Chapter 273

  Enduring Eternity (V)

  It happened yet again, Long Tao mused.

  He'd found himself stunned into silence reading his Master's 'aunt's supposed inheritance--Enduring Eternity, the method was called, and, by some miracle, it actually somewhat lived up to that audacious name.

  As with most other things that his Master seemed to pull out of thin air, it was not conventionally astounding. Rather, on its own, it was a rather simple, if quite stable, cultivation method that practically anyone could use. While that made it universal, it also limited its functionality, as most legendary cultivation methods were geared for specific physiques or bloodlines or even people.

  Sort of like how he already made one for Dai Xiu and her Vast-Body Dantian physique, but even more so toward the extreme ends of that spectrum.

  For the majority of his past life, one cultivation method was considered to be the 'most powerful'--Immortal Buddhist Sutra. However, its outcome was entirely theoretical, as there had never been anyone born with the ability to cultivate it.

  Not only did it require a pure soul--which already eliminated the vast majority of the living--but it also required a sinless existence, self-sacrifice to the point of absurdity, and a litany of other things that not even saints from the myths could live up to.

  If, somehow, some way, someone did actually manage to fulfill those requirements, they'd be able to become crowned within a literal month, burning through every single cultivation realm as though they were nothing.

  And, even among the Emperors and Empresses, they would have been unrivaled.

  Nobody ever learned when it was created, or even by whom, and though it was considered the property of the Monastery, practically anyone could have walked in at any time and tried to cultivate it.

  Long Tao himself did it, just about a year or so after he ascended, and, just like everyone before and after him, he failed... rather spectacularly.

  That was the context of all 'powerful' cultivation methods--the more restrictions there were, the more powerful they'd become.

  But his Master, once again, did something... unorthodox, to say the least. While true that this particular method wasn't in and of itself particularly heaven-defying, that was only so after being viewed outside the context.

  Long Tao had tried creating something similar in his past life--the idea of 'stacking' was far from new and had been attempted thousands of times to varying degrees of 'success', but nobody had truly managed to create something like it, as the requirements were absurd.

  One would have to be intimately familiar with dozens of Laws and Paths from the very beginning and would have to have the capacity to reshape that knowledge into digestible bits and pieces for those who did not have an iota of knowledge about them.

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  ... but with this method, that was irrelevant.

  His Master, clearly, did not possess intimate knowledge of dozens of Paths and Laws. He probably didn't even possess any kind of knowledge of any kind of them. But that was also perhaps the reason why he managed to 'solve' the conundrum--Enduring Eternity's baseline stability and utter inoffensiveness meant that Laws and Paths could be layered on top of it, sort of like adding another floor to a building with an extremely stable foundation.

  Even Long Tao, who in his head already possessed perhaps the best cultivation method for himself, could and should learn this one, as there would be no interference.

  He couldn't use the Horizon of Infinity until the Nirvana Realm, and with a bit of pestering of his Master to 'procure' a slightly more specialized version, he could even see the two of them eventually merging into one.

  Glancing over at the man happily nibbling away at some badly cooked piece of rabbit meat, he felt a surge of emotions burst through him. All his life, this and previous, he felt himself the chosen--but, perhaps, he never truly was.

  He was felled, after all, and the chosen do not get felled. They rise against all odds and overcome them. This was, perhaps, that final divide--he who could glide against the heavens and occasionally succeed versus somebody who didn't even seem to see the heavens and all their laws.

  He sighed and rolled back to the first page.

  Though he got the gist of the first portion of the tome, the latter... eluded him, something he hadn't experienced in a long while.

  **

  Lao Shun was a bit flabbergasted.

  But then he became very flabbergasted.

  This tome that the increasingly odd man had seemingly pulled out of nowhere... was far better than his current method.

  Now, that wasn't necessarily impossible--he was an Alchemist first and a Cultivator second, so cultivators around him studying better methods wasn't anything unusual, but it was so much better that it put to shame even some of the best methods he was ever allowed to briefly study, those used by men and women with aspirations of becoming Emperors and Empresses.

  Though he'd recognized by now that the man next to him was certainly lying about being some mumbling elder of a few 'slightly talented' kids, with each new piece of the puzzle, it felt more that the man was simply appearing things that... shouldn't be.

  Glancing over, he was currently nibbling away at some questionably prepared lettuce; was it the spin of fate that they happened to meet in that city? It was Lao Shun's first time ever coming this far out west, and it just so happened to be at the exact same time he was there.

  No...

  It was a coincidence, as were many million other things occurring all the time.

  Regardless of how it came to be, it was an opportunity he could not miss. Perhaps attaching himself to this unassuming child was the smartest thing he would ever do in his life--or perhaps it was the stupidest one, as there was no doubt, should the Holy Lands get so much as a whiff of his capabilities, they'd all bond to hunt him down and execute him on the spot.

  It was just the nature of existence--he, a sole person, had the capacity to threaten their hegemony, and none would stand for it. They'd sooner burn this realm than let some ordinary man overtake them.

  Lao Shun suspected if Lu Qi was left alone, that was exactly what was to happen--these kids, though extremely weak by the standards of the Holy Lands right now, in perhaps five or ten years' time might legitimately overtake all the Holy Sons and Daughters.

  If they are not... stopped in the meantime.

  The recipe, the method... either one would have netted literal millions and millions of high-grade spirit stones should they ever be put on the market, but very few would have the ability to survive and enjoy the spoils of that sale. And yet, they were both in his hands... the peerless treasures that all his Seniors would kill to get...

  And he couldn't even brag about them.

  This was perhaps the most annoyed he had felt about something in centuries.

  ... he really was rather petty still, after all.