Chapter 375: Chapter 160: After Enduring Tribulations, the Primordial Spirit Appears—One of the Eight Arts: The Martial Arts Technique at the End of the Mortal World! (Part 2)
When he returned to the mountain with honors, determined to glorify his lineage...
He found himself on his way up the mountain.
He witnessed his master draining the blood and vitality of others.
He saw with his own eyes, his master, the ’Heterodox Cultivator,’ practicing some unknown dark art, revealing fangs, outside a burning village, gray hair draping over his shoulders, a bloodied side profile.
With just a turn of the head.
He saw his white-clad, bare-footed, clear-air-stepping, white-haired, already fully-fledged ’disciple,’ who slightly opened his mouth with complex eyes, yet ultimately said nothing more, leaving only one phrase:
"For the master... wishes to continue living."
"You... don’t understand."
"Our lineage has a secret skill, a legacy passed down from our ancestors. The master once bore witness to an elder extending their lifespan using this method, extending ten years or so, and with your extraordinary talent, if you were to cultivate this secret skill, perhaps..."
"You might comprehend the ’Primordial Pill,’ attain the second realm of ’limb regeneration,’ reaching the stage of an immortal body—it is not impossible!"
That night, outside the flaming village.
Master and disciple confronted each other.
Then, the next morning, as the village burned down to ashes...
Zuo Shanhe, with an arm severed, expressionlessly beheaded his master, the ’Heterodox Cultivator,’ and before he pleaded for mercy, handed over a scroll of ’Secret Skill,’ right before his eyes...
Without looking at a single word, but instead with a calm demeanor, without hesitation—
Burned it to ashes!
He didn’t even glance at the name.
"Master, everyone wishes to live, but by what means and how to live..."
"Such matters, like drinking water, are known only to oneself."
"It’s here, practice if you must, but even if you cannot succeed, it is the way of the heavens."
"Why stray off into the wrong path?"
The head of the Heterodox Cultivator rolled to the ground, its eyes still blinking.
He watched as his ’good disciple’ burned the cultivation technique, then smiled with relief, yet within that smile, buried complexities Zuo Shanhe did not understand at that moment:
"You... are more decisive than the master."
"Do you know... why our lineage passes down only to one?"
"Because your grandmaster died at my hands, just as you have killed me."
"At the time, my stance was no different than yours."
"Only, the master lacked your resolve and instead sealed away the secret skill for sixty years."
"But, as I reached my twilight years, cultivating the Profound Skill saw no advancement, the so-called second realm of ’limb regeneration,’ yet no matter how hard I tried, there was no headway."
"Troubled and restless, I always felt whispers at my ear, a heart demon emerging."
"You cannot blame me for not wanting to die without achieving the Profound Skill’s third realm!"
"After all... it’s unrelenting..."
"Zuo Shanhe, if it were you, would you be content!?"
The Heterodox Cultivator’s eyes widened.
In response, the young immortal’s eyes did not look at his ’master,’ but instead gazed at the burnt village, fell silent for a long while, then said:
"Master."
"In truth, this isn’t the first time I’ve noticed."
"If you chose to cultivate the dark arts, then do so openly, but with temperament twisted to this extent, you..."
"Can you truly ascend the Dao?"
At this moment.
Zuo Shanhe’s Forehead Ancestral Acupoint embraced the Divine Soul, a young eighteen, blessed with inspiration, evidenced the Divine Soul, stepping into the Carefree Realm!
As his severed and empty arm slowly reconstructed under the repair of ’Qi,’ perfectly restored...
His master’s gaze, gradually froze...
Time seemed to pause at that moment.
Zuo Shanhe, having pricked the bubble, his gaze now complex, akin to a heart wrenching, retraced the path once traversed... then with wide eyes watched the seemingly ethereal young immortal, said to his master:
"You could not prove the Dao,"
"Then let... me prove it."
Heterodox Cultivator saw the technique he had pursued all his life cultivated by Zuo Shanhe in his youth, and thus went entirely insane:
"The second realm is achieved, what about the third!?"
"Without Grotto Heaven, without Qi, without taking unconventional paths, how can it be done? You now possess the foundation of the Primordial Pill, invincible, if the entire Northwest were pledged to establish the World’s First Mysterious Sect, with the world’s support, it would be enough..."
Bang!
Having birthed the Divine Soul, faintly discerning that upon this head, the once familiar aura of ’mentor’ no longer existed, Zuo Shanhe closed his eyes, using Qi to wield his weapon, executing the unique skill once taught by the mentor, personally...
Extinguished it.
Then,
"If I fail,"
"Others will follow."
"But..."
"Why need others?"
"’Life and Death Mountain and River Profound Skill.’
"I am certain to cultivate it, to shatter the absurd rule, ’Master takes disciple, disciple kills master,’ that’s been passed down through generations!"
After burning everything to ashes.
Zuo Shanhe ascended Nirvana Mountain.
From hence established a sect, using the original name of ’Life and Death Nirvana Profound Skill,’ taking the life and death characters, combining them with his own name, known as ’Life and Death Mountain and River Profound Skill,’ widely recruited disciples.
In ten years, built the World’s First Mysterious Sect, whether remnants of the Grotto Heaven, or Innate Martial Sect, in that era, all fell short of him.
Zuo Shanhe silently watched all this.
Ten years, thirty years, fifty years, a hundred years...
Time flows quietly like water.
Reached the peak at eighteen.
Cultivating into his hundreds, the realm stayed the same.
Only... his understanding of Life and Death Mountain and River Profound Skill had reached a degree of ’unprecedented, unrivaled,’ the method cultivated to its end, lacking just one catalyst to achieve complete perfection.
And this catalyst.
He waited through the fall of Xuan Country, into the establishment of Great Yin, waited through the ’Sixteen Great sects meeting,’ yet after he formed the Primordial Pill, dominated the heroes, and achieved ’First of the Mystic Sect.’
