Following the White-Robed Youth, Chen Yang stepped onto the staircase leading to the third floor.
The anticipated obstruction — or thunderous strike — never came.
It was like passing through a faintly cool curtain of water, and the scene before him opened up brilliantly.
"See? I told you it was just an ordinary light screen." The White-Robed Youth turned back with a smile, his tone relaxed.
Chen Yang nodded, yet his heart was filled with doubt.
Why had the old gatekeeper issued such a stern warning?
Was it to prevent disciples from overreaching, or was there something more to it?
He couldn't help but study the young man beside him once more.
Someone who could so easily know the truth of the third floor and remain completely at ease was no ordinary person.
Could he be a registered disciple of some Elder?
He pushed down his speculation and turned his attention to the third floor itself.
The space on the third floor was smaller and more refined than the second, with only four or five sparse rows of shelves, and the number of jade slips placed upon them was even fewer — likely no more than fifty in total.
Yet every single jade slip radiated an astonishing spiritual aura: some blazed like fire, some flowed smooth as water, some were as heavy and solid as earth, some were as sharp and keen as metal, and some brimmed with vibrant life…
The interweaving radiance bathed the entire third floor in a dazzling flash of light.
The concentration of Spiritual Energy in the air far surpassed the floors below — even a single breath left one feeling refreshed and clear-headed.
Chen Yang's heart trembled with awe as he carefully approached the shelves and began to look around with curiosity.
"Crimson Yang True Art," "Profound Darkness Water Canon," "Thick Earth Bearing Art," "Geng Metal Heaven-Rending Manual"…
Cultivation techniques whose names alone sounded extraordinary came into view one after another, each accompanied by a brief description — every one of them a profound method of immense power, pointing directly toward Foundation Establishment.
Soon, his gaze was firmly captured by a jade slip that was a deep gold in color, faintly emanating a fierce sword intent.
Four characters were inscribed beside it — "Blazing Annihilation Sword Art"!
The strokes were bold and forceful, radiating a domineering, absolute will to sever and destroy all things!
Merely looking at those characters, Chen Yang felt his mind and spirit give a sudden jolt.
The qi and blood of the Nine Revolutions Body Tempering Art within him began to circulate faster of their own accord, producing a strange sense of resonance — as though it had encountered something of the same origin.
"Oh? You have quite a good eye."
The White-Robed Youth had approached without Chen Yang noticing. Looking at the jade slip, he explained:
"This Blazing Annihilation Sword Art is the proud work that Elder Shen Hongmei of Spirit Sword Peak deposited in the Cultivation Technique Pavilion in her early years. Its offensive power is exceptionally strong — even among the many sword arts of the Verdant Wood Sect, it ranks at the very top."
Chen Yang understood at once. No wonder it felt familiar — it was the Silver-Haired Senior's cultivation technique!
He focused his mind and read the brief description beside the jade slip, and the more he read, the more his heart stirred.
This sword art was fierce and unmatched in its pursuit of absolute destructive power — a perfect match for the exceptionally high-quality Flying Sword that Shen Hongmei had gifted him!
If he could master it, it would surely greatly enhance his strength.
But amid his excitement, he quickly calmed himself.
The gatekeeper's words still rang in his ears: the cultivation techniques on the third floor were absolutely not something a newly promoted inner disciple like him could covet.
Unless…
Was he truly to do as he had just thought — go to Spirit Sword Peak and seek out Elder Shen Hongmei, asking her for it directly?
The moment that thought arose, Chen Yang swiftly suppressed it.
That Silver-Haired Senior was unpredictable in temperament — seemingly cold on the surface, yet erratic in behavior. That night she had given him a treasure and bitten her own lip, and her true power was unfathomably deep. If they disagreed even slightly, she might genuinely draw her sword.
To show up uninvited and ask for someone's most prized cultivation technique?
That would be far too presumptuous.
The price demanded would likely be something he couldn't afford.
He shook his head.
He set aside that somewhat reckless idea for the time being.
Pulling his gaze away from the Blazing Annihilation Sword Art, he turned to look at the White-Robed Youth beside him.
He found that the young man had not been examining those brilliantly glowing cultivation technique jade slips as he had. Instead, the youth stood in an inconspicuous corner of a bookshelf, holding in his hands a thick book whose pages had yellowed with age and which seemed to carry no spiritual fluctuations whatsoever — and he was reading it with rapt attention.
