The mysterious Wondrous Mystical Spirit Immortal lingered in the mortal domain but never set foot on the continent where Gu An resided.
After a day and a night, the figure finally departed.
The following day, news of the Great Cold Demon Sect being annihilated by the Sword Master of the Dao swept across the seas like a hurricane. Those who heard it, especially the fleeing masses, were left in disbelief. The story sounded too outrageous to be true!
The entire world buzzed with excitement, and the Tai Xuan Sect lit up with grand celebrations. Everywhere, praises of the Sword Master of the Dao's unmatched might and heroic deeds resounded.
This time, the range of those rescued by the Sword Master of the Dao was vast. How could the Tai Xuan Sect not feel proud?
Although people still debated whether there truly existed immortals who cared for the masses, to them, the Sword Master of the Dao embodied the ideal—a divine figure who delivered salvation to all beings.
On the second day after the departure of the Wondrous Mystical Spirit Immortal, Gu An quietly left the continent.
He traveled southward, away from the mortal regions where the Tai Xuan Sect was situated.
Eventually, he arrived at a desolate sea. Here, living beings were sparse, whether in the ocean depths or on its surface. The waters were dotted with drifting, vagrant spirits and specters. The skies above were thick with oppressive dark clouds, yet the spiritual energy in the area was unusually abundant.
Using his divine sense to probe the area, Gu An discovered a hidden island in the ocean depths, shrouded in powerful barriers. If he forcibly breached the barriers, it would undoubtedly alert the beings within.
There was likely a Unrestrained Primordial Immortal Realm cultivator—or stronger—residing there. While the barrier was formidable, Gu An estimated he could break through it with effort.
No wonder the spiritual energy in this sea was so abundant, yet life so sparse. A fearsome figure must be suppressing the area.
Gu An landed on an uninhabited, barren island and immediately activated his Lifespan Barrier.
Seven hundred and ninety million years of lifespan—it was exhilarating just to look at it!
Never had he felt so well-off!
Sitting cross-legged in front of a withered tree, Gu An pulled up his attribute panel, grinning broadly.
Might as well admire this for a while longer!
After a while, he calmed himself and prepared to test the Lifespan Reincarnation feature.
Using ten million years as a trial run, Gu An figured he could assess its value. If it turned out useless, he'd abandon it permanently—just like the earlier Lifespan Deduction feature, which had been disappointing.
[You have consumed 10,000,000 years of lifespan to initiate one cycle of reincarnation.]
[Connecting to the Grand Dao Rules...]
[Searching for a suitable reincarnation world...]
[Available worlds found. Please choose one:]
[1. Heavenly Spirit World]
[2. Dark World]
[3. Grand All-Realms]
Hmm?
The Heavenly Spirit World?
Gu An pondered this. If the reincarnation experience reflected back into reality, could it mean more than just memory integration? Could it cause real-world changes as well?
Uncertain, he decided against choosing the Heavenly Spirit World to avoid potential complications.
The name "Dark World" caught his attention. It seemed tailor-made for his lifespan-stealing ability. If reincarnation allowed him to retain his current cheat-like power, it might be the perfect fit.
This one. Dark World!
[You have selected to reincarnate into the Dark World.]
[Due to the Grand Dao Rules of this world being unable to suppress your innate talent, you will retain your lifespan-stealing ability but will be unable to activate phase-based features.]
[Reincarnation cycle commencing...]
[Year One: You are born in a small village in the Eastern Xuan Region. Your parents name you Chu Lu.]
[Age Seven: While exploring the mountains, you stumble upon a spiritual herb and steal eight years of lifespan from it. This marks a turning point in your destiny.]
[Age Eight: You become an apprentice to a wandering cultivator and embark on a journey across the world.]
[Age Fifteen: You and your master are ambushed by cultivator robbers. Your master sacrifices himself to protect you. Consumed by hatred, you retreat into the deep mountains and begin amassing lifespan.]
[Age Eighteen: Through lifespan cultivation, you reach the Nascent Soul Realm and start seeking revenge.]
