cocoon and chuckled lightly, his tone full of a strange affinity.
“Congratulations, Ancestor! Good fortune to you, Ancestor!”
The old man immediately bowed in salute and congratulated.
The young man chuckled again and lightly pointed at the blood cocoon.
Suddenly, the cocoon began to crack open bit by bit, turning into specks of blood-red light, revealing the man wrapped inside.
The man, in his twenties, had an elegant and handsome face, with skin white and smooth, but there was a half-moon blood lotus on his brow, faint yet indelible, adding a sense of wicked enchantment.
He slowly regained consciousness, opening his eyes; they were different from ordinary people’s, shining with a dark and blood-red light, captivating and eerie.
“Where am I?”
“I remember… I think I encountered bandits and then I jumped off a cliff…”
Qu Changge, as if awakening from a dream, with blood-red eyes full of confusion, rubbed the center of his brow.
But the next moment, he saw his palms had become as pale as jade, his fingernails sharp and fierce, glowing an eerie red, and he was taken aback.
“What—what is this.”
Then he saw the piles of white bones around him and got another shock, filled with terror.
Before he could linger on his astonishment, a young man approached him and said with a laugh, “From today on, you are my disciple.”