Chen Yang's curiosity stirred, and he drew a little closer.
The youth sensed his approach and looked up, his eyes still carrying a trace of the contemplative expression of someone absorbed in reading. He asked with a smile:
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
"What is it? With thousands upon thousands of cultivation technique jade slips on the floors below and above, none of them suit your taste? Even the secret collection of the third floor doesn't catch your eye?"
Chen Yang gave a wry smile and told the truth:
"It's not that I look down on them — it's that even if I look, I can't study them. The senior gatekeeper made it clear: I may only choose a cultivation technique from the first or second floor."
The White-Robed Youth simply smiled at that and said nothing, lowering his head to turn another page of the book in his hands.
Chen Yang couldn't help but ask:
"What are you reading, friend? It seems… not a cultivation technique?"
"Oh, this?" The youth raised the book slightly, revealing its cover, which bore several archaic characters — "Verdant Wood Sect Annals."
"It's more or less a miscellaneous record of major events since the Verdant Wood Sect's founding. I flip through it when I have nothing better to do."
"Verdant Wood Sect Annals?" Chen Yang's interest was piqued. "How many years has our Verdant Wood Sect been established?"
The youth answered without looking up, casually:
"According to what's recorded here, from the time the founding patriarch, Verdant Wood Immortal, established the sect's mountain gate at this location to the present day — five hundred and seventy-four years."
"Five hundred and seventy-four years?!"
Chen Yang drew a sharp breath, his face written over with shock.
That number far exceeded anything he had imagined!
In the mortal world, a dynasty that endured three hundred years was already considered remarkable, yet the Verdant Wood Sect, as a cultivation sect, had passed down its legacy for nearly six hundred years!
What an immeasurable span of time!
Seeing his astonishment, the youth couldn't help but let out a light laugh and closed the book:
"Mortal dynasties are nothing but fleeting blooms — how could they compare to an immortal sect that pursues the Great Dao of eternal life?"
His tone was calm, yet carried a natural, effortless transcendence:
"Once a cultivator completes the Qi Refining stage, their lifespan can approach one hundred and fifty years. Should they successfully achieve Foundation Establishment, they gain three hundred years. And for those of exceptional talent and deep fortune who condense a golden core and form her golden core — their lifespan can reach as long as five hundred years. A sect history of merely five hundred-odd years is nothing remarkable in the Cultivation World."
These words struck Chen Yang like a heavy hammer.
Though he had vaguely heard from the laborers' idle chatter and from Xiaodouzi that cultivation could extend one's lifespan, he had been too busy toiling in the medicine garden and struggling to survive to give it much thought. Immortality had been nothing more than a distant, hazy concept to him.
Now, hearing it laid out so clearly and plainly by the youth, the impact was unlike anything he had felt before!
He murmured to himself without thinking:
"Then… then what about a cultivator at the sixth level of the Qi Refinement Realm — how long would their lifespan be?"
"The sixth level of the Qi Refinement Realm?" The youth thought for a moment. "Barring any accidents, living to one hundred and twenty or thirty years should be no problem at all."
One hundred and twenty or thirty years!
Chen Yang was stunned once more.
He thought of the elderly people in the village at the foot of the mountain — those who reached seventy or eighty were already called "long-lived elders," needing their children and grandchildren to support them as they walked…
And yet he himself, as he was now, could already outlive those long-lived elders?
The youth watched the shifting expressions on his face and asked with curiosity:
"You train so diligently — isn't it precisely for the pursuit of this path of longevity?"
"I…" Chen Yang was momentarily at a loss for words.
Why did he cultivate?
In an instant, the image of Zhao Yanran flashed through his mind, followed by all the humiliations, struggles, and acts of defiance since he had come up the mountain.
He had originally come up the mountain only to follow Zhao Yanran.
Later, it was to no longer suffer at others' hands — to one day reclaim what was owed to him…
Longevity?
That goal seemed far too grand and intangible. He had never truly thought about it.
Seeing the bewildered look on Chen Yang's face, the youth seemed to understand something.
He asked no further, only letting out a soft sigh as he carefully returned the heavy Verdant Wood Sect Annals to its place on the shelf.
