Chapter 374: Chapter 160: After Enduring Tribulations, the Primordial Spirit Emerges—One of the Eight Arts: The Martial Arts Technique at the End of the Mortal World!
"..."
Zuo Shanhe lowered his head, caught in a dark and hazy dreamscape.
The dreamscape was void of any light; he sat upright in the grandmaster’s chair, sleeves wide open like the exiled immortal, with his hand grasping the armrest. Once his consciousness returned, he remained silent for a moment:
"Where is this..."
All around him.
Large and small bubbles appeared.
He extended his hand, wanting to reach out and touch them.
But in the instant of touching.
He was astonished to realize that his skin seemed to have restored the youthful appearance of the perfected ’Life and Death Mountain and River Profound Skill,’ as flawless and pure as jade.
"Li Treading Immortal, that kid."
"Where exactly did he pull me with this reach...?"
He recalled the earnest young man, his palm resting on his, asking why he, an aging Mountain and River Immortal, didn’t employ the profound skill to forge his path and create his own way.
Zuo Shanhe raised an eyebrow slightly, a bitter smile forming in his heart:
"This kid, truly somewhat extraordinary."
"Yet..."
"Perhaps, he can’t help me."
"The ’Life and Death Mountain and River Profound Skill’ is a cultivation technique that directly points to becoming a ’True Master.’ When the Celestial Gate is half-open, I vaguely sensed that if I continued on that path, I might even ascend higher."
"However..."
"Human strength has its limits."
"I’ve reached the end and only then awakened to realize my path was wrong. What good is it to turn back at this point?"
"Let me see what this young friend has brought to me."
"After all, I cannot waste his efforts."
"Though I’ve reached the end in this realm, those who come after may not be the same."
"If there’s even a hint of insight, it can be passed to Li Treading Immortal. If he can continue walking this path..."
"My Dao will not be severed."
Click.
Zuo Shanhe slowly stood up; his body, once akin to dead wood in reality, began changing quietly, reversing life, slowly becoming youthful.
He pierced the bubble closest to him.
And saw a memory from a hundred years ago, formed into a scroll.
That year, the peak of the realm held only the ’Great Innate.’
That year, Zuo Shanhe, at twelve or thirteen, was diagnosed by the village sorcerer with a fate of ’early death,’ unlikely to live past sixteen, urging his parents to sell him as a slave to save grain.
Born with white hair and exceptionally frail, he was deemed an ominous sign, though his jade-like frame and celestial demeanor exceeded that of princes and nobles. Even in coarse linen, he carried the presence of a banished immortal disciple. Yet, what use was it?
It couldn’t feed one.
That year, disaster struck everywhere.
Originally, Zuo Shanhe seemed doomed, but fate turned, aligning him with the solitary transmitted elder immortal of the Life and Death Mountain and River Sect.
His master.
Led him to the then-undeveloped Nirvana Mountain.
Renamed him ’Shanhe,’ adopting the surname of the heterodox cultivator.
Ever since, abandoning his worldly name, he became ’Zuo Shanhe,’ and began practicing the ’Life and Death Mountain and River Profound Skill.’
"Is this... my memory from over a century ago?"
"This technique is somewhat interesting."
The scroll unfolded slowly, making Zuo Shanhe pause, a wave of nostalgia mixed with pain, before finally managing a bittersweet smile:
"So, the roots were sown back then..."
"Funny I realized it only after so many years."
"Heh."
His spirit wholly immersed.
Seemingly merging with the frail youth sweeping the courtyard in the morning, fetching water at dawn, refining Qi at noon, chopping wood at dusk.
Meanwhile.
Around Zuo Shanhe, bubbles of varying sizes and states gathered, embracing him. He extended his finger, closed his eyes, seeming to comprehend, then pierced them one by one.
With his motions, the youth in the bubble scroll moved too, time flowed slowly, five years passed this way.
These five years.
The youth named ’Zuo Shanhe’ in the secluded observatory with only him and his master, studied the profound skill.
Indeed, naturally gifted, he grasped ’Martial Gate Foundation Establishment’ effortlessly.
According to his master, the heterodox cultivator, Zuo Shanhe’s talent surpassed even the highest rumored physical roots.
Comparable to the perhaps existing Grotto Heaven Immortal in legends.
Merely within five years.
His cultivation equaled his master’s, achieving ’Great Innate’ and mastering Vajra Impermeable in the Late Martial Era.
Since then, at eighteen, youth eternal.
Yet, his master, the heterodox cultivator, grew old.
That year.
Zuo Shanhe went out to explore.
At that time, the ’Luotian Sect,’ standing amongst the pinnacle of the ’Innate Dao Lineage,’ and the world’s first mystical sect, hosted the youthful competition ’Luotian Dharma Assembly,’ where he took the lead.
Moreover, he was the indisputable, unmatched first.
A group of martial artists, teenage to twenties, filled with youthful vigor, traveled everywhere, experienced and worldly.
Many lived onto this age, becoming a major influence, commanding thousands with a mere stomp.
Yet they couldn’t compare to the youthful immortal, wielding True Qi, youth preserved, capable of subduing all.
So, from then on, the world knew of the ’Mountain and River Immortal,’ youthful fame spreading across the northwest, laying the legend forever admired by the Profound King.