[Age Nineteen: You storm your enemies' mansion, slaughtering everyone except for a young girl. Her timid demeanor gives you pause, leaving you conflicted.]
[Do you choose to kill her?]
The prompts paused here. Gu An hesitated briefly before choosing not to kill her. What a joke—he could easily outlive this girl with his lifespan-stealing ability. Why bother?
[You spare the young girl, Cheng Jialan, and resume your journey of cultivation.]
Reading this, Gu An smiled. This girl had a name similar to his junior sister. Both had the character "Lan" in their names.
The earlier prompts hadn't mentioned names, implying that only survivors were named. Gu An suddenly felt uneasy. Did this mean Cheng Jialan would live a long life?
[Age Twenty: You join the Tai Yi Sect. Thanks to your outstanding cultivation and talent, you become a direct disciple, earning fame throughout the sect.]
[Age Twenty-One: Using lifespan deduction, you master the Seven Heart Technique.]
[Age Twenty-Two: The sect leader's son grows jealous of you. During an external mission, he and his followers ambush you. You kill all his subordinates, leaving only the sect leader's son alive. He kneels, begging for mercy. You hesitate.]
[Do you choose to kill him?]
Kill!
Gu An acted decisively. Without hesitation, he chose to eliminate his target.
[You have chosen to kill.]
The prompts continued to appear.
"Killing the males and sparing the females? Feels like there's some bias in these choices…" Gu An muttered inwardly, ridiculing his own judgment.
In the following sequences, the reincarnated version of him continued to face endless conflicts and hatred after returning to the Tai Yi Sect. Confrontations kept escalating, and his approach was clear: he chose to kill, always in retaliation against those who provoked him.
As the slaughter piled up, his actions were exposed. Gu An became a wanted man, relentlessly pursued by the Tai Yi Sect and eventually declared a fugitive.
From then on, each year brought more bloodshed—sometimes even multiple clashes in a single year.
On one occasion, Gu An attempted to save an injured cultivator he stumbled upon. In return, the person brought reinforcements, a mob of cultivators, to ambush him and seize his treasures.
Outraged by such treachery, Gu An's killing intent deepened.
Backstabbing, jealousy, murder—these played out incessantly in his journey.
"This world is truly dark!" Gu An remarked in frustration. No wonder it was called the Dark World.
In his first fifty years, he hadn't encountered a single virtuous cultivator. His path was one of utter solitude.
What infuriated him most was the lengths his enemies went to exact revenge—they captured his relatives who remained in the mountain village and subjected them to unspeakable torment, extracting their souls and turning them into wraiths bound within ghostly weapons.
Fueled by rage, Gu An became relentless. His choices from then on were centered on killing to prevent further killings.
Through this cycle of violence, his accumulation of lifespan surged rapidly. By age fifty, he reached the Loose Immortal Realm, earning the title of "Killing God of the Eastern Xuan Region."
[At age sixty-five, you encountered the girl Cheng Jialan, whom you had spared in your youth. She had become a disciple of the Blue Sky Holy Sect and a renowned genius. Recognizing you, she expressed immense gratitude for your earlier mercy. You were moved by her attitude.]
[At age sixty-six, Cheng Jialan pursued you persistently, and the two of you became Dao companions.]
[At age sixty-seven, Cheng Jialan bore you twins—a son and a daughter. You cherished her even more.]
[At age sixty-eight, while you were cultivating, a powerful Loose Immortal from the Blue Sky Holy Sect descended. Known as the Black Xuan Emperor, he crushed you with ease.]
[Reincarnation ends.]
What? That's it?
Gu An almost spat blood in frustration. Ten million years of lifespan—for a measly sixty-eight years of life?
"Black Xuan Emperor!" he seethed internally. "Fine. Very well!"
Before he could process his anger further, a torrent of memories surged into his mind. It was as though he had personally lived the life of Chu Lu.
However, since this was a simulated reincarnation, the process of receiving the memories didn't feel drawn out. Instead, it felt like recalling vivid events from his past—a strangely profound sensation.