Then.
He turned around.
He strolled casually among the shelves of the third floor.
He reached out and took down several jade slips, each radiating a different spiritual light.
Then he walked back.
He picked up the Blazing Annihilation Sword Art jade slip that Chen Yang had been eyeing earlier and placed it together with the others on an ancient wooden table in the center of the room.
"Choose one," the youth said, tilting his chin toward the jade slips.
Chen Yang was taken aback, not understanding his meaning:
"Friend, what do you mean? I'm only an inner disciple — by the rules, I can only…"
"Rules are rigid; people are flexible."
The youth cut him off, a free and easy smile on his face.
"You can't — but I can. I have a bit of a connection with the old man keeping watch downstairs. Making an exception to let you pick one cultivation technique from here to take away and practice — he'll still give me that much face."
"A connection?"
Chen Yang grew even more puzzled, and his gaze once again studied the White-Robed Youth carefully.
To be able to come and go freely on the third floor, to have the gatekeeper Elder make exceptions for him…
This was something no ordinary inner disciple — or even a registered disciple of an Elder — could manage.
The first floor corresponded to the outer disciples.
The second floor corresponded to the inner disciples.
Then this third floor… could it be reserved for the Personal Disciples under each peak's masters?
He couldn't resist probing:
"Friend, are you… by any chance a Personal Disciple of one of the peak masters or valley masters?"
The White-Robed Youth was momentarily startled, then broke into a hearty laugh as though he had heard something amusing. When the laughter subsided, he nodded:
"Hmm… more or less."
More or less?
That answer was rather vague.
Chen Yang turned it over in his mind — which peak or valley did this person belong to?
His bearing was refined and elegant — not the sharp edge of Spirit Sword Peak, nor the blazing intensity of Crimson Glow Peak…
Could he be from Qin Valley or Butterfly Valley?
Or perhaps…
The lineage of the Sect Master at Qingyun Peak?
His gaze drifted back involuntarily to the jade slips on the table.
Seeing this, the youth began to introduce them casually:
"This Crimson Yang True Art is the core cultivation technique of the Crimson Glow Peak lineage — a fire-aligned, domineering method whose True Essence burns fierce and unyielding; this Profound Darkness Water Canon is a secret transmission of Jade Bamboo Peak, supple and enduring, adept at overcoming strength with softness; the Thick Earth Bearing Art focuses on defense and has the most stable foundation; the Geng Metal Heaven-Rending Manual is unmatched in sharpness, specializing in breaking through the hardest defenses; and as for this Blazing Annihilation Sword Art — as I mentioned just now, it is Elder Shen of Spirit Sword Peak's supreme technique…"
The youth's finger moved across the jade slips one by one.
Finally, it came to rest on the last one — slightly overshadowed by the radiance of the others — a jade slip emanating a soft, gentle green glow.
"And this last one, the Yimu Immortality Art, is somewhat special. It is said to be passed down from the lineage of the founding patriarch, Verdant Wood Immortal, yet very few people choose to cultivate it. This technique is not suited for offense, and its defense is only average. It has but one distinguishing feature…"
The youth paused, gazing at the jade slip, a trace of something peculiar entering his voice:
"It is said that cultivating this technique can greatly nourish the physical body and the divine soul, prolonging life and extending one's years — and on the path of longevity, it holds a profound and mysterious quality all its own."
Longevity!
Those two words seized Chen Yang's heart and mind like a spell.
The stunning discussion about lifespan from just moments ago was still fresh in his ears, and this cultivation technique — named directly after "immortality" — exerted an indescribable pull on him.
His gaze was completely drawn to that jade slip of translucent green, as though it contained the ultimate mystery of life itself.
As if guided by some unseen force, he reached out his hand and slowly closed his fingers around the Yimu Immortality Art jade slip.
The instant his fingertips touched the jade slip.
A surge of incomparably pure, life-filled, gentle Spiritual Energy rushed into his body.
The Spiritual Energy flowed through every limb and bone, cleansing his meridians and nourishing his flesh.
Even the faint trace of fatigue left over from yesterday's cultivation quietly dissolved under the soothing touch of that energy, bringing with it an indescribable sense of comfort and peace.
Chen Yang held the jade slip.
For a moment, he found himself reluctant to let go.