This [Worldly Insight] life pattern was the golden-root pattern that Jing Qian obtained during his third Fatebinding attempt, belonging to the class of gods and spirits.
Though not a combat-oriented life pattern, it possessed an unimaginably fearsome power that greatly benefited his cultivation.
After a long period of secluded study, Jing Qian had gained a preliminary understanding of [Worldly Insight].
He defined the power of this golden life pattern as that of a "Supreme Observer."
With [Worldly Insight], he could perceive all the unknowns of the world and seek the ultimate answers to everything.
It was a transcendent force of enlightenment and truth-seeking.
For Jing Qian, when he invoked [Worldly Insight], he gained extreme perceptive ability, analytical power to grasp the essence of things, focused concentration, sharp intuition, and immense creativity.
Applying these to cultivation, study, or even battle yielded results beyond imagination.
At that very moment, Jing Qian had already used the power of [Worldly Insight] to reorganize all of the knowledge and memories in his mind.
It was as if he had done nothing, yet he had completely transformed into a different person.
And beyond this, [Worldly Insight] also allowed him to uncover hidden truths behind phenomena through supernatural insight.
However, being a golden life pattern, its consumption of life essence was enormous. Jing Qian could not yet afford to unleash its full strength for long periods.
Thus, he adjusted the power down to a manageable level sufficient for daily use without draining his essence.
Even so, his spiritual awareness was strengthened nearly tenfold!
This gave him, at the level of a ninth-rank cultivator, the spiritual perception of someone newly stepping into the Eighth Rank: Dragon Elephant Realm.
And yet, even with all that, [Worldly Insight] was only his second greatest gain.
The truly unique prize was that strange white life pattern which had appeared only after ninety-nine and eighty-one rounds of struggle.
Jing Qian sank his awareness into the Fate Stele, gazing at the drastically altered inscriptions of his status, and once again fell into deep thought:
Host: Jing Qian
Lifespan: 195 years
Life Essence: 18.67 (White Fang)
Life Patterns: Sumeru (Golden Root), Worldly Insight (Golden Root), Tidal Surge (Blue Blood 1.3/10), Soulweaver (Azure Wing), Lifespan (White Fang – 1 quarter)
Fate Arts: Dragon Swimming Technique, Rune-Imprinting Technique
Life-Casting Chances: 0
Four life-casting chances had yielded two successful Fatebindings, an immense profit!
Each additional Fatebinding halved the years of lifespan gained, but even so, two attempts had brought him forty-five extra years of life, the first great profit!
Four White Fang life essences worth of cultivation progress saved him a decade of grinding like an ordinary rogue cultivator, the second profit!
The awakening of [Worldly Insight], the third profit!
And above all, the emergence of that bizarre white [Lifespan] life pattern was the greatest reward of all.
Jing Qian marveled at the strange wonders of this cultivation world as he sensed the [Lifespan] within his sea of consciousness.
This [Lifespan – 1 Quarter] life pattern had only one divine effect:
Every sunrise and sunset granted him one additional quarter-hour of life!
Jing Qian had thoroughly studied the Morning-Dusk, Dawn-Breaking Fate Scripture, a tome once used by longevity cultivators. Naturally, it also recorded knowledge of the [Lifespan] life pattern.
When a cultivator perfected the Dragon Elephant Realm and condensed Seventh-Rank Blue Blood Life Essence, they could rely on their Dharma Manifestation to protect themselves, link to the Life Furnace, and continue tempering their body with Fate Fire.
Through long-term burning in the Fate Fire, refining the Manifestation's power and sublimating the essence of life, one could awaken the [Lifespan] life pattern.
This marked the advancement to the Seventh Rank: Longevity Realm.
The length of lifespan gained depended on the rank of the [Lifespan] life pattern:
White Fang rank: extends life at least one quarter-hour per day
Azure Wing rank: extends life at least one hour per day
Blue Blood rank: extends life at least six hours per day
Violet Eye rank: extends life at least one full day per day
In this world, the longevity gained from cultivation was not true immortality.
Yet a cultivator who awakened a Violet Eye [Lifespan] life pattern could extend their life by a full day with each passing day, ensuring their lifespan would never decrease, indistinguishable from immortality!
Still, only one [Lifespan] life pattern could be fused. If one's cultivation was lacking and fortune too thin, they might live their whole life without ever awakening a high-ranked [Lifespan].
Only by attaining a life pattern beyond the Violet Eye rank could one claim to have achieved true eternal life.
And in truth, those who could attain true longevity were always but a rare few.
At this moment, Jing Qian had only just begun his path of cultivation, yet by a twist of fortune, he had already obtained the [Lifespan] life pattern. In terms of essence, he had already met the lowest requirement of the Longevity Realm.
However, in terms of cultivation base and magical powers, he was still hundreds of times weaker than an actual Longevity cultivator.
For most others, awakening a [Lifespan] so early would not be a blessing.
For the sake of a life pattern that granted merely a quarter-hour of life per day, they would cut off their chance to pursue true immortality. Such a trade was hardly worth it.
But for Jing Qian, it was different. He possessed the ability to use Life-Casting Chances to reshape life patterns. One day, he could steadily raise this quarter-hour [Lifespan] to higher levels.
This spared him from the countless resources and time that would otherwise be needed after the Dragon Elephant Realm.
The Morning-Dusk, Dawn-Breaking Fate Scripture recorded that one of his ancestors, after completing the Dragon Elephant Realm, endured over eleven hundred rounds of Fate Fire tempering and awakened seven [Lifespan] life patterns: five of the Azure Wing grade and two of the Blue Blood grade.
In the end, he chose to fuse a single Blue Blood [Lifespan], which granted him three and a quarter watches of life each day. Yet still, he failed to achieve true immortality, unable to overcome the mandate of Heaven, and died when his allotted years expired.
Meanwhile, his grandmother, Lady Jing Su, renowned across the Hunzhou as the Soul-Weaving Spider Matriarch, endured over one hundred and forty rounds of burning, awakening three [Lifespan] life patterns, all of Azure Wing grade. She abandoned them all and never advanced to the Seventh Rank Longevity Realm.
In Hunzhou, many cultivators who perfected the Dragon Elephant Realm endured a century of hardship, only to never break through into Longevity.
Even those lucky enough to advance without awakening a Violet Eye [Lifespan] could not achieve true eternal life.
Only those who attained real longevity could continue climbing the path, suppressing the Spiritual Construct to become Spirit Officers and reach the Sixth Rank: Spirit-Subduing Realm.
For Jing Qian, rather than gamble on the elusive Violet [Lifespan], it was better to grind and invest heavily to raise his rank step by step.
This meant that his threshold for advancing into Longevity had already been reduced by more than half.
More importantly, thanks to this [Lifespan], he could begin accumulating additional years of life a full century earlier.
This was of immense benefit to his cultivation.
Sitting within the side chamber, Jing Qian's thoughts surged.
With the rise of his strength, his control over the pattern had also grown vastly stronger.
Now he had the proper identity and could finally engage with the world more actively and assertively.
Jing Qian rose to his feet and strode out of the chamber.
Stepping into the courtyard, he instinctively looked upward toward the dark canopy that blotted out the sky.
It was the roof of a dragon-serpent's mouth!
When he focused the power of [Worldly Insight] upon the dragon python, a strange line of information appeared before his eyes:
Spiritual Construct: Li
Suppression Requirements: Pattern of Fish-Dragon, Pattern of Gods and Spirits, Pattern of Insects
Lifespan Burden: One day and nine hours per day
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