Chapter 443 - 418: Selling the Demon Venerable’s Death Qi, the Human Emperor’s Summons

In the Cultivation Room, Song Ciwan sat cross-legged in meditation.

Two eras of Lifespan had been added, but no unusual phenomena occurred.

But Song Ciwan could clearly feel that the very essence of her life had been enhanced once again!

A day later, she sold the Malice she had obtained from the Void Mantis.

[You have sold Malice from a Demon Venerable-level Void Mantis, weighing four jin and nine liang. You have received 49,000 years of Lifespan.]

BOOM!

Another vast torrent of Lifespan washed over her. And this time, although Song Ciwan still found it somewhat difficult to bear, she had, after all, once gained over 60,000 years of Lifespan from selling the Malice of Gu Peng.

Compared to that experience, this influx of over 40,000 years... Song Ciwan felt that while it was difficult, it was still manageable.

After all, the essence of her life had just undergone another step-like enhancement, so it was only natural that her ability to endure it would increase as well.

The Insight Technique panel displayed: Song Ciwan (Lifespan: 26/308,200)

Her lifespan had directly soared to over 300,000 years!

When her lifespan grew to such an extent, it seemed to become just a string of numbers. Since she was still so young, Song Ciwan couldn’t imagine what such a distant future would be like.

However, while she couldn’t truly fathom such a vast expanse of time, this number was also the source of her confidence. With the current essence of her life, if she were to burn her Lifespan to cast the Sun and Moon Wheel of Formless Life and Death, the result would be terrifying beyond imagination!

’Let the Demon Saint Palace send a few more powerful Demon Venerables to try their luck.’

’I guarantee I’ll reap every single one they send, no matter if they come alone or in pairs.’

’I should even thank the Demon Realm for sending me these resources!’

Song Ciwan believed that what she needed to plan for now was upgrading her Substitution Skill.

Her Peach Wood Puppet was already destroyed, and she had two Li Wood Puppets left.

She had crafted these two treasures when she was at her weakest. Taking advantage of her weakness at the time, crafting these Puppets hadn’t actually taken too much effort from Song Ciwan.

Aside from a few months of her time and the loss of a few hundred years of Lifespan—

But for her, Lifespan was precisely the easiest thing to obtain.

Life Substitution Techniques like the Substitution were not common in the Cultivation Realm, but they weren’t so rare as to be unique.

But why were there so few who actually cultivated them?

The main reason, of course, was that most people didn’t have enough life to spare for refining Puppets!

It was still unknown how the Second Young Master had obtained that Substitute Death Grassman he dropped back then.

Any such item was bound to be sinister. The evil would harm either oneself or others. Of course, the most likely outcome was that both parties would suffer.

If Song Ciwan didn’t have such a long life to rely on, she wouldn’t dare to refine them this way.

Unfortunately, the number of Substitutions was limited; no more than three pairs could exist at the same time. It was said that from three, all things are born, but for the Substitution Life Substitution Technique, three pairs was the absolute limit.

Exceeding this number was not tolerated by the Dao, making it forever impossible to succeed in the refinement.

Now that Song Ciwan had used one Li Wood Puppet, and with the Peach Wood Puppet destroyed anyway, she could refine another Peach and Plum Puppet pair.

It was just that with her current Cultivation, the material requirements would skyrocket, and she had no idea if they would be easy to find.

During her seclusion, Song Ciwan also sold the Death Qi from the Void Mantis: [You sold Death Qi from the death of a Demon Venerable-level Great Demon, the Void Mantis, weighing three jin and nine liang. You have obtained a Lower Grade Spiritual Artifact, the Star River Slash.]

Star River Slash!

Death Qi from a Demon Venerable, exchanged for a Lower Grade Spiritual Artifact.

It was worth mentioning that this Star River Slash was a saber-type Spiritual Artifact!

It was a perfect match for Song Ciwan’s Illusion-Breaking Blade Technique.

She had gained another trump card.

Song Ciwan immediately took out the Star River Slash and spent several days fully completing its Refinement.