Although this life lasted only sixty-eight years, it wasn't entirely fruitless. Chu Lu had developed a groundbreaking technique during his lifetime. After numerous iterations and enhancements, the technique had evolved into a divine ability so potent that it caused heavenly phenomena to manifest.
This technique, originally the Seven Heart Technique, had been refined and transcended into the legendary Seven Divine Golden Bodies.
The Seven Divine Golden Bodies was an extraordinary skill. Upon mastery, it created seven spiritual souls, each possessing unique divine abilities. Even if one body was destroyed, the remaining souls could resurrect the practitioner.
In the memories of Chu Lu's final moments, the Black Xuan Emperor's act of crushing him was anything but simple. Chu Lu resurrected six times in total, each time only to meet the same fate.
The power gap between them was insurmountable. Even Chu Lu's spatial evasion techniques were insufficient to escape.
As the memory of mastering the Seven Divine Golden Bodies settled within him, Gu An's frustration slightly eased.
Was the Seven Divine Golden Bodies worth ten million years of lifespan? It was hard to say, but its profound power was undeniable. It was far beyond what a mere million years of lifespan could purchase.
In Chu Lu's life, he had used this technique to severely injure even a Second-Layer Wandering Immortal—testament to its overwhelming strength.
"Still not cautious enough," Gu An thought. Reflecting on Chu Lu's decisions, he realized that arrogance had led to his downfall.
It also became clear that his choices in the reincarnation cycle were limited to key moments. He couldn't directly control his actions throughout the reincarnated life.
Come to think of it, didn't that mean the other lives within the reincarnation cycles had their own independent consciousness?
Wasn't real-life reincarnation the same?
Gu An thought of Ji Xiaoya, whose current life and past one were vastly different.
Setting these reflections aside, Gu An refocused on his surroundings. The ground around him was saturated with spiritual energy—a result of his reincarnation simulation. It was fortunate that he had chosen an isolated area, avoiding any impact on the Tai Xuan Sect or the mainland.
Now, it was time to get serious!
Today, he would break through another major realm.
Pulling up his attribute panel, Gu An directed twenty million years of lifespan into his physique.
The Primordial Causal Body advanced into the Primordial Hunyuan Body, and then further into the Primordial Dao Body!
With this transformation, he awakened a supreme divine ability: Dao Hunyuan Wheel.
This ability combined attack, defense, and sealing capabilities into a single cohesive technique. Vastly larger than ordinary celestial abilities, it possessed the power to shatter the very fabric of universal laws.
Gu An immediately cultivated it to near perfection.
As torrents of spiritual energy surged into his body, his consciousness entered a state of enlightenment.
The Primordial Dao Body was leagues beyond the Primordial Causal Body, allowing him to effortlessly discern universal laws and the intricate web of karma. Against any wielder of a primordial-related physique, he now held an absolute advantage.
Though Gu An had yet to encounter another primordial physique wielder, he surmised their existence. After all, his body's evolution suggested that primordial physiques had origins tied to the universe itself.
But where exactly did the primordial origin reside?
As Gu An greedily absorbed spiritual energy, the once calm, dark ocean roared with tumultuous waves. A powerful divine sense swept across the area, searching for him.
Unfortunately for the intruder, no trace of Gu An could be found.
An hour later, Gu An opened his eyes, his physique fully transformed into the Primordial Dao Body.
His strength now bordered on the monstrous, a sensation both exhilarating and satisfying.
For a moment, he was tempted to test his newfound power.
Fortunately, he restrained himself.
"Don't get cocky!" he reminded himself. Chu Lu's arrogance had led him to provoke someone far beyond his reach, resulting in his swift demise.
Directing his attention to the techniques section of his attribute panel, Gu An noticed that both the Chaos Taiyuan Sacred Art and the Universal Shape and Form Technique required twenty million years of lifespan to upgrade.
He hesitated, remembering the feature that would unlock at one billion years of lifespan.
"Patience," he murmured.
For now, he focused on further refining his skills while preparing for future breakthroughs.