When Song Ciwan emerged from her seclusion and walked the streets of the mortal city once more, she saw red decorations and colorful lanterns hanging everywhere on both sides of the road. The snow had been swept away, leaving the bluestone streets wet, but children were running and shouting joyfully amidst it all.

From time to time, a voice would cry out, "Look, this is my tanghulu! My dad bought it for me! I traded all my New Year’s red envelope money for this, so I’m not giving you any!"

"Pfft, who wants your candy? Stingy! As if no one else has any. I have candy too! But we’re not playing that anymore. We’re playing ’pretend to be a demon’ now!"

"I know this one, I know this one! Lu Wen, the Young Master of the Golden Crow Race! He was so impressive and powerful, but one of our Human Race seniors just pointed at him and poof, he died! Dead, dead, dead!"

"Ooh, ooh! Come on, come on! This time, I’ll be Immortal Mo! Demon, where do you think you’re going?"

"Stop!"

"Quick, stop! Stop!"

The children ran about, shouting with glee. Song Ciwan stood at one end of the long street, pausing for a moment before it dawned on her. It was the New Year!

It was New Year’s in the Mortal World once again.

Song Ciwan walked through the long street, arriving at the most bustling area of the city. She quietly observed the various scenes unfolding in this city of snow.

After the New Year, Song Ciwan would be twenty-seven years old.

She once again saw a storyteller in a teahouse, vividly describing the scene of the Human Celestial Immortal slaying the Demon Celestial Pride, Lu Wen. The storyteller slammed his gavel down on the table: "CRACK!"

After the crisp sound, the storyteller began to gesture wildly. "They say that Lu Wen, being a Bird Demon, had three legs. With one three-legged hop—HOH!—he could leap dozens of zhang!

"It looked like Immortal Venerable Mo was about to lose him, but hey! The venerable old man immediately raised his Magic Sword..."

Song Ciwan listened from a distance for a while. The storyteller painted a fluctuating, magnificent picture of the battle, and the people in the teahouse listening to the story followed his descriptions—at times shocked, at times delighted, at times furious, and at times gratified.

Truly, it could be said: all joy, fury, sorrow, and delight were contained on the three-foot stage, and all matters of life, death, love, and hate were reduced to mere gossip here.

Occasionally, a less-than-harmonious voice would mutter, "That’s not right. The Celestial Pride of the Golden Crow Race could only jump a few dozen zhang with one hop? That sounds far, but doesn’t it fail to live up to the image of a Demon Celestial Pride?"

But such voices were quickly drowned out by others. People retorted from all sides, "A few dozen zhang isn’t far? Do you even know how long a zhang is?"

"Go on, go on. If you don’t get it, kid, don’t talk nonsense. You’re interrupting the story..."

Listening from afar, Song Ciwan couldn’t help but reveal a faint smile.

’When a piece of news spreads to the point where the whole world is talking about it, it’s either because the news is so certain that it can no longer be questioned, or because it has been twisted and changed so much that it’s a far cry from the original source.’

’A Demon Celestial Pride jumping a few dozen zhang in battle... that is indeed quite ridiculous.’

’One can only say that mortals have excellent imaginations. They could be even bolder next time.’

Following the festive smoke and fire along the streets, Song Ciwan walked and listened. Although she heard many distorted and erroneous versions of the news, she also managed to extract a good deal of useful information.

Two points, in particular, caught her attention. First, her ranking on the Celestial Pride List had risen to third place!

At the same time, a new descriptor had been added to her entry: Primordial Spirit Dao Body.

When Song Ciwan first heard this, she thought it was just another rumor being spread by the common folk. It wasn’t until she passed a bookshop and bought a brand-new Ten Thousand Spirits Celestial Pride List that she realized it wasn’t a mistake.

The description of her on the Ten Thousand Spirits Celestial Pride List did indeed contain the term "Primordial Spirit Dao Body"!

Song Ciwan herself had no idea that she possessed a Primordial Spirit Dao Body.

Her knowledge about Dharma Bodies was also very limited.

At that moment, the first clear thought that formed in her mind was: ’It’s time to pay a visit to Liuhe Academy!’

Then, Song Ciwan received a second piece of news that caught her attention.

This news was that the Emperor had issued a decree, summoning Song Zhao to the capital!